The undead have descended upon the world? I possess a sword that can cleave the heavens once more!

The bearded man also looked at Wu You.

Upon seeing Wu You's youthful face, he was stunned for a moment, then immediately stubbed out his cigarette and tossed it on the ground.

"Oops, sorry, I wasn't paying attention."

Wu You: ...

"Ahem, you must be Wu You. Old Lin mentioned you to me before. You're quite the young talent."

"Ah, sir, who are you?"

The man pointed to the badge on his chest.

"My name is Wang Qi, the Silver Emblem Torchbearer. I was the one who dealt with the third-tier Thousand-Faced Corpse that suddenly appeared in your neighborhood."

Wu You suddenly realized that there was this other connection; no wonder Lin Yuan had mentioned him to him.

And this person turned out to be the torchbearer who had saved him by a twist of fate.

Wu You looked again at the silver badge on the man's chest: No wonder that third-tier corpse was cleared out so quickly last time.

Wang Qi continued, "I came over here immediately after I detected a third-order dark domain energy field fluctuation here."

"It seems you've taken care of it now."

Wu You nodded: "I just happened to be passing by. As for the specifics..."

He looked at the two people beside him.

Peng Yong was about to speak when he said, "Ahem, it's desire..."

The bearded man said, "No rush, let's go back and get treatment first."

Wu You naturally agreed.

Then, all four of them got into the black SUV.

Wu You also wanted to hear what had happened in the Dark Domain before.

The resentful look in the corpse's eyes before it died gave Wu You a strange sense of unease.

soon.

A black SUV came to a steady stop in front of the Bureau of Investigation building.

All four of them got out of the car, and Wu You followed them inside. Along the way, they encountered several torchbearers wearing black trench coats and bronze badges. They all nodded to Wang Qi, but when their eyes fell on Wu You, they all looked at him with a bit of curiosity.

The medical clinic is on the fourth floor.

Pushing open the door, a smell of disinfectant wafted out. The room was small, with a few hospital beds and various bottles and jars neatly stacked in the cabinet against the wall.

A woman in a black trench coat was leaning against the window looking at her phone. Her long, golden waves cascaded over her shoulders, and she had a voluptuous figure with a touch of languor in her eyes.

Hearing the door open, she looked up, her gaze sweeping over the group before settling on Peng Yong, who was covered in blood.

"Oh." She put her phone away, her tone languid. "Xiao Peng, didn't you say you were going on a blind date? What happened? Did you run into a tigress?"

Peng Yong gave a wry smile: "Sister Xiaoju, please stop teasing me."

Xiaoju walked over and placed her hand on Peng Yong's chest. A faint blue light emanated from her palm, and a layer of transparent ice crystals spread from her palm, covering the wounds on Peng Yong's body.

A few seconds later, she withdrew her hand, the laziness on her face disappeared, and a serious expression appeared on her face.

"Xiao Peng, what happened to you?" she frowned. "You're so badly injured. If you had waited any longer, you would have lost your life."

Before Peng Yong could speak, Xu Ji interrupted, his eyes reddening again: "It's all my fault... Brother Peng did it all to protect me, it's all my fault for being too—"

"What are you saying?" Peng Yong interrupted him, his tone calm. "Xiao Ji, there was no other way in that situation. If I didn't go, we would both be finished. But it's not so bad if we were finished, it's if that zombie escapes that we're really finished. Only if I went, you still have a chance to hold out until reinforcements arrive."

He looked at Xu Ji and lowered his voice.

"That was the optimal solution at the time, not your problem."

Xu Ji opened his mouth, but couldn't say a word.

Peng Yong turned his head and smiled at Xiao Ju, a weak smile.

"I'm so sorry, Sister Xiaoju, I'm troubling you again this time."

Xiaoju rolled her eyes at him, didn't reply, and turned to get the medicine from the cabinet.

Wu You stood to the side, watching this scene without saying a word.

Wang Qi leaned against the door, took out a cigarette from his pocket, and was about to light it when he glanced at Peng Yong on the hospital bed and put the cigarette back.

"Tell me," he said. "What happened inside?"

Peng Yong took a deep breath and began to speak.

"The mission we received today, the Dark Domain Energy Detector shows the Dark Domain Energy fluctuations of a Tier 1 Corpse Species." Peng Yong leaned against the headboard, the ice crystals on his body gradually melting, and his injuries were healing at a visible speed. "The location is over in the abandoned factory in Sector D-7."

"After going inside, there was indeed a Tier 1 pseudo-humanoid corpse. Xiao Ji shot it with his psionic pistol, hitting it squarely in the head. The thing fell to the ground and, normally, should have simply dissipated."

He paused, then frowned.

"But not."

"The corpse didn't disappear, and the dark domain didn't recede. I felt something was wrong at the time and told Xiao Ji to be on guard. But before I could finish speaking, that thing moved."

Peng Yong's description was very detailed, like he was reviewing a battle.

The black mist, the ever-rising aura, the eyes that suddenly seemed to have gained intelligence—he spoke of these things calmly, but his fingers tightened their grip on the sheets.

"I only recognized it later; it was the Lustful Corpse Clan." He glanced at Wang Qi. "The Corpse Clan that can parasitize other corpse species and increase its strength by absorbing negative emotions. I had seen relevant information on the investigation platform before, but I never thought I would encounter it here."

"Luckily, I reacted quickly and used the rationality spray. Otherwise, if it had absorbed that negative emotion, it might have broken through to the third level on the spot."

He continued speaking.

He recounted how the black mist wove into a net, how he and Xu Ji cooperated, and how they were repeatedly driven to the brink of despair. When he finished speaking about how the black net fell, he paused and looked at Xu Ji.

"In that situation, my move in, and then Xiaoji, who has wind-type abilities, continued to stall for time, which was basically the optimal solution."

Xu Ji stood to the side with his head down, his shoulders trembling slightly.

"Then I couldn't see anything anymore," Peng Yong said. "Those black wisps enveloped me and felt like needles pricking my body. I thought to myself, this thing is pretty weird."

Peng Yong paused for a moment, then smiled bitterly and said, "I quickly realized that they were trying to torture me so that I would keep providing negative emotions."

"As for what comes next..."

Peng Yong looked at Xu Ji, who was standing to the side.

Xu Ji took a deep breath and finished what Peng Yong hadn't finished saying.

"At that time, Brother Peng chose to sacrifice himself to buy me time."

"But I thought Brother Peng had already sacrificed himself, and I couldn't help but feel a bit negative."

"It allowed that lustful corpse to break through to the third tier."

"Then the adult appeared. A few sword strikes, just a few sword strikes, and that thing was gone."

When he spoke of the final burst of gray-white sword light, he glanced at Wu You, his eyes filled with obvious gratitude.

Peng Yong, who was lying on the hospital bed next to him, also shook his head, his tone tinged with emotion.

"I really didn't expect that I would survive."

. . .

The infirmary was silent for a few seconds.

Xiaoju placed several bottles of medicine on the bedside table without saying a word.

Wang Qi leaned against the door, remained silent for a moment, and then said, "I ran into one too."

Several pairs of eyes turned to him.

"I took a stroll around my territory and found a few Lustful Corpse Species parasitizing the False Human Corpse Species," he said casually, "but I took care of them all."

He paused, then frowned slightly.

"But there's a problem with this."

Wu You looked at him.

"The Lustful Corpse Seed used to only appear in a few northern provinces," Wang Qi said. "It has almost never appeared in our Xilin Province before."

He glanced at Peng Yong.

"You just said that thing is almost at level three?"

Peng Yong nodded.

Wang Qi's brows furrowed even more.

"The ones I dealt with today were about the same. Although most of them were first or second tier, there was also one fourth tier Fiend Corpse Species."

He took out a cigarette, twirled it in his hand, but didn't light it.

Do you know what this means?

Wu You knew.

Corpse species have a strong sense of territory, and different corpse species generally do not appear in the same area—this is basic common sense that is clearly stated in the investigation guide.

But the Lustful Corpse Seed is an exception.

Because the bodies of the Lustful Corpse Clan are extremely fragile, they need to parasitize other corpse species in order to survive.

However, they generally only parasitize the lower-ranking corpse species of the Beast Corpse Clan.

It's not just because the Beast Corpse Species can disguise themselves as various animals, making it easier for people to lower their guard.

Furthermore, even when the Myriad Beast Corpse Species reach the mid-to-high level, their intelligence remains low, allowing them to be controlled by the Lustful Corpse Species.

If the lustful corpse seed parasitizes other intelligent corpse races, it will not only be more difficult to control, but it will also easily cause conflicts between different corpse races.

After all, the zombie species are not a monolithic entity.

Therefore, the data from the previous investigation showed that it is generally necessary to check for the presence of Lustful Corpse Species only in places where only the Corpse Species of Ten Thousand Beasts are found.

But now.

Their parasites, however, became the Thousand-Faced Corpse, a highly intelligent corpse race that could awaken partial intelligence upon reaching the second tier!

If it were just an isolated case, that would be one thing, but Wang Qi just said that he also found them in his own jurisdiction, and not just one, but even one of them was a fourth-tier Desire Corpse Species.

This means...

Wu You looked at Wang Qi, who was standing to the side.

The other person frowned deeply, their expression serious: "It's highly likely that a high-level Lustful Corpse Species has arrived in our Xilin Province!"

"Otherwise, the high-ranking Thousand-Faced Corpse Species of the Faceless Cult would never allow the Lustful Corpse Species to freely parasitize the low-ranking Corpse Species of their Corpse Clan!"

Upon hearing this, everyone felt a chill run down their spines.

"Higher-level" refers to the seventh level and above!

Wu You recalled the look in the eyes of that third-tier lustful corpse before it died.

unwilling.

What is it resentful about?

Was it because they were unwilling to be killed?

Or is it something else that you're unwilling to accept?

He didn't understand it at the time.

Looking back now, besides resentment, there seemed to be a hint of condescension...mockery in that last look?

It's as if it's saying: You think this is the end?

The infirmary suddenly fell silent.

The night outside the window was dark, and the light from the streetlights seeped in through the gaps in the curtains, casting a long, thin shadow on the floor.

Wu You leaned against the wall without saying a word.

But the uneasy thought in my mind became clearer and clearer.