Chapter Five: The Zombie Writes—Auntie Is Shocked!

"Feng'er, you... you..."

Mu Ruxue looked at Qin Feng's sharp, claw-like fingernails and the two immobilization talismans clutched in his hand. She was so shocked that she couldn't even speak. Her mind went completely blank, and her heart churned with turbulent waves of disbelief.

"Thud!" The bucket in her hand slipped and fell to the ground of its own accord.

"Hhh!" Qin Feng opened his corpse-like mouth and exhaled a puff of black necrotic miasma. He gestured with his arm, signaling for Mu Ruxue to take the bucket.

"Feng'er, you... you have gained sentience?" Recovering her senses, Mu Ruxue stared at Qin Feng in disbelief.

"Uh!" Qin Feng nodded.

"Impossible. You are only at the early stage of a Black Corpse; how could you possibly have gained sentience?" Mu Ruxue still found it hard to accept.

After a long while, she suddenly burst into tears of joy. Ignoring his undead nature, she pulled Qin Feng into an embrace. As he caught the scent of her fragrance and gazed at her fair, delicate neck, Qin Feng secretly swallowed hard. A bloodthirsty urge welled up within him, but he quickly suppressed it. She was his aunt; he could bite anyone, but never her.

Yet, his stiff, rigid arms left him feeling awkward. Finally, with some clumsy, mechanical effort, he bent his arms to embrace her back, patting her shoulders lightly. The entire movement was unnatural and robotic, lacking the fluidity of a living person.

"Feng'er, how did you gain sentience?" Mu Ruxue released him, wiped the tears from her eyes, and looked at him with curiosity.

Qin Feng pondered for a moment. Instead of answering immediately, he turned and hopped toward the depths of the cave. Seeing this, Mu Ruxue hurriedly picked up the bucket and followed.

Inside the cave, when Mu Ruxue saw the two senior disciples wearing Taoist robes who had been turned into zombies, her expression darkened, and the confusion in her eyes deepened. Qin Feng picked up the wooden branch he had fashioned into a tool and held it tightly. He struggled to control his arm, using the branch to write on the dirt floor. If the ground had been concrete, he would have truly been unable to communicate with his aunt.

Seeing Qin Feng write on the ground with the branch, Mu Ruxue was shocked all over again. If this were to get out, it would cause a sensation throughout the entire Taoist world. Countless orthodox and heterodox factions would undoubtedly hunt him down.

Such a monstrous zombie would certainly be marked for extermination by the righteous sects while they were still in the cradle. As for the evil sects, they would undoubtedly want to refine him into a puppet. In short, if the world knew of his existence, it would surely spark a bloodbath between the realms of the living and the dead.

She had never imagined that giving Feng'er a single Corpse King core could create such a monstrous entity. Not only did he retain his original sentience, but his fingers were flexible enough to hold weapons. Most importantly, in just an hour, he had broken through from the early White Corpse stage to the early Black Corpse stage. This was a breakthrough of an entire major realm; such speed was simply unheard of.

"Uh!" Qin Feng put down the branch and let out a low growl. He had written down the highlights of the situation, including the killing of the two disciples, the potency of his own corpse venom, and the fact that the two turned disciples could now obey his commands.

Mu Ruxue stepped forward and read it, stunned for a long time before she could process the information. She had thought Qin Feng was already monstrous enough, but after seeing what he wrote, she realized that was merely the tip of the iceberg.

"Feng'er!" Mu Ruxue looked at him with a stern expression. "Remember, you must never reveal these abilities casually. If you absolutely must, you must kill everyone who witnesses them. This is not a joke; your life depends on it. If word of your abilities spreads, you will face endless pursuit from both righteous and evil factions. Even I would not be able to protect you."

"I understand, Aunt. Could you tell me the basics about the Taoist world and zombies?" Qin Feng wrote on the ground.

"Of course. Even if you didn't ask, I would have told you. Let's start with the realms. Both the Taoist world and zombies have nine major realms, each divided into early, middle, and late stages. The Taoist realms are: Body Refining, Qi Induction, Qi Manipulation, Spirit Connection, Soul Projection, Soul Wandering, Yin Manifestation, True Person, and Heavenly Master. The zombie realms are: White Corpse, Black Corpse, Leaping Corpse, Furry Corpse, Purple Corpse, Flying Corpse, Copper Armored Corpse, Silver Armored Corpse, and Golden Armored Corpse..."

Mu Ruxue spoke slowly and with ease. These were the most fundamental and critical aspects of Taoist knowledge that every disciple had to memorize.

"Cough, cough..." Mu Ruxue suddenly coughed, her face pale. She quickly changed the subject. "Feng'er, that is all for now. I will tell you the rest later and teach you some combat techniques. For now, drink the blood I brought you, and we must leave immediately. Judging by their robes, those two you killed were disciples of the Yiyang Sect. They are nearby and notorious for protecting their own. They have likely already learned of their deaths, and if we don't leave, they will come looking."

Qin Feng nodded, his eerie, pitch-black eyes looking at Mu Ruxue with a hint of concern. Mu Ruxue knew what he wanted to ask and grinned. "When I went to the hospital blood bank, I didn't expect the two guardians to be there. They wouldn't let me take the blood, so we fought. I only suffered minor injuries; I'll be fine after a day or two of rest."

Qin Feng felt a pang of heartache. She had suffered such severe internal injuries just to get blood for him, yet she called it minor. When she coughed earlier, he had sensed her internal energy rapidly fading. If that was a minor injury, how could her energy decay like that? But now was not the time to argue. As she said, they needed to drink the blood and flee.

Qin Feng hopped to the bucket and twisted off the lid. A rich scent of blood assaulted his senses, and his bloodlust surged. He grabbed the bucket and began to drink greedily. The sensation of consuming blood this way was even more satisfying than biting a neck.

As the blood entered his body, his aura grew stronger, rising steadily like bamboo shoots after the rain. His entire body crackled with popping sounds as if his meridians were being cleared. A dense necrotic miasma radiated from him, chilling the cave to freezing temperatures.

"Hhh..." The two turned disciples opened their mouths and began to absorb the miasma Qin Feng was emitting. Their strength also climbed rapidly, leaping from the early White Corpse stage to the late White Corpse stage.

Mu Ruxue stared in astonishment. Could zombies break through realms this quickly just by absorbing miasma without blood? "Feng'er is truly too monstrous," she thought. "Even the miasma he radiates can help his subordinates break through. This way, they don't need blood to grow; they can just absorb his excess energy, leaving more blood for him."

At that moment, just as the two zombies were about to reach the early Black Corpse stage, Qin Feng stopped drinking. He inhaled deeply, drawing all the stray miasma in the cave back into his body.

"Hhh!" Qin Feng exhaled a puff of miasma, tossed the half-empty bucket to the ground, and pulled Mu Ruxue away as they fled.