Chen Xing stood up from her chair, and the blood-red seat instantly vanished.
Suddenly, a young man dressed in a butler's uniform appeared behind her, standing beside Chen Xing and then performing a knight's bow to her.
The young man had short, ash-white hair, giving him the appearance of a well-behaved student.
However, his left eye was identical to Chen Xing's—deep and despairing black—while his right eye was covered by a peculiar eyepatch.
The eyepatch bore a strange, snake-like monster design, difficult to describe.
What drew the most attention was the enormous metallic scythe floating behind him, not carried on his back.
The blood grooves on the scythe seemed to still be flowing with blood, as if it had just executed something.
It emitted a strange black energy, as if tainting the surrounding air.
"Dear Lady Arrogance, allow me to handle this for you,"
the young man said with his head bowed, respectfully saluting.
Chen Xing merely glanced at him indifferently, her face expressionless, and softly instructed:
"Go, kill her."
Then, her skirt swayed slightly as she gracefully turned and disappeared into the clouds.
The young man remained in the knight's bow position without moving, only slowly rising after a long while.
Though his face was gentle and refined, it now twisted with excitement.
He clasped his hands together and tilted his head to one side in a somewhat sickly manner, mimicking a sleeping pose, murmuring:
"Lady Arrogance's tone was so cold... it was absolutely... exquisite!!"
He clenched his teeth, his face filled with intense emotion. As he grinned, blood trickled from the corner of his mouth,
only to be licked back by his distinctly non-human tongue.
"I want... I want to be... Lady Arrogance's dog... pant... pant..."
Above the clouds, a perverse figure was gasping heavily.
Not long after, his figure vanished from the heavens.
......
In a desolate wasteland, the figures of two silver-haired girls materialized out of thin air.
Then, they both fell to the ground.
Ning Yu was the first to recover. She propped herself up, feeling as if her brain had been tossed into a cement mixer and spun violently for a long time.
Ning Xuan wasn’t faring as well. She remained motionless on the ground, her prosthetic devices seemingly overloaded, flickering slowly.
After calming down somewhat, Ning Yu went over to help Ning Xuan up. Ning Xuan finally regained some consciousness.
Though she woke up slower than Ning Yu, she adapted quickly.
"What did you do?"
Ning Yu looked around, feeling unfamiliar with the surroundings but sensing they were still in City A.
She checked her smartwatch and found her location was now at the very edge of City A. If the Ark was at one end, they were now at the complete opposite side.
Seeing that Shen Yiyue and Shen Qianqian’s markers were still in their original locations, Ning Yu breathed a slight sigh of relief.
"This is my awakened ability,"
Ning Xuan explained as she checked the condition of her prosthetic devices.
"Can you move through space over a certain distance?"
Ning Yu speculated.
"Yes,"
Ning Xuan nodded, controlling her prosthetic devices to transform back into combat attire.
"What’s the cost?"
Ning Yu pressed further. Currently, all awakened abilities, except the ones she replicated, came with a price.
An artificially awakened ability like this, achieved through prosthetic modification, surely had its cost, as evident from Ning Xuan’s furrowed brows.
"It causes irreversible damage to my organs,"
"but thankfully, most of my organs are already prosthetics, so it’s just damage to the components. Still, it’s not an ability I can use frequently."
Ning Yu had guessed as much. Otherwise, they could have used this ability to move around from the start instead of driving through the city.
"One thing is strange. How could that person pinpoint my location so accurately?"
Ning Yu couldn’t help but ponder another question.
In fact, she had some suspicions about Ning Xuan. Since there was nothing on her that could be tracked, Ning Xuan was the most likely target of tracking.
But Ning Xuan had just used her awakened ability, which required overloading, to get them out of that besieged situation.
To suspect her now would be heartbreaking, especially since Ning Yu was her cherished older sister.
"Big sister must be suspecting me,"
Ning Xuan said, smiling at Ning Yu.
Ning Yu inexplicably felt that her smile was tinged with sadness.
"It’s okay. If big sister suspects me, I’ll stay here and cover our retreat."
She seemed to have already guessed Ning Yu’s thoughts.
"But the reason big sister is being tracked is the Moon Princess inside you. If I’m not mistaken, big sister must have recently met the Moon Princess."
Hearing this, Ning Yu first felt a bit awkward, as she had repeatedly doubted Ning Xuan.
However, what Ning Xuan said about the Moon Princess was true. Ning Yu had first met and spoken to the Moon Princess after taking the serum of Wrath during that incident.
Moreover, during the fight with Zhuang Wugou, she had accepted a portion of the Moon Princess’s power.
"Through the residual power of the ritual, they can accurately locate the merged fragment, which is the Moon Princess inside you,"
Ning Xuan continued to explain.
"The choice is yours, big sister. As long as I can help you, that’s enough."
She seemed indifferent to Ning Yu’s thoughts and had already stood up again.
"Big sister can leave here quickly. I’ll do my best to buy you time."
"No, I trust you,"
Ning Yu said, extending her hand to show her sincerity.
"But I won’t keep running."
Ning Yu had a plan in mind. Even if they kept running, they would eventually be found.
And if the zombie horde accidentally reached the Ark base, the base’s current capabilities would be utterly unable to withstand such a terrifying attack.
Moreover, the encirclement had now disappeared, and the zombie horde would continue to surge in their direction. This was both a massive crisis and a massive opportunity.
Since they wouldn’t be caught in a pincer attack, as long as they kept guerrilla fighting at the rear, these ordinary and low-to-mid-tier mutated zombies would become her "point babies."
As long as she could use them to earn enough points, she could continuously use [Mist Walk] to evade Chen Xing, who was still beyond her current ability to match.
In theory, she could infinitely farm points and even reverse the meter.
Ning Yu didn’t want to miss such a golden opportunity.
"I plan to take care of as many of them as possible."
Ning Xuan’s eyes widened in disbelief. She hadn’t expected her sister’s plan to be so audacious.
"It’s impossible, big sister. There are countless..."
Ning Yu gently shook her head, interrupting her.
"But I have to go alone. I can’t ensure your safety anymore."
"So you must leave, my dear sister."