Chapter 103 - Shadow Guard
Edited by Meri
The rock was probably thrown from the helicopter. Ability users could control their surrounding elements and could create elements out of nothing. Earth ability users generally preferred to control the soil under their feet, but they could also create soil from nothing. Some more specialised earth ability users who were very proficient at controlling rocks, like Fei Xuelei, could even create stones.
When Zhang Zihai and Ping Shengchao noticed the huge rock suddenly appear above them, their expressions turned ugly.
Previously those ‘dark ability users’ had created several low-level zombies which now surrounded them. The ability users near the stage were throwing attacks at them constantly. Thus, they were unable to dodge to the side at all!
If it was a fire or water ability that was falling from the air, they could push it away with their abilities, but such an enormous rock…
The rock was falling extremely quickly; if they threw up a fire ability, perhaps it would only make sparks!
Zhang Zihai’s complexion turned stern and he suddenly pushed Ping Shengchao to the side. At the same time, he blasted explosive flames behind Ping Shengchao and burnt a few zombies to death. A ‘dark ability user’ was also scorched.
Ping Shengchao was able to dodge, but Zhang Zihai could no longer avoid calamity. The boulder was nearly upon his head.
With how quickly the rock fell and his ability already exhausted… Zhang Zihai laughed bitterly, thinking he was doomed to be smashed into meat paste.
However, right then, the boulder suddenly flew to the side. It scraped off a patch of Zhang Zihai’s scalp and ultimately crashed on a ‘dark ability user’.
The person’s legs were broken by the boulder. If they were a normal person, they probably would have been in so much pain they’d lose the strength to fight, but they forcefully struggled unexpectedly tore off their legs, and began crawling towards Zhang Zihai.
A patch of Zhang Zihai’s scalp was injured and his ability was used up. When he saw this scene, he couldn’t help cursing, “Fuck! What the hell is this thing?”
Now, a few gunshots resounded successively. The ‘dark ability user’ crawling towards Zhang Zihai was hit between their overly black eyes and they fell down, unbreathing.
Because Ping Shengchao awakened his water ability rather late, he was only level two right now and couldn’t use ice blades, but his marksmanship was excellent. Against the abilities attacking them, though, his marksmanship wasn’t that useful.
Fortunately, Nie Yi freed his hands at this time and created an ice wall to act as a shield for them, giving them a breather.
After doing this, Nie Yi said to Qi Jingchen, “Be careful!”
The rock’s motion just now was caused by Qi Jingchen forcibly correcting its downward trajectory with his spiritual strength, leading it to fly aside just as it was about to crush Zhang Zihai to death.
At this moment, Qi Jingchen had consumed a lot of his spiritual strength, but fortunately he could still observe the situation. Seeing the ‘dark ability user’ not forgetting to attack even without legs, his heart sank.
He didn’t know how these monsters were made, but now eight had already been dispatched to deal with him. Perhaps it wasn’t hard to manufacture them. If there was a day that these monsters increased…
Although he possessed the darkness ability in his last life, he was still a person; he had thought, he knew pain and fear. What about these people? What difference did they have from zombies?
Starting with the rock, more and more abilities began falling down from the helicopter and created a huge nuisance for them. Fortunately, now experienced, Qi Jingchen could draw away a few so that they wouldn’t go so far as to kill. Now, everyone noticed a problem.
Unexpectedly, not a single one of those abilities were aimed at Nie Yi and Qi Jingchen! To be more precise, none of the abilities were aimed at Qi Jingchen!
Why would they do this?
It couldn’t possibly be because Qi Jingchen looked good that they were lenient; there was only one possibility— They wanted to capture Qi Jingchen alive.
A vine suddenly fell down from the helicopter. When it wound around Qi Jingchen, it proved this without a doubt!
Nie Yi caught the vine with a hand and the flames in his hand began burning up the vines and caused the plant ability user to ultimately have no choice but to give up on them. Of course, Nie Yi didn’t fare well— He was struck in the chest by an ability user on the stage.
Nie Yi’s chest was burnt by the fireball, and Qi Jingchen’s chest also faintly ached. “They don’t want to harm me, so you can use me as the shield in front. Like this, they’ll have their hands and legs tied.”
“No way!” Nie Yi rejected unhesitantly. So what if those people might not hurt Qi Jingchen? He would not allow Qi Jingchen to encounter even the slightest accident! “Don’t move around!”
Nie Yi shifted Qi Jingchen up on his back and continued facing their enemies. Qi Jingchen lowered his head and kissed Nie Yi on the neck, then looked at the &#k2018;dark ability users’ doing their best to block Nie Yi.
There were eight of them here, they were dauntless and unafraid of death, and also knew a few tactics, often hiding behind those common zombies and causing a huge hassle. Each time Nie Yi was about to kill them, he would be thwarted by ability users beside them, so much that he wasn’t able to succeed.
Qi Jingchen looked at one of the people, and his spiritual strength suddenly drilled into their brain.
Qi Jingchen could control zombies in his last life, but more precisely, he could deter zombies. The purity of the dark energy on him far exceeded the dark energy on the zombies and could make them fearful, so he naturally could chase zombies away.
At the same time, he had also once attracted zombies, back when he was about to awaken in his last life. He had not known what was going on; although countless zombies rushed at him to the point that W County secure base was breached, unfortunately, he later could no longer do this.
No matter how it was described, his ability was very deterring to zombies, but he had no ability now.
Although he had no ability, he could still make those high-ranked zombies afraid of him. For example, the zombie pig ran away after it sensed his existence, but these ‘dark ability users’ and the normal zombies that had just appeared weren’t afraid of him at all…
But he should be able to help. After all, he possessed spiritual strength.
Qi Jingchen really liked to examine Nie Yi’s body these days, and Nie Yi was very happy to be examined by him. Inevitably, he saw Nie Yi thoroughly, including his mind.
At that time, he once had an idea— If his spiritual strength occupied Nie Yi’s mind, would he be able to control Nie Yi?
He had such an idea but never tried it. But now, he violently invaded the ‘dark ability user’’s mind with his spiritual strength.
Qi Jingchen sensed two extremely weak spiritual strengths in that person’s mind.
Two? Qi Jingchen carefully sensed them and discovered one was peacefully staying in the black ability nucleus, and should be that person’s own spiritual strength. The other one, however, resisted him, as if it belonged to someone else.
Qi Jingchen unhesitantly shredded the one that resisted his spiritual strength, then he realised that he seemed able to control that ‘dark ability user’!
This sort of control didn’t demand him to fully control the other’s every move, but only needed him to give them an order…
In the nearby stage, some people were speaking.
“I didn’t think Nie Yi was actually this strong. His two subordinates both can only use bullets, but his ability isn’t exhausted yet!”
“But he won’t be able to hold on for much longer!”
“He’s protecting that Qi Jingchen so well. Is it because Qi Jingchen is especially good in bed?”
“Be more serious! If we can’t capture that Qi Jingchen, our lord might turn us into shadow guards!” someone suddenly said.
When that person spoke up, the few people speaking all shut up. Feng Qinyun stood aside, his eyes flashing.
Lord? Who was the person behind these people?
“Nie Yi is about to die. Can Li Shu be settled?” Feng Qinyun couldn’t help but ask.
However, no one replied to him.
Encountering this situation, Feng Qinyun’s expression was a little ugly, but it was impossible for him to get off the boat halfway; now he could only follow these people.
They thought they were about to win, but unexpectedly, at this time, a ‘dark ability user’ that had been attacking Nie Yi suddenly became dazed, then no longer attacked Nie Yi. Instead, it ran towards them!
One of their group suddenly clutched his head, then his entire body swayed. “My shadow guard was stolen!”
“How can that be?!” The others were also astonished and didn’t want to believe it, but reality didn’t allow them denial!
“Mine also has an issue!” Another also cried out. At this time, another ‘dark ability user’ ran towards them!
The attacks of the few onstage instantly slowed, their eyes filling with terror.
They originally thought that using shadow guards as the vanguard and using their abilities at the side, killing Nie Yi and capturing Qi Jingchen alive couldn’t be easier. They didn’t think the shadow guards would actually start attacking them!
These shadow guards weren’t afraid of death, and were far more nimble than low-level zombies. This stage obstructed low-level zombies, but couldn’t obstruct these guards; that’s to say nothing of them also throwing dark elements!
The ability users immediately began attacking the two turncoat shadow guards.
The people in the helicopter also discovered the issue. They lowered their altitude and wanted to seize Qi Jingchen again. But right at this time, something suddenly struck the helicopter!
The skies exploded into sparks and the helicopter exploded!
The expressions of the people onstage changed and they suddenly scattered to escape. However, there were already several people rushing over now and chasing them…
Li Shu had arrived with men!
Qi Jingchen’s face was pale and his spiritual strength was nearly used up. At the same time, three ‘dark ability users’ already heard his order and chased after those attackers.
Without those ability users’ interference, the few intact ‘dark ability users’ ran too. Nie Yi cooperated with Ping Shengchao and Zhang Zihai and soon killed the zombies around them, then carried Qi Jingchen and came to a clean place to put him down.
“Are you okay?” Nie Yi asked with concern.
“I’m fine, I just used a bit too much of my spiritual strength,” Qi Jingchen said, then immediately said to Ping Shengchao beside him, “Help wash him.” Nie Yi’s ability was almost depleted…
Ping Shengchao had used the least ability and had already washed off the blood on Zhang Zihai. At this time, he also helped wash Nie Yi, and he was astonished as Nie Yi’s numerous wounds were revealed.
Nie Yi also had to protect Zhang Zihai and Ping Shengchao, so he had truly sustained several injuries.
“What happened here?” Li Shu walked over with men. His expression was hideous and his clothes were also somewhat tattered. Several of the people behind him were also injured. “Do you know who those people are?”
“Don’t know,” Nie Yi said, then recalled something. “I saw Feng Qinyun among those ability users.”
Li Shu’s complexion instantly became worse. All the management in the Yuncheng secure base was very strict and had all gone through registration. Just now he was wondering how those people snuck in, but he finally understood the reason now.
Feng Qinyun!
“I will give you an explanation,” Li Shu said, then ordered men to capture Feng Qinyun’s close relatives.
“Li Shu was also attacked!” Qi An ran to Nie Yi while carrying Xiaomao. “Fortunately, he had many bodyguards! Those people were also just creating a diversion.” After notifying Li Shu, he returned and hid to the side. Originally he planned to teleport in to rescue Nie Yi and Qi Jingchen, but as a result, Li Shu made such a huge move upon arriving and even shot down the helicopter!
Of course, his family’s boss was the coolest! Those people wanted to control zombies to kill their boss, and ended up being controlled by their boss! Their expressions were really fun to see!
This attack was arranged rather perfectly by those people. If it weren’t for those ‘dark ability users’ suddenly having a problem, perhaps Qi Jingchen would genuinely have been captured…
Nie Yi hated the mastermind behind the scenes even more.
Chinese New Year was the event the Yuncheng survivors had been anticipating the most, but right on this day, something happened in the base.
The Feng Qinyun that had been sacked by Chief Li unexpectedly allied with outsiders and turned many people in the secure base into zombies, even attacking Chief Li and the others!
When Feng Qinyun and his men were sacked, many people had complaints about Li Shu’s method and felt that he was too heartless. But now that they experienced this matter, no one sympathised with Feng Qinyun anymore. Those who had solemnly vowed to Li Shu that Feng Qinyun absolutely wouldn’t think of killing Li Shu were also given a ruthless slap in the face.
On this night, the Yuncheng survivors who had been celebrating Chinese New Years all began moving about. Together, they went to capture the fishes that slipped through the net and finally managed to catch several of them, including Feng Qinyun.
After Feng Qinyun was captured, he remained silent and refused to say anything at all. The others were the same, up until Li Shu began torturing them.
The laws of Yuncheng secure base had been based on the ones pre-apocalypse, though naturally several penalties were much more severe than they had been before. But even so, they had never tortured a person, up until now.
“Those ability users that came to kill you are all from the coastlands. They joined an organisation and worked for them. The organisation gave them all sorts of supplies to raise their strength.” Li Shu told Nie Yi and Ping Shengchao the results of the interrogation the next day.
“Who’s the leader of that organisation? Where’s the specific location of their organisation?” Nie Yi asked. It was very likely that this organisation was established by that concealed reborn person; he never heard of such an organisation in his last life!
“They don’t know either, because they’re just the bottom members of that organisation. They said that there were two core members in that helicopter, but they’ve already died.” Li Shu said, “But they also said some things. For example, they were to kill you, then capture Qi Jingchen alive. It was rumoured that their organisation leader mentioned wanting Qi Jingchen by name.”
Li Shu looked at Qi Jingchen a little worriedly; when Nie Yi heard this, his face also turned cold.
“Uncle, is there anything else?” Nie Yi asked.
“Yes. That organisation manufactured some sort of thing called shadow guards. Those things aren’t quite the same as zombies, but also can’t be considered humans anymore. But these ability users don’t understand the shadow guards at all, and only know that with the help of certain people of that organisation, they can control those shadow guards.” Li Shu said, “I ordered people to investigate those shadow guards’ corpses but they couldn’t make anything out at all. They only know that they seem to be half-zombified.”
After gaining sufficient information from Li Shu, Nie Yi felt that it was extremely laughable.
Among the people of their side, they had already found the four who last survived. Those who died any earlier probably wouldn’t be reborn either. They all once were classified as members of the dark side, but after their rebirth, they hoped all the zombies would become extinct, loathing dark energy. As for other people….
That person was most likely from the secure base’s side, and perhaps they had also once hunted Qi Jingchen back then as well. Now, they were actually researching dark abilities, and even created a half-puppet shadow guard!
Those so-called shadow guards were likely to be products of human experiments…
Which side was it that was genuinely dark?
Li Shu had no idea that Nie Yi was reborn and he didn’t think as deeply as Nie Yi either. Now, he was purely angry. “They’re simply insane! To actually create a group of people like zombies!”
“The apocalypse has never lacked in lunatics,” Nie Yi said.
Li Shu paused, then sighed. He glanced at Qi Jingchen. “The ones who interrogated those people are all my trusted aides; they won’t spread that those people came to capture Jingchen, but you guys should still be more careful.”
“Uncle, we will.” Nie Yi was a little grateful. Li Shu concealing this matter was absolutely for the Qi Jingchen’s sake.
Li Shu had many things he had to handle and soon left. At this time, Ping Shengchao suddenly said to Qi Jingchen, “Thanks so much!”
Ping Shengchao had long known that Qi Jingchen wasn’t normal, and just now…. Regardless of whether it was the rock that flew aside or those turncoat shadow guards, he felt that it was caused by Qi Jingchen’s hand.
Qi Jingchen glanced at Nie Yi, didn’t speak and continued slowly applying medicine on Nie Yi.
Now, many people had seen Nie Yi suffer injuries so it wasn’t convenient for him to give Nie Yi his blood; he could only look at Nie Yi’s wounds. Then… his body also kept having faint aches.
He and Nie Yi had mostly agreed and signed this thing similar to a contract, which was why they would share the pain.
Share pain ah… he didn’t know, when he and Nie Yi were ‘sleeping’ together and his rear was wounded, whether Nie Yi’s chrysanthemum would hurt too?
Qi Jingchen’s train of thought unconsciously diverged.