It was a busy and bright morning in the capital of China Beijing, in K city. Honking of cars could be heard and the noises made on the busy streets traveled far with the help of the wind. In bright and well furnished room, Jiang Rong sat in dazed on a king sized bed. His face was wrinkled showing his confused look. He couldn't understand what was going on since the Only thing he recalled was him dying being eaten alive by zombies and some flash light with a magical place. He wasn't even clear on that, to him he thought it must have been his desire to live.
But he suddenly woke up about an hour ago back in his room in the villa he lived before the apocalypse, he was unsure thinking whether the 18 years spent in apocalypse was a dream. Or whether the apocalypse itself never happened, he was in dire state and in search for answers. His mind was jumbled up and in a state which wasn't good. "Ding~ Ding~Ding~" the ringing of a phone startled him out of his thoughts.
Jiang Rong turned to look at it strangely and the feeling of nostalgia soared up. 'There used to be something like this' he thought. He stretched out his hand for the phone "little Shao" was showing on the screen. He felt a raging fire burning in his being and was agitated. All the memories in the apocalypse flashed through his mind over and over again with his face blackened.
He squeezed the phone in his hand almost smashing it into Smithereens, that one person he would rather have never existed at all. His family's betrayal was to be expected since he already saw signs of it after the death of his mother and he inherited all her assets. But he wasn't really expecting Pang Shao to betray him too. Just thinking about it sent him in fury. The ringing came to an end when he didn't answer, he brought the phone closer to his face looking intently on at the screen. 1/11/21 was showing on the screen. "i came back a month before the apocalypse" he muttered to himself thinking he only got a month to prepare himself for the apocalypse.
He knew he'd have to run against time since there wasn't much time but a lot had to be prepared. The phone started to ring again disrupting him from his thoughts, seeing the same name he was really furious and hostile. His whole body was emitting feint colours of green,red and gray but he had no knowledge of it. He hang up the call without giving it a second thought and off the phone, Jiang Rong looked at the phone wide eyed as something caught his attention.
His eyes were bright red looking aggressive and invigorating. He dropped the phone startled at his eye color, there was no white sclera, iris or pupil. It was bright aggressive red with hostility in them, it was the type of eye color he was used to for very much and had seen it for years in the apocalypse. His now eye color was that of a high level zombie, level four zombies going up had the same eye color as him now. Jiang Rong was scared out if his mind and his thoughts was mixed up, he quickly got off the bed and ran into the bathroom.
He stood in front of the mirror looking at his eyes in daze thinking he was a zombie, now thinking about it Jiang Rong felt like he wasn't breathing and his heart beat... He felt inexplicable looking at himself in the mirror lost of words. He was dumbfounded, he felt everything of himself different. His senses were sharpened enabling him to smell and hear from afar. His ears picking of voices everywhere and his nose smelling people walking around from irritating perfumes to smell of foods. But he didn't have the urge for flesh like how zombies had "what am I?" he questioned himself.
He needed answers to his questions and he needed them fast because he felt that he would go crazy, he felt foreign to himself. Blurry flashes went through his mind and vision to the night of his death, recalling the flash of light from his pendant and the burning on his chest. His memories was groggy and confusing because he wasn't sure of what he saw or happened, but he was sure of one thing and that was the answer to his questions was related to the pendant he was wearing. He looked down on his chest but there was no pendant, he froze. He quickly raised up the gray shirt he was wearing and searched beneath but still no sight of the pendant, instead he saw something which he never had on his left chest. A statue of the Buddha was imprinted on his chest in black ink like a tattoo, Jiang Rong was stunned.
He had never had a tattoo before, not before the apocalypse nor after the apocalypse. He looked at it through the mirror mesmerized by it and felt it with his fingers. As soon as his fingers touched it there was suddenly a flash making him blink his eyes a couple of times trying to adjust his sights. When he opened his eyes again he dumbstrucked, he took protective stance and on defense. He was in his bathroom looking at the tattoo and now he blinks and he was in a whole different place. He was stunned by the scenery reminding him more of what he saw before his death, it was exactly the same as what he was seeing now.
When he raised to look afar there were tall mountains making him gasp, a spring not far from where he stood and a bamboo house with a peach tree in front of it. He was stunned, and everything felt magical yet he felt a kind of familiarity in that place. He relaxed his vigilance and muster up his courage to venture in this familiar yet unfamiliar place with alertness.
"get off my tail you moron!" he hadn't ventured far yet when he suddenly heard an angry voice scolding him which startled him. He stood vigilant and turned around all sides. "who's there?" he asked. But he was met with silence "hello?" he asked again in a loud voice. "you fool I'm under your feet!!!" the voice replied angrier than, it was. Jiang Rong quickly took a step back revealing a fox cub with red fluffy fur. He was stunned and stared at the fox cub with his words stuck in his throat. "he steps on my tail after i saved him!!! is this how you repay me?!" the fox asked in an angry voice as it struggled to face Jiang Rong.
Jiang Rong was flabbergasted dumbstrucked "it talked!" he said with his jaws dropping. The fox looked at him as if facing off with a total idiot "i am the guardian spirit of this space, of course i can talk!" it said proudly. But Jiang Rong's attention wasn't on what it was saying rather he still hasn't gotten over seeing it talk "you talk!" Jiang Rong pointed at it and said. The fox's fur stood up as it bared it's canines at him looking pissed "you moron listen to what i say!" it demanded bringing Jiang Rong back to reality.
"what are you? And what is this place?" Jiang Rong asked. The fox looked pleased gaining his attention, it sat up on its hind legs in an elegant and majestic way. "i am the fox spirit guardian of this space, my master left me to take care of this space for the generations after him to inherit it. Be honored you're the twentieth generation of my master to inherit here." it said smugly and arrogantly as it licked it's paw and used it to smoothen it's fur.
Jiang Rong looked at it strangely "you're the one who saved and brought me back?" he asked one of the important question on his mind. The fox raised up his head with hostility in it's eyes all of a sudden making Jiang Rong feel goosebumps and vigilant "what?" he asked it. "you almost got my master's space destroyed because of your ignorance! if i hadn't saved you with all my power and restore here this space would have been tainted and lost for eternity!" it bared it's canines. Jiang Rong listened to it complained to him of the events that took place and how it saved him, he was thankful and at the same time sorry blaming himself. Knowing that he almost destroyed such a place which was older than time itself and the fox which was thousands of years now looking like a cub because of him.
"how do you get back your strength? what do i have to do?" he asked wanting to take fully responsibility. The fox stopped what it was doing and raised it's head at him, it grin and got on four paws and walked over to him. It raised it's front paws grabbing his sweatpants, Jiang Rong bent and picked it up into his arms with its face closer to his. "well I'm cultivating to regain my strength back with the help of the spiritual spring. But to speed up my cultivation and adding more spiritual energy into the space you have to feed the spiritual spring lots of jade. It's been long since the spiritual spring was feed with spiritual energy so it's energy has reduced!" it complained as it explained the ins and outs to him. Jiang Rong nodded " I'll find some good quality jade and feed them to the spiritual spring" he gave it his word. The fox was very happy and excited "and those crystal things too, the energy in them can be fed to the spiritual spring" it added happily.
Seeing Jiang Rong looked at him waiting for an explanation it shrugged "i can see everything that goes on around whoever has the jade, but because you didn't bind with the space i couldn't help even if i wanted to." it said looking at Jiang Rong with a sneer "that's how i know you're a moron!" it added and Jiang Rong didn't refute. Because he knew he made wrong choices, thinking about everything Ye Xuan's dying face appeared in his eyes making him feel uncomfortable. "what happened to me? am i a zombie?" he asked the fox.
The fox jumped down from his arms and landed on the soft grass on four paws, it started to walk to the spring and he followed behind. "not really. You're a human and a zombie, half of each. You not being able to control your changes is because you're agitated and unstable." It answered Jiang Rong's question as if it could read what was on his mind. It pointed to the spring pool "soak in it, it can't cure you now but i do not know of the future when my strength is back to its peak. But for now it can reform you and help you control your new changes, you should've have felt it there are a lot of changes in you." Hearing him say that Jiang Rong wasn't troubled at all, at least he was given a second chance to redo it all so he was very glad. All his choices from now on would be didn't from the past, and him now being a half zombie he didn't bother about it. He only had one thought find Ye Xuan and get stronger.