No one questioned Luo Beiyao about the strength he had been hiding. On the surface, everyone wore expressions of relief at having survived such a disaster, but inwardly, their submission toward Luo Beiyao only deepened.

Fang Yiyang licked his dry lips and asked, “Boss, is that high-level zombie dead?”

Luo Beiyao replied evenly, “It got away.”

Fang Yiyang felt a tight ache in his chest. Because that high-level zombie had escaped, he hadn’t been able to avenge his brother.

That was why, later on, whenever Fang Yiyang encountered a Zombie Emperor, he would always drag Su Mu and Luo Beiyao along to hunt it down. As for those who secretly raised Zombie Emperors, he hated them with a passion.

Of course, that was a story for later.

What Fang Yiyang didn’t know was that Su Mu had already killed the high-level zombie.

Even though the high-level zombie had “escaped,” the sheer number of zombie crystal cores they obtained left everyone in high spirits, and their respect for Luo Beiyao only grew stronger.

More than two hundred crystal cores—although all of them belonged to Luo Beiyao—were enough to lift everyone’s mood. After surviving such danger, they followed him out of the hospital.

Once outside, while the others continued extracting crystal cores near the entrance, Su Mu pulled the dagger strapped to his calf and efficiently began digging them out as well.

Seeing Luo Beiyao’s group return safely, the older members of the team finally relaxed. Zhou Haichen and the others who had joined later froze in place.

After coming back to his senses, Zhou Haichen assumed they must have turned back halfway, too afraid to continue. Only then did he let out a sigh of relief. Young people were far too impulsive these days—but fortunately, things hadn’t reached an irreversible point.

Luo Beiyao did not take out the more than two hundred crystal cores he had obtained. Although some people suspected as much, no one asked.

After extracting the cores and scavenging supplies and medicine, they drove back to the Su residence.

As agreed, Su Mu received sixty percent of the crystal cores collected at the hospital entrance. Carrying his share of the supplies, he went upstairs.

—

[The real juice is @ https://www.lemonsociety.gay ♡]

Splash.

Stepping into the hot spring of his spatial immortal abode, Luo Beiyao strode forward as water rippled around his long legs. His crow-feather lashes trembled slightly, casting a shadow beneath his eyes.

He pressed his lips together tightly, yet the images that had been forcibly dragged from his mind by the high-level zombie’s mental assault replayed again and again.

In that vision, he saw himself lift a finger and gently trace Su Mu’s exquisite, ice-cold face. Aside from the faintly bluish pallor of his skin, he looked almost no different from an ordinary human.

“Mu Mu, we’re going to face a tide of a hundred thousand zombies,” Luo Beiyao said softly, a slight curve tugging at his lips. His handsome face was deathly pale, and madness flickered deep within his phoenix eyes. “You have to protect me.”

The young man before him—whose appearance was eerily close to that of a human yet utterly devoid of vitality—was not intelligent enough to speak. He only knew how to obey Luo Beiyao’s commands. His thin lips parted, releasing a hoarse zombie growl in response.

Then the vision shattered.

Luo Beiyao clenched his fist hard. Purple-white lightning surfaced across the clear water, crackling sharply, the sound enough to set one’s teeth on edge.

He tilted his head back, covering his eyes. Something damp slid from the corner of his eye into his hair as a choked sound escaped his throat.

In those recurring fragments, the two figures were unmistakably him and Su Mu.

And yet—he had no memory of ever experiencing such a scene.

The Su Mu in that vision, despite his humanlike appearance, had bluish-white skin and the feral growl of a beast—traits unique to zombies.

He had never lived through it, yet the familiarity of that moment cut deep, as though it had once been carved into his very heart—only to be brutally scraped away, leaving behind a mangled, incomplete wound.

A wound that had only just begun to heal was torn open again, the pain so intense it left him gasping.

Su Mu…

Why did he keep dreaming of Su Mu becoming a zombie…?