Chapter 16: Suppression

Page 1 of 3

Crackle, crackle~

Flames born of alcohol continued to burn across the corpse.

Strangely enough, the zombie showed no reaction whatsoever to the fire—not even attempting to extinguish it by rolling on the ground or making use of the pond nearby.

The four of them noticed this as well. Perhaps because the ritual had been interrupted, the zombie before them had not even developed the most basic instincts of a living creature.

That said, the pus seeping from beneath the zombie’s skin was highly effective at suppressing the flames. It was impossible to burn him to ashes using alcohol alone, but the fire would still have some effect.

At present, the zombie’s most important sense—its sense of smell—was being disrupted by the thick smoke rising from its burning flesh. For the moment, it could not pinpoint the group’s exact positions and was glancing about in confusion.

The class monitor gave Anna, who had thrown the Molotov cocktail, a thumbs-up. She also signaled with her eyes for the two people at the entrance to coordinate with her and attack the zombie from both front and rear.

The class monitor and Anna reached the zombie’s left and right sides almost simultaneously, forming a pincer attack.

One sword. One axe.

The physical training instilled by twelve years of compulsory education, combined with the combat techniques they had learned in extracurricular classes, led them naturally toward the weakest point in theory: the neck.

Their approach caused the zombie to catch the scent of living humans once more. Its seemingly rigid body reacted immediately.

Clang!

A resounding metallic collision echoed across the mountaintop.

Front: The zombie suddenly thrust out its head and bit down on Anna’s axe as she swung at it from the front.

Though the axe blade had sliced open both of the zombie’s cheeks to some extent, it was clamped down on so tightly that pulling it free was nearly impossible.

Rear: The class monitor, positioned behind the zombie, successfully brought her sharp sword down upon the unguarded nape of its neck.

Yet the blade merely cut through the skin, penetrating less than two centimeters.

Through the split flesh, the zombie’s black cervical vertebrae could be seen clearly. They seemed to possess some kind of hardened property. The metallic collision just now had been caused by the blade striking the vertebrae.

The class monitor’s thoughts raced as she reached a conclusion:

“So it really can achieve partial hardening. It was the same when Luo Di and I used a combined attack against it earlier. Whenever I diverted its attention, Luo Di could saw through its arm with relative ease.

“Fighting it alone offers almost no chance of victory. But with several people attacking from different directions, things become much simpler.

“Fortunately, we interrupted the ritual before it was complete. Otherwise, this zombie might truly have acquired full-body hardening along with all manner of inhuman abilities.”

The zombie was not about to sit idly by and await death. Using the opportunity created by its bite on the axe, it immediately swung its remaining arm, attempting to tear apart the woman in front of it.

Anna’s biceps suddenly bulged with force. Smack! She yanked the axe from the zombie’s mouth, bringing three teeth out with it.

She hurriedly sprang backward, narrowly avoiding the black claws that nearly pierced her body. As the dark hand swept past her face, Anna broke into a cold sweat.

At that very moment, while the zombie was attacking Anna, Gao Yuxuan arrived.

With practiced ease, he drew a silver needle between two fingers and drove it swiftly and precisely into the back of the zombie’s head—an inch and a half above the hairline, in the depression between the two trapezius muscles.

Clang!

Another metallic collision rang out. The zombie’s nape and entire occipital region had hardened completely. Even the needle’s sharp tip found it difficult to penetrate.

Gao Yuxuan’s eyes, however, were filled with absolute confidence.

He held the silver needle steady between the thumb and forefinger of his right hand, while his left arm drew back, palm poised to strike.

Page 2 of 3

He suddenly exerted his strength and slammed his palm into the end of the needle, like hammering in a nail.

Strictly speaking, given the needle’s slenderness and the hardness of the zombie’s skull, if he struck with sufficient force, Gao Yuxuan’s palm should have been pierced from the opposite direction by the needle.

Yet when his palm met the base of the needle, the sound that rang out was a sharper, more resonant clang of metal.

Clang!

The precise and powerful strike drove the needle another two centimeters deeper. It felt as though it was about to break through the hardened layer.

Moreover, the needle, forged entirely from silver, seemed to possess a certain restraining effect against evil entities. Buried beneath the skin, it trembled incessantly as dense black mist poured outward.

The zombie itself sensed this “pain.” It was just turning around when—

A second palm strike landed, even more powerful than the first.

Crack~

The entire silver needle seemed to break through some invisible restriction, sinking nearly three inches into the flesh.

Fengfu.

In Gao Yuxuan’s view, a zombie was still fundamentally a human body. The meridians within it should continue to function according to their original principles.

The needle had pierced the Fengfu point, reaching the medulla oblongata.

The zombie’s body convulsed violently and nearly collapsed.

The class monitor seized the opportunity, swiftly shifting her position and swinging her sword. The blade skimmed past Gao Yuxuan’s cheek before descending once more upon the zombie’s neck.

Swish!

As expected, the strike no longer produced the sound of metal colliding.

The sharp blade cut cleanly into the neck, inflicting genuine damage.

However, the zombie’s body remained extraordinarily hard. The sword came to a complete halt after cleaving halfway through the cervical vertebrae. Decapitating it outright would not be easy.

Gao Yuxuan, meanwhile, drew a second silver needle, preparing to drive it into the temple.

Suddenly—

The faint instinct within the zombie was awakened by the approach of death. Yin energy surged rapidly through its body, gathering at the point where the needle had entered.

The needle, deeply embedded in the Fengfu point, was blasted out in reverse by a powerful rush of black energy. It moved so quickly that Gao Yuxuan was fortunate to have shifted his position in advance; otherwise, it would have pierced straight through his face.

With its acupoint no longer restricted, the maddened zombie spun around. Its dark fingers slashed through the air, drawing terrifying black lines.

The class monitor reacted with remarkable speed, immediately stepping away with nimble footwork.

Gao Yuxuan, however, was pressed almost directly against the zombie’s back and had far less room to evade. He could only retreat one step and raise his arm to block. The claws were seconds away from tearing his arm apart.

Clang!

Gao Yuxuan was hurled heavily to the ground two meters away.

Scattered across the earth were scraps of clothing torn away by the zombie’s claws, along with several pieces of skin that bore not a trace of blood.

Beneath Gao Yuxuan’s shredded sleeve, what emerged was not the flesh and blood of an ordinary human, but a gleaming metallic structure.

His entire left arm appeared to have been modified—or perhaps completely replaced. This was likely the main reason he had taken half a month’s leave from school earlier.

The class monitor stared at Gao Yuxuan on the ground.

“That prosthetic arm is surprisingly useful. And your attack was remarkably effective too, Gao. If we repeat that acupuncture strike, we may be able to cut the creature’s head off. Anna, you take the next swing. I’m still a little lacking in strength.”

Page 3 of 3

There was no time to rest. The flames on the zombie’s body had nearly gone out, leaving half of it charred black.

They could not afford to wait. Danger was about to descend.

Yet the first to attack was not the zombie, but Anna on the other side.

She was no longer holding her axe. Instead, she lowered her center of gravity into a wrestler’s stance and charged toward her target with a single powerful step.

The zombie immediately caught the scent of the approaching living human and rapidly swung its remaining arm, attempting to tear her completely apart.

Swish~

The five black lines slashed through empty air.

Anna, who should have been struck, dropped her body in an instant and evaded the attack.

Smack!

Her powerful arms locked around the zombie’s body.

After several direct confrontations, Anna had gathered enough combat data. She was one hundred percent confident that she could evade the zombie’s monotonous arm attacks.

More importantly, no matter how hard the zombie’s body became, its weight could not exceed that of a normal human by very much.

A body lock and throw.

With a flawless turning hip throw, Anna lifted the zombie completely off the ground and slammed it down hard, burying its face in the dirt.

She pinned it firmly at the same time, restricting its movements as much as possible.

Even Anna, who stood 187 centimeters tall and weighed 90 kilograms, grimaced during the struggle. She could clearly feel an invisible force surging within the zombie’s body. She feared she would not be able to hold it down for long.

At almost the exact same moment, a silver needle descended from above and pierced the same acupoint once more. This time, a single palm strike drove it all the way in.

Seeing this, Anna immediately shouted:

“Wenwen! Hurry and cut it—I can’t hold it much longer!”

The class monitor had already experienced the difficulty of cutting through the zombie’s neck. She had no confidence that she could sever its head in a short time. It would take at least four or five strikes, and every one of them had to land precisely.

However, something seemed to catch the corner of her eye. Her lips moved slightly, and the sword that had originally been aimed at the neck suddenly changed course, stabbing vertically toward another target.

Swish!

The vertical blade pierced through the zombie’s palm and sank into the earth, pinning it down even more securely.

“Wenwen, what are you doing?!”

Just as Anna was beginning to feel bewildered, someone suddenly approached from directly in front of her.

Because she was bent over, pinning the zombie down, she was in a low position. When she raised her head, the person before her appeared extraordinarily huge.

Perhaps it was the angle.

Perhaps it was the newcomer’s build and the way he held his blade.

Or perhaps it was some distinctive quality in his presence.

At that moment, Anna seemed to recall a slasher film she had watched with her friends one weekend.