Right at that moment.
The indoor loudspeaker suddenly crackled to life.
Father Zhou's anxious and angry voice came through.
"Yu'an, didn't I tell you to leave me alone?"
"Why did you come, and even bring Qingdu with you?"
Zhou Yu'an's expression changed.
He looked toward the source of the sound with pleasant surprise.
"That's great, Dad, you're still alive." He immediately turned his head to look at Yan Qingdu. "Which way to the command room?"
The moment his voice fell, the previously empty corridors all around them seemed to ignite like rapidly lit torches.
Zombies were attracted from all directions, swarming toward them in a dense, dark mass.
Li Xichen couldn't help but curse:
"Is this old man trying to save people or get them killed?"
Zhou Yu'an lowered his head apologetically.
"I'm sorry."
Seeing him say this, Li Xichen twitched the corners of his lips.
He didn't say a word.
Chu Liuyue thought for a moment, her tone calm.
She quickly reacted and said to the group:
"Yan Qingdu, you lead the way. We will fight our way through."
"We must try to reach the command room as fast as possible."
Zhou Yu'an gave Chu Liuyue a grateful look. Just as he was about to speak, Li Xichen beat him to it:
"Sister Xiaoyue, you walk in the middle."
"I'll bring up the rear. I absolutely won't let anything happen to you."
Chu Liuyue didn't decline. "Alright."
But the number of zombies was endless. There were simply too many. Yan Qingdu, who was clearing the path in front, had already gone through five or six nearly ruined guns.
Bringing up the rear behind him, the edge of the steel pipe in Zhou Yu'an's hand had curled, forcing him to discard it.
Yan Qingdu produced a Tang sword from nowhere and handed it to him.
Both of their faces were splattered with pitch-black blood, and the air was thick with the stench of rot.
"This won't work! It's a war of attrition. If this continues, we'll all be exhausted."
Yan Qingdu said.
At the tail end of the group, Li Xichen's face was also somewhat pale, with sweat faintly seeping from his forehead.
Using his superpowers for such a long time made his palms tremble slightly.
The speed of his ice blade attacks had also slowed down.
Zhou Yu'an looked at them with a face full of self-blame.
Finally, he said:
"You guys go first. I'll cover the rear. As long as you can save my dad..."
Yan Qingdu scoffed.
He said in a mocking tone:
"Sure, Doctor Zhou, so noble and virtuous."
"Do you want to throw your life away just so we can run a bit faster?"
Li Xichen remained noncommittal, but the ice blades shot from his hands a bit faster.
He was not the kind of coward who would abandon his teammates and run away.
Chu Liuyue suddenly spoke up: "Do you guys trust me?"
The three men nodded in unison.
"We trust you."
"Good, then stop attacking and don't leak any aura of your superpowers," she said.
In truth, this was a very dangerous move.
Especially since they were practically surrounded by a sea of zombies.
However, the men stopped simultaneously without a second thought.
Chu Liuyue narrowed her eyes.
A wave of mental energy fluctuated, wrapping around their group like a giant blown-up bubble.
The frequency of the fluctuations emitted by this giant bubble matched that of the zombies.
Li Xichen was amazed to find that the zombies, which had been baring their fangs and brandishing their claws at them just a moment ago, suddenly became like headless flies that had lost their target.
Looking around aimlessly.
"Sister Xiaoyue..." He paused, looking at her with a tone full of admiration. "You're so amazing."
Zhou Yu'an also glanced at her.
His eyes held many complex emotions.
Was it because of that red potion?
Yan Qingdu, on the other hand, was not surprised at all.
After all, among the three men, he was the one who best understood Chu Liuyue's true strength.
He even felt that Yueyue was still holding back.
Her true power went beyond this.
Ten minutes later.
The group finally arrived safely at the command room.
There were not many zombies in the vicinity.
But the door to the command room required facial recognition to enter.
When everyone looked at Yan Qingdu, he shook his head helplessly.
"My security clearance level is not high enough."
After saying that, he stepped forward to test it out himself.
"Facial verification in progress. Beep, beep. Verification failed!"
Li Xichen hit the nail on the head:
"Didn't Director Zhou just speak? There must be surveillance cameras that can see our situation here."
"Doctor Zhou, speak into this camera."
"Ask Director Zhou to open the door. It's temporarily safe now."
Almost the moment these words were spoken.
A familiar male voice came from the loudspeaker.
Father Zhou's voice carried a hint of surprise and excitement.
"Yu'an, you really succeeded. That's fantastic."
Zhou Yu'an's expression, however, was not as joyful as it had been at the beginning.
He paused slightly.
He raised his head with a trace of doubt and looked at the camera.
At the same time, the heavy door of the command room slowly opened, and a strange plant-like odor suddenly wafted out.
Chu Liuyue immediately felt that something was wrong.
She immediately shouted:
"Cover your noses!"
But even so, it was too late. A small amount of the gas had already been inhaled.
Fortunately, apart from feeling a little dizzy after smelling it, there were no other side effects.
Seeing Zhou Yu'an still standing frozen in place, Li Xichen couldn't help but urge him:
"Doctor Zhou, hurry up and go. Are you dumbstruck with joy?"
Zhou Yu'an suddenly spoke:
"My father would never praise me like that."
The group stood at the main door, looking at the large pile of corpses inside the command room. The only exception was the back of a man's head facing the window in an office chair turned away from them.
A familiar voice came from his mouth.
"Yu'an, it's Dad's fault. I didn't expect you to actually succeed."
Zhou Yu'an and Yan Qingdu exchanged a glance and were just about to step back.
Suddenly, the red warning lights in the command room flashed on, emitting a buzzing beep-beep-beep sound.
Before they could even react, countless vines extended their branches, sweeping toward the four people at the door like the tentacles of an octopus.
There was simply no time to react.
By the time they came to their senses, thick vines had already wrapped around the waists of all four of them, suspending them half a meter in the air.
And the back of the head that had been facing away from them slowly moved.
It didn't turn around.
Instead, the head itself rotated a full one hundred and eighty degrees.
Revealing the familiar face of Father Zhou.
However, that face had no nose or mouth, and was covered with eight eyes.
They were not normal human eyes, but vertical pupils similar to an animal's.
Even more terrifying was that his lower half had transformed from a normal human body into the trunk of a tree, rooted firmly deep underground like a towering giant tree.
The unease Zhou Yu'an had felt in his heart just moments ago.
Finally settled like a heavy stone.
With a trace of suppressed sorrow in his voice, he said:
"I was still too late! He's not my dad; he's a mutated monster."
Yan Qingdu was tossed up and down by the thrashing vines, causing him to cough.
Seeing this, he replied:
"And a highly intelligent monster at that. It actually knew to use his voice to trick us into coming here."
Li Xichen furrowed his brows, wanting to activate his ice blade superpower.
But because of the war of attrition while crossing the zombie horde earlier, he had the will but lacked the strength.
He couldn't help but curse:
"It did that on purpose earlier! It deliberately wore us down."
