Wen QingLing1聞 (Wen) – to hear/smell

清 (Qing) – clear/pure

靈 (Ling) – spirit/soul or to be quick/alert opened his eyes and found himself lying on the ground.

He sat up, blankly looked around, and found that it was still the abandoned factory he had chosen to die at.

He didn’t understand. Why hadn’t he died?

As long as you were killed before completely zombifying, you could prevent becoming a zombie and die as a human.

With his injuries, death would definitely come faster than becoming a zombie, but it seems he hadn’t died?

Wen QingLing felt something off about his chest, he looked down only to see a wooden thorn buried deep where his heart was.

Wen QingLing, “…”

Holy shit!

So am I dead or not?!

Wen QingLing was scared by this wooden thorn, he grabbed it and yanked it out, his blood sprayed out.

The pain had him rolling all over the ground, but before he even made two flips he suddenly froze——it didn’t hurt as much as he thought it would, the feeling of pain was very weak.

He stood back up, lifted his clothes, and found that his wound was already completely healed.

Wen QingLing, “???”

What shocked him even more was that a red thing suddenly grew out of the place where his blood had sprayed. It looked like a sea anemone, it’s entire body was blood red, planted on the ground, tentacles waving in the air threateningly as if it were alive.

Looking towards his surroundings again, it was all filled with this type of red thing. Every single one of them grew where blood had soaked into the ground, the ones nearest to him were comparatively larger. It should be because it had sufficient nutrients.

Wen QingLing pulled one out. He found that it had roots at the bottom, and on the top, it had a circular disk. Tentacles covered the circular disk, they looked like veins, soft and elastic.

It has roots and grows in soil, this should count as a plant, right?

Wen QingLing cut off a tentacle, a red liquid sprayed out, the smell of blood assaulted his nose, like blood plasma.

The red liquid quickly stopped, the opening from the cut was already fully healed.

“The hell is this?”

Be it the colour, its scent, or where it grew, it all had something to do with blood. Wen QingLing temporarily named them ‘blood anemones’.

He grabbed his backpack and packed away the large blood anemones, he couldn’t take the smaller ones so he left them where they were.

He needs to bring these back to the base to research.

With a backpack strapped to his back and a dagger in his hand, Wen QingLing tiptoed to the factory’s entrance. He didn’t see any live zombies through the damaged roll-up door, instead there were countless lying on the ground.

Wen QingLing quietly lifted the roll-up door and walked out. He was startled by the scene outside.

The zombies lying on the ground nearby were all dead.

Wen QingLing examined these zombies and felt it was strange.

Zombies didn’t feel pain, as long as the head isn’t exploded they wouldn’t die. But these zombies’ heads were intact and their bodies didn’t show any signs of being attacked. They just inexplicably died like this.

A group suicide?

Suicide your mom! Even if they wanted to kill themselves, they still needed the awareness to do so.

Their brains were empty, they wouldn’t even know what suicide was.

Wen QingLing squatted down, he stabbed his dagger into a zombie’s head, abangsounded and the zombie’s head burst open.

Wen QingLing flinched, since when was he so strong?

He picked out a thumb-sized black crystal from inside the zombie’s head. This was a zombie nucleus, it contained energy and was extremely useful in the apocalypse.

Wen QingLing became more confused after harvesting all of the nuclei.

Even though there were so many dead zombies, no one had touched their nuclei. This meant that no one had come here.

Wen QingLing put away the nuclei, wiped his dagger clean, and left the same way he came back to the base.

Since he wasn’t dead, then he must return. In any case, he couldn’t stay outside and risk becoming zombie food at any moment.

When he passed by a glass apartment, Wen QingLing was scared by his reflection.

His face was ashen and his expression was rigid. He tried to make an expression but found that he couldn’t control his face.

His face was paralyzed.

Wen QingLing leaned on the wall and studied for a long time, then he lifted his clothes and inspected every inch of himself. He confirmed that he wasn’t missing skin or dropping flesh anywhere, he also wasn’t wounded, his skin was just a little pale, facial paralysis also wasn’t a huge problem.

He continued forward. Whenever he saw wandering zombies, he would take the initiative to avoid them, trying his best not to make any noise so as to avoid attracting more zombies.

But slowly, Wen QingLing noticed something was wrong. When he ran into a zombie, he would immediately avoid it, as for the zombies that ran into him, they would also immediately avoid him, like they were scared by him.

Wen QingLing, “???”

With a head full of question marks, Wen QingLing went to find a zombie to experiment.Finding a lone zombie, Wen QingLing suddenly jumped out.

The zombie froze, and then…

It shouted a few noises as it turned its body and ran like the wind!

Its leg was no longer lame, its four limbs were no longer stiff, don’t even mention how agile it was.

Wen QingLing, “…”

He touched his face.

Was he that scary? If even the ugly zombies who have no sense of aesthetics were scared away by him, then what future did he still have?

Why not ugly himself to death while he was at it?

With an expressionless face, Wen QingLing despairingly walked forward. He didn’t even avoid the zombies he saw anymore, it was all the zombies avoiding him.

Wen QingLing thought that he might have awoken a new ability, for example… zombie immunity?

This was too domineering. He wouldn’t be bit even if he was thrown into a pile of zombies. Wasn’t this too overpowered?!

The next time someone pushed him into a zombie horde would be great, he’d definitely pull that person with him to experience the joys brought by a zombie horde!

Wen QingLing thought,with this addition, I would have three abilities now.

Did an ability user with three abilities exist? He had never heard of one.

Even duo-ability users were exceedingly rare. In order to prevent troubles from arising, Wen QingLing hid his psychic ability and only used his wood ability.

He’s going to take off at this rate!

South City Base was set up on the outskirts. On the whole, zombies gathered within cities and there weren’t many on the outskirts, so it was relatively safer.

The sky was already dark when Wen QingLing saw the base. He quickened his pace, the base was locked at night, prohibiting anyone from leaving or entering.

He heard people arguing ahead, their voices were familiar, they were all people he knew.

A female voice cried, “What does his death have to do with me? It wasn’t me who killed him!”

It was Xu ShengFei2許 (Xu) – to allow or promise

聖 (Sheng) – holy/sacred/divine

霏 (Fei) – the fall of snow, his older female cousin from his father’s side3The original Chinese uses 表 (biao) not 堂 (tang) which is actually the mother’s side, but the story later says she’s related to MC’s dad. Though from here on, I will just use ‘cousin’..

Lu TianJin4陸 (Lu) – shore/land

天 (Tian) – sky/heaven

瑾 (Jin) – brilliance (usually of gems) suppressed his voice as he shouted, “It wasn’t you? I heard you were the one who pushed him into the zombie horde!”

Xu ShengFei’s weeping stopped, her voice calm. “Under those circumstances, if there wasn’t someone to lead the horde away, we would all be dead! Sacrificing one to protect the group, this was the best choice!”

Lu TianJin was furious, “There’s a difference between voluntary and involuntary! If you really had this understanding, why didn’t you go down there?!”

Xu ShengFei, “I am more valuable than him.”

“Bullshit! QingLing is a wood-type ability user, the entire base relies on him for food!” Lu TianJin was unable to restrain his anger.

Xu ShengFei’s voice softened. “Leader Lu, he is a wood-type, I am a plant-type, how much difference could there be? Anything he can do, I can do too. Moreover, I really do have more value.”

“What are the most precious things in the apocalypse? Food and women. Without food, people will die of starvation. Without women, human kind will become extinct. So, am I not more valuable than him?”

Lu TianJin didn’t say anything, apparently convinced by her, but his expression was still ugly.

Xu ShengFei continued, “Not only can I take care of the base’s rations, I can also become your woman. Compared to a brother that has already died, isn’t it more worthwhile to choose me?”

As Xu ShengFei said this, her body leaned into Lu TianJin’s.

Lu TianJin’s heart was struggling. On one hand, he was grieving for his brother’s death, on the other, he needed to resist temptation. His hand slowly fell to hold Xu ShengFei’s slender waist…

He pushed Xu ShengFei away. A cold light flew past Xu ShengFei’s bangs, cutting her hair.

Xu ShengFei shrieked in fright and someone came out of the base to check what happened.

A bow appeared in Lu TianJin’s hand, he nocked an arrow, pulled the string taut, and aimed it in the direction the dagger had flown out from.

With this look, Lu TianJin froze. “QingLing?!”

Xu ShengFei looked at him in shock, incessantly shaking her head. “Impossible! This is impossible! He was bitten by a zombie, we all saw it! He’s a zombie! He can’t be a human! He’s a zombie! Kill him! Hurry and kill him ahhhhhh!!!”

Lu TianJin was still shocked, but under Xu ShengFei’s urging he once again nocked an arrow and aimed it at Wen QingLing.

He was still struggling. “QingLing, are you a human or a zombie? If you’re human, say something!”

Wen QingLing continued forward step by step, his eyes were locked on Xu ShengFei. He smelled the scent of fresh blood and meat, it was abnormally delicious, he felt very hungry, so hungry that he wanted to lose his mind and rush over there to take a bite.

His human reason reined in this crazy idea.

That dagger just now would have sent Xu ShengFei on her way if Lu TianJin hadn’t pushed her away.Wen QingLing’s heart was very calm, there wasn’t a hint of hesitation or reluctance that would come from killing a relative.

Xu ShengFei trembled from his stare, shrieking, she used her ability, a thorn suddenly grew out of the ground, heading towards Wen QingLing.

Wen QingLing easily dodged it, his movement was nimble, his stiff face didn’t have any expression, it looked extremely weird.

Xu ShengFei screamed, “Help! Someone help! He’s a zombie! Kill him! Wen QingLing turned into a zombie and returned!”

With her scream, even more people rushed out from inside the base. When they saw Wen QingLing, their scalps numbed, they had all heard that Wen QingLing had been bitten, there was no way he could have returned alive. What’s more, it had been three days since he was besieged by a zombie horde!

Nobody could survive in the City of Zombies for three days!

The people who rushed out didn’t wait for an explanation, they all raised their weapons and attacked Wen QingLing.

Lu TianJin, who was still hesitating, gritted his teeth and released the arrow.

Wen QingLing’s clothes were in tatters and were covered in blood. It was clearly from being bitten by zombies, he couldn’t possibly be a human.

Wen QingLing leapt away, dodging the arrow.

Just a simple leap was several meters high, the survivors from the base all panicked. They unleashed all of their attacks towards him.

Wen QingLing no longer advanced, he was forced into a constant retreat and watched as the people and base he knew went further and further away.

He really only wanted to kill one person. Xu ShengFei pushed him into the zombie horde, was worried he wouldn’t die, and worried he wouldn’t be able to lead away all the zombies, so she stabbed him with a wooden thorn. Now, he had come to take her life, it wasn’t too much.

However, his former teammates had attacked him, they wanted to kill him.

Wen QingLing was chased by a horde of humans and had no choice but to escape into Mound City5陵 (ling) – Could also be “Tomb”, “Hill”, or “Mountain” City. I went with Mound since it seemed like a somewhat normal name for a city..

Mound City was once a bustling metropolis, its population was extremely dense. When the apocalypse arrived, it had also become the most zombie-infested place, the survivors named it the ‘City of Zombies’!

The humans chased until just outside of the city, not daring to continue further.

Xu ShengFei was extremely worried. “What do we do? He escaped inside, if we don’t kill him this time, he’ll bring more zombies back with him. At that time we’ll all be doomed!”

Hearing her say this, the others’ faces all became grave.

The sky was becoming increasingly dark and the sounds of zombies roaring could be heard non-stop from within the city.

Lu TianJin said, “It’s almost night. Let’s first return, inform everyone in the base to increase their guard. Tomorrow, we’ll try again.”

Using their fastest speed, the humans returned back to base. They didn’t dare to stay the night outside.

The night was when mutated lifeforms and zombies were at their most active. If they stayed outside, all that awaited them was death.

End of Chapter 1

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THISBRO: I had 5 translated chapters laying around in my google docs so I decided to just polish them up and publish them. I read this story a while ago but I don’t have the motivation to pick it up, so if anyone wants to adopt it or wants to see this translated, just go ahead or feel free to put it in the pick-up channels on other sites/discord servers.1聞 (Wen) – to hear/smell

清 (Qing) – clear/pure

靈 (Ling) – spirit/soul or to be quick/alert2許 (Xu) – to allow or promise

聖 (Sheng) – holy/sacred/divine

霏 (Fei) – the fall of snow3

The original Chinese uses 表 (biao) not 堂 (tang) which is actually the mother’s side, but the story later says she’s related to MC’s dad. Though from here on, I will just use ‘cousin’.4陸 (Lu) – shore/land

天 (Tian) – sky/heaven

瑾 (Jin) – brilliance (usually of gems)5陵 (ling) – Could also be “Tomb”, “Hill”, or “Mountain” City. I went with Mound since it seemed like a somewhat normal name for a city.