Chapter 301 - 156: Slaughter

Chapter 301: Chapter 156: Slaughter

The opposing zombies surged forward like a tide.

Xu Mo stood beside Luo Li, gripping his Triangular Spike as he watched the two torrents of zombies collide with a thunderous roar in the center of the open ground.

Amidst the roars and screams, the dull thud of countless rotting bodies crashing together sounded like two walls of flesh colliding head-on. Rotting flesh flew, black blood splattered, and severed limbs soared through the horde, only to be quickly trampled into the mud by those that followed.

This was a war of zombie against zombie.

Luo Li stood three steps ahead of Xu Mo, her eyes slightly closed and her hands hanging at her sides. Her lips moved faintly, making no sound, but Xu Mo could feel an invisible spiritual wave spreading from her, like a giant, unseen net blanketing the entire battlefield.

Tiantian stood by Luo Li’s feet, her small hand clutching the hem of her clothes. The little girl’s eyes had turned blood-red. The vacant look was gone, replaced by a strange focus. She was helping Luo Li amplify her powers.

Xu Mo looked out at the battlefield.

Luo Li’s control over the zombies was incredibly precise—so precise that even a layman like Xu Mo could discern the details.

The two Scale Beasts charged at the forefront, like two dark green war chariots, smashing straight into the enemy ranks. With every swing of their sharp claws, the pouncing Agility Zombies were torn to shreds as if they were made of paper. When a level-one Agility Zombie pounced from the side, one of the Scale Beasts didn’t even turn its head. It swiped a claw backhanded and tore the zombie’s head from its neck, sending black blood gushing like a fountain.

The Strength Zombies rampaged through the enemy horde, each swing of their thick arms sending three to five ordinary zombies flying. But the truly deadly ones were the Agility Types. Under Luo Li’s command, they formed groups of three to five and swarmed the enemy’s Strength Types.

One Agility Zombie would draw its target’s attention from the front while two others pounced from the sides, their sharp claws plunging into the gaps of their enemy’s spine. Their teamwork was flawless, like that of well-trained soldiers.

The Venom Types roamed behind the front lines. Their stooped figures were almost unnoticeable within the horde, but each time they spat, they could slow down three to five enemy zombies, allowing their side’s Agility Types to easily pick them off.

Xu Mo watched, inwardly alarmed. This wasn’t the chaotic, disorderly slaughter he associated with zombies. This was a battle with tactics, teamwork, and a clear division of labor.

Luo Li’s control had reached such a level of precision. She wasn’t just directing a horde of zombies to charge in and bite indiscriminately; she was using them like pieces on a chessboard.

But just as Xu Mo was marveling at her skill, the situation on the battlefield underwent a subtle change.

Several zombies, in the middle of fighting, suddenly froze for a moment.

They weren’t injured or under attack. It was a sudden, inexplicable pause, as if someone had hit a stop button. It lasted less than a second before they resumed fighting, but that fleeting moment was enough for Xu Mo to see what was happening.

They were fighting for control over the zombies.

The enemy was trying to seize control of them too.

Xu Mo’s gaze swept over the battlefield, and he quickly noticed a pattern. The zombies that paused were all ones originally under Luo Li’s control. The moment they engaged with enemy zombies, the opposing force tried to wrest control away. Two unseen currents of Spiritual Power collided, tore at each other, and vied for dominance, the outcome decided in a split second.

And most of the time, Luo Li was the one who won.

Her control was more stable, more precise, and far harder to shake. The contested zombies would often pause for less than half a second before she seized control of them again. Conversely, if she found a weakness in the enemy’s control over one of their zombies, she would immediately absorb it into her own ranks, causing their forces to wane as hers waxed.

Although Luo Li’s side was clearly at a numerical disadvantage—Xu Mo roughly estimated she had only half the enemy’s numbers—they held a distinct advantage in the kill-to-loss ratio. For every one of her zombies that fell, they took down at least two or three of the enemy’s.

This was the advantage of precise control.

The slaughter lasted for about ten minutes, by which time hundreds of corpses were already piled up on the battlefield. Black blood formed streams that snaked through the mud, and the air was thick with the nauseating stench of rot and an unidentifiable chemical odor.

Xu Mo noticed that some of the enemy zombies were attempting to bypass the front line and charge toward their position.

It wasn’t a large-scale assault, just a few stragglers. They circled around from the flanks, attempting to get close to Luo Li—the psychic core controlling the entire army.

But they never succeeded.

The moment those zombies entered a hundred-meter radius, Luo Li would dispatch a few Agility Types to intercept them. Sometimes, an interception wasn’t even necessary—the zombies would freeze mid-charge, then turn and pounce on their own kind.

Xu Mo saw it clearly: the zombies whose control was wrested away only faltered once they got within a certain distance of Luo Li. This proved that within this range, the enemy’s control couldn’t compete with hers. She had the home-field advantage.

As a few more zombies were intercepted, Xu Mo tightened his grip on the Triangular Spike, his gaze sweeping the battlefield. He noticed some enemy zombies approaching their position, but their target didn’t seem to be Luo Li. It was him.

Xu Mo frowned. The zombies’ gazes were indeed fixed on him. Their eyes were murky and frenzied, but beneath the madness, something seemed to be directing them, telling them that the man holding the weapon over there was also a target.

Xu Mo took a step forward, ready to engage.

But just as Xu Mo stepped forward, he heard an incredibly faint, muffled grunt.