Chapter Eighty-Six: Soul-Seizing Possession

“We should go. Hurry and find the others.”

Cheng Luoyi turned and strode away.

The sounds of the recent fight had alarmed quite a few zombies. Outside the factory, savage howls rose without end; a great tide of the dead was rushing this way.

Li Yun supported Li Xuan as they moved forward.

Anxiety gnawed at them.

No one knew what had become of the rest of their companions.

Yet at that moment, Lin Dong faintly sensed that something was wrong. He felt a strange, uncanny aura settling over them all.

As if some unseen thing had already crept near in silence.

Just then, Sun Xiaoqiang suddenly shook his head, his expression turning blank.

“Huh? Do you hear a cat meowing?”

“What cat meowing?”

The others looked around, baffled.

“Brother Xiaoqiang, have you been watching too much Black Cat Detective? Are you hearing things now?” Zhao Meiling said.

By now, everyone was used to Sun Xiaoqiang. He was always doing odd things or saying absurd nonsense, so no one took him seriously.

But Sun Xiaoqiang tapped his forehead with his palm, and the confusion in his face deepened. In his mind, a faint meow rang out.

It sounded like the wail of a child, shrill and maddening.

In the next instant—

Sun Xiaoqiang froze where he stood. His once bright, intelligent eyes abruptly narrowed, turning into a pair of yellow, feline pupils.

“Miaaaooo—”

The cry burst from his mouth, echoing through the dark factory. It was chilling beyond words.

“Hm?”

This time, everyone heard the so-called cat’s cry.

They quickly turned back to look, and at once their faces changed in horror. A chill shot down their spines, and every hair on their bodies stood on end.

Sun Xiaoqiang’s hair was bristling upright. His eyes had narrowed into slits like a cat’s, and a strange smile hovered on his face as a low growling sound rumbled from his throat.

That was no human sound at all. It was the snarl of a beast.

“Brother Xiaoqiang, you...” Zhao Meiling’s eyes went wide. She was nearly frightened senseless.

“Miaaaooo—”

Another cry came from Sun Xiaoqiang’s mouth, this one even more piercing and mournful.

Then his figure flashed, and he hurled a punch at Zhao Meiling.

“Move!”

Cheng Luoyi leapt forward and raised an arm to block.

Bang!

A heavy thud rang out, like iron hammers colliding. Sun Xiaoqiang’s strength was no small thing; the blow drove Cheng Luoyi back five or six steps before she barely steadied herself.

The number on the wristband at her arm flickered.

Pain level: 27%.

“This fool... he’s actually pretty strong,” Cheng Luoyi muttered.

Before their eyes, Sun Xiaoqiang seemed to have gone mad and was about to charge again.

Cheng Luoyi struck first. Her figure blurred, her speed growing even faster, and she drove a punch straight into Sun Xiaoqiang’s face.

Boom!

Hit by tremendous force, Sun Xiaoqiang flew backward like someone struck by a car. He hurtled more than ten meters, crashed through the factory wall with a thunderous roar, and only stopped after the wall collapsed around him, burying him beneath shattered stone.

The people nearby were frantic. None of them knew why Sun Xiaoqiang had become like this, and they also felt Cheng Luoyi had hit him a bit too hard. Worry rose in all their hearts.

“Sister Cheng, why is Brother Xiaoqiang attacking us?”

“I don’t know.” Cheng Luoyi shook her head. “Though to be fair, I’ve wanted to hit him for a long time.”

Everyone fell speechless.

At that moment, the collapsed rubble shifted, and Sun Xiaoqiang rose to his feet. Though he had taken that beating, he seemed unable to feel pain at all. Narrowing his catlike eyes, he grinned at the group, plainly pleased with himself.

At the sight, shock flashed through Li Xuan’s eyes, and he instantly remembered something.

“That’s right! One of my teammates was like this before. He attacked us like a madman, and that’s how the zombies found us and trapped us here!”

“Then... is it mind control?” Zhao Meiling frowned tightly.

“No.”

Lin Dong, who had kept silent for a long time, shook his head. After careful thought and a serious analysis of what had just happened, he finally spoke.

“He’s been possessed by a cat.”

“Possessed?”

The others stared at him in astonishment. It was the first time they had ever heard such a thing.

Possession? What kind of bizarre ability was that?

Sun Xiaoqiang’s mind worked in only the simplest way; he was practically immune to mental interference or control. He was like a broken computer that struggled even to boot up, let alone be tampered with. No one could hijack and use a machine like that.

But possession was different. It was like linking him to an entirely new host and running a new program through it.

For Sun Xiaoqiang, that was a perfect counter.

“What do we do now?”

Their brows knit with worry, panic tightening in their chests.

The howls outside were drawing ever closer. More zombies were on their way.

And under the fixed gaze of those feline eyes, Sun Xiaoqiang launched himself at Cheng Luoyi once more.

The two clashed at once.

For the moment, she was completely tied down.

Lin Dong watched in silence. He had not expected that black cat to possess such an ability. It was truly sinister. The world outside was indeed full of danger...

He did not know how to break this power.

But to see through appearances to the essence, one had to deal with the source.

Kill the black cat, and this should end.

“Yes. Kill that cat, and it’ll be over.”

“What?”

Everyone turned to look at him. On that handsome face, his expression remained calm, as though he were merely stating something trivial.

Could it really be done?

By now, the zombies had already drawn near. One ghastly face after another appeared before the factory, all of them snarling savagely, packed together in a dense flood as they surged toward the group.

And now Li Xuan and Li Yun had exhausted their energy and lost the ability to fight. Cheng Luoyi was tied up by Sun Xiaoqiang. Of those who could still battle, only Lin Dong and the two “construction workers” remained.

In everyone’s eyes, surviving this situation at all was already a desperate hope.

To say nothing of killing the black cat.

Lin Dong fixed his gaze ahead and walked toward the horde, long blade in hand. His steps were steady and powerful, his eyes as cool and composed as ever.

Facing the swarm alone, he truly carried the aura of a lone man holding a pass against ten thousand.

A red gleam flashed in Lin Dong’s eyes.

The Corpse King’s Domain unfurled in an instant.

A crushing pressure, like a boundless sea of blood, surged violently toward the zombie horde.

In that instant—

The frenzied tide of zombies suddenly halted, as if the world itself had pressed pause upon them.

At that moment, all sound seemed to vanish.

Then some of the lower-level zombies exploded outright, flesh and blood bursting apart in sprays of gore.

Lin Dong gripped the long blade. As his energy poured into it, the fire crystal core shone, and searing heat spread through the air.

Whoosh—

Roaring flames blazed up and wrapped themselves around the slender blade.

Holding that flaming weapon, Lin Dong’s figure flickered and shot into the horde ahead. He moved at the very limit of speed, leaving afterimages in his wake.

As the blade swept out, the wind shrieked around it. Trailing a brilliant tail of fire, it severed zombie heads with a single stroke.

Where the edge passed, blood flew—only to be instantly dried by flame and reduced to black ash drifting away.

With only a few strokes, Lin Dong cut down an entire cluster of zombies.

As though he had entered an empty land.

He swept through armies as easily as rolling up a mat.

The place where he stood instantly became a vacuum, a dead zone no zombie could approach.

With a single slash he shattered skulls, or split bodies clean in two.

Where his long blade pointed, nothing could withstand it.

“This...”

Behind him, Li Xuan and the others stared in utter stupor. What they were seeing was overwhelmingly shocking, and amazement rose in every heart.

He was far too strong.

Zombies could be slaughtered like this?

Everything before them had overturned everything they thought they knew.