Through the Corpse Puppet's field of vision, Ling Mo vaguely saw the situation inside the vehicle.
The pitch-dark carriage was filled with numerous blurry human shadows, all of which were motionless.
After circling to the front of the car, he could see that the front and back doors were deformed due to the impact and could not be opened at all.
Several of the glass windows had shattered, but none were large enough to climb out of. Ling Mo took control of the Corpse Puppet, completely shattered one of them, and crawled inside.
The smell inside the car was overpowering. Even though he was sensing it through the Corpse Puppet, Ling Mo couldn't help but frown.
The scent of blood and the stench of rotting flesh mingled together, it was nauseating.
Once the Corpse Puppet jumped into the vehicle, it stepped on a corpse, and upon looking down, Ling Mo's heart skipped a beat.
Although the corpse was decayed, the swollen face with a pair of blood-red eyes was distinctly visible. Obviously, before dying, it had turned into a zombie.
No one escaped, and no one entered—could it be that this zombie starved to death?
Ling Mo hurriedly controlled the Corpse Puppet to continue walking into the vehicle, but soon he realized something was wrong.
The carriage was strewn with large patches of blood and fragments of clothing, suggesting a massacre had unfolded here after someone inside underwent a mutation.
However, all those lying here now were mutated zombies, and Ling Mo noticed that the backs of their heads had been hollowed out.
Who did this?
Suddenly, Ling Mo felt a jolt of fear. While in shock, a dark figure suddenly sprang out from behind a seat like an agile leopard, pouncing onto the Corpse Puppet's back.
This shadow moved silently and extremely quickly. Though not strong, by the time Ling Mo sensed it, the shadow had already stabbed toward the back of the Corpse Puppet's head.
Ling Mo was startled and almost instinctively made the Corpse Puppet fall backward, forcefully pressing the shadow to the ground.
But at the same time, the back of the Corpse Puppet's head was scratched open, and blood gushed out immediately.
"Damn... that hand is like a Knife!"
After having raised such a young and strong Corpse Puppet, Ling Mo felt a pang of distress, and he was also highly wary of the subdued shadow.
He controlled the Corpse Puppet to press its elbow against the shadow's neck and grabbed the shadow's wrist with the other hand, using the leverage to stand up.
Unexpectedly, just as he began to rise, the shadow's other hand had already pierced the soft abdomen of the Corpse Puppet.
Even though the Corpse Puppet didn't feel pain, Ling Mo's expression became extremely complex.
In fact, at the moment the shadow struck, Ling Mo was already prepared to resist, but upon clearly seeing the shadow's face, he was stupefied.
"Ye... Ye Lian..."
The shadow lying beneath, with one hand plunged into the Corpse Puppet's belly, was the very target he had been searching for, Ye Lian.
Ling Mo had made many speculations, but he never expected to find Ye Lian under these circumstances.
After the mutation, Ye Lian's beautiful, big eyes had turned blood-red, yet her expression was unlike that of an ordinary zombie—twisted—it was very normal, very cold.
For a moment, Ling even felt bewildered, but when Ye Lian pulled her hand out with the Corpse Puppet's intestines in her grasp, Ling snapped back to reality.
Ye Lian's little hands looked unchanged from before to the naked eye, but the hardness of her nails was extraordinary, and her fingers very powerful, enough to pierce through flesh. This condition was clearly different from an ordinary zombie.
Furthermore, ordinary zombies wouldn't attack Corpse Puppets, perceived as their own kind... Remembering the car full of zombie corpses and looking at Ye Lian, Ling Mo suddenly understood something.
When all the normal people in the car had been eaten, the remaining zombies, driven by hunger, turned on one another, and the last one surviving, Ye Lian, seemed to have undergone some even stranger mutations on top of the zombie base...
While Ling Mo was stunned, Ye Lian had already pulled out the Corpse Puppet's intestines, blood gushing out and splattering all over her.
Stimulated by the scent of fresh blood, her eyes seemed to become redder, and her strength suddenly increased; she grabbed the Corpse Puppet's arm and flung him aside.
The Corpse Puppet had just fallen to the ground when Ye Lian pounced on him, her hands directly clasping the Corpse Puppet's throat.
Her movements were far more agile than an ordinary zombie, and Ling Mo hadn't even reacted before being subdued by Ye Lian.
As the sense of suffocation set in, the Corpse Puppet's instincts were instantly ignited, and Ling Mo felt his mind going blank. This indicated that the Corpse Puppet was about to slip from his control.
Ling Mo finally came back to his senses from the shock of being reunited with Ye Lian. In some ways, Ye Lian becoming what she is now was also his responsibility...
While struggling to control the Corpse Puppet, Ling Mo suddenly had a bold idea.
Since zombies are just infected by a virus, and judging by Ye Lian's appearance, the virus in her has mutated. If so, perhaps there's a way to cure her...
Even though the hope was very slim, as long as there was a glimmer of possibility, Ling Mo wanted to try.
Once this idea came to him, Ling Mo immediately controlled the Corpse Puppet to keep his gaze locked on Ye Lian's eyes. As Ling Mo's spirit quickly focused, Ye Lian's head area soon turned into a Spirit Light Ball in his view.
However, the color of the Spirit Light Ball was different from that of ordinary zombies. Zombies, having lost their reasoning to the virus and acting purely on instinct, have a Spirit World represented by a static and blurry light ball. But Ye Lian's Spirit Light Ball was clearly much brighter and faintly reddish.
What's going on?
But Ling Mo had no time to ponder over this, as he forced his focus on Ye Lian's light ball, trying to penetrate it.
Indeed different from ordinary zombies, where he never faced any resistance, Ling Mo could now feel resistance from Ye Lian. Although weak, it made his heart momentarily pause.
Could it be that Ye Lian had regained some consciousness? But judging by her appearance, it didn't quite seem so...
By the time Ling Mo managed to gain control over Ye Lian, he was soaked in cold sweat, and the Corpse Puppet had been completely choked to death by Ye Lian during the process.
However, just as Ling Mo cautiously controlled Ye Lian and tried to stand up, he suddenly felt a longing. This longing originated from Ye Lian's Spirit World, aiming at some object inside the back of the Corpse Puppet's head...
Ling Mo had never sensed any emotional fluctuations from the Corpse Puppets he controlled before, as besides instinct, Corpse Puppets had no other needs themselves.
But now he sensed it from Ye Lian, leaving him both confused and ecstatic. If the mutation could produce longing, then further mutation might restore rationality!
With this in mind, Ling Mo controlled Ye Lian to pierce the back of the Corpse Puppet's head. Under the guidance of this longing, she quickly extracted a small, infection-like gel-like object from its brain.
It looked like part of the brain tissue infected by the virus, slightly reddish and rubbery with some elasticity when held in hand.
After examining the gel for a while, Ling Mo, holding back his disgust, stuffed the gel into Ye Lian's mouth.
A surge of warmth immediately rose from the abdomen and quickly circulated throughout the body, and Ye Lian's previously somewhat feeble body seemed to instantly receive an energy boost.
Who would have thought this disgusting gel could have such an effect? Perhaps Ye Lian's mutation was precisely due to ingesting this sort of gel...
After controlling Ye Lian to jump out of the car and reach his hiding place, Ling Mo finally truly met Ye Lian face-to-face.
Looking at Ye Lian's blood-splattered body, her pale face, and the eerily glowing red eyes, Ling Mo felt a flood of emotions. Although Ye Lian presently felt extremely cold and looked highly dangerous, that familiar face made Ling Mo somewhat dazed.
He couldn't help but reach out and wipe the blood from Ye Lian's face: "Don't worry, I'll find a way to restore you back to normal."