Rebirth of MC Chapter 109

Chapter 109: Thunderstorm bringing forth an unfortunate day

When bad fortune befalls someone, it is impossible to block or deflect it. Right now, however, this party of four has become real-life examples of not being able to avoid bad luck!

This off-road vehicle has already been on the road for more than ten days. During the journey, they met more than a few lone zombies and was blockaded by small groups numbering in the tens sometimes. For these four people, situations like this are nothing to speak of. Just a few waves of the hand or movement of limbs and it is easily settled. As for the torrid heat, with the exception of Huo Zaiyuan, the others are merely irritated by it as it makes them perspire non-stop…

When Huo Zaiyuan followed the instructions written in the book and calculated that a heavy downpour will come in two hours, Li Qing had waved his words away with a laugh.

But one and a half hours later, dark clouds begin to gather in the sky, causing Li Qing's eyes to widen as he presses against the car's window.

"Really…it's really going to rain. Little Yuan, you are too awesome! You really calculated it! Teach me, teach me!" Attaching himself to the back of the pa.s.senger seat, he cries out with sparkling eyes.

"Little Qing, you wouldn't be able to learn this technique." Qin Jun says with a smile, then pulls the overly excited Li Qing into a hug before addressing the driving Long Zhanye. "Eldest brother Long, after pa.s.sing this stretch of road, turn towards that large mountain and go around it, which will be M City's Pan Yuan main street. Judging by the dark clouds in the sky, there will be a heavy downpour, so driving on the dirt road will not be easy."

"Yeah, got it." Long Zhanye answers, then a thought strikes him. "I'm going to accelerate. Sit tight. This stretch of road is rather b.u.mpy, so adding more speed will make it a rough ride."

This sentence is mostly directed towards Li Qing, who is currently the only one not wearing a seatbelt.

After this reminder, Long Zhanye steps on the accelerator, causing the originally smooth and steady ride to become full of jolts and b.u.mps. The off-road vehicle's frame begins to vibrate continuously, as though it will shake apart soon. But Long Zhanye's driving skills is unparalleled, allowing the pa.s.sengers to feel secure even with the constant jostling.

"It's about to rain." A crackle of lightning erupts as soon as Huo Zaiyuan finishes speaking.

Ever since the start of the apocalypse, they haven't experienced heavy rainfall. The car swerves, swiftly entering the road curving around the mountain, leading towards M City's Pan Yuan main street. As soon as the four wheels. .h.i.t asphalt road, the car stops shaking.

"If we maintain this speed, we will reach M City in two hours. Once we enter the military district, we can have a good rest tonight!" Li Qing crows in delight, looking forward to the end of the day.

Right now, don't say let him lie on a soft mattress. Even if you give him a hard wooden bed, he will still be content to sleep on it.

Similar thoughts are going through the minds of the others. But as always, nothing ever goes according to plan. As the vehicle swiftly shortens the distance to their destination, a sudden pop rings out and the car jerks, the back portion of it sliding slightly to the side. Another burst of pops and clangs sounds from the rear wheel. It seems that due to the forward acceleration over less than ideal roads, with a speed that didn't reduce one bit over a period of time, the tires were unable to keep up with the driver's demands. The car swerves violently for a few hundred meters, almost cras.h.i.+ng into the railing on the mountain road.

"Ahh!!" Li Qing cries in alarm, but is saved from being thrown around as Qin Jun's arm wraps around his waist.

If this was someone else driving right now, they would have fallen into a panic when faced with this sort of situation. But with Long Zhanye behind the wheel, he merely yanks it to the side, narrowly avoiding a head-on crash. Stepping on the brake, the car spins a hundred and eighty degrees before coming to a complete stop. No one within was thrown around too much.

"It's been quite a while since I experienced a blown tire." This unexpected mishap completely doesn't faze Long Zhanye. With a calm expression, he comments blandly, not even breathing a little heavier.

"……" Despite the fact that Huo Zaiyuan's facial expression also remains unchanged during the entire incident, his heart actually leapt in fright when the car went out of control. Because he didn't fasten his seatbelt, he was nearly thrown out through the winds.h.i.+eld.

"Phew…if I was the one driving today, we would have been in an accident already." Hugging Li Qing to his chest, Qin Jun's panicked expression eases a little. Clearly, he was scared stiff. "What will we do now? We need to wait until the storm has past to change tires."

"Of course we'll get down and change tires. We don't know when this rain will stop." A high-quality umbrella with a strong frame appears in his hand, and Huo Zaiyuan prepares to exit the car.

"Little Yuan, wait." Abruptly, Long Zhanye catches his wrist. "Take a look in front."

When the downpour begins, the wiper on the front winds.h.i.+eld activates. With water moistening the gla.s.s, the thick, sticky layer of sand and dirt slowly becomes wet, allowing the wipers to clear the grime. A scant few swipes later, the gla.s.s returns to its gleaming, pristine state.

Following Long Zhanye's indication, he looks over to see past the heavy rainfall, squinting a little to make out some faint silhouettes taking shape in the distance, blurred by the falling raindrops. The figures continue to draw closer and closer…

"Is someone coming this way?" Pressed up against the back of the pa.s.senger seat, Li Qing cranes his neck to look through the winds.h.i.+eld, tone uncertain.

"The heck, what 'someone'…" In the apocalypse, who in their right mind will gather a group of survivors and wander around in the middle of the road. The figures are obviously zombies, and a relatively large swarm of them on top of that!

Hearing Li Qing curse, Huo Zaiyuan's lips thin before snapping. "Get out, quickly!"

"Where are we going?" Seeing Huo Zaiyuan open the door and get off the car, Li Qing immediately follows as he questions.

Under the heavy downpour, one is instantly soaked the moment they exit the vehicle. But right now, they have much bigger concerns than being soaked to the bones.

"Climb up the mountain. There's a place where we can hide in. Quick!" Long Zhanye says, grabbing Huo Zaiyuan hand and sprinting to the mountain edge.

Linking hands with Li Qing, Qin Jun follows the first pair closely. Raising his head, he glances up at the vague outline of what seems to be a flat area located two meters above, instantly understanding what Long Zhanye's plan is.

The side where Pan Yuan main street meets the mountainside is always green with growing plants all year round. Therefore, there are always people roaming up and down this place to trim the growth and make it presentable, making it neat and tidy. At every two meter intervals in length, there will be a piece of flat land. Climbing up to that place in order to escape from zombies is a very feasible idea. Because no matter how the undead evolves, it is impossible to reach the stage of knowing how to climb up the side of a steep mountain so quickly.

Amongst the four of them, Long Zhanye's speed and agility is the highest. In a few fluid motions, he has already reached the flat ground. Bending down, he catches Huo Zaiyuan's arm and pulls the other up, with Qin Jun close on his heels. As for the typically not-too reliable Li Qing, faced with a sudden dire situation, he absolutely refuses to be the deadweight. Despite his movements being less nimble and speed being comparatively slow, it doesn't affect his steady upward climb. Relying on his own ability, he manages to get up without incident.

The four of them finds a place to squat as Huo Zaiyuan distributes an umbrella to the others. And thus they wait things out.

Gaze fixed on the group of zombies slowly ambling forward, Li Qing's hand slips into the inner pocket of his coat. Lowering his head to look for a second, he stiffens, then s.h.i.+fts to face Huo Zaiyuan.

"Little Yuan, there's a very big problem."

"What is it?" Huo Zaiyuan asks as his eyes fall on Li Qing's hand and the soggy yellow paper in his friend's hand which is now completely devoid of spiritual energy. His face blackens, cursing a blue streak in his heart.

s.h.i.+t, really fallen into a pit ah.

Seeing this, Long Zhanye and Qin Jun also digs out their respective Aura Concealment Charm that has always been stuck on their skin. The situation is the same for everyone. Rainwater made the paper soggy, rendering the charm useless.

"Without the Aura Concealment Charm, will the still zombies be able to smell us under all these rain?" Qin Jun wonders, the corner of his lips pulling downwards.

It is due to this useful charm that the party manage to avoid attracting large numbers of undead throughout this journey. Now that the charms stuck on their bodies have all but dissolved in the rain, as soon as that swarm of zombies come close enough, they will definitely surround the mountain. When that time comes, the party will become bedraggled chickens trapped on higher ground.

"I don't have an answer to this question." Huo Zaiyuan shakes his head, then materialises his Holy Dragon Bone Brush in hand.

The runes used for the Aura Concealment Charm is a low-levelled, simple one, which is the reason why he used the low-quality paper to draw it on. Due to the spiritual energy within the runes being rather little, using a mid-level or high-level paper or a peach wood tile would be a waste. So when he gave it to the others and use it in his array, he didn't feel there were any problems. Who would have thought that mere rain will be able to render it completely useless?

This incident enables him to discover a flaw, thus, Huo Zaiyuan mentally notes that once they reach M City, the will need to make a few of these charms using peach wood tiles. Such a life-saver cannot be carelessly handled. Paper is inadequate.

Grasping the brush, he condensed a trickle of energy and directs it down the shaft and into the bristles. In a flash of silver light, the droplets of rain dripping down the umbrella stream towards the brush, as though drawn in by some unseen force.

Following the movements of his hand, a transparent spell is drawn in the air. A flick of his finger has the brush circling once around the four men before returning back to Huo Zaiyuan. The completed runes flash once in the air, causing astonishment to rise in the other three.

Suddenly, a sharp feminine screech cuts through the patter of rainfall, drawing their attention away from the runes. A haggard figure clad in black skintight blouse and jeans is das.h.i.+ng madly in their direction, closely followed by another male. Behind, a horde of zombies is in pursuit.

Instantly, the four understands why such a large crowd of undead is gathered here under the thunderstorm. Clearly, they were all attracted by these two humans. Under the party's observations, the male and female reach the black off-road vehicle and squeeze in, trying to start the engine and drive away.

Before, the four of them were too focused on escaping the clutches of the oncoming undead, hence forgetting to remove the key from the ignition and lock the doors. Now their car has been stolen. Maybe the person driving is suffering from excessive panic and shock, for when the vehicle slams into the midst of the zombie horde, the momentum causes the entire car to skid across the road and collides against the rails. Or perhaps it is simply because the punctured back tire coupled with an abrupt acceleration. Although several undead were killed in the initial slam, countless others surge forward and surround the wrecked car.

A moment later, the woman's screech and the male's cry of fear pierces the air, continuing for a rather long time.

The four observers merely remain silent as they watch.

Why are they still making such a ruckus ah?!