Transcendent Zombie

Lu Yan walked through the shabby stairwell with the Soul Banner in hand. The Vengeful Souls around him transformed into streaks of ghostly shadows, darting through the walls as they investigated the surroundings.

Occasionally, a roar would come from one of the rooms, only to vanish moments later. Soon after, a Vengeful Soul would respectfully carry a wandering soul over and place it beside Lu Yan.

Whenever this happened, Ghost Mist would spread from the Soul Banner, easily refining and devouring the wandering soul.

Lu Yan's footsteps stopped at the stairwell entrance. The five Vengeful Souls that had cleared the entire floor stood respectfully behind him.

Starting from the top floor of this dilapidated building, Lu Yan had used the Vengeful Souls to clear most of the floors. Only the lowest, first floor remained.

There were far fewer zombies on these floors than on the top floor, but there were still more than thirty of them. Refining the wandering souls had already caused the sixth Vengeful Soul within the Soul Banner to take on a vague embryonic form.

This speed was already considered extremely fast, and it could grow steadily. More importantly, hunting zombies carried no risk of drawing a cultivator's siege.

Lu Yan looked toward the stairwell leading to the first floor. He had yet to advance to the Foundation Establishment Realm and could not give birth to divine sense, but the Spirit Sense that a cultivator had begun to develop told him that danger lurked below.

That was also why Lu Yan had not immediately sent the Vengeful Souls down.

"With five Vengeful Souls protecting me, no matter how numerous ordinary zombies are, they can only let the Vengeful Souls slaughter them.

"For my Spirit Sense to be this vigilant, could it be a zombie with transcendent power?"

"With spiritual energy ten times denser than in the Urban Version, it seems only natural for a Transcendent Zombie comparable to a cultivator to be born."

A hint of wariness rose in Lu Yan's heart. He took another Spirit Stone from the Storage Bag to replenish his magic power. Then, a vast amount of magic power poured into the Soul Banner, and pitch-black Ghost Mist began spreading from the second floor toward the first.

The five Vengeful Souls hid within the Ghost Mist. Their vision was pitch-black, yet it could not obstruct their sight in the slightest. Following the spreading Ghost Mist, they infiltrated the first floor.

Lu Yan, meanwhile, remained on the second floor, holding a talisman as he concealed his aura.

Using the Vengeful Souls' vision, Lu Yan took in the entire scene on the first floor.

The first floor led directly outside into the residential compound. The entrance door had long since been torn down by the zombies, and the doorway was littered with gleaming white bones and bloodstains.

Inside the first floor beyond the entrance, a large number of zombies seemed to have gathered there to avoid the sunlight outside. There were more than a hundred of them.

The decay on these zombies was far less severe than on those upstairs. Some even retained their complete forms.

In the center of the many zombies, however, a vast area had been cleared. A huge zombie with a burly build and a height of nearly three meters stood there.

"As expected, a Transcendent Zombie!"

Lu Yan's gaze narrowed slightly. He sensed a threat from the zombie, but it was not fatal. He roughly judged that its strength should likewise be at the early to mid-stage of Qi Refinement.

In terms of realm alone, this zombie far surpassed Lu Yan. But cultivators did not determine victory or defeat through cultivation alone, especially not low-level cultivators.

Spells, magical artifacts, and talismans were what truly decided the outcome of a battle.

With a large number of talismans on his person, the Soul Banner in hand, and five Vengeful Souls at his command, Lu Yan even dared to cross hands with an ordinary mid-stage Qi Refinement cultivator.

Not to mention that Vengeful Souls perfectly countered zombies. This gave Lu Yan immense confidence.

The Ghost Mist spread to the first floor. The ordinary zombies did not react at all, but the Giant Zombie seemed to sense something. Its body swayed as it let out a series of threatening roars.

As the Giant Zombie moved, the other hundred or so zombies followed suit and began roaring as well.

Lu Yan's gaze sharpened. He rapidly increased his output of magic power, and the surging Ghost Mist swallowed the entire first floor in an instant.

The chill transformed into frost that slowed the zombies' movements. Within the Ghost Mist, five pairs of sharp claws emerged, all targeting the Giant Zombie.

To the Vengeful Souls, ordinary zombies posed no threat no matter how numerous they were. The only one capable of harming them was this Giant Zombie that wielded transcendent power.

Five pairs of Ghost Claws pierced into the Giant Zombie's body. The Giant Zombie immediately let out an enraged roar, and a black-iron sheen rose over its flesh. Its entire body seemed cast from refined iron, impervious to blades and spears.

Yet physical defenses were utterly useless against the five Vengeful Souls. The Ghost Claws that had entered the Giant Zombie's body had already touched its soul.

Just as the Vengeful Souls prepared to strip away the Giant Zombie's soul, powerful transcendent force erupted from it with a thunderous boom. The connection between the Giant Zombie's soul and body was far stronger than that of ordinary zombies.

The five ghostly shadows were sent flying in an instant. Cracks began appearing across their otherwise complete soul forms. Meanwhile, the Giant Zombie, having just exploded with power, displayed agility completely at odds with its body. It shattered the floor beneath its feet and caught up with one of the Vengeful Souls in a single step.

Its black-iron fist rose, a faint radiance shimmering across it, then crashed down toward the Vengeful Soul.

"BOOM!"

Blood sprayed in an instant. A large number of zombies that could not dodge in time had their bodies smashed apart by the punch, and the floor shook as the entire building trembled beneath that tremendous force.

The intangible Vengeful Soul, however, had already burrowed into the ground and avoided the punch.

Lu Yan could sense that the faint radiance on the fist contained transcendent power capable of harming souls. If the Vengeful Soul had not chosen to evade, its soul form, at the First Level of Qi Refining, would certainly have suffered grievous damage.

Having failed to catch the Vengeful Soul with one strike, the Ghost Mist surged in from all sides and completely obscured the Giant Zombie's vision.

The Giant Zombie let out an enraged roar as it tried to search for its enemy. Just then, a Ghost Claw reached out from the Ghost Mist and pierced into the Giant Zombie's body.

This time, the Vengeful Soul did not attempt to forcibly strip away the Giant Zombie's soul. Instead, it used the Ghost Claw as a blade to cut a wound across the Giant Zombie's soul. Gloomy ghostly energy immediately began corroding it.

The Giant Zombie instinctively counterattacked and swung another punch, but the Vengeful Soul had already fled deep into the Ghost Mist. Once again, the punch only smashed apart the bodies of zombies that failed to dodge in time.

Thus, under Lu Yan's control, the Vengeful Souls within the Ghost Mist began playing hide-and-seek with the Giant Zombie.

The Vengeful Souls abandoned the notion of deciding victory in a single exchange. Each ambush could only leave several wounds on the soul. Thanks to the Ghost Mist's concealment, the Giant Zombie's counterattacks nevertheless remained ineffective.

During the ongoing battle, the Vengeful Souls even had enough strength left to hunt those dazed zombies. Large numbers of wandering souls, freed from the restraints of their bodies, scattered across the floor.

Soon, the entire first floor contained only the Giant Zombie.

As the Ghost Claws pierced into the Giant Zombie's body once more, Lu Yan suddenly saw the black-iron sheen covering it rapidly fade, restoring its flesh-and-blood form.

Clearly, the wounds on its soul had dealt the Giant Zombie a grievous blow, exhausting its transcendent power. It could not even continue activating its metallization ability.

The Vengeful Souls tugged at the Giant Zombie's soul. This time, there was no longer any obstruction. A powerful wandering soul covered in wounds was stripped from the Giant Zombie's body.

In the next moment, the Giant Zombie's towering body rapidly decayed, and its white bones collapsed with a crash.

Lu Yan, who had been concealed on the second floor, slowly walked down the stairs. His eyes gleamed as he stared at the wounded wandering soul of the Giant Zombie in the battlefield.

Unlike an ordinary wandering soul, the Giant Zombie's wandering soul possessed a clear outline and form.

Even though it lacked the Heaven and Earth Souls, the strength of the Giant Zombie's soul was nearly comparable to that of a mid-stage Qi Refinement cultivator. That was why the five Vengeful Souls had found it so difficult to strip away its soul.

"Although a mid-stage Qi Refinement soul is incomplete, its soul force is still stronger than that of several Vengeful Souls.

"A soul this powerful can completely be refined into a primary soul for the Soul Banner!"