Alex and Mingyue floated in the middle of void, surrounded by nothing but darkness.

Mingyue swung her sword again.

SHRKK!!

A purple slash mixed with ice and space cut forward.

But the slash only traveled a short distance before it stopped. It simply froze in place, then slowly vanished like it had been swallowed.

Mingyue's eyes narrowed. She raised her sword and swung again.

SHRKK!!

The result was the same. But a faint ice lotus appeared where the slash vanished.

Mingyue did not stop. After every slash, she sent a small amount of qi into the area and let an ice lotus bloom there.

Then she looked at it for a moment, studying how the lotus reacted before moving to another direction.

Slash! Slash! Slash!

Alex did not disturb her. His hands were moving quickly in front of him.

Rune after rune appeared in the air. The runes formed layers.

One layer covered the front. Another rotated sideways.

More formations appeared above and below him, locking together like a complicated machine.

There were already more than ten layers around Alex. His eyes kept moving through every line.

"This space formation is not simple." Alex said.

Mingyue slashed again.

SHRKK!!

Another ice lotus bloomed in the distance.

"This contain progenitor essence," Alex continued. "They stacked it together with ghost valley technique, and rune formation."

Mingyue looked at the ice lotus for a breath, then turned to another direction. "So can you break it?"

"It will take time."

Mingyue's sword moved again.

SHRKK!!

The slash vanished like before. "This thing is annoying."

Alex's fingers did not stop. "They made it for us. Or at least for someone close to our level. Lena was really just bait."

Mingyue's expression turned colder. "She knew?"

"No. Maybe only at the end."

Alex's eyes moved across the runes.

"In the end she make her choice."

Mingyue did not answer. She only slashed again.

The black space still did not move. But the ice lotus she left behind this time bloomed slower than the others.

Mingyue stopped for a moment, her eyes sharpened.

Alex's hands paused for half a breath.

Then both of them stopped at the same time.

A feeling appeared, it pulled at them from somewhere far away.

It was like something had opened its eyes in the dark and looked toward them.

Something omnius and hungry.

Mingyue turned her head.

"You feel that?"

Alex's eyes lit up. Before Mingyue could say anything else, his hand moved.

A new rune appeared between his fingers.

It was much smaller than the others, but the moment it formed, every layer around Alex lit up at the same time.

BZZZZT!!

The formation around him rotated.

The ten layers locked together. Then Alex pushed the new rune into the center.

The whole formation activated.

Mingyue's eyes moved slightly. "You found it?"

"Thanks for that feeling."

The ominous feeling had touched the seal from outside. That momentary connection was enough.

Alex followed that pull and found the weakest part of the space seal. His formation shot forward.

The runes spread like a net and wrapped around an empty area in front of them.

Then a thin crack appeared.

Crack.

Mingyue moved at once. She raised both swords. Ice lotuses around the void bloomed together.

All the qi she had scattered before rushed toward the crack.

Alex's formation pulled from one side.

Mingyue's sword slashed from the other.

SHRKK!!

The black space finally broke. Light poured through the crack.

Alex grabbed Mingyue's wrist. "Go."

The two of them rushed through the opening.

The next moment, the void behind them collapsed. Their feet landed on a broken floor.

They were back inside the abandoned building.

But the place was no longer the same.

The wall had cracked open. The door was gone. Smoke drifted in from outside.

Far away, screams and explosions filled the city.

Mingyue looked outside. Her eyes turned colder. "So this is the reason?"

Alex walked to the broken doorway.

The city outside had turned into chaos.

People were running everywhere. Gray-veined infected rushed through the streets, biting anyone close.

A guard robot flew past the building and crashed into the road.

BOOM!!

Its chest was torn open.

Three infected jumped onto it and ripped the remaining metal apart with their hands and teeth.

Alex's gaze darkened. "Mutation of the last virus."

A growl came from the side.

Five infected rushed toward the building.

They were fast.

Mingyue moved first. Her sword flashed.

SHRKK!!

The slash landed on the neck of the first infected.

But the sword did not cut through cleanly. It stopped halfway.

Mingyue's brows moved slightly.

The infected still rushed forward, even with half its neck cut open.

Mingyue poured more qi into the blade.

CRACK!!

The sword cut through. The infected's head flew off.

The body dropped to the ground.

Alex looked at it. "Their qi hardened their bodies."

Mingyue's expression did not change, but her sword grip tightened. "Annoying."

The other infected rushed in. Mingyue stepped forward. Ice lotuses bloomed under their feet.

The infected did not stop. Their bodies forced through the first layer of frost, cracking it with raw strength.

Mingyue raised one sword.

More ice lotuses bloomed. This time, the lotus petals opened along their legs, waist, chest, and neck.

BZZZT!!

Frozen space locked them in place.

She love fighting, but not against dull creature like this. Their attack is only fueled by their impulse to bite.

Alex raised his hand. Green flame gathered into several thin lines and pierced their heads.

Swosh!

The infected stopped moving.

Mingyue looked at the bodies. "They are hard to cut, but that's it."

"But normal cultivators will have trouble." Alex said.

Mingyue glanced toward the street. "More peole die, more power to them."

Alex did not answer. Both of them could feel the flow of life force in the city.

People that become zombie and die, left behind cultivated life force that then flow into underground.

"This kind of intense emotion…" Alex walk toward one of the headless corpse. He draw a rune and send it to it's body.

He frowned, "They're not dead, those zombie were aware what's happening."