The fire burned slowly. The night was pitch-black, with not a single star or ray of moonlight in the sky.
A huge bonfire, a sobbing girl kneeling beside it, and a group of friends formed a sorrowful scene.
"Who's there?" Yang Xuan shouted angrily toward a nearby patch of grass.
"Heh heh heh. You really do have some skill. No wonder you managed to subdue a jumping corpse that had drunk the blood of its closest relative." Three figures slowly emerged from the grass.
By the light of the fire, the three figures gradually became clear. The speaker was an old man dressed in gray. He had a dignified appearance, but the viciousness in his eyes was impossible to conceal. Behind him stood two stiff-faced figures with yellow paper talismans pasted to their foreheads. They were unmistakably two zombies.
"Who are you?" Uncle Nine asked warily. After all, it was the middle of the night, and this was a cemetery in the wilderness. No matter how one looked at it, the newcomer clearly meant no good—and he had even brought two zombies with him.
"Who am I? Hahahaha." The old man looked at Tingting and continued, "Twenty years ago, I was merely a feng shui master who helped the villagers read feng shui. Because of a Dragonfly Skimming Water Fengshui Spot passed down through my family, your father forced me to leave my homeland. He constantly threatened and intimidated me, making my wife terribly afraid. Less than ten days after we left Ren Family Town, my wife died. Your father killed my wife and ruined my family. Heh heh... so I turned your grandfather into a zombie." The old man gradually roared with a twisted expression.
"I didn't know. I hadn't even been born back then," Ren Tingting said softly.
"What does that have to do with me? All I know is that your family killed my wife. Do you know that when my wife died, she was still carrying my child? Two lives lost in one death! Two lives!" The old man roared, and his eyes gradually reddened.
"Hey, old man, you came here just to cause trouble, didn't you? Both our families have suffered enough already, and you're still seeking revenge? There's only one helpless young woman left," Yang Xuan said with a curl of his lips.
"I came here for revenge in the first place. Hahaha! Good riddance! The real culprit was bitten to death by his own father. But you shouldn't have burned my jumping corpse, which I spent twenty years cultivating. Do you know how much effort I put into that jumping corpse? I only went out to take care of something, and when I came back, you had burned it. None of you are leaving here alive today." After speaking, the old man nimbly leaped backward, pulled a bell from the bundle on his back, and began ringing it.
"A-Xuan, this isn't simple. The two zombies this man controls are even more extraordinary," Uncle Nine said solemnly.
"Master, I'll hold them off first. Do whatever you need to. Senior Brother, A-Wei, you three protect Tingting." Yang Xuan charged forward at top speed.
The same old trick—he went straight in with a Six Elbows. Huh? Had it gained sentience? The other zombie actually came to help. Realizing it was about to grab him by the throat, Yang Xuan instantly flipped away from his attacking stance and dodged the strike. But the zombie attacking from the front was still there, and it immediately pressed its attack. Damn, zombies controlled by someone really did fight with some discipline. Just then, five more zombies of varying levels gradually emerged from behind the old man.
While dodging the zombies' attacks, Yang Xuan shouted toward Uncle Nine, "Master, tell me if you can't hold them off."
"Don't worry." Uncle Nine replied calmly, clearly unwilling to lose face in front of his disciple.
Uncle Nine wasn't afraid, but someone else was. A-Wei's legs had already gone weak, while Qiu Sheng and Wen Cai were only slightly better off than him.
Heh, constantly dodging wasn't my style. Time to attack.
The zombie thrust both hands toward Yang Xuan. This time, Yang Xuan neither dodged nor retreated. He took the attack head-on. Thump! Fortunately, it didn't hurt that much. It seemed that zombies were creatures with high defense and high health but average attack power. Their nails were nothing special either. As long as he watched out for their teeth, he would be fine.
"You've been acting arrogant for long enough." Yang Xuan circulated his vital-blood power throughout his body, but the attack itself used an internal martial arts technique.
Tathagata Palm, Third Form—Buddha Moves Mountains and Rivers! It had no special effects or unusual form. Following the circulation route of Tathagata Palm, he struck a zombie head-on. Bang! Although the sound wasn't very loud and the zombie was only knocked back about a step, its official uniform had already shattered, revealing a palm print several centimeters deep. Since the blow had landed against its ribs, the injured zombie's gait became somewhat uncoordinated. There was no need to ask—several of its ribs had certainly broken.
Yang Xuan was depressed too. He had learned every form of Tathagata Palm, but his cultivation was simply too low. The moves he could use were all auxiliary and couldn't directly injure an enemy. The ones that could deal direct damage were still beyond his current ability. After weighing his options, he could only use the third form, Buddha Moves Mountains and Rivers. Although it lacked any wild, domineering, cool special effects, its attack power was no joke. It felt like an ordinary palm strike, but because of Tathagata Palm's unique circulation method, its power was multiplied several times over.
One zombie was still completely unharmed, while the other had probably suffered only a minor injury. He had no idea how zombies were actually constructed. In one respect, they resembled zombies from his former world: their stamina seemed virtually endless. If he forcibly applied the law of conservation of energy to them, he suspected even Thomas Young's coffin lid wouldn't be able to hold him down.
Although he didn't dodge the zombies' attacks and his protective energy made it possible to endure them head-on, it still hurt a little. He would have to find an opportunity to learn a hard-body external martial art. Otherwise, after being struck for too long, the increasing pain would gradually slow him down and reduce his aggressiveness.
Elsewhere, Uncle Nine faced two zombies head-on, while Wen Cai and Qiu Sheng each dealt with one. A-Wei protected Tingting.
Uncle Nine drew his peachwood sword and slashed left and right, shifting his not-so-impressive footwork slightly from side to side. His movements weren't pretty, but they were highly effective. It seemed that simple swordsmanship and clumsy footwork were precisely the best counter. After all, zombies moved completely differently from ordinary people. If one rigidly used traditional martial arts techniques, the results might not be any better than Uncle Nine's methods.
Qiu Sheng and Wen Cai, on the other hand, weren't nearly as capable. Qiu Sheng was still all right, since he had some skill in boxing and kicking. Wen Cai was hopeless and could basically only dodge.
Watching everyone resist the zombies, the old man thought victory was in his grasp. "Heh heh heh. Today, I'll make sure every one of you dies here, to avenge the pain of my family's destruction."
The old man rang the bell faster and faster, and the rhythm became increasingly strange. As soon as the zombies heard the change in its sound, their strength increased in an instant. Yang Xuan had previously been able to punch a zombie five or six meters away, but now he could only send it flying about two meters. Their strength had roughly doubled.
Wen Cai was the first to make a mistake. The zombies had become faster as well, and Wen Cai failed to dodge in time. A zombie stabbed his arm, and Qiu Sheng immediately rushed to his aid. A thousand-mile dike could collapse because of an ant hole. The evenly matched battle changed drastically in an instant. Qiu Sheng and Wen Cai were in danger, and Uncle Nine couldn't abandon his two disciples, so he went to help them as well. That left five zombies attacking three people—or rather, two people, since Wen Cai was injured.
"A-Xuan, we can't hold them off anymore. Stop hiding your strength!" Uncle Nine shouted urgently. Four Eyes had mentioned that Yang Xuan possessed a weapon and had even described what Yang Xuan was like with it.
"I know, Master." Yang Xuan replied without turning his head.
"Old man, we've been playing around long enough. It's about time this ended. You're pretty impressive, actually—you managed to cultivate two jumping corpses, three black zombies, and two white zombies," Yang Xuan said.
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