Chapter 139: Apple

A quick glance revealed that there were only one or two hundred zombies, posing no real threat.

However, people soon noticed with surprise that these zombies were different from usual. Their fingers and toes were webbed with a thin layer of membrane, which looked rather bizarre.

"What kind of monsters are these?"

Sun Xiaoqiang scanned the scene with his astute gaze.

By then, the zombies were moving fast and had already closed in to within thirty meters of the group. Everyone could clearly feel a foul stench, carrying a chilling moisture, rushing toward their faces.

"Kill."

With a single word, Cheng Luoyi reached back, drew her heavy broadsword, and charged straight at the zombies.

The razor-sharp blade light, accompanied by a piercing whistle, seemed to cut through the rain curtain itself. It easily plunged into the zombies' bodies, sending dark blood splashing everywhere to mix with the rainwater like a fanatical dance.

Cheng Luoyi once again transformed into a human meat grinder, cutting down the zombies mercilessly.

Behind her, a biting chill began to spread, causing the already gloomy temperature to plummet even further.

Several ice-attribute 'builders' unleashed their awakened abilities. The torrential rain seemed to freeze in place for a fraction of a second before condensing into sharp icicles that hurtled toward the zombies.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

Before them, a frosty storm materialized, crushing the zombies into pieces.

Meanwhile, Chen Ming and the others held their weapons and stood back-to-back, forming a defensive battle formation. Thanks to their strength as brain-core awakened ones, they were far superior to these zombies and cut them down effortlessly with every swing of their blades.

This group was not weak by any means, and dealing with a little over a hundred zombies posed no pressure.

Watching the zombies fall one by one, their numbers dwindling, victory in this battle seemed imminent. The situation appeared to be nothing more than an ordinary zombie ambush.

But right at that moment, a strange song suddenly reached Chen Ming's ears, faint and elusive. The pitch of the song was very peculiar, bearing no resemblance to any human language; at times high-pitched, at times deep, as if it possessed a special magical power summoning them.

The gazes of several people quickly grew hazy.

Even when zombies lunged at them, they forgot to counterattack. An extremely terrifying face drew closer and closer to Chen Ming, its ferocious, blood-dripping maw about to sink into his neck.

At the very brink of life and death, an icicle hurtled through the air, piercing straight through the zombie's skull.

Dark blood splattered across Chen Ming's face, instantly washed away by the rain, yet he still remained completely unresponsive.

"Uncle Chen! What's wrong with you?"

Li Yun shouted with her brows knitted tightly.

Moreover, it wasn't just Chen Ming; the other brain-core awakened ones were all exhibiting the same behavior. Even more absurdly, some of them simply dropped their weapons and began walking toward the zombies.

Fortunately, Li Yun hurried forward to stop them.

"What on earth is going on here?"

"It's mental control,"

Sun Xiaoqiang said from the side.

"Just now, I heard a strange sound, as if something was calling out to us."

"Ah?"

Li Yun was startled, finding the ability deeply eerie.

In fact, she had also vaguely heard it just now, but nucleus-awakened ones possessed powerful mental strength far surpassing those at the brain-core stage, which was why she remained unaffected.

However, this made it clear that other monsters were still hidden nearby.

"Could there be ghostly corpses?"

"No, it must be corpse-marrow."

Sun Xiaoqiang said.

Li Yun grew even more puzzled, hearing this term for the very first time.

"What is corpse-marrow?"

"Haven't you ever heard that song? The corpse-marrow brings~~~ the ancient call."

Sun Xiaoqiang said deadpan, as if it were the absolute truth.

"Uh..."

Li Yun froze for a long moment. When she finally processed it, she became so angry her teeth itched. What time was it, and he still had the heart to joke around?

It seemed Cheng Luoyi hadn't beaten him hard enough back at the sugar mill. Right now, she wanted to beat him up herself...

Meanwhile, at the front lines, Cheng Luoyi was slaughtering zombies and holding her ground quite well. Losing the combat strength of Chen Ming and the other brain-core awakened ones wasn't a major issue.

However, the monster responsible for mental control was a massive headache.

Just as she was pondering this, the soil beneath her feet suddenly softened, as if it were collapsing.

Cheng Luoyi lowered her gaze and discovered a large, pale-green claw reaching out from the ground, clamping tightly around her ankle. Its sharp nails had already pierced her flesh, and crimson blood began to ooze out.

"Roar—!"

At that exact moment, from the rain curtain in the distance, more fierce zombie roars echoed out. A wave of ferocious figures appeared, their numbers more than a dozen times greater than before, reaching over a thousand strong.

Intermingled among these zombies were numerous lizard-like monsters.

"As expected, there are more."

Facing thousands of monsters, Cheng Luoyi remained calm; everything was within her expectations.

The pain in her ankle stimulated her nerves, causing her pain threshold to rise and her body's cells to become fully active.

The lizard monster underground had already poked out its hideous head, opening a maw filled with razor-sharp fangs as it lunged straight at her to bite.

Cheng Luoyi violently stomped down with one foot.

"Rumble!"

The formidable force instantly smashed the creature into a pulp, bursting it open like a watermelon with flesh and blood flying in all directions.

Looking at the situation now... the grain depot could no longer be defended; she had to lead everyone and fight their way out of the encirclement.

But most importantly, she needed to find the mentally controlling monster first, eliminate it, and wake up Chen Ming and the others.

Unlike Lin Dong, Cheng Luoyi didn't have a group of immensely powerful underlings; she could only rely on herself and the teammates behind her.

Seeing the horde of monsters closing in, Cheng Luoyi continued her assault.

Meanwhile, Li Yun and the others felt a chill of terror grip their hearts upon seeing so many monsters. They repeatedly unleashed their abilities, forming multiple ice walls to block the oncoming zombies.

Yet, that bizarre song rang in their ears once more. Li Yun gritted her teeth, enduring the agony with all her might. Although she wasn't completely controlled, she suffered severe interference.

Only Sun Xiaoqiang remained entirely unaffected. His eyes retained their astute gleam, and when the song entered his ears, he simply shook his head and cast it all aside.

Seeing the horde of monsters charging forward without a shred of fear, he flew straight ahead, throwing a punch that blasted a group of zombies backward.

Sun Xiaoqiang was remarkably fierce, continuously beating back the zombies to protect the teammates behind him.

However, on the ground behind him, the soil began to churn and rapidly bulge, and a gigantic lizard monster clawed its way out.

"Xiaoqiang! Behind you!"

Li Yun immediately shouted in warning.

However, Sun Xiaoqiang's sensory perception was relatively weak and he didn't notice in time. By the time he turned around, a dark-green giant shadow was already pouncing upon him.

He only felt a heavy thud on his shoulder as a pair of claws gripped him, followed by a tremendous force that threw him backward onto his back.

"Thud!"

Sun Xiaoqiang was knocked down by the monster, smelling a foul, putrid odor as a bloody maw descended toward his head.

"Daring to launch a sneak attack..."

Sun Xiaoqiang still showed no fear. With one hand, he pressed against the monster's forehead, while the other hand grabbed its throat, and both arms suddenly exerted all their strength.

*Crack!*

He actually snapped the monster's neck and twisted its head right off.

True to form, he was an idiot with brute strength.

Pungent blood splattered all over him, but he didn't care in the slightest, immediately standing back up from the ground.

Yet soon, he vaguely felt something was amiss.

Sun Xiaoqiang reached out to touch his trouser pocket, only to find it sticky and filled with something pulpy. When he pulled it out, all that remained in his hand was an apple stem.

It turned out that the half-apple he had been reluctant to eat was crushed during the battle.

Sun Xiaoqiang stared blankly at it, as if his soul had left his body. His previously astute gaze finally, slowly, refocused!