Xie Longyun's heart was dug out, but she hadn't died yet. She saw the black nails of Lin Qiao's hand and popped her eyes in shock.
Noticing the look in her eyes, Lin Qiao glanced at her own hand and smiled with comprehension dawning on her face, "Oh, you figured it out, didn't you? It's good. Now you know why you're dead."
While she was speaking, her eyes grew purely dark and she raised the other hand, putting the forefinger and the middle finger together. The nails of those two fingers grew into sharp zombie claws as she lunged them into Xie Yunlong's forehead.
Puff! Xie Longyun was so shocked by the discovery that the woman in front of her was a zombie that she didn't even manage to react when the other launched the attack. By the time Lin Qiao's fingers penetrated her skull and sank entirely into her head, she still had that shocked, confused look on her face.
"Flower, come here!" While stirring inside Xie Longyun's brain with those two fingers, Lin Qiao turned and shouted, "Come here! I have something for you!"
"Awo!" As a tiger roar was heard, the young tiger with orange and black stripes ran out of the woods.
Lin Qiao threw the fresh heart at the tiger and said, "Here, this is for you. This is the heart of a level-seven superpower possessor, filled with energy. I can tell it's delicious by the smell of it."
"Awoo!" The young tiger nimbly leaped up and caught the heart with its mouth before chewing.
At that moment, Lin Qiao pulled her fingers out of Xie Longyun's skull. Held between her fingers was a level-seven energy nucleus.
"A level-seven energy nucleus with space power… This is rare! Wenwen can use this," Lin Qiao looked at the sparkling energy nucleus between her fingers and smiled with satisfaction.
"Thud!" Xie Longyun's huge body fell to the ground. As the source of energy was gone, her muscles started shrinking slowly.
Lin Qiao raised a hand and crooked her finger. Following her movement, the dark fire drifted down from midair and covered Xie Longyun's body.
As Xie Longyun stopped breathing, an alarm was suddenly heard in the secret experimental institution where Si Kongchen was in at the moment.
Professor Bai, who as talking to Si Kongchen, immediately stood up from his chair and quickly came out from behind his desk before rushing out of the office. The expression on his face changed the moment he heard the alarm.
Si Kongchen gave a start when Professor Bai made that sudden move. Bewildered, he stood up as well and followed the latter out of the office curiously.
"What's wrong?" He came out and made a turn to see that a door near Professor Bai's office was open. He walked in and saw the tall and sturdy Professor Bai standing in that room, quietly staring at a device on the wall.
The alarm was heard from that device. The few screens of the device had been flashing quickly.
"What? What had you put inside her body? What do you mean by her vital signs are gone?" Si Kongchen had the look on his face changed as he asked with surprise.
"I put a sensor inside her body to monitor her vital signs. I can see her vital signs from here even if she's on the other side of the planet. Now, all her vital signs are gone. It means that she's dead." Watching the numbers on the screens turn to zero and the lines stop fluctuating, Professor Bai understood that Xie Longyun had died. He had been having a bad feeling since he heard from Si Kongchen that she had gone to the underground realm, but never thought it would happen so soon!
"How is that possible? She has the space-teleportation ability and the drug you gave her to strengthen her power. She should be able to escape from any kind of danger. How can she…" Si Kongchen refused to believe it.
He knew what Xie Longyun could do. She was a dual-powered level-seven being. The ability to launch fierce attacks and the teleportation power made her a strong assassin. How could she possibly die in merely three days after she went down underground?
"As I've said, the underground realm is full of dangers. That place is even dangerous for level-eight superpower possessors. I had been preparing myself for this result ever since you told me she's gone there." Professor Bai abruptly dropped his head and raised a hand to cover his forehead. His voice had become dry and deep.
He figured that Xie Longyun was killed by some underground beasts or the traps of some underground plants instead of the mission to kill Lin Qiao, which Si Kongchen gave her.
Si Kongchen looked at Professor Bai and stayed silent. Instead of saying anything to comfort him, giving him some quiet to process the bad news might be a better choice. Meanwhile, he wondered if Xie Longyun had managed to kill the woman from All Beings Base before she died.
…
Lin Qiao burned out Xie Longyun's body with a cloud of black fire. Then, she turned to the young tiger, who was already licking its mouth, and asked, "It was delicious, wasn't it?"
"Awo!" The young tiger bared its pair of sharp canine teeth and gave her a roar.
Lin Qiao put the energy nucleus into her pocket before clapping her hands, "Alright, as long as you liked it… Consider that making up to you for not letting you go out. Stay here! I'll take you out for some fresh air when I return to the earth's surface."
After saying that, Lin Qiao flashed out of her space. Her other four pets were already waiting for her out there.
"Alright, the problem here is solved. Red, take us to the fruits!" Lin Qiao glanced at her pets and then said to the big red cat. The cat didn't understand her human language. Hearing her say those words to itself, the cat wagged its tail and howled to let her know that it couldn't understand her.
With no other choice, Lin Qiao repeated her words in zombie roars. The big cat wore a subtle but strange look on its face when it heard her address it as 'Red'.
It reached its head toward Lin Qiao with its eyes glowing as it raised its ears and the tail tip. Seeing that, Lin Qiao looked at the cat with surprise. 'Eh? Is it happy?'
"Woof!" Bowwow suddenly gave a bark. Apparently, it was running out of patience. It wanted to run, jump, and have fun!
Lin Qiao gave the dog a glance speechlessly before giving Red another roar. The big cat reared up its head and raised its tail before turning and flying out in one direction.
"Let's go!" Lin Qiao immediately waved at the other three and followed behind the cat toward the fruits together with them.