One thing for sure: this zombie didn’t belong to Lam or his students, and it was not under control; it came from nowhere and blended in the zombie army.
This zombie…
… was intelligent.
A beast with intelligence would be terrible. A human was not as fast as a cheetah, nor as strong as an elephant, nor as powerful as a tiger, nor as aggressive as a lion. But humans could get to the top of the food chain. That was because human had intelligence and wisdom.
But when a zombie, which was immortal and out of natural laws, was also intelligent, its actions were no longer driven by brutal instinct. It would become extremely dangerous.
Besides, according to the tradition in the feudal China, officials would be promoted to a higher level before their funeral, so the first-class title might be a little unworthy; but even so, the zombie had been conferred a rank of nobility before he died. Anyone would realize the danger when such a person turned into a zombie.
After Su Bai blew off that spell paper on its forehead, which was probably useless and merely served as a cover, the zombie slowly opened its eyes and cracked a creepy smile.
Its pupils were red, and Su Bai’s green.
Two zombies just stood face to face.
Even the air was frozen, as if the coldness had turned it into dripping water.
Then, with a zoom…
… both zombies attacked.
Su Bai’s fingernails went straight into the zombie’s neck, but it didn’t try to dodge at all, just stepped forward. Its neck was as hard as steel and contained a great deal of evil energy. Before Su Bai’s arms touched its body, he was bounced off. Then, the zombie moved forward and its huge pressure knocked Su Bai off and threw him out of the door.
Lying on the ground with black blood running out of his mouth, Su Bai failed to get up. He was different from those pure zombies after all.
"Zoom!"
"Zoom!"
"Zoom!"
"Zoom!"
With orderly zooms, the whole house collapsed, raising a cloud of dust. Su Bai waved while stepping backwards instinctively.
After the dust was down again, Su Bai saw the zombie was standing on the ruins, along with the zombies that were controlled by Lam Ching-Ying. Now those zombies would never listen to Su Bai. First, this military official was a naturally formed zombie, so it was more dominating; second, those spell papers on the zombies’ foreheads were all gone. Apparently, the military official zombie had broken the Taoist spell on all of them.
Now, this was a zombie general leading dozens of zombie soldiers.
This looked really familiar.
Su Bai could recall the zombie movies he had watched when he was young. In those movies, advanced zombies would find normal zombies as servants, but Su Bai had never imagined he’d see it with his own eyes.
"Ah!"
The zombie opened its mouth towards Su Bai and breathed white air. There was an obvious teasing look on its face as if it was laughing at Su Bai for his overconfidence.
At the same time, a voice came from deep down Su Bai’s heart; it was old and husky, but also intense:
"You, come with me."
Su Bai immediately realized that it was the zombie that was talking to him. He felt funny; a zombie in a story world was recruiting him as its servant.
"Why?"
Su Bai answered in the zombie way. When zombies talk to each other, they made a grating sound in their throats. It was hard to explain with science but it did exist, just like science failed to explain how some animals communicate with their own species.
"Because… you’re… smarter… than them."
Su Bai couldn’t resist several coughs. This was a convincing reason, because he was indeed a lot smarter than those normal zombies.
Suddenly, he remembered Seven. Since Gyatso and himself were able to escape from that demon nest, it would not be a problem for that monk; but Seven hadn’t showed up yet, apparently he was after something bigger. He must be looking for the treasures of the ancestral monks, just as the old saying, "Nothing ventured, nothing gained".
And now, Su Bai was facing a similar chance.
He was not afraid of going with this zombie. In fact, he would be craving to follow if it would lead to some methods of upgrading his zombie blood. After all, he couldn’t upgrade through the e-shop due to blood mixture, so he was now on his own.
"Alright, I will come with you, as long as you promise not to kill anyone here. Out of this place, feel free to kill."
Su Bai made an offer. As long as Lam and his students were safe, the main task wouldn’t fail; then Gyatso would take care of Lam and he would go with this zombie to anywhere and do anything they want.
However, the zombie turned him down without hesitation:
"You… have no right… to negotiate… Besides… There’s a Taoist… He hurt my original… Now… I will revenge…"
That was ridiculously ambivalent; this zombie was after Lam, but he must protect Lam due to his main task.
He had no choice.
Breathing out filthy air, he turned back into a human and managed to stand up.
Seeing Su Bai’s change, the zombie seemed to be surprised. But it didn’t bother trying to persuade because Su Bai had made himself quite clear.
"Refuse me… You’re… dead."
"Actually, it really makes no difference."
Su Bai held his dagger. Honestly speaking, Su Bai didn’t have much confidence about himself when facing this military official; all he could do was to buy some time, although he really doubted if he could.
Gyatso should hear the noise and escape with Lam, and the rest of them wouldn’t matter.
Little did he know that Gyatso had been caught in a similar situation and was still trying to detoxicate himself in that base filled with evil with all his senses shut off. Even if he could hear the fight, he wouldn’t be able to carry Lam to safety.
The Zombie King stepped forward. He was walking, not jumping. Su Bai noticed this detail. It meant that those methods normally used on ordinary zombies wouldn’t work on him. However, Lam could hurt him; that was very impressive.
Just when the Zombie King was about to attack Su Bai, a mass of black clouds appeared in the sky and lightning was sparkling in it. The Zombie King looked up; the light in his eyes flickered, giving away that he was extremely nervous.
That was a doom cloud[1]!
Someone was reporting what happened here to the heaven, and pleading for celestial punishment to purge the world!
"I am the eyes of heave, chasing the sky;
"My eyes are thunder, lightening everywhere.
"I see the appearance and the inside,
"Everything must submit.
"Now I command you!"
A huge figure was leaping over the distance. Yes, he was leaping.
Seeing this familiar figure that could be described as swift even though he was so fat, Su Bai immediately recognized him. He didn’t expect that Fatty would be selected into this story world, but he was just in time.
Although it had been a little intense between Su Bai and Fatty, at least they now had the same goal, which was to keep Lam alive. Therefore they wouldn’t have to worry about anything else for now, when they were facing the same enemy.
The doom cloud was growing thicker and thicker, heavier and heavier, with the indistinct rumbling of thunder. Of course, Fatty didn’t do it; he just transferred the smell of this Zombie King to the heaven, and the natural law would do the rest.
Fatty finished the spell and pointed downwards with the peach wood sword, which had belonged to Lam Ching-Ying.
"Boom!"
Lightning rained down from the sky. It was the formidable power of heaven; no one dared to move at all, including the Zombie King.
This story world itself contained zombies, demons and Taoists, therefore the power of natural law was even stronger and scarier than it should be. If it was another story, Fatty might not be able to draw the lightning down.
The zombie was hit by the lightening and burnt into ash!
Fatty landed on the ground with a turn, and had to get down on one knee. He was all sweaty in the Taoist frock which Lam had been wearing when he moved the grave.
"Puff… Phew…" Fatty looked at Su Bai, breathing heavily, "Bai, look at me! Impressed?" Apparently, Fatty was exhausted after drawing down the lightning. He could barely speak.
Su Bai looked at Fatty, then at the Zombie King that seemed to be still in shock, and then at the ashes of the zombie who used to stand beside the Zombie King but was later hit by the lightning. At last, his eyes turned back to Fatty’s face, which was pale and covered in sweat.
"Fatty."
"What?"
"You got the wrong zombie…"
"..." Fatty.
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FOOTNOTES:
[1] doom cloud: It is said that when superior Taoists or spirits are turning into immortals, there will be several doomed disaster during their cultivation and they have to find a way to escape or survive. Only after they have passed through all the doomed disasters can they become immortal, but failure of any doomed disaster will lead to death. It is believed that every doomed disaster will come from a special cloud with great lightening, which is called doom cloud.