Zuo Zhengzong, male, forty-five years old, crematorium worker, occult enthusiast.
Ever since he was a child, he had wanted to become a Transcendent. To that end, he made continuous efforts, studying a large number of publicly disclosed Transcendent systems.
In the past, he had once considered becoming a wild vampire. But around that very time, the Blood Clan publicly executed several captured foreign wild vampires. Watching that, he felt the risk was far too great, so he chose to give up.
During the years from age twenty to thirty-five, he was fanatically obsessed with Forbidden Fruit.
He spent huge sums of money chasing that dream, but in the end, it was all illusions and mirages, coming to nothing.
To pay off his loans, he had no choice but to work honestly and diligently for the next ten years. Yet he never gave up researching how to become a Transcendent.
Eventually, he actually came up with a "foolproof plan."
Namely, to become a zombie.
Of course, he didn't want to become a mindless zombie.
He intended to become the world's first conscious zombie with a sense of self.
In many ancient texts and records, he found a remedy. First, buy a Soul-Sealing Talisman to firmly anchor his soul to his physical body. Next, prepare a coffin capable of sealing a zombie. After getting infected with corpse poison, find a corpse-nurturing ground, lie down in the coffin, and sink into the corpse-nurturing ground.
Because his soul was anchored to his flesh, once his body turned into a zombie, his soul would mutate alongside it into a fierce ghost.
When a zombie grew powerful enough, it would develop a faint self-awareness, eventually growing more and more intelligent. At that point, he would take the opportunity to devour the consciousness produced by the zombie body—possessing himself, perfectly fusing with the zombie vessel.
That way, when he emerged from the corpse-nurturing ground, he would be the world's only conscious, perfect zombie.
It was a beautiful plan.
He had even spent an entire year's wages to purchase a genuine Soul-Sealing Talisman.
As long as he obtained a zombie fang containing corpse poison, he could begin carrying out the plan. But as an ordinary mortal, he had no channels whatsoever to purchase a zombie fang, so he had gotten completely stuck at this step.
That day, he was pedaling his bicycle home after work.
Lately, there were rather a lot of corpses needing processing; every day he had to work overtime until seven or eight in the evening.
Still, overtime paid overtime wages, and he was more than happy to work extra hours. Only with money could he continue pursuing his dream.
"Who the hell is being so wicked?"
Upon arriving home, Zuo Zhengzong saw a basketball-sized hole in the corner of his front door.
He hurried forward, took out his key to unlock the door, and flipped on the light. Seeing a rabbit constantly hopping around in the corner of the wall, he frowned, gripped a ribbed steel rod he kept for self-defense, and approached cautiously.
"Ha!"
A single strike went down, and the jarring recoil made his hand slightly numb.
Realizing this was a Transcendent creature, he immediately gritted his teeth and swung the rod frantically. Only when he was exhausted half to death and the rabbit had stopped moving did he finally breathe a sigh of relief.
After resting a moment, just as he was about to inspect what kind of creature this rabbit was, Yu Xian happened to arrive.
"Careful, that's a zombie rabbit. Let me handle it," Yu Xian called out hastily to stop him.
Zuo Zhengzong was startled at first, then overjoyed. But then he turned around and snapped angrily, "Who are you? Why are you trespassing in my house? Get out right now, or I'll call the police!"
"I *am* the police. I'm currently on night patrol, and I'm responsible for handling all Transcendent creatures!" Yu Xian produced his credentials and looked at Zuo Zhengzong.
Zuo Zhengzong stared hard at the ID in Yu Xian's hand. He could only suppress the unwillingness in his heart and step aside.
"Thank you for your cooperation. Also... next time you encounter something like this, it's best to call the police first and let the combat police handle it. Doing this is very dangerous; if you get bitten, it'll be troublesome," Yu Xian said, feeling a slight sense of relief. He stepped forward, bound the zombie rabbit with silver thread, and spoke to Zuo Zhengzong before leaving.
Zuo Zhengzong could only offer a perfunctory smile until he watched Yu Xian leave.
He turned back, his smile vanishing instantly into an intensely dark scowl. That was the zombie he had been yearning for day and night! This was undoubtedly the closest he had ever been to transcendence.
Returning inside, he looked toward where the zombie rabbit had fallen. Suddenly, his eye caught something. He immediately walked over and squatted down, carefully picking up a bone fragment smaller than a grain of rice.
This must have been a bone splinter knocked off the zombie rabbit when he battered it with the iron rod!
Looking at this fragment, a look of wild ecstasy gradually bloomed across his face.
According to a research report from the Transcendent Alliance, ever since corpse qi first appeared, its overall scale had only increased and never decreased. This was the famous "Corpse Qi Expansion Theory."
A tiny trace of corpse qi could create a zombie. As a zombie grew stronger, it produced more corpse qi within its body. When the zombie was destroyed, this corpse qi did not vanish; instead, it dispersed into the natural environment.
Therefore, corpse qi would only accumulate more and more, eventually dragging all of humanity into the realm of the dead.
When Zuo Zhengzong first read this theory, he felt as if the entire world were collapsing.
He had even fallen into depression for a long time over it.
In the end, he saw the wisdom left behind by ancient sages online: *If you can't beat them, join them.*
In an instant, he felt as if all his meridians had cleared. Since this world would belong to the dead sooner or later, wouldn't it be better if he became one of the dead ahead of time?
...
...
Walking along the street, Yu Xian felt somewhat suspicious; that man earlier had an intense stench of corpses on him.
He took out his phone, logged into the Public Security Bureau's app, and quickly looked up the man's identity based on the building address. He paused for a moment, then shook his head. Sure enough, he had been overthinking it.
A crematorium worker. Having a foul stench on him was all too normal.
Yu Xian jogged back to the road. Seeing Zhang Shou still searching for burrows, he first stowed away the zombie rabbit, then stood at the edge of the grass and called out, "Old Zhang, find anything?"
"No. This is too weird—where on earth are they coming from?" Zhang Shou stood up, his face full of question marks, and asked Yu Xian.
Yu Xian smiled. "That's one of the world's three great unsolved mysteries. If I could answer that, I'd be famous."
In the Transcendent world, there were always many unsolved mysteries, and the elusive appearance of beasts was one of them.
Some believed it was a bug in the world, while others thought it was the effect of some Forbidden Fruit.
In any case, people debated endlessly, yet still no one knew how these animals suddenly appeared.
The two returned to the car, and Zhang Shou continued driving.
Afterward, Transcendent beasts continued to appear occasionally along the road. Yu Xian and Zhang Shou stopped and went, and gradually the car made its way into the east of the city.
Compared to other city districts, the east of the city was undoubtedly much livelier. Even past eleven at night, many people were still walking the streets, and all the shops were open.
This was a sight unseen in the other districts.
"Salty Fish, look, Hu Tu'er," Zhang Shou said in a low voice just then.
Yu Xian had been knitting a sweater, but hearing Zhang Shou's words, he looked up out the car window. Sure enough, Hu Tu'er was mingling with several young men. She flashed a smile from time to time, charming them out of their wits.
"As expected of a fox spirit. Truly impressive," Zhang Shou marveled.
Yu Xian's nose twitched, but detecting nothing unusual, he said indifferently, "Let's go. Keep patrolling."
In truth, the eastern district didn't need their patrols at all. Among the Transcendents living here, the strongest even reached the Eagle rank. If a Transcendent beast really appeared, they were more than capable of handling it themselves.
Even so, duty called, so Yu Xian and Zhang Shou dutifully kept driving their patrol.
Chapter 24