Thuong Sinh glided across the rusted corrugated iron roofs, his silhouette blurring like a ghost. The blood poison he had just absorbed from the staff-bearer was seething, making every step carry a terrifying explosive force.
Looking down from above, the North Gate of Luc Thuy Fortress appeared like a steel bastion. High-power floodlights swept back and forth, and machine guns mounted on sandbags were ready to open fire. The Luc Thuy Garrison troops had completely blockaded the exit.
In the center of the encirclement, Lam Thanh Moc was being cornered against a stone wall. She grit her teeth, manipulating the last thorny vines to fend off the soldiers closing the ring.
"Stop!"
A haughty, commanding voice rang out from behind the military barricade.
Thuong Sinh halted on the highest roof. This voice, no matter how many years had passed, no matter if it were buried under the dust of the apocalypse, he recognized instantly.
He looked down. A male dressed in a neat military uniform, yet with his collar wide open in a careless manner, stepped out from behind an armored vehicle. That face, that self-satisfaction—it was Tran Pham.
"For such a beautiful plant-type ability user to be on the side of those Black Thread vermin?" Tran Pham smirked, his eyes scanning Lam Thanh Moc calculatingly. "Hand over the hexagonal medal, and I will consider finding a position for you in the army."
"In your dreams."
Tran Pham's face darkened: "Shoot her in the legs."
Whoosh—!
A jet-black blade force descended from the sky, shattering the armored vehicle right next to where Tran Pham stood, creating a shocking explosion. Thick black smoke billowed up, obscuring the soldiers' vision.
Thuong Sinh leaped down from the heights, landing gracefully in the middle of the encirclement, shielding Lam Thanh Moc.
Tran Pham was knocked to the ground by the aftershock; he scrambled to his feet, shouting loudly: "Who is it?!"
Thuong Sinh slowly turned around. The floodlights from the city gate shone directly onto his pale face. The faint scar by his left eye and the black veins pulsing beneath his skin made him look like a demon that had just crawled out of hell.
Thuong Sinh looked directly into Tran Pham's eyes, the corner of his lips curling into a cold smile: "Tran Pham... you were right. I was bitten."
Tran Pham froze. One second. Two seconds.
His pupils contracted as the memory of that warehouse resurfaced.
"Thuong... Thuong Sinh? You're not dead?!"
Thuong Sinh took a step forward, each footfall causing the ground beneath him to crack from the pressure of his blood power.
The surrounding soldiers loaded their weapons simultaneously. Tran Pham suddenly screamed: "Kill him! Shoot him dead for me!"
Thuong Sinh gave them no chance. "Phantom Steps" activated in its most frenzied state. He didn't use his sword to kill the soldiers; he only used the blade force to blow away their firearms. His sole target was the man retreating in terror.
"Aaaaagh!"
A heart-wrenching scream rang out. Not the sound of a gun, but the sound of a blade tearing through the air. In an instant, Thuong Sinh closed the gap. The sword, carrying corrosive blood poison, swept through four lightning-fast slashes.
Rip! Rip! Rip! Rip!
Tran Pham collapsed. Both his arms and both his legs were severed cleanly at the joints, pitch-black blood geysering out like a fountain.
Thuong Sinh had intentionally controlled his strength. The blood poison from the blade did not kill Tran Pham instantly; instead, it froze his blood vessels, preventing him from dying of blood loss, but forcing him to endure the pain of his flesh and bone being slowly eaten away.
"You... you..." Tran Pham trembled on the ground, looking at his limbs scattered around him, his eyes filled with absolute horror before the extreme pain caused him to black out.
Thuong Sinh stood looking down from above, his deep red eyes devoid of a shred of mercy. He turned to Lam Thanh Moc, who was stunned by his brutality. Thuong Sinh took her hand, his voice regaining a terrifying calm: "Let's go."
Thuong Sinh did not look back at the chaos behind him. He picked Lam Thanh Moc up in a princess-style carry, ignoring her panic and the blush on her face from the surprise. At this moment, only one thought remained in his mind: He had to go far away.
He pushed "Phantom Steps" to its absolute limit. Afterimages of Thuong Sinh trailed one after another, gliding across desolate fields and rusted truck carcasses along the Northern road. The blood power inside him was like an over-fired furnace, burning fiercely but also depleting at a terrifying speed.
After moving more than ten kilometers using high-speed footwork, an old brick house appeared before them, standing solitary amidst wild grass taller than a person's head.
"We... we've arrived."
Thuong Sinh's steps were unsteady as he walked with Lam Thanh Moc into the basement. As soon as he crossed the threshold of the rotting wooden door, he stopped and leaned against the corner of the wall, patches of his skin turning bright red then deathly pale. The eruption of blood poison to cripple Tran Pham followed by using full-force footwork to flee had squeezed out his last drop of vitality.
Lam Thanh Moc anxiously prepared to speak, but Thuong Sinh lightly pressed a finger to his lips: "Shh... there are people."
She shuddered, immediately shrinking into the shadows beside him. From the upper floor of the abandoned house, the sound of footsteps and conversation drifted down.
Thuong Sinh leaned fully against the peeling wall, his heart thumping in his ears, drowning out the sound of the wind through the door cracks. He felt his blood power revolting violently; it no longer flowed through the channels but felt like shards of broken glass clawing at every inch of his flesh.
On the mezzanine above, the clumping of wooden footsteps stopped right at the edge of the stairs.
"That Tran Pham guy from Luc Thuy Garrison is so arrogant. To have to cooperate with him this time is truly bad luck," Lam Vu's voice sounded deeply annoyed.
"Drop it, Lam Vu," Trinh Tuan replied. "He's the son of a high-ranking military official after all. Factions like the Flint Society or the Green Line Alliance have to respect his father to get ammunition. We bear the Black Mark; we're out here doing cleanup on the outskirts. If we run into him, just endure a bit to get it over with. Hand over the mission and go back to sleep."
Lam Vu snorted coldly: "Seeing his cocky face makes me want to punch him. That kind of pampered brat would have been zombie bait long ago if he weren't surrounded by soldiers with guns."
Downstairs, Lam Thanh Moc held her breath, looking at Thuong Sinh. A patch of skin on his neck that had just been blood-red had now turned as pale as a corpse. She saw his hand trembling as it gripped the sword hilt, his knuckles white. She knew Thuong Sinh was using his final shred of will to keep his breathing from becoming erratic.
Suddenly, Trinh Tuan above went silent. He stood up abruptly, his nose twitching.
"I smell blood."
Lam Vu instantly became alert, his voice dropping: "A zombie crawled in?"
"It's not the smell of rot; it's fresh blood, very close."
Footsteps began to move toward the rotting wooden stairs. Thuong Sinh narrowed his eyes; in the darkness, his pupils flashed with a cruel, deep red light.
He signaled Lam Thanh Moc. She understood, her small hands silently mobilizing her plant ability—not to attack, but to make vines from the back of the house crawl in, concealing the narrow trapdoor entrance right beneath their feet.
As Trinh Tuan's boot touched the first step, Thuong Sinh used his last bit of strength to pull Lam Thanh Moc deeper into the cellar and closed the dust-covered wooden door.
"No one's here," Lam Vu's voice sounded on the ground floor after searching for a moment. "Just some dried blood stains on the floor. Probably a zombie passing through."
"Strange... that blood smell was very peculiar," Trinh Tuan muttered, but then clicked his tongue. "Whatever, it's almost dawn. Let's pack up and head back to Luc Thuy early. It'll be a hassle if we run into the Garrison patrols at this hour."
Thuong Sinh sat in the darkness of the cellar, listening to the footsteps of Lam Vu's group fade away until they vanished. Only then did he dare to relax his body, collapsing into Lam Thanh Moc's lap.
The stinging pain from muscles forced beyond their limit surged, making his limbs tremble uncontrollably. This was the consequence of pure muscular exhaustion from bearing a massive amount of blood power to maintain that terrifying speed for ten kilometers.
"Let's go."
Lam Thanh Moc helped him up; she could clearly feel the searing heat radiating from his body. The two quietly left the abandoned house through the back exit, vanishing into the head-high wild grass. They didn't take the main road but chose to cut across the fields toward the misty mountains in the Northwest.
After walking another three kilometers, Thuong Sinh felt as if his legs no longer belonged to him. He collapsed beside an old tree.
Lam Thanh Moc looked around and saw a natural rock alcove hidden behind a large thorn bush; she supported him inside. It was secluded enough to block the night wind and hide from distant prying eyes.
She quickly took a water bottle from her backpack, propping his head up so he could take small sips. The dim moonlight cast into the alcove, illuminating Thuong Sinh's face. The bright red skin from earlier had vanished, leaving only the pallor of extreme exhaustion.
"You were too reckless," Lam Thanh Moc said, her voice trembling with worry. "Carrying me all that way... do you think you're made of stone?"
Thuong Sinh closed his eyes, feeling the internal power slowly circulating to soothe his strained muscles. He moved his black-gloved hands slightly; the cool sensation helped his hands stop trembling.
"At that moment, that was the only way to escape fastest," he replied, his voice still hoarse.
Lam Thanh Moc was silent for a moment, using a cloth to wipe the dust and dried blood from his face. Her movements were very gentle, as if afraid of hurting the man who had just slaughtered an entire squad.
"Thuong Sinh... don't do that again."
"I mean... don't carry me and run like that. I can run myself."
Thuong Sinh opened his eyes to look at her. In the darkness, his eyes were no longer the red of killing intent, but a deep, silent darkness.
"I didn't want to gamble."
Lam Thanh Moc froze. She understood his meaning: He didn't want to gamble with any risk to her life.
Silence filled the alcove. Thuong Sinh began to focus on circulating the "Marsh Blood Corrupting Heart Manual" solely for recovery. Under the technique's influence, the torn muscle fibers began to heal themselves, the numbness gradually replaced by a warm heat.
About two hours later, Thuong Sinh's breathing stabilized; he felt his strength gradually returning.
He sat up, looking toward the direction of Luc Thuy. By now, the news of the Colonel's son being crippled would have certainly made the military explode. They couldn't stay in the outskirts for long.
"Let's keep moving." He stood up.
"Where are we going? Continuing North?" Lam Thanh Moc asked.
Thuong Sinh looked at the map in his mind, then at the forest-covered mountains ahead.
"We can't take the trails. We'll cut through the forest. There are many zombies there, but it's hard for the military to search. Once I'm fully recovered, we'll decide the next step."
"Mm." Lam Thanh Moc nodded.
The two figures continued into the night, leaving behind the dim floodlights of the city, advancing into the vast wilderness. After traveling a long distance from the plains, the terrain began to slope upward.
The deeper they went, the more humid the air became. Thuong Sinh scouted as he walked. He no longer used high-speed footwork, but his pale red eyes continuously scanned the thickets.
Over an hour later, amidst the massive ancient trees, a square dark shadow appeared.
It was a small wooden cabin, its roof collapsed at one corner, patches of green moss clinging to the rotting walls. The house sat entirely isolated from the outside world, appearing as if it had been abandoned long before the apocalypse began.
Thuong Sinh stopped, signaling Lam Thanh Moc. He quietly drew his sword, stepped forward, and lightly kicked the wooden door.
Creeeeak—!
The rusted hinges groaned dryly. The inside was pitch black, dust so thick that even the slightest movement sent it swirling. After confirming there was no breath of zombies or mutated creatures, he let out a low sigh of relief.
"Come in. We rest here tonight."
They stepped inside; the cabin consisted of a single room. In the middle was a set of old, decayed wooden furniture, a bed in the corner, and a stone fireplace covered in cobwebs.
Lam Thanh Moc quickly used her ability, controlling a few small vines to crawl around the door gaps and windows, creating a web-like screen. She spread a small tarp on the wooden floor, looking at Thuong Sinh, who was leaning wearily against the wall.
"No, don't light a fire," Thuong Sinh stopped her. "Light and smoke in the forest attract too much attention."
Lam Thanh Moc nodded, sitting down beside him and bringing out a thin blanket to share between them. The space was so silent one could hear the insects chirping outside and each other's steady heartbeats.
Only then did Thuong Sinh truly let go. He felt his muscles, after enduring extreme tension, begin to relax, accompanied by a sharp but pleasant aching sensation. He looked down at his hand still wearing the black glove, then at Lam Thanh Moc.
She was looking out the window, where the moonlight filtered through the leaves, creating dappled spots of light on the dusty floor.
"After this... Luc Thuy definitely won't have a place for us anymore," Lam Thanh Moc said softly, her voice tinged with melancholy.
"Do you regret following me?" Thuong Sinh asked, eyes still closed.
Lam Thanh Moc turned to look at her; in the dim moonlight, her eyes shone strangely. She shook her head lightly, then leaned her head on his shoulder.
"No. I was just thinking... if there's anywhere peaceful left out there."
Thuong Sinh was silent. He had no answer for her; this world had been broken for a long time, and peace was a luxury reserved only for the strong or those who had already fallen.
"Sleep," he whispered.
The blood power inside him began to circulate in its healing cycle. The small wooden cabin in the deep forest was like an oasis, completely separated from the chaos and bloodshed in Luc Thuy.
That night, Thuong Sinh did not dream; he sank into his deepest sleep since the journey began, with the warmth of his companion beside him.