Chapter Ninety-Three

Chapter Ninety-Three

Shen Xiuzhe approached, handing the sleeping Grandma Wu to Wu Duo and Ouyang Dong. Xu Fang, who had been holding off a horde of zombies alone, felt a surge of strength in his exhausted body upon seeing the boss arrive.

He could still hold on! Boss, take revenge for them!

"How is Grandma doing?" Wu Duo anxiously watched as Ouyang Dong took Grandma Wu, examining her thoroughly.

"Her hands and feet are frostbitten. Let's apply medicine first," Shen Xiuzhe said, handing her over to Ouyang Dong and Wu Duo, then headed straight towards Lin An.

Lin An looked at him approaching with a sense of grievance. He opened his mouth to say something as his first reaction, but his lips trembled, and his throat felt choked, unable to utter a word, only to watch him with tears.

He suddenly felt much weaker than before. He had encountered similar situations in the past and had gotten through them by gritting his teeth.

But now, he felt vulnerable and wanted to complain. He hadn't done anything, hadn't hurt anyone. Why were they treating him like this? Becoming a zombie wasn't his choice; he too wished to be an ordinary, normal person.

When Shen Xiuzhe reached out and gently wiped the tears from his face, Lin An's tears flowed even more fiercely. He stepped forward, embracing Shen Xiuzhe's waist like a child, burying his face in his chest.

Shen Xiuzhe was dressed thinly, his coat now draped over Grandma Wu, so Lin An could feel the cold dampness on his chest even more.

He took a deep breath, suppressing the rage about to erupt, and placed a hand on Lin An's head, asking softly, "What happened?"

Lin An was still crying, unable to focus on speaking, and he couldn't find the words to say anyway.

On the other hand, Xu Fang, who was fighting the zombies, overheard and, while battling, grumbled and exaggeratedly recounted everything that had just happened.

Shen Xiuzhe listened in silence, his expression gradually darkening. His face was naturally stern, only slightly softened in the presence of Lin An and his teammates. Now, his entire visage darkened, as if freezing the air around him.

Even Xu Fang, who was loudly complaining, stiffened for a moment, then hurriedly wrapped up with a few quick words: "That's, that's what happened, boss. Then we came down to fight the zombies, been fighting for hours, until you showed up."

"Xu Fang."

"Hmm? What's up, boss?"

"Step aside."

Xu Fang immediately scurried aside, retreating a good distance away, and also took Xiao Fu with him.

A dense swarm of zombies, stepping over the corpses of their fellows, rushed forward, their mouths full of sharp, white fangs snapping open and closed, emitting a grating, teeth-clenching sound.

But in the next moment, these ferocious and brutal zombie fish were engulfed in blue flames. Within the fire, the shapes of the fish gradually melted away. The blue fire spread rapidly, licking and devouring the zombie fish, incinerating both the smaller fish and the larger whales that touched the flames.

In the white world of ice and snow, only the cold blue spread along the black tide of the zombie fish to the shore. The fire burned quietly, yet its destructive power was terrifying. The zombie fish didn't even have time to wail before turning into charred remains.

Meanwhile, the labyrinth also began to melt, especially the lower half where the zombie fish were, now dissolved by the intense heat of the blue flames into water, revealing the dark soil beneath.

This centuries-old iceberg, for the first time, revealed its true face.

The zombie creatures in the sea, sensing the threat, no longer surfaced, and the zombie fish that had reached the shore turned into a pitch-black mass in a short time, leaving not one behind.

The city gates were quiet. Those frozen people didn't know what to say. They were filled not just with regret, but also with a looming shadow of death, which now hung over their heads and the entire icy city.

Now, they finally understood the nature of the group they had provoked.

It was even more terrifying than the day the apocalypse arrived.

"Let's go." Throughout, Shen Xiuzhe's gaze had remained on Lin An, never once straying to the zombie horde at the side.

"Go, go where?" Xu Fang, usually eloquent, stuttered.

After soothing Lin An for a while and sensing his emotions stabilizing a bit, Shen Xiuzhe continued, "Back to the Snowy City."

Wu Duo frowned; she didn't want to return there. The city had left a bad impression on her, and now that Grandma and Shen Xiuzhe were back, she wanted to leave directly.

Holding the still-tearful Lin An, Shen Xiuzhe looked up at the castle above and sneered, "First, we go back to pack our things. Besides, how can we leave without settling the score?"

Ouyang Dong, carrying Grandma Wu on his back, had run out of the city in the middle of the night and seemed exhausted, sleeping the whole time.

Wu Duo followed beside, with Xu Fang leading Xiao Fu, all heading towards the Snowy City.

Near the city gate, the frozen ability users watched them with terrified eyes, but Shen Xiuzhe, leading Lin An, didn’t spare them a glance and walked straight in.

The people inside the gate, although unaware of what happened outside, could hear and see that these individuals returned unscathed from the zombie tide, indicating their strength surpassed even the top ability users of the Snowy City.

But Shen Xiuzhe still didn’t look at them. In contrast, Xu Fang, unable to contain his anger, deliberately walked past, arrogantly eyeing the city lord in a challenging manner, only hurrying after Shen Xiuzhe and the others when they had walked far away.

The ground and houses were covered in ice, making the Snowy City resemble a castle carved from ice and snow. However, the interiors of the houses were ice-free, and all the people inside, mainly the elderly and children who couldn’t leave during the zombie tide, were unharmed. Although Lin An was angry at the time, he didn’t harm these people inside the houses.

Back at home, they laid Grandma Wu on the bed, and everyone immediately started packing.

After packing all their luggage into Wu Duo’s spatial bag, they left the house again.

As Wu Duo was about to lock the door, Shen Xiuzhe stopped her: "No need to lock it. We won’t be using it anymore."

"No longer needed? Does that mean we won't come back here again? Right, there's no need to revisit such a place." Udo didn't even bother to close the door. After all, everything had been taken, including the furniture stored in the space. Only an empty shell remained.

Next door, Jenny, seeing them return, immediately clutched Nick in terror and rushed upstairs. She knew that the icy buildings and figures outside must be the work of those neighbors, as there were no ice-powered mutants in the Ice and Snow City.

These people were powerful mutants. She deeply regretted reporting them to the city lord. Would they barge in and kill her and her little Nick?

The more Jenny thought about it, the more frightened she became, shivering as she hid with Nick on the second floor.

Nick, unaware of what had happened, comforted his frightened mother by gently stroking her face. "Mom, don't be scared. The zombies won't come. If they do, I'll take you next door. The brothers and sisters there are very strong."

His eyes sparkled as he spoke of the neighbors, filled with admiration and fondness.

After the apocalypse, few children Nick's age remained. Those who did were closely guarded by their parents, seldom venturing outside. The orphaned children, young but with mutant abilities, looked down on a non-mutant child like Nick.

Thus, Nick's only joy was drawing at home.

That changed when the brothers and sisters next door appeared. They played with him, shared their adventurous tales, and Nick longed for their experiences. He admired these powerful adults, who lived in a warm home and gave him delicious food, and he loved playing with them.

Learning that they would soon leave filled him with despair, even sparking a wish to leave with them, taking his mother along.

It was too cold here, not just the weather but the people too, distant and indifferent. He disliked this place.

Jenny, holding her sensible Nick, cried freely, terrified that those people might seek revenge. After all, the only one who knew about their red eyes was Nick, who visited them daily.

If they did come, she planned to confess it was she who reported them, hoping to spare Nick's life. "If someone has to die, let it be me," she resolved.

But after waiting anxiously for a long while, no one burst into the house. Jenny, nervous, asked Nick to hide in the closet while she quietly stood on the balcony of the second floor, peering around.

Meanwhile, Shen Xiuzhe and his companions were busy packing their luggage, getting ready to leave.

As mutants, they all sensed the presence on the second floor next door. Yet, no one looked up. Their feelings were complicated. Nick was a good child, but Lin An's discovery was also because of him. They couldn't harm a four-year-old child, nor his mother. So, it was better to never meet again.

Only Shen Xiuzhe, passing by, glanced up at that spot.

That glance was icy and sharp, seemingly filled with murderous intent. Jenny felt a chill down her spine, her heart skipping a beat. As she collapsed onto the balcony, little Nick peeked out from the closet, seeing his mother sitting dazed on the ground, and immediately ran to her.

"Mom, what's wrong?" Nick was about to help her up but then saw below the iron-fenced balcony his familiar older siblings.

He was about to call out, but his mother quickly covered his mouth and pulled him inside.

"Don't scream! They'll come up and kill us." Jenny's grip was strong, causing Nick's face to hurt from being covered.

When he finally freed himself, he looked at Jenny with confusion: "Mom, what are you talking about? Why would my brother and sister kill us? They're good people. That handsome brother even saved me yesterday."

Jenny seemed not to understand, looking at Nick with a distraught and bewildered expression: "Who did you say saved you?"

Nick recounted yesterday's events to Jenny, specifically mentioning the brother with red eyes who had saved him, and regretted not having thanked him yet.

At this point, Nick felt frustrated; he had forgotten to thank him yesterday, and today his mom wouldn't let him go out, so he had no chance to express his gratitude to the handsome brother. He was about to ask his mom if he could go next door in the afternoon, but then saw her already in tears.

"Mom, what's wrong?"

"I'm sorry, so sorry, truly sorry."

"Mom?"

Nick didn't understand why his mother was apologizing to him while holding him, but he sensed that something bad might have happened.

*

This time, Shen Xiuzhe led Lin An towards the city lord's residence. Lin An was reluctant; he didn't want to see them, but Shen Xiuzhe insisted. With Xu Fang also egging him on about revenge, he reluctantly went, turning his face away, unwilling to look at those people.

Apart from Lin An, the others, like Shen Xiuzhe, stared directly at the city lord, now frozen into an ice sculpture, a sight never seen before.

The disheveled city lord gritted his teeth and turned to Shen Xiuzhe.

"You should know I did nothing wrong. I stand for the safety of the entire Ice and Snow City. The emergence of zombies within the city could disrupt our current peace. Even if given another chance, I would do the same," he said earnestly and seriously. If not for being encased in ice, which made him look somewhat comical, he indeed seemed like a righteous and responsible city lord.

Shen Xiuzhe smiled, his phoenix eyes slightly squinting: "From your perspective, your actions are not wrong."

Xu Fang behind him widened his eyes in shock: Boss! How can you say that? Doesn’t that mean it's all our fault?

Lin An, though turning his head away, had been listening to their conversation the whole time, and at this point, tears began to well up in his eyes.

"But..."

Just as the city lord sighed in relief, thinking the other party might understand his actions, Shen Xiuzhe lifted the hand holding Lin An, shaking it lightly with a relaxed smile but malicious intent in his eyes: "My standpoint is his."

Just as the words were spoken, the city walls suddenly burst into explosions, one after another, from near to far, shattering the ice-encased walls of the Snowy City.

The heavily guarded Ice and Snow City instantly lost all its defenses.

The city lord, witnessing this scene, was so furious he almost fainted, but the surrounding ice restricted his movements.

How dare he, without the walls, how will they defend against the zombies? Isn’t this dooming them all?

Shen Xiuzhe continued leading Lin An, along with their companions, away from the city. Lin An, somewhat dazed, was led forward, his tears long gone. He tightly clutched the other's hand, raised his head, and walked shoulder to shoulder with him.

Once they descended the mountain, Xu Fang couldn't help but say: "Isn't this letting them off too easy?"

Shen Xiuzhe stopped, sneered coldly: "Who said it's just this?"

He turned his gaze towards Ice and Snow City atop the ice mountain, and the others also turned to look in that direction.

It was then that Xu Fang noticed, suspended in the air above Snowy City, numerous silver-black swords.

Ouyang Dong, carrying Granny Wu, looked up in confusion: "What's this?"

Wu Duo pursed her lips: "While tidying the house, Brother Shen asked me to take it out from the space."

Gazing into the sky, Shen Xiuzhe's fingers twitched, and the giant silver-black swords plummeted down, smashing the central building of the castle, the City Lord's mansion, into ruins. The booming sound, accompanied by flying snow and rubble, marked the collapse of the tallest structure in Snowy City.

The remaining swords, too, plunged vertically towards the snowy city.

The once awe-inspiring grand castle was now rendered unrecognizable.

"Alright, it's over, let's go," Shen Xiuzhe said nonchalantly, pulling Lin An to leave, but he didn't budge.

"Well, this doesn't seem right," Lin An said nervously. When Shen Xiuzhe had spoken those words to the opposing city lord, he was indeed very happy, feeling warm and a bit sweet inside, but now, with the entire Snowy City turned into this, and knowing many people still lived there, though it was indeed revenge, Lin An couldn't feel happy about it.

Ouyang Dong watched in shock as the city was destroyed, commenting, "Boss, wasn't that a bit excessive? Just blowing up the city wall was enough. Rebuilding it won't be easy for the city lord and residents. And now, killing people... I find that hard to accept."

Shen Xiuzhe turned to the others: "Do you also think it's too much?"

The remaining two, Wudo and Xu Fang, nodded guiltily.

"Do you know why it took me so long to find Granny Wu?" Shen Xiuzhe looked at the ruined city, explaining, "I found her in the maze behind Ice and Snow City, but there were also a dozen special zombies there."

Special type zombies? Everyone knows that special type zombies are tougher to deal with than regular ones. Are the special type zombies that appeared here fish from the sea?

"Those special type zombies were tough to handle. Each one's combat power was nearly as strong as the most powerful metahuman in Ice Snow City. After killing those zombies, I explored nearby and found many ice caves extending from the maze to the soil beneath the ice layer, all the way to the sea surface. Those special type zombies had a premeditated plan for Ice Snow City. Even if we hadn't shown up, the city wouldn't have lasted long."

The number of zombies transformed from humans can at least be estimated, but the zombies from the sea are endless, and the number of special type zombies among them is unknown.

The marine creatures, diverse in species, transformed into special types of zombies whose weaknesses and attack methods were unpredictable, completely different from those special zombies they were familiar with.

The people of the snowy city, reliant on potions, had seen little improvement in their combat abilities over time, and were no match for the special zombies emerging from the sea.

This meant that even without their intervention, the snowy city would soon be overrun by the special zombies. Yet, Ouyang Dong still felt uneasy: "The logic is sound, but having killed these people, I still feel a sense of guilt."

Shen Xiuzhe observed Lin An, who also looked burdened with guilt, and pinched his ear: "Don’t worry, they're not dead. The city lord of the snowy city is very suspicious; the city lord's residence is normally inhabited only by him and his most trusted confidants. And now they are all outside, so there's nobody in there. Also, the places where the other swords fell are unoccupied houses."

Wudo was puzzled: "How do you know those houses are empty from so far away, Brother Shen?"

"I've been scouting around the snowy city these past few days."

Ouyang Dong: "…Why did you investigate this?"

Shen Xiuzhe thought for a moment: "Probably an adventurer’s habit, to first understand the surroundings and situation of each place we go to."

Knowing no one had died, Xu Fang relaxed and laughed: "I knew it too. Didn't you see when you went out? The unoccupied houses are old and dilapidated, covered in ice, and their doors can’t even be opened. Houses with residents at least don’t have ice on the doorknobs."

Wudo/Ouyang Dong: "...Who pays attention to such things when going out, and when did you go out?"

"Are you doing this to force the people of the snowy city to leave?" Lin An asked curiously.

"After all, with our living area turned into this, without any protection, rebuilding will be very troublesome, not to mention defending against a zombie tide. So leaving is the best choice. But what the city lord will decide to do is none of our concern now."

Moreover, Shen Xiuzhe left out one detail: in front of the snowy city lay Baize City by the sea, not a good option. So if they were to relocate, their only choice would be the Eye of the Desert, where zombies were scarce, making it a suitable place for settlement.

But if the city lord insists on defending this place, no one can save them.

Shen Xiuzhe instructed Lin An to release the ice seal, listening to the wails and cries from above: "At least now they're truly suffering and in deep sorrow, which can be considered a form of revenge."

The cries from the snowy city indeed brought a sense of relief to everyone who had been holding their breath. Now that they had their revenge without taking lives, and even arguably helped them, this outcome left everyone satisfied.

They had done all they could; the fate of the snowy city was no longer their concern.

After leaving the snowy city, they soon reached the coast, now littered with fish carcasses. If it weren’t for the freezing weather preserving them, the stench would have been overwhelming.

They found a spot closest to the sea to launch their boat. It was a bit disappointing not to have received the boat promised by the city lord, but the one they had was sufficient.

Thinking of reaching their final destination, Baize City, aboard this boat, everyone wore a look of anticipation.