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(Xyrean Province- Inner Regions)

(The Mermaid\'s Lake- Forested Outskirts)

Qin Lan opened her eyes and groaned as her body felt as though it had just been hit by a truck.

Bright sunlight illuminated the nearby forest and the sound of birds chirping merrily could be heard coming from the treetops.

Qin Lan staggered to her feet and would have fallen were it not for the pair of soft hands that tightly wrapped around her body.

"Thanks…" Qin Lan muttered quietly as she leaned into Eve\'s arms.

The zombie empress smiled sweetly as she embraced her favourite human.

There was brief moment of peaceful silence as the pair just enjoyed each other\'s company. Qin Lan finally broke out of the embrace when she felt some strength return to her legs.

The reason why she was in such poor physical condition was because she had tried to absorb all of the crystals in the bag last night.

Which was huge mistake…

Qin Lan had only managed to absorb around twenty-five crystals before she blacked out from the intense pain that ravaged her body.

Still, it was clear that she was more powerful than before, and it was just a feeling, but Qin Lan felt as though the barrier to the next level was slowly crumbling.

"Okay… I\'ll try to absorb ten more crystals this morning," Qin Lan softly whispered as she tilted her head upwards and pressed a short kiss against Eve\'s lips.

The zombie empress was not happy that her favourite human was going to hurt herself again, but she knew that nothing she could say was going to convince Qin Lan otherwise.

Strength was just too important to Qin Lan and for good reason.

During the end times when social order had broken down, women and children were easy targets.

Qin Lan had memories from the original Qin Lan and had seen plenty of scenes driving through the capitol city that reinforced this viewpoint.

And those short-sighted fools who used and then abandoned women to their fate failed to realise that soon a massive gender imbalance would occur.

Qin Lan shook her head and chased those dark thoughts from her mind.

She didn\'t plan to become a hero but if she did stumble across those rotten bastards then a well-placed knife to the throat would simply rid the world of human filth.

Or she could use her ability and turn those brutes into playthings…

Qin Lan reached for the backpack that was next to the tree nearby and slowly unzipped the top to reveal the hundreds of crystals that were still inside.

The young woman picked up one of the crystals and as well as the bottle of water that was near the backpack.

She twisted open the cap and poured water all over the crystal in order to clean the dried blood and chunks of flesh still on its surface.

"You know what… after breakfast we can go down to the lake and just wash the crystals there," Qin Lan suggested as she finished cleaning up the purplish-black gemstone.

Eve nodded and walked behind her favourite human just in case she fell unconscious or needed some help.

Qin Lan took in a deep breath and then raised the crystal up to her mouth.

The process of absorbing these crystals was always so unpleasant…

She quickly tossed the crystal in her mouth and then drank some water to wash it down. Qin Lan immediately doubled over in pain as it felt as though her insides were burning.

It was hard to describe the painful process of upgrading one\'s ability and it was no wonder that there were actually some ability users who refused to get stronger.

Qin Lan felt as though her blood had turned into molten hot lava and it was like hundreds of needles were stabbing into different parts of her body.

She gasped for breath and felt Eve\'s soft hand slowly rub her back using gentle circular motions.

The pain eventually stopped, and Qin Lan felt that the mental threads in her mind had gotten slightly thicker.

"Are you okay?" Eve asked with concern evident in her voice.

"Yeah… I\'m fine. Thank you," Qin Lan replied sweetly as she raised up her hand and lovingly stroked the side of Eve\'s face.

They may be surrounded by the lush natural beauty of a forest with dew glistening off the top of the nearby plants and leaves but there was only Eve in Qin Lan\'s eyes.

"Let me just make some breakfast and leave a note for the girls," Qin Lan softly whispered as she dropped her hand.

With Eve nearby she didn\'t need to worry about any mutated animals or plants since the zombie empress could sense all lifeforms within a ten-kilometer radius.

Qin Lan walked over to the firepit and saw that the flame was about to go out.

She quickly grabbed some dried sticks that she had stored under a towel and tossed them into the dying flame.

The fire quickly grew which brought a small smile to Qin Lan\'s face.

She planned to make something simple for breakfast, so she walked over to her tent and came out with some cup noodles.

Qin Lan lifted a pot above the flames and poured in some water until it was halfway full. She waited patiently for the pot to heat up and soon tiny wisps of smoke came from inside the pot.

"Do you want some noodles?" Qin Lan asked Eve who was watching her cook.

"Sure," Eve cheerfully replied as she walked a bit closer to her favourite human who was putting the boiling pot on the ground.

There was no need for her to eat but the zombie empress would never refuse anything that Qin Lan made.

The pair had breakfast and then Qin Lan left out the remaining cup noodles and a note which she attached to the tree opposite to Liu Yifei and Gong Li\'s tent.

Both teenage girls were still asleep which wasn\'t surprising considering that they went to bed pretty late.

Qin Lan absentmindedly wondered if they had come to a decision last night even though she knew that was unlikely.

They were just kids…

This world really was cruel. Liu Yifei and Gong Li had gone from normal high school students to dealing with life and death situations.

​ Even if by some miracle the apocalypse ended tomorrow… would things really go back to normal?

The answer was no.

Qin Lan\'s fingers curled up into a fist as she recalled the ugliness of human nature. She needed a distraction to get these unpleasant thoughts away from her mind.

"Eve… Subject 001 is he mentally unstable? Are there any obvious weak points in his psyche that we can exploit?" Qin Lan suddenly asked.

"Not sure… he seemed to get angry pretty easily… but I don\'t know if that was just an act," Eve replied after giving the matter some thought.

Qin Lan hummed softly as numerous plans and battle tactics flashed across her mind one after the other.