CHAPTER 269: THE DEATH OF ZAO MENG

I launched forward, filled with adrenaline.

The world narrowed into a black twisted shape as Zao’s body grew larger. My bastard sword came down in a brutal overhead arc, the force enough to fracture stone. Leo’s remaining curved blade snapped up to meet me. Clang! But the impact drove his arm lower than he wanted, the shock reverberating through his frame.

"Keep going!"

My voice bellowed in the dark, unable to pause. I twisted my hips and ripped the sword free and swept it sideways, the edge trailing fire and ice as it tore into Lao’s black, fleshy flank, sending a spray of disgusting ichor into the air.

Lao’s voice turned inside out, a deafening shriek as he staggered half a step back.

Into the path of my allies

My lovers.

Mu Qinglan’s blue eyes transformed, shining with a ruby hue as Endless Night sang, slicing the air in a diagonal slash. Her frost-coated blade hissed against his bone and tendril armour, shards of ice embedding into his flesh before exploding outward. Lao jerked back with a snarl, but Li ya followed up like a meteor.

"HERE I COME!"

The flaming halberd slammed down from the skies.

Li Ya used Qinglan’s shoulders like a springboard, snapping downward in a vicious cleave. The flame erupted along the cut, forcing Lao’s body to give under the burst of pressure and heat. The cut ripped his body apart from neck to crotch.

"That felt amazing!"

The bronze skin of Li Ya shimmered in the flames as she flipped back to avoid the randomly stabbing tendrils.

"Head’s down!"

Shen Yifei’s charming voice resonated before her spear darted in like lightning, the tip piercing Lao’s shoulder joint. The hit didn’t pierce completely, but the shot staggered him again, bringing enough damage to break his guard for just a fraction of a second.

Ba-Dump

Ba-Dump

A strange black mass throbbed and pulsed in his chest... similar to a heart, but that slimy mass of flesh was identical to the tendrils.

Is that what I need to strike?

Lao roared, the sound raw and furious.

His tendrils shot out in a frenzy, bladed tips whistling through the air to carve us apart.

"Not this time!" Yifei barked. She spun her spear in a tight flourish, the shaft blurring as she tore the blade from his shoulder, and tore the flesh to batter the tendrils away.

The three women followed each other up.

Li ya already there to cover for Yifei. Her halberd hooked around two more tendrils mid-strike, flames racing up the length of the weapon and searing along the limbs. The smell of scorched flesh and burnt ichor filled the air as Lao’s appendages writhed and curled up like a dead spider.

"Now!" I shouted.

The heart exposed.

It grew twice its size, beating faster and faster as if it might burst.

"Lan’er!"

"I’m ready, John!"

Mu Qinglan and I moved together with a single shout, darting through the weakened tendrils. Her body shifted while I pushed through them like a bull. She cut his abdomen; I angled from the opposite direction, diagonally above, our blades met in an X of steel, frost and fire as we struck at the same heartbeat.

SHHHHTK!

Lao’s cry tore through the battlefield as our blades carved deep, crossing paths through his chest. Flesh and bone gave way beneath the combined elemental force, the impact lifting him half off his feet before dumping him back onto the wall. Black ichor poured from the ragged wound, splattering across the stones and sizzling where frost met flame.

His heart, like a popped grape, oozed the foul-smelling, sour blood, coagulated and messy.

He reeled, one knee hitting the ground, the edges of the wound still hissing with elemental qi. The tentacles twitched weakly, trying to rise, but Yifei drove her spear down to pin one through the stone. Li Ya stomped a boot onto another, halberd poised to sever it completely.

Lao’s gaze flicked between the four of us—his yellow eyes still full of hate, but those intense emotions slowly faded, like ink leaking from a cracked pot... his eyes slowly gained a new colour, light brown, bloodshot and filled with fear.

".....Is....the nightmare....finally over?" Lao’s voice sounded softer, like a normal middle-aged man in pain. He coughed up the disgusting blood, all clotted together, and then looked up at me with a strange expression. "You... I remember you... J....John...? Your voice.... I heard it in the darkness."

[Mutant Zombie - Zao Meng has temporarily regained his humanity]

’How!?’ I shouted while looking at the weak, old man slipping away.

[The direct effect of his zombie core meeting the Elemental Qi of your Tyrant Battle Body]

[Consider it something like...]

’Resonance...’

The word just seemed to linger in my mind... right now, I was seeing the echoes of Zao Meng, a sort of resonance of my humanity and the humanity he lost.

"It took too long to meet, Zao Meng."

Upon hearing his name, the monster coiled up, the tendrils still reaching out to attack, drooped, his brown eyes unable to see... but he smiled.

"Yes... that’s my name, Zao Meng... I was supposed to meet my wife.... but..."

His breathing became laboured.

What I noticed was the amount of ichor gradually decreased, and as it did so did his "life", so to speak.

I stepped forward, my blade still dripping with his lifeblood.

"Do you want to meet your wife?"

A calm question, but the way his shoulders quivered and my harsh tone might have made it obvious what I was about to do.

"....I’m ready.... I’ve taken too many lives to live...."

I lifted my bastard sword, the four-element qi flaring faintly along the edge, casting shifting shadows across his weathered face. His body trembled, not from fear anymore, but exhaustion — the kind that seeps into the bones and never leaves.

Behind me, no one spoke. Even Li Ya and Yifei, still pinning the last twitching tendrils, stayed silent.

Zao Meng’s brown eyes never left mine. "Tell her... I tried... to come home."

"Tell her yourself, I am sure she’s waiting for you..... where you promised to meet."

"Ah..." His face became calm... somehow it reminded me of my mother, when she learned that Father refused to visit her when she became sick.

Resignation......

The blade fell in one smooth motion.

I used all my force without hesitation or cruelty.

Just to give an end to Lao Meng’s story.

The ichor steamed where it met the stone, spreading in black rivulets before vanishing in the frost of Mu Qinglan’s lingering qi.

For a moment, there was nothing but the sound of the wind over the wall. Then, somewhere far below, the horde screamed not in fear, but rage. The Command-Type’s influence shattered like glass, and their ranks wavered as they began to devour each other in a frenzy...

But the reprieve was short-lived.

Beneath the corpse, the black veins began to pulse again.

The moment my blade left his neck, his body slumped forward, head rolling to the side. The light in his brown eyes dimmed, replaced once more by the dull glaze of death.

It should have ended there.

But my gut churned, an instinct whispering that this wasn’t over.

The corpse twitched.

[Death of Zao Meng confirmed]

[Detecting Zombification of corpse]

At first, just a faint shudder in the severed tendrils, but then the black veins crawling over his skin bulged, fat and writhing, as if something inside was pumping them full. The ichor around him didn’t seep into the ground but drew back, gathering at the stump of his neck.

[Warning!]

"Back," I said quietly, my grip tightening on the bastard sword.

Yifei obeyed instantly, yanking her spear free from the stone. Li Ya stepped away with a curse, halberd poised. Mu Qinglan stayed beside me, Endless Night glowing faintly in the haze.

The veins burst.

Thick, barbed tendrils erupted from the neck, snapping like whips as they rooted into the wall itself. The flesh tore and reformed, the body stretching unnaturally tall. Zao’s remaining arm split down the centre, peeling into two smaller scythe-like blades. A wet gurgle rose from what had once been his throat, turning into a deep, layered roar that vibrated in my bones.

[Warning: Stage Six Parasite Evolution — Complete Loss of Human Traits]

The air changed.

His new form hunched forward, the head nothing but a smooth, chitinous plate with a single vertical slit glowing dim yellow. Tendrils lashed at the wall around him, leaving grooves deep enough to split stone.

The flicker of humanity I’d seen before was gone. Utterly.

"John..." Mu Qinglan’s voice was calm, but the rattling shake of her blade revealed the truth.

I adjusted my stance, elemental qi flooding my limbs.... "Stay sharp... It isn’t Zao Meng anymore." My back became clammy, and tiny pricks rushed up and down my skin, creating tiny bumps.

Danger Sense triggered the instant I even slightly removed my gaze.

The monster changed before our eyes...

It wasn’t over!