TL: Moonlit
Wen Qingling had been hiding in the base for two days, hoping that the “Undead” would fall into the trap on their own. Unfortunately, as long as he stayed in the base, the “Undead” wouldn’t take any action. Wen Qingling started to suspect if there were eyes watching him, otherwise, how did the other party know his whereabouts?
This couldn’t go on. Wen Qingling decided to try the “lure the snake out of its hole” strategy once again.
Before leaving, he repeatedly instructed, “Try to keep them alive. I need clues.”
If the source of the infection wasn’t eliminated, it would be like cutting endless weeds without patience.
His parents had experience dealing with the Undead and immediately assured him, patting their chests, “Don’t worry, we can handle those low-level evolved zombies. Leave it to us.”
Wen Qingling arranged everything in the base and left with peace of mind. He decided to visit Rong City, have a conversation with the little zombie girl about ideals and development, and let the zombie people have a sense of security so that they would come and cause trouble without worry.
The current clue he had was that the Undead wanted to steal blood anemones. Since their goal hadn’t been achieved, they would surely come back to create chaos.
Wen Qingling guessed it right. Just after he left Ling City in the morning, the elusive Undead appeared once again. This time, their numbers were larger, rushing into Ling City from four directions, converging toward the civilized base.
Jiang Lan, Wen Zheng, the sisters, and the blood corpse were all lurking near the base, ready to execute Wen Qingling’s command: capture them alive.
However, they waited and waited, and it had already been an hour since they received the report, but there was still no sign of the Undead. They were said to be fast and agile, even if they had short legs and jumped low, they should have arrived here after such a long time, right?
Jiang Lan was perplexed. “Could they have gotten lost?”
They had been lurking for the entire morning, waiting for their prey to take the bait. But where was the prey?
Wen Zheng said firmly, “It’s impossible for them to be so useless that they can’t even find their way. How can they carry out an ambush?”
Without saying a word, the blood corpse had already left the hiding place. “I’ll go check.”
Jiang Lan lowered his voice and shouted at him, “Come back, don’t alert the enemy!”
Of course, the blood corpse wouldn’t come back. He wasn’t a zombie that followed orders, except for Wen Qingling, no one could suppress him. However, not long after the blood corpse left, he came running back hastily. “It’s over, it’s over! All the Undead are dead.”
Everyone was shocked. They stopped hiding and gathered around. “What happened?”
The blood corpse gestured. “They’re all dead.”
The sisters looked at him suspiciously. “Did you kill them all?”
The blood corpse: “…”
Was he really worth suspecting like that?
Wen Zheng said, “He doesn’t have the ability to wipe them all out in one strike.”
The blood corpse: “…”
Thank you for speaking up and proving my innocence.
The group hurriedly rushed to the place where they found the bodies of the Undead. The scene was chaotic, with bodies scattered everywhere. It seemed like there had been a fierce fight, with many of the Undead bodies incomplete, as if they had been eaten by something.
Everyone looked at each other, completely unaware of what had happened.
The blood corpse held his head in his hands. “The civilized zombies were eaten by some creature, and now there’s something eating the Undead. Is this the so-called civilized base that Wen Qingling mentioned? I think this is not a civilized base, but a monster base!”
Ever since he became more human-like, the blood corpse had been forbidden from eating humans. He hadn’t tasted the flavor of human flesh for a long time, and the result of these restraints was watching some unknown monsters continuously devouring civilized zombies in front of him. The blood corpse was extremely irritable; he also wanted to eat civilized zombies and become stronger. Being suppressed by Wen Qingling’s level felt terrible!
The group returned the same way they came, intending to wait for Wen Qingling to come back and handle the situation.
They prepared for so long, but couldn’t even catch a single hair, only leaving behind a pile of corpses. Their luck couldn’t get any worse.
In the evening, Wen Qingling finally left Rong City and returned to Ling City, with all the zombies and survivors in Rong City breathing a sigh of relief, hoping that the Demon King wouldn’t come for another “inspection” in the future. It was too frightening.
When Wen Qingling arrived back at the base, he saw his parents and the sisters waiting for him at the clinic, but the blood corpse was nowhere to be found.Before Wen Qingling could ask, Jiang Lan said, “Something big has happened, there might be a new monster in Ling City that specifically preys on the Undead.”
Wen Qingling: “???”
After they explained the situation, Wen Qingling found it absurd. Was his father not going to show his power and be like a sick cat? How could all kinds of monsters come and wreak havoc in Ling City?
Wen Qingling scanned with his mental power and personally went to the scene of the battle. As he looked at the chaotic scene with bodies scattered everywhere, he remained silent. The bodies of the Undead were even more tattered than before, as if they had been gnawed by zombies.
Following the bloodstains, Wen Qingling walked forward until he reached the largest battlefield and finally stopped his footsteps.
He murmured, “Don’t make me take action, come out on your own.”
The shadows that had been following him all along emerged one by one, each wrapped in black robes, concealing their true faces, resembling a group of black bats.
Wen Qingling glanced at each of them. “I’m impressed that you managed to find so many black robes at once. Did you rob a clothing factory?”
The black-robed figures: “…”
Wasn’t the focus of this leader a bit novel?
One of the black-robed figures stepped forward, their voice is hoarse like broken bellows. “Are you… the leader of the civilized base?”
Wen Qingling looked at them. “I’m not the leader, I’m the city lord.”
Black-robed figure: “…”
Wen Qingling stared at the black-robed figure, “I advise you not to dress like this. I have a natural aversion to black robes. The leader of the Undead also had this appearance. If one of you got accidentally killed, don’t blame it on not checking the almanac before going out.”
Wen Qingling confirmed that these black-robed figures were not Undead. Their scent was off, but they weren’t human either. They smelled more like zombies.
All the black-robed figures stiffened instantly. The leading figure remained silent for a moment before saying, “Our appearance is a bit unsightly.”
Wen Qingling pondered, “More unsightly than decayed zombies?”
The black-robed figure shook their head, “Not that, we are definitely more presentable than decayed zombies.”
Wen Qingling asked, “Then why are you hiding your heads and exposing your tails?”
The black-robed person hesitated for a moment, then extended a hand that looked withered like an old tree, with a dark greenish-black complexion. They seemed afraid of shocking Wen Qingling and slowly took off the hood on their head, giving Wen Qingling enough time to buffer the impact. The same withered, dark greenish-black face was revealed.
Even though Wen Qingling had seen various kinds of ugly faces, he was still shocked by the appearance in front of him. The other black-robed figures thought it wasn’t shocking enough and wanted to give Wen Qingling a full shock. One by one, they took off their hoods, revealing their own appearances.
Wen Qingling remained expressionless. “I think you have an inaccurate perception of yourselves. You think too highly of yourselves.”
The black-robed figures: “…”
Did he have to be so straightforward? At least they had intact limbs and looked somewhat human. How were they overestimating themselves?
The leader of the black-robed figures looked at Wen Qingling with their gray-white eyes and hoarsely spoke, “Long time no see, Qingling.”
Wen Qingling looked at him carefully but couldn’t recognize any familiar traces beyond the face that resembled an old, dark tree.
Wen Qingling pondered, “Who are you?”
The black-robed figure: “…”
The black-robed figure seemed to suddenly lose their ability to speak and remained silent for a while before struggling to speak, “I didn’t expect that you really didn’t die…”
Wen Qingling looked at him with a blank expression.
The black-robed figure paused and said with difficulty, “I thought you would be that lucky person, immune to the zombie virus. Now it seems that luck doesn’t come so easily.”
“No, luck is actually quite easy to come by. For example, you, and my good cousin Xu Shengfei. You are both very lucky.” At this point, if Wen Qingling couldn’t guess who he was, he would have to wash his brain.
Black-robed figure: “Do you think I’m lucky?”
Wen Qingling: “Of course. If it weren’t for your good luck, you wouldn’t have ended up like this, nor would you have easily regained consciousness. It may not be the most appealing appearance, but at least you can communicate.”
All the black-robed figures fell silent.Wen Qingling looked at them and asked, “May I ask, did you become like this because you ate the corpses of the ‘Undead’?”
The black-robed figures were startled, not expecting Wen Qingling to guess so accurately.
Indeed, they had mutated after consuming the corpses of the Undead, transforming into these ghost-like creatures that were neither fully human nor fully zombies.
The craving for flesh and blood was ingrained in zombies, but civilized zombies, with their restored consciousness and Wen Qingling’s suppression, could restrain their desires. However, the decaying zombies had fewer restraints, and Wen Qingling wouldn’t restrict them either. When they suddenly saw so many fresh corpses, the decaying zombies couldn’t resist the temptation.
Jiang Lan and Wen Zheng probably didn’t anticipate that the unhandled corpses of the Undead would give rise to a different type of zombie in Ling City.
The black-robed figures responded heavily, “Yes.”
Wen Qingling understood, “The zombies that attacked the base today were also taken care of by you, right? Eating the Undead enhances your strength?”
Black-robed figures: “Yes.”
Wen Qingling remarked, “I must say, you and Xu Shengfei are truly fortunate.”
Black-robed figures: “It’s not about fortune. She destroyed the bond between our three brothers, ruined the base we established, and left us in our current state. She deserves to die!”
If it weren’t for her attempt on Wen Qingling’s life and the assassination of Luo Fengjue, even if a horde of zombies attacked the base, with the strength of the three of them, they could have safely evacuated the survivors with them. They had survived like this in the past. However, Xu Shengfei’s appearance disrupted everything, leading them to their current state.
Wen Qingling gazed at him, his face twisted with rage, “Do you hate her?”
The black-robed figure gritted his teeth, “Don’t I have reasons to hate her?”
Wen Qingling asked, “Do you know that the Undead you ate was most likely created by her?”
The black-robed figure scoffed, “You should be more certain and say, not likely, but she is the mastermind.”
Wen Qingling raised an eyebrow, “Oh? You’re so sure?”
The black-robed figure looked at his withered fingers, “I can sense it. Although it’s vague, I’m certain that she is the one controlling the Undead.”
This was quite unexpected for Wen Qingling, “Is this… bloodline resonance?”
The transformation from Mother Corpse to control, Ling City zombies consuming the Undead, established a bloodline connection akin to “distant relatives”? This line of thinking suggested a strong connection with Mother Corpse’s virus. Regardless of how Xu Shengfei ended up like this, Wen Qingling didn’t believe she could suppress him. It was a confidence derived from their bloodline, making him fearless of any breed of zombies.
Wen Qingling’s dark and bright eyes flickered, “Since you know that she is the Mother Corpse, why weren’t you controlled by her?”
The black-robed figure shook his head, “I’m not sure. I wandered aimlessly for a long time, lost in confusion. It was only after accidentally consuming the corpses of the Undead that my consciousness gradually returned. With consciousness, every cell in my body reminded me—to attack the base and steal the blood anemone. This ‘reminder’ is not coercive… or perhaps, this ‘reminder’ is the residual will left on the Undead’s bodies. I consumed it, so I obtained it, but I am not under the control of the Mother Corpse.”
In the end, it was the weakening power of the mutated virus infection.
Wen Qingling’s gaze grew solemn, “Do you know what blood anemone is?”
The black-robed figure replied, “Through the conscious reminder, I know that blood anemone is a blood-red organism resembling a sea anemone. It can neutralize the zombie virus and leave behind antibodies. Moreover, blood anemone can also transform zombies into humans.”
Transform into… humans?
This seemed like a beautiful misunderstanding.
No matter how powerful Wen Qingling was, he couldn’t turn zombies into humans. The most he could do was to turn them into civilized zombies, wearing human skin and possessing rationality.
Wen Qingling’s gaze turned cold and ruthless. He seemed to have overlooked one thing all along—Xu Shengfei’s parents had turned into zombies in the South City.
No matter what kind of person Xu Shengfei was on the outside, her filial piety was genuine. It could be seen from the fact that as a woman in the apocalypse, she struggled to survive and managed to protect her ordinary parents.
Xu Shengfei, who had miraculously survived, would inevitably search for her parents. At that time, her parents’ car had flipped over in the South City and were overwhelmed by a horde of zombies. Xu Shengfei should have witnessed that scene, and she would certainly come to the South City or Ling City to find them.
Even if they were zombies, they were still her parents.
To verify this speculation, Wen Qingling released his spiritual power on-site, focusing on screening the zombies in South City. He didn’t find the target zombies. Then he extended his spiritual power to cover the other three sides, conducting a systematic search, trying to find his zombified aunt and uncle.
Wen Qingling frequently released his spiritual power to patrol his territory. He had seen his zombified aunt and uncle before, but Wen Qingling hadn’t brainwashed them. He let them live or die among the horde of zombies, but he never expected such a hidden danger to exist.
Wen Qingling searched three times but didn’t find his zombified aunt and uncle. There were only two possibilities: either they were dead or Xu Shengfei had secretly taken them away. Wen Qingling leaned towards the latter option, which might also be the reason why Xu Shengfei was so desperate to obtain the blood anemone.
However, how did Xu Shengfei know the purpose of the blood anemone?
Xu Shengfei had seen that the blood anemone could heal the infected, which was not surprising. But she shouldn’t know that the blood anemone could restore zombies to “humans.” This was a secret known only to the zombies in Ling City who had regained consciousness and the civilized zombies. Wen Qingling was certain that the civilized zombies couldn’t have leaked this information, and it was impossible for any living person to come into his territory, inquire about the news, and survive. In that case, the only problematic ones were the zombies in Ling City.
With this speculation in mind, Wen Qingling began to pay attention and observe his zombie subordinates.
All along, Wen Qingling’s trust in zombies was greater than in humans, especially these ordinary zombie subordinates. Wen Qingling had never been cautious against them. If there were any problems, they would undoubtedly arise here.