The car sped down the road.
Zhou Ming was driving, and Gong He was in the passenger seat.
In the back seat behind them was a pile of clothing, all of Dr. Max's belongings.
As for Dr. Max himself, he had undergone professional cleaning and was isolated and wrapped (achieved by Gong He using Talismans). He was now stark naked, with Gong He's yellow paper Talismans stuck all over his body, barely covering his vital parts, and then wrapped entirely in cling film, looking quite pathetic.
However, this did ensure that Dr. Max's scent leakage was greatly reduced, and he was protected by Whale Shark, Qin Wumeng, and Xiang Zenan as they continued to run northeast.
Zhou Ming, meanwhile, had reunited with Gong He, who had left the team earlier, and was driving northwest with all of Dr. Max's belongings.
The ambush they had jointly set up earlier had two actual purposes.
First, if they could eliminate the Ultimate Mutant, they would naturally spare no effort to do so.
Second, if the gap between them was too large and they couldn't defeat the opponent, then they would observe what the Ultimate Mutant relied on to track its target.
If the opponent pursued Zhou Ming's team instead of Whale Shark's team, it would indicate that it relied on scent, giving the Reincarnators more room to maneuver.
Otherwise, they could only continue to find ways to fight the Ultimate Mutant until they reached Shandar City.
However, they hadn't expected the outcome of that battle to be neither their elimination of the Ultimate Mutant nor their dispersal by it, but rather them gaining the upper hand, only for the Ultimate Mutant to escape.
Under these circumstances, whether to continue splitting into teams became a point of contention within the group.
Ultimately, Zhou Ming made the final decision: the plan remained unchanged; they would continue to split into teams.
Now that the Ultimate Mutant was severely weakened, a complete squad might make it wary and unwilling to show itself.
But by splitting into two teams, no matter which team the Ultimate Mutant tracked, there would be a possibility of it acting after assessing the strength of both sides.
Zhou Ming always firmly believed that the Ultimate Mutant would never give up on revenge so easily; from their brief but memorable encounter, it was a pure zombie with sufficient intelligence and unwavering determination towards its target.
"But if that Ultimate Mutant has intelligence, it might manipulate other zombies to attack us, right?"
"Ordinary zombies are fine, but if they're Advanced Mutants, splitting into two teams would probably be very risky to deal with."
Gong He raised his concerns.
"It's not 'might,' it's 'will definitely.'"
Zhou Ming looked at the desolate landscape outside the window and said calmly, "Trust our teammates. They still have a lot of room to grow, and combat is the best catalyst for strength growth."
Just six hours later, their conversation became reality.
"We've been ambushed!" Xiang Zenan shouted hoarsely over the comms channel.
"Damn it, these zombies have even learned tactics, a pincer movement!"
"Advanced Mutant, such a huge Advanced Mutant, it flipped our car! Zhou Ming, Brother Ming, Master Ming, where are you?!"
"Shut up!" accompanied by Qin Wumeng's cold, soft reprimand, followed by a muffled thud and the sound of a heavy object falling.
Qin Wumeng's voice continued: "We can break out of the encirclement very soon. Whale Shark is locked in a fierce battle with an Advanced Mutant. I'll call him back, but our direction of travel might have to change."
"Try to loop towards Shandar City. Have you encountered any Advanced Mutants?" Zhou Ming asked.
"Not yet, perhaps there aren't any nearby, or the distant ones haven't arrived. We must retreat immediately!"
"We will rush to meet you as quickly as possible. Hold on, avoid if you can, a detour is fine, don't let them tie you down! By the way, Xiang Zenan just..."
"I knocked him out."
"...Well done."
Hanging up the call, Zhou Ming immediately turned the car around and headed northeast.
"We're meeting up?" Gong He asked tentatively.
"Yes, the Advanced Mutant's tracking has nothing to do with scent; it's still firmly locked onto Dr. Max. These clothes are useless now."
Saying this, Zhou Ming rolled down the car window and casually threw all the clothes from the back seat out. The garments fluttered in the wind, scattering and flying in mid-air.
"Hmm..." Gong He hesitated for a moment, then said, "Is there a possibility that Dr. Max actually quite wanted to wear clothes?"
Zhou Ming: "..."
Two hours later, they received Qin Wumeng's second call.
"We encountered an Advanced Mutant. Whale Shark is injured. The Advanced Mutant isn't dead and is still chasing us from behind."
Qin Wumeng's usually cold voice now held a rare hint of urgency.
"Can you come in our direction?" Zhou Ming asked urgently.
"I'll try, but it will require a big detour." Qin Wumeng sighed, "I'm sorry, the direction we're escaping in is completely opposite to yours."
"I'll catch up to you," Zhou Ming said.
His voice wasn't particularly impassioned, appearing very calm, yet it possessed a powerful, trustworthy magic that even settled Qin Wumeng's originally anxious heart.
Another three hours later, Zhou Ming and Qin Wumeng had their third conversation.
"We've taken down that Advanced Mutant."
This time it was Xiang Zenan speaking, his voice deep with profound weariness and frustration.
"Whale Shark is severely injured, and Qin Wumeng used her trump card, collapsing from exhaustion."
"The good news is we've broken free from the zombie horde's pursuit and are now moving in your direction."
At this point, Xiang Zenan's voice paused, then resumed.
"Zhou Ming, hurry, we really can't hold on much longer."
Zhou Ming slammed on the brakes, the car skidding sideways to an abrupt stop, tires screeching against the pavement, leaving long tire marks.
"Hey, hey! What happened?!" Xiang Zenan, hearing the abnormal braking sound, asked in alarm over the communicator.
Inside the car, Gong He watched in horror as a tall, winged figure slowly descended from the sky.
It was an Advanced Mutant about three meters tall, with a wingspan of ten meters, like a demon, its eyes filled with savagery and a desire to feed, showing no trace of intelligence.
"Nothing, I'll be there to find you shortly." Zhou Ming's voice remained calm. He hung up the communication, and two cold gazes fell upon that unique Advanced Mutant.
"I'm in a very bad mood right now, so everything I'm about to do to you is purely for venting."
"Bear with it, don't cry."
...Another hour later, Xiang Zenan finally saw the long-awaited Zhou Ming, and Gong He, who followed behind Zhou Ming, looking pale and listless.
This was at an abandoned suburban farm. Qin Wumeng was still unconscious, and Whale Shark was severely injured and had difficulty moving. Xiang Zenan had no choice but to bring them here to recuperate first.
Dr. Max, however, was unharmed and had even found a few clothes on the farm. Though old and dirty, they were much better than yellow Talismans and cling film.
"You look pretty beaten up, got a bad thrashing?" Zhou Ming handed a bottle of potion to Whale Shark, who was lying on the sofa, and joked.
"Who cares about the details of the battle? I'm alive, it's dead, that's the Dao of victory."
Whale Shark took the potion, opened it without hesitation, and drank it. Soon, some color returned to his face.
"Such a powerful effect!" Whale Shark exclaimed, "What grade of potion is this?"
"Go find out yourself when you return to the Main God Space." Seeing his rapid recovery, Zhou Ming no longer worried and turned to check on Qin Wumeng's condition.
"Uncle Gong, what's wrong with you? You look so tired. Did you encounter a tough battle on the way?" Xiang Zenan asked, curious about Gong He's pale face.
"I'd rather it be a tough battle." Remembering the scenes of Zhou Ming's one-sided slaughter of the Advanced Mutant not long ago, Gong He's face was filled with pain and disgust.
"Uncle Gong, do you have any Talismans that can restore spirit or make someone conscious?" Zhou Ming, who was checking Qin Wumeng's condition, called out.
"Let me see." Gong He quickly ran over to check and said, "Young Miss Qin's exhaustion is too great, it has damaged her spirit. It's not advisable to wake her up in a short time. I have a Spirit Nurturing Talisman here that can speed up her recovery."
Saying this, Gong He took out a yellow Talisman and placed it on Qin Wumeng's head.
Zhou Ming carefully observed the yellow Talisman, but only saw that the yellow paper was ordinary yellow paper, and the Talisman seal on it was written with vigorous strokes, yet there was nothing special about it.
However, since Gong He said it was useful, then it was fine to just leave it on. The difference between different Cultivation systems was vast, and it was normal for him not to understand the Dao.
"Then let her continue to sleep. Come on, let's hit the road!" Zhou Ming stood up and announced to everyone.
"We're leaving so soon?" Everyone was somewhat surprised by Zhou Ming's decision.
Everyone hoped to take advantage of the lack of pursuers to rest and recuperate here, at least to recover some fighting strength. Otherwise, when they faced the zombie army again later, their resistance would only grow weaker and weaker.
"No, this is not a good place to rest. 'It' won't let us be so comfortable."
Zhou Ming's gaze passed through the window, as if penetrating all obstacles, seeing another pair of cold eyes filled with hatred.
"The greatest possibility for no zombies besieging us now is that it is continuously accumulating strength, gathering more and stronger Advanced Mutants from farther away."
"That guy suffered a great loss at our hands and has sent troops to pursue and intercept us repeatedly without success, so it won't act easily again. Once it does act, it will be with overwhelming force, to completely crush and bury us with absolute power."
"So we must seize every minute and every second to reach Shandar City as quickly as possible. One day earlier, we are safe one day earlier."
"Furthermore, our rapid movement is also to disrupt that Ultimate Mutant's plan, preventing it from accumulating strength in peace, forcing it to continuously send troops to block us."
"This is exactly what I want: to constantly deplete its strength until it personally stands before us, or until we enter Shandar City first."
"This is a race against time. Whoever moves faster will win, but no matter who loses or wins, there will definitely be a battle between us and it!"