When fortune comes, heaven and earth unite in one's favor; when fortune wanes, even heroes lose their freedom.
Looking back upon the past from the future, everything seems like destiny; looking forward into the future from the present, everything seems like coincidence.
As Zuo Zhengzong closed his eyes and awaited death, Zhang Buyao on the opposite end happened to slash her sword toward the heavens. A fierce sword qi shot straight into the clouds, cleaving the cloud of corpse qi in the sky clean in two. The slash then plunged into the spatial rift, slicing the tower-like stack of zombies in half.
Beneath this strike, zombies tumbled down in droves, creating a monstrous "corpse landslide." The spatial rift at West Gemini Mountain—whose output of bodies had been tapering off—suddenly erupted in a full-blown blowout.
Countless zombies gushed out from the rift. Because the fissure sat halfway up the mountainside, the torrent of corpses formed a veritable waterfall.
Boom!
Gong Qian's punch had been bound for Zuo Zhengzong, but with the sudden arrival of this "zombie waterfall," the force of her blow was absorbed instead by countless zombies.
With a deafening roar, innumerable zombies burst apart, while a violent shockwave sent swathes of them flying.
A falling zombie struck Zuo Zhengzong in the back. Having shot over at an angle, the corpse bounced off the ground before ricocheting upward into him, knocking his feet out from under him and launching him into the air. Mid-flight, another zombie crashed into him, sending him hurtling helplessly toward a spatial rift to his left.
Having just spewed a massive tide of zombies, this rift happened to be in a lull. Only a scattered few lay on the ground inside the fissure, writhing like worms with broken legs.
In an instant, Zuo Zhengzong flew through the spatial rift and landed heavily atop a heap of zombies. He opened his eyes, completely bewildered. What just happened?
He had thought he was a dead man, only to feel an impact slam into his back—though the pain had not been particularly intense. Then he was struck again, making him think his assailant was trying to torture him.
Yet when he hit the ground, he realized... he wasn't dead.
In truth, everything had unfolded in a flash, over in the blink of an eye.
Zuo Zhengzong had no idea how he had ended up here, but he soon noticed the conditions on the other side of the spatial rift. Realizing he had made it through to the other side of the rift on West Gemini Mountain, he scrambled up and hopped away as fast as he could.
...
...
Huaxia grotto-heaven.
Yu Xian had originally thought finding a corpse would be easy.
As it turned out, it was anything but. People who died under normal circumstances had families. If you just snatched a body and walked off, their loved ones would never agree.
They were all fellow Huaxia compatriots. Yu Xian could be ruthless to enemies, but he was always gentle with his own people. Even when he found a body out in the middle of nowhere, a single sniff of his nose was enough to track down the deceased's family. Unless the family consented, he could hardly just take it.
Yet whenever he brought a body back to the doorstep of the grieving family and saw them weeping, he could never bring himself to ask. Asking to take the corpse under such circumstances felt too cold-blooded, too inhuman.
In the end, after wandering around in a full circle, he was still empty-handed. For the first time, he realized that finding a body could actually be this difficult.
"Forget it. As expected, when you hit a wall, turn to the organization."
Standing atop a mountain peak, Yu Xian finally had to admit that finding a usable corpse in Huaxia on his own was a tall order.
He pulled out the phone issued to him by Qilin and dialed Yu Lie. A second later, Yu Lie picked up and beat him to the punch: "Little Yu, what on earth happened over at the Pacific Ocean? Why is the sea floating up into the sky? Every country is still keeping it from the public for fear of mass panic. Give it to me straight—is everything really under control?"
Ever since Yu Xian became a Star-rank powerhouse, the world had grown harder and harder to comprehend.
What?
There was a place called Crescent Bay on the other side of the universe?
And Crescent Bay had long been transformed by people from countless other worlds into a super-mixed residential realm?
What?
The ocean had come alive and could destroy the world at any moment?
What?
Yu Xian had donated spaceships capable of traveling to other worlds in the Abyss?
Now, no matter what Yu Xian said, Yu Lie was able to accept it calmly. After all, Yu Xian had delivered far too many shocks already.
Yu Xian could only explain, "As for what's happening at the Pacific Ocean, you could say it's the aftermath of the ocean's earlier activation. You're familiar with the Corpse Qi Expansion Theory—a corpse that massive, plus all the dead sea life in the waters, was bound to cause trouble once infected by corpse qi. We just dealt with a monster formed from countless corpses, but it inherited Zhi'er's treasure and can generate infinite corpse qi. That's why I urgently need to find a corpse to contain this power."
"Infinite... corpse qi?" Yu Lie asked in a complicated tone after a long pause.
In truth, he was mostly in shock. He had never heard of anything truly infinite; even the sun would burn itself out one day.
"Yes, infinite corpse qi. If it isn't dealt with, it will destroy Earth, destroy the universe, and destroy even more worlds beyond." Yu Xian nodded.
Listening to Yu Xian over the line, Yu Lie couldn't help a bitter smile.
If anyone else had made such a claim, he would have dismissed it as nonsense. But he knew full well that with Yu Xian's status and power today, there was no need to exaggerate, let alone lie.
Yet that was precisely what made it terrifying. Whom had Earth offended to face a world-ending crisis every few days?
"So what brings you to call me?" he asked. "Did you run into a problem?"
"I need a corpse. Outside of Huaxia, the concentration of corpse qi has skyrocketed so rapidly that most bodies have already begun zombifying, which doesn't meet the requirements. So I need a body that is thoroughly and truly dead," Yu Xian answered immediately.
Yu Lie was sorely tempted to tease Yu Xian: couldn't he even manage to get his hands on a single body?
But he immediately understood why Yu Xian couldn't find one, and warmth filled his chest. Sure enough, no matter how powerful Yu Xian became, he was still one of their own.
"Come over quickly. I'll have a body ready for you right away. If you have any specific requirements, just say the word," Yu Lie said at once.
Qilin did indeed possess many silent mentors—donors who had voluntarily given their bodies to Qilin for the research of transcendent powers. Most of them came from within Qilin itself: heroes who had died in battle against various transcendent creatures.
Yu Xian conjured a bubble and arrived at Qilin headquarters in an instant. Then, he and Yu Lie headed together to the morgue where the remains were kept.
"These are all our own people from Qilin," Yu Lie said as they walked into the morgue. "Take a look, and take whichever one is suitable."
As they entered, Yu Lie pulled open the cold storage units one by one, revealing face after youthful face.
Seeing them, Yu Xian fell silent for a moment before letting out a soft sigh. Then, a drop of blood floated from his fingertip, dispersing in an instant into countless minuscule motes that sank into their foreheads between the brows. The bodies of those who had been thoroughly dead twitched faintly, and one by one, their eyes opened.
"..."
Staring at the revived men and women, Yu Lie was dumbfounded.
He was both shocked and overjoyed—shocked because with the corpses revived, what body was left for Yu Xian to use? Overjoyed because these fine young people were all alive again. It was truly wonderful.
"How about... we find a death-row inmate instead?" Yu Xian offered with an awkward chuckle.
Just then, a young woman beside him sat up, looking thoroughly bewildered. "Huh? Wasn't I dead? Fish... Fish God?"
"Fine, let's find a death-row inmate. We'll execute one on the spot for you,"
Yu Lie said, torn between tears and laughter. Knowing that time was of the essence, he contacted Xiao Cheng to arrange for the revived personnel while dragging Yu Xian off toward the death-row prison.
Chapter 368