Chapter 44 resolves the issue.
Xiong Gangyong was startled by the thing that suddenly popped out, and Mo Qi also frowned slightly as he saw the creature hidden behind the shelf.
They discovered that the other party looked extremely strange, like a lizard, but something didn't seem right, as it was holding half an arm in its mouth.
Seeing the color of the blood from the cut on the arm and the grayish-black fingernails, it turned out to be a zombie's arm.
They had seen mutated animals before, but this was the first time Mo Qi had ever seen one that ate zombies, which was rather disgusting.
"My God, what is that? A gecko? How can a gecko be so big!" Xiong Gangyong exclaimed from the side.
Mo Qi realized that the creature in front of him did indeed look very similar to the common gecko.
Therefore, it's highly likely that the gecko is the prototype of this creature before its mutation. However, its current size can only be described as enormous, comparable to three Xiong Gangyong.
I have no idea how I managed to hide behind the shelves without being noticed at all, only making a very faint sound.
No wonder Xiong Gangyong was so surprised. Such conspicuous and powerful mutated animals are rare in the apocalypse, and very few people have ever seen them. Or rather, very few people who have ever seen a mutated creature of this level have survived.
As the mutated gecko emerged, its enormous size and the noise of the explosion outside made its movements much more hurried. The monster pushed aside a shelf beside it, revealing what lay behind it.
Then Mo Xiu saw that behind the shelf were many bones and fragmented limbs. Mo Xiu had excellent eyesight; having lived for so many years, he had seen similar scenes before.
He could even deduce from the pattern and color of the blood splattered at that spot, and the minute details of the severed limbs, that this mutated gecko ate not only zombies, but also living people.
It seems this is the creature's lair.
Having lived here for so long, the other party must have eaten quite a few zombies, no wonder he could sense the overwhelming demonic energy here.
The mutated gecko before them appeared to be no less powerful than the gray wolf from before, making it a formidable foe in the current post-apocalyptic world.
Even so, Mo Qi's attention wasn't entirely focused on the other party. Thinking back to the direction from which the loud noise had come, it was clearly from the warehouse where Mo Xiu was located.
The distance wasn't too far, but such a noise was clearly not simple.
Although Mo Qi followed Mo Xiu's hints and led Xiong Gangyong away from him, he still retained his divine sense to follow him. At this moment, he immediately focused his attention on investigating Mo Xiu's situation.
It was soon discovered that the explosion was caused by Xu Liang's fire-based supernatural ability during the battle between Mo Xiu and Xu Liang.
Although the commotion was quite large, it seemed that Mo Xiu could handle it completely. Not only was he completely unharmed, but he also dodged the explosion, and even the protective talismans he had left for the other party were not used up.
On the contrary, Xu Liang looked quite disheveled, and seemed to be at his last gasp.
Judging from the current situation, it seems that I don't need to worry too much. I can just leave the matter of dealing with Xu Liang entirely to Mo Xiu.
Knowing that his future Daoist partner was safe, Mo Qi turned his attention back to the mutated gecko.
The gecko, with its blood-red eyes wide open, slowly chewed on the half-eaten limb in its mouth.
The creaking sound was now particularly noticeable, making Xiong Gangyong's scalp tingle.
The mutated gecko scanned Xiong Gangyong and Mo Qi with its eyes before heading straight for Mo Qi.
Seeing this situation, Mo Qi was not surprised.
During this time, he gained a better understanding of this world through Mo Xiu, learning that people here do not consider such plants and animals to be demons, but rather that they have undergone mutations.
Of course, in Mo Qi's mind, this was just a different name in different worlds. He wondered if a gecko that had mutated to this extent had developed sentience.
However, Mo Qi could guess why the other party was rushing towards him from the way the other party had just chewed on the zombie corpse.
Unlike the gray wolf they had encountered before, this gecko, even among demon cultivators, seemed more like an evil cultivator, as it appeared to know exactly how to extract demonic energy from zombies to cultivate itself.
Mo Qi was a demonic cultivator, and his body was filled with absorbed demonic energy, making him more attractive to this monster than ordinary people or zombies.
However, it would be naive to think that you could hurt yourself at this level.
Mo Qi's consciousness had already entered a defensive state, but to his surprise, just as the mutated gecko rushed towards him...
Xiong Gangyong, who was still stunned and surprised beside him, suddenly grabbed his arm and dragged him out the door without saying a word.
As he ran, the other person kept complaining, "My God, what are you doing? What are you standing there for? Are you stupid? You just watched him charge at you? Don't you want to die?!"
Upon hearing this, Mo Qi subconsciously followed in the footsteps of the person beside him.
Looking at her arm, which was being held tightly, and at the other person's actions of pushing over the shelves beside them as they ran, trying to stop the monster's pursuit, she blinked.
Mo Qi was genuinely surprised. He hadn't expected that at the crucial moment, this guy wouldn't take the opportunity to abandon him, or perhaps he was just glad that the mutated gecko's target was him, so he could use him as a shield.
Instead, her first thought was to pull him along and run away together.
Although being called an idiot by such a big, clumsy guy was a bit annoying, Mo Qi accepted the favor regardless of whether he needed help or not.
"My goodness! How can this warehouse be so big? And how can that thing move so fast!"
Why did it take a detour? I knew I shouldn't have gone this far into the warehouse. Am I going to die here today? No way! I'm only nineteen, and I've never even been in a relationship!
Xiong Gangyong was clearly terrified; he not only ran faster but also spoke at an even faster pace.
"nineteen?"
Looking at the overly mature face of the person next to him, Mo Qi thought he would believe it if the person said he was thirty-nine. This person looked way too old.
Nineteen years old, which is exactly the same age as Cheng Cheng, you really can't tell at all.
At this point, why are my thoughts getting more and more skewed? Although he has the face of a burly man, he's actually just a child...
However, judging from the way that mutated gecko moved, it was clear that this was indeed the other side's territory, as it even knew to take a shortcut to quickly overtake them.
Moreover, lizards have another special ability: they can climb walls and rooftops. So they watched helplessly as the gecko quickly leaped onto the roof and then pounced on them.
The target of their attack was clearly Mo Qi.
But at this moment, to his utter surprise, Xiong Gangyong pulled him behind him and then, with all his might, completely metalized his body, shouting at him, "Run! Don't worry about me! I have metal-type abilities; it can't bite through my skin! Go find someone to help me!"
As he spoke, he actually hugged the mutated gecko that pounced on him tightly, letting its large mouth full of sharp teeth bite his shoulder.
Seeing this, Mo Qi clicked his tongue inwardly, surprised at how lucky he was, running into so many good people.
However, this prematurely aged young man is wrong about one thing: although his body is covered in metal, it doesn't mean that the monster on the other side can't bite through it. With Xiong Gangyong's current level of superpower, he simply can't withstand it for long.
He feared that if he sent someone back, they would have already torn him to pieces. Thinking of this, Mo Qi sighed softly.
Xiong Gangyong noticed that he hadn't left yet, and he was so anxious that he was about to curse: "Why aren't you leaving yet? Get lost, you pretty boy! Go find someone to help me! You don't want to watch me die, do you?"
Seeing this, Mo Qi smiled and shook his head, saying, "Leave it to me."
Then, Mo Qi directly extended his already ferocious divine sense and rushed into the monster's brain, shattering its sea of consciousness.
Creatures whose sea of consciousness has been shattered cannot survive, and the mutated gecko was no exception; it collapsed to the ground before it could even utter a mournful cry.
Looking at the lifeless monster before him, Xiong Gangyong was momentarily stunned into silence.
The sharp teeth had just bitten into his shoulder, and he could clearly feel that the metal shell in that spot was about to be bitten through. How could he die so suddenly?
Recalling what Mo Qi had said to him before the monster died, Xiong Gangyong stared at Mo Qi in shock: "It...it was you who killed it?"
Mo Qi didn't deny it and nodded to the person opposite him. But immediately afterward, he sent out a divine sense and imprinted a mental mark on Xiong Gangyong.
Then he continued, "Once we get outside, just say you killed this thing."
"But I didn't kill him!" Xiong Gangyong frowned, not understanding why the other party, with such powerful abilities, would keep it a secret.
"Even if you don't say you killed him, you can't say it was me. I don't want others to know my secret. I left something in your body. If you say anything carelessly, it might explode and kill you," Mo Qi said with a smile.
Hearing this, Xiong Gangyong felt a chill run down his spine. He tried to say that the mutated gecko belonged to Mo Qisha, but when he opened his mouth, he found that he couldn't say anything at all.
He then realized that what Mo Qi said was true.
Mo Qi certainly couldn't let him really self-destruct and die, after all, he felt that Xiong Gangyong wasn't a bad person and was actually a pretty good person.
The mark left on him was simply that it made it difficult for him to tell the truth. As for why lying to him would cause an explosion... teasing the silly boy is quite interesting.
Seeing the other person staring blankly with their mouth agape, their gaze shifting back and forth between him and the corpse of the mutated gecko, Mo Qi laughed even harder.
When Mo Xiu finished dealing with Xu Liang's situation and rushed over to find Mo Qi, this was the scene before her.
For some reason, Mo Qi was smiling very happily at Xiong Gangyong across from him.
Mo Xiu had almost never seen the man show such an expression to anyone other than himself.
Feeling inexplicably uneasy, she pursed her lips and took two steps forward. Only then did she notice the corpse of a strange monster lying not far from Mo Qi.
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