Minutes later, the phantom that remained in place disappeared like a bubble.
Phantom (Purple): Forms an energy phantom with 80% of the user's own strength. The phantom possesses all of the original body's skills, lasts for five minutes and thirty seconds, with a cooldown of eight hours.
Through the experience gained during this time, the phantom's duration and cooldown have changed significantly. If the cooldown could be reduced to within five minutes, the phantom could remain permanently outside.
This road might be the path that the Huanglong Cult once took. Not only were there no zombies along the way, but even the cars blocking the road had been moved to the side.
Zhang Xiaoli maintained a speed of eighty kilometers per hour. As the car music began to play, she unconsciously started humming along.
"I didn't expect you to sing so well. You have to sing for me often from now on," Qin Shilei said with a smile, listening to the sweet singing beside him.
"Of course, this young lady won a first prize in the campus singing competition. You'll have a treat for your ears from now on," Zhang Xiaoli said proudly. She paused and then added, "Brother Qin, you should sing a song for me too."
"Ahem." Qin Shilei coughed twice, changing the subject. "My throat is a bit sore, probably from getting too worked up. I'll sing for you next time."
Zhang Xiaoli reached out her right hand and shook Qin Shilei's arm, pouting, "Brother Qin... Just sing one song for me!"
The car suddenly swayed, scaring Qin Shilei into saying, "Watch the road. I'll sing for you, but you might not have heard this song before."
"For you, I spent half a year's savings, crossing the ocean to see you..." Qin Shilei's off-key voice suddenly filled the car.
The song ended.
Zhang Xiaoli, suppressing a smile, said, "Brother Qin, the lyrics are very good. And you sing very powerfully."
"Really?" Qin Shilei asked doubtfully. "People always said I sang badly before. Was it to snatch the microphone?"
"Hahaha!" Zhang Xiaoli burst out laughing. "Brother Qin, your voice is actually very nice, but how can you manage to be off-key for every single word?"
Qin Shilei's face darkened. "Is it really that bad? You haven't heard this song before, how do you know I'm off-key?"
Zhang Xiaoli tried humming the song Qin Shilei had just sung. Although there were some differences from the original, it was still pleasant to hear. "Is this pitch better? Brother Qin, shall I teach you how to sing?"
Then, as they taught and learned, Qin Shilei gradually mastered some singing techniques and finally stopped being off-key.
After more than an hour.
As Zhang Xiaoli and Qin Shilei were singing a duet of a love song, Zhang Xiaoli's vision suddenly blurred, and a figure instantly darted out from the roadside.
With a bang, the car lost control and crashed into a tree by the roadside. Fortunately, Zhang Xiaoli was agile enough to quickly regain control of the car and bring it to a stop.
"Be careful!" Qin Shilei instantly teleported to the car door and kicked a sickle beetle, which was preparing to smash the window, away.
Zhang Xiaoli quickly unbuckled her seatbelt and got out of the car. Looking up, she asked, "Brother Qin, why does this mutated beast look so much like the sickle beetle you mentioned?"
In front of Qin Shilei were five sickle beetles. One had been kicked to death by him, and another, which had been knocked down earlier, had now gotten back up.
"These are indeed the sickle beetles I spoke of, but how did they appear here?" He had only visited that valley yesterday. There were no sickle beetles coming from another world. Where did these beetles come from? Qin Shilei looked at the surrounding sickle beetles with confusion.
"Brother Qin, do you think there might be another interdimensional portal nearby?" Zhang Xiaoli guessed.
"It's very possible. Let's pay attention later and see if we can find the interdimensional portal," Qin Shilei nodded in agreement.
As they spoke, the other four sickle beetles leaped forward.
*Boom!*
Zhang Xiaoli waved her right hand, and a thick energy log, half a meter in diameter, sent two beetles flying more than ten meters away. Qin Shilei simply drew his sword twice, cutting the remaining two beetles in half.
"These beetles are about as strong as the ones I encountered in the valley, all around the Black Iron fourth or fifth level."
Just as they finished dealing with the spoils, several more beetles suddenly rushed towards them from a distance. After killing twenty to thirty beetles in succession, Qin Shilei pulled Zhang Xiaoli into a five-story building by the roadside.
Standing on the rooftop and surveying their surroundings, they discovered that within a radius of several hundred meters, there were at least one to two hundred beetles wandering around. Once the sickle beetles detected any living beings nearby, they would charge forward, raise their sharp sickle forelimbs to slice their prey into several pieces, and then devour them voraciously.
Zhang Xiaoli said worriedly, "We're only fifty to sixty kilometers away from the mutated cornfield the Flying Dragon Gang mentioned. I wonder if they'll ruin the corn?"
"I hope not," Qin Shilei said with a frown. "Let's hurry over."
The two of them switched to another car and continued driving. However, more and more sickle beetles were alerted and attacked the car along the way, preventing them from speeding up. After their car was destroyed by beetles again, Qin Shilei's mind stirred, and he took out the Thunder Dragon, which he hadn't used in a long time.
Looking at the silver motorcycle in front of him, Qin Shilei suddenly had an inspiration and activated the All Things Attribute Refresh System.
[Perform attribute refresh?]
[Refresh.]
Energy Saving (Blue): Fuel consumption reduced by 10%.
Wind-Swiftness (Green): Motorcycle's maximum speed increased by 50%.
Ghost Chariot (Green): A motorcycle with extremely low presence, capable of absorbing crystal core energy to fade its form, making it like a ghost.
As Qin Shilei chose the Ghost Chariot attribute, the Thunder Dragon underwent a drastic transformation. The originally silver body turned completely dark, the front wheel extended half a meter forward, and the lines of the vehicle became more aesthetically pleasing, resembling the Ghost Rider's vehicle from a movie Qin Shilei had once seen. The Ghost Chariot also had a groove on the front, which was the place to install crystal cores.
Qin Shilei placed a few crystal cores into the groove, got on the motorcycle, and started it. The needles on the dashboard spun rapidly but without any sound. Zhang Xiaoli, who witnessed all this, showed no surprise and straddled the motorcycle. Qin Shilei twisted the throttle, and the Ghost Chariot shot forward like a ghost. The motorcycle and its riders became nearly invisible, and unless observed carefully, one would not notice a motorcycle on the road.
Qin Shilei rode the Ghost Chariot silently down the road. A sickle beetle by the roadside felt a flicker in its vision and looked forward. As if it hadn't seen the motorcycle gradually disappearing ahead, it looked around and then returned to its usual wandering. Thanks to the Ghost Chariot's stealth, Qin Shilei and Zhang Xiaoli were able to pass through Qingshui Town and reach the vicinity of the mutated cornfield mentioned by the Huanglong Cult without much engagement with the sickle beetles.
"Brother Qin, with such a large cornfield, how do we find the mutated corn?" Zhang Xiaoli asked.