Chapter 32: Darkness Under the Light
When the group encountered the corpses ahead, they knew the Village Chief and his cohort were responsible for these atrocities.
Although filled with righteous indignation, when Li Yu said he wanted to kill all these people,
many couldn't bear it!
This was the baptism Li Yu wanted to give them, a baptism of survival in the apocalypse!
He didn't have much time, nor the energy, to let them learn about human nature through repeated experiences.
They had to understand that in this apocalypse, realizing this truth sometimes came with a painful lesson, or even the cost of a life.
Li Yu wanted them to be able, not just to strike at zombies, but also to have the courage to act against some enemies!
Li Yu fired the first arrow, hitting the brow of a man. For Li Yu, he adhered to one principle: save those who can be saved, and kill only those who are no longer human.
Li Yu yelled, "Kill them quickly!"
Then he urged the group to shoot their crossbows, though some, angry at the Village Chief, still couldn't bear to kill them when it came down to it.
Meanwhile, with the Village Chief's death, chaos ensued among his followers; some, facing death, decided to fight back, charging with kitchen knives in hand.
Others, seeing Li Yu's side armed with crossbows and submachine guns, felt intimidated and began running towards the mountain.
Seeing the group hesitating and dragging their feet, Li Yu flew into a rage, feeling a kind of exasperation akin to hating iron for not becoming steel.
Just then, three men armed with kitchen knives charged towards them!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The sound of gunfire!
Uncle, a captain of the Armed Police, fired his weapon with precise accuracy.
With the sound of gunfire, the people behind Li Yu began to take out their crossbows and aim to shoot the opposing side!
Puchi! Puchi! Puchi!
Led by Li Haoxian, the cousins raised their crossbows and fired—some hitting shoulders, some eyes, and some escaped unscathed.
The opposing side was thrown into disarray, scattering like startled birds and animals.
Some fell to their knees, pleading desperately, "We were wrong; we shouldn't have listened to the Village Chief."
"It's all the Village Chief's fault; he forced us to do it!"
"We're from the same village, why must you be so ruthless!"
....
Resist? The first three had already demonstrated the consequences of resistance.
With only kitchen knives and firewood knives, they could handle zombies, but against an opponent armed with long-range weapons, they were powerless to fight back.
Since a decision had been made, it had to be carried out resolutely.
As two more charged forward, Li Yu put aside his crossbow, drew his long knife, and swung, turning and killing another person.
Then, Li Yu, with lightning speed, notched arrows and fired six consecutive shots, each arrow striking the head.
Most of the opposition had fallen, with only a few stragglers running towards the summit.
At the forefront, the tattooed youth ran the fastest, having sprinted over 20 meters.
Li Yu readied his crossbow, took quick aim, and shot, hitting the back of the tattooed youth's head. Bullets cost money, but crossbow arrows could be recovered.
The dust settled, and not one opponent was left standing.
The atmosphere suddenly became silent, with one or two sobs; Lai Xiyue stared blankly at her hands, muttering to herself, "I just killed someone, I just killed someone!"
Then her gaze shifted to Li Yu in the distance, growing more complex—she was finding him more and more incomprehensible.
"Pull out the arrows; they can be used again!" Li Yu said.
No doubt this was another challenge they had to overcome—they had shot people at a distance, but now they had to confront them up close to retrieve the arrows.
Although everyone moved slowly, they finally, obediently did as instructed. They were well-aware that Li Yu was honing them to adapt to the apocalypse swiftly, albeit through somewhat cruel means.
Transport all the corpses into the tile house, close the door, and light the fire.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fгeewebnovёl.co𝙢.
Passing by the ditch, seeing the corpses within, filling soil to bury them, by the time everything was done, the sun had already set in the west.
Evening, the setting sun was like blood.
Time to descend the mountain!
Everyone's mood was extremely heavy, still immersed in the emotions of just having fought zombies and killed people.
They had not expected to come out today to do these things.
Feeling this atmosphere, Li Yu wanted to say a few words, but after a thought, decided to stay silent.
Some things need time for them to digest on their own.
Upon reaching the mountain's base, they drove back to the base.
Traveling on the national highway, the houses beside the road were overgrown with weeds, and after the torrential rain, many low-lying farmlands were submerged.
What remained unchanged was that there were still some zombies wandering aimlessly on the road, in sharp contrast to the verdant roadside trees as ever...
...
The evening glow remained beautiful, but the times had changed.
The vehicles drove on the national highway, with the setting sun casting long shadows.
At this moment, Li Yu suddenly spotted three figures by the side of the highway from afar—two males and one female, surrounded by a group of zombies.
Li Yu immediately had Li Hang stop the car and turn off the engine. Using the walkie-talkie, he instructed Uncle and the others in the two cars behind to also stop.
Li Yu, together with Second Uncle and Li Hang, got out of the car, armed with submachine guns, their long knives on their backs, and approached slowly.
Getting closer, they first saw a silhouette, a tall and sturdy man with dark skin, nearly 1.9 meters tall, dressed in camouflage clothes, swinging two large hammers around,
every zombie that got close had its head exploded, brutally bloody.
On that small path lay a ground full of zombies, probably all killed by these few people!
Li Yu was somewhat puzzled, why did this figure look so familiar!
Immediately after, he looked at another person, about 1.75 tall, with a buzz cut and a square face, and possessing not bad combat skills, very agile.
A stranger's face, unfamiliar.
He looked towards the last person, a girl with skin so fair it glowed, with sweat beads covering her delicate little nose, Li Yu was puzzled, why did she look so familiar!
Just then, this super fair-skinned girl suddenly saw Li Yu and exclaimed with surprise: "Brother Yu! Brother Yu!"
Memories flooded Li Yu's mind in an instant, the black and white duo, isn't this his childhood friend Yang Tianlong and his sister Yang Xiaozhu! They were full siblings, but the two children born had vastly different skin tones!
He vaguely remembered that when they were younger, Yang Tianlong was mischievous and often liked to fight, but he had a pretty good relationship with Li Yu.
He remembered that Yang Tianlong's parents both died in an accident when he was in junior high school.
That day was the first time Li Yu smoked, accompanying Yang Tianlong as they drank the night away.
Since then, Yang Tianlong seemed to become more reckless, eventually dropping out of school.
Where there is light, there is also darkness.
In junior and senior high school, campus violence was rife with gangs, and Li Yu himself had been cornered at the school gate. At that time, Li Yu was a good student, did not provoke trouble, but after being bullied, he couldn't fight back and was beaten up.
He told his parents, only to be told—if you don't provoke others, why would they bother you?
He told the teachers, and they said—you need to behave, focus on your studies, isn't it your own problem? Otherwise, why wouldn't they find someone else and instead come after you?
After Yang Tianlong learned about this incident.
That day, Yang Tianlong brought two people, concealed a mountain blade under their clothes, and chased the bullies of Li Yu for three streets. Fortunately, there were no surveillance cameras at the time, and it didn't blow up into a major incident. Since the bullies felt it was a loss of face to report to the police, the issue was ultimately left unresolved.
But since then, no one at the school dared to provoke Li Yu, and their relationship grew even stronger.
Until their senior year, when Li Yu went to M city for university and Yang Tianlong enlisted in the military. Afterward, due to distance, contact became much less frequent.
With rebirth, Li Yu hadn't seen Yang Tianlong for almost 10 years.
Li Yu felt a twinge of guilt, although he had thought about reaching out to Yang Tianlong after coming back to life, perhaps because it was inconvenient to communicate from within the army, he had sent several messages on QQ without reply and then hadn't bothered anymore.