Chapter 100 Zombie Empress (31)
(Xyrean Province- Outskirts)
(Private Farmland)
"Get up," Qin Lan coldly spoke as she stood over the young teenage girl kneeling on the ground and trying her best not to vomit.
Liu Yifei gritted her teeth and stood up from the ground. She tried her best to remember the fighting pose that Qin Lan had just shown her.
Qin Lan\'s face was completely expressionless as she watched Liu Yifei nervously hold up her fists.
Her fighting posture was full of flaws.
She rushed forward and Liu Yifei attempted to dodge but Qin Lan\'s fist was much faster than her half-hearted attempt to guard.
Slam!
"Arghh…" Liu Yifei groaned in pain as she felt a heavy fist make contact with her stomach.
She stumbled and barely managed to remain standing.
Qin Lan was secretly impressed by the young teenager\'s determination, but she hid her emotions behind an icy mask.
"What did I tell you about hand-to-hand combat?" Qin Lan suddenly asked as she placed her hands behind her back.
"Situational… awareness… keep…your center of gravity… low… fight… dirty…" Liu Yifei wheezed as she struggled to catch her breath.
"Good," Qin Lan replied solemnly as she glanced at the other teenagers who were watching from a distance.
"I want you all to remember… when you fight… there is no use for honour. Fight with every single resource that you have."
"Target their sensitive body parts… eyes… pubic areas… weak points. Use whatever means that you can to win."
"When you fight… it is a life and death struggle. If you fight fair… then you will die when faced with someone who doesn\'t."
Qin Lan felt as though the words that she just spoke resonated somewhere deep inside her soul as if she had heard them before.
"Take a ten minutes and rest…" Qin Lan spoke kindly as she tossed a bottle of water towards Liu Yifei.
The young girl fumbled but eventually managed to catch the bottle. Qin Lan nodded in approval and then wandered off to clear her mind.
She saw the other teenagers crowd around Liu Yifei as she moved away, and Gong Li was rubbing the injured girl\'s back with soft gentle movements.
Qin Lan let out a heavy sigh as she stared at the bright sun hanging high in the sky.
She brushed her fingers against the leafy plants that filled the field where they were currently training.
The original plan to head towards the lake was delayed since Qin Lan decided that it was time to give the teenagers some basic training for self defense.
Liu Yifei would receive the most attention since her enhanced physique made her the strongest person among the teenagers.
As for the rest… Qin Lan planned to teach them how to shoot in the afternoon and maybe if she had time, she would try to teach them how to use a knife.
That encounter with the strange nun and the farmer had raised her level of alertness.
Xyrean province was supposed to be a safe haven but instead Qin Lan could not help but feel as though something terrible was about to happen.
Perhaps she was merely being paranoid… but she was not prepared to take any chances.
They needed to secure a base as soon as possible and then she could focus on hunting the nearby mutated plants and animals in order to enhance her gift.
Something rustled in the bushes nearby and Qin Lan\'s eyes were immediately drawn to the rainbow-coloured snaked that slithered out from behind one of the roots.
A coral snake…
They possessed the second- strongest venom of any snake.
Qin Lan furrowed her brows as she took out her knife from its sheath. She raised up her weapon and flung it at the deadly intruder.
The snake raised up its head and to Qin Lan\'s surprise it managed to swat away the incoming blade using its tail.
Oh… a mutated beast…
The snake hissed softly and lunged at Qin Lan with its mouth wide open. Two sharp fangs gleamed under the sunlight, but Qin Lan felt no fear.
She took out another knife and rushed towards the snake that attempted to use its tail to meet Qin Lan\'s weapon.
She easily dodged the snake\'s attack and slashed at the soft underside of its belly. The snake unleashed a series of hoarse screams as it bled out.
Qin Lan approached the corpse once it stopped moving and carefully extracted a tiny purplish- black crystal from its skull.
She placed the crystal in her pocket and prepared to leave the scene.
A few rats appeared once Qin Lan left the clearing and their beady red eyes stared at the young woman who walked away.
An almost human-like expression flashed across all the rat\'s faces as they sniffed the air twice and captured her scent.
Qin Lan did not see the tiny creatures and even if she had… she had no way of knowing what was about to happen soon…
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(Meanwhile)
"Is the training too rough?" Gong Li asked with concern as she lovingly touched Liu Yifei\'s back.
"No… I… I need to get stronger… to protect us…" Liu Yifei whispered softly as her fingers curled up into a fist.
What had happened in the supermarket… she never wanted to experience something like that ever again.
That terrifying moment when she was completely powerless still gave her nightmares.
The feeling of those men\'s rough fingers as they tugged against her clothes still sent a shiver down her spine.
If Qin Lan had not come in time….
Liu Yifei could not stop her body from trembling as she imagined the horrific possibility that could have occurred.
"I wish… I wish I had an ability… I don\'t want to be a burden," Gong Li confessed with a sad expression on her face,
"Hey… you aren\'t… I… you\'ve been there for me everyday," Liu Yifei replied with a warm smile as her finger lingered on Gong Li\'s cheek.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
For some reason her heart was beating a bit faster than usual, but Liu Yifei could not understand why she was feeling this way.
The sweet moment between the pair was interrupted by Chen Xiao who pointed in a certain direction.
"Um… do you see those rats?" he hesitantly spoke.
Liu Yifei followed the direction where he was pointing and saw a group of around twenty large rats all lined up in an almost military-like formation.
"That\'s weird…" Liu Tao muttered as she picked up a large rock at her feet and flung it at the rats hoping to scare them away.
The rock fell on one of the rats and instantly crushed its tiny skull. Brain matter and chunks of flesh spilled on the ground as the rat collapsed.
Still not a single one of the other rats moved…
It was an incredibly creepy sight.
Liu Yifei got a bad feeling in her chest and hurriedly grabbed Gong Li\'s arm to push her behind her body.
The rats simultaneously raised up their small heads and sniffed the air twice in the direction of the group of teenagers.
The rat in the middle of the formation turned away and disappeared into a nearby clump of bushes.
He was soon accompanied by the rest of his brethren who also ran in the same direction as him.
The only remaining trace of this strange encounter was the corpse of the dead rat that was still lying motionless on the ground.