Chapter Fifteen: The Flying Dagger and the Ice Blade

With a secure environment, Lin Qingqing was finally able to calm her mind and practice her supernatural abilities. She began with the most basic skill: condensing ice. At first, small lumps of ice slowly changed shape under her telekinetic control, stretching and elongating until one end formed a sharp, pointed cone.

“Although it doesn’t look very elegant, its lethality is certainly much greater than an ice lump,” Lin Qingqing mused, recalling the amusing scene of herself hurling ice lumps at people.

She continued refining the ice cone, intending to make it as sharp as a blade. However, this process was far from simple. She tried repeatedly, each attempt draining her mental energy almost to exhaustion before she would stop, sit cross-legged, and meditate instead of resting. The quiet atmosphere made it easy to enter a meditative state, and she discovered that after depleting her mental energy, meditating felt more restorative than simply sleeping. Moreover, training after meditation sharpened her focus and agility.

“It seems meditation truly accelerates mental energy recovery,” Lin Qingqing felt a surge of excitement, sensing she had found a secret advantage—a golden touch. She couldn’t help but marvel at her own luck.

Thinking of herself in this post-apocalyptic world—healthy and empowered with supernatural abilities—her spirits lifted. Even the most tedious practices no longer felt dull; instead, they grew increasingly fascinating. With food stocked in the kitchen, staying indoors was no problem, and practicing and researching her powers had become her greatest passion. Everything proceeded in an orderly fashion through these monotonous exercises.

“It feels like I’ve reached the limit. So, what’s next?” One day, Lin Qingqing stared thoughtfully at twelve identical ice blades before her, stroking her chin. In just a week, she had completed the second transformation of the ice cone, turning the rough shape into thin ice blades. Each blade was palm-sized, shaped somewhat like a willow leaf throwing knife—light and razor-sharp.

However, twelve was the maximum number she could maintain; no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t conjure another. “Maybe my power isn’t strong enough yet. I wonder if I’ll be able to increase it in the future,” she muttered, playing with the ice blades. She didn’t dwell on what she couldn’t do and turned to developing other functionalities.

“Ice isn’t just sharp—it’s quite hard too.” Gazing at the explosion-proof shield she had scavenged from the guard room, Lin Qingqing conceived a new idea. She planned to create a defensive shield from ice. This wasn’t a baseless notion; ice shields had appeared in a dream where she fought the Black Fish gang.

With a rough image in mind, the ice shield was soon complete. It resembled the one from her dream, albeit much smaller—only large enough to cover half her body. “This ice shield wastes too much energy. After forming it, I have no strength left for anything else,” she complained. Moreover, the shield was heavy; unless she stood still, holding it was a burden.

Unwilling to remain passive and be struck, Lin Qingqing eventually transformed the half-human-tall ice shield into ice armor that adhered to her body to absorb damage. Although it still couldn’t cover her entire body, it was enough to save her life in critical moments.

“Sigh... I wonder when I’ll be able to wield my powers as effortlessly as in my dreams.” She didn’t know how other ability users controlled their powers—everything had to be discovered through trial and error. Fortunately, she had previously watched many tutorial videos on weapon handling. Although basic, they at least provided a correct reference point.

With the ice armor and blades mastered, she next studied how to launch the ice blades to hit targets at a distance. She drew a target on the first-floor wall, condensed an ice blade, and tried throwing it like a real throwing knife.

After two days of practice, she noticed a problem: due to the nature of the ice, she could only hit targets within five meters effectively; beyond that, the damage dropped sharply. Staring at the bullseye ten meters away, Lin Qingqing suddenly recalled the fireball Zhou Mang had thrown while chasing her. That fireball was only ping-pong ball-sized but could be directed precisely—a far better approach than her throwing knives.

“How silly of me!” Lin Qingqing slapped her forehead hard, scolding herself. “I’m an ability user. Why do I always think of using my hands? Zhou Mang’s fireball certainly wasn’t thrown barehanded. Why didn’t I realize that before?”

Unfortunately, she had been too focused on fleeing to notice how he had done it, but she was confident that with enough experimentation, she would discover the secret.

She abandoned the throwing knife practice and devoted herself to one question: how to control the ice blades with her mind. Since the blades were already condensed by her powers, when she tried to imbue them with her mental energy, she found communication was seamless, as if the blades were an extension of herself.

Watching the ice blades float in midair, Lin Qingqing nearly leapt for joy. She had witnessed the power of Zhou Mang’s fireball but was curious about the strength of her ice blades.

Returning to the target, this time without any external aid, she successfully hit the bullseye from ten meters away. Beyond that, she could manipulate the ice blades in midair, changing their direction just like Zhou Mang’s fireball had when it attacked her.

By the fortieth day of the apocalypse, Lin Qingqing had increased the number of ice blades she could control simultaneously from one to two, then four, and now eight. Eight was her limit, and she planned to keep this as her secret weapon.

She had now stayed in the kindergarten for half a month. Although food and water were sufficient, remaining indefinitely wasn’t a solution.

“It’s been so long without any news from the outside world. I wonder how humans and zombies are faring now?”

With some self-defense ability, Lin Qingqing began considering her next destination. The big city had many zombies but surely more survivors, so to gather information, she needed to find people first.

Before leaving, she crafted a handy weapon for herself. In the kitchen, she found a butcher’s cleaver nearly as long as her forearm, likely used for chopping bones. The blade was sturdy and sharp, far superior to a household kitchen knife.

She found a sharpening stone and honed the blade anew, then replaced the wooden handle with a half-meter-long steel pipe. With this new weapon in hand, her previously transformed folding shovel was honorably retired.

Satisfied, Lin Qingqing loaded the remaining supplies onto her vehicle and drove away from this safe haven.

In truth, as long as no one discovered her, she could have stayed here, enjoying a semi-reclusive, carefree life. But the dread and unease brought by the apocalypse lingered deep within her heart.

Besides, she had made mortal enemies with Zhou Mang and his group, and any future encounter would be a fight to the death.

To live better in the days ahead, Lin Qingqing finally chose to leave her comfort zone and actively adapt to this post-apocalyptic world.

She no longer wanted her life threatened by people like Zhou Mang. Rather than constantly living in fear and hiding, she preferred to seize control firmly in her own hands.

The apocalypse was indeed a disaster for all humanity, but for Lin Qingqing, it was a rebirth—a new beginning.

Now, when she saw those hideous zombies by the roadside, she no longer felt fear or terror. She even found herself curious about what they had looked like in life, what roles they had, and how they had died.

The apocalypse struck at midnight. These zombies were either those who had escaped later or people who hadn’t returned home on time.

The formally dressed middle-aged men were undoubtedly overworked office workers. Those with colorful hair and pierced clothing were either street artists or petty thugs. Most others were guards in uniform.

No longer frightened by zombies, Lin Qingqing could completely separate herself from those former humans.

“From the moment you became a zombie, your humanity died. Now, we are two entirely different species—even natural enemies, one might say.”

She felt it pointless to dwell on the identities and pasts of the zombies. To her, they had become mere symbols. For survival’s sake, she would kill zombies without any mental burden or hesitation.

She would live—and live well, for as long as she could.