It actually worked?
Chen Zhou couldn't hide his ecstasy.
Although the zombies lacked souls—meaning he couldn't obtain common souls—and their mangled limbs meant he couldn't gather a single complete portion of each material, this was already beyond his expectations.
Resources were scarce in the post-apocalyptic world.
But the one thing it didn't lack was zombies.
Chen Zhou watched as the netherflame finished dismantling the corpses and diligently moved the materials into the altar's storage. The flickering green flame would occasionally turn back and sway, as if it were looking for praise.
Chen Zhou couldn't help but let out a satisfied smile.
He wasn't afraid of the hard work; he was only afraid of having no work to do.
Instantly filled with motivation, Chen Zhou rolled up his non-existent sleeves, prepared to dive into the grind.
He was going to spend the whole night farming this small secret realm instance!
Having confirmed that the outer perimeter of the secret realm posed no threat to him, Chen Zhou sent both the skeleton and the Bone Snake to explore the instance.
As for the netherflame, he decided against it.
It truly lacked any combat power, so it was better off staying behind for moral support.
Receiving its orders, the blank-faced skeleton walked with a rhythmic 'clack-clack,' following the lifeless Bone Snake. They crossed the Dead Man's Stele once more and entered the Living Dead Secret Realm.
The sight of the dilapidated residential compound unfolded again.
Fallen streetlights lay slanted by the roadside, and shattered glass shards mixed with blackened blood covered the ground.
Just as they stepped into the secret realm, two zombies wandered over from around a corner.
But they showed absolutely no interest in the two skeletal frames. To a zombie, only the living were targets for attack.
Even if they were attacked later, as long as the sound wasn't too loud, they would react like inanimate wooden posts, never proactively counterattacking.
'This is incredibly convenient!' Chen Zhou observed through their shared senses, his heart feeling even more at ease.
The Bone Snake shot out like a streak of white lightning, its body coiling tightly around the torsos of the two zombies.
Sharp bone spurs protruded from the Bone Snake's surface, stabbing deep into the zombies' abdomens. Even though zombie flesh was far tougher than that of ordinary creatures, the bone spurs still sank in halfway.
The two zombies were oblivious, their cloudy, rotting eyeballs even showing a hint of bewilderment.
Half of one zombie's cheek had rotted away, exposing pale gums. It instinctively tried to bite something, only to collide with the incredibly hard bone spurs.
This left the zombie even more confused, its arms flailing aimlessly.
'It really is a natural counter,' Chen Zhou smiled, controlling the skeleton to step forward.
Compared to the Bone Snake's agility, the skeleton's movement was much slower.
It could only sway step by step until it reached the restrained zombies.
By then, the zombies had been firmly bound by the Bone Snake, rendered completely incapable of resistance.
The skeleton reached out its bony palms, easily grasping both sides of one zombie's head.
Dried bone rubbed against rotting flesh, producing a squelching, nauseating sound.
Fortunately, the sound was faint and masked by the zombie's unconscious groans, failing to alert the other zombies in the distance.
The bony palms tightened until, with a soft 'crack,' the zombie's cervical vertebrae were snapped. Its head lolled to one side, and it went completely still.
The skeleton repeated the process for the other zombie.
Soon, the Bone Snake dragged the two corpses back into the Ghost Domain.
Chen Zhou pinched the netherflame as it drifted in the air, signaling for it to process the materials.
The little netherflame seemed greatly encouraged.
The green flame swayed joyfully, circling Chen Zhou's finger twice in a friendly manner before puffing out its chest and floating proudly to the corpses, working hard to dismantle them with its flames.
【You obtained Common Flesh x1.7, Common Blood x0.3, Common Bone Material x1.9】
Outside the Ghost Domain.
The shimmering white curtain of light vanished completely as the Bone Altar faded away. The cold wind of the Dead Man's Forest swirled with withered leaves.
The snake demon’s dark green blood had pooled on the ground, emitting a pungent, metallic stench.
Yet the refugees present acted as if they couldn't smell it. They remained frozen in place for a long time before they dared to breathe slowly.
Widow Li’s voice was hoarse as her tearful curses mixed with her sobs, falling onto Shitou's mud-stained collar.
She cursed while staring fixedly at the spot where the evil spirit had disappeared, her eyes filled with lingering fear and terror.
When the evil spirit’s bony palm had landed on Shitou's head earlier, she thought her son was doomed. Even as she closed her eyes, she had been thinking about what she would do if Shitou was gone too.
But the evil spirit hadn't struck. Instead, it had taken the snake demon’s corpse and left.
This left her both relieved and terrified, and her fear of the evil spirit was now mixed with a complex, indefinable emotion.
"Mother, the Lord Evil Spirit didn't kill me," Shitou spoke softly. His voice still trembled slightly, but it was exceptionally clear.
These words seemed to wake the others.
A man wearing a tattered padded jacket suddenly sat up, his hands frantically feeling his body as if to confirm his limbs were still intact.
"Yeah... I thought the evil spirit was definitely going to finish us off too..." he muttered, his tone full of disbelief.
Beside him, Li Dazhu lay paralyzed on the ground, his hands propped up against the earth. His fingernails were filled with mud, and his face was as pale as paper.
He had just seen that skeleton crush the snake demon’s head with his own eyes and heard the crisp sound of bone shattering. Now, whenever he closed his eyes, that image surfaced vividly, making the hair on his neck stand on end.
"Damn... that wasn't just an evil spirit... that was a reaper sent by the King of Hell himself!"
He suddenly cursed, his voice shaking. "That snake demon was so powerful, not even blades or spears could pierce it, yet its head was crushed in one claw... We were so close to that thing just now, and we're actually not dead?"
"It could even kill a snake demon. If it wanted to kill us, wouldn't it be as easy as crushing ants?" the man in the tattered jacket agreed.
"But it didn't kill us..." another woman whispered, clutching a tattered cloth bundle containing her last bit of dry rations.
Her voice was as faint as a mosquito. "It even... it even stroked Shitou's head... Do you think it felt Shitou was a good child and couldn't bear to strike?"
Zhao Laoshan sat still.
He looked toward where the light curtain had vanished, his gaze complicated.
He muttered to himself, "Strange... truly strange... an evil spirit in the Dead Man's Forest that doesn't kill, but actually saves people..."
Shitou was being squeezed so hard by his mother he could barely breathe, but he didn't struggle.
He spoke up slowly, "Maybe it's because I already gave my soul to the Lord Evil Spirit."
"Your soul? What soul?" Widow Li was startled. She immediately let go of her son and nervously examined his face as if trying to see if anything was wrong.
"Tell Mother clearly, what happened?"
Shitou steadied himself and explained everything to the crowd: how he had made a wish in his heart during the moment of peril, and how the skeleton had carved a mysterious contract on the ground.
As soon as he said this, it caused a massive stir.
The man in the tattered jacket's mouth fell open, and Li Dazhu forgot his fear, staring straight at Shitou.
Even Zhao Laoshan stopped his muttering, his eyes wide with shock.
Shitou lowered his head, looking at his mud-stained hands.
He remembered a story a city person had told in the village once.
They said that if an immortal accepts a mortal's offerings, they will protect the land.
Since the evil spirit had taken his soul, did that count as protecting him once?
He touched the top of his head again. There was nothing out of the ordinary, but he felt as though he had formed some kind of connection with that Lord Evil Spirit.
From now on, he belonged to the Lord Evil Spirit. Surely, the Lord Evil Spirit wouldn't let him be bullied by demons anymore, right?
Rate on N.U.
