Jiang Yuntan subconsciously turned to look at Jiang Yufeng, who immediately understood her intention. He stopped using his ability to create wind blades and instead blew the wind stronger. The fire wall instantly blazed even more fiercely. Moreover, when the wind hit the zombie rats whose fur was already burning, they turned into moving fireballs. Although the fire didn't kill them immediately, it burned off their limbs, leaving them thrashing on the ground.
Lin Tingxue watched the blazing fire wall. Yu Ke and the others without abilities were gathering combustible materials from the surroundings and throwing them into the fire, causing the flames to grow instead of diminish. That made her Wood Element Ability useless.
Suddenly, a zombie rat shot through the fire wall, moving so fast it was just a blur. Jiang Yuntan, who possessed the Speed Ability, saw something charging straight at her. As the zombie rat leaped over the half-meter-high wall and charged at her, she punched it in the side of the head, sending it flying to the ground. The moment her fireball landed on the zombie rat's head, a golden blade slashed through its neck, severing the head instantly.
Jiang Yuntan breathed a sigh of relief. Why did that zombie rat have to target her specifically? She frowned at the black blood on her fist, then wiped it on her UV-protective jacket. That jacket was done for. But it didn't matter; she had more.
Shen Hegui glanced at her and asked, "You okay?" Jiang Yuntan nodded. "Be careful," Shen Hegui warned.
Soon, everyone was back in action. The good news was that fewer zombie rats were emerging from the hole. But just as they started to feel relieved for a minute or two, a dense mass of heads surged up again. They clustered together, and in the middle, there seemed to be a larger zombie rat, with the others surrounding it protectively. Earlier, the rats had come in sporadic waves, sometimes five or six together, but this was the first time they had seen so many coming all at once.
Jiang Yuntan looked at the significantly weakened fire wall and said, "At this rate, the fire wall won't hold much longer. We'll have to add more gasoline." Shen Hegui turned to her and asked, "Did you bring the flour from the kitchen when we left today?" "Yes, I'll get it. I remember the flour bags are on the seat next to me," Jiang Yuntan said, turning around. Without waiting for Shen Hegui's instructions, Xue Zhao and Yu Ke followed her.
Soon, each of them came back carrying a bag of flour, and they had somehow found several large stainless steel bowls. Shen Hegui said in a low voice, "When the zombie rats get close to the fire, throw these two bags of flour in." Yu Ke, Xue Zhao, and the others quickly scooped out some flour. Then some held the flour bags, while others held the stainless steel bowls filled with flour. Shen Hegui continued using his flying knives to kill zombie rats while waiting for the right moment.
After a short while, he shouted, "Now! Throw!" Yu Ke and the others moved, pouring the flour into the fire wall. Jiang Yuntan also seized the moment and threw several large fireballs into the fire wall. Just as the zombie rats entered the fire wall, an explosion erupted from within. Thick black smoke rose above the fiery red flames. She even felt the ground tremble. So that's how you use the fact that dust explosions occur when fine particles meet an open flame.
The explosion killed the first wave of zombie rats. Just as she was readying her ability to face the second wave, the fire wall exploded again. The zombie rats that had just entered the fire wall were blown back again. Two even landed right in front of them, twitched a couple of times, and died. Jiang Yuntan: ......
The next second, she saw that the larger zombie rat had also been blown out. While it was still midair, Shen Hegui sent a large flying blade at it, severing its head from its body in the air, and it fell. As the corpse hit the ground, Jiang Yuntan thought she saw its nerves twitch. It seemed the explosion hadn't quite killed it.
After the large group of zombie rats was killed, the remaining scattered few were no longer a threat and were quickly dealt with.
Jiang Yuntan looked at the still-burning fire wall and asked, "This fire wall shouldn't explode again, should it?" "Probably not, but to be safe, let's wait a bit before going over," Shen Hegui said, crouching down. He used his Metal Element Ability to form a dagger, pried open a zombie rat's forehead, and revealed a peanut-sized crystal core. The crystal core was white and looked somewhat murky, nothing like the crystal-clear cores of mutated plants.
Seeing this, Jiang Yuntan immediately ran to the corpse of the zombie rat that had charged at her earlier. She pulled a dagger from her pocket and dug out the crystal core from its forehead. If she wasn't mistaken, this zombie rat had a Speed Ability. Otherwise, it wouldn't have been so fast.
The others noticed what the two were doing and started checking the zombie rats' heads for crystal cores. After all, the zombies they had encountered before didn't have any in their heads. Even during the two days of rain, when zombies came and they killed them, they tried searching their heads but found no cores. But now, as everyone saw the crystal cores in their hands, they were stunned. No way—was every single one carrying a core?
Jiang Yuntan looked at the crystal core in her hand, still stained with zombie flesh. Since her clothes were already dirty, she just wiped it on her jacket. After cleaning it, she pretended to put it in her pocket but actually stored it in her space. The Speed Ability zombie rat's crystal core was colorless, seemingly identical to the ordinary zombie rat cores. She mustn't mix them up.
Yu Ke saw her and couldn't help laughing. "Come on, Sister Yuntan, since when did you get so messy?" Jiang Yuntan said seriously, "Why don't you take a look at yourself before you talk about me?" As she spoke, she took off her UV-protective jacket. Yu Ke looked down and saw that he was covered in flour. At least the flour covered the zombie rat blood splattered on him, but now he looked like a painter—all he needed was a newspaper hat.
Qi Ruoshui couldn't help laughing either. "Yeah, take a look at yourself first." As she spoke, she poured water into the stainless steel bowl that had been used for flour, rinsed it quickly, and then added clean water. Qi Ruoshui said, "Throw the crystal cores in here to wash." "Okay, Sister Ruoshui is thoughtful, unlike some people," Jiang Yuntan said sarcastically.
Then she began digging out more cores, but as she worked, she suddenly noticed something off. So she threw the zombie rat head in her hand into the still-burning fire wall. It happened to fly right past Lin Xuan, startling him. He ground his teeth and said, "What are you doing?"