Chen Zhou's thoughts had just pulled away from his contemplation of the Golden Buddha when another notification on the system panel, which had been set aside for a long time, caught his eye.
【Side Quest: Explore the Living Dead Secret Realm】
【Exploration Progress: 0%】
Chen Zhou rubbed his temples.
He had always viewed the secret realm as a steady source of materials. The skeletons had been hauling resources day and night, and including what had already been consumed, he had accumulated hundreds of thousands of various materials to date.
Converted into zombies, that was roughly equivalent to two hundred thousand of them.
This number sounded massive, but for the total zombie population of a city, it was a mere drop in the bucket, let alone for the vast secret realm.
The quest progress bar had remained stagnant for a long time, as if the ruins shrouded in corpse poison were bottomless.
Ordinary zombies, even mutants, mostly hovered between the 1st and 2nd stages. It was absolutely impossible for a 3rd-stage skeleton to disappear completely without being able to send out even a single warning.
Chen Zhou issued a command, ordering nearby skeletons to immediately converge on the coordinates of the loss of contact. At the same time, he synchronized his consciousness and projected it into the secret realm.
The five nearest skeletons quickly arrived at the location where the signal was lost.
Rusted gym equipment, a dried-up fountain pool, and weeds that had grown waist-high—this was a dilapidated park shrouded in green corpse poison.
Oddly, zombies were unusually scarce here, with only a few strays wandering aimlessly in the distance.
Logically, this shouldn't be the case. Before the apocalypse, the park would have been a high-traffic area; the zombies couldn't have vanished for no reason.
Chen Zhou controlled the skeletons to conduct a careful survey and soon found traces of battle.
The ground was sprayed with the thick black blood characteristic of zombies. Several sets of claw marks were clearly visible, along with a prominent trail of dragged blood extending deep into the park.
Following the blood trail, the skeletons bypassed a flowerbed that contained only soil and residual roots. There, they saw a strangely-shaped creature crouching on the ground, gnawing on a relatively fresh zombie corpse.
The thing was nearly ten meters long and shaped like a leopard, but its entire body was covered in dull, dark scales. Pale bone spikes protruded from its joints.
Scattered nearby were several zombie limbs that had been gnawed to pieces, along with puddles of excrement that emitted a pungent odor.
Chen Zhou's expression instantly became peculiar.
"A Bone-Eroding Beast..."
'Wasn't this the Bone-Eroding Beast, a mutated beast that had terrified people in his past life?'
Bone-Eroding Beasts fed on humans. Their powerful stomach acid could easily digest even bones. When they couldn't find fresh humans, they didn't mind filling their bellies with zombies.
Many weakly defended human settlements had been overrun by these mutated beasts appearing in packs, eventually turning into hunting grounds.
But the problem was, how could a Bone-Eroding Beast appear here?
This was just a secret realm obtained from a system draw. Why would something unique to his past life appear here?
Chen Zhou had dealt with mutated beasts many times in his past life and was very familiar with their habits.
The Bone-Eroding Beast before him had clearly nested here for some time, treating the park as its hunting territory.
With a thought from Chen Zhou, the five 3rd-stage skeletons lunged simultaneously, their bone claws sharp as blades, slashing toward the Bone-Eroding Beast.
The Bone-Eroding Beast reacted extremely quickly. It let out a raspy roar, its scales standing on end as it tried to use its speed to dodge and counterattack.
But the strength and speed of the skeletons far exceeded its estimations. In just a single encounter, sharp bone claws easily sliced through its scales and shredded its internal organs.
A ferocious beast that required heavy firepower to handle in his past life appeared so vulnerable before Chen Zhou's current Ghost Servants; its strength was likely only hovering around the early 3rd-stage.
"It wasn't this one."
Chen Zhou immediately judged that while this Bone-Eroding Beast was a threat, it was impossible for it to instantly kill another skeleton of the same stage without it even being able to transmit information.
More skeletons arrived afterward. Under Chen Zhou's command, they began a carpet-style search and cleanup centered around the park.
After a period of work, they indeed killed five or six more Bone-Eroding Beasts lurking in the grass or ruined buildings. The scarcity of zombies in the park was clearly their doing.
But other than that, no stronger existences were found.
'What on earth killed my skeleton in an instant?'
Chen Zhou was thoroughly puzzled, but he still had the skeletons carry the corpses of the Bone-Eroding Beasts out of the secret realm one by one. After all, it was 3rd-stage flesh and blood; it couldn't go to waste.
He then summoned a new skeleton to fill the vacancy and ordered all Ghost Servants active in the secret realm to be doubly vigilant, paying special attention to any new anomalies in the park area.
Just as he was about to withdraw his consciousness from the secret realm, his peripheral vision glanced at the quest panel.
【Side Quest: Explore the Living Dead Secret Realm】
【Exploration Progress: 0.01%】
'Is it because clearing these Bone-Eroding Beasts, which don't belong to the secret realm, counts as truly starting the exploration?'
'Or is it... that killing them touched upon a deeper secret of this realm?'
Regardless, this 0.01% progress was like a key that had finally pried open a corner of the gate to this treasure trove of the living dead.
The water in this secret realm was much deeper than he had imagined.
Lord Rat had finished eating the roast duck and was licking his paws with lingering desire, lying bored on the edge of the jade pavilion.
He used his long, thin tail to lazily slap the water on the clear side of the Blood-Prison Pool, teasing several golden carp inside.
These golden carp were spiritual beasts that had suddenly appeared in the pool over the past few days.
Spiritual beasts, like fiends, could occasionally be mutated from demons, but the vast majority were born from heaven and earth, favored by the world.
Perhaps because the City of the Wrongfully Dead was full of vitality and the Way of Humanity was flourishing, heavenly auspices had descended.
Several of the carp were exceptionally spirited. Their entire bodies displayed a warm and pure gilded gold color. Under the reflection of the Blood-Essence Jade at the bottom of the pool, their scales seemed to emit their own light.
Lord Rat had long wanted to catch the carp and grill them for food. The deliciousness of spiritual beast meat was famous.
However, under Chen Zhou's stern refusal, he could only give up.
When Lord Rat looked up, he caught sight of the several corpses Chen Zhou had just brought out from the secret realm and placed on the ground. He tilted his head, his small crimson eyes filled with disgust.
"What are these ugly things now?"
"Bone-Eroding Beasts," Chen Zhou said succinctly, then casually asked back, "You've never seen them?"
Lord Rat flicked his tail, shaking his head with total indifference, looking completely uninterested.
"Never seen 'em. In all my years of... ahem, traveling, I've truly never seen such things that are neither demon nor fiend, neither ghost nor monster."
Hearing this, Chen Zhou's heart stirred.
Even Lord Rat, a fiend who had lived for over three hundred years, had never seen a Bone-Eroding Beast. This almost confirmed his suspicion: mutated beasts were likely not native creatures of this world.
Lord Rat commented, "They look weirdly shaped. They're all hard and boney; they clearly don't look like they'd taste good."
"They're indeed not for eating," Chen Zhou smiled. "But you can try if you want. Maybe they're actually quite tasty."
In his past life, it was common knowledge that mutated beast meat contained lethal viruses. Even the hungriest drifter would not consume the flesh and blood of a mutated beast.
Rate on N.U.
