The strange blood rain lasted a long time. The sky remained oppressively dark, and together with the steady patter of rain, the howling wind, and the faint rustling of plants being stirred by it, any trace of drowsiness was driven entirely away. Everyone stayed on high alert, tense and watchful of their surroundings.

Because they had been caught in the rain and could potentially be infected, people deliberately kept some distance from one another.

In moments of danger, people instinctively ran with the group. The cargo truck was already crowded, and on top of that, the strongest members of the team—Su Mu and Luo Beiyao among them—were all on this vehicle. As a result, only Zou Huan and Yan Yitao, whose car had been parked closest to the truck, failed to get aboard.

No one knew how they were doing now. Zhou Haichen couldn’t help repeatedly glancing toward the small car, which was barely visible through the dim night and heavy rain.

Luo Beiyao extended his divine sense and swept it in that direction. The scene inside the car immediately came into view—and his expression changed.

He saw Yan Yitao holding Zou Huan tightly in his one remaining arm. Zou Huan seemed terribly cold, her body pressed closely against the man’s warm chest. Yet the half of her face that was visible had already turned an eerie bluish-white, and long fangs protruded from the corners of her mouth.

Because his divine sense was powerful, Luo Beiyao could clearly hear the hoarse “heh… heh…” sounds rasping from Zou Huan’s throat, even through the increasingly loud rain.

Yan Yitao was holding her at such close range—there was no way he hadn’t noticed that she was on the verge of being completely infected.

It was also at this moment that Luo Beiyao realized Yan Yitao was crying.

His expression was calm, and he made no sound, yet large tears kept spilling from his eyes. The emotions buried deep within his gaze slowly surfaced. After a long while, he suddenly seemed to gather his courage and gently pressed a kiss to Zou Huan’s soft hair.

Luo Beiyao had initially intended to warn him that Zou Huan was infected—but seeing this, he fell silent.

He had never paid much attention to team members he rarely interacted with. His focus had always been on Su Mu. Because of that, he had never noticed that Yan Yitao liked Zou Huan—liked her so profoundly that even after she became infected and turned into a zombie, he couldn’t bring himself to kill her, instead feeding her with his own flesh and blood.

At that moment, Zou Huan—who had been curled quietly in Yan Yitao’s arms—suddenly lunged.

She bared her sharp fangs and bit viciously into his chest. Fresh blood burst out instantly, and Yan Yitao finally let out a cry of pain, his voice breaking with sobs.

Zou Huan tore away a chunk of bloody flesh with her fangs. Her upturned face no longer held any trace of its former beauty—her skin was pale and ashen, her eye sockets deeply sunken. Bits of fresh blood and shredded flesh clung to her sharp teeth, making her appearance horrifying to behold.

As if deeply shaken, Luo Beiyao quickly withdrew his divine sense. He stared blankly into the rain-shrouded darkness ahead.

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After the apocalypse began, he often dreamed of Su Mu turning into a zombie. Sometimes he dreamed of trying to stop him from devouring flesh and blood. Other times, he dreamed of becoming like Yan Yitao today—feeding Su Mu with his own body, unable to bring himself to kill him.

Before the apocalypse, Luo Beiyao had accidentally activated a portable immortal estate left behind on Blue Star by an ancient great cultivator, officially stepping onto the path of cultivation.

If Su Mu truly became a zombie, he would lock him inside his spatial realm. He would keep him there for the rest of his life—confined to Luo Beiyao’s world alone. He would erase him from public sight, let the world forget him, make it so Su Mu could see no one else… only him.

If he became a zombie, then he wouldn’t like anyone else anymore, right?

Luo Beiyao snapped out of his daze almost instantly, forcefully dispelling the thought. Only then did he realize that his emotions had surged too violently just now, destabilizing his mind and allowing his inner demon to take advantage.

What he loved was Su Mu as a person—not merely his body. What was the point of guarding an empty shell, a walking corpse? What he wanted was everything about Su Mu—whole and complete, belonging to him.

His gaze slowly settled on the young man sitting across from him. Luo Beiyao’s expression darkened slightly. Of course, he wouldn’t lock Su Mu away in his space—but he also hoped Su Mu would never truly force him to take that step.

It wasn’t only because of his inner demon. His own nature was like this as well—only more restrained, more rational than the demon’s influence.

The inner demon was weak, yet he could not refine it.

Because the inner demon was born from his obsession, the deeper that obsession ran, the harder it was to eliminate.

He feared that one day, he really would be influenced by it—driven to do things he deeply desired in his heart, yet was unwilling, or perhaps afraid, to do. Inner demons had a way of magnifying the darkness and desire buried within a person many times over.

He feared that if he truly crossed that line, Su Mu would hate him… or worse, sever ties with him completely.