Chapter 315 - 160: Confrontation

Chapter 315: Chapter 160: Confrontation

It knew the power of that rifle and was afraid of it.

A faint smile touched Xu Mo’s lips. ’Fear is good. It means you can be killed.’

"So you’ll just let me leave?" Xu Mo asked. "I walk away, and you just keep cowering in here?"

Another stretch of silence came from the depths of the ruins.

"I never wanted to fight you in the first place," the male voice said, a surprising hint of grievance in its tone. "You’re the one who kept killing my underlings."

Xu Mo’s brows knitted together.

’He didn’t want to fight?’

’Then who the hell was it that surrounded me on the outskirts of Luochuan City? Who sent those Level 3 Zombies to their deaths, wave after wave? Who sent these zombies to corner me right now?’

"Are you human, or something else?" Xu Mo asked, cutting straight to the heart of the matter.

The silence from the depths of the ruins stretched even longer this time.

Then, the voice spoke again, its tone laced with an indescribable complexity.

"I don’t know either."

Xu Mo’s frown deepened. He glanced at Luo Li again.

Luo Li’s eyes flickered, but she remained silent. Yet, Xu Mo saw a flicker of resonance in her gaze—or perhaps, understanding.

She had said something similar before.

A "former" Superpower User who mutated after eating large quantities of mutant flesh, uncertain if she could still be considered human.

And now, this thing hiding in the ruins was also saying, "I don’t know."

Xu Mo took a deep breath, pushing down the chaotic thoughts swirling in his mind for the time being. He needed information. He needed to figure out just what this creature occupying the eastern district of Luochuan City was.

"How did you find me?" he asked. "How did you know my whereabouts?"

This time, the male voice answered quickly.

"You killed my offspring the day you arrived."

Xu Mo’s pupils constricted slightly. He recalled taking care of a skulking zombie that had been watching him when he first arrived in Luochuan City.

"When it was raining, I sent an underling to get revenge, but you killed that one, too."

"The Scale Beast?" Xu Mo asked.

"Yes," the male voice replied. "I cultivated it using a special method. You could call it my offspring."

"And you killed that one, too," the voice continued, a hint of admiration now in its tone. "Even back then, I thought, ’You’re quite powerful.’"

"So then I thought, since I can’t kill you, why not make you one of my underlings?" the voice went on. "Your body is very strong. If I could cultivate you into one of my offspring, you would surely be much stronger than the Scale Beast."

Xu Mo’s eyes grew cold.

"So you started cornering me?"

"That’s right," the male voice admitted readily. "I had the birds watch you and the zombies surround you. I wanted to force you into a corner before I made my move. But as it turned out..."

It paused.

"You ended up slaughtering your way here, wiping out all my Level 3 and Level 2 zombies."

Hearing this, a thought suddenly struck Xu Mo.

’Birds?’

He looked up at the sky. It was a vast, gray expanse, with a few black dots occasionally streaking past—mutated birds. They circled high above, surveying the ruins below.

Xu Mo’s heart sank. ’No wonder.’

’No wonder the creature knew his every move. No wonder it could always send zombies to intercept him just when he was about to break through. It wasn’t the spies Luo Li had sensed—it was the birds in the sky.’

From the very beginning, every step he took had been watched by eyes in the sky. From his reconnaissance on the outskirts of Luochuan City, to killing the Scale Beast on that rainy night, to abandoning his vehicle to travel on foot, to meeting Luo Li, to slaughtering his way through the eastern district... those eyes in the sky had been watching the entire time.

Xu Mo took another deep breath, pushing down the complex feelings stirring within him.

"If you can control birds, why didn’t you use them to attack me?" he asked.

The male voice fell silent for a second.

"They don’t really listen to me," it said, its tone tinged with helplessness. "I can only make them watch and report back to me. They won’t attack."

Xu Mo froze for a second before he understood.

The flocks of mutated birds had their own social structures and their own leaders. This two-headed, four-armed creature could control zombies, but not the birds. At most, it could only borrow their eyes.

"Enough," Xu Mo cut it off. "Come out. Let’s talk face-to-face."

The male voice immediately grew wary.

"That weapon on your back..."

"I know," Xu Mo said. "I’m putting it down."

He released Luo Li’s hand and, to her surprise, unslung the Barrett from his back. He bent down and placed the rifle on the ground beside his feet.

He didn’t toss it far, just set it down where a quick lunge could reach it.

Xu Mo straightened up and looked toward the shadows ahead.

"I’ve shown my sincerity," he said. "Are you coming out now?"

The depths of the ruins were silent for a full ten seconds.

Then, a series of rustling sounds echoed from within.

Xu Mo’s hand instinctively tightened around his Triangular Spike, his eyes locked on the source of the sound. Then, the owner of the male voice emerged.

Xu Mo’s first thought was, ’No wonder.’ No wonder Luo Li had said, "It looks like a zombie, but moves like a person." No wonder it was afraid to come out. No wonder it was afraid of the Barrett.

It was a "person"—a two-headed, four-armed person.

It stood about six feet tall, but atop its shoulders rested two heads—one on the left, one on the right. The head on the left was human. Its face had sharp, handsome features, and it looked to be in its thirties. If not for the bizarrely vacant look in its eyes, Xu Mo might have mistaken it for an ordinary middle-aged man.

The head on its right was that of a zombie, with rotting skin, exposed gums, cloudy eyes, and a dark brown fluid dribbling from the corner of its mouth. It was the head of a typical mutated zombie, yet within those eyes flickered a glint of intelligence—something no ordinary zombie would ever possess.