Chapter Ninety-Six: Finding the Source Mine

In a ruined residential complex, the ground was strewn with zombies, packed so densely that the bodies lay in shattered heaps.

Gu Sha was rapidly collecting corpse nuclei. His backpack was already bulging with them, and there were even quite a few ninth-rank nuclei among the haul. The spoils were abundant, and the more he worked, the more energized he became.

Just then, his radio suddenly began to vibrate in short, urgent bursts.

Gu Sha frowned slightly, tapped the earpiece, and asked, "What is it?"

This radio had been specially made for their team, so they could stay in contact even after entering this pocket dimension.

"B-big boss..."

Kuang Dao's weak voice came through the earpiece. "Lin Xingyun has gone mad... He was seduced by the zombies of the zombie race... He killed my men... He went to look for the source mine..."

Before he could finish, Kuang Dao's voice broke off. The radio filled with the roar of zombies and the sounds of a frantic fight, then fell silent.

"Hello? Hello?"

Gu Sha called out twice, but there was no response.

His brow tightening, he immediately took out his phone and checked it, found Kuang Dao's location, and rushed off at once.

He had already reached the king tier and could fly briefly. Cutting straight across the route in a direct line, he soon arrived at a dilapidated square. From afar, he saw Kuang Dao being besieged by a swarm of zombies. His protective suit was already in tatters, and his situation was dire.

Gu Sha immediately hurled the King Bone toward the distance.

The King Bone tore through the air with a thunderous hum. Like a meteor crashing down, it stirred up a vast surge of energy and directly sent every zombie surrounding Kuang Dao flying, flinging them in all directions.

Gu Sha sprinted over, leapt high, and then descended like a falling bolt of lightning.

With a deafening boom, he planted his foot on the ground. The earth shook violently, the pavement caved in, and countless stone bricks blasted into the air. The dense mass of zombies was buried beneath the ruins.

Gu Sha grabbed the badly wounded Kuang Dao and quickly brought him to the roof of a tall building. He then swiftly activated the power of inscriptions to cover Kuang Dao's wounds, but since he was not a healing-type ability user, he could only stop the bleeding temporarily.

Fortunately, although Kuang Dao had been infected by corpse toxin, he was a sixth-rank transcendent, so the infection would not spread for the time being. As long as he received prompt treatment from a healing-type ability user, he would not turn into a zombie.

"Big boss..."

Kuang Dao hurriedly recounted what had happened.

"Lin Xingyun was swayed. He was already a seventh-rank transcendent and also a fourth-rank ability user. I wasn't his match, and he attacked without warning. If my brothers hadn't covered my retreat with their lives, I never would have escaped. All of them died!"

Kuang Dao wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and said, "That bastard. Once I get out, I'm going straight to the federal authorities to report him!"

Gu Sha's pupils contracted slightly.

It was not the first time he had heard the term source mine. In his previous life, over twenty years, source mines had also appeared in many places on Earth. However, those things had all been held by major powers or the authorities, far too distant from him.

But he knew what a source mine meant.

It was a vein of source energy, containing terrifying quantities of it. In the later years, the common currency, besides corpse nuclei, was source stones, and those source stones were mined from source mines.

It was an absolutely priceless treasure.

For a moment, Gu Sha silently cursed himself for having overlooked this and nearly missing such a great opportunity.

He was almost certain that the zombie race had not lied.

Otherwise, there would be no explanation for why such dense and vibrant source energy could exist within this sealed pocket space.

"Do you know where they went?" Gu Sha asked.

"No," Kuang Dao said. "I was being chased at the time, and Lin Xingyun pursued me for a while. Maybe he was wary of high-rank zombies in the city, because he didn't chase me for long before turning back. When I was there, they hadn't set off yet."

Gu Sha narrowed his eyes slightly.

He immediately began to activate his future-prediction vision.

He activated it three times in succession.

In the first vision, he failed to find Lin Xingyun. At the moment the spatial rift opened, Lin Xingyun appeared at the last possible instant, already a first-rank Battle King. The two of them fought fiercely, and in the end they had no choice but to stop and enter the spatial rift to return to Earth, where Lin Xingyun ultimately escaped.

In the second vision, just before the spatial rift opened, he encountered Lin Xingyun hurrying toward the rift's location. Gu Sha launched a surprise attack, and relying on the advantage of the King Bone, he killed Lin Xingyun as the spatial rift opened.

But this time, Gu Sha discovered something extremely strange.

When Lin Xingyun died, a powerful mental force suddenly burst out of his body. After a fierce struggle, Gu Sha barely managed to deal with it.

After absorbing that memory, Gu Sha guessed that the mental force should have been the will of some powerful being, trying to use Lin Xingyun to enter Earth and then seize control of him to stir up trouble.

In the third vision, he took a different route and finally, after a great deal of circling around, found Lin Xingyun. At that time, Lin Xingyun was absorbing source energy and happened to encounter a mental force quietly infiltrating his body.

Gu Sha struck at once.

That mental force took form as a shadowy figure, and it was actually the spiritual will of a powerful zombie king.

It was immensely formidable. Apart from a king-tier expert's sea of consciousness, no one else could endure it.

In that battle, Gu Sha was somewhat strained, but by relying on his time ability to suppress that spiritual will, he discovered at a critical moment the artifact it had attached itself to. He ordered Kuang Dao to destroy the artifact, and in the end he killed that spiritual will.

"Incredible."

After absorbing the three memories, excitement stirred in Gu Sha's heart.

The fact that Lin Xingyun had directly broken through to the king tier, even though his talent and Qi-guiding art were both rather ordinary and there had not been enough time, and even though the source mine had not yet been fully depleted, was enough to prove that the amount of source energy there was truly enormous.

"Let's go!"

Gu Sha glanced at Kuang Dao, then simply lifted him and flew off.

In the third memory, he had already found the location of the source mine, and now he hurried straight there. He and Lin Xingyun arrived almost one after the other.

It was an underground laboratory.

Following his memory, Gu Sha arrived at an empty hall on the lowest level, just in time to see Lin Xingyun and two others standing beside a massive machine while holding a senior member of the zombie race.

The zombie race elder said, "This is an energy extractor. The source mine uses this device to draw out source energy and then release it throughout the space. You can begin absorbing it now. However, your cultivation secret art is far too poor, so your absorption will be very slow. Your time may not be enough. I can now teach you a more profound secret art. Your absorption speed will be at least a hundred times faster than with your current method. You..."

Lin Xingyun sneered, then slapped the zombie race elder's head to pieces.

One of his subordinates asked in confusion, "Captain, why would you..."

Lin Xingyun waved a hand and said, "I have seen this kind of trick too many times. He was trying to exploit human greed, step by step lowering my guard, then tamper with the secret art."

The two subordinates suddenly understood.

Then both of them grew excited and said, "Then, Captain, should we start absorbing it now? Maybe we can really become as powerful as Gu Sha..."

But just then, Lin Xingyun suddenly attacked the two of them. One head flew off. The other rushed to block the blow, only to have his body pierced by Lin Xingyun's sword.

"W-why..."

Lin Xingyun pulled out the sword and looked at the subordinate who had died with his eyes still wide open. In a low voice, he said, "I'm sorry. This thing can only belong to me."