In the blink of an eye, two more days passed.
They spent the time repeating the same routine as the previous two days: clearing zombies, taking tally of the residents, and distributing supplies.
In between, Elders Sun and Wei also took a few people aside whenever they had a free moment to teach them how to hotwire and drive a car.
The job of hunting zombies had already been handed off from Su Jin to Cheng Du.
Time was running too short, and putting Cheng Du straight into live combat to hunt zombies was the best option.
His pyrokinesis was indeed exceptionally powerful.
Zombies could only be put down for good by piercing their hearts.
While Cheng Du's fiery assaults were not enough to kill them outright, they severely crippled their mobility.
When ordinary flames scorched a zombie, its movements were hardly affected in the short term.
Flames ignited through special abilities, however, seemed to carry an offensive bonus, provoking an intense pain response from the creatures.
Once they were staggered, delivering a finishing strike could kill them in a single blow.
So far, they had discovered two ways to use it. The first was wreathing his body in fire, which could even extend onto his weapons for close-quarters combat.
The other was spewing fire from his mouth as a direct ranged attack.
Both forms packed considerable punch, though Cheng Du's combat endurance—when compared to Su Jin's—left much to be desired.
Curiously, breathing fire did not seem limited to his mouth; any orifice on his body capable of venting air appeared to work just as well.
Cheng Du had enthusiastically invited Su Jin to watch a demonstration and spar with him.
Su Jin politely declined every time... terrified that Cheng Du might blast out shit and splatter him with it.
Another zombie crashed to the ground.
Cheng Du sidestepped to make room for the person behind him.
Su Jin crouched down and briskly went to work on the corpse.
He was the nimblest at this sort of chore. Vile as it was, they kept him on the job solely to save time.
Opening the zombie's chest with tense anticipation, Su Jin pushed the heart aside.
When he spotted half of a flesh bulb protruding beneath it, his pupils shrank, and he pumped his fist hard!
Finally found one!
Before launching their operation, all three of them would finally be fully armed. Setting out the day after tomorrow worked out perfectly, giving Fu Hu a whole day to awaken and get used to his new ability.
Pocketing the flesh bulb, Su Jin stood up and looked back at the group. "All right, back to work. There aren't many households left—let's clear the rest today."
Once again, all eight gathered for the "cult ritual."
Without a word wasted, Fu Hu swallowed hard and reached out to cup the flesh bulb in his hands.
Su Jin drove his blade in, piercing the bulb.
Fu Hu promptly passed out. Fortunately, Cheng Du caught him from behind and hauled him over to the sofa so he could sleep peacefully.
Su Jin waved the others away, keeping only Elders Sun Ya and Wei De.
After a moment's thought, Su Jin said, "We set out the day after tomorrow. Is there anything else we need to cover?"
Sun Ya handed over a folded sheet of paper and a pillbox. "Here are the operational details and Old Wei's pillbox. Take a look when you have time. While you were out today, Old Wei and I inspected the car and siphoned enough fuel to top off the tank.
"We made two makeshift timer bombs, both up on the fourth floor. You'll have to haul them down yourself—our old bones really can't handle that kind of heavy lifting.
"And the gas canister can just be strapped to the trunk. We already smashed and cleared away the rear windshield for you, so if needed, you can have someone in the back seat toss bombs."
Sun Ya paused, then added, "By the way, Xiao Li, I've been meaning to ask... what did you tell the others? None of them seem to have any sense of crisis."
Su Jin smiled. "Downplay big matters with the women. I just told them I'm taking a few people nearby to gather supplies and stockpile some medicine, and that we won't go far.
"As for Old Fu and Cheng Du, I told them we're heading to the Medical University to retrieve a few things. It might be risky, but it'll be immensely useful down the road. Old Fu didn't object—with his wife and kid here, he has to step up. And Cheng Du is itching to test his new powers."
"Cheng Du looks a bit reckless; you need to keep a tight leash on him so nothing goes wrong," Sun Ya sighed. "I've been thinking these past few days that keeping them in the dark forever isn't the way to go. Nobody in this room is careless or ignorant, and they need to stay vigilant. Once you successfully bring the things back tomorrow, let's find an opportunity to tell them. After all, we'll have to test it household by household—they ought to know what's coming so they can stay on guard.
"Worst-case scenario, even if word leaks after we expand our numbers, having three powerful ability users will be more than enough to keep things under control."
Su Jin nodded. "I think so too. The more ability users we awaken, the more stable our foundation will be. In any case, let's talk more when I get back from the mission the day after tomorrow."
"Keep what we gave you in mind. Be extremely careful, extremely cautious... everyone is counting on you."
"Don't worry. You two get some rest early, too."
Just as dawn began to break, a dazed Fu Hu sat up from the sofa.
Seeing seven pairs of eyes fixed on him, he didn't panic; after all, he had already watched this unfold twice before.
Rubbing his eyes, he asked, "How long was I out... what time is it?"
"Never mind the time! Hurry up and see what ability you got!"
At that, Fu Hu perked up and sat bolt upright.
He blinked repeatedly, focusing inward to sense anything out of the ordinary.
After a dozen seconds, Fu Hu's face lit up with pleasant surprise. "Mm... mm-mm-mm, I definitely feel something! It's like a surge of qi, and I can control it."
"Try guiding that qi into a part of your body," Cheng Du coached from the side.
Su Jin said nothing. He wasn't like the two of them; his enhancement was purely passive, boosting only his base stats.
Fu Hu held out both arms to inspect them.
The others crowded around to look.
"Nothing looks different," Cheng Du said, puzzled.
"No, something changed. Try touching it."
Cheng Du reached out and pressed Fu Hu's forearm, immediately crying out, "Holy crap, iron arms!"
Seeing this, Su Jin picked up a water cup from the table and tapped it against Fu Hu's arm, producing a crisp, metallic clink.
Pondering his physical condition, Fu Hu reached out and took the cup from Su Jin.
With a gentle squeeze, the cup shattered into pieces.
Shattering the cup was not enough; he stood, walked over to the corner of the room, and picked up the rarely used ninety-pound compound bow.
As casually as if pulling a slingshot, he repeatedly drew the bow more than a dozen times before putting it down and returning to the sofa.
Delight showed in Su Jin's eyes.
The bow was not enough to test the man's limits, and pulling it so effortlessly meant his strength had skyrocketed.
"It's not just getting hard—my strength increased a ton, too," Fu Hu said, standing up and rolling his shoulders. "Other than that, though, I don't feel anything else."
"Can you only use this hardening on your arms?" Su Jin asked.
Fu Hu shook his head. "I can use it anywhere on my body, but covering everything at once is tough. The surface area is limited each time—roughly about the size of both my arms."
"Oho, then that's more than enough!" Cheng Du said, smacking his lips.
The moment those words left his mouth, the gazes of Su Jin and the other men instantly snapped to a certain spot on Fu Hu's body!
"You're a lucky woman... Wan," Auntie Liu whispered into Zhang Wan's ear.
"Get outta here!"
Zhang Wan shoved her daughter to the side, fighting like mad to suppress the grin tugging wildly at the corners of her mouth.
Chapter 45