As she spoke, Li Yalin’s figure suddenly flickered, and then she disappeared from Ling Mo’s sight.
“Yalin?” Ling Mo froze for a moment before quickly speeding up.
When he reached the spot where Li Yalin had just been, he was taken aback once again.
There was a hole here…
The opening was crudely made, but the edges were polished to an astonishing smoothness. Since the hole slanted downward, it wasn’t necessary to crawl in to get a glimpse of what lay inside.
Ling Mo bent down and peered into the depths. He could faintly make out some pipes, along with even darker, deeper spaces, and, for a split second, a shadowy figure gliding past.
“This building… it really feels like it’s been hollowed out…”
Ling Mo couldn’t help but think about termites. As it stood, this place really was starting to resemble a giant termite nest…
The thought of human-sized “zombie termites” sent a shiver down his spine.
“Ling Mo, come here quickly!”
Li Yalin’s voice suddenly echoed from inside, sounding unusually excited, as if she had just made a significant discovery.
“On my way.”
Ling Mo had barely responded when his body froze.
His pupils contracted, and his heart began pounding violently.
“Yalin’s voice came from the left side, so…”
He looked up at the dark depths in front of him, a cold chill creeping down his spine.
“Then who was that shadow?”
In this strange pipeline maze, both the Zombie Puppets’ sense of smell and Ling Mo’s main body’s psychic sensing were subject to an intangible interference.
Because of this, neither Ling Mo at first glance nor Li Yalin, now down below, had realized that there was a third party present here…
Moreover…
“It must’ve noticed us! But why is it hiding? Is it because of Yalin?”
Ling Mo’s mind raced with nonsensical thoughts as he quickly crawled inside.
“Or… did it deliberately let me see it?”
Soon, Ling Mo neared the spot where the figure had appeared.
This passage was a bit lower than the ones he had passed earlier. The ceiling was densely packed with pipes, forming an oppressive canopy above him. Behind the pipes in some areas, there seemed to be even more hidden spaces… All around, it was pitch black, an overwhelming darkness that pressed down heavily. Ṙᴀ𝐍ȱ𝐛Ëș
Even if a normal person managed to crawl this far, they would likely collapse under the unbearable psychological pressure.
Not knowing where the exit was, not knowing where they were crawling to, and not knowing what kind of monsters might lurk in the darkness… Just these anxieties and speculations alone were enough to mentally crush someone.
Ling Mo’s ability to maintain his current composure wasn’t solely due to the presence of the Zombie Puppets; the primary reason was his own unyielding willpower.
For a superhuman who controls psychic power, it would be nearly impossible to fully unleash their potential without a steadfast resolve.
But even Ling Mo, who possessed this advantage, couldn’t help but feel his heart race slightly at this moment.
Something was definitely there. But as he pursued it, all was silent… Other than the faint sound of his own breathing and the “thump, thump, thump” of his heartbeat, nothing else could be heard.
“Plop…”
At the sudden sound, Ling Mo’s scalp tingled, and his eyes widened sharply.
He stared warily into the darkness but quickly realized something.
“It’s not the sound of a living creature moving…”
Cautiously, Ling Mo scanned his surroundings before reaching out to touch the ground nearby.
“This is…”
A sticky liquid clung to his fingers. It resembled blood, but it felt thicker.
Following the trail of the liquid upward, Ling Mo finally spotted some traces on the pipeline above.
“This didn’t seep out of the pipes; it was left there by something… That shadow… When it crawled past, its head must have brushed against this pipe! But what kind of liquid would drip from its head?”
As Ling Mo pondered, his gaze once more shifted forward.
“Ling Mo, hurry up!” Li Yalin called out again, urging him on.
Ling Mo took a long, hard look into the darkness ahead before slowly retreating toward her.
“Check this out!”
Li Yalin was crouched in a corner, seemingly examining something in front of her.
“What is it?”
As soon as Ling Mo crawled closer, his brows furrowed deeply. It took him a full two seconds before he finally asked, “Yalin, where’s Xia Na’s clothing?”
“Right here. I wasn’t sure if I should touch it, so I didn’t,” Li Yalin replied, retreating slightly and revealing another corner of the pile.
The reason it was referred to as a “pile”… was because it had lost its original form entirely.
At first glance, it looked like a formless black mass. But upon closer inspection, one could faintly see fragments of something mixed into it.
As a Zombie herself, the Zombie Puppet made an immediate judgment the second it caught sight of the pile.
The remains… were a mixture of shattered bones stuck together with bits of blood and flesh. As for the fragments, they were the torn clothing originally worn by the corpses.
“This amount of bone suggests it’s more than one person…” Li Yalin suddenly remarked. “And these bodies aren’t like us. Look here…” She pointed at a segment of bone. “Pretty fresh bite marks, don’t you think?”
“So, these corpses are from those gestation pods?” Ling Mo asked, suppressing the discomfort roiling in his stomach.
It was already challenging enough to inspect these remains up close, forcing himself to maintain composure. But then he realized he had underestimated the absurd situation… After all, standing beside him was a Zombie, smiling nonchalantly while discussing the “quantity of bones.”
“Yep!” Li Yalin nodded emphatically, talking to herself as much as to him. “But why are they here? If they were going to eat them, wouldn’t it make sense to do it outside? On the other hand, if it’s for food storage, then why leave them in this place?”
“What do you mean?” Ling Mo asked, puzzled.
Li Yalin tilted her head and explained, “Because this doesn’t seem like their primary activity zone. Hmm, in human terms… you wouldn’t put your refrigerator in the parking lot, would you? It’s the same logic.”
“That’s… oddly specific,” Ling Mo thought, utterly speechless.
However, he had to admit, Li Yalin’s analogy was simple and easy to understand…
As for how she came to this conclusion… well, it would be hard to explain such reasoning based on Yalin’s intelligence alone. Ling Mo instead chalked it up to the difference in the levels between the two Zombies.
“Then why did Xia Na come here?” Ling Mo asked aloud, his gaze already shifting elsewhere.
In some ways, he felt genuinely curious about Xia Na’s actions…
Black Na might act impulsively, but Nana would never be reckless like this.
What did she discover that drove her to plunge in without hesitation?