(Xyrean Province- Inner Region)


    (Unnamed Road- Abandoned Small Town)


    There was something not right about this ce…


    Qin Lan tightly gripped the gun in her hand as she slowed moved forward while asionally stopping when she heard a noise.


    The inside of the storage room was barely illuminated, and one could only faintly see the chunks of meat that hung on hooks.


    The meat had already started to rot but strangely enough there were no flies buzzing around the carcasses.


    And the temperature… why was it so low?


    Qin Lan could feel her body tremble slightly and goosebumps were already appearing along her arms and legs.


    Eve''s pitch-ck eyes could see perfectly fine in the dark and a frown appeared on the zombie empress'' face.


    The scent… it was getting stronger.


    Eve sniffed the air a few times since it was hard to distinguish the smell in a room full of rotten meat.


    The zombie empress stretched out her ws and ripped apart the meat that was blocking her path forward.


    Qin Lan could not see very well but she was able to vaguely make out what Eve was doing and appreciated it.


    Thest thing she wanted was the smell of rotten meat on her clothes.


    The cold metal of the gun in her palm brought somefort to Qin Lan as she heard a faint rustling noise.


    Someone… or something was down here…


    Maybe it was watching their every move. Waiting for the perfect time to strike…


    Qin Lan forced herself not to flinch as a faint beam of moonlight suddenly appeared on the opposite side of the cer.


    Where did that sudden beam of lighte from? Qin Lan walked towards it before stopping herself.


    "Eve…" Qin Lan suddenly spoke in a serious tone.


    "Yes?" Eve replied as she continued to move the hanging meat to the side.


    "Do you see that light?" Qin Lan asked softly as she pointed in the direction of the light.


    "What light?" Eve responded with confusion evident on her face.


    Qin Lan felt shivers go down her spine as she nced in the direction of the light only to see that it had disappeared.


    "I saw a beam of moonlight but then it quickly vanished… it was over there…" Qin Lan raised her voice as she spoke.


    Eve frowned and sniffed the air once more.


    She didn''t smell anything from the direction where Qin Lan had seen the mysterious light, but it didn''t hurt to be careful.


    The zombie empress trusted her favourite human, so she assumed that what Qin Lan said was the truth.


    The faint rustling got even louder, and Qin Lan saw something dark and slimy moving along the ground to her right.


    Bang! Bang!


    Without hesitation Qin Lan pulled the trigger on her gun and fired two bullets in the direction of the mysterious thing.


    Qin Lan may have been feeling slightly scared before but when it came tobat, it was as though her fears immediately faded away.


    All she could think about was the enemy…


    The enemy that needed to be eliminated.<novelnext></novelnext>


    A horrific screech echoed through the storage room and the building itself seemed to tremble as Qin Lan fired off another shot with a cold glint in her eyes.


    She was a killer…


    Eve''s skeleton-like frame rushed over to the unknown creature, and she used her ws to rip apart its fleshy exterior.


    What looked like blood sttered on the floor and the creature let out a faint groan before shuddering.


    The zombie empress held up the corpse so Qin Lan could see what it was. It was not an animal like she initially assumed but rather part of a nt''s root.


    The root was thick brown tendril with a mouth somehow attached to its outer surface with razor sharp teeth.


    A mutated nt? Not good… not good…


    Mutated nts were incredibly rare during the end times but without exception every single one of them possessed powerful abilities.


    Only humans with fire-based gifts were able to deal with them and even then, the loss of life was usually not worth it for the leaders of the bases.


    Several locations became forbidden zones once it was discovered that a mutated nt was living in that area.


    Eve also realised that they were dealing with a mutated nt and a rare look of seriousness shed across her face.


    Rustling could be hearding from around the cer and soon numerous brown tendrils emerged from the walls.


    Bang! Bang! Bang!


    Qin Lan urately shot the approaching tendrils and then ced her gun back in her holster. She took out the knife attached to her hip and rushed forward without hesitation.


    I wish I had my long sword instead…


    A strange thought briefly surfaced in Qin Lan''s mind, but she immediately tossed it to the back of her mind.


    The young woman ducked and weaved through the endless barrage of tendrils while shing out with her knife.


    The technique and experience in her movements belonged to a veteran who had trained and fought for a lifetime on the battlefield.


    They did not belong to an office worker whose only struggles were dealing with a ten-hour work shift on a daily basis.


    ? Qin Lan''s body had been greatly enhanced after upgrading her ability, but she still felt as though she was a bit slow.


    She would perform certain moves and her body would respond a half a second slower than what she expected.


    Qin Lan tilted her head to the side and narrowly avoid a tendril with a mouth that unleashed a series of horrific cries and shrieks.


    Eve growled fiercely and her ck ws shredded any tendril that came within reach of her body.


    The zombie empress'' eyes werepletely hollow, and one could see wriggling veins just beneath the surface of her skin.


    Her twisted form got even more monstrous as Eve was determined to destroy everything that posed a threat to her favourite human.


    The fightsted for several long minutes until thest tendril had been cut off.


    Qin Lan took in a few deep breaths in order to calm down her excited mood. She looked down at all the chopped-up pieces of roots on the floor.


    What she had thought was blood was actually sap that leaked out of the tendrils that had been damaged.


    The sap had a sweet-smelling aroma that covered up the rotting scent of meat that was present in the cer.


    Qin Lan turned towards Eve and saw that she was holding a tiny green nt that was wriggling uncontrobly.


    "Found it…" Eve darkly growled before she closed her palm on the nt''s stem and crushed itpletely.


    The nt stopped moving immediately and cracks began to form along the walls of the cer.