"Where are we going next?" Su Wan finally spoke, her fingers unconsciously caressing her abdomen.
Lu Shiyan looked straight ahead: "Thirty kilometers north, to an abandoned research institute. The terrain is open, easy to defend, and difficult to attack."
His tone was flat.
Xiao Han turned his head, his gaze falling on Su Wan: "What, worried? Don't be afraid, with your man here, no one dares to touch you." He drawled, "After all, you're carrying the Lu family's seed."
Lu Shiyan's fingers, gripping the steering wheel, suddenly tightened. "Xiao Han!"
Xiao Han shrugged, whistled, and said no more.
The car drove through a sparse grove of trees, and the view suddenly opened up. On both sides of the road ahead were desolate fields, which must have been farmland before the apocalypse, now overgrown with weeds and eerily silent.
"Something's wrong," Lu Shiyan suddenly growled, his voice taut.
Su Wan's heart leaped into her throat. She looked out of the car. At first, there was only silent wilderness.
Then, on the distant horizon, a tiny black dot abruptly appeared.
The black dot moved incredibly fast, leaving a blurry afterimage, as if gliding across the ground. It didn't move in a straight line but twisted and turned, sometimes hugging the ground, sometimes leaping, like an ominous black lightning bolt.
"What is it?" Zhang Ma's voice trembled.
Lu Shiyan didn't answer. He had already turned off the engine and pulled out the key. His movements were fluid and swift, without the slightest hesitation. "Everyone, don't make a sound."
The black shadow drew closer and closer, its movement bizarre, sometimes skimming the grass, sometimes crouching low. Su Wan finally saw clearly: it was a Mutant, completely different from any she had seen before.
Its body was long and thin, with protruding joints and abnormally developed limbs, ending in sharp claws. Its skin was a sickly bluish-grey, stretched taut over its bones, conveying a sense of dry power. Most terrifying were its eyes; they weren't the usual murky eyes of a zombie but gleamed with a wild, eerie green light, full of terrifying intelligence and hunger.
"Damn it, a Mutant Hunter," Xiao Han cursed under his breath, his voice tinged with apprehension. "This thing can sense life signs. It's coming for us."
Su Wan felt a chill crawl up her spine, shooting all the way to her scalp. The creature stopped, about a hundred meters from the car. It raised its head high, its nostrils flaring as if sniffing the air.
Suddenly, it sharply turned towards their car, crouching low, and let out a terrifying sound, somewhere between a shriek and a roar, piercing the deadly silence.
"It found us," Lu Shiyan's voice was cold. He swiftly drew the military knife from his waist, its blade reflecting a cold light in the dim interior of the car. "Xiao Han, take her and go. The rest of you, cover our retreat with me."
"No!" Su Wan blurted out, her voice tight, "You can't—"
Before she finished speaking, the Mutant had already charged towards the car like an arrow, moving at an astonishing speed, covering several meters in a single stride, closing in in an instant. Lu Shiyan violently pushed open the car door, rolling out and landing steadily on the ground.
Almost simultaneously, with a loud "Bang!" the Mutant crashed into the car body. The steel shell groaned in protest, and the entire vehicle trembled violently, as if it could fall apart at any moment.
Su Wan screamed, instinctively protecting her abdomen. Xiao Han had already pulled open the other car door and grabbed her arm: "Go! While Lu Shiyan distracts it!"
She was half-dragged, half-pulled out of the car, her feet barely touching the ground. In her ears were Lu Shiyan's low roars and the monster's piercing hisses, mixed with the screeching of tearing metal.
Glancing back, Lu Shiyan's military knife glowed with an orange-red flame, like a flexible fire snake, as he wrestled with the monster. His movements were lightning-fast, each swing of the knife carrying a scorching heat.
"Lu Shiyan!" She cried out, ignoring everything else, her voice filled with fear and worry.
At that moment, Lu Shiyan looked back at her, his gaze complex and profound, as if suppressing something. "Protect the child," he murmured, his voice almost inaudible in the wind. Then he turned back, facing the terrifying monster, flames leaping around him.
Xiao Han dragged Su Wan, sprinting towards the nearby woods. The trees were sparse, but at least they offered some cover. Zhang Ma stumbled behind, breathing heavily. From behind them came the sounds of fierce fighting and the Mutant's pained roars, along with the dull thuds of the car being hit and torn apart.
"Lu Shiyan will be alright, won't he?" Su Wan gasped, her heart pounding, each beat a heavy thud in her chest.
Xiao Han didn't look back, his steps unwavering: "If you want to live, don't look back."
Just then, a deafening explosion came from behind them. "Boom—!" The ground seemed to tremble. A searing wave of heat swept over them, carrying the acrid smell of burning gasoline. Su Wan was pushed back a few steps by the shockwave, almost falling.
She whirled around. The car in the distance had already transformed into a raging fireball, flames leaping several meters high, black smoke billowing upwards, straight into the sky.
"No—" She almost sobbed, her legs weak, unable to stand steady. What about Lu Shiyan? What about A Gui and A Fu? Could it be...
Xiao Han grabbed her, his gaze cold: "Don't be silly, Lu Shiyan isn't that easy to kill. That's his fire; he must have ignited the car's fuel tank."
"What?" Su Wan was bewildered. She suddenly realized what Xiao Han meant by "fire."
From the distant sea of fire, a figure slowly emerged, surrounded by raging flames, as if returning from hell, yet completely unharmed. It was Lu Shiyan. Behind him, several disheveled figures also appeared. Though covered in ash, they seemed safe and sound—A Gui, A Fu, and Xiao Han's subordinates.
The Mutant, however, lay in the center of the inferno, its massive body contorting in the flames. It let out one last agonizing wail, then fell completely silent, turning to charcoal.
When Lu Shiyan approached, the flames around him had completely retracted into his body, as if they had never been there. His face was smudged with ash and sweat, but his eyes remained deep, a trace of firelight lingering, making him even more unfathomable.
Su Wan almost rushed over. Really, just a little more. At the last moment, she forced herself to stop. Heh, male lead aura? It's really... But him being alive is better than anything else; at least my life and the child in my belly are safe. This man really is a monster.
Lu Shiyan's gaze fell on her face, seemingly surprised by her almost-crying expression. "Are you alright?" he asked.
He briefly acknowledged her, then turned to Xiao Han: "The car's destroyed. We'll walk to the research institute."
Xiao Han nodded, his expression grave: "That thing likely isn't a lone wolf. Mutant Hunters usually hunt in packs."
Lu Shiyan's eyes suddenly turned cold: "I'll handle it." He looked at Su Wan, his voice low, "Can you walk?"
Su Wan's heart skipped a beat. She nodded: "Yes."
The night wind ruffled his ash-dusted hair, carrying the scent of burning and blood. "Stronger, smarter, more dangerous than ordinary zombies," he said in a very low voice.
Stronger? Smarter? Su Wan's heart constricted. Was that... She licked her somewhat dry lips, her voice very soft, with a hint of probing. "Do they... not have anything in their heads?"