Fortunately, the front claws had only just grabbed his chest when he kicked it away, sending it flying.
The Gluttony Dog curled up on the ground, twitched a couple of times, then slowly stopped moving. A spirit source emerged from its body, like a white bolt of lightning, instantly vanishing into Su Li’s forehead.
Su Li felt a surge of warmth flow through him. The pain from the wounds on his shoulder, leg, and chest immediately began to subside. The wounds contracted, and the bleeding stopped. These three injuries were enveloped in a massive surge of heat, and the rate of healing was visible to the naked eye.
“Incredible. This spirit source can accelerate wound healing by ten or even a hundred times.”
Su Li watched the contraction speed of the wound on his leg. Though it wasn’t his first time seeing this, he was still amazed.
A piece of information surfaced in his mind.
“Level 2 Spirit Source User: Spirit Source 2/20”
Sensing the information in his mind, Su Li felt his strength slowly recovering. He sat up from the ground and thought, “It seems killing an elite variant of a level 2 spirit source beast grants two spirit sources at once. I wonder how many spirit sources I’d get now if I killed that One-Eyed Frog.”
Su Li slowly stood up, looking at the Gluttony Dog’s corpse. He suddenly noticed the nearly ten-centimeter-long claws on its left forelimb beginning to shrink and peel off. His heart stirred slightly.
The shrinking, peeling claws on the left forelimb transformed into a white line, darting toward Su Li’s left hand.
The white line sank into the back of his left hand. At the same moment, new information appeared in his mind.
“Acquired special ability: Gluttony Fang (Left).”
Su Li immediately felt something new inside the back of his left hand—a tingling, numbing sensation, as if several new fingers were growing out from within.
The feeling was bizarre. He could sense this newly grown thing in the back of his hand, as if it were connected to him by flesh and blood.
His left hand involuntarily clenched into a fist. On the back of his fist, four small bumps protruded. Then, from the center of each bump, white claws broke through the skin and emerged.
The white claws, with a texture like teeth, kept extending outward. When Su Li felt they had reached their limit, the four white claws had stretched out about ten centimeters.
He could feel the power contained within these claws, as well as the sharpness of their tips.
“So this is Gluttony Fang?” Su Li took a deep breath and slowly dragged the four claws across the concrete floor of the corridor.
A grating sound rang out, leaving four white marks on the concrete.
He raised the back of his left hand again, looking at the four sharp, pointed white claws protruding from the skin. Su Li thought of Wolverine from X-Men.
Then, the four white claws slowly retracted into the back of his hand. The four small bumps that had bulged out also disappeared, and the back of his hand returned to its original state.
Su Li stood up. Killing the Gluttony Dog had left him shaken and injured, but the gains were considerable. He looked up at Xu Xuehui, who was also slowly getting to her feet. Her small face still held a trace of fear, as if she hadn’t fully recovered from the terror just moments ago.
“Don’t be afraid. It’s over,” Su Li comforted her. He wanted to ask if this Gluttony Dog was the one that killed her father, but after a moment’s thought, he held back, unwilling to upset her further.
Xu Xuehui’s face was pale. She nodded slightly, walked over to the Gluttony Dog’s corpse, and suddenly stomped on its head with her little leather shoe. Though the force wasn’t strong, it expressed her hatred for the creature.
Su Li watched with amusement, thinking that this little girl seemed fragile on the outside but had quite a personality.
For now, food wasn’t an issue. The Gluttony Dog’s muscles were hideous, so Su Li didn’t bother with its corpse and left it there.
He led Xu Xuehui to the apartment he had first entered and began searching carefully for useful supplies.
“Remember, anything edible, drinkable, or useful—like nails, wire, rope—we take,” Su Li explained to Xu Xuehui.
Xu Xuehui nodded, indicating she understood.
“By the way, when did you first notice the flood outside?” This question had been lingering in Su Li’s mind for a while. He had refrained from asking earlier to avoid upsetting her, but now that she seemed calmer, he couldn’t hold back.
He had gotten drunk the night before and woken up in the morning to find the city flooded. What about Xu Xuehui? What had she experienced?
Hearing his question, Xu Xuehui lowered her head slightly. After a long pause, she replied with just two words: “The day before yesterday…”
“The day before yesterday? You woke up and found it like this outside?”
Xu Xuehui looked up and nodded at him.
Su Li thought to himself that the day before yesterday was the 15th, the same day he had woken up to find the flood outside. It seemed their situations were similar.
“When you woke up, was it just you and your father? What about your mother? The neighbors?”
This time, Xu Xuehui shook her head at Su Li. When she saw his puzzled expression, she added three words: “They’re gone.”
Su Li gave a faint, bitter smile, unsure if she had trouble communicating or was just sparing with words. He figured he’d have to ask and guess his way through the conversation. “You mean your mother and the neighbors are all gone?”
Xu Xuehui nodded again.
“Alright.” Su Li decided not to ask about what she had encountered afterward. Communicating with her was already difficult enough.
From the scene, he could roughly guess that the father and daughter had been attacked by corpse beasts. Xu Xuehui had hidden in the wardrobe, while her father had been killed by the Gluttony Dog.
Seeing Xu Xuehui still looking at him, as if waiting for more questions, Su Li smiled slightly and said, “That’s enough. Let’s go find supplies.”
They split up to search for useful items. This time, the haul was significant. In the kitchen, Su Li found a bag of rice—a 50-pound bag, still more than half full, at least 30 pounds. There was also half a bag of flour and some noodles, which delighted him.
Xu Xuehui found several boxes of nails, a bundle of thin wire, and two rolls of electrical wire.
The apartment hadn’t been renovated long ago, so these were likely leftover materials from the renovation.
“Nice.” Su Li’s eyes lit up as he saw these items, showing his approval.
His next step was to find a more suitable place to settle down and further reinforce the raft. These materials would come in handy.
Through the window, Su Li carefully moved the collected supplies one by one onto the raft, which was moored tightly against the window outside.
Though the raft was sizable, the growing pile of goods caused it to sit lower in the water. Su Li realized he couldn’t add any more weight to it for now.