When Zuo Zhengzong opened his eyes, the sight that greeted him was countless hideous zombies lunging forward, completely filling his vision without leaving a single gap.
Yet miraculously, he felt no fear; instead, he grinned.
In an instant, his arms transformed into sharp tentacles that shot out at blinding speed, sweeping the surrounding zombies aside in a single swing.
He then wrapped a tentacle around a zombie, dragged it in front of him, clamped his left hand down on its head with a sharp twist, and sank his fangs into its neck, rapidly draining every trace of its corpse qi.
"Now this is the power I've been chasing!"
Zuo Zhengzong tossed the withered husk to the ground and grinned broadly at the surrounding zombies.
The next moment, he went on the offensive, tearing through them like a tiger among sheep. Not a single zombie could withstand a single bout against him; every one he caught was sucked dry in the blink of an eye.
He didn't know what that jelly he had consumed was, but he knew full well that it had transformed his power beyond recognition.
A zombie, as the name implied, naturally possessed a stiff, rigid body. But now, his joints could assume a jelly-like form. As a result, he could execute all manner of movements with extraordinary agility—even feats impossible for the human body were effortless for him.
At the same time, he retained a zombie's innate traits: his body was supple when it needed to be soft and rigid when it needed to be hard. Moreover, as the number of zombies he drained continued to rise, his body would only grow harder and more indestructible.
Half a day later.
Zuo Zhengzong found the other half of the jelly.
It lay quietly atop a massive piece of architectural wreckage. That he was able to spot it at all was entirely thanks to the further rise in his strength.
With his newfound power, he had taken the initiative to assault the zombies upon the zombie mountain, and from that higher vantage point, he had spotted the jelly.
Fortunately, the zombies around him had no brains and didn't realize what a treasure the jelly was, leaving it to fall into his hands.
"Yu Xian, that foul bitch, and... heh heh heh. Soon, I'll become a Dragon-rank powerhouse. When that time comes..." Zuo Zhengzong picked up the jelly and muttered to himself.
Back when Yu Xian took the zombie rabbit from him, resentment had taken root in his heart.
Yet what truly stoked his bitter hatred came later. As Yu Xian's fame grew ever louder, Zuo Zhengzong couldn't explain why, but watching Yu Xian bask in boundless glory made his teeth itch with rage.
What he strove for and could never obtain, Yu Xian gained with effortless ease. He himself was like a rat in the sewers, while Yu Xian could display miracles before the world, adored by the nation and worshipped by millions.
Perhaps jealousy had bred hatred.
Then there was Gong Qian. He didn't know her name, but that punch of hers earlier had nearly killed him.
When he lacked strength, he hadn't dared harbor ideas above his station. But once he had sufficient power, the grudge of nearly dying and having his path obstructed was something he would definitely repay.
He opened his mouth, sank his fangs into the jelly, and sucked hard. His very soul instantly drifted into bliss.
***
West Gemini Mountain.
Thanks to the Heavenly Megastar and Zuo Zhengzong, the number of zombies here had drastically dwindled.
Gong Qian was still searching for Zuo Zhengzong. After dealing with the sudden surge of zombies earlier, she had been hunting for him nonstop, yet to no avail.
"I've made up my mind. I'm going through to the other side of the spatial rift. That special zombie most likely fled in there," Gong Qian told Zhang Shou and the others.
Cheng Pi hurriedly tried to stop her. "Don't! It's not like you haven't read the reports on West Gemini Mountain. Old Zhang was the very first person to enter the spatial rift, and the other side is far too dangerous. You could be exposed to the Abyss at any second!"
"But that zombie gave me a terrible feeling. Leaving it alive will invite disaster," Gong Qian said, frowning as she recalled Zuo Zhengzong's backward glance.
Zhang Shou had seen Zuo Zhengzong as well. He gritted his teeth and said, "Damn it, count me in. I'll go with you. My abilities strongly suppress zombies, and the corpse qi over there is thick. It's not safe for you alone. With me around, at least you won't turn into a zombie."
"If we're going, we all go. The pressure on this side has eased considerably. With the four of us going together to hunt down a minor zombie, there shouldn't be much danger," Xiong Da said directly, stepping forward as waves of heat radiated from him.
Zhang Shou agreed. "With the four of us, it really shouldn't be a problem. We might not be able to sweep through the world on the other side, but keeping ourselves safe should be easy enough."
"Wait a second. Four? You don't mean that includes me, do you?" Cheng Pi finally realized, his eyes widening.
Zhang Shou, Xiong Da, and Gong Qian all looked at Cheng Pi. Cheng Pi finally deflated. "Fine, fine, I'll come along. But we'd better notify the Boss first. If we really run into danger, at least the Boss can come pull us out."
"Deal. I'll shoot Salty Fish a message, and then we're off," Zhang Shou nodded.
He immediately opened his Star Ring and sent a message to Yu Xian: "Salty Fish, we're heading to the zombie world."
"What are you going there for?" Yu Xian replied almost immediately.
Over the Pacific Ocean, Yu Xian looked up after sending his reply to Zhang Shou. Unfortunately, the Heavenly Megastar blocked his line of sight, preventing him from seeing the world on the other side of the spatial rift.
Even though he was already exceedingly powerful, truth be told, he still felt that dead world was perilous.
After all, that world was merely a slightly larger spatial fragment, drifting through the Abyss. No one could predict what it might encounter.
The Abyss was simply terrifying.
The stronger Yu Xian grew and the broader his horizons became, the more keenly he understood just how frightening the Abyss was.
Even typical Mighty Ones might not come out unscathed in the Abyss; dying there would hardly be surprising. After all, Feng Laixian was no ordinary Mighty One, but a titan among them.
This was information he had pieced together from Zhang Buyao's brief remarks.
Zhang Buyao had casually mentioned that for an ordinary Mighty One, possessing four or five treasures from Transcenders was already extraordinary, yet Feng Laixian had an entire hoard of them.
From this tidbit, one could infer that Feng Laixian had lived a long time, possessed immense power, and commanded a vast faction, which was why he had been able to amass so many treasures.
Even more frightening was that Feng Laixian rarely ever used these treasures—meaning that in combat, he no longer had any need to rely on such items.
That a Mighty One like this had transformed into the Abyss after death was terrifying in and of itself.
If there were a way, Yu Xian would truly love to take Earth and flee the Abyss, never to return.
"We found a very unusual zombie."
"Its behavior isn't like normal zombies. I suspect it's a shiny zombie."
Zhang Shou's follow-up messages arrived promptly. Reading them, Yu Xian's forehead filled with black lines. What in the world was a "shiny zombie"?
"Just how strange is its behavior?"
"Every other zombie is going with the flow, but this one swam against the current. Tell me that's not weird."
"That's it?"
"Isn't that enough? Anyway, just giving you a heads-up. We're on our way."
"All right, stay safe."
After sending the message, Yu Xian pondered for a moment and sensed outward. The spatial bubble in Zhang Shou's ear was still intact, so there shouldn't be any major issue.
As long as that spatial bubble remained, he could retrieve them at any time. Besides, that zombie merely acted odd; from Zhang Shou's description, its strength was likely nothing special. With Gong Qian tagging along, dealing with it would probably just take a single punch.
Chapter 373