Chapter 215: The Phoenix Man Who Soared Before the Apocalypse (20)

After Su Mingyue locked the car door, Shen Xiuyan quickly ran inside.

Fortunately, there weren’t too many zombies on the first floor of the supermarket—just a few dozen. He rolled his shoulders and charged straight in.

The zombies were momentarily stunned by his bold move. Their vacant eyes seemed to say, “What’s with this guy? Why isn’t he avoiding us? Why is he charging at us instead?”

He released his Lightning Ability. The crackling of electricity surrounded Shen Xiuyan, arcs of lightning flashing around him, radiating a powerful force that spread out in all directions.

Thunderous booms echoed through the supermarket, deafeningly loud. Blackened craters formed one after another, and the air was thick with the acrid scent of scorched flesh.

Shen Xiuyan kicked a zombie at his feet with a look of disgust. But no matter how much he disliked it, he still had to pinch his nose, raise his dagger, and stab down.

After a few stabs, just as expected, he found a Core Crystal inside the zombie’s brain.

Zombies were low-level in the early stages of the Apocalypse, so their Core Crystals were small. But Shen Xiuyan didn’t mind at all.

These crystals were the key to leveling up for Supernatural Ability users—and would become the currency of the future.

Once he had stabbed every zombie’s head and collected all the crystals, a gentle stream of water appeared in his hand. After cleaning the crystals, he stored them in his spatial storage.

After confirming that the first floor was clear, he began quickly gathering supplies.

The shelves here had already been rummaged through, and there were signs of fighting everywhere. It looked like people had tried to hold out but eventually chose to save themselves.

Whether they managed to escape with supplies or not, that was anyone’s guess.

After he finished collecting everything, he wiped the sweat from his forehead with satisfaction.

Not to brag, but gathering supplies was honestly more exhausting than killing zombies.

He looked around and finally found the supermarket’s storage room. However, the entrance was blocked by a heavy roll-up door.

That wasn’t a problem for Shen Xiuyan. Without hesitation, he waved his hand, sending a massive lightning ball flying toward the door. With a deafening boom, the roll-up door was blasted ten meters away, and white smoke slowly rose into the air.

At the same time, a panicked voice came from inside. “Spare me, hero!”

Shen Xiuyan looked over in surprise. He hadn’t expected anyone to be inside.

He shouted sternly, “Who’s there? Come out, all of you.”

A few people shuffled out from the corner, trembling and pushing one another forward.

One of them raised his hands and said, “Don’t hurt us! We’re not a threat!”

He wasn’t being cowardly—it was just that the roll-up door had flown right past the tip of his nose. If he hadn’t dodged in time, he’d already be a cold corpse.

What rotten luck. If he’d known there was noise outside, he wouldn’t have gone near the door to eavesdrop.

“Well, well, isn’t this Young Master Huo?” Shen Xiuyan said with some surprise.

The man across from him shook his head frantically. “No, no, I’m not! I don’t know any Young Master Huo!”

His heart sank. He was terrified that someone he’d offended in the past had come to settle the score during the chaos.

But when he cautiously looked up and saw that it was Shen Xiuyan, he immediately lunged forward and hugged him tightly.

“It’s you, Young Master Shen! I can’t believe it’s really you! I never thought I’d run into you here. Boohoohoo…” He burst into tears, overwhelmed with emotion.

Shen Xiuyan asked curiously, “What are you doing here?”

Young Master Huo gave a miserable look. “Don’t even ask. I don’t know whether to call it good luck or bad. When the Apocalypse broke out, I just happened to be here checking inventory…”

He wiped away a tear of frustration. “Luckily, there weren’t many people in the warehouse, and none of us turned. But the bad part is, we couldn’t get out. There were just too many zombies outside. Boohoohoo…”

He wiped his eyes again. “Thank heaven we ran into you, our savior. We’ve been trapped for days. With no signal, we have no idea what’s going on out there. What’s the situation in the city now?”

Shen Xiuyan patted his shoulder and said with a gleeful smirk, “The whole world has fallen. If you want to survive now, you’re on your own.”

“W-what?!” Young Master Huo was stunned.

A timid voice came from behind him. “U-um… are the zombies in the supermarket still there?”

Shen Xiuyan shook his head. “Nope. I wiped them all out.”

Everyone: “!!!”

They looked at Shen Xiuyan with undisguised awe.

Just as Shen Xiuyan was thinking about how to shake these people off, someone asked, “So… can we leave now?”

Now that was music to his ears. He couldn’t wait for them to leave. The sooner they were gone, the sooner he could finish gathering supplies.

He waved his hand. “If you’re leaving, go now. Just because there are no zombies here now doesn’t mean more won’t show up later. If you’ve got a car, run for it. Once you’re in the car, you’ll be safe. Zombies are still slow at this stage.”

Hearing that, some people immediately grabbed their pre-packed supply bags and bolted toward the parking lot.

They didn’t hesitate for a second.

No joke—some had elderly parents, others had young children. After being trapped so long, they needed to get home and check on their families.

If it weren’t for the horde of zombies outside, they would’ve left long ago.

Now that they could take supplies back, their families could at least hold out a little longer.

Those people ran without looking back. But a few stragglers remained—they didn’t have cars.

Shen Xiuyan tilted his chin at them. “What about you? Not leaving?”

One person nodded, then shook his head, then realized that didn’t make sense. He looked at Shen Xiuyan with hopeful eyes and asked, “W-we don’t have a car. Could you… give us a ride home?”

Shen Xiuyan gave him a look like he was an idiot. “Give you a ride? What are you thinking?”

Someone muttered discontentedly, “You’re so powerful. What’s the big deal about giving us a ride?”

Shen Xiuyan was speechless. Unbelievable. There really were all kinds of people in this world. Trying to guilt-trip him now?

He sneered coldly. He wasn’t someone you could take advantage of. With a flick of his hand, a lightning ball zipped past the man’s ear and smashed into the wall behind him with a heavy thud.

The man turned in disbelief to look at the scorched wall, then turned back to Shen Xiuyan with a face full of terror. He trembled and dared not say another word.

The room fell into dead silence.

“Get out. Now. If you don’t leave this supermarket immediately, you’re not leaving at all…” Shen Xiuyan’s voice was full of menace. He looked at them like they were already corpses.

If someone wanted to play the saint, they could go ahead. He wasn’t interested.

“Th-this is murder…”

With no news from outside, they still didn’t realize how chaotic the world had become. People weren’t even afraid to kill zombies anymore—let alone humans.

But even without knowing the outside situation, just looking at Shen Xiuyan’s expression told them he absolutely would do it.

Everyone was terrified. Realizing things were going south, the rest of them grabbed their bags and fled without looking back.

If they didn’t leave now, they really might die here. Better to take their chances outside—maybe they’d find a car and make it home.

As the group ran out of the supermarket and saw the zombie corpses strewn across the floor, their hearts were full of mixed emotions.

Thank goodness…

If they hadn’t left, they’d probably be lying here with the zombies soon enough.

Clutching their backpacks tightly, they ran even faster.

As if a pack of wild dogs were chasing them.