Chapter 186 - 185: The Blade Creditor

The moment the scream stopped, Chu Zhaozhao's exceptionally loud voice rang out!

The long, snake-like arm, batted away by Su Qing's shield, was now writhing as it recoiled, preparing to strike again.

"Die!"

Before Su Qing and Xu Qian could even draw their spears, Chu Zhaozhao's two Flying Swords had already pulled free from the wall. To be safe, both flew towards the arm at once.

Whether it was because her vision was still blurry or for some other reason, one sword missed completely, while the other's aim was off, only slicing halfway through the long arm and scraping against the bone.

The arm thrashed wildly after being hit. Seeing her chance, Su Qing raised her shield and pinned the end of the arm against the wall, holding it down with all her might.

"Xu Qian!"

Faintly hearing Su Qing's shout, Xu Qian managed to break free from the daze caused by the sonic wave.

Su Qing had been their small team's leader for the past few days, and her voice was ingrained in Xu Qian's mind. The moment he heard his name, he understood instantly. He wrenched his spear free and dashed in front of Chu Zhaozhao.

From his angle, he couldn't see the monster, and stabbing without hitting a vital spot would be useless. He dodged to the right, saw the monster's form, and acted decisively. With a powerful upward thrust, the blade of his spear sliced the monster hanging upside down in the wardrobe open, from its chest all the way down to its segmented lower body!

With another forceful stab, he felt something pop. The monster's body went limp and crashed out of the wardrobe.

The monster's arm, which Su Qing had been pinning with her shield, also went slack. As the creature collapsed onto the floor, it was clearly dead for good.

"ARGH! So annoying! Why does this monster have a psychic attack?! I can't even aim straight!"

Chu Zhaozhao yelled loudly, only to realize her own voice sounded strange.

"Sister Qing! Why does my voice sound different?!"

Meanwhile, Xu Qian, standing further ahead, was worried the monster wasn't dead. He dazedly kept prodding the monster's body with his spear until his dizziness subsided and he slowly stopped.

Su Qing simply set her spear aside, hung her shield on her arm, and rubbed her ears with both hands.

She had been the farthest away, so her ears just hurt a little; it wasn't serious. Hearing Chu Zhaozhao's shout, she knew at once that Zhaozhao was half-deaf, just like Lin Fan had been before.

"Quieter!"

Su Qing shouted into her ear.

"It's not your voice that's changed, you're deaf!"

"Are you okay?!"

Seeing that Su Qing seemed fine, Chu Zhaozhao shouted at her.

"I... I'm fine!"

Su Qing had no choice but to shout back, then she looked over at Xu Qian.

"Xu Qian, are you okay?"

She saw Xu Qian's eyes shift, as if he were trying to "read" what she had just said...

"I... I can barely hear a little. A very faint sound,"

He said, looking at the two of them.

As the three were discussing their "medical conditions," the walkie-talkies on their belts crackled to life.

"A banshee zombie? Are you guys alright?"

Lin Fan's voice came through.

"Zhaozhao, Sister Qing, are you guys okay?"

Chu Zhaotian's voice also came through.

"Brother Lin, what happened? My men said there was a huge noise from one of the apartment buildings."

Liu Bin's voice came through as well...

"..."

Su Qing picked up her walkie-talkie, not knowing what to say, and simply replied to all of them at once:

"We're fine. The banshee zombie is dead. Don't worry..."

"Good. I was looking for you guys anyway. Where are you? I'll come over."

Lin Fan's voice came through again.

"Meet us downstairs at Building 16. We're coming down now."

Su Qing saw that one of her companions was deaf and the other half-deaf. But thanks to their Awakened One constitutions, such minor injuries were nothing serious, just a waste of time.

So she arranged the meeting spot with Lin Fan and decided they might as well take a short break.

"Okay..."

After getting confirmation from Lin Fan, Su Qing put away her walkie-talkie, only to see that Chu Zhaozhao had already run over to the zombie to look for its crystal.

'She's got a strangely nice figure, but her face is disgusting...'

Chu Zhaozhao knelt beside the corpse, borrowed Xu Qian's spear, and started dissecting the body.

Ever since she had become more proficient at controlling her two Flying Swords, she had mostly stopped carrying a spear when she went out.

She had only heard Lin Fan talk about banshee zombies before; this was her first time encountering one inside a room.

The last time they had talked about it, she had even boasted that she could kill a banshee zombie with her Flying Swords before it could scream. She never expected the thing to be so insidious; the wardrobe had been empty just a moment ago.

"It was on top of that partition... up high. We didn't notice..." ℯℯ𝑙.

Xu Qian said hesitantly, looking up inside the wardrobe.

"Yeah, we need to be more careful next time..."

Su Qing said, still a bit shaken. Luckily, they had grown stronger, or they might have been wiped out. But thinking of Xu Qian's performance just now, she still wanted to praise him.

"You did great just now!"

But seeing his blank expression, she knew he hadn't heard her, so she just gave him a thumbs-up instead.

"Found it!"

Chu Zhaozhao pried out a diamond-shaped crystal with the spear, wiped it on a clean spot on the bedsheet, and stuffed it into her pocket.

"Let's keep going!"

"Keep going with what? Your big brother told us to go downstairs and meet him... We can just let him deal with this noisy room..."

Su Qing shouted at Chu Zhaozhao.

"Big Brother? Did Big Brother call?"

Chu Zhaozhao looked puzzled; she hadn't heard a thing just now.

"Never mind, let's go downstairs!"

Su Qing gave up on explaining, waving for the other two to follow as she turned and headed downstairs.

Just as they reached the ground floor, they saw Lin Fan already waiting at the building entrance. Not far away, a few people were moving things out of another unit they had just cleared.

Seeing Lin Fan standing there, and having just heard a scream from the building, they were looking over curiously.

"Big Brother!"

As Chu Zhaozhao stepped out of the building, she saw Lin Fan and immediately rushed over. She reached into her pocket and pulled out three crystals: one Sharpness, one Vitality, and one Stealth—the last one presumably from the screamer they just dealt with.

"Keep your voice down... Whoa! Not bad at all..."

Lin Fan recoiled, startled by Chu Zhaozhao's shout, but his expression immediately changed to a wide grin when he saw the crystals in her hand. 'Being a landlord feels great,' he thought.

"Zhaozhao, you're amazing, you're the best, you're awesome..."

He showered the girl before him with praise.

With them sweeping through the area like this, encountering a banshee zombie was inevitable. Lin Fan hadn't been too worried, and seeing their health bars now put him completely at ease.

[267/276]

[288/315]

[176/214]

...

Xu Qian was the most injured and Su Qing the least, but all of them still had plenty of health left. The hearing damage would probably heal in a couple of hours.

"Come on! Look at this!"

After calming Chu Zhaozhao down, Lin Fan pointed to his side.

There, lightly embedded in the concrete pavers, were three brand-new, single-edged longswords with sleek designs, glinting with a cold metallic light.

"Whoa! Swords!"

Chu Zhaozhao's eyes lit up. She immediately reached out, preparing to use her power to pull the three swords from the ground, but Lin Fan smacked her hand down with a sharp THWACK, interrupting her "casting."

'This kid has no sense of ceremony...'

"What brand of sword is too short?"

Chu Zhaozhao asked quizzically.

Lin Fan rolled his eyes at her. Ignoring her, he walked behind the three swords and gestured to the first one.

"This one is for Sister Qing..."

Seeing his theatricality, Su Qing smiled, and the pain in her ears seemed to lessen.

She leaned her spear aside, ruffled Chu Zhaozhao's hair, and gracefully walked over to Lin Fan, pulling out the first sword.

"Whoa, this is heavy..."

She brandished it in her hand, seeming to struggle a bit with the weight.

Twenty jin (about 22 pounds) was probably still a bit too heavy for her. Lin Fan could only give an awkward smile.

"It's fine. Zhaozhao's is lighter. You can swap with her if you want."

"Thanks, little bro~"

Su Qing set the sword aside and gave Lin Fan a light kiss on the cheek.

She knew Lin Fan must have disappeared just now to make these swords for them, probably using the same method he used to make her shield.

"Hehe... This one is Zhaozhao's!"

Chu Zhaozhao, who had figured out he was handing out gifts and had been waiting eagerly, finally heard her name. She hurried forward and pulled out her sword.

"Wow! So cool! I have another Flying Sword!"

As she spoke, she used her ability to make the sword float in mid-air, then threw herself at Lin Fan, copying Su Qing by planting a heavy kiss on his cheek.

"Thanks, Big Brother!"

Lin Fan ruffled Chu Zhaozhao's hair, but then he saw Su Qing watching him with a playful look. He laughed awkwardly, composed himself, and continued the "award ceremony."

"Heh... This one is for Xu Qian..."

He beckoned to Xu Qian and pointed at the last sword on the ground.

He noticed Xu Qian's ears were bleeding. Recalling his own similar injury, he knew Xu Qian's hearing must be severely damaged.

Xu Qian pulled out his sword, examined it, and swung it through the air a couple of times. Realizing it was a high-quality weapon, similar to the spear Lin Fan had, he looked at Lin Fan gratefully.

"Hey, hey, you don't have to!"

Lin Fan quickly waved his hands, gesturing for him to stop.

Thinking of Su Qing and Chu Zhaozhao just now, Xu Qian understood Lin Fan was joking with him. He shyly scratched his head and gave Lin Fan a slight bow.

"Thank you, Brother Lin!"

His voice was much louder than usual.