Chapter Eighty-One: Agitation

Right now, many matters lay before us. The first was how to deal with the corpse building.

That place was terrifying enough already. The nearest residential area was only a few hundred yards away; if the corpse miasma were allowed to spread, or if the zombies hiding inside managed to get out, the situation would become impossible to contain.

Xi Yue told me that she had not killed Li Lina, only grievously wounded her, and that Li Lina had been taken away by Old Master Zhou. The instant I heard that Old Master Zhou had appeared as well, I knew this affair was no simple matter.

“Leave the corpse building to me. You go after the two fleeing zombies first. They’re the real problem. The corpse-burier is badly injured right now, and those two are the ones stirring up trouble. If they haven’t gone far yet, you can still catch them. If we wait much longer, something terrible is bound to happen,” Zhao Wen said.

I looked at Xi Yue and nodded at once.

I truly could not stand Zhang Hansheng, but he was still a living man. If he were to be sent to his death by that horrifying zombie, my conscience would never let me rest. What was more, Old Master Zhou had somehow regained freedom of movement, which meant our earlier blow against the corpse keeper had been too severe, so severe that Old Master Zhou had broken free of his control.

At this moment, Old Master Zhou would go only one place: home.

He had become a zombie on the Night of Returning Souls, and his spirit had been sealed entirely within his own body. That meant he still retained only a dim memory of the roads he had once walked, but he no longer recognized people. At this point, the only person Old Master Zhou still knew was Li Lina.

“So Old Master Zhou bites anyone he sees now?” I asked Xi Yue as we rushed toward the Zhou residence.

Xi Yue nodded. Beneath the moonlight, I could feel strands of silvery radiance swirling around her, making her seem dazzlingly beautiful. It was the kind of beauty one could fall in love with at a glance.

“Have you told Chen Chuyi yet?”

I answered with an “mm.” Before we had even left the corpse building, I had already called Chen Chuyi. The moment he heard the situation on my end, he said he would be in Chengdu in another hour and told me to hold the line for now.

Of course I understood what he meant. The situation was already crystal clear, with no suspense left at all. Old Master Zhou had completely turned into a vicious zombie, one who bit anyone in sight. And now that he had taken Li Lina back to the Zhou household, the entire family would soon become zombies as well.

We had to reach the Zhou house as fast as possible, or it would all be too late. Since we had already noticed their trail, Old Master Zhou was now a corpse ghost, and part of the corpse keeper’s evil and brutal mindset had already taken root in his head, growing stronger with every drop of blood he drank.

As I ran, my phone suddenly rang.

It was Zhang Hansheng.

He asked whether I had taken care of Li Lina, and said he was already at the Zhou residence, discussing the matter with the boss.

I could only feel a wave of speechlessness at that, but in a way, that was good too. As long as the situation could be contained at the Zhou residence, that was enough.

“Don’t go anywhere. Stay home and keep still. No matter what you see later, don’t run outside. If Li Lina comes back looking for you, hold your breath. That should keep you safe for a while. We’re on our way, so don’t hang up. Keep reporting the situation to me at once.”

I was still running as I spoke. To be honest, if Xi Yue had set up a spatial tunnel in the Zhou residence earlier, we would not have to be dashing forward like hounds now.

The person on the other end of the line was trembling so badly his voice shook.

“Master Yang, hurry, please! Li Lina isn’t human anymore. She’s a zombie now, and she bites people!”

“I know.”

I said only those three words before setting the phone to speaker mode and tucking it into my pocket.

There was only one street left before the Zhou family’s villa. A quick glance in that direction revealed two distinct masses of corpse qi already hanging over the estate.

One was dense and ghastly, surging straight upward as resentment and killing intent gathered within a single area, coalescing into the shape of a gigantic skull. That was Old Master Zhou’s aura.

The other was far more disordered, merely a foil to that sinister corpse qi. It belonged to Li Lina.

“They’re right ahead!”

Xi Yue nodded and, in a flash of movement, seized me and shot forward toward the street before us. Sensing how dire the situation had become, I almost instinctively gripped the black scroll at my chest and hurled it straight toward the Zhou estate.

“Ah!”

“You... Master Yang... help!”

At once, I heard a cry of terror explode from the phone in my pocket, followed by a bloodcurdling scream.

“Damn it!”

I could not help swearing.

“Dad, what’s happened to you? I’m your son, Zhou Ming. Take a good look at me...”

Xi Yue and I had barely burst into the Zhou residence when we saw a scene so absurd I did not know whether to laugh or cry.

Everyone from the Zhou family had gathered in the courtyard.

Standing at the front was the man who had once been my highest superior, the one who controlled the publishing group: Zhou Ming.

To be honest, I had never thought badly of Zhou Ming. But the way he was acting at this moment was simply too ridiculous.

Old Master Zhou was covered in blood. His white hair stood on end, every strand erect. His face had withered to little more than skin and bone, and his eyes were nothing but crimson pupils. The most striking feature of all were the fangs protruding from the corners of his mouth.

The transformation into a zombie had been man-made from the very beginning, and the process itself was merciless beyond measure. Old Master Zhou’s three souls and seven spirits had been sealed within his body, and through continual blood-drinking, the hatred and cruelty buried in his heart had been fully awakened.

“Roar... roar...”

The moon above was still calm and lovely, but at that moment I could feel the moonlight gathering around Old Master Zhou as well.

“This zombie is about to become a spirit!” Xi Yue said, standing beside me in astonishment.

Become a spirit?

I had once seen in Chen Chuyi’s notes that when a zombie became a spirit, it would turn into a true corpse king, and its power would rise above even that. By then, it would no longer merely rely on drinking human blood to sustain itself. It would begin absorbing the essence of the natural world to replenish its strength, making its power even more refined. Old Master Zhou howling up at the moon and beginning to draw in lunar essence was the clearest proof of that.

“Dad, I knew you’d be all right!”

Seeing that Old Master Zhou did not charge at him in a frenzy, Zhou Ming actually took step after step toward him.

I was exasperated.

“If you don’t want to die, get the hell back!”

Old Master Zhou might not possess much in the way of thought anymore, but human blood like Zhou Ming’s, offered up so willingly, was not something he would refuse. He had long since stopped recognizing the Zhou Ming standing before him as his own son.