Published: February 12, 2025
"What's going on?" Ye Zhongming turned to the only one who could provide answers — the black cat. The events of today were rather bizarre. Before coming to rescue the spirit woman, he initially thought she was under attack.
To have brought both her and the black cat, who were both at the eighth level along with who knows how many zombies, to this point, it could only mean a massive enemy presence or a ninth-level opponent. Therefore, Ye Zhongming had been very cautious previously, preparing thoroughly before setting off, harboring a mindset of saving if possible, but not at the expense of his own safety.
There was a time when Ye Zhongming considered the possibility that the spirit woman might be dead; if so, he would just continue northward towards the Bering Strait to seize the Mountain King Crown.
Now, seeing the spirit woman, he realized his assumption was wrong — at least partially. The spirit woman found herself in a state he couldn't quite comprehend, and this so-called rescue by the mutated zombies might not be a rescue in the traditional sense, implying other layers of meaning.
"Silk Ghost," the black cat raised a paw, pointing at the spirit woman, but Ye Zhongming understood it was referring to those white silks.
"It has taken control of the master."
Through the fragmented words of the black cat, Ye Zhongming gradually pieced together what had happened. He was unclear why the spirit woman and the black cat had come to this icy expanse instead of remaining in their original territory, but he realized that the spirit woman had encountered what might be her most severe setback since her evolution began.
The black cat explained that after arriving here, things were going smoothly at first. Their strength allowed them to control the zombies, making them the rulers of the city in no time.
After meeting the conditions for evolution some time ago, the spirit woman and the black cat began the process of evolving to the ninth level. For safety's sake, the spirit woman made the most comprehensive arrangements, controlling a vast number of zombies to guard her, including some at the eighth level, while also finding an underground location, extremely secretive. Even if a lifeform found the entrance and broke through the zombie horde, it would take an indeterminate amount of time to accurately locate her cave.
Thus, both the zombified entity and the cat began their evolution comfortably, but an accident occurred at that very moment.
These white silks appeared from this location. In the beginning, they merely wove webs around, completely unnoticed by the spirit woman and the black cat, who were already in a state of evolution. Once the webs were completed, they began to inch up the bodies of the two beings.
When the strange white silks first pierced the bodies of the spirit woman and the black cat, both beings jolted awake from their evolutionary states.
Under normal circumstances, this almost signified a failure of evolution.
Because the evolution process had been interrupted.
At that moment, both the spirit woman and the black cat were filled with intense fear.
A failed evolution would mean the best outcome was never being able to reach the ninth level again, while the worst outcome would be having their bodies explode from the accumulated energy for the sake of evolution.
However, they soon realized the situation was not as they had imagined; the evolution process had not been halted but had merely slowed down.
The accumulated energy was still altering their bodies, but the rate of change had decreased.
Why had it slowed? Because... the energy was being siphoned away!
The culprit was these white silks!
At that time, the spirit woman faced a dilemma: one option was to actively end the evolution, which would guarantee failure but might retain a sliver of possibility for continuing to evolve next time. The other option was to do nothing, hoping to break free from the control of these white silks as their bodies got closer to the ninth level.