281: Accumulated Yin Land

"This is truly the last of our strength!"

Zhou Yan coughed up a mouthful of fresh blood; Wang Yao and the others were also clearly in poor condition.

Just moments ago, the Female Corpse and the scholar had seized another opportunity, severely wounding the three of them and nearly killing them.

At the critical moment, Wang Yao and the others transferred their remaining "mana" to Zhou Yan, allowing him to summon the Room Sun Rabbit once again.

But things rarely go well three times in a row; this was already the third time Zhou Yan had saved the day.

During the second time, the Room Sun Rabbit had barely half-manifested before being crushed by the scholar.

Therefore, they weren't certain if Zhou Yan could summon the rabbit again.

The only certainty was that they couldn't let the scholar succeed this time; they had to protect the Room Sun Rabbit. As long as it remained, they still had a chance at life.

If they failed again, there would likely be no hope left.

And if they failed again, Zhou Yan felt he wouldn't be able to keep up the act much longer.

There was no other way; this group of teammates was simply too unreliable.

He had originally thought those two little zombies were weak enough. Logically, they shouldn't have been a match for Cultivators of the same level; after all, they were just ordinary people in life and knew no Spells at all.

After becoming zombies, they were even more heavily restricted, and their panel was nowhere near as comprehensive as that of an ordinary Cultivator.

But things turned out to be just that ridiculous.

That pair of Loose Cultivators looked to have a decent Aura, but their combined attack technique only worked half the time—they were pure amateurs.

The Old Daoist Priest had talked big earlier, but in reality, he was old and frail; once someone got close, his combat strength plummeted.

For a Cultivator with a Sect background to still be stuck at the Foundation Establishment Initial Stage at this age, he either neglected his Cultivate in his youth or simply had terrible talent.

Whichever it was, he was considered weak even within the Foundation Establishment Stage.

If not for his decent lineage and the fact that his Talismans did have some effect, his usefulness might have been less than that of the two Qi Refining Cultivators.

Fortunately, after another round of supplementary healing and the combined efforts of the three, they finally managed to kill the scholar and the Female Corpse.

At this moment, the two Loose Cultivators were in very poor shape.

The Middle-aged Man's face was deathly pale, his blood and Qi severely depleted—it seemed even the body tempering techniques he practiced weren't from a legitimate source. The female Cultivator, meanwhile, had exhausted her mana and was unable to fight any longer.

In contrast, the old Daoist, because he mainly relied on Talismans and Spells and was rarely approached, could still support his Physical Body despite his mana being at rock bottom. However, his injuries were not light, making his already aging body even harder to sustain.

But he could presumably still rely on his Physical Body to fight for a few more rounds.

Thus, with the old Daoist's assistance, Zhou Yan's "slacker group" quickly cleared out the remaining zombies.

Zhou Yan calculated in his mind: there were fourteen Qi Refining level zombies, forty-nine ordinary zombies, and only the two Foundation Establishment ones from just now.

Judging by the Aura, it basically matched the numbers they had scouted during the day.

Aside from that mysterious Aura and the missing Niu Zhiyuan, the zombies seemed to have been wiped clean.

But Zhou Yan still felt something was wrong. Everything seemed too smooth—abnormally smooth.

Setting aside the possible "unknown existence," Niu Zhiyuan, who could control so many zombies, couldn't possibly be an ordinary person.

But since the other party hadn't taken this chance to come back for revenge and had instead vanished without a sound—at least, he couldn't be detected under Zhou Yan's cautious Divine Sense scan.

"It's finally over... damn it, I really thought I was going to kick the bucket this time!"

The Middle-aged Man leaned against the wall of Niu Zhiyuan's house, sat down heavily, and took out two large clumps of bloody pig-blood grain from his Storage Pouch, devouring them in large bites.

After swallowing the two blood clumps in a few bites, his condition began to slowly recover.

The female Cultivator took out a water skin and tilted her head back to gulp it down.

A sweep of Zhou Yan's Divine Sense revealed it was just first-grade healing Medicinal Pills dissolved in wine to slightly enhance the efficacy and reduce waste, but it was the first time he had seen such a pathetic way of recovery.

Only the Old Daoist Priest properly took a Medicinal Pill to regulate his breathing. After taking the medicine, his complexion reddened considerably. Seeing Zhou Yan looking at him, he stepped forward and gave a deep bow.

"Greetings, Fellow Daoist. I am Wei Cheng of the Blue Talisman Sect. Having fallen into trouble here today, I was fortunate to have your help. If you ever have need in the future, you may come to the Blue Talisman Sect to find me; I will certainly repay this debt."

After speaking, he bowed again and pulled his disciple over to bow as well.

Zhou Yan hurriedly helped the two up, looking quite flattered.

"Daoist, you overstate it. This time we relied entirely on you and those two Fellow Daoists; otherwise, my three brothers and I would likely have perished already."

"Moreover, my strength is the weakest among everyone. If I didn't happen to know a bit of detoxification and healing Spells, I'm afraid I would have been a burden instead. Not to mention the final Spell was only cast with the help of my brothers. How can this be counted as my merit alone?"

The old Daoist was about to respond when he was interrupted by Jiang Hongyue.

"Daoist, please wait with the thanks. Could I ask a few questions first?" Jiang Hongyue walked over with a limp, clearly also a bit of a drama queen.

"Fellow Daoist, please ask away. I will tell you everything I know."

After some brief treatment, everyone helped each other back into Niu Zhiyuan's house to rest in the hall.

Everyone was quiet, yet they all intentionally sat closer together.

"Daoist, why is this place called 'Zombie Town'? And why did you come here?"

Wei Cheng shook his head and gave a deep sigh.

"This place was originally called Li Family Town."

"You should have seen it when you came; there's a wealthy district to the west, but they probably didn't let you go there, and you likely didn't see anyone come out of there either."

"That was originally the residence of the Li family, the most powerful family in town."

"But later, something unknown happened, and this place suddenly became an Accumulation of Yin Land. Evil things like zombies are extremely prone to being birthed underground."

"The change came suddenly. Zombies emerged overnight, and the first to suffer was that very Li family situated on the Accumulation of Yin Land. The entire clan was wiped out."

"At that time, a Senior happened to be passing by and stepped in to quell the zombie disaster, but he could not eradicate the problem of the Accumulation of Yin Land itself, so zombies would still continuously be produced."

"Left with no choice, that Senior settled in the former wealthy district, spending the rest of his life suppressing this place to prevent subsequent zombies from committing atrocities."

"From then on, Li Family Town became Zombie Town."

Hearing this, Niu Zhiyuan couldn't hold back the question in his heart.

"Since it's known that this place easily produces zombies, why not move away? Even if they don't move, they should at least cremate the bodies. That way, they wouldn't turn into zombies, right?"

The injured Middle-aged Man suddenly gave a cold snort, drawing everyone's attention.

"You big fellow, it's clear at a glance you come from a good background and haven't suffered. How could you understand the difficulties of Mortals?"

"For children from poor families like us, forget about Cultivate; even if we just want to live comfortably, we have to find good land to farm. Otherwise, life is worse than being dead."

"Although this is an Accumulation of Yin Land, it's also a place that contains Spiritual Qi. Whether it's livestock or farming, the yields will be better."

"It's just a few more zombies; if you grit your teeth, there's always a way. Is there anywhere else that doesn't have monsters?"

"Cough, cough..." As he spoke, he started coughing again, prompting the woman beside him to give him a dissatisfied thump.

The old Daoist took over the conversation.

"Just as this Fellow Daoist said, although this is an Accumulation of Yin Land, it is also a piece of auspicious land."

"Add to that the Senior sitting in guard, and crises can be prevented in advance."

"You saw it too—no one came out despite such a large commotion outside precisely because they all have Talisman papers pasted on their doors. Ordinary zombies find it hard to break in."

"If it weren't for the fact that these two weren't ordinary zombies this time, we wouldn't even have been needed."

"As for why the bodies aren't cremated, it's also because this Accumulation of Yin Land needs carriers to absorb the Qi."

"If the Yin Qi has nowhere to attach itself, who knows what kind of monster would be birthed? Rather than taking that risk, it's better to let things like zombies, which are easier to deal with, appear."

"Therefore, although life here seems abnormal, under various methods and habits, it has actually developed quite well. That's why they had the spare money to put out a bounty to hire us to clear the zombies."

"It's just that I didn't expect the zombies were being deliberately hidden and raised by someone, and had already matured into Flying Zombies... causing us no small amount of damage, and we nearly lost our lives here."

The old Daoist still had lingering fears as he spoke to this point.

He was already old; if he died, so be it. But his disciple was still young; if he had perished here, he would never be able to forgive himself for all eternity.

Wang Yao suddenly noticed a problem.

"Then what about that Senior you mentioned? Isn't he guarding the wealthy district? Why didn't he step in instead of hiring outside help? Has he already passed away?"

"Not at all. It's just that the Senior is exceptionally gifted and often needs to enter seclusion for a Breakthrough. Only when he is in seclusion do these intelligent zombies dare to come out and cause trouble."

These words from the old Daoist made Zhou Yan and the other three think of that special Aura they had sensed earlier.

Zhou Yan thought to himself.

That Aura didn't look like a human's no matter how you looked at it.

Unless his cultivation far exceeded mine—but to even hide from my Divine Sense, he would have to be at least at the Late Nascent Soul Stage.

But if he really had that kind of cultivation and talent, couldn't he just set up a Formation to convert the Yin Qi?

By then, forget about Foundation Establishment Stage zombies, even Qi Refining ones would be hard to produce. Wouldn't that be easier than manual suppression?

Or could it be... that guy is the root of the problem?