Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Fang Yuan watched as Divine Lord Tian Du and Shi Hou disappeared into the horizon, before retracting his gaze, looking at the immortal zombie Gu Ye beside him with a slightly flickering gaze.
With a trembling and hesitant voice, he said: “Brother Gu… may I ask… how many times has this happened?”
Gu Ye restrained his grieving expression, and patted Fang Yuan’s shoulder, comforting him on the contrary: “Not too many. It is just that with the nearing of Qin Bai Sheng’s auction, some shameless scumbags are trying everything they can to get the capital to participate in this level of grand event.”
Fang Yuan had not helped him, but Gu Ye did not blame him. He did not have any hope, thus his disappointment and grief had no relation to Fang Yuan.
With this, even though they had just met each other, Gu Ye was even more certain that Fang Yuan’s situation was similar to his and even slightly worse, as a fallen Gu Immortal who had helplessly turned to becoming an immortal zombie.
“But this behavior is too ugly.” Fang Yuan pretended to be indignant.
This expression looked like his true feelings in Gu Ye’s eyes.
“At least there is something to cover the humiliation.” Gu Ye looked at the immortal essence stone on his hand with irony.
This immortal essence stone was the ‘price’ Shi Hou and Divine Lord Tian Du had paid for one hundred and fifty kilograms of wilted essence.
He shook the immortal essence stone: “Look, Divine Lord Tian Du and Shi Hou might be strong, but they still are apprehensive of Zombie Alliance behind us and had to give us face in this way.”
“Could it be… could it be that Zombie Alliance’s face is only worth one immortal essence stone?” Fang Yuan expression was aghast, as he made an inquiry.
Gu Ye laughed.
His laughter was bitter, mixed with helplessness, sadness and grief.
He looked at Fang Yuan, and felt he was looking at himself back when he had just joined Zombie Alliance.
He patted Fang Yuan’s shoulder again: “Brother Sha, you have reached this point and also know the hardships and disadvantages of immortal zombie. Blessed lands of us immortal zombies are already dead and cannot be operated, and cannot produce immortal essence. If I have to say it bluntly, we are on our dying breaths. Thus, we have to rely on external resources even more than those living Gu Immortals.”
“You also might have already heard about it, Zombie Alliance indeed has many immortal zombies like you. But if you want to rely on these people as support and to help maintain your face, you have to pay the price.” Gu Ye’s words had deep implications.
“Price?” Fang Yuan pretended to not understand.
“Yes. If you want to request a rank six immortal zombie to help you, you need two immortal essence stones, and this is only the initial price, the concrete amount will depend on how intense the fight is. If you want to request a rank seven immortal zombie, you need twenty immortal essence stones. Similarly, this price is only the initial price. If you have sufficient immortal essence stones, you can even request the whole of Zombie Alliance to support you. But if you don’t have money or don’t want to pay the price, then your face can only be worth this much.”
When Gu Ye said this, he slightly raised that immortal essence stone and intentionally shook it.
Blessed lands of immortal zombies were already dead, it was hard to engage in business to generate income and they had to rely on more external resources; this made immortal zombies have to meticulously plan and often choose to endure as opposed to fight. Only like this could they barely maintain their livelihoods.
Like with Fang Yuan previously, he could not produce green grape immortal essence by himself and could only use immortal essence stones to substitute. The pressure was too high; in that intense battle with Hei Cheng, his finances almost collapsed and fell into a plight again.
Fortunately, Fang Yuan had Hu Immortal blessed land, which reduced the significance of his immortal aperture being dead.
What was even more fortunate was that he had wisdom Gu’s help. And there were extremely large benefits to using the light of wisdom with an immortal zombie body.
First was the Immortal Gu recipe transactions with Lang Ya land spirit, which allowed Fang Yuan to get out of the mire. Then with the help of the light of wisdom, he was able to innovate airsac Gu and engage in the guts Gu business, making Immortal Crane Sect compromise, and greatly improving his entire living environment.
‘If I didn’t have these, my situation might be extremely dismal just like Gu Ye’s.’ Fang Yuan sighed inwardly, while on the surface he showed a look of realization and took a step back, bowing and cupping his fists: “Brother Gu Ye, I have received your teachings.”
Gu Ye shook his head: “Even without me speaking of these truths, you would understand it for yourself after some time. No need for thanks. Come, I will bring you to Zombie Alliance.”
Fang Yuan followed Gu Ye to the depths of the old earth wood branches at that exquisite wood city again.
Gu Ye flew ahead to a large plaza in the center of the wood city.
The plaza was in ruins, from the damaged floor tiles to the surrounding destroyed flower beds and dried up fountain; one might be able to only get a glimpse of its past prosperity.
Gu Ye and Fang Yuan stood in the center of the plaza.
“Rise.” Gu Ye mobilized his primeval essence, the plaza’s surface instantly brightened.
The thick and solid floor became translucent like a giant jade.
The green jade light circulated around, shadows of countless Gu worms fluttered within the light.
At the same time, large numbers of mortal Gu flew out of Gu Ye’s body, mostly being rank five space path Gu and rank four wood path Gu. These Gu worms flew above Fang Yuan and started to rapidly revolve like a hurricane, in the dusky surroundings, rays of brilliant light gradually appeared.
Gu Ye continued to mobilize his primeval essence unceasingly, these flowing lights rapidly increased in number and soon created a vast bluish-green patch.
Untold numbers of mortal Gu, under some wondrous rhythm, converged their powers, overlaying on top of one another and mutually amplifying themselves, finally forming a might display.
“This is a top tier mortal killer move our Zombie Alliance researched, green crystal hero’s path. It can span across hundreds of thousands of li, directly connecting the old earth wood and Zombie Alliance’s garrison. You know us immortal zombies are Gu Immortals as well, our bodies are filled with dao marks, thus normal methods are unable to transport us.” Gu Ye explained at the appropriate moment.
Fang Yuan nodded.
Immortal zombies might have weaker battle strength causing their status to lower, and their thoughts to slow down, but their accumulations and foundations still remained for the most part.
Especially when immortal zombies are in a similar situation, they could cast aside prejudices unlike normal Gu Immortals and cooperate with each other. Thus, being able to research a peak tier mortal killer move was not strange.
Gu Ye continued: “I looked after the myriad poison date tree in Zombie Alliance for two years before I was able to get enough contribution points to exchange for this Green Crystal Hero’s Path. Ah, right, you might be confused. Brother Sha, if you choose tasks which needs you to go outside, Zombie Alliance’s prerequisite is that you have to grasp the killer move Green Crystal Hero’s Path. Only with this can you reach Zombie Alliance at any time.”
They did not have Fixed Immortal Travel, did not have Stargate and also did not have moving perspective cup Gu.
Normal Gu Immortals could use connecting heaven Gu and hole earth Gu; but immortal zombies could not because of their dead apertures.
Connecting heaven Gu and hole earth Gu were only mortal Gu, the reason they could connect between blessed lands or grotto-heavens was because the two small worlds involved would silently consume heavenly power. And an immortal zombie’s blessed land or grotto-heaven was already dead, and was unable to expend heavenly power.
To set up connecting heaven Gu and hole earth Gu required the consent of both sides. Only with this, the immortal apertures could use heavenly power. If they were secretly set up, they would not be able to connect because of the absence of heavenly power.
Connecting heaven Gu and hole earth Gu also could not be used if they were set up outside in the five regions.
“Ah, so green crystal hero’s path was this important!” Hearing Gu Ye explain again, Fang Yuan showed an appropriately admiring and envious look.
Gu Ye caught Fang Yuan’s expression and felt refreshed, the grief from the forceful transaction earlier eased up by a lot.
Happiness often comes from comparison.
Instantly, Gu Ye felt Fang Yuan was much more pleasing to the eyes.
A thick green light soared to the skies from the dense dried yellow old earth branches and leaves.
After a while, in Dark Flow City, over a hundred thousand li away, on the plaza in the southeast section, a dark green light suddenly fell down.
The light engulfed the plaza, dying the surroundings green. Wind surged, and the hanging iron lanterns in the plaza constantly shook and squeaked.
The light quickly disappeared, in the originally empty plaza appeared Gu Ye and Fang Yuan.
“Let’s go, we should not stay here for long.” Gu Ye composed himself and walked forward, with Fang Yuan closely following behind.
This giant city was named Dark Flow; it was pitch black, resembling a giant beast sprawled on the ground.
The sun was setting to the west and there was still a source of light.
However, every tile and brick of the giant Dark Flow City emitted a dense darkness that dyed the surroundings black.
Especially, the closer one got to the center of Dark Flow Giant City, the denser this darkness became.
Fang Yuan and Gu Ye walked ahead, but saw no humans in their path. The long path had street lamps erected every few hundred steps. But these street lamps let out weak dusky yellow light which only lit some dozens of steps, leaving behind long stretches of darkness in between the gaps of the street lamps, making the darkness of the giant city even more conspicuous.
The large Dark Flow City felt like an abandoned city.
However, there were still some faint clamoring noises coming from below the giant city.
“This is the main headquarters of our Zombie Alliance in Northern Plains, and it is almost as large as a mountain. It is divided into seven floors; the lower five floors are the residences of mortal Gu Masters and are very bustling and clamorous. One floor above is where immortal zombies and people with some relation to us reside. The highest floor has the conference hall where three rank seven immortal zombies are stationed throughout the year.” Gu Ye gave an appropriate explanation.
Fang Yuan nodded without being surprised.
Zombie Alliance was not an organization that was only formed from immortal level members, but also covered mortal Gu Masters.
These Gu Masters, for the most part, made use of dark path; raising zombies, commanding zombies and even transforming into zombies.
The two walked for a while, arriving in front of a large hall without seeing anyone in the way.
Tall stone statues stood on either side of the large hall, they were taller and bulkier than even Fang Yuan’s eight arm immortal zombie physique.
Fang Yuan carefully observed them. His eyes narrowed slightly as he discovered these stone statues were not as simple as they looked.
“You find it strange too? This is Yin Liu Gong’s immortal killer move Stone Casket, inside them are not ordinary zombies but immortal zombies.” Gu Ye said this, then said in a lower voice, “Yin Liu Gong is one of the experts of our Zombie Alliance. When the city lord left Northern Plains, they assigned three deputy city lords; he is one them and can command immortal zombies to fight for him.”
“Yin Liu Gong…” Fang Yuan silently engraved this name to his mind.
This name was not in his previous life’s memories. But just based on the fact Yin Liu Gong could command immortal zombies to fight, he needed to be attached importance.
“In my previous life, my rise was a matter that occurred three to four hundred years later. And in this period of time, it was not that no outstanding characters emerged, but due to all sorts of reasons, they were washed away by the river of time.” Fang Yuan was cautious, with no hint of carelessness.
“Come and push the door.” Gu Ye suddenly moved to the side, “So long as you can open this large door, you will have the qualifications to join Zombie Alliance.”
Fang Yuan quietly put his two arms on the door and softly pushed, opening the door by a sliver.
Instantly, over twenty sharp, gloomy or dull gazes followed the crack and shot towards Fang Yuan.
Fang Yuan intentionally changed his expression slightly, then he took a deep breath and fiercely pushed open the door completely.
Gu Ye laughed heartily while patting Fang Yuan’s shoulder: “Being able to push open this large door means you are a person of Northern Plains. Come, your timing is really exquisite, our Zombie Alliance’s meeting is held today!”
