Chapter 10: The Life-Saving Decapitating Knife

Guo Hanxue struggled against the zombie assault with a bitter, frantic smile. She never imagined that the person she had been hunting would end up being devoured by zombies while trying to save her. At this moment, her heart was a tangled mess of regret and pain.

Forget it. Since he died because of her, she would pay him back with her own life.

Covered in wounds, Guo Hanxue gradually ceased her resistance. As she watched the zombies closing in, their sharp fangs poised to tear into her, she closed her eyes in utter despair.

"BOOM!"

A thunderous explosion rang out. A zombie’s head went flying, landing right in Guo Hanxue’s hands.

Startled, she opened her eyes to see that the swarm surrounding Jiang Yi had been bathed in blood. A pitch-black blade flashed frantically; with every swing, limbs and gore were scattered everywhere.

Jiang Yi’s eyes were bloodshot. The black skull-severing blade was wrapped around his arm once again. His left hand, wielding the blade, moved with almost instinctive ferocity. No zombie could withstand the sharpness of that weapon. Soon, to Guo Hanxue’s astonishment, the five zombies that had been attacking her were completely dismembered.

Brutal and imposing, Jiang Yi advanced, his blade carving a path with every step. The rapid strikes fully ignited the blade’s murderous nature. Regardless of which direction the zombies lunged from, Jiang Yi’s blade seemed to anticipate them, always striking their necks a step early. It was a blade truly worthy of its name: the Skull-Severer.

Watching Jiang Yi fight so savagely, Guo Hanxue’s desire for death vanished. Seizing the rare moment of respite, she grabbed her longbow and hooked it around the neck of the zombie pinning her down. With a powerful yank, the sharp bowstring sliced into the creature's neck, and its head rolled away, accompanied by a spray of putrid blood.

Jiang Yi glanced over coldly, a flicker of genuine shock in his eyes. With his last ounce of strength, he plunged his black tang-dao into the eye socket of the final zombie. His adrenaline faded, and he collapsed into a pool of blood, unable to hold the blade any longer. He gasped for air as if his body were about to explode.

Guo Hanxue was in no better state. Both were drenched in blackish-red gore, with hardly an inch of unblemished skin left—covered in scratches and bite marks.

Fortunately, the zombies on the fourth floor had been completely wiped out. Otherwise, with their current exhaustion, either one could have easily been consumed by even a single straggler.

After resting for a long time, Guo Hanxue felt a sliver of strength return. She used her bow as a crutch to stand, looked at Jiang Yi, who was still panting on the ground, and after a moment of hesitation, hobbled toward him, leaning against the wall.

Jiang Yi felt as though his entire body was screaming in agony; beyond the physical wounds, the immense drain on his strength and spirit was even worse. He regretted his impulsive choices once again. Sensing Guo Hanxue approaching, he panicked, his face turning pale. "Damn it, you’re coming for more?" He struggled to reach for the black blade stuck in a zombie’s skull, but he couldn't even lift a finger.

Guo Hanxue rolled her eyes at the sight of Jiang Yi writhing on the floor like a giant black worm. "Relax, I’m not trying to kill you right now! Or do you want to lie here forever?"

Jiang Yi’s expression stiffened. He looked at her miserably. "Then you have to promise not to give me any more trouble!"

Guo Hanxue glared at him with frustration. "If you don't want to get up, then just die here!" She turned to leave, but Jiang Yi shouted urgently, "No, wait! I don't want to spend the day lying with a pile of rotting corpses. Please, be the bigger person, don't hold a grudge, and give me a hand!"

Listening to the near-shameless pleading behind her, Guo Hanxue suppressed her rising anger and turned around, offering her hand.

Jiang Yi froze for a second before quickly grabbing it.

In that moment, both were stunned. Though their filthy hands were weak and trembling, they suddenly became each other’s support.

***

It was a sensation neither Guo Hanxue nor Jiang Yi had ever experienced before.

Fortunately, the moment passed quickly. Stumbling as they supported one another, Jiang Yi retrieved his blade, gave it a strange look, but said nothing, allowing Guo Hanxue to help him climb to the fifth floor.

The door to room 508 was ajar, and they slipped inside with ease. Guo Hanxue dumped Jiang Yi onto a bed before collapsing onto the one opposite. Both were gasping for air in their weakened state. Their eyes met, and for some unknown reason, they both suddenly burst into laughter.

Guo Hanxue’s laugh was desolate, while Jiang Yi’s was the relief of one who had narrowly escaped death.

Not resting for long, the heavily wounded Jiang Yi stood up and gritted his teeth as he peeled off his sweat-drenched clothes. Guo Hanxue’s lifeless eyes shifted toward him. "What are you doing?"

"Treating my wounds and stopping the bleeding," Jiang Yi said, carefully peeling the fabric away from his skin. "If I keep bleeding like this, I’ll die of blood loss before the zombies get me."

Guo Hanxue gave a bitter laugh. "It’s useless. Don’t waste your energy. Once bitten or scratched by a zombie, you’ll turn in a few hours. What’s the point of treatment?"

As if remembering something, she looked at him with sudden intensity. "Promise me, when one of us turns, the other will grant them mercy. I don't want to become a zombie when I die." As she spoke, two lines of tears streaked down her face.

Jiang Yi blinked and turned to look at the desperate woman. "Don’t you know? Ordinary zombie viruses are ineffective against those of us with abilities."

Guo Hanxue, currently overcome with grief, looked up in surprise. "What did you say? You mean we won't die?"

Jiang Yi couldn't quite appreciate the appearance of Guo Hanxue, whose face was so dirty her features were barely visible. He nodded and continued undressing. "Of course. I can’t speak for you, but I’m definitely not going to die!"

"Is this the kind of ability you mean?" A gentle breeze swept through the dormitory as Guo Hanxue spoke.

Jiang Yi looked up, stunned. Between the fingers of her raised right hand, a faint cyan light flickered and coiled. Seeing this, his heart pounded. "You’re an esper?"

In truth, he had suspected as much since seeing the power of her bow, but he had assumed it was merely an ability that enhanced her archery—especially since her close-combat skills had been so terrible.

But seeing an manifestation of power nearly identical to his girlfriend's left him shocked. Out of the nearly one thousand survivors in the cafeteria, only his girlfriend had displayed such supernatural abilities beyond the reach of science.

Guo Hanxue nodded, dispelling the energy with a weary sigh. "I’m not sure myself. A week ago, after my fever broke, I realized I could manifest wind energy. But the power is so weak, I never use it... Am I really not going to die?"

Compared to discussing her powers, she was far more concerned about her own life.

***

Jiang Yi looked at her with a hint of envy but replied, "You won't turn into a zombie, but if you don't stop the bleeding, you'll still die from blood loss, and you won't look any better for it."

Hearing this, Guo Hanxue forgot her excitement and shrieked, "Then hurry and stop the bleeding! But I don’t have any medicine here, what do I do?"

Seeing her panicked state, Jiang Yi found it somewhat amusing; he couldn't reconcile this version of her with the one who had been trying to hunt him down. "Fine, I have medicine. Take your clothes off, and I’ll go get it." He grabbed his blade and walked out, completely ignoring Guo Hanxue’s expectant gaze.

The zombies on the fifth and sixth floors had clearly been cleared out, so it took Jiang Yi less than a minute to return to his room. The first thing he saw was the arrow pinned into his doorframe, and he couldn't help but swallow hard, silently cursing Guo Hanxue for being so ruthless.

Having lost a significant amount of blood, Jiang Yi grabbed several bottles of water from his backpack. Not caring about the waste, he doused himself to wash away the blood, using a bedsheet to wipe himself clean. After repeating the process two or three times, he found his first-aid kit and sprayed medicine onto his wounds.

Jiang Yi was covered in injuries, the worst being a chunk of flesh torn from his shoulder; the rest of his body was a blur of claw marks. However, ignoring the threat of the zombie virus, these wounds were not fatal to a normal person.

The spray felt like a layer of gel on his skin, requiring no bandages. As the medicine dried, Jiang Yi ravenously devoured a piece of jade-fat meat. The meat had healing properties, and perhaps it was a placebo, but he felt as if the pain began to subside.

He packed his gear and stared at the empty scabbard on the floor. He tentatively reached his right hand out toward it, and a bizarre thing happened: the scabbard twitched and then vanished into thin air, reappearing instantly in his grip.

Even with his suspicions, Jiang Yi was startled. The skull-severing blade could truly respond to his summons! He realized that during the critical moment when he was nearly devoured while saving Guo Hanxue, he had simply wished for the blade, and it had appeared in his left hand out of nowhere.

It was fortunate that it had, or their fate would have been sealed.

Jiang Yi suppressed the urge to laugh out loud. He finally understood what the description "indestructible and unlosable" meant. This blade was a doomsday artifact; compared to it, the weapons Gao Wei had fashioned were nothing more than toys.

Filled with joy, Jiang Yi returned to the fifth floor. He entered the room with a small, battery-powered desk lamp to see Guo Hanxue huddled under a quilt, with a pile of her torn clothes discarded on the floor.

As she saw him return, she let out a sigh of relief, though her face flushed red—she was, after all, nearly naked beneath that quilt.