At the same time, An City Base and the butterfly garden fell into brief chaos.
Because Fu Erdie had turned into smoke and dust, disappearing without warning!
And the violent psychic power that should have pressed the advantage and pursued them had actually not continued attacking.
One had to know, when they accepted Fu Erdie’s push-pull, they had all entered a state of severe contamination.
It was only slightly better than Fu Erdie’s 99.9% contamination level. Most of them were between 80 and 90. The succulent had strong resistance and was only at 45. As for the house, perhaps because it was not a “living being,” it was the only individual that had not been contaminated.
In other words, aside from the house and the succulent, everyone else and all the other plants had already reached a dangerous critical level of contamination. Without Fu Erdie standing at the front to bear it, if Bin Mushi delivered the final blow, all of them would die!
Where was Bin Mushi?
Should they run now? Where could they run to?
Everyone’s eyes were filled with black energy, and the tightness in their chests and shortness of breath made their brains lack oxygen.
The first to react were the plants, who did not have “brains” in the conventional sense. Led by the succulent and pothos, they staggered back to their feet and rushed toward the remains left after Ning City’s subordinates self-destructed on the battlefield.
As if they had not eaten for many years, the plants cleared away all the rubbish they could see. Every tiny bit of improvement counted. Then they moved in the direction Ning City Base had attacked from, clearly intending to search for the Garden Principal.
Cen Xiyang, Han Zhi, and several other close companions were unsteady on their feet, but they still descended the city wall and climbed onto one of the succulent’s fleshy leaves, planning to follow along.
The others looked pale and hopeless as they stared at the indistinct shadows ahead.
They had failed. Going over now was just going to their deaths. Why go? Didn’t they see that even the Butterfly Garden Principal’s boyfriend was not moving?
At this moment, Sang Wenhao was leaning against the wall with his eyes closed, black veins throbbing at his temples.
Among everyone, he was the only one who could push and pull with Fu Erdie on his own. So when Fu Erdie protected her close companions and fought the enemy with all her strength, he was the only one pushing and pulling with her. His contamination level had already reached 98. Even if he sat here without moving, he would die. It was only a matter of when.
He could not care about himself. He used all his strength to sense the flow of Fu Erdie’s ability.
More than anyone else, he was certain that Fu Erdie was not dead. The faint connection between him and her had not been broken.
After recovering for a while, he dragged his heavy, uncontrolled body up with difficulty and took a deep breath. “Come back. Give me the telegraph machine. I’ll go with the house.”
His voice was not loud, but everyone busy descending the city wall heard him.
With difficulty yet firmness, Sang Wenhao emphasised, “Only the house and I will go. All of you stay.” After a pause, he added, “Fu Erdie and I will deal with him.”
Cen Xiyang opened her mouth, wanting to ask how he, only a sixth-rank ability user, planned to deal with it. But meeting his resolute gaze, she swallowed the words back.
“You must come back!”
Sang Wenhao took the telegraph machine that Cen Xiyang had stored in her space and let the house attach itself to it.
The seventh-rank house was no longer limited to living inside the old iron box. It could now live inside any box that contained metal.
A wave of white light rippled across the city wall, then squeezed tightly into the small metal box, like a very large cat forcibly squeezing itself into a box. It looked extremely difficult.
Sang Wenhao touched the house’s head, activated his ability, and flew toward the direction where he sensed Fu Erdie.
He had to use his ability carefully, letting the final 2% that had not been contaminated become the path toward Fu Erdie.
The dandelions had suffered a great loss of vitality, but their numbers were huge. Seeing that Sang Wenhao was going to find someone, they also used their wind abilities to help him and accompany him to search for the Garden Principal.
Plants did not understand sadness, but plants did not want the Garden Principal to disappear.
Sadness—there should still be a tiny bit of it.
Just a tiny bit.
One dandelion exhausted its strength and fell to the ground. A second dandelion took over, continuing to carry Sang Wenhao forward. When it exhausted itself, another dandelion replaced it.
Even with the dandelions’ help, Sang Wenhao’s speed was very, very slow, almost as slow as when he had first gained his flying ability and had to carry piles of luggage.
Even so, Sang Wenhao firmly sensed Fu Erdie’s location and flew toward her.
Meanwhile, thirty kilometres away, Bin Mushi was wearing a neat suit, but he could no longer maintain any dignity. He knelt on the ground and vomited violently.
So uncomfortable. His whole body felt like it was about to explode!
Why? The Butterfly Garden Principal was clearly a non-attribute ability user. Her crystal core should have been easy to absorb. Why could he not swallow her?
No matter how slow he was, he realised that he had invited a thief into his own home and opened the door for her himself.
But that was not right! He had clearly killed her first, then dragged her into his home. At worst, he had completely hypnotised and controlled her before dragging her in. How could she possibly still be alive and causing trouble inside his space?
He knelt there, instinctively digging at his own throat as if trying to vomit something out.
But this was only an illusion caused by changes in the energy space acting on the body. He could force his stomach to vomit, but he could not force his space to vomit.
Everything related to energy spaces was Fu Erdie’s home ground.
Fu Erdie was still in the form of many scattered particles. After growing used to the ever-present pain, she spared no effort in following the force of Bin Mushi’s absorption or rejection, pushing and pulling repeatedly.
The more Bin Mushi paid attention to her, the more smoothly she operated.
The contamination concentration approached 100 infinitely, just like the remaining progress bar she had once had before reaching eighth-rank, infinitely approaching zero.
No one knew which possibility would arrive first.
In this tug-of-war without any sense of time, Fu Erdie was like an eternally focused machine. She did not need to eat. She only needed to attack. By contrast, Bin Mushi’s body grew weaker by the day.
All his subordinates had been eaten by him in his panic. No one brought him clean food and water. No one purified the filth and turbulence in his body and ability. No one was forced by his threats to take care of him. No one gave him even the smallest bit of help at the very end.
“Unfair…” he roared in his heart. “Unfair!!!”
He was clearly eighth-rank, an existence that should crush seventh-ranks. Why was he being made so miserable by someone who had only been nearly seventh-rank?!
What would it take for Fu Erdie to die?
Was there anyone who could help him? Anyone…
Suddenly, at the edge of his vision, a figure appeared, leaping through the air toward him. Bin Mushi blinked and focused on him.
When he saw the person’s features clearly, Bin Mushi instantly perked up.
An old acquaintance.
The moment Bin Mushi locked onto him, Sang Wenhao also saw the other party.
He froze for a moment. Wasn’t this the person who had hidden with him in the bicycle shop at the beginning of the apocalypse?
Back then, this person had been the one to tell him that a metal zombie outside was looking for metal-type ability users and told him to run. How had he now become the boss of Ning City Base?
Suddenly, Sang Wenhao’s heart tightened. His contamination level rose from 98 to 99. He lost strength and fell from the air, crashing heavily onto the ground.
The next moment, his body was controlled and walked step by step toward Bin Mushi.
One kilometre took a full half hour. He walked uncontrollably to Bin Mushi, and his neck was forcibly gripped so he could not move.
“How could I forget?” Bin Mushi’s eyes shone with astonishing brightness. “You’re my hidden piece. I haven’t used you yet.”
What did that mean?
Sang Wenhao looked powerless to struggle, staring at him fiercely.
Bin Mushi’s chest vibrated. His laughter grew from soft to loud, then he suddenly retched again, looking deranged.
He roared, “Fu Erdie! If you don’t come out, your pretty little boy toy will die in my hands! If you don’t want him dead, then get out here!”
The discomfort in his body seemed to stop for an instant, but immediately after came an even fiercer counterattack.
Bin Mushi had not expected her to be this ruthless. He said gloomily, “Cruel enough. But how much longer do you think you can last? As long as I absorb your boyfriend’s crystal core, the balance will break! You’ll die immediately!”
Fu Erdie remained unmoved and continued charging left and right.
Bin Mushi stopped wasting words and suddenly tightened his grip on the man’s neck, about to twist it off. A burst of white light rushed out from the telegraph machine and firmly protected the man’s neck.
The red marks he had just squeezed out healed visibly. Sang Wenhao formed a long metal blade and slashed forward fiercely.
Bin Mushi barely retreated and increased his control over the man.
It worked!
Delighted, he raised his hand to seize Sang Wenhao’s metal blade and counterattack.
But the metal was controlled by Sang Wenhao. It changed shape and stabbed toward Bin Mushi’s palm, instantly piercing through it and reversing the situation.
The long blade fell to the ground. Bin Mushi’s scream shook Sang Wenhao’s eardrums. Sang Wenhao ignored it, seized the blade, and slashed again.
Since the apocalypse began, Bin Mushi had always survived by hiding and scheming. He had never suffered a penetrating wound before. If not for Fu Erdie tormenting him inside his body for the past month, the pain from this one strike alone would have been enough to make him suffer badly.
He dodged Sang Wenhao’s attacks in a sorry state and wanted to release contamination, but Fu Erdie seized the opportunity to slip in through the opening and stab at the weak point of his energy space.
Bin Mushi quickly defended, forced to use all his ability to fight Fu Erdie. The only methods he had left against Sang Wenhao were to trigger the existing contamination in his body and the seed of psychic control planted as early as the beginning of the apocalypse three years ago.
He still remembered even now: after his rebirth, he thought he had seized the initiative and would be unstoppable, yet because psychic abilities were too useless against zombies in the early stage, he had still had to struggle to survive.
When he met Sang Wenhao, heard his name, and saw his ability, he found a chance to survive more comfortably.
Using his still very crude psychic contamination at the time, he infected him, making him unconsciously work for him.
Later, when that difficult metal-type zombie appeared, he knew his chance to escape had come.
He influenced Sang Wenhao’s mind and made him lure the metal-type zombie away. Meanwhile, he took advantage of the commotion, found the right opportunity to run toward the Li River, took a boat all the way east, picked up and hypnotised teammates along the way, and had those teammates protect him until he reached Ning City Base and survived there.
He and his teammates were all ability users, so they were quickly accepted. And he disguised himself as an ability user with foresight, continuously attracting followers, hollowing out Ning City Base’s original management, then becoming the base master and beginning his path of raising zombie kings to level up.
The first year or so was rough, but many people contaminated by him were subtly influenced and helped him commit all kinds of evil, allowing him to become the strongest person in the base, and even all of Hua Country.
Generally speaking, the longer someone had been contaminated, the easier they were to control. Sang Wenhao, as someone contaminated by him from the very beginning, should have been the easiest to control.
Bin Mushi had planned it all out. If his subordinates were useless, he would have Sang Wenhao stab that damned Butterfly Garden Principal in the back.
However… things had not gone as he wished. His control over Sang Wenhao was far worse than his control over those sixth-rank ability users he had only contaminated yesterday!
He could only slow the other party down. He did not even dare seize the blade or pick up another one nearby, afraid that the metal would pierce him and wound him again.
He looked toward the roadside shops and the highway, found a wooden bench, grabbed it, and smashed it toward Sang Wenhao.
Sang Wenhao’s body was sluggish, and his head was struck directly. The corner of the bench landed right near his eye, causing blood to stream down immediately.
Bin Mushi breathed a sigh of relief.
But before he could feel pleased for long, white light flashed, and Sang Wenhao actually recovered again??!
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