What?! I Became the Zombie Beauty in the Villain’s Arms – CH160-162

Chapter 160| Chapter 161 | Chapter 162

Chapter 160: Coming With My Husband

“What do you mean by that?” she asked.

Shadow paused for a moment before continuing. “The Ghost Market used to be a bustling city on the western edge of the desert. Before the apocalypse hit, it was the origin point of the zombie virus—the very first place the outbreak occurred.”

Shadow went on, “Back then, the city centers and major transportation hubs didn’t fall immediately. The southwest regions were working on a joint cooperative project at the time. The first research team set off for City X—the former name of the Ghost Market—and returned to the south half a day later with a batch of experimental subjects.”

“At first, there was nothing unusual. City X was the first to be hit by the virus, and the surrounding cities desperately tried to contain it. But within three days, the infection began appearing in the inner cities of the south, multiplying at a terrifying rate. In a very short time, all communication networks and technological infrastructure were completely paralyzed. The cities fell one after another. There was simply no time to stop it.”

“It didn’t take long for supernatural abilities to appear,” Shadow explained. “People kept awakening, but because they didn’t know how to control their volatile new powers, many ended up dying from the physical backlash. At that time, only the task force led by Brother Duan was willing to stand on the front lines to defend humanity’s last remaining cities.”

“Brother Duan’s original ability was actually lost during that war.”

“However, City X—where the outbreak originally started—didn’t disappear entirely. Instead, it sank and was buried deep underground. As the situation above ground stabilized over the past few months, the black market gradually emerged here.”

Pei Xiqing frowned. “Are there still living people down in the Ghost Market?”

“There weren’t any before, but there are now.”

“Who?”

Shadow fell silent.

“Brother Duan is down in the Ghost Market right now. Who is he looking for?” Pei Xiqing pressed.

Shadow’s lips moved slightly. “He has something very important to take care of down there.”

“What is it?”

“The Ghost Market hides something that absolutely cannot be allowed to see the light of day in this apocalypse.”

Pei Xiqing met his gaze, her eyes entirely devoid of fear. “Did he instruct you to keep the rest a secret from me?”

Shadow swallowed hard, as if recalling something truly terrifying. “No… It’s just that even I don’t know the full details. I’ve already told you everything I know. If you want to know more, you’ll have to ask him yourself.”

“Alright.”

Their conversation ended there. Not far away, a masked survivor sat in silence, slowly and methodically unloading the bullets from his gun.

The other survivors gradually began to wake up. Almost everyone had cracked lips and weak, trembling limbs.

Xiao Yue stood up and announced, “Everyone, get up. We’re leaving immediately. We’ll head into the Ghost Market and find a way out.”

A few people grumbled in dissatisfaction, but facing the sheer threat of Xiao Yue’s triple supernatural abilities, they had no choice but to swallow their complaints and comply.

But before they had even taken a few steps forward, another person suddenly collapsed.

Pei Yanting quickly crouched down to check on the unconscious man. Her expression suddenly changed. “I can’t shake this feeling… that something has been secretly following us.”

Xiao Yue coughed and said, “I felt it too, but I couldn’t pinpoint where it was coming from.”

“What makes you say that?” one of the survivors asked nervously.

Pei Yanting pointed to a fresh, gruesome wound on the unconscious man’s back. “This injury wasn’t there yesterday. How did he get it?”

The crowd gathered around to look. The flesh on the man’s back was a bloody, mangled mess, as if it had been gnawed on by some kind of insect. The wound was horrific and coated in an incredibly sticky, light-blue secretion.

“Are there zombies around here?” someone asked, panic edging into their voice.

“I don’t know! I haven’t seen any. Where would they even come from? If there’s a zombie horde down here, we’re all dead!”

“This doesn’t look like a zombie bite,” Pei Yanting said grimly. “It looks like the work of bugs—bugs thicker than a human arm.”

“Don’t talk nonsense!” a man yelled. “This apocalypse is ruled by zombies! Where the hell would giant bugs come from? You’re just trying to scare us!”

Pei Yanting ignored the outbursts and looked directly at Xiao Yue. “I’m serious.”

Xiao Yue took a deep breath, placing his hand over the wound and using his healing ability to stabilize the man. “Let’s just keep moving.”

If they voiced their suspicions too early, no one would believe them, and it would only incite unnecessary panic. From the increasingly rampant organ trafficking across the bases to the live auctions of human mutants, the dark secrets backing these operations were beyond imagination. Xiao Yue had found some clues, but he couldn’t be entirely sure yet. He would only find the truth by reaching the heart of the Ghost Market.

After trekking for another hour, someone else fainted. While Xiao Yue went to treat the fallen survivor, the rest of the group took a much-needed rest where they stood.

Pei Xiqing was quietly nibbling on some snacks Shadow had handed her when she saw him casually pull out a sealed container of beef and rice. She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

“I’m going to eat this,” Shadow explained, noticing her gaze. “It’s the emergency ration I brought along from my last mission.”

“Go ahead,” she said softly. “I’m fine with just a couple of bites of these compressed biscuits.”

While they were resting, a small group of the female survivors cautiously approached her. They looked at her with curious expressions.

One of them sat down beside her and offered a friendly smile. “Miss, what’s your name?”

“My surname is Duan,” Pei Xiqing replied simply.

“Oh, I see,” the woman nodded, her tone amiable. “You are incredibly beautiful. It’s rare to see a fresh face like yours down here.”

“Didn’t most people wear masks at the auction anyway?” Pei Xiqing pointed out. “Who could actually see anyone’s face? Everyone here is a stranger, aren’t they?”

The woman let out an awkward laugh. “Haha, yes, I suppose that’s true…”

Leaning in closer, they lowered their voices. “Hey, do you actually know how to get to the Ghost Market? Do those soldiers from Team S1 look reliable to you? They seem to know you. Can they really lead us out of this nightmare?”

“You’ll have to ask them about that,” Pei Xiqing replied neutrally. “I’m really not sure.”

The women exchanged glances before probing further. “By the way, did you come to the auction by yourself? That man next to you is your bodyguard, right?”

“I came with my husband.”

“Your husband?” The women looked shocked, their eyes widening. “Who is he? Is he here with us?”

Before Pei Xiqing could answer, the ground beneath them violently began to shake.

The sudden tremor threw many people off balance, sending them crashing into the dirt. Pei Xiqing stumbled but managed to steady herself.

But seconds later, a blood-curdling scream pierced the air. “Ahhh! There are bugs in the ground! Huge bugs! They’re crawling out of the corpses!”

Everyone looked down in sheer horror.

Before their very eyes, one, two… then countless massive, blue-black centipede-like insects began burrowing up from the depths. Each one was thicker than a man’s thigh and covered in thick, glistening armor plates.

With every insect that forced its way to the surface, a massive, gaping hole was torn through the rotting flesh of the corpses beneath their feet. Some of the survivors were instantly swarmed, their bodies entangled by thousands of razor-sharp insect legs. In the chaotic tug-of-war, one man’s leg was brutally ripped clean off.

“Ahhhh!!!!”

The screams were agonizing, a brutal display of inhuman carnage.

Pei Xiqing scrambled backward. Several of the armored bugs lunged toward her, only to be sliced in half by Shadow’s combat knife.

“Be careful, Brother Wang Yue!” she yelled.

Shadow swiftly drew his gun, mercilessly shooting the approaching swarm to pieces.

Pei Xiqing pulled out her own handgun and opened fire. Her aim wasn’t perfect, but she still managed to blast one or two of the creatures away. At the same time, the faint cadaver spots hidden beneath her sleeves began to itch intensely.

Enduring the uncomfortable burning sensation, she clutched her arm just as another bug lunged at her from the right. She snapped her gun up and fired, blowing it backward. But when she squeezed the trigger again to finish it off, her gun clicked empty. She was out of bullets.

Pei Xiqing was forced to retreat continuously, utilizing the Qiong Snake’s supernatural energy as a barrier to block the onslaught. But there was simply no end to the swarm. The monstrous insects kept pouring out from the earth and the surrounding mass grave like a nightmare tide.

She frantically patted her pockets for a spare magazine, hopping on her toes to avoid the scuttling bugs at her feet, when she suddenly backed directly into a solid chest.

She spun around to find a masked man standing right behind her.

Lowering his gaze, he calmly pressed a fresh box of ammunition into her hand.

The man stood tall and impeccably straight amidst the chaos. From beneath his mask, his dark eyes were impossibly deep and serene.

Pei Xiqing stared at him for two seconds, a profound and undeniable sense of familiarity instantly welling up in her chest.

Chapter 161: Don’t Mess Around

Without wasting another second to overthink, Pei Xiqing took the box of ammunition, quickly reloaded her gun, and fired two rapid shots at the insects scuttling across the ground.

A pungent, thick blue-black fluid erupted from their bodies, instantly filling the air with a sharp, astringent odor. To put it mildly, it smelled absolutely vile.

Muttering a quick thank you to the space behind her, she covered her nose and mouth with one hand while helping Shadow shoot and kill more than a dozen of the swarming creatures. Yet, despite their efforts, the armored bugs continued to pour out from beneath the earth.

The crowd of survivors completely scattered in a panicked frenzy, shrieking as several people were viciously bitten and left bleeding profusely.

Xiao Yue and the elite members of Team S1 threw themselves into the fray, unleashing their abilities to slaughter the creatures on the ground. After a grueling, chaotic fight, they finally managed to bring the tide under control.

Xiao Yue and Pei Yanting immediately hurried over to inspect the bite wounds on the injured. Sure enough, the exact same inflamed red marks were burning across their backs.

Pei Yanting frowned. “This might be an entirely new mutant species.”

As she spoke, she used the tip of her dagger to flip over one of the dead insects, carefully examining its carapace through a magnifying glass. Finally, she drew a grim conclusion. “They’re mutants, but a little strange. They behave more like parasites. We’ve encountered parasitic mutations before and even brought back experimental specimens, but these…”

She could practically guarantee that even the advanced research laboratories back at the capital base were completely unaware of this specific variation.

What they were looking at was a catastrophic parasite—an organism that had been continuously exposed to the zombie virus, devouring and hijacking its hosts until the virus fused with the creature’s DNA to spark an entirely new evolutionary chain.

These parasites could originate from anything: jungle insects, common roadside toads, or ants on a tree. Any tiny organism could be infected, forcefully mutating from a creature only a few centimeters long into something the size of a human thigh—or even larger.

They had discovered early traces of this phenomenon during their wasteland expeditions and had conducted preliminary research on it. They just never expected to encounter such a massive swarm of them down here.

Xiao Yue locked eyes with her, a unspoken weight passing between them. Pei Yanting understood his look immediately.

Without another word, they quickly treated the injured men’s wounds. “We need to keep moving,” Pei Yanting announced to the weary crowd. “There are too many bugs nesting here. They must have grown to this monstrous size by feeding on the endless supply of corpses in this mass grave. If we want to survive and avoid getting eaten alive, our only option is to reach the Ghost Market. It has to be safer than this open cavern.”

“Hurry! Let’s get out of here right now!”

The moment the survivors realized that a fresh wave of those horrifying insects could burrow out from beneath their feet at any second, their desperation peaked. Everyone wanted to reach the Ghost Market immediately. Even the vocal few who had been loudly complaining about their agonizing back pain fell dead silent, lowering their heads and marching forward as fast as their legs could carry them.

Pei Xiqing loaded her vintage handgun once more.

With a few loose bullets left over, she looked back toward the spot where she had been standing just moments ago. The mysterious masked man was gone.

She quickly scanned the crowd of fleeing survivors, her eyes locking onto a figure with a similar height and build. Marching forward, she reached out and tightly grabbed his sleeve. “Wait a minute—”

The man jerked his head back, his eyes wide with confusion and sheer terror. Although he was wearing a mask, his gaze looked nothing like the deep, serene eyes she had imagined. “Y-you… what are you doing?” he stammered.

His voice was hoarse, his chest heaving with panic and sudden embarrassment as Pei Xiqing gripped his wrist.

Pei Xiqing immediately let go, dropping her hand. “It’s nothing. I’m sorry, I mistook you for someone else.”

“Don’t just touch me like that,” the man muttered, casting a nervous glance around. “There are so many people watching. Please, don’t mess around.”

Pei Xiqing stepped back, giving him space. Shadow smoothly materialized by her side. “What’s wrong?”

Pei Xiqing glanced at him thoughtfully. “Someone just handed me a box of bullets, but now I can’t find him. He was clearly operating within our group all day yesterday, so how could he just vanish into thin air the moment I look away?”

“I’ll search the perimeter,” Shadow offered.

“If you spot him, tell me immediately. He’s wearing a distinctive black mask, and his height is… well, he’s a little taller than you.”

Shadow gave a stiff nod. “Understood.”

Pei Xiqing carefully monitored the crowd for a long time. After making absolutely sure the man was nowhere to be found, she packed away her loose ammunition and prepared to set off with the rest of the group.

Still, the half-empty box of bullets heavy in her hand filled her mind with deep suspicion. Although she couldn’t be one hundred percent certain of the mysterious benefactor’s identity, she had a very good idea of who it was.

Pei Xiqing gripped the cardboard box tightly, casting a sharp side-eye at Shadow.

Shadow was currently holding his tactical communicator. The moment he felt her piercing gaze landing on him, he abruptly looked up, staring intently at the blank cavern ceiling as if studying the rock formations.

Pei Xiqing let out a quiet chuckle.

The team traveled a massive distance through the oppressive gloom. By the three or four-hour mark, profound exhaustion had become the norm. A few of the weaker survivors simply collapsed onto the sand, losing consciousness entirely.

There was no water and no food. Having been trapped down here for nearly a full day, many people had reached their absolute physical limits. Even the elite members of Team S1, despite being high-tier ability users, slumped against the stone boulders, too drained to even lift a finger.

This trek was vastly more exhausting than spending an entire week surviving in the harsh wilderness.

It felt as though there was something fundamentally wrong with the atmospheric pressure or magnetic field in this subterranean abyss; merely taking a step forward required ten times more energy than usual. Every action was a monumental struggle. If it weren’t for the residual supernatural energy circulating through their veins, the soldiers would have passed out from exhaustion just like the civilians.

Xiao Yue and Pei Yanting poured out the very last drop of their private water supply, choosing to go thirsty themselves so their squad could function.

Xiao Yue handed the remaining canteen to Pei Yanting. “Drink it. Women need to stay hydrated more than us men.”

Pei Yanting felt a swell of emotion, a faint smile touching her lips. But just as she reached for the flask, he added quietly, “There’s still half a bottle left in there. Take it over to your sister.”

Pei Yanting’s hand froze. She looked at him, her expression slowly hardening.

Xiao Yue coughed into his handkerchief, shifting his gaze. “She’s… she’s useless to us if she dies down here.”

Pei Yanting’s voice was ice cold. “You can give it to her yourself.”

She aggressively shoved the half-empty bottle back into his chest and stormed off in a rage. No matter how patient or good-tempered she usually was, she couldn’t suppress the growing bitter knot in her stomach. Watching Xiao Yue constantly invent flimsy excuses to care for another woman was becoming unbearable.

Xiao Yue’s body hadn’t fully recovered from his previous injuries. Right now, he was relying entirely on his newly awakened triple abilities to force himself upright.

He looked across the camp and spotted Pei Xiqing sitting quietly in a secluded corner. The tailored men’s suit jacket she wore was coated in a thick layer of grey dust, but it was still easy to see that the garment was extraordinarily expensive and exquisitely made. She wore a long, elegant black skirt that revealed only a slender glimpse of her calves. Her vintage handgun rested right beside her thigh. It didn’t look like a particularly devastating weapon, yet she seemed to cherish it deeply.

The moment Xiao Yue stepped toward her corner, Shadow’s eyes snapped up, locking onto him with razor-sharp hostility.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Shadow warned, his hand dropping toward his holster.

Chapter 162: I Knew It Was You

Pei Xiqing was dozing off in the corner. The trek had been so grueling that even the high-tier ability users were struggling to bear it, let alone her. Exhausted, she was completely oblivious to the brief standoff playing out nearby.

Xiao Yue coughed lightly twice and stepped forward. “I brought you some water. This is the last bit. It will probably take us another full day to reach the Ghost Market. Water is incredibly precious down here… Please use it sparingly.”

He held out his tactical canteen.

It was half empty.

“I never drank directly from the mouthpiece,” he added quickly. “I poured the first half out into a cup.”

Shadow stood up abruptly, blocking his view of Pei Xiqing. Reaching into one of his many tactical pouches, he slowly pulled out a large, sealed bottle of purified water.

A full, untouched liter.

He held the massive bottle out in front of Xiao Yue. Compared to that, the half-empty canteen in Xiao Yue’s hand looked pathetic.

Xiao Yue coughed violently, his eyes widening. “How do you have so much water on you?!”

“None of your business,” Shadow replied flatly.

“…”

Satisfied with the result, Shadow watched the male lead retreat in frustration.

When he turned back, he found Pei Xiqing staring wide-eyed at the massive bottle of water in his hands.

Shadow awkwardly scratched the back of his head. “I usually… pack heavy for missions.”

Pei Xiqing burst out laughing. She no longer cared where his water came from. “I’m dying of thirst. Give me a drink.”

“Right away.”

Among the survivors traveling with them, there were two young girls looking particularly miserable. They were visibly trembling and on the verge of collapsing from dehydration. When it came to fighting for rations, they were absolutely no match for the men and the ability users. They had been pushed to the very back of the group, completely ignored.

Pei Xiqing called them over and poured them each a generous cup of water.

The two girls were deeply moved. Tears streaming down their dirt-streaked faces, they immediately dropped to their knees and began kowtowing in gratitude.

Pei Xiqing’s feet throbbed too much for her to stand steadily, so she just reached out to stop them. “Alright, there’s no need to thank me. Don’t think of it as some great favor. I just don’t want to see girls get bullied into a corner and die of thirst down here.”

These were all people who had the capital and the desire to attend a black market flesh auction. She didn’t have much sympathy left to give, just the bare minimum of basic human conscience.

As the cavern plunged into its artificial “night,” the temperature plummeted drastically.

The previous night hadn’t been too terrible, but tonight was absolute torture. The cold was so severe that the entire group was frozen stiff, unable to even move. It was the kind of bone-chilling temperature where even the slightest movement felt like it could trigger fatal hypothermia.

Desperate to survive, the survivors huddled tightly together in shivering piles to share body heat.

Pei Xiqing’s condition was visibly deteriorating. Her lips had turned pale blue, and her body trembled uncontrollably in the freezing air.

Shadow didn’t dare cross the line and hold her, so he stripped off his heavy tactical jacket and several layers of his own clothing, draping them all over her. Stripped down to almost nothing, he paced back and forth nearby, aggressively rubbing his arms to stave off the freezing cold.

Pei Xiqing spent the first half of the night in a haze. She was so cold that her mind grew sluggish. She couldn’t feel any warmth in her body at all. Hypothermia crept up slowly, starting from her feet, which felt as heavy and numb as stones buried in deep snow.

In the second half of the night, she felt the heavy layers of clothing being lifted off her. For a terrifying second, she thought she was truly going to freeze to death—but then, she was unexpectedly pulled into a warm, broad embrace.

The intense body heat radiating from the person holding her felt like an impossible dream.

She opened her eyes in disbelief.

Before her sluggish mind could even fully process what was happening, her eyes registered the cold, familiar lines of a featureless black mask.

Her freezing fingertips trembled as she reached up to touch the edge of it. She didn’t try to take it off. Instead, she murmured softly, “Brother Duan…”

“Mm,” the man hummed in response.

He pulled her tighter against his chest, raising his arms to wrap her completely inside his thick, insulated coat.

“I knew it was you,” she whispered, burying her face against his collarbone.

“I’m taking you to the Ghost Market,” he stated simply.

She felt weightless as the man effortlessly scooped her up into his arms like a princess.

As her body temperature gradually rose, Pei Xiqing’s mind finally began to clear. She grabbed his arm in mild panic. “No, wait. I have to keep following them.”

“Shadow and my other men can follow them.”

“It’s not the same!” she argued softly. “I haven’t fully figured out Xiao Yue’s situation yet. That team is hiding a mountain of secrets, and they still have those golden fingers—those overpowered hidden weapons. Not to mention, Xiao Yue just awakened his third supernatural ability! I need to find out exactly what it is and how dangerous it’s going to be when all three of his powers combine.”

Whether or not she actually made it to the Ghost Market herself wasn’t the top priority. The most important thing was that she needed to stay close to the protagonists and monitor their every move.

To put it bluntly, since she was already forced to play the villain, she wanted to completely destroy their plans before Xiao Yue could secure whatever heaven-defying item he was searching for.

Shadow had hinted at certain things earlier, making her realize that whatever lay hidden within the Ghost Market was far more complicated than she had initially assumed.

“Just don’t stay gone for too long,” she urged him. “If things get dangerous in the Ghost Market, don’t risk coming out just to check on me. I’ll handle things on this end. I’ll make sure Xiao Yue and his squad don’t pose a major threat to you by the time they finally reach the true entrance.”

The man completely ignored her protests. He simply held her tighter and continued to stride through the darkness.

Pei Xiqing looked over his shoulder and gasped. Everyone in the survivor camp had completely fainted. Including Xiao Yue and Pei Yanting.

More than a dozen strange, silent black figures—Duan Xiaolin’s elite operatives—had entirely encircled the camp.

She pushed lightly against his chest, forcing him to pause. “Brother Duan, seriously, you should head back quickly. Since I’ve already embedded myself in their group, just let me follow them the rest of the way. If I suddenly vanish in the middle of the night and reappear later, do you know how suspicious they’ll be?”

“Suspicious?” The man looked down at her, the dark lines of his mask radiating an icy hostility. “Dead men don’t get suspicious.”

Pei Xiqing instantly realized his terrifying intent. “Brother Duan, wait! What about your plan? Wouldn’t it be much more cost-effective to use them as bait to trigger the traps in the Ghost Market?”

He let out a low, dark chuckle. He lowered his head, gently pressing his cold mask against her forehead. The metal was freezing to the touch.

“I’ve decided I’d much rather let them all die right here. I find that far more cost-effective.”

Pei Xiqing sighed. “I honestly thought you’d just secretly watch over me from the shadows and never show your face. It’s only been one day, and you’re already breaking cover to drag me away? Can’t you just let me play with them a little longer?”

She reached up, gently hooking her finger under his masked chin. “Since things have already progressed this far, why not just let it play out?”

Duan Xiaolin’s voice was tight. “If I had just taken you through the secure route from the very beginning, we could have bypassed all of this. None of this would have happened.”

“I know,” she murmured softly. “The cave-in was chaotic. Panic spread, people stumbled onto the escape tunnel, and then the ceiling collapsed. I know this situation wasn’t part of your calculations. But ending up down here with the protagonists? That was a very welcome surprise for me.”

Speaking of Shadow, Pei Xiqing looked around for him.

She spotted him standing a fair distance away, bundled up in a spare coat and standing guard solemnly. Remembering how he had practically stripped himself bare to give her his clothing before she fell asleep, she tugged at Duan Xiaolin’s lapel.

“Brother Ying has worked hard, please don’t be angry with him,” she pleaded softly. “He’s been watching my back this whole time. We’ve suffered quite a bit together down here.”

“Suffered?” Duan Xiaolin scoffed, a dark laugh escaping him. “If we hadn’t already mapped out where the emergency supply caches were buried, you wouldn’t even have a drop of water to drink right now.”

“Ah. So that’s why he was practically bursting with supplies.”

Pei Xiqing struggled slightly, insisting on being put down.

The man finally relented, gently setting her down on a nearby boulder. He then dropped to one knee at her feet. Reaching into his coat, he pulled out a small vial of medical ointment and carefully took her injured, scraped foot into his palm.

He didn’t give her any chance to pull away. He firmly but gently applied the soothing medicine over her cuts before wrapping her foot tightly with a clean bandage.

From behind the mask, his dark green eyes stared up at her like a bottomless, ancient lake—beautiful, yet harboring endless, lethal danger.

“As long as your feet haven’t fully healed, Shadow will carry you on his back.”

“I really think these scrapes are manageable… ahem. Understood.”

“I will personally come apply the medicine three times a day.”

“Ah? You’re managing a massive underground operation right now, and you still plan to sneak out here three times a day?”

“If you argue with me again, you are not staying here,” he warned, his tone leaving absolutely no room for debate. “If you want to play your little game, you will obey my rules.”

Pei Xiqing reached out and gently tapped the side of his mask. “I understand, sir.”

“If anything goes wrong—anything—have Shadow contact me immediately.”

“I will.”

“And besides—”

Before he could finish his command, Pei Xiqing leaned down and kissed him.

Her lips accidentally brushed against the cold material of the mask, but she managed to press a soft kiss directly against the corner of his lips.

She narrowed her eyes, smiling brightly. “Why are you nagging so much? Hubby, don’t worry about me. Just focus on what you need to do down there. I’m not so helpless that I need you to hold my hand for everything.”

Duan Xiaolin subconsciously pursed his lips. But upon hearing that specific title slip so effortlessly from her mouth, his rigid posture relaxed significantly.

He offered a rare, genuine comment. “Slippery tongue.”

Pei Xiqing smirked. She refused to believe this terrifyingly observant man hadn’t been listening in when she was casually talking to those gossiping women earlier. He had definitely heard her claim she was traveling with her “husband.”

He was just pretending to be stoic about it.

Duan Xiaolin stood up and handed her a fresh box of ammunition. “Those creatures you fought earlier are highly mutated parasites. They aren’t afraid of fire, and standard supernatural abilities won’t easily deter them. They are only weak to high-pressure water and heavy ballistic rounds.”

“So, that’s what these are?” She inspected the box.

“Those are specialized hydro-rounds. They will repel the swarm,” he explained. “Do not try to test your luck by relying on the Qiong Snake virus in your body to protect you. And do not be overly optimistic. If one of those bugs bites you, the parasitic infection is immediate. You will be mutated into a host on the spot.”

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