Chapter 107.

Chapter 107.

Yan Bubu immediately shook Feng Chen's shoulder, whispering anxiously into his ear, "Ding Hongsheng is gone."

Feng Chen turned, "Gone? How?"

"I don't know. He seemed to touch my back and then disappeared."

Feng Chen scanned the surroundings, finding no one. He then extended his psychic energy into the adjacent theater. Entering the lobby, he saw Ding Hongsheng suspended in mid-air, entwined by black vines at his waist and chest, dragging him towards a concrete column.

On the large column, large enough for two people to embrace, bloomed several morning glory flowers as big as washbasins, their petals lined with fine teeth, all facing Ding Hongsheng like writhing mouths.

Ding Hongsheng clung to an iron beam above his head, staying silent for fear of attracting zombies, continuously attacking the black vines with his psychic energy.

His terrifying cat, a psychic entity, also jumped onto the beam, gnawing and biting at the vines.

However, the black vine seemed immune to psychic attacks. Despite being pierced by Ding Hongsheng, creating holes, it quickly repaired itself, appearing unscathed.

The cat, being a psychic entity, also inflicted no significant damage; any tears it made in the vine healed instantly.

Feng Chen rushed into the theater, with the black lion leaping beside him. As he ran, Feng Chen reached back to grab Yan Bubu, transferring him to the black lion, who caught him deftly, allowing Yan Bubu to mount it.

Feng Chen leaped towards the large column, dagger aimed at the entangling black vine. The morning glory flowers, initially facing Ding Hongsheng, suddenly turned and lunged at him with open petals.

Dodging the attacking flowers, Feng Chen's dagger plunged into the vine, causing black liquid to ooze from the main vine. He continued stabbing, and as he did, more black liquid spewed out, the main vine loosening like a rotten rope from the column, its large flowers withering rapidly.

At this moment, Cai Tao also burst into the scene, quickly grasping the situation, and thrust his dagger into the black vines on another column.

Fearing to alert the zombies in the square, neither Ding Hongsheng, suspended in mid-air, nor Cai Tao and Feng Chen, engaged in battling the black vines below, made a sound.

The black vines binding Ding Hongsheng began to loosen one by one, and the morning glories on the column wilted gradually.

As Cai Tao swung his blade at the last black vine, the flower above kept lunging down at him, which he skillfully dodged. The flower then ceased its attack, coiling tightly, shivering as if gathering strength.

Just as Cai Tao harbored a bad premonition, the morning glory burst open, its petals widening to the extreme, emitting a long, piercing scream from its core.

This scream, amplified by the trumpet-shaped petals, buzzed in their ears, piercing through the theater and echoing across the entire square.

"Damn, this thing is really like a giant megaphone!"

With a swift motion, Cai Tao severed the black vine completely. The screaming morning glory instantly fell silent, withering into a small clump.

The trio, along with Ding Hongsheng who had just fallen to the ground, immediately turned to look back, not even bothering to stand up, all eyes fixed on the square.

They saw the zombies on the square, in unison, turning around and then starting to run, resembling a dark, surging flood heading towards the theater.

Feng Chen had already dashed out. Ding Hongsheng and Cai Tao, initially frozen, sprung into action upon seeing Feng Chen closing the main door, rushing to assist him.

The theater had a pair of iron gates, not only rusted but also showing signs of intense heat, with molten iron once fusing the doors to the floor.

As Feng Chen ran, he used his psychic power to slice through the fused bottom of the gate, then forcefully pushed one of the doors. Ding Hongsheng hurried to the other, shouting, "Cai Tao, go and close the back door!"

They were in the theater's foyer, with a small door on each side of the opposite wall, both leading to the collapsed main hall. Cai Tao immediately turned and ran towards the left door.

A grating crunch resounded as the two sentinels pushed the doors, the heavy iron gates closing inward. But just as they were about a meter from fully closing, the foremost zombies had already charged up the steps.

Yan Bubu, quietly riding on the Black Lion, didn’t make a sound. But when the zombie horde nearly crashed through the iron gate, he released a burst of psychic energy, causing the leading dozen zombies to pause for two or three seconds.

Bang! The iron gate closed, the bolt snapping into the lock.

Cai Taoyuan shut the small door on the left, but two zombies had already broken through the small door on the right, which Bi Nunu blocked and killed.

Feng Chen and Ding Hongsheng rushed to the right door, pushing hard against it together, managing to hold back the influx of zombies and then slamming the door shut.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

All three doors were subjected to violent impacts, with large flakes of rust falling off the hinges, indicating they wouldn't hold much longer.

"Yan Bubu, turn on the light," Feng Chen commanded.

Yan Bubu immediately turned on his gas lamp.

Feng Chen looked up, "This door will only buy us a little time. Everyone, hurry up to the roof."

The Black Lion, carrying Yan Bubu and the luggage bag, leaped upwards, gripping the stone body of a large column with its claws before jumping again to land steadily on a horizontal beam.

Ding Hongsheng and Cai Taoyuan each climbed a column, quickly reaching the beam as well.

Seeing Bi Nunu still at the right door, scratching at zombies through the gap, Feng Chen hurriedly called out, "Bi Nunu, move!"

"Bi Nunu, come up here!" Yan Bubu also shouted.

Once Bi Nunu swiftly joined them on the beam, Feng Chen was the last to climb up, just as the doors burst open, with zombies howling and rushing in.

The zombies quickly noticed the people on the beam, howling and stretching their clawed hands upwards.

The foyer was soon filled with zombies, at least two to three hundred. Despite knowing they couldn't reach the beam, the sight of their grotesque, disfigured faces still sent shivers down the spines of those above.

Yan Bubu stood next to the Black Lion, holding the gas lamp. Ding Hongsheng wiped the sweat from his forehead and asked Feng Chen, "Feng, what do we do now?"

Feng Chen surveyed the ceiling, a once grand fresco now faded and stained, resembling patches of dirt.

"This theater is very old, and the roof is made of thin reinforced concrete panels, which we can break through." Feng Chen stood up and started tapping the ceiling with his dagger, causing the outer layer of plaster to fall off and expose the concrete underneath.

Some zombies had already started climbing the columns. Cai Taoyuan and Ding Hongsheng kept using their psychic energy to kill them, causing them to fall, but more zombies quickly filled their places.

"Feng, the pile of zombie corpses is getting higher; they're almost climbing up," Ding Hongsheng said anxiously.

Feng Chen continued to knock on the ceiling, causing large chunks of concrete to fall and revealing several steel rebars as thin as chopsticks.

He gripped the rebars with both hands, bending them outward. Already corroded, they snapped after a few cracking sounds, creating a large hole.

"Yan Bubu, quickly go up," Feng Chen turned and said.

Yan Bubu immediately put the handle of the gas lamp in his mouth and climbed through the hole, hoisted up by Feng Chen.

Half-lying on the arched roof, he saw a horde of zombies surrounding the theater, forming an impenetrable barrier.

As Ding Hongsheng and Cai Taoyuan crawled out, their Liangzi beasts returned to their psychic realm, reappearing after the two men were on the roof.

The Black Lion first passed up the luggage bag, then leaped out of the hole with Bi Nunu in its jaws.

Yan Bubu, peering down the hole, called out urgently, "Brother, come up quickly."

Feng Chen reached to grab the edge of the hole, but suddenly the iron beam he was standing on collapsed, and he fell through.

"Brother!" Yan Bubu screamed, diving down to grab Feng Chen's wrist.

His body, much lighter than Feng Chen's, started sliding uncontrollably downwards. Just as his upper body was about to slide into the hole, the Black Lion held him down.

Feng Chen dangled in the air, held only by Yan Bubu's grasp on his left hand, his legs hanging above the zombie horde.

Seeing the zombies reaching for his feet, he unleashed his psychic energy, piercing the heads of the group below, violently disrupting them.

Cai Taoyuan and Ding Hongsheng quickly joined in to help, along with the Black Lion, pulling Yan Bubu upwards.

Feng Chen, not particularly robust but muscular and heavy, was a challenge to pull up. Yan Bubu clenched his teeth, veins popping on his forehead, exerting all his strength to hold on and continually using his psychic energy to restrain the zombies.

Inch by inch, Feng Chen climbed upwards and finally reached the hole, grasping the edge and flipping up onto the roof.

"Are you okay? Are you hurt?" Yan Bubu asked, his face pale with alarm.

Feng Chen replied, "I'm fine."

Yan Bubu tried to lift his pant leg to check, but his hands were trembling uncontrollably, too weak to even lift the fabric.

"Don't be afraid, I really am okay," Feng Chen reassured him, squeezing his forearm gently.

Ding Hongsheng lifted the gas lamp to light the way ahead, "Feng, the remaining buildings are all connected, and none are high-rises. We can just walk over the rooftops."

Feng Chen glanced at the swarming zombies below, "Then let's go, the sooner we leave here, the better."

The street was lined with closely packed houses, all two to three stories high, likely built to a uniform plan. As they leaped across the rooftops, the zombies followed, running through the streets. Occasionally, a zombie would climb up a wall, only to be impaled through the head by Bi Nunu.

Yan Bubu, adept at this kind of running, didn't ask Feng Chen to carry him and even led the way with the gas lamp, finding the most efficient route for the group.

After about ten minutes, Ding Hongsheng suddenly called out, "Bubu, stop for a second."

Yan Bubu, who was at the edge of a building's rooftop, turned and asked, "What's up?"

"I see there are no more buildings ahead, we must be nearing the city's edge."

Standing on the rooftop, they looked ahead in the dim light and could see that the street indeed ended there. Beyond was a gorge, with its dilapidated fence and a steel-frame bridge stretching across it into the darkness.

Ding Hongsheng opened the real-time map, "This gorge can only be crossed by this bridge, and it's the only way out of the city. We’ll be out of here once we cross it."

The zombies had caught up, looking up at them from below and howling.

"Feng, what do we do now?" Cai Taoyuan asked Feng Chen.

Feng Chen hoisted Yan Bubu onto his back again, "No other choice, we have to make a run for it."

"Okay—" Before Cai Taoyuan could finish, Feng Chen, carrying Yan Bubu, had already leaped from the rooftop and dashed towards the bridge. At the same time, the zombies blocking their path were silently taken down by his psychic energy.

Ding Hongsheng quickly realized what was happening, "Let’s move, before the main horde of zombies catches up!"

The gas lamp in Yan Bubu’s hand flickered continuously. In the erratic light, the group, along with the Liangzi beasts, sprinted towards the bridge, pursued closely by a dozen zombies. A massive army of zombies was just a few dozen meters behind them.

"Let me down, I can run on my own," Yan Bubu yelled into Feng Chen's ear, over the sound of the wind.

"I can move faster with you on my back," Feng Chen said as he carried Yan Bubu, leading the way onto the bridge.

Yan Bubu felt Feng Chen was right.

Despite being carried, Feng Chen's long strides made the bridge railings whiz past rapidly. Yan Bubu was fast on the rooftops, but in this test of endurance and burst speed, Feng Chen was much faster.

He wrapped his arms around Feng Chen's neck, frequently looking back to see several soldier zombies leading the chase.

These soldier zombies, already physically robust in life and now enhanced by their undead state, were alarmingly fast and quickly closed the distance.

Yan Bubu continuously released psychic energy, causing the zombies to move in a jerky, halted manner, barely slowing them down.

Bi Nunu, always hopping at the back with the Terror Cat, would leap onto the head of whichever zombie was in the lead, biting and tearing until it fell.

Bi Nunu, while dealing with one zombie, noticed another leaping towards Feng Chen. It quickly tore off the enamel cup lid hanging in front of it and smashed it into the back of the zombie's head.

With a loud bang, the zombie's skull caved in, causing it to stumble forward and collapse.

After dealing with the zombie in hand, Bi Nunu picked up the cup lid, still spinning on the ground, and hung it back in place.

The steel-frame bridge wasn't too long, and they were almost at the end, but a gap about ten meters wide appeared ahead.

The Black Lion, leading at the front, didn't stop. It leaped over the chasm, dropping the luggage bag it was carrying and turning to face the group.

Feng Chen and the Black Lion had a tacit understanding; he quickly shifted Yan Bubu from his back to his arms.

Yan Bubu guessed what Feng Chen was about to do and cried out in terror, "No, no, no," reaching out to grab Feng Chen’s neck.

"Look, what's that?" Feng Chen, while running, pointed to the left. Yan Bubu just turned his head when he suddenly felt the world spinning, realizing he had been thrown into the air.

"Ahh—" Yan Bubu screamed.

At that moment, the Black Lion leaped high, catching Yan Bubu on its back in mid-air, and landed steadily.

"Old Ding, can you make the jump?" Cai Taoyuan asked while running.

Ding Hongsheng asked, "What about you?"

Cai Taoyuan replied, "I'm a B-grade sentinel; I can definitely make it."

Ding Hongsheng retorted, "You're a B-grade sentinel, but am I not one too?"

Cai Taoyuan said, "Feng—never mind, no need to ask Feng."

The three sentinels also reached the gap and, with a loud shout, leaped into the air towards the other side.

The three Liangzi beasts followed suit, jumping across.

Cai Taoyuan rolled on landing and sat on the ground, yelling at the approaching zombie horde, "Keep chasing, damn it, let's see how you'll get across."

Ding Hongsheng, supporting his waist and panting heavily, said, "Back off a bit, they might actually make it."

"Bet you ten A-currency," Cai Taoyuan challenged.

No sooner had Cai Taoyuan finished speaking than a soldier zombie at the forefront lunged through the air towards him. In mid-air, it moved its legs as if running and opened its dark, gaping mouth towards Cai Taoyuan, who was sitting at the very front.

"He won't make it, definitely won't make it," Cai Taoyuan said calmly.

As the zombie rapidly approached, Cai Taoyuan still held his ground, unmoving, until it was almost face to face with him. At the last moment, Ding Hongsheng pulled him back and kicked the zombie off the cliff.

Ding Hongsheng angrily exclaimed, "Are you insane? Risking your life for ten bucks?"

"I knew what I was doing; it wouldn't have bitten me," Cai Taoyuan insisted, though he backed away several steps.

The zombies kept howling and leaping towards them, but most fell straight into the gorge. A few managed to cross the gap, but before the group needed to act, the Liangzi beasts pounced and took them down.

"Let's go," Feng Chen turned and continued forward, "As long as we get away from here, those zombies won't keep coming this way."

Bi Nunu, walking at the back, looked back longingly. When it saw a zombie that had crossed the gap chasing after them, it again hurled the enamel cup lid at the zombie's forehead.

The cup lid, carrying tremendous force, caused the zombie to stagger backward and fall off the broken bridge. Bi Nunu picked up the cup lid with satisfaction and reattached it in front of its belly.