After about ten minutes, Wu Shuang finished clearing away all the clutter piled at the doorway.
Planning to travel light this time, he left his backpack behind, equipping only his Thrusting Shield, dagger, and a meat cleaver he had pulled out of the cellar. It was of crude quality, likely used by the grave digger for dismembering corpses, but it would do for now.
Taking a deep breath, he unhooked the shovel hanging by the door and burst outside, glancing left and right. He ran a few steps before coming to a stop, gradually easing his tension.
There were no living corpses outside. After all, several hours had passed and goblins had been through here, so most of the living corpses had likely wandered off or even returned home, leaving very few behind.
Once Wu Shuang confirmed it was safe, he prepared to head to the front yard of the Sea God Sanctuary to retrieve his dropped weapon and clear out the living corpses inside the sanctuary. Only after completing these tasks could the grave digging begin.
Just as he stepped forward, however, his attention was drawn to a headstone not far away.
It was a very plain stone slab, looking like a large rock picked up from the roadside with one side shaved flat, standing quietly there.
This was the only grave in the sanctuary's backyard, which was quite unnatural. Surrounding it was a patch of rare green grass, making the place look even stranger—almost like a pristine oasis in a ruined world.
Furthermore, during the pitch-black night earlier, this grave had emitted a golden light that saved Wu Shuang's life.
He walked toward the headstone while remaining on high alert for any living corpses that might leap out from behind him. Coming to a halt before the grave, he looked at the inscription written on it...
"I abandon my soul here."
Wu Shuang frowned, unable to understand what it meant.
The headstone bore only this baffling sentence, lacking any details like the tomb owner's name, life story, time of death, date of burial, or who erected the marker.
"What on earth is buried in here?"
Wu Shuang wondered aloud. After pondering for a moment, he cast the Appraisal Spell on the gravestone.
【Mysterious Gravestone】
【Description: A headstone erected by an unknown person. It seems their soul is buried inside.】
...
Uh...
That appraisal was completely useless, wasting a point of Wu Shuang's mana.
He began to feel torn, hesitating over whether he should disturb this grave. After all, it had saved his life.
However, his hesitation lasted only a few seconds before he reached a decision. He would dig it up. He suspected a secret treasure was buried inside, something tied to Humanity—specifically Golden Humanity—which could be the key to breaking his current predicament.
As for the risk... compared to the potential gains, it wasn't worth mentioning at all.
If there was a price to pay, Wu Shuang was willing to accept it, even if it meant being bitten to death by some giant zombie buried in the grave.
He lingered by the grave for a moment before setting off again toward the front yard of the Sea God Sanctuary.
Reaching the corner, he slowed his steps to make as little sound as possible. Hearing an unusual noise, he peeked around the corner.
There were living corpses in the front yard—two of them in total.
One had its back turned to Wu Shuang, seemingly dazed, its head occasionally twitching left and right.
The other was lying on the ground, gnawing on a thigh bone next to the grave digger's corpse, which had been eaten down almost to a skeleton.
The distance between the two living corpses was roughly five meters. The standing one was holding Wu Shuang's hand axe, likely picked up from the ground.
Separating the two living corpses wouldn't be easy; he would have to face both at the same time.
Wu Shuang had previously tried his best to avoid one-against-many situations because they were too dangerous, but this time it was unavoidable. He had to take the risk.
Besides, he had to take this step sooner or later. He needed to get used to fighting multiple targets at once, and now was the time.
Wu Shuang tightened his grip on the Thrusting Shield in his left hand and glanced at his stamina—87%, a decent recovery since he had slept for a bit in the cellar.
Taking a deep breath, he raised his shield and charged toward the standing living corpse whose back was to him. The distance between them was less than twenty-five meters. By the time the creature heard the commotion and turned around, Wu Shuang was already right upon it.
Pfft!
Crack!
Two distinct sounds rang out almost simultaneously.
Wu Shuang slammed his Thrusting Shield hard into the living corpse's chest, sinking the spikes fully into its flesh.
The moment he started running, he had noticed something special about the shield: it felt significantly heavier, as if its weight had doubled, and its impact force was greatly increased. The hit sent the living corpse flying backward, snapping several ribs and spraying foul blood along with chunks of flesh.
Taking out one first would leave him with a familiar one-on-one once the other one got up.
Wu Shuang regained his balance and quickly took two steps forward, raising the meat cleaver in his hand before bringing it down in a diagonal slash at the corpse attempting to rise. The blade sank two-thirds of the way in, nearly severing its neck in a single strike.
However, when he tried to pull the cleaver back out, an accident occurred—the rusty piece of trash got stuck in the zombie's neck! Yanking hard failed to dislodge it, and he was nearly bitten in the process.
Fortunately, Wu Shuang let go in time. The living corpse only caught his sleeve before being kicked away, tearing the fabric.
Just as Wu Shuang prepared to finish it off, he spotted something else. Letting out a quiet "Holy shit!", he hurriedly snatched his hand axe off the ground, turned around, and bolted without a moment's hesitation.
Not only had the eating corpse on the ground gotten to its feet, but two more fucking living corpses had walked out from inside the ruined Sea God Sanctuary! Blind spots had hidden them from view earlier, but now all of them were giving chase.
Wu Shuang might have risked his life to fight two, but fighting four was pure suicide. So he sprinted off—hesitating for even a second would be a complete lack of respect for getting ganked. He abandoned the cleaver entirely, retrieving only the hand axe he had knocked loose during his collision.
"Fuck, I was careless!"
Wu Shuang cursed inwardly, suffering from his own lack of experience. He hadn't expected living corpses to be hiding in the blind spots inside that ruined building.
Three living corpses pursued Wu Shuang from behind, chasing him in a loop around the Sea God Sanctuary in the yard.
Before long, Wu Shuang had completed a lap and returned to the front yard, but the pursuing living corpses were still far behind, almost as if they had lost track of him.
In terms of raw speed, Wu Shuang was by no means inferior; in fact, he was well ahead.
Realizing this, he began devising a plan and slowed his pace. Moments later, he spotted the fourth living corpse up ahead—the one whose neck spine Wu Shuang had nearly severed—staggering forward with its head tilted at an odd angle.
This fellow was actually chasing as well, but because it was so slow and off-balance, Wu Shuang ended up catching up to it from behind instead.
A feasible strategy formed in Wu Shuang's mind: he could use the terrain to separate the living corpses, avoid a group fight, and take them down one by one.
No time like the present—he had to kill these living corpses while his stamina was still high. Raising his shield, he slammed into the corpse ahead once more. The hit was much lighter this time, but the creature could barely stand to begin with and collapsed at the slightest touch. Wu Shuang then stomped down hard on the spine of the cleaver blade stuck in its neck, forcibly separating its head from its body.
Rate on N.U.
