The majority of the fog corpses were one-star, but leading them was a four-star variant.
"We haven't been to the west of the Misty Continent for half a year; did we really have to be this unlucky?" Yu Yunxiao muttered, exasperated.
Unwilling to provoke the troublesome fog corpses, the five men quickened their pace.
Xiao Jinsheng was directly swept into Que Zelian's arms in a princess carry.
She trembled in his embrace, a knot of fear tightening in her chest, yet she held tightly to his neck, biting her lip to stifle any cry that might attract more trouble.
At least being held by Que Zelian was far more comfortable than being repeatedly hauled over the shoulders of Yu Yunxiao and Mo Jiao yesterday.
They fled for a full half-hour, the fog corpses relentlessly pursuing them. Not only did they fail to shake them off, but their numbers continued to swell.
"We have to deal with them first," Su Ye stated grimly. "If we keep running like this and they gather into a fog corpse tide, we're all doomed."
There were only six of them, and only Su Ye, Mo Jiao, and Que Zelian possessed significant combat prowess.
A quick glance revealed that over three hundred fog corpses were currently chasing them.
Eventually, the six of them reached an abandoned auto repair shop.
Que Zelian moved with the wind's grace, effortlessly leaping onto the fifth-floor rooftop while carrying Xiao Jinsheng.
Simultaneously, Huai Qing manipulated the greenery covering the repair shop, sending several long vines into Que Zelian's hands on the rooftop.
Que Zelian secured the vines tightly to the rooftop, and the remaining four used them to easily ascend the moss-covered walls.
The fog corpses swarmed below, also grasping at the vegetation on the walls, attempting to climb.
Huai Qing swiftly drained the life force from the greenery on the repair shop's ground floor.
Deprived of vitality, the vegetation withered into brittle stalks, crumbling at the fog corpses' touch, causing them to fall and pile up on top of each other below.
"What's with these fog corpses? We've run so far, yet they're still relentlessly pursuing us," Yu Yunxiao said, locking the rooftop door before approaching the balcony to look down.
The fog corpses in the west of the Misty Continent had a limited range of activity. Unless attracted by fresh blood, their five-person escape speed should have long left these creatures behind.
"There's no use dwelling on it now. To avoid further trouble, we have no choice but to eliminate them," Su Ye said, setting down the long object wrapped in black cloth that he had been carrying on his back.
Xiao Jinsheng had long been curious about the wooden stick he always carried, meticulously concealed in cloth.
However, considering Su Ye's unpleasant disposition, she had refrained from asking.
After all, the stick was about two meters and twenty centimeters long, and she feared Su Ye might unravel the black cloth and strike her with it.
But as the black cloth unfurled, it revealed not a long stick, but a formidable Zhanmadao, a horse-slaying sword.
The hilt alone was a meter long, and the blade stretched an impressive meter and twenty centimeters.
Xiao Jinsheng's gaze followed Su Ye's figure with astonishment.
Seeing his imposing height of one meter eighty-six centimeters wielding a two-meter-twenty-centimeter longsword, even his silhouette exuded a powerful sense of oppression.
"How do you even draw such a long sword?" Xiao Jinsheng asked Que Zelian quietly, her curiosity piqued by this single detail.
Su Ye, with his acute hearing, caught her question and glanced back at her.
He tossed the weapon into the air, spun, and delivered a powerful kick. The scabbard was sent flying, piercing the air and then impaling the neck of a fog corpse below, continuing through four more standing close together, skewering them like a kebab.
Xiao Jinsheng peered down from the balcony, a shiver of fear running down her spine as she instinctively touched her own neck.
She remembered the original plot: these five men would each deliver a fatal blow to her, and Su Ye's blade was the one that pierced her neck.
A wave of fear washed over Xiao Jinsheng, and she hastily backed away from the balcony, her back colliding with Su Ye, who was moving forward.
She turned to see who she had bumped into, her eyes meeting Su Ye's cold, golden eyes, now revealing a hint of murderous intent.
"Que… Que Zelian…" Xiao Jinsheng's mind was filled with the image of herself and the fog corpses being skewered by his two-meter-twenty-centimeter longsword. Her body trembled, and tears welled up in her eyes.
Su Ye reached out and pinched her cheek, lowering his gaze to hers, his voice a low interrogation. "Xiao Jinsheng, are you mistaking your own man's face, or miscalling your own man's name?"
"Ah—" Xiao Jinsheng quickly pressed a hand to her chest. "My heart hurts so much. Please don't scare me."
"If you scare me again, I might just dramatically die on you."
Su Ye had become numb to Xiao Jinsheng's shameless behavior over the past two days.
She was no longer the insane woman who would lash out at them with physical and verbal abuse at every turn.
Now, she had shifted to psychological torment.
"Suit yourself," Su Ye replied dismissively before effortlessly vaulting over the balcony railing with a single hand.
As he was about to land, he used a fog corpse's head as a stepping stone, somersaulting in the air and unleashing a horizontal sweep of his longsword, instantly bisecting the fog corpses lunging at him within a three-meter radius.
Viscera and blood splattered across the ground.
The fog, viewed from above, had thinned slightly. Although visibility was still limited, outlines could be discerned, and the stench of blood hung heavy in the air.
Xiao Jinsheng, pale with fright on the upper floor, still clung tightly to the balcony railing, forcing herself to look down.
Since she was in the apocalypse, such bloody scenes would undoubtedly become commonplace.
She had to acclimate herself.
Fortunately, the heavy fog obscured the details, making the scene appear pixelated, significantly reducing the visceral impact of the gore.
With Su Ye initiating the attack, the remaining three men, except for Yu Yunxiao who stayed to protect her, jumped down.
However, unlike Su Ye's brutal cleaving, the other three men employed less bloody methods of attack.
Mo Jiao summoned black mist, which rapidly turned the fog corpses into piles of white bones.
Huai Qing produced a sniper rifle, and under the cover of the mist, easily targeted the four-star fog corpse within the horde, eliminating them one shot at a time.
Que Zelian raised his hand, conjuring a rain of crimson feathers.
The red feathers cascaded down, each one piercing directly through the temples of the fog corpses.
However, Que Zelian quickly noticed something unusual.
He moved through the air, raised his hand, and the red feathers, carrying star stones, flew back to him.
Every single fog corpse had a star stone within its brain.
"What? When did Que Zelian get so lucky?" Yu Yunxiao exclaimed, his hands braced on the balcony railing as he stared in disbelief at the pile of star stones, lifted by the wind and placed before Que Zelian.
While the two on the balcony were marveling at Que Zelian's unbelievable luck, Mo Jiao's black mist dissipated the white bones, similarly extracting a star stone from the skull of each fog corpse.
Su Ye, seeing that both of them had obtained star stones from the fog corpses they had killed, casually stomped on the skull of a fallen fog corpse.
With a flick of his longsword, he also discovered a star stone.
In that moment, the expressions of the six individuals present varied greatly.
Even their speed in eliminating the fog corpses increased.
The battle lasted fifteen minutes, with the four men working together to clear out the three hundred-plus fog corpses.
Once the fighting ceased, Yu Yunxiao also descended to the ground to join in the cleanup.
Every task participant in the Misty Continent harbored the dream of striking it rich by finding a star stone within a fog corpse's brain.
Therefore, they never missed the opportunity to pry open the heads of the fog corpses they had killed in search of these valuable resources.
However, the results were almost always disappointing.
Today, every single fog corpse they had slain yielded a star stone, making the five men clearing the battlefield feel as if they were in a dream.
This pile of star stones contained 10 four-star stones, 23 three-star stones, 30 two-star stones, and 253 one-star stones.
Exactly 316 fog corpses, exactly 316 star stones.
"Is it because we haven't gone on a mission for half a year? Has the probability of fog corpses dropping star stones become one hundred percent?" Yu Yunxiao wondered aloud.
"The fog corpses around the villa last night, except for the one Que Zelian killed, didn't have any star stones," Huai Qing stated.
He first glanced at Xiao Jinsheng before carefully adding, "Even the fog corpses killed by the neighbors also yielded no star stones."
"Are we this lucky? We were chased by fog corpses for half an hour, and all of them dropped star stones after we killed them," Yu Yunxiao said, his voice filled with surprise and delight.
"Chased…" Que Zelian murmured, a bizarre thought flashing through his mind.
He looked at Xiao Jinsheng, who was staring curiously at the basin filled with star stones. "If we had to point out a commonality in the fog corpses' brains yielding star stones these past two days, it would be the chase."
"Fog corpses that love to chase people have star stones?" Yu Yunxiao asked.
Que Zelian shook his head, his gaze meaningfully falling upon Xiao Jinsheng. "It's the fog corpses that chase her that have star stones."
Xiao Jinsheng looked up, her expression one of astonishment.