Beginning with the Ubume Bird-Chapter 308 - 34: Return to Serling Tsom. (Two in One)

Chapter 308 -34: Return to Serling Tsom. (Two in One)

Li Yan’s expression was somewhat annoyed, but also with a flash of realization.

“So Wu Zhiqi can be used in this way…”

In fact, Li Yan had already prepared for the worst. He had preemptively bitten down on a Shunlian Pill in his mouth, ready to crush and swallow it to blast through the inferno the moment things went south.

That was well over a hundred kilograms of high explosive, enough to destroy nearly a hundred three-story buildings. To call it a disaster-like force was no exaggeration. Even for Li Yan, it would be hard to escape the blast radius in time during a chain explosion.

Li Yan should thank Cha Xiaodao for his survival.

Cha Xiaodao had a special move called “Divine Fire Sky,” which, frankly, was the combination of the culinary skills “Cradling Carp” and “Yuanxiao.” The power was impressive, which gave Li Yan a great deal of inspiration. At a critical moment, he made a compatible use of Wu Zhiqi’s abilities, something only he could achieve.

A vigorous swirl of water constantly shifted in front of Li Yan, surrounded by countless tiny ice fragments spiraling in the water, creating a helical pattern that was quite beautiful.

A high-speed mixture of ice and water!

The rapidly moving flow could resist a significant amount of explosive force. In the past, Li Yan chose to use ice walls to block bullets because his 24% Awakening Degree of Wu Zhiqi allowed him to control water like an extension of his body, which was already at his limit. To have the water move at high speeds during the process was beyond his current capabilities.

But ice was different, with the Gu Huo Bird’s Awakening Degree reaching 69% after the Nine Phoenix Enhancements.

To put it plainly, Li Yan could manipulate ice with greater speed and force than water. Therefore, he could use the ice-water mixture to achieve a high-speed effect.

This technique was highly practical and shockingly effective. However, although Wu Zhiqi’s Calamity Wave neutralized the massive explosion’s fiery impact, the drastic temperature change produced a lot of unruly steam, which Li Yan struggled to control for a moment. He was inevitably burned. Of course, such damage was negligible for Li Yan.

Li Yan reached out to touch his right shoulder, where his shoulder, back, and lower arm were all blistered with reddish-brown welts that caused intense pain with the slightest movement.

The Super Sensitive Yak on the other side couldn’t believe her eyes — what kind of monster could survive such an explosion, and where was all this dense steam coming from?

Up until now, the adversary’s inexhaustible arsenal made her think she was facing another Super Sensitive Yak Warrior.

“I’ve never heard of a fourth-order genetic ability related to water…”

As she muttered, the Wilderness Hunter on the other side began to undress.

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Without concern for his opponent, Li Yan unbuttoned his clothes, removing his trench coat and shirt, then took out a disinfectant needle from his pocket to prick the blisters. Biting down on a bandage with the corner of his mouth, he tightly wrapped his burns, ignoring the onlooker’s gaze.

After the initial shock subsided, the Super Sensitive Yak also came to her senses. With a fleeting glance, she was visibly irritated by Li Yan’s nonchalant behavior, her bare collarbone heaving with every breath.

“…”

Bending over, the Super Sensitive Yak picked up several steel bars scattered on the ground, disregarding the rusty burrs, and twisted them with her slender arms until they wrinkled and interlocked into a makeshift spear with a sharp tip. Then, with a flick of her wrist, the blue flames of the Fire-addict ignited from her fingers and burned all the way to the end of the spear.

It seemed she was ready to continue the fight, which was exactly what Li Yan wanted.

However, to Li Yan’s surprise, before he could make a move, the flames on the Super Sensitive Yak’s fingers sputtered out completely.

The Super Sensitive Yak was momentarily stunned, biting down harder on her teeth. She hadn’t expected Yin Xiong and Li Haifeng to be dealt with so quickly.

The Fire-addict’s gene ability was indeed exclusive in the Great Demon Lake area; with Li Haifeng dead, its special powers extinguished as well.

Li Yan, with his bandaging nearly complete, moved towards the Super Sensitive Yak.

“It seems my people have caught up first. If you don’t make a move now, you might not get another chance.”

“That’s not necessarily the case.”

Super Sensitive Yak shouted, and several rebar spears twisted in his hand flew out.

The main combat genes that Super Sensitive Yak had revealed so far were still derived from the few special third-order military breeds of Kuang Zhuoma. Yet, the ability to annihilate Kuang Zhuoma at Great Demon Lake, she had not used it at all.

As the spear came piercing towards him, Li Yan’s hand burst forth with force, and with a lift of the Ring Dragon, he slashed forward. The rebar spear suddenly scattered, and when Li Yan looked up again, he only saw the smooth back of Super Sensitive Yak.

“Think you can run?”

Li Yan’s figure burst forth, as swift as lightning, already close to the frantically fleeing Super Sensitive Yak. The light from the Ring Dragon Sword surged, slashing down from behind her.

Suddenly, the Super Sensitive Yak, who had been sprinting forward, burst out with surprising flexibility from her slender waist that was barely graspable. She flipped in mid-air to face Li Yan, stretching out her right hand to block the blade of the Ring Dragon Sword. Her delicate features in that moment turned incredibly solemn!

In that moment, Li Yan was inexplicably reminded of the thick clumps of red rust-colored radiation clouds in the sky. The look in Super Sensitive Yak’s eyes at that moment and the red radiation clouds swirling around the ruins were indistinguishable—the very essence of staunch yet desperate resolve.

Thwack.

The bright sword blade met the tender fingertips, and slick blood oozed from the grooves of the blade, but the fierce momentum was abruptly halted!

Li Yan’s heart twitched for no reason, and he tried to jerk the hilt, but the Ring Dragon did not budge an inch. Instead, he heard a crisp sound as cracks began spreading from the middle of the blade…

The teeth-grating sound of shattering was abrupt and deep. In an instant, the Ring Dragon burst into countless pieces, shards skimming past Li Yan’s cheek. In his pupils, a delicate fist was enlarging unstoppably!

Whoosh~

Li Yan gritted his teeth, and with a twist of his heel, he rolled to the side. In his desperation, his back snuffed out a crackling fire. By the time Li Yan stood up again, Super Sensitive Yak had already gotten quite a distance away, and he could only faintly discern the undulating shoulder blades on her back.

Li Yan looked down to find only about a foot-long fragment of the Ring Dragon left in his hand; the upper half had scattered everywhere. The pale edge that usually lingered on the sword was now completely gone, leaving it dull and lusterless, clearly utterly damaged.

Li Yan instinctively picked up a few fragments, but quickly realized the futility of this action. He sighed and threw the pieces on the ground, letting Super Sensitive Yak escape.

The despairing, staunch aura of the red radiation clouds from the fist-swinging zombie girl lingered in his mind, not fading in the slightest.

Compared to Super Sensitive Yak, that was the true face of a fourth-order combat gene ability.

A Fleeting Glimpse had identified the gene ability used by Super Sensitive Yak just now.

Summer Yak.

After a short moment of irritation, Li Yan still decided to collect the fragments from the ground. As his fingers wandered through the blackened earth, he suddenly touched a white segment of a finger. He picked it up and examined it closely before his eyes.

[Super Sensitive Yak’s Little Finger]

Category: Oddity

Quality: Rare

Can be used to extract a super gene sample: Super Sensitive Yak.

…

It wasn’t long before Song Zuo, carrying a long bundle, followed the traces of the explosion and found his way there. In the midst of the remains of the fire, Li Yan, with a low-bent head, rummaged through the ruins, picking up dim fragments of Ring Dragon from the black soil and putting them into his pocket.

Upon hearing footsteps, Li Yan looked up at Song Zuo and Black Rider Ghost.

“Come, come, help me look for it.”

The Black Rider Ghost didn’t hesitate and stepped forward to help Li Yan pick up the fragments on the ground.

Song Zuo then asked, “What about that little girl?”

“I let her run away, and my sword was damaged.”

Song rested against a huge block of concrete, tossing a couple of peanuts into his mouth before he slowly said, “I’ll be honest with you, I’ve changed my mind—I’m planning to leave.”

“How come? Wasn’t it agreed upon when we heard the broadcast?”

Li Yan didn’t even lift his head.

“Hearing the news that Kuang Zhuoma’s forces were annihilated is one thing; seeing it with my own eyes is quite another. I’ve got some good years left in these old bones, and I don’t want to take that risk. Plus, if I have to die, I want to die with some dignity.”

The wind howled.

Song Zuo turned his head to watch the tumbling tumbleweed, deeply affected by the way Yin Xiong met his end.

After a while, Li Yan looked around to confirm that no pieces of the Ring Dragon Sword had been left behind before he spoke, “If you don’t mind me asking, how old are you?”

“Fifty-five years. Before the onset of the bitter winter, I was a boy scout here for two years.”

“Since you were born before the bitter winter, you should be able to reproduce, right? Do you have any children?”

Song Zuo’s expression was hard to read, “Those born after the bitter winter, due to harsh living conditions, have an average lifespan of only forty years. My son lived for twenty years and died of genetic defects.”

Li Yan fell silent for a moment, then said, “Even a common zombie could survive from before the bitter winter to now, and if its level is high enough, it could even retain its human intellect. Looking past appearances, zombies are obviously better suited to surviving the bitter winter than normal humans. You saw the condition of that girl; she looked no different from a normal person. Don’t you want to find out what kind of power has made the zombies what they are today?”

Song Zuo simply shook his head, “I’d rather die a natural death than turn into one of those ghastly creatures. I’ve seen lower-level zombies cooking human flesh in pots on the outskirts.”

He cracked a bitter smile, “But, on the other hand, these days… which one of the outcasts in the wilderness hasn’t resorted to cannibalism?”

Li Yan tried to persuade Song Zuo to stay, but seeing his resolved expression, he felt it wouldn’t be right to insist.

On the other hand, he had already acquired three types of super gene samples, enough to fulfill the requirements for triggering the event. Though many mysteries remained unsolved, losing Song Zuo meant that the danger of exploring had undoubtedly increased significantly for Li Yan.

Inside that underground base, Li Yan had seen at least six or seven Yak Warrior cultivation tanks. If each of them had produced a fourth order Yak Warrior, then whether he could retreat in one piece was an open question.

Seeing Li Yan silent, Song Zuo spoke up, “I guessed that you might be from Yunhai Pharmaceuticals, a rich kid. I’m not interested in your identity. But since we fought side by side, let me give you some friendly advice—leave Zone B as soon as you can. Trouble’s definitely brewing here.”

“Because of the Black Star battle vehicle, they won’t let things go, will they?”

Song Zuo slowly nodded, “I’ve lived from before the bitter winter until now, and even if in recent years the three powers have softened their approach to the survival zones, I know better than anyone their strength and savagery. They won’t just target the Medicine Buddha; they’ll have their guns aimed at the entirety of Zone B.”

“Alright, take advice and get a full meal,” Li Yan nodded, “Let’s get out of here.”

While Li Yan was still intrigued by the idea of the Endless Yak, he understood that greed could lead to biting off more than he could chew. He realizes he can’t take all the advantages or understand all the mysteries—whether it’s about who Sergei is, the secrets of the powers of the Four Seasons Yak, or what role the Big Ben Research Institute plays in this world. Further exploration into the Super Sensitive Yak’s mysterious hostility towards Shuishu Park would be more loss than gain.

Song Zuo hummed in agreement, and Li Yan turned to ask the Black Rider Ghost who had a twinkling red light in his eyes—a sign that he was troubled.

“What’s wrong?”

“Whitey says that there’s something happening outside, a big commotion.”

“What kind of commotion?”

The Black Rider Ghost shook his head blankly.

Li Yan was about to say something when a succession of whooshing sounds interrupted their conversation.

Song Zuo looked up, forgetting to eat the peanut at his lips.

A squadron of black fighter jets streaked across the sky in a column formation, more than ten aircraft crisscrossing and vanishing into the distance. They were flying extremely high, with only thin clouds visible, yet Li Yan still felt as if a piercing gaze was fixed on him from above.

“Fighter jets, which powers in Zone B could afford to deploy them?”

The Raine Brothers had several dozen armed helicopters at their disposal, and that already made them a significant force in Zone B.

“It’s Danzuo Automobile.”

Li Yan responded.

Song Zuo blinked, “The Four Heavenly Kings? I had forgotten about them. Are you sure these are Danzuo Automobile’s Four Heavenly Kings?”

“I’ve seen them once before, although they were not flying as high that time,” Li Yan nodded.

“At that altitude, they shouldn’t be able to see us. But why would the Four Heavenly Kings squadron come near Great Demon Lake?”

Song Zuo held his wild yak and muttered to himself with interest.

“It doesn’t matter to us; let’s just avoid them for now.”

Li Yan looked serious.

“What are you worried about? They’re deploying almost all of their assets, and a single shell costs thousands of dollars. They surely wouldn’t be after us two wandering Wilderness Hunters. Or did you offend them?”

Song Zuo gazed at the sky, unconcerned.

A gray ant never worries about the wings of a hawk, because no hawk would swoop down to kill an ant. Unfortunately, Li Yan was not an inconspicuous gray ant but a young, vigorous mountain hare, tempting enough to lure the hawk into thorn-laden wilderness…

Li Yan managed a weak smile, “Anyway, let’s hide for a while.”

…

“Ah, there seems to be someone on the ground.”

A deep voice came through the channel.

“Never mind them, let’s not complicate things unnecessarily,” the man replied.

He wore a Type 59 pilot cap and a light yellow combat suit, resembling the protagonist Porco Rosso from the animated film “The Red Pig”. His long eyebrows and prominent bridge of his nose marked him as a handsome mixed-race. His gentle eyes skimmed over the retreating radiation clouds, then he took a deep breath.

“I’m back, Serling Tsom…”