With their lives hanging by a thread, no one dared turn around to look at what was happening or where the sound came from. All they could hear was the raw tearing of flesh—and the wet crunching sounds made by the mutated wolves’ sharp teeth.
Zou Huan hurriedly pulled hemostatic medicine from her backpack and sprinkled it over Yan Yitao’s still-bleeding wound. Without turning his head, Zhou Haichen called out to them, “Take him to the back and bandage him up.”
Wolves were bloodthirsty carnivores to begin with. After mutating, their sense of smell had become even sharper. Drawn by the strong scent of blood on Yan Yitao’s body, the red glow in their eyes deepened further, their movements growing visibly more violent and frenzied.
The team’s overall strength was lacking. The main combat force consisted almost entirely of Su Mu, Luo Beiyao, and Wu Keke. The others could barely contribute and, more often than not, only became a burden.
Su Mu moved swiftly, working in perfect coordination with Luo Beiyao. One used freezing abilities to slow the mutated wolves’ movements, while the other hurled lightning straight into the pack. Accompanied by piercing wolf howls, blade and lightning fell in relentless succession.
It took nearly two full hours before the entire group of mutated wolves was finally wiped out.
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Wu Keke collapsed onto the ground, gasping for breath, too exhausted to care about appearances. Her hair was soaked with sweat, strands sticking messily to her face. Turning her head, she glanced at Su Mu, who stood nearby with a calm, expressionless face—his refined features betraying no emotion, as though he had long since grown accustomed to this kind of slaughter.
She could tell that Su Mu’s close-combat skills actually surpassed Luo Beiyao’s. He fell slightly short only in terms of abilities and innate talent.
But with Su Mu’s strength, as long as nothing unexpected happened later, how could he possibly remain unknown in the apocalypse? Especially considering he was Luo Beiyao’s partner—given Luo Beiyao’s power, how could he ever allow Su Mu to come to harm? He would surely protect him at all costs.
Yet in her previous life, up until her death, she had never heard of anyone named Su Mu.
So either Su Mu had changed his name—or he had died during the apocalypse.
She remembered the Luo Beiyao of her past life: with astonishing talent and strength, standing above all others in the apocalypse, indifferent to every beauty who threw themselves at him. Until the day she died, she had never heard of him forming a partnership with anyone.
Could it be that Su Mu had truly died, leaving Luo Beiyao to live out the rest of his life alone?
Of course, Wu Keke was only speculating. After all, she had died early—perhaps Luo Beiyao only found a partner after her death.
Su Mu took out several crystal cores from his spatial storage and handed some to Su Wanmei. “When you have time, absorb the crystal cores. Try to raise your strength—so you won’t be forced into a beating every time you run into mutated beasts.”
Su Mu would protect Su Wanmei, but he didn’t want her to become helpless because of him. He wanted her to grow stronger—though he would never allow her to take excessive risks.
Su Wanmei nodded and accepted the crystal cores. She glanced at Yan Yitao, whose wound had been bandaged but whose face was pale from blood loss, then tightly grasped Su Mu’s wrist, worry slowly surfacing in her eyes.
Su Mu curved his lips slightly in reassurance. “Don’t be afraid.”
Lu Shuangshuang condensed a ball of water and handed it to Zou Huan, who carefully fed it to Yan Yitao. The man seemed unconcerned about losing an arm. He laughed heartily and said, “Zou-girl, why are you worrying so much? Even I’m not that bothered. It’s just an arm—at least I’m still alive, right?”
Once the mutated wolves were dead, their defensive properties vanished as well. The group dug out roughly thirty crystal cores, each slightly larger than a peanut.
The ones who contributed the most were Su Mu and Luo Beiyao. When asked, both agreed that the mutated beast crystal cores should be evenly distributed among the team’s ability users, with any excess going to the two of them.
After all, improving the team’s overall strength was the priority—and using these crystal cores to build goodwill wasn’t a bad deal either.