The Absolute Favorite in the Apocalyptic Rebirth

The mutated camel that came charging towards them was more than double the size of a pre-apocalypse camel. Gone was its docile demeanor, replaced by a ferocious appearance. Ordinary camels reached a height of over two meters at their humps, but this mutated camel was almost double that, nearly three to four meters tall, a behemoth compared to a human.

Lou Ling, experienced in such situations, calmly drew her Tang Dao from her backpack, blocking the camel's incoming kick. The force numbed her hand, and she rolled across the sand. Fortunately, the desert wasn't scorching hot in the early morning, so the roll didn't burn her.

Springing up from the sand, she slashed with her Tang Dao, leaving a gash on the camel's leg, from which blood spurted.

This time, Lou Dian didn't let her fight alone. He leaped onto the camel's back. Though the camel was three meters tall, he landed lightly. He punched one of the protruding humps, flattening it with sheer force.

The injured camel went wild, bucking violently to throw him off. Lou Dian attacked both humps, his blows lacking finesse but proving effective. Lou Ling's Tang Dao continued to leave bloody marks on the camel until Lou Dian jumped off its back. Then, she swiftly sliced through the camel's neck.

Neither of them used their abilities, relying solely on their martial skills to kill the mutated camel.

After the camel fell, Lou Dian remained spotless, while Lou Ling had some sand on her, but she was still relatively clean, certainly much better than the dozen or so men who had been chased around by the camel.

Qin Zheng glanced at the pair and was startled to see they had killed the mutated camel without using their abilities. After Lou Dian's mental power ability reached the tenth rank, he could use it to mask his energy fluctuations, making him appear less threatening and more refined, masking his lethality. Thus, Qin Zheng and the others had underestimated their strength, assuming they were only second or third rank at most.

Now, they realized their mistake.

Distracted, Qin Zheng was suddenly kicked by the camel's long, slender leg, sending him flying. He felt a sharp pain in his chest and coughed up blood.

"Captain!"

Someone pulled Qin Zheng from the sand. His face was covered in sand, and the blood from his mouth mixed with the grit. Seeing the camel charging towards them again, Qin Zheng, ignoring the throbbing pain in his chest, pulled the man who had helped him up and ran.

The man who had lured the smaller camel towards Lou Dian and Lou Ling was shocked by how quickly they had killed it. He wanted to repeat the tactic, but Lou Dian didn't give him the chance. He grabbed Lou Ling and ran, his speed astonishingly fast, comparable to an ability user with speed enhancement. This sight nearly made the other men spit blood.

Lou Dian never killed personally, at least not in front of Lou Ling. He always showed her his best side, refraining from killing in her presence. Even though he felt these men who dared to leer at Lou Ling deserved to die, there were mutated beasts to do the job, so why dirty his own hands and ruin his image?

So, Lou Dian calmly pulled Lou Ling and ran.

Lou Ling: "…" She had never seen him run so fast! He hadn't even run when facing a group of mutated beasts, instead heartlessly pushing her forward to confront them. Why did seeing him run so fast now make her feel a little melancholic?

When they stopped, they saw a cloud of dust rising from the original battlefield, accompanied by screams. Lou Ling winced as she watched the men being trampled and killed by the enraged mutated camels. She felt a pang of sympathy but said nothing.

They quickly returned to the scene. Only ten men were still fighting, half their number already dead.

Lou Dian flipped his hand, and a Tang Dao appeared. He leaped high, the blade flashing a cold silver light in the morning sun. The frenzied mutated camel crashed to the ground.

The ten men were stunned.

Lou Dian kicked away the last camel that lunged at him. The massive creature rolled in the sand, its slender legs broken. However, its tenacious life force allowed it to struggle to its feet, snorting and charging at Lou Dian again. It was easily kicked away once more, unable to get close to him.

The onlookers were dumbfounded, the scene transformed into Lou Dian's personal stage. When they saw him finish toying with the camel and finally decapitate it, the two men who had harassed them in the car earlier shuddered, a sense of fear creeping into their hearts.

However, it wasn't over.

A sudden scream pierced the air. They saw a gaunt, sickly wolf with sparse fur bite into the neck of an ability user, severing it. The man died instantly.

"It's… it's a zombie animal…" someone cried out in terror. Zombie animals were even more terrifying than mutated beasts.

Following the cry, four more zombie wolves emerged from behind the sand dunes, their blood-red eyes fixed on them with a predatory gleam.

Even Lou Ling felt a chill and involuntarily stepped back, tightening her grip on her Tang Dao.

The zombie wolves charged. One of them went straight for Lou Ling. Its speed was too fast. No longer holding back, Lou Ling flicked out an ironvine seed. The seed rapidly sprouted in mid-air, the vines ensnaring the zombie wolf. The force of the impact knocked Lou Ling down, and she rolled twice in the sand before jumping up to avoid another attack.

These zombie wolves were of varying ranks, the highest being fourth rank and the lowest second rank. The one attacking Lou Ling was third rank, a rank higher than her. The pressure of its rank alone was suppressing her, and the ironvine could only restrain the wolf, not completely bind it.

Lou Ling rolled again, dodging the lunging wolf, and swung her Tang Dao, slicing through one of its eyes. The skin of a third-rank zombie animal was extremely tough, impervious even to bullets, but their eyes were their weakest point. Lou Ling, seasoned by countless battles, had developed the habit of targeting their weaknesses first before breaking them down.

As Lou Ling blinded the third-rank zombie wolf, finally allowing the ironvine to completely bind it, the other battlefield became a scene of carnage. The surprise attack by the zombie wolves had killed four ability users instantly. The remaining six were struggling against the three other wolves, while Lou Dian fought the fourth-rank one.

Worried about Lou Ling's safety, Lou Dian killed the zombie wolf faster than usual. Seeing that she had restrained her attacker, he rushed over and used a spatial blade to decapitate the wolf.

"Help me! I don't want to die! Please!"

A desperate, agonizing cry rang out. Lou Ling looked over and saw only two men left alive. The others had been killed by the zombie wolves. One of the survivors was severely injured and already beginning to zombify.

Lou Dian attacked again, flicking his fingers. Spatial blades embedded themselves in the heads of the remaining zombie wolves. The three creatures froze mid-attack, then collapsed.

The two surviving men also froze before collapsing onto the sand.

The sun had risen. The eight or nine o'clock sun was incredibly hot, the sand absorbing its heat, quickly turning the desert into a blazing inferno. The two men were covered in sweat, blood, and sand, their eyes wide as they stared blankly at the gruesome scene: the mangled bodies of their companions, the carcasses of the mutated camels and zombie wolves. Finally, their gazes settled on the black-clad figure standing against the sunlight. They couldn't see his face, but at that moment, his invisible aura suffocated them.

Lou Ling looked at the hellish battlefield. Eighteen people were dead, limbs scattered, blood everywhere. It wasn't a large number, compared to the densely populated cities where zombie attacks could easily claim hundreds of lives. Eighteen was nothing. She had seen far worse, so while she felt a heaviness in her heart, she didn't react like the two surviving men, who looked on the verge of collapse.

Lou Ling pulled plastic bags from her backpack, put them over her hands, and began to dig out the zombie animals' crystal cores.

Lou Dian strolled casually across the blood-soaked sand, seemingly oblivious to the stench of blood and decay. He looked coldly at the two men and said, "Dispose of these bodies, lest they attract more zombie animals."

The two men's legs were weak, but under his emotionless gaze, fear surged through them, and they scrambled to obey.

Seeing that Lou Ling had finished collecting the crystal cores, Lou Dian led her back to the shade of their vehicle. He spread a blanket, sat down, and took out clean water to wash her hands.

As they sat comfortably in the shade, drinking water and cooling off, the two men returned, staring longingly at their water bottles and licking their dry lips. Their spatial ability user had died in the earlier battle, taking the contents of his spatial storage with him. They didn't know if there was any water left in their vehicle.

"Move the camels onto the roof of the vehicle," Lou Dian instructed.

"…"

One of the men, tall and muscular, mustered his courage and said, "We're not strength ability users. We can't move them."

"Useless," Lou Dian remarked.

"…" Being scorned by a man who looked like a pretty boy stung.

Of course, there were more disheartening things to come, things that would make them fully understand that this man, whom they had initially dismissed as a useless pretty boy, was actually a cruel demon, his methods so ruthless they left them speechless with terror.

He suddenly smiled and said to the woman beside him, "Xiao Ling, go get them two bottles of water from the vehicle."

"…"

Lou Ling looked at the man who had suddenly become saintly and remained silent as she got up and walked the kilometer to their vehicle to fetch the water. The distance was too far for her to hear what Lou Dian was saying to the two men, but she could guess that he hadn't suddenly developed a benevolent heart and become their best friend. Otherwise, he wouldn't have sent her away.

When Lou Ling returned with the water, she heard Lou Dian say, "Do you understand now?"

"…We understand."

"…"

Lou Ling: =__=! Was she the only one who didn't understand?

Lou Ling tossed the two bottles of water to the men, who now treated Lou Dian with utmost respect. She wiped the sweat from her hands with a handkerchief and sighed at the marks left on the clean cloth. Tissues were no longer produced after the apocalypse and had to be used sparingly, so she had switched to using handkerchiefs. But every time she wiped her hands and saw the dirt on the handkerchief, she felt a twinge of disgust.

As the sun grew more intense, everyone was feeling the heat. Lou Dian effortlessly hoisted the three mutated camels onto the roof of their vehicle and secured them with ropes. They looked like three behemoths perched precariously on the roof, making one wonder if the vehicle could bear the weight.

Witnessing Lou Dian's effortless display of strength, the two men finally understood what he meant by "useless." Compared to him, they truly were useless. Another pang of dejection hit them.

They had come with four vehicles, but they would return with only three. They drained the fuel from the last vehicle and left it behind, planning to send someone back for it later. The two men each drove a vehicle, while Lou Ling and Lou Dian drove the third, heading towards the Angel Ya Oasis.

After half an hour, the oasis finally came into view.

The two surviving men were named Chen Dong and Fang Minglei. They were ability users recruited by the Qin family. After the apocalypse, they worked for Qin You, living comfortably in the oasis and inevitably picking up some bad habits. In a single night, they had fallen prey to a man who looked like a harmless pretty boy. They felt both fear and helplessness.

However, they weren't Qin You's confidants. Qin Zheng was one of Qin You's trusted lieutenants in managing the ability users, but he had perished on this mission. Because neither Chen Dong nor Fang Minglei were close to Qin You, they didn't know the traps and formations in the forest. They drove their vehicles back to the rough terrain and had to call for the patrol to notify someone to lead them inside.

Qin Jun, who came to meet them, was overjoyed to see the three massive mutated camels strapped to the roof of the vehicle. These camels were enough for them to have a feast. But when he saw that only four people had returned, his expression changed drastically. "How come it's only you? Where are the others?" he asked in alarm.

Chen Dong, the muscular man who looked rather simple, scratched his head and said with a mournful face, "We encountered mutated camels and lost several companions. After we finally killed the camels, we were ambushed by zombie wolves. The others…" He choked up, unable to finish his sentence.

Qin Jun's face darkened. He glanced coldly at Lou Dian and Lou Ling, who stood nearby, seemingly unconcerned. Noticing that they were also dirty and disheveled, his eyes flickered. He patted Chen Dong's shoulder and said, "You've worked hard!"

He didn't say anything more and instructed the strength-type ability users to carry the three mutated camels into the oasis.

Lou Dian and Lou Ling drove their vehicle through the hidden entrance and parked it.

Author's Notes:

Today's goals:

Lou Ling's goal: Study hard and unravel conspiracies!

Lou Dian's goal: All conspiracies are paper tigers!

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