Outside the Market Ward on Huanwang Island, more than a hundred mortal townsfolk emerged under the guidance of two Qi Refining cultivators, their faces covered with towels and their hands carrying iron shovels, machetes, and other tools.
Daylight had already broken. Zhang San, from the southern part of the city, had been kept awake all night by the sounds of fighting outside the walls. Dazed and distracted, he followed the crowd out, only to catch a nauseating stench of corpses that sent a chill surging up from the soles of his feet.
"Th-this is..."
Beside the road ahead, corpses lay scattered in disarray. Craters of every size and sword marks covered the surrounding ground, leaving the whole place a wreck.
Zhang San jolted awake, his spine turning cold.
"So many zombies!"
"So zombies attacked last night..."
"Thank goodness the immortal masters were guarding us and kept them from breaking in. We're truly lucky!"
The others in the group could not help discussing it, either.
Having lived through Demonic Path rule and several wars between righteous and demonic forces, the mortal people were long accustomed to such things, yet they still could not avoid feeling afraid.
These ordinary zombies and ghost monsters, beneath the notice of Qi Refining cultivators, could cause considerable casualties in densely populated places.
The various poisonous miasmas and diseases they carried were likewise deadly weapons against mortal people.
"You remember the division of work we discussed earlier, don't you? Get started."
One of the two Qi Refining cultivators spoke.
This was the fruit of their righteous allies' victory. The Unorthodox Cultivators controlling these zombies had been killed on the spot, and their bodies properly dealt with, but the zombies remained.
At his words, the crowd split into several groups, some heading into the nearby woods to collect