As the hundreds of thousands of people in Miat City rushed towards the gates in a frenzied escape, chaos ensued. In their desperation to survive, they paid no heed to the zombies guarding the gates.
Ye Han, standing on Baireis's back, began to transform. His zombie form, revealed for the first time to the people of the continent, was a terrifying sight. As he flapped his wings and left Baireis, his soul instantly connected to the essence blood of the 240 people he had chosen, releasing the corpse poison contained within.
The 240 people, now lifeless and with bared fangs, lost all consciousness under the influence of the corpse poison. The only remaining instinct was a craving for blood. At each city gate, groups of sixty zombies lunged at the approaching crowd.
Devoid of emotion, thought, and pain, they bit anyone they saw. The terrified people, focused only on escape, forgot even basic defense and offense.
The mindless zombies finally made contact with the panicking people. With tens of thousands rushing towards each of the four gates, the sixty zombies at each gate were quickly scattered by the sheer numbers.
Amid the dense crowd, the people couldn't distinguish between zombies and humans. By the time they realized, it was too late – the venomous fangs had already sunk into their flesh.
As the people finally reached the gates, they were met by hundreds of zombies. The narrow gateways, only allowing twenty people to pass at a time, became chokepoints where the zombies, using their toxin-laden claws, attacked everyone in sight. The corpse poison spread rapidly with each contact.
The number of zombies swelled as more people were bitten and clawed – 300, 500, 1000, 2000, increasing every second. As the people regained their senses, they stopped running blindly towards the gates and started scattering throughout the city, seeking any place free from zombies. After observing for a while, some of the eighth and ninth-tier strongmen identified traits of the zombies – strong defenses, great strength, and an absence of pain. They found that apart from completely obliterating the zombies' heads and bodies, it was nearly impossible to kill them. Even crushing their bodies proved futile, as the blood splatter could still transmit the infection.
"O light, divine blade of sanctity, transform into an invincible sword and slash through the darkness – Light Sword Slash!"
The people began to fight back. While other attacks had limited effect on the zombies, the light magic wielded by the mages of the Church of Light proved deadly. A single Light Sword Slash could completely annihilate all zombies within its range.
Gradually, people grouped together for protection, with the Church of Light's members forming a barrier on the outside. They continuously launched light magic at the encroaching zombies, eradicating many. But the relentless zombies, undeterred by the fear of death, kept charging in, attracted by the blood of the injured.
Of the original hundreds of thousands, less than fifty thousand remained uninfected. The rate of infection was faster than Ye Han had anticipated.
As many zombies fell to the light magic, an enraged Ye Han, flying overhead, dove towards the ground. Countless light spells were cast at him, but his incredibly fast speed made them all miss.
Reaching the light mages, his wings flapped powerfully. One mage exploded before even realizing what had happened. Simultaneously, several other light mages met the same fate. Their blood, infected with the corpse poison, splattered onto the surrounding people. Anyone hit by the tainted blood, especially those with wounds, instantly turned into zombies.
The situation in Miat City became even more dire as more and more people joined the ranks of the undead, driven by Ye Han's ruthless strategy.
"My toys, enjoy the feast I have brought for you," Ye Han laughed maniacally as the zombies broke through the barriers and flooded into the city, now outnumbering the living.
The zombies swarmed into the crowds like a pack of ravenous animals, biting anyone in their path. More and more people were caught, torn apart, and blood flowed everywhere.
Baireis approached Ye Han, carrying the incapacitated saint-tier powerhouses. "How do you like the feast I have prepared?" Ye Han asked, reveling in the chaos.
"The Light God will not forgive you for this atrocity," one of the strongmen managed to say. In their helplessness and fear, they sought solace in the thought of a higher power intervening.
"Oh really?" Ye Han sneered, quickly diving into the crowd, grabbing a swordsman, and returning to his original position. "What can he do to me?" His sharp nails pierced the swordsman's body, eliciting a scream of agony.
"I'm quite curious, and somewhat excited, to find out," Ye Han said as he repeatedly stabbed the lifeless body, turning it into a bloody sieve.
He then reached in and pulled out the still-beating heart, chewing it with relish. Blood splattered from his mouth, some droplets landing on Evelyn's face.
"Tastes great. Care to try?" Ye Han teased, looking at Evelyn's terrified expression.
"You..." Fear replaced all other emotions in Evelyn. Ye Han's actions were so abhorrent that even the most evil necromancers on the continent wouldn't dare to commit them.
As time passed, the tens of thousands of zombies trapped the entire city, turning it into a literal hell on earth. The streets were littered with dismembered corpses, and blood flowed like rivers. Ye Han watched with anticipation as the numbers of zombies dwindled from hundreds of thousands to mere thousands, then to hundreds, and finally to less than ten.
The stench and corpse poison quickly spread, carried by the wind into the Hengduan Mountains. Ye Han overlooked one detail: corpse poison could spread not only through blood but also through the air, infecting any wounded being it came into contact with.
With a wave of his hand, the 500 lucid zombies vanished from the hellish Miat City. "I will train you three to be my most loyal dogs," Ye Han said with a sinister smile to Evelyn and the others before Baireis, along with the three of them, disappeared as well.
As the remaining zombies, now fewer but much stronger, continued to fight, Ye Han observed their evolution. Zombies, in their initial form, could only grow stronger by consuming blood. Before transforming into full-fledged zombies, their strength was relatively weak.
The city was now a macabre tapestry of death. What remained of Miat City's buildings were stained red, creating a blood-red city. The surviving zombies, now at the eighth tier, fought with raw, brute force.
From ten to seven, to four, to two, until finally, under Ye Han's watchful gaze, the single surviving zombie emerged victorious from the horde of tens of thousands. This sole survivor, born from a relentless struggle, became the continent's first self-sustaining zombie, a product of Ye Han's cruel experiment.