Chapter 151: Has Huang Ling Really Turned into a Zombie?

Chapter 151: Has Huang Ling Truly Become a Zombie?

Witnessing the chaos inside the carriage, Wu Hong was suddenly and inexplicably overcome by a surge of joy. He thought to himself, "Since I am already dead and have appeared here, shouldn't I be in the same carriage as Huang Ling? We can be reincarnated together and continue our bond in the next life."

With this thought, Wu Hong waited with boundless anticipation for the ox-headed and horse-faced spirits outside the window to call out Huang Ling's name.

"Number ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-eight: Huang Ling, eldest young lady of the Huang Manor in Huangyun Town, appear at once—"

The ox-headed spirit raised the soul-summoning banner and waved it continuously in the air. After chanting more than ten times, Huang Ling's soul still failed to appear.

The ox-headed spirit furrowed its brow slightly and said to the horse-faced spirit beside it, "Brother, there are truly far too many wronged souls in Huangyun Town. And they died at the worst possible time—these are the days with the heaviest yin energy in the entire month. This Huang Ling is likely one of the souls undergoing corpse transformation."

"Indeed! How pitiful. A lofty young lady of the Huang Manor is now fated to exist in this mortal world in the state of a zombie, her soul forever denied reincarnation, until one day she is hunted down as a heterodox demon by the righteous practitioners of the world, her soul completely eradicated between heaven and earth, perishing utterly without even the chance of reincarnation."

"Truly pitiful! Let us call the final soul."

The ox-headed and horse-faced spirits shook their heads at each other, deeply lamenting the tragedy.

Wu Hong heard every word spoken by the two ghosts clearly. Although he could not fully comprehend it, a wild wave of joy surged in his heart. "Sister Ling hasn't died? Is this true? What does it matter if she has become a zombie? Once I break free from this place, I shall protect her safety for all eternity!"

Yet Wu Hong could only ponder this in his mind, incapable of making any physical movement.

"Number ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine: Wu Huateng, where are you? Return to your place at once!" The ox-headed spirit continuously chanted a name that was both unfamiliar and deeply stirring to Wu Hong.

Wu Hong certainly did not know anyone named Wu Huateng, but the very name resonated within the deepest depths of his soul, as familiar as life itself.

Both Huang Ling and Wu Hong were martial artists of the peak Postnatal realm. Huang Ling was well aware of her own condition, which differed from ordinary people; a master of the peak Postnatal realm would sense a pregnancy on the very first day. The sweet memories of those dozen days or so were still fresh in Wu Hong's mind.

"Brother Hong, what do you think we should name our child?" Huang Ling had asked innocently, a sweet smile gracing her face as she looked at Wu Hong.

Gazing at the rising sun on the eastern horizon, Wu Hong had replied, "Since it bears my surname Wu, it must rise like the sun, growing ever more prosperous! Soaring through the clouds like a heavenly dragon, let us name him Wu Huateng."

"Brother Hong, you are truly brilliant! I spent days thinking and could not come up with such a wonderful name. What if it is a girl?"

Hearing Wu Hong name their unborn child so affectionately, Huang Ling's face was suffused with boundless happiness as she envisioned a bright and beautiful future.

Wu Hong had smiled gently and said, "If it is a girl, let us name her Ma Lingshan—as spiritually pure as the fairy of the moon, and as beautiful as you!"

The two of them had sat laughing and chatting atop a great mountain peak, watching the rising sun with a profound sense of warmth and coziness.

Hearing this familiar name, along with all the tender memories of those ten-some days with Huang Ling, echoing endlessly in his heart, Wu Hong—who had been unable even to blink his eyelids—suddenly shed a tear that fell to the ground.

That crystalline tear, resembling a drop of bloody jade, fell onto the floorboards of the carriage and instantly evaporated! Wu Hong shuddered violently, suddenly sensing that he could move his limbs once more.

He snapped back to awareness, staring at his own hands in disbelief, though the martial Qi within his Dantian remained entirely empty.

Wu Hong tried to take a step forward, but was repelled by an invisible force; try as he might, he could not lift his foot to cross that boundary.

He wanted to speak, but no sound came from his throat. Still, it was a vast improvement from before; he could at least move his hands and feet where he stood.

Demon Lord Ma and Ma Luocheng, who had been locked in a relentless struggle with the numerous servants of the Huang Manor, saw Wu Hong—radiating an aura of boundless killing intent—suddenly begin to move where he stood, and their faces instantly drained of all color, paralyzed with fright.

Seizing the opportunity, the hundreds of wrongfully slain servants of the Huang Manor pounced upon the two men, pinning them to the floor and tearing at them like beasts.

"Ah—" The ceaseless shrieks chilled the soul to the bone. The people inside the carriage were locked in brutal combat, presenting a scene as wretched and horrific as a living hell.

Severed limbs and broken arms flew wildly through the air; eyeballs popped out like ping-pong balls before being crushed beneath heavy boots. The interior of the carriage was unimaginably terrifying.

The people grew increasingly frantic, perhaps fueled by the ever-intensifying yin energy.

Outside the carriage, the ox-headed and horse-faced spirits called out the final name on their roster—Ma Huateng—repeatedly, yet no soul appeared.

The two strange entities exchanged glances. "Brother, do you feel that something is amiss?"

"Brother Niu, I have the same feeling," the horse-faced spirit replied, looking at the ox-headed one.

Both creatures felt a sudden chill creeping up the soles of their feet, and their already bloodless faces turned even paler.

"Let us leave this place, lest some great catastrophe occur," the ox-headed spirit said grimly to the horse-faced spirit.

The horse-faced spirit flipped open the ledger containing the names of the deceased and the records of their mortal lives, turning carefully to a specific page where the details were meticulously inscribed.

"Huang Ling, carrying a child in her womb, whose soul has not yet fully detached, half a month having passed—"

The sudden appearance of these small characters on the register caused the expressions of both the ox-headed and horse-faced spirits to change drastically. Without a moment's hesitation, they altered their forms and hastily whipped the ghost-drawn carriage away once more.

Wu Hong, meanwhile, felt a faint glimmer of joy. The two ghost escorts had failed to summon Huang Ling successfully, and the soul of the child within her womb remained uncalled, which meant the two of them existed in an entirely different state of being.

What Wu Hong did not know was that such an occurrence violated the fundamental taboos of heaven and earth, creating an unstable element in the fabric of the world.

The reason the ox-headed and horse-faced spirits had panicked so was precisely because they were terrified by this hidden secret.

Originally, the spiritual energy of the Heaven-Traveling Continent was too barren to give birth to zombies. However, following the connection of heaven and earth, the spiritual energy of the continent had surged hundreds of times over. Drawing upon the essence of the moon, corpses that died near the eve of the full moon, left exposed in the wilderness without proper burial, and tainted by the blood of the living or of livestock, would undergo a corpse transformation.

The coincidence of all these factors happening together was less than one in a thousand. Yet the survival of a truly terrifying zombie in the mortal realm was rarer still—less than one in ten thousand.

Such walking corpses existed between heaven and earth, yet they feared the light of the day. Devoid of consciousness, they generally turned to ashes the moment the sun broke the eastern horizon, losing forever the right to reincarnation and vanishing entirely from the cosmos to become merely drifting energy.

These two entities, which should never have manifested in the mortal realm, were concealed by the cowardly dread of the two ghost escorts. In time, they would bring a monstrous calamity to the mortal world and throw the Primordial Realm into turmoil.

In the central street of Huangyun Town, at a burial site, a pale, jade-white hand suddenly burst forth from the tightly packed layer of earth.

Clearly, the owner of this hand was a woman. Slowly, the soil and stones loosened, and from the debris crawled a female figure with a ghastly pale complexion, vacant eyes, tattered garments, and a sunken chest.

The woman suddenly raised her head toward the sky, her face still bearing a dazed expression. "Awoo—" A piercing howl tore straight through the clouds, causing the celestial vapor above to slowly disperse.

The ox-headed and horse-faced spirits, having transformed back into the ox and horse pulling the ghost carriage as they pressed onward, suddenly shuddered, feeling a bone-deep chill course through their bodies.

Exchanging a glance, both wore expressions of utter dismay.

The two spirits resolved to completely cover up the terrifying events of this night. First, to conceal their dereliction of duty; second, because a lingering dread unsettled their hearts, unsure of what chaos the future might bring or what karmic retribution might befall them.