Chapter 720: Impact
Looking at the pile of flesh in her hands, Lun Qin sighed softly.
In the past few days, many well-informed individuals had openly and covertly suggested paying a high price for the Treasure Seeds that burst forth after she killed an Apostle.
During this critical juncture, Treasure Seeds, which allowed people to gain power, represented life itself.
Each person could only consume one Treasure Seed. Her younger brother already had his, and a few quick-witted subordinates had secured their portions. The remaining ones were useless to her, but she didn't know whom to give them to.
Below her were complete strangers. Even if they were willing to pay a high price, what use was money anyway in times like these?
Banks no longer existed, and while there was plenty of paper money, nothing could be bought with it; in reality, it was all barter.
Poverty and wealth reversed in an instant.
"Whom do you think I should give them to?" she asked a lone hand floating beside her.
It wasn't a person, just a solitary hand, its severed wrist shrouded in pitch-blackness.
Three days prior, after she killed the tenth Apostle, a hand suddenly emerged from the coffin.
But this hand only had one jade-white finger; the remaining four fingers, along with the palm, were a blurred, illusory outline.
It wasn't until Lun Qin killed the fiftieth Apostle that the hand finally took shape, emerged from the coffin, and floated entirely beside her.
"Fortune."
"Alright then, I'll hold a lottery," Lun Qin said, a sudden idea striking her, deciding to use a lottery to determine the ownership of these Treasure Seeds.
After all, she wasn't familiar with any of the people following her, but she couldn't bring herself to hide the Treasure Seeds while ordinary people were being slaughtered.
"On another note, how many more Apostles do I need to kill?"
Limited by the ability of Ling Shi Mizi, while personally killing Apostles couldn't directly enhance Lun Qin's power, it could increase something called "Summoning Degree."
The development of the Treasure Seed's second-stage power was precisely through the increase in Summoning Degree, allowing the Spirit corresponding to the Treasure Seed to truly manifest in this world.
Initially, the Spirits could only appear as phantoms, but eventually, they would become complete physical forms.
Each Spirit possessed extremely powerful strength, but also had its own will; they were not mere tools.
"This is only the First Impact."
"..."
"In other words, there's a second and third one coming?"
"Don't you think the power of the Treasure Seeds is too effortless against the current Apostles?"
Only at Bai Mo's mention did Lun Qin recall this.
Whether it was the current Apostles or the zombies they created, they all seemed utterly weak before her. Other individuals possessing Treasure Seeds, as long as they didn't foolishly rush into the midst of the zombie tide, found combat effortless and enjoyable.
Empowered by the Treasure Seeds' strength, while killing the butterfly-shaped Apostles was still not easy, self-preservation was more than sufficient.
Apart from their mind-boggling numbers, the combat strength of Apostles and zombies was far inferior even to organized human armies.
Yet, precisely because they suddenly appeared in this world through sneak attacks, completely disrupting the normal functioning of human society, everyone was forced into a situation where they had to fight for themselves.
"A new wave of impacts will occur every month."
"Are you playing a tower defense game with this world?"
"It's not just me."
"..."
...
"Everyone, listen to me!"
"His Majesty would never have wanted things to turn out like this.
It was the Left Prime Minister at court, deceiving those above and concealing from those below, who led to this present situation.
The ordinary people struggling in the Imperial Capital, they and their wives and children are still fighting for their lives against the zombies.
Tonight at midnight, we shall execute the traitors by Heaven's decree, let His Majesty know the truth of all this, and fight our way back into the Imperial Capital to save our people!"
Outside the capital city of the Seris Empire, an officer, with the four characters "Revere the Emperor, Punish the Traitors" tied around his head, gave a passionate speech to the soldiers before him, his face filled with sorrow and indignation.
As the heart of the Seris Empire, the Imperial Capital had been the main target of the Apostles' assault. And because the Imperial Capital was the most densely populated economic center in the entire nation, its destructive power after zombie transformation was also the most terrifying.
The Imperial Capital, with nearly thirty million people concentrated within, had now produced at least close to ten million zombies after the Apostles' infection.
The ten thousand Imperial Guards normally stationed there could barely protect themselves against such numbers of zombies.
Moreover, for certain security considerations, nobles residing in the Imperial Capital were strictly forbidden from raising private armies, resulting in the Imperial Guards stationed there being unable to find a single reliable ally.
The Imperial Capital was beneath the Son of Heaven, where most of the nation's high officials and noble personages converged. These tens of thousands of princes, nobles, and important ministerial families all wanted to escape the city, which had already become a den of devils, at the first opportunity.
Thus, the Imperial Guards witnessed countless nobles, who normally held themselves high and mighty, and whose golden mouths rarely opened, now scrambling over each other, revealing their cowardly and unsightly desperation to cling to life.
The performance of these scoundrels greatly disappointed the Imperial Guard soldiers.
What's more, to ensure they had enough manpower to guarantee their own safety at all times, they even ordered that soldiers be forbidden from returning to the Imperial Capital to save the ordinary people still trapped in the sea of zombies.
One must know that many of the Imperial Guard soldiers had families living inside the Imperial Capital. The moment this order was issued, the discontent in the military camps instantly began to ferment.
"Revere the Emperor, Punish the Traitors!"
"Save the People!"
"Revere the Emperor, Punish the Traitors!"
"Save the People!"
"..."
Fully armed soldiers, shouting slogans all the way, set off towards the encampments of the major nobles and important ministers. Along the way, many comrades who were stationed there were moved by these slogans and actively joined their ranks.
Normally, inciting these Imperial Guards, who were infinitely loyal to the Emperor, would have been an incredibly arduous task. But having just experienced the change between life and death, it was a time when people's hearts were filled with panic, offering ambitious schemers behind the scenes a rare opportunity to make all this happen.
Of course, the Imperial Guards' utter disappointment in the nobles' orders was the trigger for everything.
If they hadn't been so cravenly afraid of death that they forbade soldiers from returning to the Imperial Capital to save people, the Imperial Guards' discontent would not have erupted.
...
"Bang!" The leading Imperial Guard kicked open the gate of a certain noble's temporary encampment, only to find that the people inside still had the mind to engage in certain unspeakable acts.
"Bang! Bang!"
Two vivid red blossoms of blood erupted on the fleshy, pale bodies.
The enraged lieutenant leading them ended the noble's life directly with two shots.
The maid pinned beneath the corpse dared not utter a sound, fearing the enraged soldiers might casually put a bullet in her too.
"We only kill national traitors." The lieutenant used his bayonet-mounted rifle to nudge aside the corpulent corpse, already thoroughly soaked in blood, allowing the terrified maid beneath to rise.
The maid was quite beautiful, and to satisfy certain peculiar tastes, she was only wearing an apron that left her body exposed. Her exposed skin, from her face to her back and down to her legs, was almost entirely smeared with blood.
PS: Ah, it's February twenty-sixth again.
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