Chapter 71: A Blade for Training

A question mark involuntarily appeared on Qiao Xia’s face as he gazed at the Tang blade Duan Yulan offered him.

He had assumed his role in this expedition would be purely supportive, merely standing by, waving flags, and perhaps even cheering with a voice-cracking intensity as Duan Yulan carved a path of destruction.

Yet, observing the current turn of events, it appeared he would have to wield the blade himself.

“It wasn’t convenient back at the school,” Duan Yulan explained, “but now it’s time for you to train. We can’t have your skills lagging behind the evolving situation; that would only invite significant danger.”

After Qiao Xia, still somewhat bewildered, reached out and accepted the Tang blade, Duan Yulan clarified her intentions. She emphasized his urgent need for training, lest he be forced to concede defeat in future perilous encounters.

Though Duan Yulan had resolved never to leave Qiao Xia’s side again, moments of oversight were inevitable. Regret, in such instances, would be a luxury they couldn’t afford.

Having already lost Qiao Xia once, Duan Yulan would, under no circumstances, allow such a tragedy to repeat itself.

Therefore, Qiao Xia had to enhance his strength as quickly as possible.

This would also enable him to adapt more swiftly to subsequent events and confront the array of dangers that would inevitably follow.

She recalled the decade after the apocalypse, when all but the most powerful ability users had succumbed to the monsters.

Eventually, with no humans left to hunt, the monsters had begun preying on one another.

The few remaining humans merely eked out an existence, surviving in the narrowest of margins.

Under such dire circumstances, for Qiao Xia, who had evaded countless monstrous attacks, to ultimately perish at the hands of other humans was an utterly absurd irony.

As these thoughts coursed through her mind, Duan Yulan’s eyes suddenly turned glacial. Without another glance at Qiao Xia, she gestured for him to be the first to enter the police station and eliminate the monsters, while she would quietly observe from behind.

Qiao Xia had been formidable in his previous life; he wouldn’t become a mere waste in this one.

Upon seeing Duan Yulan’s inexplicably cold expression, Qiao Xia, clutching the Tang blade, dared not ask or say anything. After silently steeling himself, he gripped the blade and strode purposefully toward the damaged entrance of the police station.

Having gained experience from killing zombies before, Qiao Xia was no longer the panicked novice he once was. He could now calmly face the terrifying appearance of a zombie without his legs trembling in fear.

However, upon entering through the broken doorway, before Qiao Xia could even survey his surroundings, a zombie clad in a floral vest and baggy shorts let out a guttural roar and lunged fiercely toward him.

As it drew closer, the large gold chain around the zombie’s neck struck Qiao Xia directly in the face.

It didn’t hurt.

It was plastic.

In a hurried motion, Qiao Xia raised his Tang blade to block the gaping, blood-stained maw. As the zombie frantically tried to bite him, he immediately lifted his left foot and delivered a fierce kick, sending the creature stumbling back a significant step.

Seizing the moment, Qiao Xia swung his Tang blade directly at the zombie’s head.

However, Qiao Xia did not hear the sound of a sharp blade splitting bone. Instead, the blade stopped halfway, getting stuck.

Qiao Xia froze.

The zombie, however, did not.

It let out another roar and swiftly charged at Qiao Xia, this time using its hands as weapons. Its grabs and scratches forced Qiao Xia to repeatedly dodge, fearing his skin would be torn by those blood-stained hands.

Even if becoming an ability user prevented him from turning into a zombie, seeing how filthy those hands were made him wonder if a scratch might still lead to infection…

During his evasions, he didn’t even have the time to pull out the Tang blade embedded in the zombie’s head, leaving the creature to continue running wildly with the blade still lodged there.

This left Qiao Xia utterly speechless. He desperately wanted to negotiate with this ‘socialite’ zombie, to ask if they could just pause for a moment.

He just needed to retrieve his blade, then they could continue their fight.

As Qiao Xia silently grumbled to himself, he knew such thoughts were futile, merely a way to entertain himself and somewhat alleviate the tension of being chased by a zombie.

Yet, when Duan Yulan wielded the Tang blade, she was utterly unstoppable.

How was it that when it was his turn, he even got stuck while trying to hack a zombie?

Even as Qiao Xia was scurrying around, head in hands, being chased by the floral-shorts zombie, Duan Yulan, standing nearby, made no move to help. She merely stood there silently, like a statue, watching with her indifferent eyes.

Duan Yulan’s silent demeanor made her resemble a beauty carved from ice and snow.

Devoid of any warmth.

A sensation as cold as steel.

Just looking at her sent shivers down his spine.

Fortunately, Qiao Xia hadn’t placed his hopes on Duan Yulan. The moment she handed him the Tang blade and declared it was time for his training, Qiao Xia understood that once inside the police station, he would have to resolve any danger he encountered himself.

Thus, even as he was relentlessly pursued by the floral-shorts ‘socialite’ zombie, Qiao Xia did not abandon his attempts to counterattack.

However, perhaps the force he’d used in his initial attempt to decapitate it was too great, making the stuck Tang blade difficult to dislodge.

It took considerable effort for Qiao Xia to finally retrieve the Tang blade. Afterward, seeing the sizable wound on the zombie’s head, he wondered if the blade would get stuck again if he tried another strike.

Qiao Xia had only managed to kill the muscle-bound ‘Iron Hammer’ zombie due to his golden finger’s reversal ability; strictly speaking, it wasn’t his own kill.

Later, in the teaching building, he had killed zombies with the help of Li Lin Guan and others. With strength in numbers, the newly transformed student zombies were no match.

Therefore, facing the floral-shorts zombie alone now was proving to be such a struggle for Qiao Xia.

However, Qiao Xia was not one to rely solely on brute force. Remembering how Duan Yulan always favored a violent, single-strike decapitation, he immediately emulated her, swiftly swinging his blade at the floral-shorts zombie’s neck.

This time, there were no mishaps. The zombie’s fragile neck simply couldn’t withstand the blade’s power.

The zombie’s head immediately detached, rolling with a clatter into a nearby corner.

Only the headless corpse remained, slumping softly to the ground, never to rise again.

Qiao Xia, finally having killed the zombie, was drenched in sweat. The hand gripping the blood-stained Tang blade trembled slightly, prompting him to take a deep, shaky breath before his composure returned.

Only a lingering weakness and discomfort remained in his body.

Being in such a critical situation was truly thrilling; it not only frayed his nerves but also left his body utterly exhausted.

He wondered how Duan Yulan had honed her formidable skills… He felt that she must have killed countless zombies and mutated creatures to become so proficient and unflinching!

“You made two fatal errors when dealing with that last zombie,” Duan Yulan began, breaking her silence after Qiao Xia had rested for a few minutes. “First, you underestimated the hardness of the skull, and second, you made too many unnecessary defensive movements.”