Chapter 27: Intelligent Life
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“Xiaoye...”
Lu Xuening was the first to notice what was happening in the street. Her voice trembled as she questioned Li Ye.
Li Ye merely stared at the “A-Xue” before him with a dark expression. He did not answer Xuening, but instead sighed, “It’s only been a few days, and she’s already grown this much.”
As though responding to his words, the little girl’s body suddenly split apart, covered in countless fine, blood-red cracks.
Large amounts of tiny chunks of flesh poured from the fissures. They swelled and reassembled like a balloon made of flesh and blood, eventually forming a naked, full-grown body.
The two wildly shifting eyeballs that had originally been embedded in her sockets even dropped to the ground with a wet slap. In their place were two utterly black pupils, without a trace of white—strange and horrifying.
And he was precisely that treacherous aberrant creature who had caused Li Ye his first humiliating setback after his rebirth.
Suo Hao and the others hid behind Li Ye, peering curiously in the creature’s direction—until two words came from its mouth.
“Hel...lo.”
Perhaps it was unfamiliar with the act. The creature opened its mouth wide, thrust its hand into its throat, and rummaged around for a moment before speaking again.
“Hello, human.”
It was only a simple sentence, spoken in the standard language of Xia, yet everyone present—including Li Ye—felt their hair stand on end.
Li Ye’s expression was complicated. It seemed that intelligent life was emerging far faster in this life than he had anticipated.
In his previous life, it had taken humanity several years after the apocalypse began to infer the appearance of intelligent zombies from subtle changes within the zombie hordes. Even then, they had merely assumed these were evolved zombies, similar to the “Gluttons.”
No one had ever imagined that a type of zombie aberrant could evolve intelligence on its own. How utterly astonishing was that?
The zombie horde remained in the street below the building, temporarily halting its assault.
“What is your purpose? Revenge?”
Li Ye spoke softly, keeping his composure.
The aberrant shook its head, its pitch-black eyes glimmering like obsidian.
“Those who died were merely the dregs of my kind. If they died, then they died. Our conflict cannot be reconciled, but we should be able to stand on the same side for a short while.”
Li Ye rubbed the dark markings on his arm and replied, “You mean... Xiangliu?”
As far as he knew, creatures born from the Crimson Mist, such as zombie aberrants, were natural enemies of the Fallen Gods.
In his previous life, humanity had occasionally witnessed enormous zombie tides gathering and advancing into the domains of certain Fallen Gods.
Even if it meant throwing themselves into the flames.
For a moment, Li Ye had nearly thought he was about to receive the same treatment.
The aberrant did not answer, as though it were trying to understand what “Xiangliu” meant.
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After a long while, it finally spoke again.
“Yes. I need your strength to eradicate Him.”
Li Ye gave a cold laugh. “Even if I go on to kill more zombie aberrants in the future?”
“That is correct. The speed at which your strength grows is beyond reason. You are the only one who might succeed.”
The aberrant stiffly nodded, imitating a human gesture.
“Did you control the zombie tide below and bring it here?”
“According to your human terminology, this should be called... forcing someone to abdicate?”
The words almost made Li Ye laugh from sheer anger. He waved his fist in irritation.
“What if I refuse?”
The black-eyed aberrant lowered its head and thought for a while before continuing.
“According to my observations, you seem to care greatly about these weak humans. Even if your strength allows you to survive an encirclement, they certainly cannot.”
After a pause, the aberrant continued, “Furthermore, I believe that forming an attachment to these weaklings is an act that can unquestionably be called ‘foolish.’”
Lu Xuening and the others kept their expressions unchanged, but their hearts inevitably grew heavy.
Li Ye shrugged indifferently. “What do I get?”
He did not ask why the aberrant wanted to kill the Fallen God. That was not his concern.
For now, all he needed to do was seize as much profit as possible from this intelligent aberrant.
If it had possessed only animal instinct, Li Ye might not have been able to negotiate like this. But once it had gained intelligence, it had become much easier to manipulate.
The aberrant frowned in a distinctly human manner. “You want the weaklings around you to die tonight?”
“But Xiangliu would survive. Besides, my current strength is insufficient. Does becoming stronger not require resources?”
At that moment, Li Ye behaved like a shameless rogue, looking as though he was fully prepared to drag everyone down with him.
The black-eyed aberrant sank into another long silence. Clearly, with its current level of intelligence, it had never anticipated that matters would develop in this direction.
In other words, its CPU was about to burn out.
After another long pause, it finally spoke again.
“You may hunt freely throughout the entire Southern District. I will not interfere.”
Seeing that Li Ye was about to speak, the black-eyed aberrant cut him off first.
“If you refuse, then forget it.”
Li Ye nodded helplessly and asked with profound meaning, “Of course I agree. Your only goal is to see Xiangliu dead?”
The black-eyed aberrant looked into Li Ye’s eyes.
“Of course. Nothing more.”
“Deal.”
At last, a smile appeared on Li Ye’s face.
The black-eyed aberrant turned and prepared to leave, but a middle-aged man hurried up the stairs.
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He stared blankly at the people on the second floor. His gaze moved away from the chair that had originally held A-Xue captive, automatically overlooking the aberrant standing not far in front of him, and fixed anxiously on Li Ye and the others.
“Brother Divine Man, Xiao Qi? What are you doing here? Have you seen A-Xue? She was just sitting in that chair.”
Yu Chen was frantic, his eyes webbed with blood vessels.
He glanced at the two eyeballs lying in front of the chair, and his heart trembled.
He hurried over to Xiao Qi. Seeing the boy press his lips together in silence, Yu Chen seized his arm and shook it forcefully.
“Say something! Where’s A-Xue? Where did she go?”
“Uncle...”
Xiao Qi gave a bitter cry of “Uncle” and then fell silent again.
Yu Chen turned toward Li Ye, as though a drowning man had finally caught hold of the last strand of a lifeline, and struggled desperately.
“Brother Divine Man, you must know where A-Xue went, don’t you? Please, tell me. I’ll go find her myself.”
Looking into Yu Chen’s bewildered eyes, Li Ye fell into a brief daze.
Even he could not understand how this cowardly old man, so afraid of death, had managed to weave through the zombie tide and return here completely unharmed.
He was merely an unranked Chosen of the Gods.
Nevertheless, Li Ye raised his hand and pointed toward the aberrant that was about to descend the stairs.
“A-Xue is dead. Ask it for the details.”
The moment he heard this, Yu Chen’s eyes widened in fury.
Behind him, Suo Hao could not help shrinking his neck at the sight of Yu Chen’s face. The eyes of the legendary Vajra Arhat could hardly have been more terrifying.
Yu Chen turned toward the aberrant and activated his Gluttony ability. His body swelled like an inflating balloon, stopping only after he had grown more than half a head taller than the aberrant.
“You killed... my A-Xue?”
His voice was deep and heavy, as though it came directly from his abdomen.
His eyes were completely covered in red, and two tears of blood rolled from their corners.
For an unranked Gluttony ability to be driven this hard, how could there be no side effects?
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