"Croak!" Like a frog's croak, an Advanced variant crawled out of the shadows on the wall, its bulging eyes fixed on Zhou Ming.
"Hiss, hiss!" Another Advanced variant, nearly three meters tall, appeared. Its body was obese and bloated, its belly as large as a pregnant woman carrying octuplets, and black-green smoke constantly billowed from its mouth.
A slender, ghost-like Advanced variant silently appeared on the road beneath Zhou Ming's feet. Its bamboo pole-like body swayed from side to side, and green-yellow bile-like liquid constantly spilled from its wide-open mouth, landing on the ground with a "hissing" corrosive sound, emitting plumes of white smoke.
Three Advanced variants, one Super variant!
The battle was on the verge of breaking out. The frog-like variant was the first to pounce on Zhou Ming, its wide-open, blood-red mouth full of sharp, white teeth, bringing with it a foul, fishy wind.
The next moment, a flash of a bright Blade Light Gu streaked across. Two halves of a body flew past Zhou Ming, "splatting" against the wall, blood and flesh sliding down.
"What a pity, one less Black Zombie," Zhou Ming said with regret, shaking off the viscous black blood from his adamantium alloy blade.
Boom!
A thunderous roar boomed in his ears, and his vision was obscured by a grey-white mass—the five-meter-tall giant body of the Super variant!
Despite its enormous size, it possessed such swift speed and terrifying explosive power!
In an instant, a huge grey-white fist smashed fiercely towards Zhou Ming's head.
Zhou Ming's figure flickered. The huge grey-white fist smashed down, passing through Zhou Ming's body without hindrance, but only dispersing an afterimage. It also shattered the balcony beneath his feet, and half the room collapsed with a crash.
'Terrifying speed, immense power... I really want this body!'
Using Elusive Gu to dodge the Super variant's punch, Zhou Ming was mid-air. Black-green Iron Vines shot out from his right hand, and at the same time, he opened his mouth to activate Ghost Wail Gu.
"Ahhh! Ahhh! Ahhh!"
Ghost Wail Gu emitted a sharp shriek, like fingernails scraping a blackboard, extremely piercing, containing power that ravaged the Soul, causing the movements of several variants to freeze simultaneously.
Swish! Iron Vine Gu wrapped around the neck of the slender, ghost-like variant. With a pull, the immense force dragged Zhou Ming towards the slender variant, while also pulling the variant so hard its feet almost left the ground, and its slender neck made "crunching" sounds.
Rumble… The Super variant locked onto Zhou Ming again. Its huge body, like a fully sped-up dump truck, crashed over with an overwhelming Aura of crushing everything.
Zhou Ming brandished his adamantium alloy blade. Blade Light Gu surged, extending several zhang, slicing the slender variant's head vertically.
At the same time, he activated Elusive Gu again, once more dodging the Super variant's collision.
With another loud boom, the Super variant crashed into the building beside the road.
Its six-meter-tall body was as high as two stories. At this moment, it was comparable to a battering ram, instantly destroying two floorboards, shattering load-bearing walls. The two lower floors were destroyed and collapsed, and the upper floors, losing support, also began to crack and fall.
The destructive power of the Super variant was evident!
However, while the Super variant was buried under the collapsing bricks and stones, the last fat variant also died in Zhou Ming's hands.
The fat variant's belly was filled with highly concentrated compressed poisonous Qi, like a balloon. When Zhou Ming sliced it with his blade, it immediately exploded on the spot. Thick, green-yellow poisonous smoke billowed, mixed with incredibly sour-smelling pus that splattered everywhere, utterly disgusting.
Fortunately, Zhou Ming retreated quickly, otherwise, if he had been splashed with pus and poisonous smoke, and his whole body had become putrid and marinated, Zhou Ming might have had to consider changing his body.
When the Super variant pushed aside the rebar and concrete debris that had fallen on it and rushed out of the ruins, it was met with a dazzling Blade Light Gu.
Ching!
The Super variant's enormous head rolled into the air, and viscous black blood gushed from its headless cavity.
Zhou Ming had just let out a sigh of relief when a sudden warning sign arose in his heart. Without hesitation, he activated Wood Armor Gu and Ghost Divination Robe Gu. Two layers of defense almost simultaneously enveloped him.
The next moment, a huge grey-white fist smashed fiercely into him!
The terrifying force was like being hit head-on by a road roller. The two layers of defense made "crunching" sounds, and Zhou Ming was sent flying backward, crashing into a building.
Zhou Ming "wah" spit out a mouthful of fresh blood. He hadn't expected this variant to be able to live without its head, completely exceeding the basic principles followed by ordinary zombies, which caused Zhou Ming to misjudge.
Pushing aside the broken walls and ruins that covered him, Zhou Ming leaped out, only to see that the tall, headless body had not taken the opportunity to attack him while he was pinned. Instead, it was fumbling on the ground, searching for its head.
By the time Zhou Ming rushed out of the building ruins, the Super variant had already found its head and lifted it onto its neck.
He saw countless tiny flesh buds extend from the severed neck, quickly connecting the head and neck, and growing back perfectly.
'Super variant, extremely strong self-healing ability. Is 'extremely strong' enough to describe it?'
Zhou Ming cursed the main god in his heart for misleading him. He used Elusive Gu again to dodge the Super variant's charge, then backhanded with his blade, splitting open the thick muscles on its back.
Then, he watched as countless tiny flesh buds grew out of the deep, bone-visible wound, quickly repairing it.
"Tsk, truly troublesome." Zhou Ming recalled Nohara Momonosuke from the last world. "Indeed, monsters like this, which can't be killed no matter how you try, still need to be attacked with fire."
As Zhou Ming was preparing to use an incendiary bomb, the Super variant suddenly let out an explosive roar.
Roar! Roar, roar, roar!
The roar carried a strange power fluctuation, which Zhou Ming's powerful Soul keenly captured.
Then, he heard rustling sounds.
That was the sound of large groups of zombies running, causing the ground to vibrate.
From all directions, countless shadowy figures of zombies rapidly appeared, converging madly towards this location.
'The Super variant can control lower-level zombies?' Zhou Ming was startled, then secretly cursed himself for being foolish.
'That's right, those three Advanced variants could follow it, let alone ordinary zombies!'
Looking at the zombies surging like a tide, Zhou Ming's mouth curved slightly. While dodging the Super variant's attack, he delivered another blow to it, and at the same time, issued a command.
Are you the only one with subordinates?
Zombies leaped out from the surrounding buildings, launching indiscriminate attacks on the nearby zombies. Immediately, the zombie horde and the Zombie horde clashed, becoming incredibly chaotic.
Zhou Ming and the Super variant weaved through the melee. Their respective opponents remained only each other; everything else that even tried to approach would be shredded.
"Try this!" Zhou Ming threw out a barrel of gasoline. As soon as it got close, the Super variant punched it, causing it to explode. Pungent gasoline drenched its head.
"Again!" Another barrel of gasoline flew towards the Super variant. Before its fist could smash it again, Zhou Ming shot the oil barrel.
With a boom, the oil barrel exploded, and flames splattered everywhere, landing on the Super variant, immediately igniting the gasoline on its body. Fierce flames turned the Super variant into a torch.
However, even though its body was burning, the Super variant showed no reaction, continuing to attack Zhou Ming.
At the same time, Zhou Ming activated Ghost Eye Gu and saw that the Super variant's skin actually blocked the flames. Its grey-white skin was like a fire-resistant layer, constantly being scorched on the surface and then recovering. As the gasoline gradually burned out, the flames also slowly extinguished.
"You're forcing my hand!"
Zhou Ming's anger flared. He activated Iron Vine Gu again. Black-green Iron Vines, like agile venomous snakes, swiftly moved towards the Super variant, climbing onto its wrists, ankles, waist, legs, arms, neck... The Super variant roared repeatedly and struggled with all its might, but couldn't break free. Instead, the Iron Vines tightened further and further, constantly restricting its mobility.
Zhou Ming's expression was a little grim, but his movements showed no hesitation. His figure flickered, and the dazzling Blade Light Gu formed a continuous blur, its sharp edge so fierce that even the zombies dared not look directly at it.
As slices of Blade Light Gu fell, the Super variant's two arms, legs, head, and abdomen were all cut open by Zhou Ming, dismembered into more than a dozen parts, each wrapped by an Iron Vine and spread out.
No matter how many flesh buds extended from its severed sections, if they couldn't touch other limbs, it couldn't quickly recover through limb reassembly!
Zhou Ming split open the head that had been brought before him by an Iron Vine, revealing a brain that was already half-shriveled.
"It seems the control center isn't in the brain, or at least not entirely in the brain. Go!"
Corpse Refining Gu flew out, exploding in a black halo that enveloped the exposed brain.
The Super variant's face, which still had only a head and was snarling silently, immediately stiffened. Countless green hairs grew wildly, and even the myriad flesh buds densely protruding from its neck began to transform into green hairs.
This scene, a feast for trypophobes, made Zhou Ming's scalp tingle. He immediately controlled the Iron Vines to piece its body back together, each time allowing the green hairs to spread and almost cover that part of the body before connecting the next piece.
Soon, the entire body was reassembled, and the ferocious Super variant transformed into an expressionless green-haired Zombie.
Its size had shrunk by a full circle, now only about three meters, but the strength of its body had increased by another large margin. However, that terrifying recovery ability was gone.
Feeling his strong control over the Green Zombie before him, as if it were an extension of his arm, Zhou Ming finally retracted the Iron Vines, and his grim expression gradually softened.
The pressure from the Forest Sea Reincarnation Body was always present for Zhou Ming. The last Family battle almost caused his Aperture to collapse. Since then, he had been very careful about using Gu.
He would end battles quickly if possible, and avoid using Wood Path Gu if possible. Even when using Wood Path Gu, he would try to suppress its power to avoid putting immense pressure on his Aperture again.
However, he had just fully activated Iron Vine Gu, causing the power of this Gu to surge, but also putting immense pressure on his Aperture.
Although the duration of this battle was extremely short, Zhou Ming still understood that he was heading towards destruction.
If he continued to fight at this pace, perhaps in this world, Zhou Ming would have no choice but to consider the issue of his Aperture self-destructing.
Death, was so close.