Translator: Atlas Studios
Editor: Atlas Studios
Thud, thud, thud.
Footsteps were heard behind Feng Tiegen.
The sole of the black corpse’s foot, which was covered with thick blood, rubbed against the fine gravel of the cement pavement. In the silent night, this sound seemed extremely ear-piercing.
Feng Tiegen did not dare turn back. He only moved his fractured ankle with all his might and staggered forward.
The intense pain that stung his brain had to be ignored in times of fear, as he was trying to survive.
Crack.
The sound of broken bones was so clear that Feng Tiegen stumbled and fell to the ground. He struggled to turn around and looked at the thin zombie. His face was covered in tears, mucus, and dust.
The black corpse bent its back and slowly trod over to Feng Tiegen. An indescribable bright red internal organ was dropped from its mouth, which had no gums. Only its blank expression was left.
As it bent its waist, its long, sharp fingernails swayed in the wind and were unconsciously dragged along the ground.
Amid the ear-piercing noise, the cement surface had been torn and embedded with deep marks by the fingernails.
“Mother!” Feng Tiegen’s tears and mucus flowed down quickly as he shouted himself hoarse. “Mother, I didn’t mean to starve you to death! It was Zhang Cuifang! That woman wouldn’t give you anything to eat!”
The black corpse turned a deaf ear to this.
Hatred, injustice, grievance, despair… These extreme emotions that had helped the deceased be reborn completely dominated the black corpse’s consciousness.
Besides vengeance, nothing could fit in its rotten mind.
Feng Tiegen faced the black corpse and sat down weakly on the ground before he moved backward on his hands and feet.
“I’m Tiegen! Tiegen! I’m your son! Mother! Do you remember? Father passed away early and you raised me with difficulty.
“One year, the village suffered a natural disaster. No family had anything to eat. You had been upright for an entire lifetime, but in order to provide for me and my grandmother, you had to steal food. You stole food from the communal windmill.
“When they realized that food was decreasing, they started to search strictly to prevent smuggling.
“Left with no choice, you could only secretly run to the windmill before you got off work. While it was still dusk, you swallowed the dry, coarse food.
“Grandmother and I were dizzy from hunger. When you got home, you looked very red. You bent down next to the wooden basin and started to retch.
“The peas, saliva, and smell of blood all fell into the wooden basin.
“You looked up and smiled at me before saying hoarsely, ‘My son, we are saved.’
“Day by day, grandmother and I did not need to feel hungry anymore. On the other hand, you lost weight and started looking like a reed. However, our family managed to survive the famine.”
Feng Tiegen’s eyes were red as he knelt toward his mother’s corpse and wailed. “Mother! I’ve let you down. I’m not a human, mother.”
The black corpse stopped in its tracks and stood in front of its son with a strange expression flashing across its shriveled, ugly face.
It trembled as it bent down and reached out to hug Feng Tiegen.
Feng Tiegen was happy. However, a second later, the black corpse strangled him with both hands.
Its hands clasped Feng Tiegen like steel pincers, causing his complexion to turn red and his veins to pop out.
“Mother…”
Feng Tiegen’s eyeballs popped out as he groaned and a word escaped from his throat.
Crack.
His bones broke and his internal organs ruptured. Feng Tiegen died like a pool of mud and slid from the embrace of the black corpse.
The black corpse stood in place and looked at the corpse at its feet in a daze. After some time, it squatted, cut open the corpse’s abdominal cavity, searched its guts and stomach, and chewed and swallowed them.
As it ate and blood entered its stomach, the zombie’s bark-like, shriveled skin gradually moistened and shone.
If its body had not decayed and its intelligence had not been obliterated, it would have wept and let out a peal of frantic laughter.
Unfortunately, there were no tears or smiles on its black face.
All of a sudden, the black corpse chewing on the internal organs smelled the breath of a living person. It then lifted its head and looked at the woods on top of the stone wall of Panshan Road.
Li Ang emerged from the trees and jumped off the stone wall before standing on the road.
By using his mask to decrease his presence, he had been hiding in the forest and peeping for over ten minutes as he’d silently watched the black corpse take vengeance.
“Someone is responsible for every grievance, and there is a debtor for every debt. Seek revenge if you have a feud, and seek injustice if you have been wronged.”
Without caring whether the black corpse could understand, Li Ang said calmly, “Zombies gather the grievances, bad luck, and Yin Qi of the world to be born. They use grievances as strength and feed on flesh. I won’t stop you from taking revenge. However, since the hatred resulting from your grievance has been written off, it’s time you went on your way.”
The black corpse did not utter a word. Its eyes were completely red and only two extremely pure emotions were left in them.
Hunger and appetite.
“Can’t I communicate with it anymore?” Li Ang sighed lightly while he stood there, facing the black corpse quietly in the night. The minivan, which had slammed into the stone pile, was exuding light smoke and seemed to finally be unable to support itself. The headlights flickered and dimmed gradually.
When the headlights went out, the black corpse moved.
Its figure was like a spirit striding and crossing a distance of tens of meters as light as a feather before arriving with a flash in front of Li Ang and waving its hands.
The long and narrow fingernails cut the air and made a sharp, piercing sound. Li Ang, who had been prepared, was on the ground with both legs as hard as cast iron. His upper body was straight as a board while he leaned back.
Before Li Ang, who had avoided the claw strike, got up, he picked up a short-barreled shotgun that was loaded with steel ball bullets and shot diagonally at the black corpse’s chest.
Gunshots roared and pellets were fired. Although the zombie had black hairs all over its body for protection, it also took a few steps back due to the huge and sudden impact force.
Then, Li Ang straightened his back, changed bullets, and shot the black corpse without looking at it.
The steel ball flew out and completely smashed the black corpse’s burial clothes. However, it was blocked by its black messy long hair, which made it difficult to penetrate it.
Li Ang quickly changed bullets. While he fired, he also retreated. After taking a few steps, he dodged into the forest and hid from sight.
The black corpse trod on the ground fiercely. Its small, simple shoes stomped out and created dips on the surface of the concrete as it quickly leaped into the forest.
The forest was lush with leaves and branches grew everywhere. It was dark and silent.
The zombie stepped on the pile of soft, withered leaves and sniffed lightly.
Suddenly, it raised its head, only to see a shadow descend from the sky. It was Li Ang, who had been crouching on the treetop a dozen meters high.
While he relied on the weakened presence created by the Face-Changing Mask, he evaded the black corpse’s smart perception. As the other party raised its head, Li Ang jumped up and fell freely under the force of gravity, holding the ax in his right hand and the gun in his left hand. Thanks to the force of gravity, an ax slashed the crown of the black corpse.
The black corpse only had enough time to raise its left arm to block its front.
The camping ax, which was made of high-quality 420 steel, was tough and sharp. The curved ax blade tore its black hair on the surface without restraint and dug into the zombie’s contracted and withered arm, leaving a deep wound around it.
Before the black corpse could move, Li Ang, who had stepped on the pile of soft fallen leaves, stood firmly and held the short-barreled shotgun in his left hand before pressing the muzzle directly under the left ulnar of the black corpse’s arm.
Li Ang pulled the trigger. With a bang, densely-packed steel balls were embedded in the black hair on the zombie’s arm.
It was true that this black hair of unknown constitution could withstand the impact of the weakened bullet. However, at such close proximity, the shotgun bullet still smashed the black corpse’s left arm bones into pieces.
Its entire arm hung down like plasticine.
The black long hair on its left arm swayed in the wind, trying to hook the ax blade. However, the stainless steel ax blade had been coated with anti-corrosion and now had an oxidation coating. Thus, it easily broke free from the restraints of the black hair just like a heartless man.
Li Ang pulled out his ax and slashed hard at the black corpse’s neck diagonally.