Chapter 93: Breath of Despair

It was a pity that among more than a thousand wind fiends, no divine gene fragment was found.

Qin Hao was not disappointed. He then began absorbing the blood of the voodoo demon.

The voodoo demon’s blood was a dark, murky green, strangely sinister at a glance, and anyone could tell it contained terrifying poison.

Qin Hao wrapped the blood in the power of his mind, then carefully merged a single drop into his body.

The moment it entered him, he grew more alert than ever, swiftly shattered the genes, and expelled them from his body.

Gene Devouring Technique could absorb the genes of some hunted lifeforms, but even that carried the risk of turning Qin Hao into a monster neither human nor ghost. Much less could it be taken lightly with a creature that possessed an infectious power.

Yet within the voodoo demon’s genes lay something excellent as well.

Poison element, dark element.

Qin Hao himself possessed poison-element genes, so he could resist the demon’s toxins to a certain extent, but he had no dark-element genes.

Fortunately, he had absorbed these hunted creatures before, and thus had experience dealing with them.

Soon, the first set of genes was absorbed into Qin Hao’s body.

His face turned a ghastly blue-black, as though he had been infected by some virus, but only for an instant. Qin Hao’s thought tendrils moved, taking control of the poison and dark elements.

With the first set of genes recorded, the ones that followed were much easier to bear.

Qin Hao gathered the remaining voodoo demon genes, shattered and recombined more than a hundred sets, formed them into perfect genes, and then merged them into his body.

He gained command over a new element, and his power of thought also increased.

Zihuai, standing nearby, saw the thought power around Qin Hao settle down and his complexion remain unchanged, and she too relaxed.

She knew Qin Hao possessed a unique method of advancement, his own innate ability. But now it seemed that this ability was not without danger.

“Destroy the corpses!”

Qin Hao released fire element and incinerated the voodoo demons.

The high heat burned away the virus, and some of the wind fiend corpses were still edible; Qin Hao stored them all in his spatial ring.

At last, this battle came to an end, and the heroes finally allowed themselves to relax. Many of them had fought for a full day and night and all wanted to return and rest.

They fought their way back along the road, and before nightfall had returned to the Celestial Dome Base.

The Celestial Dome Base appeared unchanged, as though no one had been infected. A few people, however, did have faces turning blue or even black; they were called away for treatment, and the virus within them was brought under control.

The situation at Celestial Dome Base was fairly good, and the Ancient Demon Civilization had sent only first-tier evolved voodoo demons, still mere infants among voodoo demons, with comparatively weaker toxins.

But humans of the present day were not all that strong either.

Still, with the method Zihuai had made public, humans who had eaten the hunted creatures of the Claw Civilization were better off than those who would, years later, be starving and hungry.

A period has its measure, and a comparison its scale.

Qin Hao felt that this was already very good.

Just as the heroes were beginning to relax, a scream suddenly burst into their ears.

From a building off to one side, many people ran out, some of them covered in blood.

Qin Hao’s expression abruptly tightened. His body vanished from where he stood like a gale and rushed into the building.

Inside, the crowd fled in screaming panic. One person lay collapsed on the floor, blood flowing from below his waist as he struggled forward helplessly.

His legs had already melted away.

Behind him, a swath of black liquid rippled into the shape of a huge hand, encircling his body. Then the pool slowly twisted and took on human form.

As if finding it amusing, the liquid human’s face alternated between weeping and laughter, mimicking expressions in turn.

A corrosive liquid walker.

The liquid walker’s body was far more lethal in liquid form; everything it touched would be corroded, let alone the frail body of a human being.

The man’s lower body had come into contact with the liquid, and so it melted.

Zihuai and the others followed Qin Hao into the building’s lobby and saw this bloody scene.

In an instant, overwhelming fury surged to the surface of their hearts.

“Die!”

Zihuai roared, her eyes red, and a black beam struck the corrosive liquid walker in an instant.

How could the elemental power of a third-tier mental evolver be resisted by such a creature? As the black light fell, its liquid body suffered a crushing blow and rapidly shrank.

The liquid walker also let out a furious howl and flung a mass of black liquid at Zihuai.

Zihuai intensified the black light once more. The liquid walker screamed miserably as its body grew smaller and smaller, unable to maintain the shape of a human. The already dark bloodwater now seemed like a pool of dead water, without the slightest trace of life.

A liquid walker could not be harmed by blades or swords, yet it could be struck by elemental power. Zihuai’s ability brought this corrosive liquid walker to its end.

She cast another beam of light, instantly shattering the liquid walker’s core of thought. With a crisp crack, the core exploded at once, star energy crystals scattering across the floor, though no one moved to pick them up.

Zihuai hurried to the injured survivor, her eyes still red.

“Hold on. It’s all right. It’s all right.”

She released light-based power to heal the man’s body.

But his body had already melted; how could he possibly be saved? Even his intestines were gone.

“Zihuai, wife, n-no need. Let me die!”

Though he called her his wife, in truth he was only one of her fans.

He was a first-tier evolver, and Zihuai even recognized him.

“No, don’t die, don’t die. I’ll support you!”

Zihuai cried out.

The man managed a smile, only to have it twisted again by pain.

It hurt too much. He had once hoped that someone would save him, but now he no longer wished for it.

Better to die. In the apocalypse, who does not die? Perhaps death would bring release.

With that strange expression upon his face, the man finally breathed his last.

Zihuai stared in disbelief.

The next moment, her hand trembled as it moved toward her spatial ring, then hesitated.

Qin Hao knew that Zihuai had a resurrection card in her hand.

But this resurrection card was not meant to be used here.

Qin Hao stepped forward and rested a hand on Zihuai’s shoulder.

“My condolences.”

Zihuai’s body shuddered, then gradually calmed. She wiped away her tears and softly said, “Mm.”

The apocalypse had lasted for more than a month now, and many had died. But after fighting their way to a hard-won victory, to see a comrade who had stood shoulder to shoulder with them die like this—

It left them freshly filled with hope, and just as freshly with despair.

The pressure that had weighed on Zihuai for so long finally broke her.

“I’m fine. Maybe this is just the apocalypse,” Zihuai said bitterly.

The others suppressed their emotions and began the cleanup.

The corrosive liquid walker had slipped in silently through the sewer. After all, a liquid walker had no fixed shape and could enter the base through a place like that without difficulty.

The people in the base grew busy once more, sealing the sewers and checking for hidden dangers. The human who had just died was only a warning bell for them.