NOVEL WEB Chapter 2
Chapter 2: Cultivating the Soul Puppet, Hospital Shelter
The city had turned from towering skyscrapers into a wasteland of ruins, as if bearing witness to the rise and fall of a civilization.
The remaining survivors were like abandoned infants of an era, struggling bitterly to survive.
In the city’s central hospital, inside an underground storage room—
This place served as a shelter established by a few survivors.
To call it a shelter, however, was barely different from calling it purgatory.
Xia Yan, one of the nurses at this hospital—
Unfortunately, she had been on duty the day the zombies broke out.
Thus, she survived not because she escaped the bite of the zombies, but by sheer chance.
She was now the only person in this shelter who knew basic medical care.
It was thanks to this role—
That she had managed to protect herself in this lawless, morally bankrupt apocalypse, and had not been harmed.
“Doctor Xia, could you help me get some of the drugs I use for washing…”
A girl who looked to be about fifteen or sixteen spoke in a numb, low voice.
Xia Yan looked at the girl before her with a complicated expression and sighed.
Even she couldn’t guarantee her own safety—how could she help anyone else?
She took out a bottle of separated medicine from a medical kit and handed it to the girl.
“Use as little as possible. It’s harmful to the body.”
The girl glanced at Xia Yan indifferently.
“The body?”
“In this world, what body is there to speak of? Doctor Xia, you too—they’re about to make a move on you.”
Xia Yan’s expression changed slightly, though she wasn’t surprised.
It was only a matter of time before it happened—it couldn’t be avoided.
The girl looked at Xia Yan, hesitated for a moment, then continued:
“Tonight, if you get the chance, hide on the hospital rooftop!”
Xia Yan was puzzled, but the girl didn’t give her a chance to ask more questions.
She got up and left.
“……”
……
Night fell, on one side of the city.
A semi-transparent soul body charged into a horde of dozens of zombies.
Gu Fan sat leisurely atop a nearby high wall.
While directing the soul body to hunt zombies, he also collected the glass beads from their skulls.
The soul body was called a Soul Puppet—a derivative ability cultivated through the Soul Devouring Technique.
Only after accumulating enough living souls could one condense a Soul Puppet.
This thing wasn’t just powerful—it could also evolve by devouring living souls.
And it possessed endless stamina.
As long as it didn’t die, it could keep fighting indefinitely.
Gu Fan looked at the Soul Puppet slaughtering below and couldn’t help but marvel at how it truly was the bane of zombies.
Without a physical body, it ignored physical attacks and never grew tired.
Though the zombies were continuously killed, since they couldn’t touch the Soul Puppet—
They could only howl in powerless rage, eventually getting harvested one by one.
Gu Fan flipped down and landed in front of the fallen zombies, devouring each living soul clean.
As the Soul Devouring Technique activated, spiritual energy continuously converted and surged out.
Gu Fan immediately sat cross-legged on the spot and began breaking through!
Within his Qi Sea, spiritual energy churned, continuously opening up the edges of the Qi Sea.
Gu Fan circulated his cultivation technique, and in the next moment, his realm began to break through!
Spiritual energy flowed along a specific path, impacting new meridians.
His aura then surged dramatically!
In the blink of an eye, he broke through to the fifth layer of Qi Gathering!
Spiritual energy continued transforming.
“Break through for me!”
Finally, it was as if a loud boom erupted!
Sixth layer of Qi Gathering—breakthrough!
“Hahaha, amazing! In just one day I’ve broken through to the sixth layer of Qi Gathering!”
“Refined Fiend Body Art has reached the second level, strength equal to ten thousand catties, and the Soul Puppet has reached small mastery!”
Feeling the surging spiritual power within his body, Gu Fan felt a wave of elation.
Feng Hua, right? You bullied me just because I was a newbie?
Gu Fan felt a deep anticipation.
When he returned—
With the same sixth or even seventh layer of Qi Gathering strength to face Feng Hua, how would he respond then?
At this thought, his enthusiasm for zombie hunting grew even stronger.
He planned to continue hunting zombies within the city.
At his current strength, as long as he avoided large hordes, he wouldn’t face much danger.
At the same time, he wanted to understand exactly what type of zombie apocalypse this was.
Would there be evolved zombies or evolved humans?
It wasn’t that he feared lacking strength.
For him, if the fight became too hard, he could just return to the cultivation world.
Being able to traverse between two worlds was his greatest life-saving trump card.
However, Gu Fan felt that as his strength increased, this method of killing zombies one by one to extract living souls was starting to feel a bit troublesome.
He was currently only at the Qi Gathering Realm.
Later, once he reached the Spirit Sea Realm or even higher, each breakthrough would require thousands, even tens of thousands, of zombie souls!
So, it was best to cultivate his own force in this world as early as possible.
By then, he only needed to teach his subordinates the secret technique to extract souls, and then have them preserve them using arcane methods.
Gu Fan would just need to come and collect them periodically.
The only issue was—were there any living people left?
As he pondered this, several more living souls entered his belly.
But just then, a sound came from afar!
Bang! Bang!
His expression shifted—gunfire?
Wasn’t this a perfect coincidence?
Just as he was mulling it over, some survivors came knocking.
Gu Fan was overjoyed.
As for whether they’d cooperate—he didn’t worry about that at all.
What a joke—he was a demonic cultivator!
Would a demonic cultivator reason with you?
Death or submission!
Was that such a hard choice?
If not, just kill them.
Kill until someone kneeled and begged to work for him.
Once he confirmed the direction of the gunfire, Gu Fan kicked off the ground and shot out like a cannonball.
……
On the rooftop of the city’s central hospital, Xia Yan leaned against the iron door, not daring to breathe.
Just an hour ago, her mind had been circling around the words that girl said during the day.
Now, thinking back on the look in that girl’s eyes, Xia Yan felt a strange, indescribable sensation.
In the end, she decided to trust the girl just once and quietly snuck up to the rooftop.
And so—
She waited for half an hour with nothing happening. Just as she was about to go back downstairs—
She heard the sound of the iron door dragging across the floor from the rooftop.
She froze.
That was the sound of the hospital’s main door opening!
Before she could react, countless zombie roars erupted, soon followed by cries for help.
Gunfire rang out continuously.
Xia Yan instantly understood.
It was that girl!
She had opened the shelter’s main gate and let the zombies in!
In that moment, Xia Yan trembled all over.
It was over!
Everything was over!
Everyone in that shelter was going to die.
Only she, on the rooftop, could hide and cling to life for a while longer!
While she stood pale and stunned—
Suddenly, the iron door behind her was struck violently.
“Damn it! The rooftop is locked!”
“There’s definitely someone inside!”
“Who is it? Open the door for your old man now!”
Then came the sound of the door being hammered violently.
Xia Yan recognized the voices.
It was the shelter leader Zhao Qiang and a few of his lackeys.
Open the door?
Xia Yan hesitated.
She had seen the darkness and despair of this place with her own eyes.
And all of it—was caused by Zhao Qiang!
If she let them in now, she didn’t need to imagine her fate.
Just then, another voice came from behind the door.
“Move aside, I’ve got the key!”
That voice belonged to one of Zhao Qiang’s henchmen—the head of the security office!
He might really have brought the key!
At this realization—
Xia Yan’s face changed drastically, and she rushed forward to press her weight against the door.
But how could a woman’s strength compare to a group of men?
Soon, the door was forced open, and a group of bloodstained men charged in.
“Damn! It’s that bitch Xia Yan!”
The head of security walked up and kicked Xia Yan hard in the stomach—
Sending her tumbling across the floor in pain.
Xia Yan was instantly overwhelmed by excruciating agony.
Her body curled up on the floor uncontrollably.
Zhao Qiang ordered his lackeys to re-lock the door and barricade it with some debris.
“Fuck, that bitch almost got us killed!”
“Yeah, Brother Qiang—who would’ve thought that slut would open the gate at night.”
“Pah! Filthy trash, trying to drag everyone to die with her!”
The few men were still reeling in shock.
They had almost died in their sleep.
At that moment, Zhao Qiang’s sinister gaze landed on Xia Yan lying on the ground.
He spat, then got up and began unbuckling his belt as he walked toward her.
“And you, you damn slut. I fed you for so long and you dared try to kill me? Let me get a taste of you right now—since we’re all dying anyway, what good is a whore nurse like you?”