Weird Zombie

Weird Zombie

I decided to head to Clearwater Creek, meet up with Master, then come back and settle the score with Luo Benjie. Once I made up my mind, I strapped the iron canister and Yellow Jar to my back and plunged into the vast mountains. The Clearwater Creek Master mentioned lay at the border between Guizhou and Hunan, and it was a long trek through the mountains.

The mysterious venomous insect inside me could act up at any time, so I could not travel very fast.

Around noon, I ate a few wild fruits and rested for a while beneath a large tree. Then I continued on my way. By nightfall, I found a cave and settled down inside it again.

In the middle of the night, I suddenly heard several eerie gong strikes and jolted awake.

Before long, I saw nine gaunt, strange figures hopping into the cave. They wore black clothes and stood in a row against the stone wall. A piece of yellow paper was pasted to each of their foreheads. Once they were in position, they closed their eyes. Not one of them said a word throughout the entire process.

I hurried behind a rock and secretly watched the nine figures standing there, filled with curiosity. Why were these people so strange? Why did they rest standing up?

Finally, a man wearing a black conical hat strode in. He held a bronze gong in his hand, but the light was too dim for me to make out his face.

I secretly thought, So he was the one making the gong sounds.

"Behave yourselves." The man barked, found a spot, and sat down. "If any of you makes a sound and disturbs my rest, watch out for the Yin Gong in my hand."

A cold sweat broke out across my back. Listening more closely, I realized the nine standing figures were not breathing at all. I immediately became alert. The man in the hat had to be a corpse herder, and those strange figures standing in a row were all corpses. There might even be zombies among them.

Master had once told me that the Miao People of Western Hunan had mysterious corpse herders. Using a Yin Gong, Chenzhou Talismans, and secret corpse-driving incantations, they could drive corpses through the forests and mountains. Some highly skilled corpse herders could even control blood-drinking zombies.

If you encountered one, you had to stay far away. Otherwise, if you offended the corpse herder or provoked the zombies, nothing good would come of it.

I had always thought Master was just joking to scare me. I never imagined it was real.

I groaned inwardly. What rotten luck. I had only wanted to rest properly in a cave, yet I had run into something so bizarre.

I hid in the darkness, not daring to move. I planned to wait until the corpse herder was sound asleep, then sneak out and flee far away so I would not get involved with them.

I waited patiently. Gradually, I heard the corpse herder's faint snoring and decided to risk leaving.

"Hey, kid, tear the talisman off my head. I'll carry you out of here." The corpse nearest to me suddenly spoke. His voice was quiet, but I heard every word clearly.

The corpse's white eyeballs rolled around, making him look especially terrifying. I clapped a hand over my mouth and barely stopped myself from crying out.

"If you fall into his hands, he'll kill you and raise you into a zombie. Decide quickly. Will you help me, or run away on your own?" the voice came again.

I calmed down and asked, "You don't drink human blood, do you?"

A corpse that could speak had to be a zombie. If I rescued a blood-drinking zombie, he might drain me dry once we escaped danger. I could not help him before getting that straight.

The voice laughed. "I don't drink blood!"

"Fine. I'll tear off your talisman!" I carefully stood up and summoned the courage to approach him.

After hesitating for a moment, I reached for the talisman on his forehead. He was enormous. I had to stand on tiptoe and stretch out my arm before I could touch it.

Big Zombie's eyes rolled a few times, and he really did bend down. The moment he moved, a strange stench hit me. Still, I forced down my nausea and climbed onto his back.

"A living person?" The corpse herder woke with a start. He sniffed several times, and the bronze gong in his hand clanged loudly.

"Damn it! Get lost!" Big Zombie rushed forward and kicked the corpse herder away.

Then he took off at a mad sprint, charging out of the cave in an instant. Moonlight shone brightly outside, while waves of Yin Gong strikes rang out behind us.

Big Zombie was incredibly fast. I felt as though I were riding the clouds, jolting wildly all the way.

I did not know how long we ran before Big Zombie tossed me onto a rock and stood off to one side.

I slowly calmed myself.

"Huh... you're not afraid of the corpse aura on me? An ordinary child would have died long ago after smelling it." Big Zombie was deeply puzzled, staring at me with wide eyes.

I remembered Master saying that the aura emitted by the dead was called corpse aura. Living people should not breathe in too much of it, or their lives would be in danger. He was a zombie, so the corpse aura around him was naturally extremely dense.

I often caught venomous snakes and poisonous insects in the mountains, so I was quite brave. Big Zombie looked at me, and I gathered my courage to look back. Under the moonlight, I finally saw his face clearly. He was broad and powerfully built, with a dark face and somewhat shriveled skin. He truly did not look like a living person.

I swallowed and backed away a few steps. Embarrassed, I said, "Maybe I'm different from other children. I was bitten by a highly venomous snake before, and I didn't die. A little corpse aura won't hurt me either."

Big Zombie stared at me for a long while, then suddenly cried out, "Huh, you look familiar. I've seen you before. No... how did you become younger and younger?"

I was confused. The first zombie I had ever met was claiming to know me. Shaking my head, I said, "Who are you? I've never seen you before."

"My name is Xiao Tian... something. Ah, I can't remember." Big Zombie's white eyes rolled around. "You've seen me before. You should know my name."

I shook my head. "Old sir, this really is my first time meeting you. I don't know what you're called."

From the look of him, he should have been quite old. Calling him "old sir" did not seem excessive.

Big Zombie's eyes rolled again. Then he said, "You're much younger than the person I met. The person I met should have been your father. Where is he?"

I gave a bitter smile. "I don't have a father. I've never seen him."

Hearing the strange zombie's words, I felt that he seemed to know my father. But I had long grown used to being an orphan, so I felt no excitement at all.

Big Zombie's expression turned grave. He shouted sternly, "Don't fool me! Even puppies have dog fathers. How could you not have one?"

"Maybe the dog father didn't want the puppy!" I turned my head aside and said, "Old sir, there's a kind of child in this world called an orphan. I've never met my father. What's so strange about that?"

Even puppies had dog fathers, but I did not.

Big Zombie slapped his forehead and cried, "I'm getting more and more muddled. Puppy, don't be angry. Since you have no father, I'll be your father. You saved my life, so become my son. I have tremendous abilities. You won't lose out."

I glared at Big Zombie and mocked, "You can't even remember your own name. If it hadn't been for me just now, you'd still be stuck there, unable to move under that talisman. And you still have the nerve to be my father?"

"Damn it! If it weren't for the fact that you saved me once, I'd twist your head off and drink you dry for saying that." Every bone in Big Zombie's body crackled, and the aura around him grew even stronger than before.

"You lied to me. So you are a bloodthirsty zombie." I retreated again and again, cold sweat appearing on my forehead. This is really the end. If I've fallen into the hands of a blood-drinking zombie, can I still survive? "I'm your lifesaver! You can't repay kindness with enmity!"

As soon as I finished speaking, a needle-like pain suddenly stabbed through my abdomen. Oh no. The jolting along the way had triggered the mysterious venomous insect inside me again.

A violent coughing fit followed, and I spat out several mouthfuls of black blood.

Big Zombie glanced at me, then burst into laughter. "Puppy, if you become my son, I'll help suppress the venomous insect in your body and save your life."

I could not help being startled. I had not expected the zombie before me to take one look at me and see that I had a venomous insect inside my body. His Gu arts must have been formidable.

But I could not simply acknowledge a father out of nowhere.

"Old monster, save me or don't. I, Xiao Kunlun, am no coward..." I gritted out. Before I could finish, the pain had already drained all my strength.

Big Zombie laughed loudly. "You've got quite the stubborn temper. I like that." He stepped forward and placed his hand on the crown of my head from above. He secretly applied some force, and I could not move at all, only let him do as he pleased.

Yet the moment his hand touched my head, the pain in my abdomen became less intense.

"Heavens!" Big Zombie suddenly shouted. "How is this possible? How is this possible... The Innate Poison Insect has actually returned to this world. Who exactly is your biological father..."

The force in his hand grew stronger and stronger. His sharp nails had already pierced my scalp, and blood began to flow.

I raised my hand to hit him and said, "Let me go! I have no idea what you're talking about!"