Chapter 59: As Expected, Tentacle Monsters Are Still Part Of The Future

An unimaginable look was written on Ling Mo’s face when he woke up.

After staring blankly at the viral gel for a while, Ling Mo lips moved slightly. He slowly brought his nose closer to it before taking in a deep breath.

Two seconds pa.s.sed as he stared at it. His expression turned a little odd and said, “Why do I find this thing appealing as well?

This was an extremely grave and rather important issue!

As a normal human being, Ling Mo was very amazed at this strange turn of events. Why would he find a viral gel that was pulled from a zombie’s brain appetizing?!

Previously, just one whiff of it would be enough to make his stomach turn. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that another two sniffs of it would be enough to knock him out.

Only the two zombie sisters, Ye Lian and Shana, would consider such a thing a delicacy.

Ling Mo had on many occasions thought that this smell would have been acceptable if it wasn’t so pungent…but he never thought that the day would come where he’d find it appetizing!

This was a treat for zombies, not humans!

Ling Mo stared dumbfoundedly at the piece of gel for quite a while before he suddenly stuffed it into his pocket, the look on his face turning extremely complicated.

No, this was all an illusion. I haven’t turned into a mutated zombie!

Could his sense of smell have been affected due to his daily exposure to the zombie sisters?

Although Ye Lian and Shana were mutated zombies, they didn’t reek of blood. Ling Mo himself could vouch that they were cleaner than a majority of the survivors. He’d always give the two zombie sisters a bath as long as he could find some surplus water. Of course, this wasn’t because he wanted to admire the impressive bodies of these two sisters…

The only way for him to be influenced by Shana and Ye Lian was through their spiritual connections with him.

Ling Mo became increasingly suspicious the more he thought about it.

Whenever his puppets fought or received an upgrade, he himself would experience a feeling of rage, as if he himself had turned into a zombie. The only difference was the extent of his control. There were no problems as long as he was able to restrain himself.

The only time he’d ever lost control was when he was in the teahouse at the square. There, he allowed Ye Lian to swallow the piece of high purity viral gel and undergo her evolution.

But Ling Mo paid it no mind. At that time he thought that it was caused by his lack of willpower, causing him to be affected so severely.

However after giving it more thought, he realized that his body’s reaction towards the gel’s pungent aroma had changed after that incident.

At the time he was gripped with apprehension at the thought of possibly being infected, so he didn’t notice this particular detail.

If that wasn’t the cause, then how was he able to continuously improve his spiritual strength through his spiritual connections?

Although there were no changes to his outer appearance and reasoning, but both his spirit and his five senses seemed to be continuously undergoing minute changes.

Would Ling Mo’s zombie puppetry ability slowly turn him into a human “zombie”? His heart unexpectedly skipped a beat at the thought of that

“No, that shouldn’t be the case…” Ling Mo furrowed his brows as he thought. He had this vague feeling that he’d chanced upon an important point.

The greatest change that Ling Mo’s experienced as a result of his spiritual connection with zombies was most likely the improvement of his spiritual strength, followed by the changes to his physical body.

To Ling Mo, spiritual strength was a collective term for one’s ability to concentrate, their powers of observation and their level of determination.

If the feeling of rage Ling Mo experienced could be termed as an influence on his willpower, then the level of difficulty he faced when trying to control zombies should be affected by his ability to concentrate. But what about one’s sense of smell? Could it have something to do with one’s powers of observation?

Ling Mo who was filled with misgivings pulled out the piece of gel once again and brought it in front of his eyes for closer observation.

At this moment, an idea suddenly flashed through Ling Mo’s mind: Would it be possible for him to use his spiritual power to observe this piece of gel in the same manner he did for a zombie’s spiritual orb?

With this thought in mind, Ling Mo was filled with vigor.

But the viral gel in front of him remained the same as time ticked on.

Suddenly, Ling Mo realized that his spiritual tentacles were covered in a faint layer of blood red colour.

Could this be the reason why his body no longer rejected the viral gel?

After all, his spiritual power grew by controlling zombies. Maintaining his spiritual contact with them would also cause his spiritual power to be “infected”. Weren’t the spiritual orbs of mutated zombies like Ye Lian all red?

Following this line of thought, the rage he felt and his body’s reaction towards the viral gel all seemed to be related to his spiritual powers being “infected”.

Indeed, although Ling Mo was still a human, his spiritual powers had been influenced by zombies.

But Ling Mo’s sanity still remained. Such an influence, when compared to the formidable spiritual power he got in exchange, didn’t really amount to anything.

Ling Mo very quickly rationalized this point. How could he expect to get anything without paying a certain price?

Ling Mo was able to share in the five sense of his zombie puppets even while he was deep in thought. This could be due to his spiritual power and a zombie’s spiritual orb having become the same thing.

However his spiritual powers were too feeble in the past, which is why they couldn’t display their abilities. Otherwise, he might have already had his spiritual tentacles, but was just unable to perceive them.

Although he realized this point, Ling Mo was unable to make any headway in his efforts to control the viral gel.

Just as Ling Mo was slowly losing faith and was about to label himself as a quack, a sharp stab of pain suddenly appeared in his mind. Following which, the piece of viral gel in front of his eyes suddenly began to change!

Ling Mo’s eyes went wide!

A spiritual tentacle extended out towards the viral gel and wrapped itself around it, immediately giving Ling Mo a strange feeling.

This piece of gel was alive!

The sudden realization caused Ling Mo to leap in fright, almost tossing it away.

The gel…no, more precisely, the virus within it, was still living…

Its host had already died, but the virus itself was still alive. What formidable vitality! It’s no wonder that it was so infectious.

Following Ling Mo’s abrupt reaction, a trace of a smile suddenly surfaced on Ling Mo’s face.

As expected! Sure enough, there was more to Ling Mo’s zombie puppeteer ability than meets the eye. His previous way of thinking was far too narrow minded, causing him to miss out on this line of thought!

What did his puppeteer ability rely on? Spiritual power!

He was able to control zombies because he transformed his spiritual power into spiritual tentacles and invaded their spiritual realm, seizing control from within.

If he could invade the spiritual realm of others, then wouldn’t he be able to use his tentacles to come in contact with other living things?

The viral gel was one such candidate, whose main body was the living virus. Ling Mo’s spiritual tentacles would definitely able to come in contact with it. Taking it a step further, living organisms were also a type of substance. Since he was able to come in contact with living things, by extension, he might even be able to contact other substances!

However, would he be able to control them after coming into contact with them?

Either way, Ling Mo wasn’t able to hurry onward with his journey, he needed to rest for awhile. Therefore, Ling Mo was full of excitement as he decided that he might as well try controlling the virus instead.

With Ye Lian and Shana keeping watch of the surroundings, safety wasn’t an issue for the time being.

The virus and zombies were different. Although zombies had no awareness, it was a bit of a stretch to say that they had absolutely no emotions at all. The virus on the other hand had absolutely no spiritual power, so Ling Mo’s tentacles didn’t face the least bit of obstruction when they entered.

One could even go as far as to say that he was infusing this piece of viral gel with spiritual power.

Ling Mo’s tentacles entered unhindered. But even after entering, there were no particular changes to the viral gel.

Movement? Impossible, the virus obviously wasn’t to move… Ling Mo felt a little dispirited with his findings.

But Ling Mo very quickly sensed that something was off.

Ling Mo’s spiritual tentacles clearly held a great amount of strength when it came to the volume this piece of viral gel had and its characteristic complete lack of spiritual power.

After such an overwhelming display of power, Ling Mo felt the viral gel stir when he was slowly withdrawing his tentacles.

This definitely wasn’t an illusion. While his eyes might have made a mistake, his tentacles hadn’t completely left the gel, and the response from his spiritual power definitely wouldn’t be wrong.

Although he couldn’t control the viral gel, he was still able to elicit a reaction from it with his tentacles…

After overcoming his shock, Ling Mo immediately revealed a look of pleasant surprise!

It turned out that the tentacles created from his spiritual power possessed another function!

While he wasn’t able to control it, his tentacles were still able to influence the actions of the other party. Who knows, he might even be able to influence the other party’s senses and distort their judgement!

This was the true method of utilizing his zombie puppeteer ability! He wasn’t just limited to controlling zombies, it even extended to his own spiritual powers…

As expected, my future still seems to be developing in the direction of a tentacle monster?

Ling Mo’s expression suddenly turned a somewhat complicated…

Ling Mo spent over an hour of his rest experimenting on a way to gain a greater freedom of control over his ability to manipulate his spiritual power. In other words, he was discovering how to go about making his tentacles even more lethal…

With Ye Lian and Shana taking turns to be his sparring partner, Ling Mo very quickly caught onto a trick. Soon after that he turned his attention to using his spiritual power to control objects.

But Ling Mo’s experience was only limited to controlling living creatures. Suddenly changing his target to objects had dumbfounded him for awhile. Of course it might be due to Ling Mo’s spiritual tentacles lacking strength, resulting in multiple failures.

The closest Ling Mo came to succeeding was when he managed to make a piece of leaf move a little. But just that bit of movement nearly made Ling Mo’s brain explode.

Although this was a little out of Ling Mo’s expectations, the process of finding other uses for his puppeteer ability was one he had to take a step at a time. The previous result already made him feel very happy.

Presumably, attempting such a procedure once again after his spiritual power had risen would lead to a much higher rate of success.

To Ling Mo, the spiritual power that his puppeteer ability consumed was excessive. He was forced to stop after over an hour of experimentation. Continuing would only render him breathless.

After finding that his shoulder had gotten a lot better, Ling Mo immediately set out once again with Ye Lian and Shana.

However, their journey was met with torrential rain, causing Ling Mo to feel depressed.

But Ling Mo decided to hurry on despite the pouring rain so that they could get back to the construction site before it got dark.

Although zombies weren’t afraid of getting caught in the rain, how could Ling Mo allow Ye Lian and Shana to get drenched. Therefore he specially went to a roadside shop and got them some raincoats.

Three figures wearing deep blue raincoats made their way through the rain. These three were probably the only figures within the city at present.

This was the first thunderstorm after the world had ended. Bean-sized droplets of rain hit the ground, was.h.i.+ng away the bloodstains that had seemingly coagulated into paste.

The rain on the ground converged into a reddish black brook, gripping the hearts of those who looked at it. No one knew how many people had to die before it took on such an appearance.

With Ye Lian and Shana clearing the way, their pace was brisk in spite of the rain. They managed to reach the construction site before dusk gave way to night.

After doing some simple sorting of the items he’d gathered and cooking himself a nice meal, Ling Mo took out the advanced zombie’s viral gel.

Ling Mo originally intended to share this piece of gel equally amongst Ye Lian and Shana, however Shana showed some hesitation when he gave it to her. She then proceeded to further split her share, leaving roughly a third of it in her hand.

Seeing Ling Mo look at her suspiciously, Shana haltingly said, “There’s too…much, it’s too pure.”

Ling Mo came to the sudden realization that Shana’s physical evolution was far from Ye Lian’s. Her body wouldn’t be able to handle such an excessive amount.

For the sake of safety, Ling Mo made Shana and Ye Lian take turns to consume the viral gel. Their current evolutionary progress was probably what allowed them to take in such an incomparably pure piece of viral gel without pa.s.sing out. It only resulted in their eyes rapidly turning red, awakening their zombie instincts. In such a situation, they were making an effort to brace themselves for the next step of their transformation that the virus would bring them.

But even Ling Mo hadn’t expected this time’s upgrade to take whole three days. During this time, although Shana and Ye Lian didn’t lose consciousness, they had no awareness of their surroundings at all. Even Ling Mo didn’t dare to use his tentacles to penetrate their spiritual orbs and check on their condition, because both the insides of their bodies and their spiritual realms felt as if gigantic waves were roiling about.

Ling Mo could feel his body being improved as well. However, similar to the previous time, the changes his body experienced didn’t last for long. He only felt a modest increase to his strength and speed. On the other hand, the improvement to his spiritual strength was comparatively large. His spiritual tentacles had become even more flexible and they took on a shade of red that was even closer to that of blood.

Ling Mo was very satisfied with these changes. After finding out the true use of his puppeteer ability, having greater spiritual strength would naturally be desirable.

Shana who was the first to take in the viral gel and was also the first to wake up.

She looked somewhat perplexed as she stared at Ling Mo before her gaze gradually filled with clarity and said, “I feel like I’ve remembered many things.”

Ling Mo was stunned upon hearing Shana’s manner of speech before he revealed an expression of extreme happiness!

Her manner of speech was far too similar to Shana before she’d turned into a zombie! Although it still sounded a little indifferent and lacking in emotion, it was extremely close to how she was in the past! If she were sat beside someone who didn’t know the truth, they probably wouldn’t be able to notice any abnormalities, let alone guess that she was, in fact, a zombie!

“What did you remember?” Ling Mo was filled with excitement as he asked.

Shana stared seriously at Ling Mo as she spoke she every word, “I remember you.”

Ling Mo’s expression immediately turned very embarra.s.sed.

“You used giving me a bath as an excuse to feel me up…” Ling Mo’s expression continued to grow more complicated as Shana continued on.

What kind of situation was this!

Shouldn’t the very first thing Shana do after regaining her sanity be to lament her life as she looked back on it; after which, shouldn’t she thank Ling Mo for all the effort that he put in?!

Even if she wasn’t planning on devoting herself to him for life, at the very least, giving him a kiss wasn’t asking for too much, right?

Ling Mo had fantasized countless times about how the scene when Shana and Ye Lian regained their sanity would be like. It might be a touching moment, or it might be one filled with blazing emotions…

But he never expected such a situation to occur!

Shana’s tone of voice sounded very calm, to the point where it felt like she had no emotions… If one were to neglect the content of her speech, she almost sounded the same as she did three days ago.

Although Shana remembered what had happened while she was a zombie, she never bothered to mention it before. In her mind, she probably felt that such matters weren’t worth bringing up.

Could Shana’s have recovered her sanity?

At this moment, Shana suddenly indifferently added, “This is probably what you humans call molesting right?”

“Eh, you humans?”

Ling Mo couldn’t help but be stunned for a moment.

Once her words sank in, the look in Ling Mo’s eyes suddenly turned a little complicated.

Shana had previously said that she was no longer a human, and that she had no intention of turning back into one. She was even less inclined to remember anything related to her past.

Who would have thought that her way of thinking would still remain the same even after regaining her sanity.

But this was normal. It’d be disastrous if she really did think of herself as a human. Not to mention anything else, just the memory of her eating viral gels alone would be enough to cause her to fall apart.

After her mutation, Shana had already turned into a different race; a zombie.

She recovered her memories, but not her personality. Based on her nature, she was still a zombie, regardless of how much of her sanity she recovered.

Regardless of the number of human memories she recalled, the present Shana would use a zombie’s way of thinking to look at things.