Chapter 499 - 496: Acting Separately
This time, everyone witnessed firsthand how Lin Xinghai effortlessly dispatched a Mutated Zombie.
Compared to before, when they had only seen the aftermath, witnessing it live had a much greater impact on everyone.
"Boss, that’s completely the combat power of a Body Shaping Realm expert!" Little Fatty exclaimed.
"I think it still depends on what kind of Mutated Zombie he’s fighting. Against those with weaker Defense Power, like Hunters and Spitters, I feel like the Captain can take care of them even more easily than a typical Body Shaping Realm expert."
"But if it were a Giant Arm or a Death Claw—the ones with powerful Defense Power—the Captain’s Attack Power would be insufficient. He’d probably fall short," Sun Tianbo offered, giving a more balanced assessment.
"But don’t forget, the Captain is only at the Blood Qi Realm Middle Stage," Xie Shanyong chimed in casually.
The others instantly fell silent. It was hard for them to even imagine how terrifying Lin Xinghai would be once he reached the Peak of Blood Qi Realm, or if he could truly achieve the legendary feat of fighting above his own realm.
"Actually, Ah Xing will reach the Blood Qi Realm Late Stage in another two or three days," Liu Miaomiao added.
In an instant, they all felt another dagger twist in their hearts. It wasn’t just the massive gap in combat power; the difference in their cultivation speeds was like the heavens and the earth.
Since they didn’t need to clean up the battlefield, the group quickly moved on. Thus began another tedious search for Mutated Zombies.
After running into a few waves of Ordinary Zombies, it took them nearly forty minutes to find the third Mutated Zombie.
It was another Spitter, and once again, Lin Xinghai was the one who dealt with it.
"Let’s split up," Lin Xinghai said after dispatching this Mutated Zombie.
He couldn’t stand this slow search anymore. Finding only one Mutated Zombie every half hour, on average, was a complete waste of time for him.
’If we keep going like this, won’t it take six hours to deal with these twelve Mutated Zombies?’
Lin Xinghai had no intention of dragging this out.
If he went on alone, with his Speed, he could scout out all the routes in half an hour at most, even without a burst of Speed.
Hearing Lin Xinghai’s words, the others understood that they were just holding him back. They all felt quite embarrassed.
"Er... Boss, we’ll do as you say. Also, since we didn’t help much this time, we won’t take any of the earnings from this side mission," Little Fatty said quickly after exchanging a look with the others.
"You’ll definitely get a share. Even if you didn’t get to contribute much, you still put in the effort," Lin Xinghai said with a wave of his hand. For him, having enough money was sufficient. Giving some to the others to help them grow stronger was an investment in his own faction.
Before Little Fatty could even respond to Lin Xinghai’s words, the others all started to protest.
"Captain! We held you back this time. We can’t possibly take credit for this."
"That’s right! We’ve already earned so much just by killing Ordinary Zombies with you. It would be too shameless of us to take a cut now without having done any of the work."
Seeing their reactions, Lin Xinghai couldn’t help but smile. ’At least this proves the people I’ve recruited are decent. It means I won’t be raising a pack of ungrateful wolves.’
"Alright, we’ll discuss how to split the pay after we get back to East Sea Base," Lin Xinghai said, waving his hand again. This time, before anyone could say another word, he activated his Phantom Body Technique and Divine Demon Body, vanishing before their eyes in a flash.
...
After parting ways with the others, Lin Xinghai immediately picked up his pace.
Of course, he didn’t go all out, merely activating his Phantom Body Technique and Divine Demon Body.
This combination had the lowest consumption. Just maintaining the Divine Demon Body only cost one point of Blood Qi Power per minute. He just needed to take one Blood Burst Pill to keep his body’s Blood Qi Power at an optimal level.
Now, Lin Xinghai moved forward maintaining a Speed of 1,600 points, which was far faster than before. In less than five minutes, he found the next Mutated Zombie.
This time, he encountered a Hunter. Lin Xinghai detected it with his Perception Power from 1,600 meters away and immediately activated his Time Acceleration Ability.
With a terrifying Speed of 16,000 points, he kicked the Hunter in the head and killed it instantly, before it could even react.
Lin Xinghai then proceeded with incredible efficiency, sweeping through the subway tunnels. In just twenty minutes, he had covered the entire route mapped out by the Military Department.
However, after finishing the route, he had only killed a total of ten Mutated Zombies, including the ones from before.
’Damn, bad luck. I’ll probably have to search the branch tunnels next. It’s even possible these Mutated Zombies have already left the tunnels through a subway entrance,’ Lin Xinghai thought, looking at the map with a frustrated expression.
Searching the branch tunnels meant he would have to backtrack through several areas.
He had no choice but to continue the search.
After nearly another twenty minutes, Lin Xinghai finally found the last two Mutated Zombies in a remote branch line.
With that, all twelve of the Mutated Zombies scouted by the Military Department had been killed by Lin Xinghai.
However, even after killing the last Mutated Zombie, Lin Xinghai’s brow remained slightly furrowed.
He hadn’t found any trace of the Shadow Demon. What was more frustrating was that even the Military Department wasn’t certain this particular Mutated Zombie even existed.
But Lin Xinghai hoped it did exist. After all, if the presence of a Shadow Demon was confirmed, the mission’s danger rating would increase, which meant an immediate bonus of one million.
If he killed it, he would get another three million. In other words, this single Shadow Demon was worth a total of four million Huaxia Coins—more than all twelve of the other Mutated Zombies combined.
But he had practically turned the entire subway network upside down and still couldn’t find it. It’s not like he could just conjure one out of thin air.
With that in mind, Lin Xinghai could only take out his map to check the location of Little Fatty’s group and prepare to rendezvous with them.
...
Little Fatty and the others hadn’t been idle after Lin Xinghai left.
They had been following the route planned by the Military Department, which meant there were some more remote areas that were not part of the official path.
Since they had time on their hands, they decided after a brief discussion to check these areas as well, just to make sure nothing slipped through the cracks.
Just as Lin Xinghai was killing the last Mutated Zombie, Little Fatty’s group was about to finish clearing the final remote section of the subway line.
"Alright, we’re almost at the last station. Let’s just finish this stretch and head back. With the Boss’s terrifying speed, I bet he’s almost done and on his way back," Little Fatty said with a smile, leading the way.
But just then, the expression on Liu Miaomiao’s face, who was in the middle of the group, suddenly changed. "Something’s wrong. There’s a Zombie approaching from ahead. Its build is similar to a High Level Zombie, but it’s a whole lot faster. It might be the Shadow Demon!"
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