Chapter 47
Swoosh——
The door curtain was drawn open, and what appeared before Wen Xin was not the pink-haired little fox he had been longing for, but a lifelike fox statue on the altar.
The joy on Wen Xin’s face froze for a moment.
A breeze blew by, and he moved, following the wind and looking toward the window on the other side.
The window was opened a tiny crack, and the cool night breeze slipped into the room, causing the candlelight to flicker and the shadow on the door curtain to move with the rhythm.
…That must be why he made the mistake and thought there was a living fox in the house.
Wen Xin looked away regretfully.
As he turned around, he still felt reluctant and subconsciously kept an eye on the fox statue from the corner of his eye.
The more I look at it, the more familiar it seems.
Wait a moment?
An incredible guess popped up in Wen Xin’s mind.
He stopped, took two steps at a time and walked to the altar, picked up the fox statue, and compared it in the candlelight.
It has small pointed ears, a small nose, white fur on all four paws, and a large furry tail that is almost as long as its soft body.
The more he looked, the faster Wen Xin’s heart beat.
This statue looks so much like their little Qi, almost exactly the same.
Except for a pair of eyes.
Xiaoqi has big round eyes that are dark and bright.
The eyes on the statue are standard fox eyes, slightly narrowed, with a hint of cunning and nonchalance.
I don’t know if the person who made the statue did this on purpose.
The statue’s chin is slightly raised, and its pupils glance from top to bottom, giving a feeling of looking down on others with contempt.
Wen Xin didn’t look at the eyes, but touched the pointed ears of the fox statue lovingly.
He had the urge to buy the statue.
A tall and thin shadow walked out from behind the curtain silently.
The figure tiptoed, holding a fruit knife in his hand, and approached Wen Xin, who seemed to be concentrating on the statue.
When there was only about half a meter left, he suddenly raised the knife in his hand, stared at Wen Xin’s back, and a sinister emotion flashed in his eyes.
“Go to hell—”
Before he could finish his words, the dark muzzle of a gun was pointed at his constricted pupils.
The handsome young man turned his head at some point, his pupils reflecting the flickering orange-yellow candlelight, and looked at him coldly.
“Would you like to compare which is faster, your knife or my gun?”
With the cold gun barrel pressed against his forehead, the figure shivered and fell backwards to the ground.
.
“Believe me, I really don’t know anything. I was forced by them!”
The man sitting on the ground was wearing a black robe with his hood pulled down, revealing his chubby face with pockmarks and a big bald head. He was crying with tears and snot.
“Before the apocalypse, I was just an ordinary worker. I stocked up some food and stayed at home. I didn’t dare go out. Then there was a wave of zombies. Everyone was running, and I followed them. I didn’t know how I ended up in this place, and was caught by a group of strange people in black robes. They forced me to join some idealism religion, and if I didn’t, they would kill me. God has mercy on me, but I was forced into this situation!”
There is no point in all the words.
Lin Nan still had a headache and was impatient to listen to his nagging, so he interrupted him directly.
“Other members of the Idealism Cult don’t dare to move forward when they reach this place. You say you are innocent victims. Do you think we are stupid?”
Apart from anything else, the fact that only the pockmarked face person lived in this eerie house meant that there must be something wrong with this person’s identity.
The pockmarked man had his own explanation: “They are not afraid of me, they are afraid of this ancestral hall!”
Wen Xin: “Why should we fear this ancestral hall?”
Upon hearing this question, the pockmarked face’s relatively normal expression suddenly changed.
His eyes were blurred, and he held his hands high in front of him, like an extremely devout believer: “Because this is the place where God’s will descended, it is a place full of sacred glory and cannot be desecrated!”
After saying that, the pockmarked man lowered his head and glared at the two of them fiercely.
The one he stared at most was Wen Xin.
“The incarnation is condensed by the spiritual power of God. Whatever the incarnation sees will be reflected in the eyes of God.”
“Just wait! Your crime of touching the incarnation without permission has been witnessed by God himself. One day, God will punish you and shatter you into pieces, turning you into ashes!”
Wen Xin and others: “…”
Maybe the man wants to pretend to be an ordinary victim.
But given how deeply brainwashed he seems, who would believe him if he were told that he is not a core member of Idealism?
Wen Xin frowned.
He originally wanted to ask the other party about mutants and other bases, but seeing the other party’s confused look, he had to give up.
Because even if you ask, the other party won’t tell the truth.
Time was running out, and Wen Xin knew they couldn’t delay any longer: “Since you can live in this sacred place, it means that your status in Idealism must be quite high, and you probably know a lot of secrets.”
The pockmarked man moved his mouth to retort, but was so frightened by the gun pressed against the back of his head that he was speechless.
“No need to explain. I don’t want to hear it. Several armies came in before. I want to know where they are located. Now you lead us there.”
Wen Xin’s tone was calm: “One piece of advice, don’t try to do anything tricky, otherwise the gun will easily go off accidentally.”
The pockmarked face suddenly twisted.
Before leaving the shop, Wen Xin tilted his head to glance at the fox statue placed upright on the altar.
A mutant that can control people’s minds and deceive them into believing in religion.
The god that the pockmarked man was talking about…could it be Xiao Qi?
Wen Xin lowered his eyelashes to hide the dark tide in his heart, and moved forward with his pockmarked face.
To his surprise, when the pockmarked man explained things, not a single word of truth was spoken in his ten sentences, but he was actually quite honest when he led the way.
He didn’t say a word, didn’t scream or call for help, and even took the initiative to help them avoid the location where the guards were.
Every time he successfully passed a section of the road, the pockmarked face would look back at Wen Xin’s expression.
Looking at his submissive look, it seemed as if he was so submissive because he was afraid of Wen Xin’s trouble.
Thanks to this, Wen Xin and his team basically encountered no obstacles.
It went so smoothly that it made people feel uneasy.
Lin Nan leaned close to Wen Xin’s ear and whispered, “Squad leader, I always feel that there is something wrong with this man. Will he lead us into a trap?”
Wen Xin has also been thinking about this issue over and over again.
But they had no choice.
The people they met just now were all gathered in groups. Even though they were very careful not to fire without permission, alarming one person still attracted a large group of people.
Under such circumstances, the pockmarked man in front of them became the best person for them to hold hostage.
“He is not an ordinary believer.” Wen Xin also lowered his voice and said, “If it were someone else, they might not be able to lead us around the large number of guards like he did.”
There are pros and cons to everything, and they can only take one step at a time.
The three of them walked forward, and when they passed through the winding underground garage, Wen Xin finally saw the shadow of the large army.
But the majority of the troops were lying on the ground, covered in blood, with no sign of their chests moving.
Wen Xin quickly pushed his pockmarked face to Lin Nan: “You look at him.”
After saying that, he strode over to a person lying nearby, clenched his fist, and tried to feel the other person’s breath.
No breath touched his fingers.
The person is already dead.
The temperature drops quickly in winter, and these corpses don’t even have any residual warmth.
Wen Xin took a deep breath and checked everyone one by one, but did not find a single survivor.
Even though he had guessed the ending in advance, he still felt disappointed.
“Squad leader…” Lin Nan took a step forward worriedly.
Wen Xin bit his cheek and said calmly, “It’s okay.”
Then he looked at the pockmarked man coldly: “What was the situation at that time?”
Wen Xin took a careful look just now and found that most of the bodies were killed by bullets.
If the members of Idealism had such abilities, why didn’t they show any signs of it when they were captured just now?
The latter waved his hands in panic: “I don’t know, at that time I only heard the movement below, and I didn’t dare to come over here!”
“You asked me to bring you here, so I brought you here. Please let me go. I really don’t know anything!”
Wen Xin looked at the pockmarked face for a long time, then retracted his gaze and said, “Let’s keep going.”
If the main force has been wiped out, at least they have to fulfill the wishes of the deceased and find Zhang Quanyong.
The liaison officer accurately mentioned Zhang Quanyong’s location on the walkie-talkie. Either the main force had already met Zhang Quanyong, or Zhang Quanyong was imprisoned in a fixed place.
Wen Xin and his companion walked more carefully on the rest of the road.
The further you go, the more complicated the road becomes.
The roadblocks hastily built with various cement and steel plates, and the passages that were forced through, turned this underground garage into an intricate maze.
If they hadn’t found the pockmarked man to lead the way, they might have been wandering around in circles here for most of the day.
There were more and more corpses along the road, and the smell of blood became stronger and stronger.
But unlike the unrecognizable zombies outside, they were once alive a few hours ago.
Lin Nan had already turned his eyes away in disbelief, but Wen Xin could not ignore these corpses.
No matter how many times he’s experienced it, death still makes him feel uncomfortable.
But as he stared at these corpses for a longer time, a strange idea quietly emerged in Wen Xin’s mind.
Why are there only our own people in combat uniforms here, and no members of the Idealism Cult?
The dull nerves of vigilance were finally touched.
Wen Xin’s brain suddenly shook, and his forehead felt like it had been pricked by a needle, causing extreme pain.
But at the same time, he didn’t know when his confused mind became clear, as if the fog in his heart was blown away by the wind.
Wen Xin’s back was covered in cold sweat.
Why… such an obvious abnormality, he only noticed it now?
“Wait a minute!”
Lin Nan pulled his pockmarked face and stopped.
But the other party did not turn around and ask Wen Xin what happened with a puzzled look on his face as he did before.
Instead, his tone was filled with urgency and stiffness.
“Captain, we can’t wait any longer. We have already wasted a lot of time. Let’s go.”
“Look, isn’t there a room in front? I think I can see Zhang Quanyong’s shadow!”
There was indeed a room in front, but the door was tightly closed.
Wen Xin’s fingers trembled.
He didn’t care about being flustered, and quickly stepped forward, grabbing Lin Nan who was about to move forward, and shouted sternly: “Lin Nan, wake up!”
“We have never met Zhang Quanyong from the beginning to the end, how do you know what he looks like?!”
Lin Nan didn’t care and insisted on moving forward.
While restraining him, Wen Xin felt the big bump on the back of Lin Nan’s head.
He then remembered that Lin Nan’s head had accidentally hit the wall. Perhaps because of this reason, the other party was more deeply bewitched than him.
When is it?
Wen Xin racked his brains to recall.
When did they accidentally fall into the trap?
A pockmarked man’s sinister voice came from behind them.
“Earlier, they sent me a message saying that City A would send some elite troops to deal with Idealism. I was worried for a while.”
“Now it seems that there is no need to ask the bishop for help. I can deal with all of you by myself.”
Before he could finish his words, Wen Xin pointed his gun at his forehead again.
Being pointed at by a gun, the pockmarked man’s whole body froze.
But after a while, he suddenly relaxed again and laughed unscrupulously, “Young man, you haven’t shot anyone with this gun, have you?”
Wen Xin: “…”
“No need to pretend, I can see that your eyes are too pure, without any blood in them! With eyes like these, how could you possibly have killed a living person?”
The pockmarked man smiled grimly, took a step forward, and placed his forehead directly on the muzzle of Wen Xin’s gun.
Wen Xin’s hand was knocked back by him.
As the man approached, a strong and strange fragrance hit him in the face.
Wen Xin finally cleared his mind and was able to distinguish the strange fragrance in this chaotic environment.
The aroma is not unfamiliar.
It was the candle fragrance that Wen Xin smelled in the ancestral hall before.
His lips moved, and his voice was hoarse as if there was a sharp piece of sand stuck in his throat.
“They also asked you to lead the way, so they are just as confused as us.”
“In the end… they killed each other.”
Why can those followers who only have mediocre skills defeat a large army?
Why isn’t there a single body of a Idealist cult member here?
At this point, all the things that I didn’t understand have finally been explained.
Only those in a large group have the ability to kill other team members with one blow.
Since the entire army was destroyed due to infighting, of course the bodies of the Idealism members cannot be found.
A hint of surprise flashed across the pockmarked face’s eyes, and he praised, “Not bad, you guessed it right!”
Wen Xin’s breathing was rapid.
Although he tried his best to endure it, a hint of pain still leaked out from his brows after hearing this answer.
The pockmarked man did not miss his collapse and immediately laughed even more arrogantly.
In order to destroy the young man’s last psychological defense and make him fall into confusion again, he said a lot of provocative words.
“Let me tell you, actually, when I knew so many people would come, I was really scared and even prepared to run away.”
“But I didn’t expect that before I escaped, your people suddenly contacted me and said they were willing to cooperate with me to ambush the troops in City A and lure them into a trap.”
“When I heard about this good thing, I agreed immediately!”
As he spoke, Lin Nan’s face was dull, his pupils were dilated, and he just stared blankly at the side.
The pockmarked man’s forehead was constantly pressing against the muzzle of Wen Xin’s gun, forcing him to retreat continuously.
The candlelight flickered in the corridor, and the man’s shadow was reflected on the wall. His hands and feet were stretched out, as if the devil was baring his fangs and claws, pushing Wen Xin into the abyss little by little.
“Do you know that they didn’t have to die in the first place?”
As soon as these words came out, it was like thunder exploding in Wen Xin’s heart.
He looked into the eyes of the corpse lying on the ground with its eyes open, and even his breathing was trembling.
At that moment, Wen Xin’s finger was already on the trigger.
Seeing the young man’s hateful look, the pockmarked man was startled, and his arrogant mood suddenly cooled down, realizing that he had provoked the young man too much.
But he was still able to hide. The muzzle of Wen Xin’s gun was shaking, and it was obvious that he was affected by the candle incense again!
Just as the pockmarked man was about to move aside, his body suddenly stiffened.
As if he had seen something terrible, the man’s eyes became dull in an instant, his face was filled with fear, and he was completely stiff and unable to move.
“God? You? No, spare me—”
Bang.
The bullet went through the man’s forehead.
The pockmarked man’s whole body stiffened and he fell heavily to the ground.
Seeing the blood gushing out from the man’s body, Wen Xin staggered.
But before he completely fell, he gritted his teeth, supported himself against the wall and managed to stand firm, tightly grasping the hand that was shaking non-stop after firing the gun.
The fair skin was pinched by him, leaving colorful bloody marks.
Was the contact person conscious during his lifetime?
Are there any mutants here? Are there other bases involved? Is there a person named Zhang Quanyong?
Wen Xin no longer had time to care about these things.
The effect of the candle incense had not yet worn off, and he recovered his strength. Even though his hands were pinched to the point of bleeding, he still felt dizzy.
He even seemed to see a pink shadow floating in the air, carefully biting his fingertips with its teeth.
Wen Xin was not prepared for the pink shadow, and following the seemingly invisible force, he ran several steps forward.
He suddenly thought of his teammates and subconsciously turned around to look: “Wait a minute, there’s also Lin Nan…”
Lin Nan, whose name was mentioned, was still in a daze the second before.
The next second, he felt as if he was kicked in the air and started screaming with his head in his hands.
“Damn! Who hit me? …Squad leader?”
He didn’t even bother to cover his aching head, and hurriedly chased after him and supported the staggering Wen Xin.
Looking around at the bloody scene, Lin Nan’s palms and soles were sweaty, as if he was in a deep dream and had not yet woken up: “What happened here?”
Wen Xin calmed himself down.
He looked at his fingertips.
When he woke up, the vague force disappeared, as dreamy as an illusion before an emotional breakdown.
Without thinking about it, or explaining to Lin Nan, Wen Xin grabbed the other person’s wrist with his backhand and said, “Let’s go.”
The two of them ran out as fast as they could.
In the dark and empty corridor, it seemed as if all sounds had disappeared, and only their breathing and footsteps could be heard.
When Wen Xin and his companion ran out of the underground garage down the stairs and arrived at the first floor of the shopping mall, they discovered why it was so quiet.
All the followers of Idealism had fallen down, lying all over the ground!
Lin Nan was shocked and asked, “What’s going on?”
Is there anyone helping them?
Wen Xin made a prompt decision: “Let’s go first!”
Lin Nan quickly suppressed his suspicion and followed the group out of the mall.
Just as he was about to run away, he suddenly found that the young man’s hand holding his was a little weak. After a second, it suddenly loosened and he slowly fell down.
“Squad leader!”
Lin Nan’s eyes were bloodshot, and he rushed forward to catch the thin body.
But before he stretched out his hand, a small ball of fur jumped out from the side like a cannonball and knocked him away.
Lin Nan’s big bump on the back of his head almost suffered a second serious injury.
He stood up with his teeth bared, cursing angrily: “What the hell attacked me… What the hell?!”
Lin Nan almost dropped his jaw in shock.
He saw foxes, groups of foxes, at least twenty of them, their big tails swinging back and forth forming a furry ocean.
The foxes made eye contact with Lin Nan and blinked innocently.
Before the latter could react, dozens of little paws stretched out at once and lifted Wen Xin up very quickly.
“Wait a minute, what are you doing?! Wait a minute! Give the squad leader back to me! Don’t run!”
When Lin Nan was about to take out his gun, he realized that he had lost it at some point.
He chased after them with sweat all over his forehead, but he couldn’t catch even a hair of these little balls. He could only watch Wen Xin being snatched away by a group of foxes, his whole body disheveled in the wind.
“Squad Leader, ahhhhhhhh—”
.
I don’t know how much time passed.
In his daze, Wen Xin always felt that he heard Lin Nan’s screams.
He thought something had happened, so he held his breath and struggled to open his eyes a little.
A small pink ball lay on his chest, the whole ball soft as a puddle of water, with big wet eyes opened, and met the eyes of Wen Xin who was caught off guard.
