1?
“Roar! Roar! Roar!”
Inside the elevator, Xiong Ji thrashed about wildly.
His massive size, once an advantage, became a serious liability the moment he was shoved into the elevator. In the confined iron box, he couldn’t move freely nor fully extend his limbs. From the moment he entered, Li Yalin, who had been hiding above, hooked her toes on the top and gracefully dropped down. The Snake Kiss in her hand slashed downward, aiming directly for Xiong Ji’s eyes.
“Roar!”
The sudden, searing pain caused Xiong Ji to let out a bellowing howl. He flailed his arms, his hulking frame slamming violently into the walls of the elevator. Meanwhile, Li Yalin twisted and spun mid-air with remarkable agility, the Snake Kiss repeatedly seeking openings to stab into his eyes or ears at sharp angles.
As he collided with the walls, Xiong Ji also attempted to squeeze out through the gap, but Ling Mo stood firmly outside, blocking any chance of escape. Before long, Xiong Ji’s furious roars turned into anguished wails, and the elevator began to shake violently, as though it might plummet at any moment.
“Yalin!” Ling Mo shouted anxiously.
The gestation pods were rapidly approaching, only about five or six seconds away from reaching the elevator.
“Almost there! His muscle tissue is ridiculously tough to cut through, even his eyes… Ling Mo, can you figure out where his parasite is?” Li Yalin’s voice came from inside the elevator.
Parasite?
Ling Mo suddenly understood. Compared to Pa Ji, this alpha zombie named Xiong Ji was clearly much harder to handle. His body felt like a moving swamp, almost impervious to their attacks. On the flip side, his offensive capabilities were relatively weaker. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been able to trap him in the elevator in the first place.
Li Yalin’s urgent request revealed just how formidable Xiong Ji’s defenses were-stronger even than they’d anticipated. If this continued, even if Xiong Ji stayed motionless and gave Li Yalin another five seconds to attack, it was unlikely they’d be able to eliminate him.
By then, the tables would turn, and they would find themselves trapped instead.
“But… where could it be?”
So far, Ling Mo had encountered three parasites inhabiting zombie hosts. The first one had been Xiao Yue Er, whose parasite was likely lodged in her esophagus. Fang Ying’s parasite, on the other hand, had become fully integrated with her body. Then there was Pa Ji, whose parasite was located in his abdomen, similar to the gestation pods.
Although there were only three examples, they clearly demonstrated one truth: the location of the parasite within each zombie’s body was entirely different. For someone like Xiong Ji, even if the parasite was constantly wriggling inside him, it was impossible to detect from the outside!
What should I do?
Ling Mo anxiously stared at Xiong Ji through the gap, his eyes scanning up and down constantly.
“The location of the parasite is not only their weak spot but also where an alternative attack method might be concealed… Unlike Xiao Yue Er, whose parasite entered through her mouth, the parasites in other zombies must have created an entry point in the area they’re occupying,” Ling Mo muttered as he racked his brain for anything useful, his gaze sweeping over Xiong Ji’s massive form.
Xiong Ji’s clothes were nearly completely ripped apart by his bulging muscles. If you ignored the layers of dirt and blood covering him, he looked like he was wearing a full-body mesh suit. On the exposed parts of his flesh, however, there wasn’t a single visible wound… If there were any, they were likely completely sealed off by his dense muscles.
“Wait. With the way his muscles contract, the parasite probably couldn’t even get inside! And even if it did, it would be nearly impossible for it to come out… If it didn’t enter through his mouth, then where could it have gotten in?”
Suddenly, Ling Mo’s pupils contracted as realization struck him. He shouted urgently, “Yalin, make him turn around!”
“That’s not so easy…!” Li Yalin responded, though her tone was more focused than it was doubtful. With two swift gleams of the Snake Kiss, Xiong Ji’s body abruptly twisted and slammed fiercely into the wall in front of him, exposing his back to Ling Mo. 𝘳ÁŊÒ฿ĘṢ
“Roar! Roar!”
As Xiong Ji let out deafening, enraged howls, Ling Mo’s expression shifted to one of fervent excitement.
“So, it’s there after all!”
Li Yalin heard him clearly and called out anxiously, “Where is it?”
“Uh… let me handle this,” Ling Mo replied.
“How are you-“
Before she could finish her sentence, a loud “bang” rang out from outside. Moments later, Ling Mo returned holding a thin iron pipe.
“It’s from a chair I dismantled. Hopefully, this’ll work,” Ling Mo said as he quickly stepped up to the gap. He shouted, “Yalin, hold him down!”
The two worked with seamless coordination. Almost the instant Ling Mo issued the command, Li Yalin’s suspended body swayed gently in midair. Her flexible, snake-like arm coiled around Xiong Ji’s head from behind.
The Snake Kiss tightened firmly around Xiong Ji’s neck. With a soft grunt of effort, Li Yalin began to bend her legs slowly, preparing to subdue him more effectively.
Xiong Ji, whose massive frame was at least three to four times the size of Li Yalin’s, was bit by bit being lifted into the air. His arms flailed wildly, grasping at nothing, while his legs kicked and thrashed uncontrollably. The elevator rocked and swayed under the strain, giving the impression it could collapse at any moment.
Ling Mo, watching from the gap in stunned silence, was utterly at a loss for words. Forget about Xiong Ji’s violent struggles-his sheer weight was already monstrous enough. While some humans, like obese fatties, might come close to such a size, their weight was still only about a third of Xiong Ji’s. The difference was that Xiong Ji’s mass was composed entirely of incredibly dense muscle rather than plain fat, making him an entirely different beast to contend with.
Yet here was Li Yalin, using just the tips of her toes to hang herself in midair while simultaneously lifting Xiong Ji off the ground like this. The raw strength required was nothing short of terrifying!
On the other hand, her tool for accomplishing this feat was none other than the razor-sharp Snake Kiss, which was digging into Xiong Ji’s neck. The fact that his head was still attached at all was, frankly, astonishing. Even so, thin streams of blood were now trailing down the blade, and Li Yalin’s trembling voice came through, laced with urgency, “Hurry! I can’t hold on much longer…”
“Aah!”
Without hesitation, Ling Mo lunged into action. With the momentum of his charge, he swung his iron pipe back with all his might, then stabbed it directly at the airborne Xiong Ji.
“Splat!”
A spray of fresh blood burst forth as the iron pipe sank in, and Ling Mo’s arm immediately went limp from the recoil.
Xiong Ji’s massive body went rigid, and he threw his head back to unleash an earsplitting, guttural screech.
“Arghhhhh!”
He convulsed violently a few times before crashing to the ground with a resounding thud.
From the spot where Ling Mo had impaled him, a sinister hissing sound began to emanate.
“Ling Mo…”
Li Yalin’s body swung lightly, her long hair cascading as she let her head drop down alongside Ling Mo, appearing by his side. Her voice was tinged with incredulity: “Was that… the Thousand-Year Kill?”
“Huh?”
Ling Mo, with one foot planted firmly on Xiong Ji’s body, gritted his teeth and yanked the iron pipe out with a decisive pull.
Another spurt of blood gushed out as the wound where the pipe had been plunged was laid bare.
“Clearly not!” he shot back, exasperated.
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