Chapter Four: The Prophet?!

Chapter Four: The Prophet?!

"That zombie just now was able to use psychic abilities with this thing?" With a brief thought, Mo Chen had already figured out most of it.

"Yes, to be precise, this thing is an energy storage vessel. All of that zombie’s psychic power was stored inside here."

"If those special zombies require such an item as a vessel for their abilities, then does that mean..." Mo Chen pondered aloud, not finishing his sentence, but Mei already understood his meaning.

The two of them walked out together, seeking the two zombies they’d killed earlier. This time Mo Chen handled things himself, quickly finding similar crystals inside their heads.

"The colors differ, probably due to their attributes. The psychic one is transparent, the speed-type is light gray, and the strength-type is light brown. The psychic crystal is slightly larger—does that mean its level is higher than the other two? The glossiness is different as well—could that be due to the amount of energy inside?" Placing the three crystals side by side, Mo Chen compared them thoughtfully.

Mei probed with her psychic power, nodding. "I think your inference is correct."

"In theory, the higher the level, the more energy it can use. If our guess is right, and the psychic crystal is of a higher level than the others, then its gloss should be the brightest. But look—its shine is actually the dimmest, and it has the least energy left. The speed-type’s crystal, on the other hand, is the brightest. If the energy inside is depleted during battle, then..." Mo Chen frowned, his eagerness for the crystals fading.

If the energy within the crystal is consumed during combat, its value drops sharply. High-level zombies are not easy to kill, and by the time you wear them down, there might be little energy left in the crystal. Unless your own strength is far beyond the zombie’s and you can kill it instantly. But then, the crystal obtained wouldn’t be much use for enhancing one’s own power.

Mei had the same thoughts and agreed that these crystals were rather unimpressive.

"Let’s store these for now; maybe they’ll be useful for something else later. Let’s gather supplies first!" Not wanting to waste them, Mei handed the crystals to Mo Chen, but he waved her off, so she tucked them into her own pocket.

They collected everything from the convenience store, and Mo Chen found some empty plastic barrels and headed for the fuel pumps.

Apparently, this station had just been restocked before the apocalypse, for there was plenty of fuel left. The barrels, each a meter tall, were filled—over twenty in total. They also filled the car, draining every drop from the tanks.

"Alright, let’s go!" Mo Chen lightly touched the fuel barrels, storing ten of them away.

That's right—storing!

Mo Chen had a space of his own!

Judging from the energy fluctuations, it was an ability, not a spatial tool.

He had never mentioned it, but neither had he tried to hide it. When they’d gathered supplies in the city, Mei had discovered his secret, which was why she’d also revealed her own spatial ability, though neither had spoken of the specifics.

Both had space, but the size and any extra properties remained unknown to each other. Their mutual trust was not yet deep enough, so each respected the other's boundaries without overstepping.

At dusk, a minibus drove into the gas station.

"Yanyan, is this the place?" A striking boy with red-dyed hair and exaggerated skull-shaped earrings stood eagerly before the vehicle had even stopped, peering outside before turning to ask.

The girl called "Yanyan" was delicate and pretty, dressed in a sky-blue tracksuit, sitting quietly. In a soft voice, she replied, "I only saw a vague vision at the time, but this should be the place."

Though she answered the boy, her gaze was fixed on a tall man sitting alone in the back seat. He was handsome, his skin sun-kissed, features sharply defined as if carved from stone. His eyes, deep and dark, radiated coldness; his thin lips pressed in a straight line, his entire demeanor forbidding approach. With his head lowered, he fiddled with a steel needle, twisting it into various shapes, seemingly oblivious to the attention.

Qu Wenyan, seeing he gave no reaction as if he hadn’t heard, withdrew her gaze in disappointment, pursing her lips before continuing, "If this is indeed the place, there should be at least three mutant zombies. Everyone, please be careful!"

If this was truly the place, there would certainly be a psychic-type zombie, capable of using psychic powers to induce auditory hallucinations and lure humans into traps. She wondered if these people could handle it. But with that man present, it should be fine. After all...

A thousand thoughts swirled in Qu Wenyan’s heart.

"Three mutant zombies—can we handle that?" a thin young man asked nervously, adjusting his glasses and gripping a steel pipe tightly.

"What are you afraid of? It’s not like we haven’t faced mutant zombies before. With Brother Jingxuan here, there’s nothing to worry about!" The only other woman besides Qu Wenyan on the bus gave the young man a disdainful glance, then turned her gaze admiringly to the cold man in the back.

The others nodded in agreement, clearly confident in the man’s strength.

Night Jingxuan, the object of their admiration and reliance, appeared not to hear a word, still playing with his steel needle, not even lifting his eyelids.

There were seven on the bus: aside from Qu Wenyan and Night Jingxuan, among the remaining five, one had awakened wind powers, another was a strength-type mutant, and the other three were ordinary people. Before the apocalypse, they’d been students, office workers, or small business owners, their lives never intersecting. They met while scavenging for resources after the world ended. In order to survive, they joined forces.

Night Jingxuan had also been encountered while foraging. After witnessing his formidable skills, they eagerly invited him to join. Despite his aloofness, he was surprisingly agreeable, agreeing after only brief hesitation. He spoke little; if they hadn’t heard him speak, they’d have thought he was mute. No one knew his past. He interacted with no one, dedicating nearly all his time to cultivation except when killing zombies. His presence was the sole reason the team had survived numerous deadly encounters and escaped the city.

Qu Wenyan had been picked up by the team just before they left the city—or rather, she had sought them out. At first, her frail appearance led the group to dismiss her as a burden, despite her looks. But when she revealed her unique ability—prophecy—her status in the team rose to second only to Night Jingxuan. She was placed in logistics and became a key protected member.

This special treatment naturally aroused the jealousy of the other female, Xu Qing, who had always had to fight zombies herself to earn food. But no matter how jealous she was, she could do nothing about it. Qu Wenyan’s ability was too rare and precious. All she could do was seethe inwardly—she valued her life too much to risk open hostility.

As a prophet, Qu Wenyan could not foresee everything, but after she helped the group avoid several dangers and find valuable supplies, everyone trusted her abilities implicitly.

This time, it was her prophecy of a gas station full of fuel along this route that led them to change course. Originally, they’d planned to head north to the Changyang base.

Once preparations were complete, they opened the doors and got off in turn. Night Jingxuan, who’d been motionless in the back, finally stood up silently and followed them out. As usual, Qu Wenyan was left on the bus, locking the doors and guarding the supplies.

The six of them scanned the surroundings with caution and quickly sensed something was wrong. The station held not a single zombie—only corpses. In the empty convenience store, they found three dead zombies just as Qu Wenyan had described.

Night Jingxuan glanced once, then turned to head back toward the vehicle.

The others, unwilling to give up, searched the gas station inside and out, finally returning to the bus in disappointment.

Seeing them return empty-handed, Qu Wenyan was surprised. "You didn’t find anything?"

"No! Someone beat us to it, killed the mutant zombies, and took everything!" Lin Shaojie answered gloomily, even his red-dyed hair seeming listless.

"I’m sorry, I didn’t expect this to happen!" Qu Wenyan lowered her head in guilt.

"There really were three mutant zombies, just as you said, which means your prophecy was accurate. We were just too late—someone got here first!" someone quickly comforted her, seeing her self-blame.

"So what now? Turn back or keep going?"

"Let’s keep going. This road leads straight to the Yuehua base. We might as well rest there first."

"There isn’t enough fuel to go back. We’ll check out Yuehua first."

"Let’s head to Yuehua. Once we’ve gathered enough gasoline, we can go on to Changyang."

After a brief discussion, the group unanimously decided to continue toward the Yuehua base.

No one noticed the confusion and unease flickering in Qu Wenyan’s eyes.