Chapter 47: The Captains' Showdown

Guo Hansue and Kanto exchanged glances, a trace of solemnity flashing in both of their eyes.

One had to admit that regardless of Dongfang Tian's character, his subordinates were indeed exceptionally strong. In particular, Li Gang had slaughtered a number of zombies that surpassed the combined total of everyone else!

With a single slash, Li Gang cut down a zombie before him, lifted its bloody head, and looked mockingly at Jiang Yi. With a flick of his wrist, the decaying head rolled right to Jiang Yi's feet! Jiang Yi stepped back half a pace to avoid the blood splashing onto his toes, looked up at Li Gang, and suddenly smiled.

Observing the zombies gathering in increasing numbers ahead, he slowly drew the pitch-black Tang Dao! Kanto naturally noticed Li Gang's provocation. Having been eager for a fight for a while, the moment he saw Jiang Yi draw his blade, his own sword flashed out of its scabbard, and he sprinted forward, slashing directly at Li Gang!

Li Gang was horrified; he had never expected Kanto to dare make a move against him!

In his haste, he raised his blade, only to find that Kanto's sword brushed past his arm to hack at something behind him. With a fierce roar, the sharp katana sheared off half the skull of the zombie lunging at Li Gang's back!

At that moment, Guo Hansue also raised her left hand, palm facing the sky, as delicate blades of wind began to converge!

The sharp whistling sound of air being torn apart drew everyone's attention. With a fierce wave of her hand, five or six wind blades howled outward, shifting directions continuously in mid-air before vanishing in a flash. The zombies standing right before them collapsed to the ground in a wave!

Dongfang Tian's eyelid twitched as he looked with shock at Guo Hansue, who was displaying such formidable might! How could her superpower possibly be this powerful?

"Hansue?" Dongfang Tian parted his lips. Having stunned the entire audience with a single breath, Guo Hansue looked vibrant and radiant as she turned back to look at him with puzzlement: "What is it?"

Dongfang Tian opened his mouth again, but ultimately swallowed his words. He merely gazed at Guo Hansue with an even more profound look in his eyes...

Jiang Yi took everything in, a flicker of mischievousness flashing in his eyes. He simply loved watching Dongfang Tian desire something he could never quite grasp.

With the participation of Kanto and Guo Hansue, the team's advancing speed increased significantly!

Jiang Yi felt somewhat depressed; with those two fellows by his side, he didn't even have a chance to make a move! And Dongfang Tian hadn't attacked either...

Jiang Yi also understood that Guo Hansue and Kanto didn't want their abilities exposed too early. But soon, they wouldn't be able to keep that up! As the zombies gathered in greater numbers around them, they finally attracted an evolved zombie!

Seeing this zombie, Jiang Yi's eyes lit up, and he instinctively took a step forward! Yet Dongfang Tian was faster than him. His long sword instantly left its scabbard, sweeping forward like a gentle breeze, and thrust straight toward the zombie's neck amidst the ringing of the blade!

Dongfang Tian's speed was extremely fast, and the angle of his thrust was utterly tricky. He pierced straight through the neck of the evolved zombie! Seeing this, Li Gang took the lead and shouted loudly, "Good!"

However, how could a powerful evolved zombie be cut down by such a minor injury? Though its neck was pierced, the damage to it was negligible. It grabbed hold of Dongfang Tian's sword with one hand, while its other hand clawed directly at Dongfang Tian's arm!

Dongfang Tian had anticipated this; with a flick of his wrist, he withdrew his long sword, flashed a sword-bloom, and cleanly severed the hand that was clawing at him! But he had underestimated the speed of this zombie. Devoid of any pain, it completely ignored its missing fingers and slammed a heavy fist into Dongfang Tian's shoulder!

Caught off guard, Dongfang Tian stumbled and fell directly to the ground! Everyone was shocked. Seeing Dongfang Tian pinned to the ground by the zombie, Li Gang roared and charged forward with massive strides, each step shaking the ground beneath his feet!

"Hum!" The pitch-black Tang Dao moved with even greater velocity. Seeing Dongfang Tian beaten to the ground by the zombie, Jiang Yi swept his left hand and accelerated to full speed. Transforming into a streak of black light, he instantly appeared before the zombie and slashed at its neck!

The sharp blade made the zombie sense a crisis, prompting it to instinctively dodge backward! Jiang Yi's blade grazed past its nose. At that moment, Dongfang Tian had also climbed back up from the ground. Seeing the zombie dodge Jiang Yi's blade, he lunged forward and delivered a heavy kick straight into the zombie's stomach!

The zombie was sent flying, crashing to the ground where it roared frantically at Jiang Yi and Dongfang Tian! Jiang Yi and Dongfang Tian exchanged a glance. Without a single word, they demonstrated extreme tacit understanding, charging forward simultaneously to attack the grounded zombie with blade and sword at nearly identical speeds!

The zombie was extremely fast, but facing two formidable opponents, it soon sustained wounds all over its body. Yet, it was clear that the evolved zombie had learned its lesson, strictly guarding its vital points to avoid being fatally struck...

Dongfang Tian's swordplay was light and uncanny; every strike carried a rhythmic cadence, presenting a visually pleasing spectacle to onlookers.

Compared to him, Jiang Yi's combat style was truly painful for the audience to watch...

Depending entirely on the sharpness of his weapon, he hacked and slashed wildly. If not for Dongfang Tian's alertness, Jiang Yi would have accidentally injured him several times over! Once the surrounding ordinary zombies were cleared, everyone looked at Jiang Yi's fighting style in speechless silence. Li Gang turned to Kanto and asked, "Is this your captain?"

Kanto lowered his head and heavily slapped his own forehead!

Guo Hansue felt a deep sense of embarrassment as well. Biting her lower lip, she immediately raised the golden bow in her hand!

Li Gang was terrified: "Club President Guo, don't do anything rash, watch out for our President!"

Unfortunately, Guo Hansue completely ignored him. An arrow imbued with a powerful force of wind shrieked through the air with a piercing whistle!

Dongfang Tian, whose entire body was taut, suddenly felt a chill in his heart. The grim-reaper-like whistling in his ears made him instinctively squat down and dodge to the side!

Jiang Yi also heard the piercing sound of the arrow cutting through the air, but he merely shifted his body slightly. The powerful arrow grazed the corner of Jiang Yi's clothes and instantly pierced through the arm of the zombie ahead, its sheer force tearing the right arm right off!

Jiang Yi's eyes lit up: "Well shot!" Guiding his long blade, he followed through with a downward slash. The zombie's left shoulder was sheared through by the skull-cutting blade as a torrent of blood sprayed. The evolved zombie roared and retreated; losing both arms made it unable to even maintain basic balance!

Dongfang Tian picked himself up from the ground in a disheveled state, turned back to cast a cold glance, and finally locked his gaze on Guo Hansue, who was still holding the longbow in a shooting posture. Guo Hansue paid no attention to Dongfang Tian; her eyes remained fixed tightly on Jiang Yi, who was in the middle of combat!

By then, Dongfang Tian realized that during the brief moment he had been dazed, this zombie had already been whittled down to a torso and legs by Jiang Yi. The mere thought that he, in all his power, had lost to Jiang Yi—someone who didn't even know how to use a sword properly—filled him with rage.

Dongfang Tian stared viciously at Jiang Yi's back, the hand gripping his sword exuding a bone-chilling frost. A layer of rime hung over the dark-red hilt as cold mist gradually drifted outward...

Jiang Yi swung his blade to sever the zombie's right foot. Looking at the pathetic zombie, which was about to lose its balance and fall over entirely, the corners of his mouth curved into a smile. He shifted his body lightly, easily dodging the fierce, frost-covered sword Qi that lunged at him from behind!

The sharp longsword, wreathed in billowing cold mist, pierced once again into the zombie's stomach! But this time, the powerful evolved zombie was not as lucky as before. The instant the blade entered its body, billowing cold fog began to billow from the wound, and within moments, the zombie's neck and head were coated with a layer of frost!

"Break!" Dongfang Tian took several strides forward, clenched his left hand into a fist, and smashed it outward!

Accompanied by a series of cracking noises, the zombie beneath the frost shrieked as its neck and head snapped off completely at the base! Black-and-red ice crystals splattered in all directions, falling to the ground where they slowly melted into blood and were absorbed by the earth after a long while.

Jiang Yi stood quietly behind, watching Dongfang Tian as the latter stood beside the zombie and stared intently at him. Neither of them spoke, but the intersection of their gazes in the air was charged with a mutual thirst for battle...

It wasn't until the others rushed over from behind that Jiang Yi withdrew his blade, reverting to his harmless appearance. Li Gang walked up to Dongfang Tian and asked nervously, "Dongfang, are you alright?"

Dongfang Tian shook his head, took the crystal core handed over by his subordinate, and said in a deep voice, "Move out!"

With Dongfang Tian's subordinates paving the way, and seasoned experts like Kanto and Guo Hansue holding down the fort, the group approached Cafeteria Number Three without any major mishaps. Viewed from afar, Cafeteria Number Three looked less like a school canteen and more like a high-end hotel established right on campus!

The closer they got, the more evident the operator's meticulous care became. The entire Cafeteria Number Three was a three-story white building designed in a minimalist European architectural style, with massive, clear, and pristine floor-to-ceiling windows lining the snowy-white walls.

Even though Jiang Yi had never eaten here before, he knew that the campus Cafeteria Number Three catered to the upscale market. It was said that a single meal here wouldn't cost less than a thousand credits.

Arriving outside the cafeteria, the open-air coffee area—which should have been clean and tidy—was currently in utter chaos. Glass tables were shattered everywhere, and the parasols stuck into the tables were tilted haphazardly!

Splatterings of blood and signs of chaos remained everywhere, showing that a massive riot had broken out here during the early days of the apocalypse. Strangely enough, outside Cafeteria Number Three, there wasn't a single zombie in sight! The entire area possessed an eerie stillness!

Not only Jiang Yi, but Dongfang Tian, Guo Hansue, and the others also noticed the abnormality. Refusing to push forward recklessly, Dongfang Tian commanded everyone to scout the surrounding area...

Jiang Yi slowly followed behind the crowd, a trace of puzzlement flashing deep within his eyes. Guo Hansue walked up to stand beside him and asked, "What game are you playing? With such a great opportunity just now, why didn't you just kill that zombie yourself instead of handing the chance over to Dongfang Tian?"

Jiang Yi raised an eyebrow, glanced at Guo Hansue's puzzled expression, and explained in a low voice, "Because I wanted him to kill that zombie! If I had finished it off, the zombie's crystal core would have vanished, and I wouldn't have been able to explain it."

Guo Hansue came to a sudden realization. No wonder she had thought that given Jiang Yi's strength—though lacking conventional techniques—dealing with a single zombie shouldn't have been that arduous. Still, this was for the better; with Dongfang Tian acting as the main force, Jiang Yi could conceal his true strength more effectively.

Though losing out on the crystal core was somewhat regrettable, compared to the secret of the potions, such a minor loss meant nothing at all.

Of course, Guo Hansue still didn't know that what Jiang Yi had lost wasn't just a potion, but the experience points belonging to that zombie!

Even though he had contributed a great deal of effort, Jiang Yi's own system determined that the zombie had been killed by Dongfang Tian, meaning Jiang Yi didn't receive even a shred of experience.

Soon, the scouts searching the perimeter returned. After listening to their reports, Li Gang shook his head at Dongfang Tian: "Dongfang, there are no zombies outside, nor any corpses!"

Dongfang Tian frowned. This was highly abnormal. For an entire zone not to have a single zombie—he certainly didn't consider that a good sign...