"I can stall for more time!" Although they were escaping together, Fulong deliberately slowed his pace, positioning himself behind Chu Qianli.
"Fighting is a man's business! Go back!" he urged.
Chu Qianli, however, smiled. "You're mistaken. In my era, defending our home and country was a responsibility shared by men and women alike."
"Your era?" Fulong's heart hesitated.
But he had no chance to ask. The medicine-infused zombies had caught up.
Fulong gripped his long sword, intending to throw Chu Qianli away.
To his surprise, at the moment he threw her, the stubborn girl twisted around.
She firmly grasped the force of his throw, turning it into a counter-force.
Using this momentum, Qianli lunged towards the approaching medicine-infused zombies.
Against these creatures, who felt no pain, silver needles were useless.
She held a short knife and with a swish, slashed at the zombie's neck.
Only a fatal blow could take them down.
Martial arts and bare-handed combat were of little use against them.
They couldn't feel pain!
"You!" This reckless girl, truly... truly gambling with her life!
At this point, Fulong no longer hesitated. He swung his long sword, pointing it at the zombies' necks.
Since she refused to leave, they would fight side by side!
Fulong had never fought alongside a girl before. The feeling was both novel and unsettling.
His greatest fear was her getting hurt.
"Don't worry about me!" Chu Qianli quickly noticed he was constantly guarding her.
If this continued, he would surely get injured.
"They carry potent poison. Try not to touch their blood!"
Chu Qianli also struck with her knife and immediately retreated. Touching their blood would lead to poisoning!
Fortunately, she had already taken an antidote for a previous poisoning.
Although the antidote didn't completely block the poison, it at least prevented the poisoning from becoming too severe.
"Fulong, catch!"
She raised her hand and threw a bottle.
"Take another one. Try to stay alive!"
Fulong didn't doubt her. He caught the bottle and, managing to retreat, popped a pill into his mouth.
He had no chance to return the bottle to Chu Qianli, so he kept it.
"Retreat!" Fulong roared, swinging his sword.
The two had developed a tacit understanding. After each strike with their weapons, they would retreat simultaneously.
However, they soon realized that the area they could retreat to was shrinking.
The medicine-infused zombies seemed to be increasing in number.
Meanwhile, Fulong's sword energy was gradually weakening due to the prolonged combat.
Suddenly, with a hiss, Chu Qianli's hand was accidentally scratched.
Fulong's eyes turned bloodshot with urgency. "How are you?"
"It's... fine. I took... the antidote before."
Yet, even with the antidote, the poison was incredibly potent.
While not immediately fatal, she immediately felt her hand going numb.
As expected, when she raised her hand, the knife was snatched away by a zombie.
She couldn't even hold the knife anymore.
As a zombie was about to pounce, Chu Qianli's limbs were numb, her movements incredibly slow.
She couldn't dodge!
A scene flashed through her mind: a zombie biting a brother's neck, tearing flesh from bone, crushing blood vessels...
She instinctively reached up to cover her neck.
The aura of death instantly descended.
"Careful!" Fulong swung his long sword. His remaining sword energy could only push the zombies back, not injure them.
The zombies were growing in number.
In her vision, a zombie was about to leap onto Chu Qianli.
Fulong had no better solution.
If he did, he would never give up the chance to survive.
But, there truly was none...
As Chu Qianli despaired, she suddenly felt her body sink.
She instinctively threw a punch, but her fingers were numb, completely unable to lift.
This presence wasn't from the medicine-infused zombies!
Opening her eyes, she saw Fulong shielding her.
And behind him, the zombie bared its sinister teeth, lunging for his neck.
"No..."
But she was powerless.
There was no need to save her, but in reality, neither of them had a chance to live.
The legend of Black Wind Ridge was true; no one who came to inquire about Black Wind Cliff ever left alive.
They wouldn't be the exception.
She just hadn't expected that someone she'd known for only a few days would use his own body to protect her in a moment of crisis.
Why?
They weren't even friends.
Fulong's hand fell before her eyes, blocking her view, not wanting her to witness his death.
There was no "why."
He didn't know why either.
Perhaps, as she had said, having eaten hot pot and drunk cola together, they were brothers, comrades.
Brothers were meant to share life and death, to protect each other with their lives.
In the next life, they would eat and drink together again.
If... if there was a next life...
Fulong closed his eyes, awaiting the arrival of death.
However, the expected sharp pain did not come. Instead, the force pressing against his back suddenly vanished.
It was as if someone had pulled away the zombie behind him and thrown it out.
Fulong's eyes snapped open, and a look of awe immediately filled his gaze.
The person stood before them, tall and upright, like a pillar supporting the sky!
He tightened his five fingers, telekinetically grabbing the long sword Fulong had dropped.
With a sweep of the sword, a powerful and terrifying sword energy surged forward.
With several *poof* sounds, over a dozen surrounding zombies were split in half by the sword energy almost simultaneously, falling to the ground!
Fulong hesitated for only a moment before leaping from Chu Qianli.
He picked up the short knife Chu Qianli had dropped and slashed at the nearest zombie.
Chu Qianli slowly opened her eyes.
She truly had no strength left, and everything in her vision began to blur due to the poison.
In her daze, she couldn't see the person's face clearly, only a cold yet inexplicably reassuring back against the moonlight.
She suspected she was hallucinating, because he shouldn't have been in this place.
But he was truly there.
Truly standing before her, using his immensely powerful sword energy to cut down wave after wave of approaching zombies.
His proud physique, standing there, was like a sky-supporting tree, capable of sheltering anyone from wind and rain.
Her eyelids grew heavier, her body stiffer.
Just like when she was poisoned before, even with the antidote, she would likely have to pass out for a while.
She was about to faint...
In her vision, that figure remained cold and noble.
The long sword in his hand moved like a swimming dragon, its power astonishing.
What a good comrade such a man would be!
Alas, they were destined to be enemies...