Is this what a zombie is?

76. The Radiance of Fatherly Love

The summit of Dog Head Ridge was struck by lightning, leaving it barren and devoid of vegetation.

The once meticulously trimmed cypress grove is now scattered and crooked, many of the trees turned into charred stumps, emitting wisps of smoke, a scene of utter devastation.

Lightning-struck wood is a rare commodity, but there's plenty of it here now, and it's even cypress wood.

Alongside peach wood and jujube wood, lightning-struck wood is considered a superior type of lightning-struck wood, a rare and highly sought-after item for those who cultivate the Tao.

However, Jiang Chen was unmoved, since he possessed lightning magic and didn't need any lightning-struck wood.

In the center of the chaos, Jiang Chen stood quietly, the lightning strike patterns on his body gradually fading away.

"Meow……"

Cat appeared out of nowhere, shaking its body violently to shake off the dust and grass clippings covering it.

Cat Master glanced at Jiang Chen, his emerald green eyes filled with helplessness.

"Making such a fuss, are you afraid people won't know something happened here? Tomorrow morning, when the families who come to sweep the tombs and pay respects to their ancestors see this mess, they'll really be laughing their heads off."

Cat's rant eased the tense atmosphere somewhat.

Jiang Chen glanced at the broken urns and the white powder scattered all over the ground. He didn't feel any regret or anger.

"There are no ashes here, only Sanlu milk powder; there are no corpses here, only zombies that have been refined; this is not a peaceful cemetery, but a corpse refining ground that is shiny on the outside but filthy on the inside. I clean this place up without any psychological burden."

Cat Master pursed his lips, just about to say something more.

Suddenly, the entire mountain began to shake violently without any warning.

Rumbling--

That wasn't an ordinary aftershock; it was a terrifying roar coming from deep within the earth, as if the earth's very bones were breaking.

The aftershocks of the lightning were so violent that they not only cleared away the evil spirits on the surface but also damaged the fragile geological structure inside the mountain, triggering a chain reaction.

Centered on the point where Jiang Chen had just summoned the lightning, dozens of jagged cracks tore open in the ground, spreading outwards like a spider web.

The few remaining cypress trees also broke apart amidst their mournful cries, falling along with large chunks of soil and rocks into the bottomless, dark chasm.

This sudden geological disaster was more destructive than the thunderstorm just now, almost like a re-formatting of this cemetery.

The tremors lasted for almost a minute before gradually subsiding.

As the smoke and dust dissipated slightly, a large, smoking crater was revealed.

The soil around the edge of the pit continued to slide down in a soft rustling motion, and the depths were pitch black, resembling the maw of a giant beast ready to devour its prey.

Thick, visible black yin energy, mixed with a bone-chilling cold, continuously spewed out from the cave entrance.

The intense yin energy was so strong that Jiang Chen felt a stinging pain on his skin, and even developed fine red spots.

Cat Master stared at the hole, his expression somewhat solemn.

"This place down there... is no joke. Are you sure you want to go down?"

Since things have come to this point, and we're already here, what else is there to say?

Without the slightest hesitation, Jiang Chen leaped into the abyss, his entire body like a pebble, plunging into the bottomless darkness.

The air was shrill and piercing, and all I could see was pure darkness. The fall continued.

Jiang Chen felt that he had fallen at least a hundred meters before he finally felt solid ground beneath his feet.

boom!

A deafening roar, so loud in the quiet environment, was no less than a thunderclap.

Jiang Chen's legs felt a tingling sensation, but it was only a slight tingling and nothing serious. This was the powerful physique he had developed after being tempered by heavenly lightning.

If it were an ordinary person, falling from that height would have turned them into a pile of minced meat.

He straightened up and looked around the underground space.

It was much wider than he had imagined, like a hollowed-out mountain belly, with a dome so high that the top was invisible, and rough rock walls all around.

The air was filled with a strange smell, a mixture of earthy and rotten odors, and it was cold and damp.

The only source of light comes from the rock face.

Clusters of mushroom-shaped colonies, emitting a ghastly green glow, covered every corner of the rock wall, shrouding the entire space in an eerie green light.

These colonies range in size from as large as a millstone to as small as a human head, constantly contracting and expanding as if they were breathing.

Is this... a zombie bacterium?

The companion spirit of Li Lianying.

Jiang Chen immediately held his breath, and a barely visible electromagnetic barrier appeared on his body to prevent the zombie bacteria from releasing spores.

Through the surveillance video, as well as the zombie fungus and the zombie fungus that Cat Master had mentioned before, he had some guesses about Li Lianying's abilities.

Li Lianying's zombie bacteria is the source of zombies, infecting and manipulating corpses. Living things can also be infected and parasitized, but the effect may not be as good.

Microorganisms such as fungi and bacteria generally reproduce and cause infection by releasing spores.

Aside from creating an electromagnetic barrier, Jiang Chen did not approach or touch it. He closed his eyes and maximized his electromagnetic induction.

A vast and sophisticated sensing network, like an invisible sonar, swept across the entire underground space in an instant. Countless chaotic signals returned—from rocks, from bacterial colonies, from flowing water… But amidst this complex array of signals, that familiar yet faint life magnetic field stood out like a lighthouse in the darkness, crystal clear.

found it.

Jiang Chen opened his eyes and fixed his gaze on a huge rock formation about 500 meters away to his left.

There appears to be a man-made structure there.

He concealed all his presence, his steps as light as a raccoon's, and silently crept towards that direction.

The closer he got, the more clearly he could "hear" Ai Yi's steady heartbeat and breathing.

It seems that he is not in immediate danger.

After rounding the huge rock, a wide-open space suddenly appeared before us.

An ancient side hall is nestled within the mountain, its doors ajar, with warm light shining from inside.

Jiang Chen did not rush in, but pressed his body against the cold rock wall and looked inside through the crack in the door.

Then, he froze on the spot.

The scene inside the side hall was completely different from any kidnapping scene he had imagined.

There were no bloody instruments of torture, no desperate prisoners, and no menacing guards.

Under the warm light, Ai Yi was sitting on a chair covered with a soft blanket, holding a baby in her arms.

His movements were very practiced; he gently rocked the baby while putting the bottle into the baby's mouth, humming an off-key lullaby.

Around him, seven identical cradles were neatly arranged, and the babies inside were all sleeping soundly, making even breathing sounds.

This scene is almost too heartwarming.

If you ignore the context, this scene looks like a stay-at-home dad taking care of his child.

Although Ai Yi didn't look like a father, for some reason, Jiang Chen felt that he was quite reliable at this moment, radiating the glow of fatherly love.