279: I've watched too many zombie movies; I almost forgot I'm a cultivator.

"Please take a seat in the lobby for a moment, the four of you. I'll go arrange food and guest rooms for everyone."

Under the man's lead, the four of them quickly arrived at a place resembling an ancient restaurant lobby.

Many wooden tables and seats were set out here, and it wasn't as deserted as imagined.

Not far from them, there were three other tables of guests.

At one table sat an old man and a youth, dressed like Taoist priests. At another sat a burly man and a young woman. The remaining table was occupied by a fair-skinned scholar.

"Hu Hanzi, you're hosting so many guests here. Are you sure this isn't a restaurant? They can't all be your relatives, can they? If so, your family is truly flourishing."

Hu Hanzi was what the middle-aged man called himself.

His surname was Hu, and he was a local. He said that because his real name didn't sound good, he usually had people call him Hu Hanzi.

"This guest must be joking. How could I be worthy of claiming kinship with you Cultivators?"

"These are all guests staying here as well."

"As for why this place looks like an inn, it's because it actually used to be an inn."

"It's just that there's little traffic, so the inn is often empty, and we don't rely on this for a living."

"However, since the house is just sitting idle, we still tidy it up occasionally."

"When outsiders come by once in a while, we can earn some lodging money. After all, no one dislikes having more money, right?"

"Please have a seat, the four of you. I'll go get things ready."

Hu Hanzi greeted the four of them to sit down with a smile, then walked quickly toward the back kitchen.

"Senior Brother, something's not right."

"They've been watching us. I feel like they have ill intentions."

Wang Yao had a smile on his face, but he had already conveyed his concerns through the Little Smart. When he wasn't being reckless, he was consistently cautious, and it was showing now.

"Senior Brother Wang, *we* are the 'visitors' here," Niu Zhiyuan whispered a retort.

"I recognize that old man's clothes."

Jiang Hongyue's voice transmission made the two of them look at him subconsciously, but then they remembered they were in a state of voice transmission, making their reaction look very abrupt.

Fortunately, Jiang Hongyue reacted quickly, immediately pulling out four large flatbreads from his robe and gesturing for everyone to pad their stomachs first.

Seeing that the people at the three tables remained in an observant posture without further action, the three of them breathed a sigh of relief.

Only then did Jiang Hongyue continue his voice transmission.

"Although the Taoist robe on that old man is a bit tattered, one can still see it's the style of the Green Talisman Sect, which belongs to the Dao Sect lineage."

"As for that man, he should be a Body Cultivator, and that woman is likely his Dual Cultivation Dao Companion. There is still a connection of Dharmic power between them. They probably practice some unorthodox Dual Cultivation method, which is why the connection is so obvious; they should be Loose Cultivators."

"As for that fair-faced scholar, I can't see his origins. Logically, a scholar who follows the Path of Humanities should have Literary Aura protecting them, but he has none. He might just be dressed up as a scholar."

Jiang Hongyue was indeed an old hand in the Jianghu.

Zhou Yan retracted his previous thought that the three were all useless; at least in terms of experience and knowledge, Jiang Hongyue was quite reliable.

"Brother Jiang's analysis is more thorough than mine. The backgrounds of the first two tables are mostly clear, so let me supplement the last one," Zhou Yan transmitted. "That pretty boy is a zombie, a pure, big zombie. It's just that his strength is very weak, even worse than a typical Foundation Establishment Initial Stage Cultivator."

Hearing this, the three of them all stole glances at the scholar, intentionally or otherwise. The other party was currently swaying a folding fan and sipping wine in small gulps, unaware that his true nature had been seen through.

Logically, with Zhou Yan's Nascent Soul Mid-Stage Divine Sense, it would have been easy to see he was a zombie anyway. But because this fellow was even more 'cooperative'—having a low Rank yet daring to carry a conspicuous red-name tag—he was completely exposed in Zhou Yan's eyes.

This allowed Zhou Yan to know his identity even before scanning him with Divine Sense.

[Flying Zombie]

[Realm: Foundation Establishment Mid-Stage]

[Vitality: 13200/13200]

[Dharmic Power: 400/400]

This panel made even Zhou Yan feel it was pathetic.

According to what Niu Zhiyuan said before, if he used all his means, he could reach the level of the Foundation Establishment Initial Stage.

Then this fellow in front of them could probably be handled alone by even Niu Zhiyuan, the weakest among them.

Now that it was hiding in the crowd pretending to be a guest, combined with its strength, it should be one of the strongest one or two among the auras sensed earlier.

But then again, this thing was actually a Flying Zombie?

In the zombie movies he watched before, Flying Zombies were often depicted as thousand-year-old corpse kings, incredibly fierce. How did it become a common roadside encounter here?

If someone didn't know better, they'd think it was a Chinese goblin or a Chinese slime.

No, maybe there's an even more powerful character behind it, and it's just a small pawn.

Yes, it must be so.

"Food's here—"

Hu Hanzi's voice broke the silence in the lobby.

Soon, he and a young, beautiful woman arrived in the lobby with trays, making several trips to serve dishes to every table.

"Fellow Cultivators, my apologies! Since we don't rely on this for a living, we only know how to make some home-cooked stir-fry and can't take specific orders. Please bear with us, bear with us." The man wiped his sweat with a towel, apologizing to everyone with a face full of smiles.

"What are you saying, Hu Hanzi—Mmm, the flavor is really rich! Your food is truly delicious, you're too polite, mmm mmm..." Zhou Yan was like a hungry ghost reincarnated, finishing a dish in two or three bites. Before long, more than half the dishes on the table had entered his stomach.

"You idiot, you've eaten it all, we're still hungry!" Staying in character, Wang Yao used his chopsticks to knock away Zhou Yan's hand as it reached toward his own bowl.

Zhou Yan quickly pulled his hand back and gave a foolish grin.

Hu Hanzi was also somewhat surprised to see Zhou Yan's appetite.

"Don't be in a hurry, guests. It was our poor preparation. I'll have my wife stir-fry a few more dishes right away."

"Good, good, good! I, Ma Hao, am not full yet, hurry up and bring more!" Zhou Yan held his stomach, drool dripping from the corner of his mouth, constantly throwing mud at Ma Hao's name.

Even though this was the Northern Territory and Ma Hao himself couldn't see it, Zhou Yan felt very satisfied in his heart.

"That's enough, you idiot!" Wang Yao interrupted him again, reaching out to stop him. "Hu Hanzi, go on with your business. The remaining dishes are enough for us to eat."

"When traveling abroad, we're used to only eating until we're half-full."

"But I'm not even half-full..." Zhou Yan sucked on his finger with a look of grievance, but was quickly glared back into silence by the other three.

Hu Hanzi took his leave with a smile and went to the back kitchen with his wife to get wine for everyone.

Wang Yao sat back down and began to eat the remaining food.

He ate the most, Jiang Hongyue was second, and Niu Zhiyuan ate the least.

And all of this was seen by the people at the other three tables.

A flash of contempt flickered in the Body Cultivator's eyes, specifically directed at Zhou Yan, before he and his companion withdrew their gaze. There was no obvious change in the old Taoist's eyes, but he also stopped watching. Only the scholar still looked toward them with a smile from time to time.

The lobby returned to silence, but it wasn't complete silence.

In fact, except for the scholar's table, the other three tables had all deployed rather crude soundproofing Spells and were communicating in secret.

Of course, the soundproofing at Zhou Yan's table was fake. The things they talked about inside were pre-planned passerby content, as if they were completely oblivious to their surroundings. The real discussion had already broken out intensely in the Little Smart.

"Senior Brother, is it really okay for us to eat these things?"

"It's fine, your condition is very good."

After answering this sentence, Zhou Yan stopped replying and instead used his Divine Sense to observe the floating bubbles above the other tables.

The one who had just used voice transmission was Niu Zhiyuan.

In fact, when the food was just served, Zhou Yan had already updated the intelligence.

That young and beautiful woman, the so-called wife of Hu Hanzi, was actually also a zombie, just much weaker than the scholar.

The large age gap in their appearance made sense then; they were originally from the same generation and were both nearly forty. It was just that the woman had died long ago, and dead people naturally appeared younger.

And the food they served was not simple either.

The ingredients were normal, but they were drugged and also had a certain special Spell attached, like some kind of mark.

This was the reason why Zhou Yan had rushed to eat most of the dishes just now.

Because these drugs could even affect Foundation Establishment Cultivators, so to prevent accidents, Zhou Yan arranged for the three to only eat a small amount, retaining only the mark.

At the same time, he had applied methods on them that could eliminate the mark at any time.

In addition, since they were disguising themselves as ordinary Qi Refining Cultivators from the start, eating little wouldn't arouse suspicion. After all, that small dosage was already enough to make a normal Qi Refining Cultivator lose all their Dharmic power.

Niu Zhiyuan ate the least, also for fear that he wouldn't be able to withstand it and would suffer an early onset.

But Niu Zhiyuan was very capable; his body completely withstood this force.

So next, they only needed the whole team to apply disguise Spells and put on a weak appearance.

As for the other tables.

"Master, didn't we come to eliminate zombies? Why don't we join forces with other Fellow Daoists? That way our chances of winning would be greater." The Taoist boy asked in a low voice while eating.

The old Taoist stroked his beard and said meaningfully.

"Disciple, remember, when traveling the Jianghu, the ones you need to guard against most are your peers. Look at that pair of Dao Companions and that scholar. They obviously also learned that a high-level zombie is appearing here and want to come kill it for the reward money."

"If it were normal competition, it would be fine. But that pair of Dao Companions practices a Dual Cultivation Technique and doesn't look very upright. Maybe it's a path leaked from a Demon Sect or a demonic cult."

"Those who practice this kind of technique are mostly not good sorts and are very likely to stab you in the back."

"As for that scholar, he's the most troublesome. Dressed entirely like a scholar, yet without half a bit of Noble Qi. Maybe he's simply an Evil Cultivator."

"Never mind cooperation; I'm afraid after we eliminate the zombie, we'll still have to have a go at him to act on behalf of Heaven."

The little Taoist boy listened with a face full of admiration, not expecting there to be so many intricacies. The old Taoist was very pleased with this look, and his beard-stroking motion quickened a bit.

But the little Taoist boy remembered something else and asked in a low voice.

"Then what about those weird people who just arrived?"

The old Taoist stopped stroking his beard, his peripheral vision glancing at the table of four who seemed to be chatting animatedly.

"Just a motley crew. Cooperating with them would require the extra effort of protecting them; it's not worth the loss."

In Zhou Yan's eyes, he looked like this:

[Wandering Taoist]

[Realm: Foundation Establishment Initial Stage]

[Vitality: 10020/11000]

[Dharmic Power: 390/400]