Translator: Pika
Even the largest Goldenfur Monstrous Rat King was panicked. It rammed the closest zombie down to the floor, forcing it to release the latter to release the rat that it was chomping on.
Without any hesitation, the rat king bit down on the zombie’s bone with a loud cracking sound. Before long, the zombie had already lost several of its fingers.
The zombie tried to climb to its feet, but crushed under the weight of the rat king, its attempts were futile.
“Jip jip jip!” The rat king squeaked furiously at the zombie, possibly trying to brag or utter words of justice for its deceased comrades.
Its squeaks were reciprocated by a resounding thwack on its head.
Bam!
Another zombie swung a wooden bat in its hand, sending the Goldenfur Monstrous Rat King flying for several meters before finally crashing back down on the ground.
“Jip!”
The infuriated rat king arched its back and directed the golden fur behind its head right at the zombie.
“Holy shit!” Zu An was alarmed. The rat king was clearly far stronger than its companions—its thorns were a meter long, and every single one of them was shining with a golden lustre. They looked just like javelins.
Shoosh shoosh shoosh!
The thorns shot out a speed far faster than a slow zombie could dodge. It was struck squarely by the thorns, and the sheer impact pinned it onto a cliff face.
“Jip jip!”
The Goldenfur Monstrous Rat King squeaked in glee. It had returned the favor for the earlier bat to its head.
Ji Xiaoxi remarked in astonishment, “If those thorns were to strike us, we might just lose our lives!”
Zu An nodded in agreement. He wasn’t too familiar with the power level classification of ferocious beasts in this world, but the Goldenfur Monstrous Rat King seemed to be around pinnacle third rank to early fourth rank.
He wasn’t confident of defeating the rat king in a direct battle without relying on his cheat keys.
“W-what is that!” exclaimed Ji Xiaoxi. Her voice quivered as she pointed her finger at a certain direction.
Zu An quickly looked over, only to see the zombie that had been pinned to the cliff face had started moving. It lowered its head to glance at its chest, causing its eyeballs to pop out a little from its face. It felt almost like a literal expression of horror.
Then, it stretched its hand forth and began plucking the thorns out of its body. There was no splattering of blood; there was just a mysterious dense fluid flowing out a little.
Zu An’s lips twitched. It was fortunate that he didn’t eat too much earlier, or else he might have just retched at this sight.
As for Ji Xiaoxi, she had already long turned her face away, not wanting to look any longer.
The zombie plucked off all of the thorns before charging toward the Goldenfur Monstrous Rat King once more with the bat in its hand.
“Jip~”
The fur on the rat king pricked up, but it was not out of aggression but fear. It had already resorted to its strongest move, but its enemy remained completely fine despite being struck by it squarely. How could it possibly fight against an opponent like this?!
So, it turned tail and fled. It might still feel compelled as a king to protect its own people, but it realized that the current circumstances were so dire that it would be a blessing if it could escape with its life.
Watching the scene from above, Zu An couldn’t help but frown. The defensive prowess had shocked him. He didn’t think that they would be able to remain unfazed even after suffering such a heavy blow. He couldn’t even fathom just how much it would take in order to kill one of them.
“Xiaoxi, are there any records about zombies in this dungeon?” asked Zu An.
Ji Xiaoxi shook her head in response. “I have never heard any records of zombies in the Ursae Dungeon before. There’s nothing on that in the academy’s archive, and my father has never mentioned it to me before.”
Zu An felt a little unnerved. He recalled hearing that the dungeon had opened ahead of its anticipated time, and Jiang Luofu had reminded him that there was something amiss about the dungeon this time around too.
Is something happening right now because I’m here? Hell! Isn’t that special treatment accorded only to novel protagonists?
While making internal retorts, Zu An’s mind was still whirring to process the situation. “Are there light elemental spells or something in this world? How in the world are we supposed to kill off such monsters?”
“Light elemental spells?” Ji Xiaoxi frowned. “I don’t know much about spells, but there are cultivators who have grasped the light element before, just that they are incredibly rare. I don’t think that there are any light element cultivators in Brightmoon City. As for dealing with the zombies, there are some records relating to that. It seems like they would stop moving once you sever off their heads. Aside from that, there are rumors that they are vulnerable to fire element cultivators.”
“Fire element?” Zu An frowned.
Will ordinary fire work against them? But again, it seems almost impossible to light up a fire in this windy mountain valley.
He swiftly ran through all of the skills he had learned, but none of them seemed to be useful against these zombies. Even his prided ‘Bixie Swordplay’ didn’t seem too useful against these incredibly high defense zombies. He could totally imagine his sword striking down on a zombie’s neck, only to rebound off.
In the end, only a third of the Goldenfur Monstrous Rats managed to make their escape. Most of them were picked up by a zombie and chomped down on like a sandwich. It was unfortunate that they were land creatures, and a huge number of zombies happened to be lurking underground.
In fact, the only reason why a third of them could escape was because there weren’t too many zombies who awakened at the start. However, as the scent of blood began to fill the mountain valley, more and more decrepit zombies climbed out of the land in seek of prey.
“Do you have any medicine to erase our scent? Hurry up and scatter them around us, or else it’ll be too late!” said Zu An anxiously.
It felt like they had just fallen deeper into danger. It was just Goldenfur Monstrous Rats lurking beneath them earlier, but now it had been replaced by the even stronger zombies. There was no chance for them to escape at all even if they wanted to. Their only hope right now was for them not to be discovered.
“I do.” Ji Xiaoxi whipped out a medicine bottle from her pouch and began sprinkling it around them.
Zu An finally heaved a sigh of relief.
“How long will it take for them to return back to the ground?” Looking at the zombies lurking under him, Zu An felt his heart growing heavier and heavier.
According to the movies, zombies usually shied away from light. It was still daytime at the moment, but natural sunlight was blocked off by the surrounding mountains in this valley, dimming the surroundings. To make things worse, the sun appeared to be setting at the moment.
Are these corpses going to roam for the entire night?
Zu An found himself wondering how these dungeons came to be. The concepts of day and night applied in here, and there was a sun during daytime too. He wondered if the moon would rise when night fell later.
Meanwhile, the zombies were happily feasting heartily on their prey. Flesh and blood seemed to be utmost delicacies in their eyes, but the same couldn’t be said about the humans present.
As the stench of blood grew thicker and thicker, Zu An felt his stomach churning, but he forced it down.
Ji Xiaoxi, on the other hand, wasn’t that fortunate. In the first place, she was afraid of such things, and she ate a lot of stuff earlier too. The heavy stench of blood and the sight of zombies chomping off the Goldenfur Monstrous Rats all around her were challenging the tolerance of her stomach. She eventually succumbed and started vomiting.
I guess even the most adorable of fairies don’t vomit strawberries and rainbows.
“Shit!” Zu An’s heart skipped a beat, for there was something worse occurring.
The slight ruckus caused by Ji Xiaoxi’s vomiting caused the feasting zombies to turn their gazes over. Most of them didn’t have eyeballs, but Zu An could be certain that they were staring at them.
Some of those that failed to secure a Goldenfur Monstrous Rat for themselves earlier began making their way toward the tree.
Zu An shuddered in fear. The tree was already unstable from the nibbling the rats had done to it earlier, and it wouldn’t take much to fell it. Just thinking about the pitiful plight of those rats that had fallen into the clutches of the rats made a shiver run down his spine.
He quickly turned to Ji Xiaoxi and asked, “You should have no qualms using your poison against zombies, right?”
“My poison only works on living beings. The undead isn’t afraid of it,” replied Ji Xiaoxi with a pale face. “I’m sorry. It’s all my fault.”
Had it not been for her earlier gluttony, she wouldn’t have drawn these zombies over to their side.
“There’s no point talking about this now,” said Zu An. “I’ll lure them off. Make sure that you don’t make a noise at all.”
Ji Xiaoxi was alarmed. “You can’t! We should go together!”
Zu An shook his head and said, “I have a movement skill that should allow me to maneuver around these slow zombies. It’s likely that both of us will die if we go together. Besides, if I lure the zombies away, you’ll be able to bring the others over to save me too.”
“Big brother Ah Zu~” Ji Xiaoxi’s eyes reddened. She knew that she would only add to his trouble by sticking together with him, but human’s emotions didn’t always obey logic.
She felt that she was the one who landed Zu An in such a dangerous position.
Noticing the dull look on Ji Xiaoxi’s face, Zu An quickly said, “You mustn’t do anything foolish, or else my efforts will be in vain!”
“Alright... but big brother Ah Zu, you must promise me that you’ll stay alive!” Tears were brimming in Ji Xiaoxi’s eyes as she spoke.
“Are you planning to repay me by betrothing yourself to me if I manage to survive this ordeal?” Zu An teased as he assessed the situation below.
Ji Xiaoxi’s face reddened. “But you already have a wife...”
“Hahaha, my wife doesn’t mind me having other women. Alright, I'll be going off!” With a smile, Zu An leaped toward an opening below that he spotted.
The zombies were alarmed by him. Most of them turned their sights toward him right away, but there was still a small number of them who were looking toward the crown of the tree Ji Xiaoxi was on.
So, Zu An clapped his hands loudly and shouted to attract their attention. “Hey, you boney freaks! I dare you to catch me! If you catch me, you can stick your bones into me wherever you want!”
Maybe it was because the zombies understood his words or that he was simply making too much of a commotion, all of the zombies immediately turned in his direction and charged over.
Before such a terrifying threat, Zu An executed Sunflower Phantasm right away to weave in between the gaps of the zombies, trying to lure them further away from Ji Xiaoxi.
Unfortunately, there were simply far too many zombies that dodging was no easy feat, even if he had a powerful movement skill in his arsenal. There was once where barely after his foot touched the ground, a black shadow smashed right down on his head. It happened to coincide with his downtime, the split instant where he was gathering momentum once more for the next move.
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