by Chen Ran
After travelling for half a day without stopping, Taelice and Zero were alright, but Moni could not take it anymore. The silver-haired girl's face was covered in sweat. Due to her constant rush, her body temperature had risen, causing Moni's face to flush unnaturally. Towards this girl who was only twelve to thirteen, Taelice's hostility towards her decreased slightly.
Moreover, although Moni was not a minor, she had already revealed the astonishing potential of a peerless beauty. Regarding beautiful things, Taelice who lived in the forest all year round knew how to appreciate them. Although she did not say it, but she liked Moni quite a lot. Seeing that the little girl was extremely tired, Taelice could not bear to continue walking. Besides, the person she was hostile to didn't even gasp for breath.
Seeing Zero, Taelice knew that even if they could run for a day, Zero would not necessarily tire them out before her.
Thus, the three of them found a place to rest. Taelice had grown up in Death Ridge, she was not an outsider like Zero. It was very easy for black girl to differentiate between normal plants and mutated people. Under Taelice's lead, the three of them found a relatively safe forest area and rested while leaning against a cedar tree that towered into the sky.
From his army bag, Zero took out a leather bag containing pure water from the life source of Semitic. There were still five or six such leather pouches, and Zero naturally didn't have any of these things. But they were equipment that Gunter had equipped when he was exploring around the world before, and they were all given to Zero today.
After passing the leather bag to Moni, the latter did not hold back. The thirsty Moni took the water bag, but still drank three mouthfuls before giving the water back to. The girl knew that the amount of clean water in those pouches was not much, they were frugal and only had enough for seven or eight days, so Moni drank very little, even though she was still desperately thirsty.
Zero drank less than she did, and he just took a sip. However, his physique was different from Moni's. Even though it was only the weight of a mouthful of water, he could sustain the body's organs for most of the day with zero energy in his body.
Taelice, however, did not rest. She stood on top of a tree twenty meters away from the ground and pointed ahead, "We will soon reach Death Valley. You guys rest for ten minutes, and then continue on our way."
How could he not hear that Taelice did not want to stay with them at all? The black girl only wanted them to complete their mission quickly and then return home. Su Xueyan climbed onto the cedar tree like Taelice, while black girl immediately stepped back a bit. At the same time, Su Qian tactfully stepped on the tree tops on the other side to keep a distance from her. Right in front of them, they were at the highest point of a certain mountain. Further up was a steep downhill. As far as the eye could see, this patch of forest and vegetation that covered the entire Death Ridge, seemed to have been cut off by scissors at the foot of the mountain.
Beyond the green edge of the line were red and brown rocks.
This red-brown "carpet" extended all the way to the area that Semitic called Death Valley. Even though that place was called a canyon, when Zero saw it, he knew that it wasn't a canyon. It was clearly a mountain range with a deep ravine that ran through the mountain. It was just that the ravine was too large, which was why it seemed to form the topography of a small-scale canyon.
In this canyon, Zero could see countless ghostly blue lights floating about. They filled every nook and cranny of the canyon, causing people to frown. These dark blue lights were flower of death s, and all the names of the dead within the canyon were due to the unique topography within the canyon. Every day, strong gales blew, and flower of death s flew everywhere, turning into a natural barrier of the Death Canyon.
Looking at the canyon, Zero guessed that the majority of the boulders were thrown out during the cataclysm. It was because of the meteorites that the canyon was filled with radiation. And exactly because of them, it created a deadly flower like the flower of death. In fact, the entire Death Ridge's intense radiation and changes in flora and fauna were most likely due to the close proximity of the canyon.
At the moment when Zero was always shocked by this natural scene, he suddenly heard Taelice who was beside him scream. It was unknown when black girl turned around, but he had already covered his mouth as he looked in the direction they had come from.
He followed her gaze, his heart pounding. Just at the Death Ridge's forest, a dazzling cloud of smoke rose from the ground. From this direction, the smoke was only as thick as an arm, but if the distance was calculated, it would be a huge smoke dragon with a thickness of ten meters. In other words, there was a huge fire going on in that direction.
Could it be a wild forest fire? As he thought of this, the young girl's body trembled. Taelice had grown up in the mountains, so it was natural that he had never seen mountain fires before. Moreover, even though the smoke was huge, he could not see how fierce the fire was. He was curious to know what Taelice was afraid of.
Just as he was about to ask, the girl suddenly jumped down the tree. Zero quickly followed and shouted, "What's wrong!"
"It's our village … Our village is on fire! " Taelice shouted loudly, but water vapor was already flowing out of the girl's eyes. She could not care about zeroes anymore as she turned around and ran towards the direction of the village in Shinzhe.
Zero carried Moni immediately and followed behind Taelice. The fire in Shinzhe's village was very sudden, even if it was an ordinary plant, the water in its body was also very high, making it difficult for it to naturally catch fire.
Plus, as soon as they left, the village was on fire. No matter how one looked at it, these were man-made traces that were more obvious.
On their way back, both of them were burning with anxiety, reaching the limit of their speed. With the agility enhancement speed of the fifth step, even though he was carrying Moni on his back, his running speed was not slow. The rare thing was that Taelice's speed was not much slower than his. The two of them quickly flew through the forest, leaving behind only two faint afterimages. Forget about the mutated plants being unable to catch them, even the metamorph hiding in the mountains didn't notice them until they passed by them.
Just like this, the two of them spent less than half of the time they took to get here, and after more than an hour, they returned to the Shinzhe's village. However, when he arrived at the village entrance, he was stunned.
The entire village was engulfed in flames. Trees, wooden houses … Everything that could be burned was in the sea of fire. Thirteen wooden stakes were erected at the entrance of the village. The men with Shinzhe s on top of the wooden stakes had their bodies pierced through, and they were stuck to the stakes like a burning string. There was a person in the middle who was not a Semitic, but a prophet, Gunter.
Gunter's clothes had been peeled off, his hands, chest, throat and legs were pierced through by wooden nails, and were fixed on the wooden stake that had been deliberately placed into the shape of a cross. Beneath the wooden stake, blood flowed all over the ground. Someone had used blood to write a line of words beside him.
"Zero, I'm waiting for you!"
Zero immediately knew who did it.
Chapter 132 - The Beginning of the Hunt
It was the Parkland's assassin! Other than him, who else would write such words? On the other hand, slaughtering Semitic was a form of threat towards Zero. At the same time, he was also warning the other barbaric tribes within Death Ridge not to interfere in the war between him and Semitic.
It was just that he did not expect that after staying in the Shinzhe for just one night, it would bring about a calamity to the clan.
The men who had been nailed to the stakes looked surprised. However, a bullet hole in their brows caused their expressions to forever be frozen in the moment of death. Perhaps even in death, they did not know why they were being ambushed.
Then, he looked towards Gunter, as if he could hear the mutterings of the old man fr
om yesterday.
"All my life, I have been searching for a pure land within my heart. Now that I have found it, I have stayed behind!"
Unknowingly, Zero's hand had already been clenched into a fist. Moni who was by the side of Zero was shocked to realize that Su Yun's body was releasing a high temperature. Even the mud under her feet had become soft under the high temperature and had started to sink down.
Zero seemed to be unaware.
Taelice kneeled on the ground, and two streams of tears flowed out from the girl's eyes. Her former home had now been completely destroyed. Seeing those familiar faces, which had now turned into ice-cold corpses, Taelice's entire body shivered.
Taelice suddenly used all her strength and shouted out towards the sky, "Squeak, squeak, squeak!"
The faintly discernible undulations spread out in circles. When they came into contact with these undulations, whether it was the mutated plants or metamorph, they all subconsciously retreated far away.
In the end, Taelice arrived in front of Gunter's corpse. To her, Gunter, who had watched her grow up, was like an elder to her. Gunter's vast knowledge was the reason why Taelice worshipped him, and what Gunter did for the village earned Taelice's respect. Since he was young, Taelice had always been willing to become the Prophet's personal guard when he reached adulthood.
But just when there were less than two months until the coming of age ceremony, Gunter left her forever.
Towards this old man who also had a father and a master, Taelice could not tolerate anyone violently punishing him, let alone using such a cruel method to kill him. Taelice swore in her heart that no matter what price she had to pay in the name of the ancestors of the Shinzhe, she would definitely kill this murderer. Not only for Gunter, but also for everyone in the village!
But before that, she had to keep the old man and everyone in check. At the very least, they could not allow their corpses to be invaded by the hungry metamorph.
Therefore, Taelice wiped away her tears and stood up. In a moment, this girl seemed to have grown up for ten years. Her eyes were bloodshot, and her face had already begun to show signs of maturation and perseverance.
She held onto the wooden nail that was stuck onto Gunter's body, and was about to pull it out.
Seeing her actions, Zero suddenly thought of something. Su Yun's expression changed, she suddenly disappeared, and when she reappeared, she was already by Taelice's side. black girl revealed an expression of surprise, but at the same time, was violently pressed down by Su Yun.
At that moment, the sound of an explosion could be heard as the ship began to move at near zero speed.
Amidst the flying hair on his extremely broad chest, Taelice saw Gunter's corpse suddenly explode. The gigantic shockwave almost blew the upper half of the Prophet into smithereens. Countless pieces of blood and flesh danced in the air, filling Taelice's line of sight.
"No!" Taelice suddenly screamed with all her might.
Both of them fell to the ground, causing Taelice to immediately pull away from them. When she reached the body of Gunter, who only had his lower body left, the young girl knelt down powerlessly. At this time, Moni's alarmed cry came from behind him. Only now did Taelice realize that if it wasn't for him knocking her over, she would probably be a corpse now.
Taelice immediately turned to look at the zero spot, where it was lying on the ground, as though she had been knocked unconscious by the impact of the explosion. His back was bloody and she looked badly hurt. Taelice tidied up her mood and walked over. She pulled Moni away and took off her zero tactical suit.
Seven or eight shards of hand grenade fragments were impressively inserted into Zero's back. It was obvious that the murderer of the village had set a clever trap. This trap should be used to call for Zero, but unexpectedly, Taelice actually triggered it, and in order to save her, Zero had even fallen into the opponent's trap.
He had to admit that this set of tactical suit s that he had bought at zero cost was indeed worth it. When he was less than a meter away from Gunter, the hand grenades that were hidden inside his corpse could not even penetrate his body.
The metal coils in the tactical suit's layer had a certain buffer effect, to the point that these few pieces could only be inserted into the surface of the muscles. But this was only a small wound, what made Taelice frown was that these few pieces of broken pieces were all covered with a layer of crystal blue liquid. If she remembered correctly, this thing should have been smeared on its surface with flower of death, leaving behind this kind of juice.
The flower of death had a strong source of radiation, and the pieces that were smeared with its juice were stuck on the back of the beast. The wound on Zero's back was already covered with a layer of light blue that was spreading, indicating that his muscles had been exposed to radiation and had become necrotic. If he didn't deal with it in time, Zero would be dead very soon.
So, in Moni's surprised eyes, she suddenly pulled out a coarse knife that was stuck on her thigh.
"What are you doing?" Moni screamed in shock as he pulled out his own gun and aimed it at Taelice.
"I'm saving him, don't get in his way. Otherwise, don't blame me for his death!" Taelice said anxiously, the sharp blade in his hand stabbed downwards with lightning.
However, her grasp of the strength was extremely good, the sharp knife only went into the meat, following the movements of the muscle fiber on Su Yun's back. Taelice used this self-made sharp knife to pick out the broken pieces on Zero's body and cleaned his dead muscles. Finally, Taelice took out another kind of powder and sprinkled it on Zero's wound.
Then, Moni took out a bundle of sterile bandages from the medical kit she prepared for her. Together with Taelice, they bandaged Zero's wound tightly, in case of a second infection. After doing all this, Taelice moved Zero to a place in the valley that wasn't burned down yet to rest, while she herself started to store the corpses of her clansmen.
She had done all she could. As for whether or not she could survive the radiation infection, it all depended on his willpower.
At the same time, Lan Qi was lying flat on a raft, moving down the river.
The White-headed Eagle had always been waiting on the left and right of zero, waiting for the right opportunity to make its move. Lan Qi had only made a few sniping attempts before he was immediately detected by zero. However, he was not discouraged. From the very beginning, Lan Qi knew that it was not easy to snipe at zeros who also had expertise in this area. But he was patient, and Lan Qi believed that as long as it was a person, they would make mistakes.
From all the information he had gathered, Lan Qi was certain that the cold and aloof Zero was actually a person who valued friendship. This could be seen from the already dead Lea as well as the various events that Zero had committed. Lan Qi was confident that with the chivalry of the old era and the coldness and ruthlessness of the new era, Zero would be his fatal weakness.
In Lan Qi's opinion, if the person Soren had clashed with that time was him. White-headed Eagle would not care about a woman's life and death, and would use other methods to kill Soren in the ruins. But Zero could not do it. He had even put himself in a disadvantageous position because of a woman. In Lan Qi's eyes, this was definitely a foolish action. However, the more foolish the opponent, the higher his chances of success were.
Therefore, Lan Qi had today's slaughter village, and set up a level bomb inside Gunter's corpse. He firmly believed that with his zero-degree personality, he would definitely put the old man down, even if Gunter was already a corpse. However, Lan Qi did not know that Taelice had actually triggered a trap, but the result was not too different from what Lan Qi had expected.
Zero was still injured, and it was hard to tell whether he was dead or alive.
As for Lan Qi himself, he had slaughtered the villagers, set fires, and set up traps. All of this had consumed a large amount of his energy and stamina. At the very least, he wouldn't be able to follow or snipe at Zero closely for a short period of
time. Hence, Lan Qi built himself a wooden raft, and floated down along with the Lamassen River that traversed more than half of the Death Reaper Territory.
Chapter 133 - Hunters and foxes
If he was still alive, he would have to go down the river like Lance. Then Lange would be waiting for him downstream. That would be another good opportunity to wait and snipe at nothing.
Although he was no faster on the water than he was on the land, Lan Qi believed that when he saw the smoke from his own fire, he would definitely return to where he had gone with the aboriginal girl. Even if he didn't fall for the trap, Lan Qi was confident that he would have enough time to prepare for the next fight.
However, what Lan Qi did not know was that if it wasn't for the fire he set, Zero would have already passed through the Death Canyon and arrived at the downstream area one or two days earlier than Lan Qi who was floating along the river. At that time, it would be hard to say who would hunt who.
However, the balance of fate was still balanced. Both sides had experienced a situation their opponents did not expect. It was still unknown who would be able to tip the scales of victory to their side.
Then again, who could control everything in these turbulent times? Not even a god, I'm afraid.
In the evening, Zero opened his eyes. He sat up, but felt a burning pain in his back. But being conscious was always good, the pain in his body meant that his nerves and muscle fiber were working normally. Sometimes, suffering was another way to survive.
The fire in the Shinzhe village had already been extinguished, and those buildings that had been burnt into charcoal were deeply branded in Su Yun's eyes. Moni was helping Taelice throw the corpses into the hole dug out by the village one by one. Taelice's ten fingers were still dripping with blood, which showed that the huge grave dug for the whole village had come from her.
