Chapter 19: The Glutton

There were four distinct auras within Lu Xuening’s perception. The leader was a mutant already as tall as an adult. Its belly was distended and bloated, and the scraps of human skin clinging to its body were more numerous than those on all the other smaller mutants combined. It was evident that this villa complex was their lair.

"Xuening?" Aunt Lu lowered her voice to ask about the situation.

Lu Xuening brushed her bothersome long hair behind her shoulders and shook her head at her mother, her eyes filled with grim resolve. There was no time left to run.

Suo Hao stepped in front of the two women, shielding them behind him. The webbing between his thumbs and forefingers trembled violently; the terror of life and death began to tighten its grip on their nerves.

A mocking voice drifted from the red mist before the mutants arrived.

"If the experiments of the Yan family in Haicheng succeed, ancient martial arts will become our Huaxia's greatest lethal weapon—even more terrifying than that nonsense 'Holy Light Art' from Europe."

"I told you to learn martial arts from me before, but you kept making excuses. Do you regret it now?"

It was Li Ye.

"Yezi! You actually know how to come back?!"

Hearing that familiar voice, Suo Hao’s fear vanished. He let out a loud cry, then collapsed to the ground as if his bones had suddenly melted away. Lu Xuening’s eyes shimmered with tears, looking resentfully at Li Ye’s eyes, which shone like bright pearls.

"I just wanted to see if you had all succeeded." Li Ye looked toward Aunt Lu and nodded apologetically. He was comforting her, as she had yet to awaken any abilities.

Aunt Lu offered a dismissive, gentle smile and held her precious daughter tightly. She didn't care about "God-Chosen" abilities; having her loved ones safe and sound was her only hope.

The zombies had arrived. A few of the quicker, smaller ones were already sprinting toward Li Ye. He lifted his leg slightly, delivering a strike like a sudden downpour against the faces of the small zombies. In the span of a single encounter, three zombie carcasses lay on the ground.

"These three were the juvenile forms of the Gluttonous Mutant. What do you think? Cute, aren't they?" After finishing off the three small zombies, Li Ye turned to introduce them to Suo Hao and the others.

"Gluttonous mutants love to feast on flesh even in their youth, and they collect the faces of their victims to stick onto their own bodies. To humans, it looks like they are carrying trophies around. It is clearly a sophisticated social behavior, yet it appears in these zombies. Isn't that eerie?"

Suo Hao gave a few indifferent grunts; he had never been interested in such educational lectures.

Lu Xuening’s lips parted quickly as she gasped, "Look out!"

Li Ye’s expression remained unchanged, as if he had a third eye in the back of his head. He twisted his waist and spun, delivering a roundhouse kick. His toe whipped through the air with a tearing sound, landing cleanly and decisively on the neck of the adult Gluttonous mutant.

It was like a white horse rearing its hooves!

The flesh at the Gluttonous mutant's collarbone was forced inward by Li Ye’s kick. It lost its momentum and crashed to the ground in a pathetic heap.

"Adult Gluttonous mutants have a chance to evolve intelligence after consuming a certain amount of human brains. Because of this, humans in the apocalypse understand an unwritten rule," Li Ye continued his lecture, looking down at the writhing mutant with a cold, ruthless gaze.

"If you see a Gluttonous mutant, you must kill it."

The mutant's blood-red eyes fixed on the approaching Li Ye, revealing a flicker of human-like fear.

...

"No need to mask the smell of blood anymore. We're out hunting today, and zombie meat isn't edible anyway." Li Ye reached out, carefully sensing the airflow. "This is exactly the leeward side; let’s rest and regain our strength here."

Lu Xuening and Aunt Lu nodded. After piling the zombie corpses together, they fell silent. Xuening even closed her eyes, practicing her "Mind's Eye" ability, trying to develop new ways to use it.

Suo Hao, feeling sullen, asked Li Ye only one question: "Why are you allowed to wear shoes? The gravel on the ground is way too painful for my feet."

Li Ye glanced at the sneakers he was wearing and pointed at the pile of mutant corpses not far away. "When you can shoot down every enemy that enters your field of vision, you should be able to wear shoes without a care, too."

Suo Hao resigned himself and lay on the ground, too depressed to speak further.

Li Ye sat down beside Xuening. She opened her eyes and asked in a low voice, "Xiao Ye, do you think my 'Mind's Eye' is useless?"

"Why do you say that?"

"The coverage of 'Mind's Eye' is only about twenty meters. If the red mist dissipates like you said it would, won't it be completely useless?"

"You can't look at it like that. Your ability is an extremely rare mental type with massive potential. Besides, you aren't even a First-Rank God-Chosen yet; why are you starting to get anxious?"

Hearing Li Ye’s affirmation, Lu Xuening let out a long sigh of relief.

"But I still want to fight zombies, what should I do?" Noticing Li Ye’s gaze, Lu Xuening’s cheeks flushed a deep red. "I just... want to help you."

"It's a bit too late to start teaching you martial arts now. In a few days, I'll send you all to the military district. You should be able to learn a lot of things there."

Xuening gently stroked her mother’s injured thigh and nodded solemnly. "Okay."

...

Smelling the blood drifting in the air, Aunt Lu could not help but look worried. "Xiao Ye, isn't it too arrogant to be so exposed?"

Li Ye nodded. "But this is the fastest way to lure out those wild dogs and wolves. It’s a high-risk, high-reward maneuver. Plus, the whole point of coming out was to train you all; it wouldn't work if we didn't lure a few monsters."

"Yezi, what’s the probability of the risk?" Suo Hao, who was bandaging himself on the ground, suddenly sniffed and asked.

"Thirty percent, maybe."

"Well, it's one hundred percent now." Suo Hao stood up solemnly and added, "There’s a different scent of blood in the air—it’s faint."

Li Ye’s expression grew grave. He understood what Suo Hao meant. The freshness of blood created subtle differences in the scent. Fresh blood that had just spilled had a relatively faint metallic smell. As time passed, the decomposition of components like hemoglobin created more complex substances, making the smell richer and more intricate.

They were clearly on the leeward side, yet they were catching the scent of fresh blood.

"There are other 'hunters' nearby."

"Xuening, try to condense your mind's consciousness into a single line and probe in that direction." Li Ye pointed toward the windward side.

Lu Xuening nodded and closed her eyes. The 3D space floating in her mind gradually compressed under her control. The range of her "Mind's Eye" instantly skyrocketed, and every biological aura within a hundred meters in the windward direction appeared in her perception.

"This method can't see their forms, only the strength of their biological auras."

"I know. Is there any powerful creature in that direction?"

"Hmm..."

Suo Hao grew impatient. "Tell us!"

Li Ye realized that Lu Xuening probably didn't know how to gauge the strength of the auras. "Just compare them to our own."

"Oh, the strongest one is about five times stronger than Suo Hao."

Suo Hao: "?"

Li Ye, who had been holding his breath, instantly relaxed. "That's fine. Just wait."

Suo Hao: "?"