Green Lotus Pond.
Beneath the cover of night, fireflies flitted among the lotus leaves.
Four children, holding buckets in their hands, were catching loaches.
A police car drove up from the distance and pulled over on the road beside the pond. Zhang Kai stepped out and shouted immediately, "Over here! Come on, every single one of you, get over here!"
The four children looked up, then sheepishly scrambled ashore one after another.
Zhang Kai gave them a furious earful before turning to Yu Xian. "I'll take them home first. You all right here on your own?"
"Go on, leave this to me." Sitting cross-legged inside his bubble, Yu Xian glanced at Zhang Kai, swept his eyes over the curious children, and nodded.
Fortunately, nothing had happened to the kids.
Zhang Kai nodded and led the four children away.
Only after Zhang Kai and the kids were far off did Yu Xian slowly float out over Green Lotus Pond. He allowed some air from the pond into his bubble, and his face instantly turned green. He nearly threw up the mutton he had just eaten.
Quickly shutting off the scent inlet, Yu Xian still felt violently ill for quite a while.
This pond was far too foul.
Rotting animal carcasses, human excrement and urine, and animal droppings were all mixed into the silt. To ordinary people, it was merely putrid; to him, it smelled utterly, overpoweringly rancid.
Even so, amidst the vile stench, he managed to pinpoint the corpse qi.
In his mind's eye, the entire pond seemed to invert. The corpse qi was like tree roots, sprouting from a source deep underground and branching out until it pervaded the entire pond.
This zombie's rank had to be extraordinarily high!
Because the dreadful smell impaired his judgment, he could only determine that the zombie had been down there for more than four hundred years, and that it was very likely a Tiger-rank zombie king.
Although Yu Xian was a spatial ability user, he had never actually fought a zombie before. (A zombie rabbit hardly counted.)
He truly had no idea how strong a Tiger-rank zombie would be.
To be safe:
Call for backup!
After a moment's thought, Yu Xian pulled out his phone and contacted Xiao Cheng.
"..."
Once Xiao Cheng answered, neither spoke first.
"What do you call Daddy's daddy?"
"What do you call Mommy's mommy?"
From Xiao Cheng's end came the tender voice of a child reciting nursery rhymes.
Finally, Xiao Cheng handed the child over to his wife and let out a sigh. "If you've got business, out with it."
"Minister, should I contact Minister Yu Lie instead so you can spend time with your wife and kid at home?" Yu Xian offered somewhat sheepishly.
Xiao Cheng walked out onto the balcony. "Make it quick."
"Right. It's a long story, so I'll keep it brief. While eating at Bamboo Sea Residence, I found corpse qi on some lotus root slices. I traced them back to Green Lotus Pond. When I got here, I discovered there's a zombie over four hundred years old beneath the pond. In all likelihood, it's a Tiger-rank zombie king—it might even be Dragon-rank. What should we do?" Yu Xian blurted out in one breath.
Xiao Cheng frowned. "Don't do anything reckless. If it really is a zombie king, it's probably already completed its transformation from extreme yin to yang. The moment it emerges, all of Silver City will be plunged into a sea of flames. Call the tactical police unit immediately and put the area under lockdown. No one is to approach Green Lotus Pond. Without living creatures agitating it, a zombie king won't wake easily."
"Understood!" Yu Xian replied.
Xiao Cheng continued, "Once you've made arrangements on your end, teleport to headquarters right away. We'll figure out how to deal with it."
"All right," Yu Xian answered.
The two hung up. Yu Xian immediately called Zhang Kai and confirmed he had already seen the children safely home. He then instructed Zhang Kai to lead the tactical police unit in establishing a one-kilometer cordon centered around Green Lotus Pond, evacuating every resident within that perimeter to a nearby gymnasium.
About an hour later, the tactical police unit mobilized in full force, turning Green Lotus Pond into a forbidden zone where no one was allowed to enter.
Once Yu Xian verified that nothing had been overlooked, he instantly teleported back to headquarters. Xiao Cheng happened to be arriving from home just then, and the two headed upstairs together into the conference room.
A short while later, the other higher-ups arrived one by one. When Yu Lie finally made it, the meeting officially began.
"Little Yu, can you be certain that the zombie is Tiger rank?" asked Hua Qiang, Director of the Combat Division.
Yu Xian nodded. "The zombie beneath Green Lotus Pond is definitely at least Tiger rank. I even suspect it might have reached Dragon-rank."
"Then we must determine its rank first. After all, the difference between Tiger and Dragon rank is immense. If it's Tiger rank, we can activate the Thirteen-Layer Void-Locking Grand Array and send personnel to slay it. If it's Dragon-rank... I'm afraid we'll have to mobilize a massive force," Xu Hebai said, looking around at the gathered leaders.
Yu Xian gritted his teeth and said, "I can confirm the zombie king's rank. Give me a little time."
"Oh? Good. We'll leave it to you, Little Yu. Thanks for the hard work," Yu Lie said with a glance at Yu Xian, flashing him an encouraging smile.
Yu Xian nodded and promptly teleported back into a bubble beside Green Lotus Pond, leaving a single bubble behind in the conference room.
Green Lotus Pond.
Looking down at the mud-choked waters, Yu Xian's expression grew exceedingly solemn.
As the ancients said, a true warrior dared to face a bleak life and confront dripping blood.
Now was the moment for him to confront the foulest stench of the mortal world and stare directly into the byproduct of countless people's basic daily waste. No matter how sickening, he had to endure it.
Yu Xian took a deep breath, slowly exhaled the air, and then opened the scent channel. Taking a sharp inhale, he mobilized his Silver Blood to bolster his brain. In an instant, it felt as though bolts of lightning were tearing across his mind. Blue veins bulged across his forehead, and his eyes rapidly turned bloodshot.
The pond's entire past—from its origin to its present state—replayed inside his head.
The zombie underground had originally been a Xingtian warrior. He had plummeted from the sky into the pond, his powerful body sinking into the deepest reaches of the muck. It wasn't until four hundred years ago, upon coming into contact with a wisp of corpse qi, that the corpse transformation began.
A Xingtian warrior!
Back when the transcendent outbreak first began, Pangu had not yet appeared, nor did combat police exist.
To safeguard Huaxia, a group of armed police volunteered to be injected with Xingtian's Blood. Wielding battle-axes, they defended the people against the ravages of various transcendent creatures, continuing to fight even after death until the Xingtian's Blood within their veins was utterly spent.
Xingtian warriors only gradually stepped down from the stage of history after the emergence of combat police injected with Pangu's Blood. Yu Xian had only ever heard their stories in history class.
A hero of the past had now become the source of a disaster.
Yu Xian knew full well that had this Xingtian warrior been alive, he would have chosen death a thousand times over rather than become a zombie that terrorized the land.
Taking a deep breath, Yu Xian bowed slightly, then teleported straight back to the headquarters conference room.
"How is it? Tiger rank or Dragon-rank?" Hua Qiang asked immediately.
Yu Xian's expression was grave. "Dragon-rank. And there's worse news... The zombie king is a Xingtian warrior whose Xingtian's Blood was thoroughly exhausted!"
Every face in the room turned pale.
To begin with, a zombie king's physical body was already exceptionally formidable. If its physical body had belonged to the transcendent tier even before becoming a zombie, it would be far more horrifying.
Xingtian warriors happened to be fighters renowned for their terrifying physical might.
Even with their Xingtian's Blood depleted, their flesh was impervious to blades and spears. One could easily imagine just how terrifying a zombie king they were about to face.
Moreover, the Xingtian warriors were all heroes.
Now, they were forced to confront a monster born from the remains of a hero.
Chapter 97