Chapter Eighty-Two: A Thorny Matter

Just as Old Master Zhou was about to seize Zhou Ming in a single grasp, I slipped sideways, kicked Zhou Ming hard in the chest, and in the same motion slapped a yellow talisman onto the old man’s brow.

The sizzling of corpse miasma made me so sick I nearly threw up on the spot. At that moment, I heard Zhou Ming’s scream, followed by a burst of startled cries.

“Master Yang, my father...”

The instant he got back on his feet, Zhou Ming asked the question.

I gave a bitter smile and pointed at Old Master Zhou before me. “Why not look for yourself?”

“This...”

“What do you mean, this? Your family’s old man has turned, and badly too. Right now he’s a dangerous object, the kind that poses an extreme threat to public order. You saw his condition yourself. He’s no longer your father. He’s a zombie that bites anyone it sees!”

“A zombie?”

I nodded, but Zhou Ming standing before me clearly did not believe it. Men like him, wealthy bosses, had been raised on materialist doctrine from childhood; of course he was a hard-line atheist.

“That’s impossible. How could my father become a zombie? Master Yang, could you have made a mistake? Could it be that my father isn’t dead, or that this is just a burst of last vitality before death?”

For a moment, I felt as though I were staring at a complete fool.

If this had been before, I would have treated him with utmost deference. Though I worked for his company, I had never even met him face-to-face from beginning to end. Back then, I had not been worthy. But now I would not spare him the slightest courtesy, because in my eyes Zhou Ming was nothing but an idiot.

At this moment Old Master Zhou reeked of putrid stench, and his entire appearance had changed beyond recognition. The face alone was covered in furrows and ridges, like the visage of a dried corpse from which all blood had been drained. His eyes were no longer pupils at all, but blood-red orbs. How could he fail to see that? Not to mention the pair of sharp fangs in his mouth. Anyone with eyes would know exactly what he had become. How could Zhou Ming not see it?

“Help! Help me...!”

Just then, a mournful scream suddenly rang out, slicing through the night air.

I cursed inwardly, then shot off at once toward the source of the cry. Xiyue did not move. She stood where she was, eyes fixed on Old Master Zhou, who had been immobilized by my binding talisman.

I paid her no mind and darted into the room from which the voice had come. In the brief time I had been outside, Li Lina had somehow already rushed into the room. As for Zhang Hansheng, he had been hiding in there the whole time. By the time I burst in, it was already too late, because Li Lina’s sharp teeth were already sunk into Zhang Hansheng’s face. Zhang Hansheng seemed to have been so terrified that he had fainted outright.

Poor Zhang Hansheng, now being torn apart by the very woman he had been bedding day after day.

In the few seconds I stood there, Li Lina had already shifted and bitten Zhang Hansheng again, this time on the neck. The previously unconscious Zhang Hansheng suddenly let out another scream, and his struggling head slowly drooped.

His transformation into a zombie was already a foregone conclusion. Even if I acted now, the only thing I could do was kill him.

Taking advantage of the moment when Li Lina was biting Zhang Hansheng, I drew out the Sword of All Living Beings. There was no time to tangle with these two zombies any longer. I needed to end this quickly.

Because I had covered the entire Zhou residence with the Bloodslaughter Grand Array Diagram, the corpse miasma within had begun to weaken little by little. That worked greatly in my favor, but it was also time-limited. After all, Tu at present was only in soul form and could not endure for long. If he had not absorbed spiritual energy inside that Buddha tomb, he would likely still be a fragile spirit now, let alone helping me deploy the Bloodslaughter Grand Array Diagram. He might not even have had the means to control it at all.

I stepped forward, and the Sword of All Living Beings sensed my intent. In an instant, the incomplete blade was filled with strands of wandering soul energy, and then I thrust madly at the two zombies before me.

Hiss!

Before the Sword of All Living Beings in my hand even reached Li Lina’s body, the space around her suddenly trembled violently, and surging corpse miasma instantly engulfed her form.

“Sir, something’s wrong, retreat quickly!”

A wave of frustration rose in my chest. Could it be that even a little zombie like Li Lina could not be dealt with? If so, then Old Master Zhou, and the corpse keeper manipulating everything from behind, would be all the more troublesome.

“You want to kill me?”

A cold voice drifted out. Li Lina turned around, and the lights in the room began to flicker all at once. At that moment, I felt a strong premonition of something ominous.

“What is going on here, Xie Xiao Ke?”

“Sir, this is resentment. Resentment has amplified this woman’s power, and she has bitten many people already. After absorbing their vital essence, she is no ordinary threat now!”

Damn it!

I could not help but want to curse. That corpse keeper was truly vile. Not only had he created a half-corpse monstrosity out of Old Master Zhou, he had also transformed Li Lina, already narrow-minded to begin with, into a savage zombie.

“You all want to kill me, you all want to toy with me, so I want you dead. I want you all dead!”

Li Lina’s voice was ice-cold. Her hand, which was gripping Zhang Hansheng’s blood-drained head, tightened ever so slightly, and it instantly shattered into powder. She stepped toward me one stride at a time, and her eyes were even more terrifying than Old Master Zhou’s.

Old Master Zhou had only one blood-red eyeball glinting in his shriveled sockets, as if it might fall out at any moment. But Li Lina’s face was still full and beautiful, almost indistinguishable from how she had looked in life. Only, around her eyes there was now a layer upon layer of white, like milky rubber packed tightly around them, leaving only a pair of blood-red eyeballs constantly leaking blood.

When she opened her mouth, the sharp fangs growing within could be seen plainly. Under the flickering lights, they looked especially horrifying. No wonder Zhang Hansheng had been scared senseless before. Even I, seeing such a scene now, felt a chill of unease, let alone Zhang Hansheng, who had witnessed it for the first time.

“Wretch!”

I gave a cold snort. It was one of Chen Chuyi’s catchphrases. I often read Chen Chuyi’s notebooks, which contained many short stories, all of them drawn from his own experiences. In those notes, whenever he slew an evil ghost, he would always shout “Wretch!” and then charge straight in with his peach-wood sword, fighting the ghost for three hundred rounds.

And at this moment, imagining Chen Chuyi in action, I charged forward as well, swinging the Sword of All Living Beings in my hand and stabbing straight at Li Lina, who had bared her vicious claws.