"Master, how could you just die like this, sob, sob... What am I going to do now that you’re dead..." Mu Fei crawled out of the earth, saw the corpse blasted into a pulp, and began to wail loudly. His voice was mournful and tragic, as if he had truly lost a close relative, yet there was not a single tear in his eyes...

"Get lost, dammit! What time is it to be putting on an act? Hurry up, hurry up and get this old man out of here. I need blood—lots and lots of fresh blood..." At that moment, the drop of golden-yellow blood let out an angry shout...

"But I was just upset seeing your precious body smashed to bits," Mu Fei walked over aggrievedly, cupping the drop of golden-yellow blood in his hands as he spoke softly...

"Upset my ass! I'm not actually dead. As long as this drop remains intact, my soul is immortal; how could I die? Don't rush off. Take my jade pendant too. That bastard has no idea that this Azure Dragon Jade Pendant is a treasure; he didn't even give it a second glance..." Liang Xiaoke's voice continued to emanate from the golden-yellow blood drop...

"Oh..." Mu Fei carefully crouched down and retrieved the cyan jade pendant and Liang Xiaoke's Qiankun Ring from the pile of ruined flesh. He dared not be careless in the slightest, for he clearly understood that his own life was intrinsically linked to his Master's; if Liang Xiaoke died, he would immediately be scattered to the winds.

"Master, General Ye seemed very sad just now, didn't he?" Mu Fei picked up the jade pendant, cradled the golden-yellow blood drop, and began walking toward the southwest...

"Of course he was sad! I almost thought I was done for just now. Damn it, I never realized the gap between a Grandmaster and a Martial Saint, separated by only one level, was so immense. I have already achieved the level of Corpse King, yet I didn't even have the strength to resist in front of a Martial Saint..."

"Master, that General Ye... what should we do about him?" Mu Fei asked while walking...

"What can we do? I fought with everything I had, and I still couldn't beat that fellow. There’s no way to save him. At worst, after he dies, I can expend some vital essence and turn him into a zombie... Of course, if you don’t want him to die, you can go fight that Martial Saint right now..."

"Ugh..." Mu Fei rolled his eyes and immediately shut his mouth. What a joke. You, who have reached the Corpse King realm, couldn't even match a Martial Saint. I’m only at the Bronze Corpse realm right now. No matter how many times I go, I’ll just die that many times...

"Where are you heading now?" Liang Xiaoke suddenly asked...

"To the military camp. The Third Young Master is currently leading the main army to wipe out the remnants of Sima Xuan’s forces. There should be plenty of blood there..." Mu Fei said quite innocently...

"No, we can't go there. Jingyu isn't here, and I trust no one else. We’ll go somewhere else..." the angry voice came from the golden-yellow blood drop...

"Ah, but where else can we find so much blood besides the battlefield?" Mu Fei asked, genuinely puzzled...

"By killing people, naturally..." the voice from the blood drop uttered chillingly...

"Oh..." Mu Fei shivered slightly and quickened his pace...

Two hours later, in a mountain forest about a hundred kilometers southwest of Lingyan City, there was a small mountain village called Bailing Village. Due to its geography, this hamlet of only a few hundred people had not been affected by the war. The villagers lived their lives peacefully, and the entire village had always flourished.

But today, the entire village was silent, and a thick smell of blood permeated the air. Upon closer inspection, all three hundred and two inhabitants, from the eighty-year-old elders down to the newborn infants, had been slaughtered; not a single person escaped the calamity. The village was awash in blood, with corpses strewn everywhere...

And at the entrance to the village, there was a small pond, originally used by the villagers to collect water, but now it was filled to the brim with vibrant red blood. The intense stench of blood drifted out, and floating in the pool of gore was a single golden-yellow drop of blood...

By the edge of the pond sat a man covered entirely in blood—it was Mu Fei, the one who had butchered the entire village...

At this moment, an expression of extreme agony contorted his pale face. It was him; he was the one who had personally killed everyone in this village, these ordinary common folk...

He had once been a soldier; the number of people he had killed was easily in the hundreds. Killing was a commonplace occurrence for him, but slaughtering these unarmed civilians made his heart falter, even now.

Yet, he had no choice. He had to save his Master...

"What? Feeling reluctant?" As if noticing Mu Fei's expression, Liang Xiaoke, submerged in the pool of blood, suddenly spoke...

"I... I... I'm just a little unaccustomed to it..." Mu Fei murmured...

"Unaccustomed? Listen to me, Mu Fei. We are zombies. What is a zombie? A monster that should be dead but still exists in this world, a monster that survives by sucking human blood. They are merely our food. Do you feel bad about killing hundreds of pigs when you were human?" Liang Xiaoke roared from the pool of blood...

Mu Fei fell silent. Yes, this was simply the law of survival, just as a tiger is inherently destined to eat rabbits. You couldn't possibly blame the tiger, could you?

He tried to comfort himself with this thought, but a pang of pain remained in his heart...

"Mu Fei, this world is a cruel one. Even if you hadn't killed them, do you truly believe they could have survived? In this age of ceaseless warfare, even if they escaped this one calamity, do you think they could escape a lifetime of it? Along the road you’ve traveled, you’ve seen those villages—which one remains intact? Those villagers were either killed or plundered, eventually starving to death. And the women—many were subjected to the horrors inflicted by those bandits, those rebel armies, even the regular soldiers of the Tianyuan Empire. Before their deaths, how much agony did they endure? Killing, sometimes, is merely a release... Mu Fei, you must remember, you are a zombie. There should be no room for mercy in your heart... Your mercy will not change this world..."

Hearing Liang Xiaoke's words, Mu Fei recalled the villages he had witnessed on their journey. Compared to these villagers he had slain, their fates were indeed far more tragic, especially the women, many of whom had been violated before their deaths, and not just by one assailant. For them, death was truly a form of relief...

"This is a brutal world. Never mind us zombies; aren't those people killing each other as well? Remember this one point: we are zombies, not saviors. We only need to protect the ones we are meant to protect..." Liang Xiaoke’s voice echoed once more, entering Mu Fei’s ears...

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