Shen Feng hadn't expected Li Keyi to kneel so decisively. He quickly grabbed her arm and said earnestly, "Don't do that, don't do that. If you need my help with anything, tell me. Maybe I can help you. I'll do my best to help you with anything I can."
Li Keyi was pulled up by Shen Feng, but she remained kneeling on the ground, as if she wouldn't get up unless Shen Feng agreed to help.
"You can definitely help me, I know!" Li Keyi said confidently, her eyes red as she stated her request, "I beg you to lend me the head of a corpse king. I want revenge, I want to make the person who killed my parents pay with blood!"
"What are you talking about? What's this about revenge?" Shen Feng was confused for a moment upon hearing this, but he understood Li Keyi's purpose. She still wanted a corpse king's head, likely to create a serum and become an ability user.
"When I went out today, my parents were fine. I told them to wait for me at home, but when I returned, the neighborhood was already on fire. From my neighbors, I learned that when the fire started, they chose to run into the streets, but their health wasn't good, and they were scattered by the crowd, eventually being trampled to death," Li Keyi said with distress.
"Uh, my condolences. I understand your desire for revenge. How about this, I'll agree to give you the ability serum, but after the war ends, you'll come back to Yuzhou with me. We're desperately short of scientific researchers there," Shen Feng suggested after some thought.
Shen Feng had proposed a win-win solution. He couldn't just give away the ability serum for free; it was extremely valuable. But if Li Keyi was willing to work in Yuzhou with him, then it would be fine. The laboratory was indeed lacking scientific researchers.
Li Keyi shook her head vigorously, explaining, "No, I need the corpse king's head not to make an ability serum, but to extract a substance! I've researched the origin of abilities and the evolutionary principles of evolved individuals, and I've discovered the difference between ability users and evolved individuals. It's definitely related to the presence or absence of a certain substance!"
Hearing this explanation, Shen Feng couldn't help but nod and asked, "Continue. What other differences are there between ability users and evolved individuals?"
Li Keyi knew that crying alone wouldn't get Shen Feng's agreement. Men sometimes trusted tears the least, so she had to provide a satisfactory answer.
Li Keyi continued, "Both evolved individuals and ability users evolve using evolution serums. Evolution serums can be made from the brains of mutated zombies, and the essence of evolution serums is viral protein. The difference between ability serums and evolution serums lies in the different materials used to make them: the brains of mutated zombies and the heads of corpse kings! After laboratory analysis, a conclusion was reached: there are special channels for information transmission among corpse kings, allowing them to communicate across long distances. The battle in Rongcheng, the corpse king in Yanjing could quickly obtain information, this is the evidence."
"So what?" Shen Feng asked.
Li Keyi said seriously, "In other words, there is a special substance in the corpse king's head, and this substance is the source of ability users' power! As long as it can be extracted, its properties can be used to locate the positions of other corpse kings! The current war is not something that can be easily resolved. Only by killing all the corpse kings will the war truly end, and I will be able to avenge myself completely!"
Shen Feng pondered for a moment and felt that what Li Keyi said made sense, but the risk was a bit high. If the extraction of this substance failed, wouldn't it be a wasted corpse king's head? That was worth two ability serums.
When Shen Feng found it difficult to make a decision, he always liked to ask for others' opinions. So, at this moment, Shen Feng looked at Chu Chaoyan and asked, "Chaoyan, what do you think?"
Chu Chaoyan's mouth twitched twice, and she retorted, "I'm a liberal arts student, why are you asking me?"
Shen Feng looked at Yang Chang and Lu Xian. Both of them spread their hands, indicating they didn't know and clearly had no suggestions.
Shen Feng was very helpless at this moment. If his senior sister or Professor Chu were around, they could give him a suitable answer, but now, he had to make the decision himself.
Seeing Shen Feng hesitate, Li Keyi knew that his resolve was wavering. Thinking of her tragically deceased parents, she began to kowtow to Shen Feng, saying as she kowtowed, "Please believe me, all I want now is revenge!"
Seeing this, Shen Feng quickly grabbed Li Keyi's shoulders and said with a hardened heart, "I promise you, I promise you! But you have to conduct the experiment in a place I prepare. I don't want you to run away. If you need any equipment, I'll find it."
Li Keyi looked up, and the tears in her eyes could no longer be held back. Her usually neat long hair was now messy, clinging to her face as it was wet with tears, making her look just like her name. Li Keyi's name was simple: it meant pitiful and charming, like a little bird leaning on someone.
Shen Feng couldn't help but reach out and brush aside Li Keyi's hair, comforting her, "Don't cry, you look like a mess. Get ready, and let's find a quiet tent for the experiment."
Li Keyi did as she was told and listed the instruments she needed. Shen Feng quickly arranged for Yang Chang to find them. The laboratory was also simple, just a few tables placed inside a large tent. The sounds of gunfire and artillery from the front lines could be heard in the tent at all times. The zombies' attacks outside the city were relentless day and night. Fortunately, the tall city walls served as a barrier, and humanity could barely resist the zombie onslaught.
Guo Pinming had been commanding the front-line operations for days. His command abilities were quite competent, and he made no mistakes. After receiving instructions from his superiors, Shu Dapin immediately informed Guo Pinming, who always executed them meticulously.
The zombie offensive became increasingly fierce, and their tactics also changed. They no longer charged forward recklessly but dug their way forward, excavating trenches and slowly approaching the city walls. The city launched gasoline bombs and white phosphorus bombs, killing the zombies digging the trenches. However, as soon as one batch of zombies died, and the flames ceased to burn, more zombies would replenish them, and the trench-digging process did not stop.
For the next week, the corpse kings continuously directed the zombie attacks from the front. The mutated birds also kept transporting zombies into Yanjing from the air. The battles outside the city were manageable; no matter how cunning the zombies were, they could never gain an advantage against modern weaponry. However, the situation inside the city was different.
Zombies would descend from the sky anywhere in Yanjing. Even the Forbidden City had seen zombies appear. In such a situation, everyone in the city was in a state of panic, and there was no longer any place that was absolutely safe. Those with basements were relatively safe, as hiding underground was much safer. But for those without basements, if the city was breached by zombies, everyone would rush to the subway. The subway was no longer operational, and its role had become that of an air-raid shelter.
Trains from Yanjing to Jinmen were running all day. Originally, there were ten trains a day, but as more refugees appeared, the train station had to provide twenty trains a day. To survive, everyone was eager to leave Yanjing, at least to a place like Jinmen where their lives would not be in danger.
In such a critical situation, a voice emerged from the people of Yanjing: to negotiate peace with the zombies, to designate areas for zombies to live in, and to end the war as soon as possible. Only in this way could the crisis be completely resolved, otherwise, a protracted war would lead to more deaths, more civilian deaths!
When some people heard about the battle to encircle and suppress the corpse king at the TV tower, and the news spread among the civilians, their emotions became even more agitated. Even for the sake of the greater good, civilian lives could not be ignored, right? Why must civilian lives be sacrificed to kill the corpse king? Were civilian lives not valuable? Was only merit the most important thing?
The morale within the city completely collapsed. Many people believed in persevering until victory, while others advocated for immediate peace, believing that ending the war was the most important thing. Still others didn't care what kind of war it was; they just wanted to grab seats on the trains. Even if there were no seats, it was fine, as long as they could leave Yanjing, that was enough!
For many people, Yanjing was a complete place of sorrow. They thought Yanjing was very safe, so they brought their families here, only to find it was the most dangerous place. If they could leave Yanjing, they would never return, even if it was the capital.
Shen Feng, along with Yang Chang and Lu Xian, went into the city every day to kill zombies. Although their strength was limited, they could at least contribute their efforts. The role of these ability users on the city walls was far less significant than killing zombies within the city. On the city walls, they could only shoot ground zombies, but within the city, they could save people.
Finally, after a week, Li Keyi emerged from the tent with dark circles under her eyes. She looked very haggard, as she hadn't slept much during this period, only dozing off when she absolutely couldn't stay awake, otherwise, she had been conducting experiments all along.
However, there was a glimmer of light in Li Keyi's eyes. She found Shen Feng and said, "I succeeded. I've extracted this element. It's an element that doesn't belong to Earth, and not even to this universe!"
Upon hearing this news, Shen Feng was immediately overjoyed and rushed to the tent with a group of people. On the table in the makeshift laboratory, various data materials were scattered. At the top of these papers was a petri dish containing a small pile of powder. It was a grayish-white powder, appearing very ordinary.
"Is this the element you're talking about? It looks very ordinary!" Shen Feng looked at the pile of powder, finding it hard to believe.
In Shen Feng's eyes, the powder looked like chalk dust, and he couldn't see anything unusual about it.
Li Keyi, however, said confidently, "I dare say this is the substance that causes humans to gain abilities. It's an extraterrestrial element, an element that doesn't belong to our universe! Extracted from the head of a corpse king, although it only weighs five grams, it is indeed the origin of abilities!"
Hearing Li Keyi's explanation, Shen Feng frowned and muttered to himself, "An element from beyond the universe? I seem to have heard of it somewhere, but I just can't recall it."
Li Keyi was also a bit puzzled at this point, saying, "I also find it strange. The zombie virus is publicly known to have originated in the Pacific Ocean, but the instigator is an extraterrestrial element. It's unclear how the extraterrestrial element came to Earth."
Now, Li Keyi could only prove one thing: abilities come from an element that does not belong to Earth, but she didn't know how this element came to Earth.
Hearing Li Keyi's analysis, Shen Feng suddenly thought of something that happened in Jiangyang. At that time, he had obtained laboratory data, and when discussing it with Teacher Niu, a hypothesis was rejected: the virus originated from the meteorite that fell into the Pacific Ocean last year!
"I understand, the extraterrestrial element came to Earth with the meteorite!" Shen Feng slapped his forehead. At this moment, he had figured out the origin of the zombie virus. It must have been the meteorite that fell into the Pacific Ocean carrying the zombie virus, which spread through the ocean currents, entered the rainwater, and landed on land, ultimately causing the zombie infection and mutation!
Chu Chaoyan and the others felt dizzy upon hearing the origin of the zombie virus, finding it incomprehensible. Wasn't it commonly believed that the zombie virus most likely originated from the melting of Antarctic glaciers, bringing ancient viruses back to life? Now it seemed the virus actually came from outer space.
"This, this... I can't understand it, I really can't understand it!" Yang Chang couldn't accept this fact and waved his hand, saying, "This is impossible. The zombie virus came from another universe? How could there be such a coincidence? A meteorite from another universe happened to land on Earth, causing the zombie outbreak and beast mutations? This is too absurd!"
Li Keyi rubbed her dark circles, looking very haggard, and said, "Whether you believe it or not, this is the fact. A meteorite caused the end of the world! Otherwise, extraterrestrial elements cannot be explained!"
"Could it be that your measurement is wrong? These elements are not from outside the universe?" Chu Chaoyan quickly asked.
Li Keyi shook her head and said seriously, "I didn't believe it was an extraterrestrial element at first, until I conducted the experiment twice with the same result, and only then did I completely believe it! In fact, your brains as ability users also contain extraterrestrial elements, otherwise, you wouldn't be able to use abilities!"
After saying this, Li Keyi took out a test tube containing the evolution serum. It was a pink solution. Then, she took half of the extraterrestrial element from the petri dish and dissolved it in the evolution serum. The evolution serum also changed color, becoming a pale green solution.
"Do you understand now? The most important thing in an ability serum is the extraterrestrial element. As long as there is extraterrestrial element, the ability serum can grant humans abilities!" Li Keyi proudly displayed the newly made ability serum.