CH 26

Chapter 26: Devil ants' crystal nuclei

The dark alley is completely silent, not a single sliver of noise can be heard. Two corpses lay on the ground, stained crimson, blood still dripping from various gaping holes. Even after rebirth, Huo Zaiyuan still feels an instance of his hair standing on end with fright. Still, he cannot leave these bodies here just in case someone stumbles upon them. If that happens, there will be unwanted trouble.

Another twist of his left hand and two peach wood tiles appear in his palm. Condensing the power within his body, he sends a strand into the tiles. Two deep booms rumble out and the tiles ignite into golden flames. Waving his hand lightly, the burning tiles drop onto the bodies, which immediately catches on fire. The golden blaze spread until it engulfed the corpses, rapidly burning everything until not even ashes remained.

Even without modifications, peach wood originally possesses the innate ability to ward off devils. By infusing some of his spiritual energy into the tile and causing it to ignite, the wood will produce a golden flame due to the purity of the inserted energy.

This type of fire cannot burn one's skin and cannot harm people. However, towards dark energy and evil, demonic powers, it will burn them up until nothing remains. Of course, this method was revealed to his through the ancient text. It's also the first time he has used it, hence, after seeing nothing of the bodies is left behind, he whoops quietly in his heart.

And how thoroughly the fire cleans up. Even the dried blood-stains on the ground has also disappeared.

At the precise moment when Huo Zaiyuan just finished destroying all evidence and prepare to turn around and walk away, he cast one final glance over the alley and had his eyes drawn to something on the ground, located where the bodies had been. A shimmering red light flashes for a moment, catching his attention.

"What is that?" His brow wrinkles slightly but he goes forward and squats down. It is only natural he is very careful, retrieving a napkin from within his space and pick that object up.

Upon the white napkin lies a red crystal the size of a sesame seed. After close scrutiny, he realises the shape of the crystal is identical to the body of those frightening magic devil ants.

He knows that during the apocalypse, poison gas, swamps, bloodthirsty devil ants and zombies pose the greatest threats to humanity. He is also aware that it is possible for the ants to live within the bodies of the undead and possibly breed within it too.

However…he never knew the devil ants can become these sort of crystal nuclei. It is pretty obvious that the zombie he killed is a newly-created one, and according to the position where this crystal dropped, it was where the zombie's head laid after it died.

Before, the volcano near G City erupted and expelled volcanic ash, and within those ashes were devil ants…don't tell me there somehow is a connection between the ants and zombies?

Un…this train of thought is logical.

A flick of his left hand and a large glass bottle previously used to store milk powder appears. This bottle was formerly used by his mother to store coins. When all the coins were used up, the container remained empty. Before he left his family home, he took this along. Placing the crystal into the bottle, he sticks on a talisman to ward off evil for extra security.

While he may not know what the crystal may contain, he has a gut feeling that he will come to learn something important from it in the future.