Chapter 98: The Zombie Army

  July 15th, Zhongyuan Festival, also known as Ghost Festival. It is said that on this day, the gates of hell in the underworld are wide open, releasing all ghosts. The ghosts who have descendants or families in the human world can return home to receive offerings from their families, while the lonely and wild ghosts have nowhere to go, wandering around everywhere. Therefore, July 15th is also the day with the strongest yin energy throughout the year.

  This manor, seemingly in the suburbs, has a European-style villa standing alone in the central area of the estate. However, compared to the outside world's not-too-cool temperature, this area is like entering early winter, with cool breezes blowing, every thread seeming to penetrate into one's bones, making people feel chilled from the depths of their hearts.

  The gloomy sky, the gray-brown clouds and fog drifted with the wind, making people feel suffocated for no reason, as if a huge mountain was pressing down on them, about to suffocate. The fields were quiet except for the rustling of leaves, cold and desolate. And that woman wrapped in black stood at the entrance of the manor, her back thin and gaunt, her black dress seemingly held up only by a skeleton. Her gaze fell on some place devoid of human presence, calm and profound. The turmoil of the wind and clouds was all covered by her ink-colored eyes, she murmured: "Everything should be over."

  Yes, this woman standing independently in the world is Xiao Qingzhu. She is so weak that a gentle breeze can take her away. But perhaps everything doesn't want to leave, and can't bear to part with this strong and tolerant woman.

  When another woman's figure appeared in those calm eyes, Xiao Qingzhu smiled. She knew she would come, so no matter how much she expected her not to appear, she still chose to stand here and wait for the person in front of her.

  When Du Sulin really appeared, she couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief.

  "You're here." Xiao Qingzhu smiled faintly, and this vast expanse of heaven and earth seemed to darken slightly.

  Du Sulin remained silent for a long time, only gazing at Xiao Qingzhu, as if she wanted to remember her forever. No, Xiao Qingzhu had long been her blood, her bones, inseparable and unforgettable. Her every smile and frown was always present in her mind.

  "I'm here." she finally said.

  "Si Lin," Xiao Qingzhu walked closer, sighing in her heart, "You won't succeed like this."

  Du Sulin shook his head, "That's enough."

  Du Sulin had lived for over twenty years, almost never living for herself. She knew that perhaps today, she was the one who shouldn't live for herself the most, but they wanted to be willful once. She stretched out her hand wanting to grasp Xiao Qingzhu, but didn't make it.

  Xiao Qingzhu took a step back, shaking her head: "Si Lin, don't be impulsive. Your impulsiveness at this moment is only because you are in the midst of it and being irrational, you will regret it."

  Douslin's words were stuck in her throat. Really, could she be willful? She was not only Douslin, but also Taiguang. When she was given this title, all her qualifications and powers to be willful were stripped away. She had to bear the responsibilities of the Du family before she could feel her own emotions.

  "Do you regret meeting me, knowing me?" Du Sulin opened his mouth to ask, but the words had not yet left his lips before they got stuck in his throat and disappeared.

  "Let's go." Xiao Qingzhu smiled slightly, her crescent-shaped eyes making Du Siling pause for a moment.

  Looking at Xiao Qing's thin back, Du Si Lin clenched her fists tightly, her fingernails deeply embedded in her flesh without realizing it. There was a fire burning in her heart, she didn't know if it was anger or resentment, or perhaps something else. But she knew she couldn't let the fire erupt. She took a deep breath, and her clenched fists slowly relaxed. In that instant, she seemed like a deflated balloon, pitiful and helpless. Yet, no matter what, her spine remained straight as a pen.

  Xiao Qingzhu didn't wait for her and just walked forward on his own. Her back figure became more and more distant in Du Siling's eyes.

  Dousi Lin took a heavy step forward, one step at a time. The fire in her heart seemed to have been extinguished, yet it was burning even more fiercely.

  Du Sulin and Xiao Qingzhu, perhaps neither of them had ever thought that they would end up like this.

  This world is not short of true love, but not every true love can be matched with a good ending, and the so-called truth is probably also like this.

  "Tai Guang, you're here again." Peng Haotian appeared at Xiao Qingzhu's side at some unknown time, a smile playing on his lips, still with the same elegant and refined demeanor.

  Du Sulin's eyebrows were slightly furrowed, and he smiled self-deprecatingly: "What's the point of coming now? Don't be obstinate, Luo Qian is already dead. The revival you're thinking of doesn't exist."

  Du Sulin's words had barely fallen when a hint of murderous intent and regret could be discerned in Peng Haotian's eyes. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that what was revealed was pity. Maybe in Peng Haotian's eyes, no matter how extraordinary or unexpected Du Sulin's life might have been, nothing could change anything. Anyone who tried to stop her was just a mantis trying to stop a chariot.

  "Hao Tian." Just as Peng Hao Tian was about to turn around, Du Si Lin's wrist beads flashed. The figure of Tai Yang Zi slowly appeared in front of Peng Hao Tian.

  Peng Haotian, a man who could almost control the world, was stunned on the spot when the two words "Haotian" appeared.

  It's been more than twenty years, Luo Qian. Every day of these twenty plus years has felt like a century to him, and even he himself can't believe that he actually managed to hold on until the day when they could meet again.

  "It's been a while." Seeing Peng Haotian not speaking, Tai Yangzi smiled and asked again. As the name suggests, when Tai Yangzi appeared, this gloomy sky seemed to have an extra warmth.

  Peng Haotian suppressed the surging emotions in his heart and called out: "Luo Qian."

  The Sunzi sighed, "Hao Tian, you should have known everything about me clearly, why are you still so persistent? You were originally a non-transformed bone, carrying the aura of heaven and earth, but for my sake, you abandoned heaven and earth, and such slaughter is not worth it."

  "No, it's not," Peng Haotian said with a resolute denial. In front of Luo Qian, Peng Haotian seemed to have lost his usual aura that could intimidate others. Time seemed to have reversed, and he was just an ordinary young man again. "You still had a long life ahead of you, you shouldn't have died. I will bring you back to life, and that would be truly following the will of heaven."

  "No," Peng Haotian shook his head, "your soul is intact, now I don't need to recreate your soul for you, Luo Qian..."

  "Hao Tian," Tai Yang Zi interrupted Peng Hao Tian's unfinished words, Peng Hao Tian's reaction was expected, but he had not thought that he still underestimated himself a bit. "Luo Qian is dead, the one standing in front of you now is Tai Yang Zi."

  "Taiyangzi," Peng Haotian muttered, "that...". The wings of hope in his eyes dimmed slightly, but he still refused to give up.

  Taiyangzi shook his head, his tone calm and his eyes deep: "Luoqian is dead and won't come back. Even if you recreate his soul, it won't be the Luoqian you want to find again."

  Let Luo Qian be reborn, it was almost the only purpose of Peng Haotian's long life. He made countless efforts for this purpose. But at this moment, he was on the verge of being broken. He couldn't believe it, nor could he accept it.

  Dou Shilin can defy the heavens and go against the tide, why can't he? Ah!

  "Isn't Taiguang also reborn?" He pointed at Du Sulin, his eyes wide with anger, almost shouting out the words.

  "I have never died, why should I be reborn?" Du Sulin said: "Peng Haotian, what you want to do is no longer possible. Let go, let those scattered souls go their separate ways. At least, the sins on Luo Qian's body can be reduced a bit."

  The long silence, Peng Haotian's eyebrows were tightly furrowed, and no one could guess what he was thinking at this moment. Xiao Qingzhu, who had been standing by his side all along, let out a sigh and turned to leave. It seemed that she had already understood that the appearance of Taiyangzi couldn't change Peng Haotian in the slightest, even if there had been hesitation, it wouldn't have changed the outcome after all. The cool breeze blew by, her skirt fluttered, and her long black hair gently swayed like a waterfall, as if mourning.

  "Haha..."

  Peng Haotian suddenly burst out laughing, "Hahaha..."

  At this moment, even the wind seemed to be raging and ravaging along with him. Faintly, thunder rumbled in the distance, and the space around Peng Haotian seemed to be fluctuating unpredictably with his emotions. Du Siling felt like a lonely boat drifting in an endless deep sea, with a storm brewing on the horizon. And in front of her, a heart-pounding black vortex churned.

  "Douslin." Peng Haotian stopped laughing and walked a few steps to Douslin's front. Douslin stood up straight, calmly meeting Peng Haotian's gaze, "If I don't succeed in what I want to do today, then you should know the outcome of Qingzhu, right?"

  Peng Haotian's voice sounded in Du Sulin's ear, not loud, but enough to make Du Sulin hear clearly. He could clearly feel Du Sulin's body tremble slightly.

  "Hao Tian, you..." The Sunzi looked at this man who was only a step away from him. Once they were in love, now they still are themselves, perhaps they still love each other, but can't regain anything, such as fate.

  "If you are Luo Qian, I welcome you, but if you are Tai Yangzi, then there's nothing to talk about between us." Peng Haotian turned around and waved his hand, he always had a kind of self-confidence that ordinary people couldn't understand.

  Du Sulin's emotions returned to normal in an instant after a brief abnormality, she shrugged her shoulders, seeming not to care.

  "You can't win, but you don't have to be so reckless, do you?" Tai Yangzi was baffled by Du Si Lin's sudden carefree attitude.

  Du Sulin gave Tai Yangzi a glance and said, "Whenever you see your predecessor, you always elbow him out."

  Taiyangzi was about to grab Crazy: "Du Slin, you white-eyed wolf, I help you and you still mock me?!" He has always been a warm and elegant person, but now he is almost furious because of Du Slin's words. He wants to put it down on the surface, but in his heart, he is still concerned.

  It's also true that whenever it comes to love, it is always deeply etched in one's heart, just like a bottle of wine. Time is merely a seasoning that adds flavor and fragrance to it.

  The brief spat between the two did add some levity to the heavy atmosphere, but it didn't last long. With Peng Haotian's disappearance, a strong gust of wind suddenly blew in, and the low hum of groaning rose and fell, Du Siling knew that was when Peng Haotian's zombie army arrived.

  Peng Haotian wanted to revive the deceased Luo Qian, but Luo Qian's soul had already become a sun child. He had no other way, so he could only create a new soul and then insert the memory fragments that belonged to Luo Qian into it. However, it was easier said than done, and it wasn't something that could be solved with just a few words.

  This is going against heaven's will. Even if Du Shilin doesn't take action, the heavens will still bring down thunderous punishment. But Du Shilin cannot not take action, because she is the successor of the Du family.

  In the world, there must be both good and evil. The Du family's bloodline was born to shoulder the responsibility of punishing evil on behalf of heaven. They are the executioners of the heavenly way, known as the "clearing officials". However, throughout the generations of the Du family, although there were speculations, they did not understand the details until the appearance of Du Shilin.

  It was just at this moment of distraction that a dense army of zombies, red, green, yellow, blue, white and black, with black and white occupying the majority, but not a small number of red zombies, more than five fingers in sight, surged towards Du Sulin.

  "...The sun son opened his mouth, but was speechless. He had anticipated that Peng Haotian's depth was profound, but found that he still underestimated it. Looking around, the corpse energy overflowing from the bodies of various zombies condensed into a sea tide, surging and turbulent, the original low hum deafening due to the approaching distance."

  It was just now that I heard it, what sounded like thunder, but it's actually the low hum of this group of zombies.

  "Can I withdraw first?" Tai Yang Zi turned his head and glanced at Du Si Lin with a hint of inquiry in his eyes.

  Du Sulin glared back at him, a hint of ferocity in her eyes: "You try." she retorted.

  "I am a person of the underworld, not belonging to the human world, and cannot interfere with human affairs. You can't do this..." The Sunzi's eyes watched as several zombie hands reached out to grab him, interrupting his unfinished words. He propped up his protective immortal energy and dodged away.

  Douslin was always clean and efficient in beheading demons and monsters, and with just a few flashes of movement, she charged into the zombie heap. Although she was young, her Taoist skills were not shallow, especially after the drought demon incident, when her physical body was completely destroyed, disappearing for a long time, and reappearing again, no one knew her specific depth. She entered the zombie heap, like a wolf entering a flock of sheep, wherever she went, large numbers of zombies turned to ashes, instantly only hearing the mournful wails that filled the sky.

  "Sunzi, you're going down!" Du Sulin's bloodlust was ignited, and the ferocity in his eyes grew even more intense. But Sunzi merely propped himself up with his protective aura, passively defending himself. Seeing that he still couldn't force Sunzi to make a move, he didn't persist either.

  Human affairs still need to be resolved with human means. What Taiyangzi said was right, he had long since left the mortal world, and this time being able to follow Dusilin to see Peng Haotian was just to settle his original cause.

  Before Du Si Lin's words had even fallen, Tai Yang Zi transformed into a flowing light and once again took the form of a bracelet, encircling Du Si Lin's wrist.

  "Dragon God!" The disappearance of Taiyangzi allowed Du Sulin to truly let go. She gave a low shout in her heart, and quickly formed a Panlong Seal with her hands, her spiritual energy transforming into a Dragon God that whizzed by.

  She wasn't without a trump card, but she knew that the later she used it against Peng Haotian, who was full of unknowns, the greater her chances of winning would be.