40: Spirit in the Sophora japonica tree

After the last two ghosts floated away, Qin Shilei and the others had only closed their eyes to rest for a few minutes when a knock sounded from downstairs.

"Who is it?" Qin Shilei asked from the balcony, looking down.

"Help!" a girl of about eighteen downstairs called up, looking up.

The girl was wearing a white dress, had a beautiful face, and tears still glistened on her cheeks.

Her sorrowful appearance, like a pear blossom bathed in rain, immediately evoked pity in anyone who saw her.

"Please, go save my mother. She's trapped in a room by two zombies. The zombies are about to break down the door."

The girl quickly recounted the situation.

"Zombies? Saving people?"

Qin Shilei's eyes showed a hint of confusion.

With a thought, his pupils instantly turned silver-white.

Looking at the girl downstairs again, she immediately transformed into a hideous old woman.

"So, it's still a ghost."

Qin Shilei flicked his right hand downwards, and a bolt of lightning instantly struck the girl.

"Ah!"

The girl let out a scream, then reverted to the appearance of an old woman.

Before Qin Shilei could release another lightning bolt, the old woman downstairs had already passed through the door and entered the villa.

After waiting for a while and not seeing the ghost run up, Qin Shilei suggested, "Let's go down and see."

Qin Shilei and the others searched the first floor but found no trace of the ghost, so they returned to the hall on the second floor.

Another half an hour later.

Zhang Xiaoli suddenly leaned close to An Qian's ear and whispered something.

Then, the two of them got up and walked towards the restroom.

"You just stay by the door, I'll be out very soon," Zhang Xiaoli said, her face slightly flushed.

Seeing that they were just going to the restroom, Qin Shi Lei turned his head away.

As soon as he turned his head, he heard An Qian's footsteps going downstairs.

"An Qian, where are you going?"

Qin Shi Lei asked as he chased after her.

An Qian, however, turned a deaf ear and ran downstairs quickly.

"An Qian, wake up!" Qin Shi Lei caught up to her at the first-floor staircase, grabbing her arm and shaking her.

Under Qin Shi Lei's shaking, An Qian quickly sobered up. "What happened? How did we end up on the first floor?"

Just then, urgent footsteps came from upstairs again.

"Oh no!"

Qin Shi Lei pulled An Qian and quickly ran upstairs.

As soon as they reached upstairs, they saw Zhang Xiaoli leap out from the balcony.

"Let's chase!"

Qin Shi Lei, pulling An Qian, also jumped down from the balcony.

Because the fog was too thick, by the time they jumped down, they could no longer see Zhang Xiaoli's figure.

"This way!"

Qin Shi Lei listened to the footsteps coming from his front left and quickly chased after them.

Fearing that An Qian might also get lost, he held her right hand tightly this time.

Under the thick fog, visibility was obstructed, and Qin Shi Lei and the others couldn't unleash their speed.

The footsteps ahead sometimes went left, sometimes right, preventing them from closing the distance for a while.

Circling around, Qin Shi Lei and the others unknowingly arrived at the base of the Old Locust Tree in the east of the village.

That human face once again emerged from the trunk of the Old Locust Tree.

Wang Yinghao's eyes suddenly lit up as he watched the three of them, Qin Shi Lei, getting closer and closer.

The human face licked its lips and muttered to itself, "How lucky! Just as I'm about to regain a body, I'm sent two such exquisite maids."

"Zhang Xiaoli, wake up!"

About ten meters from the Old Locust Tree, Qin Shi Lei finally caught up with Zhang Xiaoli.

"Qin Ge, why did we run here?" Zhang Xiaoli asked the same question after she sobered up.

Suddenly, a whooshing sound came from above their heads.

Looking up, a branch swept down towards Qin Shi Lei.

Clang.

Qin Shi Lei swung his sword upwards at the branch.

The arm-thick branch was severed by one sword strike and fell to the ground.

More and more branches swept down.

"Let's run!" Qin Shi Lei turned around, preparing to run out of the branches' attack range.

However, the two women were once again enchanted, turning around and walking towards the Old Locust Tree.

"An Qian, Zhang Xiaoli!"

Qin Shi Lei shouted, and had no choice but to turn around and chase after them.

The Seven Star Sword in his hand, like a swimming dragon, swiftly cut and chopped down the sweeping branches.

Qin Shi Lei casually threw out several bright flashlights, illuminating the surroundings brightly.

In front of him was an Old Locust Tree with a diameter of at least four or five meters.

An Qian and Zhang Xiaoli had already walked to the side of the Old Locust Tree at this time.

The Old Locust Tree extended several branches from its trunk, binding the two women.

"Haha, only such beauties are worthy of being my Wang Yinghao's maids!"

Seeing that the two women were finally completely under his control, the human face couldn't help but let out a wild laugh.

"Are you a tree or a human? Release us quickly!" An Qian, freed from the Old Locust Tree's illusion, shouted at the human face beside her.

Wang Yinghao sighed, "I am both a tree and a human. I never thought that after being swallowed by the locust tree, I would merge with it and become a Tree God."

"Little beauties, don't be impatient. I will soon have a body again, and then I will definitely dote on you two properly."

Wang Yinghao was originally just an ordinary villager in Yangliu Village. After the apocalypse, he was chased by zombies and fled to the Old Locust Tree.

Just as he was about to be killed by the zombies, the Old Locust Tree extended several branches and swallowed both him and the zombies.

After a series of encounters, his soul merged with the newly born soul of the Old Locust Tree, and he then became the Old Locust Tree.

By devouring the villagers and zombies over the past few days, he was about to be able to create a body for himself, allowing him to temporarily detach from the Old Locust Tree and move.

Seeing that his branches were slow to take down Qin Shi Lei, Wang Yinghao used his ultimate move.

More than ten solid soul bodies flew out from the Old Locust Tree.

As soon as those soul bodies emerged, they swiftly floated towards Qin Shi Lei.

Qin Shi Lei had just chopped off a branch swinging towards him when a hand silently touched his shoulder.

A chilling coldness spread from the palm, instantly extending to half of his body.

Qin Shi Lei's movements, which were as fast as lightning, suddenly slowed down by a few points.

A branch as thick as a thumb took the opportunity to wrap around him, coiling twice in an instant.

One-Punch Man.

Qin Shi Lei executed a spinning slash, quickly severing the branch and also cutting through several soul bodies.

However, those soul bodies were not affected in the slightest and continued to reach out to touch him.

With a thought, a bolt of lightning attached itself to the blade of the Seven Star Sword, and he once again struck at the surrounding soul bodies.

As the electric light flashed, those soul bodies sizzled as if red-hot iron bars had been thrown into water, and at the same time, they became ethereal.

Qin Shi Lei continuously slashed seven or eight times within a second, turning those dozen or so soul bodies into blurry figures one by one, and then into nothingness, disappearing from this world.

After dealing with these soul bodies, two seconds had already passed.

Qin Shi Lei stomped his foot and instantly arrived in front of the Old Locust Tree.

With a few swift slashes, he cut off the branches that were trapping An Qian and Zhang Xiaoli.

He embraced with his left hand, then threw, sending the two women twenty to thirty meters away.

Turning around, he began to chop at the Old Locust Tree's massive trunk.

Clang!

The Seven Star Sword striking the Old Locust Tree's trunk actually produced a metallic sound.

Although the Old Locust Tree was incredibly hard, Qin Shi Lei's single sword strike penetrated a full forty to fifty centimeters into the trunk.

"Don't go!" Wang Yinghao commanded the branches to strike at Qin Shi Lei while also directing more branches to block the two women.