438: Chapter 435 was truly exhausting.

Wei Ziqing drew his bone sword and met the charging porcupine.

The porcupine brandished the quill in its hand with a fierce wind, every strike accompanied by the sound of breaking air; the tip was still stained with wood chips from piercing through trees earlier. Wei Ziqing dodged a horizontal sweep by sidestepping, and his bone sword followed the momentum to carve a shallow gash on its arm—no blood flowed, but the porcupine's movements visibly stiffened.

Neuroparalytic Toxin. It would take effect in a few seconds.

The porcupine also seemed to sense something was wrong; it took a step back and glanced down at its arm. The quills on its back were slowly growing, but only tiny tips had emerged, far from being ready to be launched.

This amount of time was enough for Wei Ziqing to stop it.

On the other side, Lu Jianchuan, Shen Mingyuan, and Ye Ouyang had already rushed toward that house.

When they were less than ten meters away—

Boom!

The entire house exploded.

Wooden boards, shattered glass, and bricks splattered in all directions like a rainstorm, and the group instinctively raised their hands to protect their faces. Before the dust and smoke had even cleared, a figure could be seen walking out from the ruins.

Was that... a person?

At least it looked human in shape. But that face was iron-blue, a gray-blue that clearly didn't belong to a living person. He wore a torn straitjacket, the fabric hanging off him to reveal the same gray-blue skin underneath. He gripped a monkey's head in his hand, looking down and gnawing on it bite by bite.

The monkey's corpse was scattered nearby—blown to pieces, with hands, feet, and internal organs everywhere. However, it was still possible to see that it was wearing lab personnel's clothing.

Shen Mingyuan stared at the monkey's corpse and was stunned for a moment.

"Makes sense," he said, his tone carrying a strange realization. "If the New Federation had any animal that could serve as a doctor, nothing would be more suitable than a monkey. Talk about a stereotype."

Before he could finish his sentence, the thing gnawing on the monkey's head looked up and turned toward them.

The left side of his face was completely devoid of flesh, leaving only stark white bone and a hollow eye socket, but the eye on the right side of his face was terrifyingly bright. He tossed away the half-eaten monkey head and let out an indistinct low growl from his throat.

Then he charged.

His speed wasn't fast, but that blunt, head-on momentum made one instinctively want to retreat.

Lu Jianchuan did not retreat.

He took a step forward and kicked the thing squarely in the chest.

Bang—!

The thing was sent flying like a ragdoll, smashing into a tree. The trunk split open with a loud crack, and his entire body became embedded in the fractured branches.

But before the group could breathe a sigh of relief, he moved.

He pulled himself out of the branches, and the chest that had just been kicked into a mess was healing at a speed visible to the naked eye—broken ribs reconnected, torn muscles grew rapidly, and skin covered it layer by layer. The same went for the broken leg; the twisted bones snapped back into place with a series of clicks, and flesh surged like a living thing to fill the gaps.

The left side of his face was also growing, but much slower. Fascia crawled out over the bone bit by bit like tiny worms, followed by blood vessels, muscle, and skin—the process was so slow it was nauseating to watch.

He stood there, tilting his head to look at them, the light in his right eye flickering.

The porcupine's body swayed, and the quill in its hand fell to the ground with a clang. It tried to stand steady, but its limbs no longer obeyed—the Neuroparalytic Toxin had fully taken effect. It stared wide-eyed at the figure in the pure white armor across from it, then collapsed with a crash, unable to rise again.

Wei Ziqing flicked the blood droplets off his bone sword and turned around.

The four of them stood in a circle, surrounding the recovering zombie in the middle.

The zombie had just pulled himself out of the branches and was tilting his head at them. His chest was almost fully healed, and his broken leg was reattached; only the left side of his face was still slowly growing—fascia, blood vessels, and muscle crawling outward layer by layer in a way that made one's scalp tingle.

Lu Jianchuan wasn't in a hurry to act, simply staring at him.

Ye Ouyang stood beside him and couldn't help but speak up.

"Is it finally going to break out?" His tone was a bit subtle. "genetic warriors caused by my cells, then an apocalypse, and finally the collapse of order and all that..."

Shen Mingyuan added, "Then after a while, I reckon I'll have a Rebirth. Rebirth back to the day before the apocalypse appeared, right?"

He chuckled twice.

"Just kidding, just kidding." He stopped laughing and stared at the zombie. "But this thing, I can feel it, definitely has something to do with my cells."

As soon as he finished speaking, the zombie moved.

Its body suddenly darted to the right, bypassing Wei Ziqing and rushing straight for the fallen porcupine.

Wei Ziqing thought it was coming for him and had already raised his bone sword—but the thing brushed past him and lunged onto the porcupine.

It opened its mouth and began to gnaw.

Teeth tore through fur and bit into flesh, and a gurgling swallowing sound came from its throat. It ate extremely fast, gulping down large mouthfuls, its entire face buried in the porcupine's abdominal cavity as blood splattered everywhere.

As it fed, the regeneration speed of the left side of its face visibly accelerated—the fascia and blood vessels that had been crawling slowly began to grow frantically, muscles covered it in layers, and skin closed toward the center at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"It's replenishing nutrients!" Ye Ouyang shouted.

Wei Ziqing had already rushed forward, his bone sword stabbing toward its heart from behind. Lu Jianchuan followed closely, his silver-white figure cutting in from the side.

But faster than them were Shen Mingyuan's bullets.

Bang—!

A black-red plasma bullet accurately pierced the zombie's skull, entering from the back of the head and exiting through the forehead. A hole exploded in its head, and brain matter and bone fragments splattered the ground.

The zombie's body stiffened for a moment.

Then it continued gnawing.

On that head where a hole had been blown open, the cavity was healing. Brain matter retracted, bone fragments squeezed toward the middle, and new tissue covered it layer by layer—though it was slower than when it was gnawing on the porcupine just now, it was indeed healing.

It didn't even look back, simply gnawing a bit deeper into the porcupine's abdominal cavity.

Lu Jianchuan's footsteps paused.

"The head isn't a lethal spot?"

Wei Ziqing slashed his sword across the zombie's back, the bone sword carving a deep wound that revealed the bone. He followed up by kicking it in the waist, sending the thing flying off the porcupine.

Lu Jianchuan leapt from behind and smashed a fist into its chest.

Bang—!

The zombie flew out like a cannonball, smashing into an old tree over ten meters away. The trunk shook violently, and a bird's nest fell from the canopy, slamming onto the ground as several fledglings with barely any feathers scrambled to crawl out.

The zombie lay on the ground, an unknown number of bones broken throughout its body, its chest caved in significantly, and its left arm twisted at a strange angle. But it used its one arm that could still move to grab—snatching up two of the scrambling fledglings.

It stuffed them into its mouth.

Chew.

Crunch.

The sunken chest began to bulge, the twisted arm snapped back into place with a series of clicks, and the broken bones reconnected one by one. It stood up, its wounds healing at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Ye Ouyang stared at this scene and couldn't help but speak up.

"Wow, my cell regeneration ability is super strong..." He scratched his head. "Get ready. Even partial brain damage is fine; I think if we want to kill it, we might need to completely obliterate its head in one go."

Shen Mingyuan had already raised his dual pistols.

"Better to just burn it to ashes in one go."

Bang, bang, bang, bang—!

Black-red plasma bullets poured out, all striking the zombie. The moment those bullets exploded, flesh was charred black, emitting a scorched stench.

But it was only for a moment.

Those charred parts quickly fell away, and new flesh grew from beneath, faster than the speed at which it was being burned.

Wei Ziqing frowned.

"Something's wrong." He stared at the recovering figure. "By all rights, my toxin should have taken effect. It should have collapsed."

Lu Jianchuan stood beside him, his gaze never leaving the zombie.

"I'm afraid that in order to maintain this super-regeneration, its metabolic rate is extremely fast," he said. "Your toxin is being metabolized out very quickly."

He paused.

"Switch to Second Form."

Wei Ziqing nodded and sheathed his bone sword.

The sword and scabbard fused and restructured. A black outer layer grew out from the pure white armor, covering the breastplate, pauldrons, and greaves. Within seconds, the heavy armor form was complete. A slender black Long Spear extended from his back and fell into his hand.

The two of them charged forward simultaneously.

In the distance, Shen Mingyuan's dual pistols didn't stop. Head, heart, spine—he specifically picked spots that looked lethal to hit. Every shot landed, and every shot exploded into a bloody hole.

But those bloody holes healed in the blink of an eye.

"No way..." Shen Mingyuan lowered his guns, a hint of a breakdown in his voice. "Man, I give up! I finally manage to hit it, and this regeneration—holy crap! What kind of nonsense is it that hitting it isn't lethal?"