Chapter 86: The Northern Capital Base Is a Mere Shadow of Its Former Self

At this moment, every survivor regarded Zihui as a goddess in their hearts. This was not a term born of infatuation, but one of sincere reverence—a feeling so profound they wished to kneel before her.

“Hurry up and leave! Don’t linger!” Qin Hao’s mental force echoed out, and the remaining seven or eight thousand survivors began to run again. Though they admired their goddess deeply, they lacked the strength to protect her; survival was their immediate concern.

As the survivors fled, the zombies emerged before Qin Hao.

Zihui looked at these grotesque, zombie-like humans, a chill rising in her heart. Ordinary people feared zombies because they lacked the power to fight back. Zihui, though once a delicate pop idol, was now a third-level mental evolver and had no such fear. Yet, faced with tens of thousands of zombies and survivors who could be infected at any moment, she felt suffocated.

Her mental power surged wildly, bursts of light radiating out. But instead of dispelling the virus, the light made the zombies scream in agony, black smoke billowing from their bodies.

“Aaah! Hiss! Aaah!”

The zombies shrieked, their pain making their movements even more erratic.

Zihui stopped the golden light, uncertain what to do.

Qin Hao explained, “When the virus invades the body, there’s an incubation period. But once it enters the brain through the bloodstream, humanity is lost. The golden light you emit is destroying the virus within them, but the virus has become part of their bodies.”

“Is there no other way?” Zihui’s voice trembled with helplessness, her eyes tinged with sorrow.

“They are no longer human,” Qin Hao reminded her.

Zihui sighed. Since the apocalypse began, she had seen many die. She had no violent outbursts of emotion; after all, she was a clear-minded and even somewhat shrewd person. But now, faced with this overwhelming tide of zombies, she was truly shaken.

They were clearly moving, yet they were already corpses.

Yet she gritted her teeth and finally unleashed her light-based abilities to attack the zombies.

Qin Hao’s mental tendrils spread out as well, searching through the horde for a certain figure.

The Voodoo Fiend.

That creature had to be destroyed.

“Found it!” A cold glint flashed in Qin Hao’s eyes.

He retrieved a piece of iron from his spatial ring. With a thought, his mental power transformed it instantly into countless iron needles, which shot forth like fireworks.

“Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!”

Dozens of zombie skulls around Qin Hao were pierced through.

He strode into the midst of the zombie horde.

The zombies lunged at him, claws bared, desperate to tear him apart and feast on his flesh. These zombies lacked the hunting instincts instilled by any deity, but their lust for human blood was insatiable.

“Ha!” Qin Hao suddenly roared. His life force flared, and his right hand and arm transformed into golden scales.

Dragon Transformation.

His right hand brimmed with immense power.

Channeling star energy, he threw a punch forward.

Instantly, a gigantic golden fist appeared in the air. As Qin Hao swung, it shot forward, smashing into the zombies. They were pulverized on impact, the road itself torn up as if plowed by a massive force. The asphalt flew, and a path was carved open.

Qin Hao’s life force was overwhelming.

“Die!” he shouted, using the most brutal methods to crush the horde.

He instantly shattered the zombies in his path, charging toward the heart of the horde.

Even the Voodoo Fiend sensed Qin Hao’s difference and hastily summoned zombies to surround itself.

The zombies at its side had been evolvers in life, some had even unlocked the first gene lock. Now transformed, they were even stronger, rivaling first-level evolved creatures.

Several zombies joined forces, hoping to drive Qin Hao back.

But that was impossible.

How could these first-level evolved zombies do anything to Qin Hao?

He had already spotted the Voodoo Fiend, just over thirty meters away.

With a guttural sound, the Voodoo Fiend spat a mouthful of emerald-green saliva at Qin Hao, noxious black-green mist spreading rapidly, seeking to invade his body.

But now, Qin Hao’s body was clear and robust, his life force terrifying. Every pore radiated an aura that could easily repel the toxin. Even if it could not, he would never become a zombie.

The Voodoo Fiend’s tricks had no effect on him.

But Qin Hao’s methods were more than the Voodoo Fiend could withstand.

He pushed off the ground, his speed soaring, and every zombie blocking his way was crushed with a single punch.

Soon, he closed in on the Voodoo Fiend.

Hatred burned in the fiend’s eyes. The hump on its back suddenly burst open, releasing a wave of poison toward Qin Hao.

Qin Hao’s mental power surged, and the temperature around them plummeted.

The toxic liquid, which had been about to spray out, froze instantly under the freezing cold. The frost spread quickly, encasing the Voodoo Fiend in a sculpture of ice.

“Shatter!” Qin Hao uttered a short, sharp command, and in the next moment, the fiend’s body exploded, blood splattering everywhere.

The blast alone killed more than a hundred zombies nearby.

Without the Voodoo Fiend’s control, the zombies were no longer restrained. But they didn’t flee, drawn instead by the scent of fresh blood and flesh.

That flesh, naturally, was Qin Hao and Zihui.

Especially Qin Hao—his abundant life force made him, in the zombies’ senses, a feast of irresistible allure.

Yet in Qin Hao’s eyes, these zombies were doomed only to be annihilated.

The slaughter began.

At this moment, more heroes who had received the emergency call arrived on the scene, only to witness a shocking sight.

Zihui continually unleashed bursts of golden light, causing zombies to collapse in agony, their bodies charred as if scorched.

Meanwhile, Qin Hao was surrounded by hundreds of longswords, which swept around him. Wherever they passed, zombie heads rolled, bodies falling limply to the ground.

“What… what’s going on? Why are there so many zombies? Where did these people come from?”

A hero who had come to intercept the zombie horde was so stunned by the scene that he nearly choked, seeing nothing but a tightly packed mass of zombies clogging the highway—more crowded than a festival rush.

Someone swallowed hard and said, “Could these people all be from the North Capital Base? Where are their heroes?”

Yuan Xingcan, who stood among the crowd, sneered upon hearing the question. “The heroes of North Capital Base? All dead. Overconfident fools who didn’t know their own limits.”

The newly arrived heroes were shocked by his words.

“All dead? That can’t be…”

This disbelief was reflexive, but he already realized Yuan Xingcan was probably telling the truth.

The North Capital Survivor Base was all but finished.