90: Chapter 90 The crystal core is actually red.

Lu Zhiyu's water jet was released smoothly, but due to a lack of experience, her aim needed improvement; she had intended to strike the zombie's heart, but ended up hitting its stomach instead.

Fortunately, the zombie was quite accommodating; it released a fireball to meet the water jet, and the moment water and fire collided, a deafening explosion erupted in the corridor.

A massive amount of steam billowed up, far more than when Xu Wanning had fought it, and white mist filled the corridor, leaving only blurred outlines visible.

Cheng Xu's water jet snuck in and struck its right arm directly, causing the flames on the right arm to be extinguished for a fleeting moment.

The zombie roared angrily at Lu Zhiyu and Cheng Xu, raised its right arm, aimed its palm at their position, spread its five fingers, and flames poured out from its palm.

Before the flames reached them, the heatwave arrived first; Cheng Xu frowned, and his hair already smelled scorched.

He gritted his teeth and did not retreat, quickly releasing his Supernatural ability to form a water curtain in front of him.

Lu Zhiyu also injected her Supernatural ability into it to resist the fire attack.

The flames collided with the water curtain, emitting a dull hissing sound; the surface of the water curtain began to boil, and heat and steam scattered everywhere.

The surrounding wall plaster peeled off in large chunks again, turning the corridor into a giant steamer; it was stiflingly hot.

Lu Mingyuan and Zhang Shan stepped forward, using the rubble on the ground to attack the zombie.

They didn't expect to kill it directly; their goal was to stall and bait the zombie into constantly releasing and consuming its Supernatural ability.

After more than twenty minutes, the four of them were panting heavily.

"Go back, let Grandpa Zhou and Wu Feng come out." Xu Wanning felt it was about time and quickly told them to return.

"Yes." The group quickly retreated, opened the door, and went inside.

Taking advantage of the shift change, Xu Wanning released the Supernatural ability she had been charging for a long time, and the temperature in the entire corridor plummeted from sweltering heat to extreme cold in the blink of an eye.

The water vapor permeating the air, the dampness seeping from the walls, and the moisture accumulated on the floor were all condensed by Xu Wanning, forming a visible white vortex around her body.

She raised her right hand high, spread her five fingers, and all the water vapor gathered, compressed, and condensed above her palm, layer upon layer; a giant Ice Spike with a diameter of over 30 centimeters and a length of nearly three meters formed rapidly above her head.

The Ice Spike was deep blue all over, its surface covered in fine, spiral patterns.

Cold air poured down continuously from the Ice Spike, and white frost spread rapidly across the floor.

She had exhausted all her Supernatural ability just to condense this one, but this single one was enough.

Xu Wanning swung her hand forward violently, and the Ice Spike shot out, hurtling toward the zombie with an attitude of destroying everything in its path.

During its flight, the walls, floor, and ceiling were all frozen with a thick layer of ice.

The zombie clearly sensed the threat and released fireballs again, but this time, the effect after the fireballs hit the Ice Spike was completely different; the fireballs exploded on the surface of the Ice Spike, gouging out one pit after another, but these pits were almost instantly refrozen and filled by the cold air continuously gushing from inside the Ice Spike.

The Ice Spike devoured all the flames that rushed at it, then froze into even colder frost.

The zombie was instantly panicked and increased its firepower, spraying flames from both hands simultaneously at the Ice Spike; the two streams of fire merged into a fire dragon, and the Ice Spike began to melt in the flames.

Water poured down like a waterfall, but the melting speed was far from fast enough; the volume of the Ice Spike was simply too large, and it was unstoppable amidst the flames.

Boom!

The Ice Spike slammed head-on into the zombie's chest, the impact shattering all the remaining glass windows on both sides of the corridor.

The zombie's body was pushed backward by the Ice Spike, crashing through the wall at the end of the corridor and flying into the room behind the wall along with a string of brick debris and twisted steel bars.

Xu Wanning bent over, panting heavily; this strike had drained all the Supernatural ability from her body, her limbs were trembling slightly from overexertion, and the cold from her fingertips even backlashed against her skin.

Now was not the time to relax; that zombie should still be alive. Sure enough, a low roar came from behind the wall, and then a ball of fire gushed out from the collapsed hole in the wall.

Grandpa Zhou and Wu Feng walked out; Xu Wanning took a deep breath, straightened her back, and nodded at Grandpa Zhou.

Grandpa Zhou didn't give any extra response, instead gesturing to Wu Feng, and the two walked toward the hole in the wall, their palms shimmering with a metallic glow.

Xu Wanning followed behind them, her steps slow, holding a long sword, ready to deliver a fatal blow at any moment.

At the end of the corridor, the firelight still flickered, illuminating the rough edges of the wall hole; dust and steam slowly settled in the air, revealing the outline of the room behind the hole, where one could vaguely see the zombie struggling to climb up from a pile of broken bricks, its body still wreathed in residual ice shards and flames.

Xu Wanning walked into the hole and saw the zombie half-kneeling in the ruins, its right arm hanging limply, the flame on its left hand having shrunk to the size of a fist, flickering uncertainly and ready to extinguish at any moment.

It seemed its Supernatural ability was finally exhausted.

Grandpa Zhou and Wu Feng raised their hands, and metal spikes shot out from their palms simultaneously, carving two distinct trajectories through the air before converging into a single beam in front of the zombie, ultimately forming a metal spear thicker than an arm that pierced through the zombie's chest.

The zombie let out a hoarse roar, the flames in its eye sockets flared violently for a moment before gradually dimming, and its tall body fell backward, crashing heavily into the ruins.

Xu Wanning leaned against the broken wall, panting heavily; every muscle in her body was trembling, and her ten fingers were stinging and numb.

The zombie lay in the ruins, its arms limp, dark green liquid seeping out from its wounds.

"Nickname, are you okay? Can you still move?" Zhou Ke's voice came from behind.

He was no better off; the sleeve of his right arm was burned down to charred rags, and the back of his hand was bright red and already beginning to blister.

"I can." Xu Wanning straightened her body, forcibly suppressing the trembling in her legs. "It's not dead yet."

The zombie indeed wasn't dead yet; it braced itself against the ground, trying to stand up, the hole in its chest pierced by the metal spear still making a squelching sound; its spine hadn't been destroyed, so it could still move.

Xu Wanning walked forward, her feet crushing a piece of frost-cracked tile, and walked up to the zombie, swinging her sword down; the zombie's head left its body, rolled into the ruins, and those two balls of fire were completely extinguished.

Xu Wanning swayed twice and leaned against the wall. "Dig out its crystal nucleus."

Wu Feng hurriedly went over, stabbed his sword into the zombie's brain, rummaged around, and dug out the fiery red crystal nucleus inside. "This crystal nucleus is actually red."

"A Fire Ability crystal nucleus; one F-rank crystal nucleus is equivalent to 100 primary crystal nuclei. In other words, a Fire Ability user can directly upgrade to E-rank after absorbing this crystal nucleus. When we go back, the Fire Ability Users will draw lots, and whoever wins gets it."

Everyone couldn't help but be happy; with this, they would be able to have an E-rank Ability User.