The leader of the Mist Sect was sitting in his room, watching a thin stream of smoke twist and curl like a snake in the air. He was reevaluating the current situation in his mind.
"That kid has a faint aura of death surrounding him. When you pay attention, his limbs appear lifeless, but he hasn't actually turned into a zombie. Could it be due to the effects of the potions he's taken?"
Everyone knew that zombie slayers were lunatics who used strange, unknown potions—potions with such severe effects that they could linger in a person's body for a long time.
"With this reasoning, maybe that person really is a zombie slayer, since I haven't seen any signs of him acting like a zombie. A zombie wouldn't behave so rationally. More importantly, he saved Su Yun…"
"Maybe he can do it again…"
Just as the leader of the sect was assessing the situation, Fang Yuan was fighting against Yan'er and Yuno.
"Senior sister! I'm fine, please let me deal with this insolent one myself!"
Fang Yuan showed no reaction. For him, fighting them was entertaining. With his zombie-like physique, he clearly had the upper hand in this battle.
[I need to waste time until someone comes and finishes the fight. I shouldn't draw too much attention. If I get injured, my status as a zombie will be revealed. I can't afford to lose like this.]
Fang Yuan organized his thoughts and continued to defend against their attacks.
"Senior sister!!! I'm activating my domain again now!"
Yuno waved her ribbon in the air, creating a red ceiling above her.
"Now!!!"
Suddenly, thousands of slender red silk ribbons attacked Fang Yuan like poisonous snakes.
He deftly dodged all of them. Of course, these attacks were clearly a cover for the main strike. Fang Yuan had inadvertently placed himself in a position where he could be attacked due to his lack of sufficient planning.
[That attack shouldn't hit me, but I need to show that I am vulnerable.]
At the moment of impact, Fang Yuan spun with incredible speed, the wide edge of a sword struck him and sent him flying into the air.
Boom!
[What?!]
Yan'er was shocked. There was no way her aura was strong enough to pin someone like Fang Yuan down in such a manner.
Whoosh!!!
Three seniors from the sect immediately rushed into the training ground and, seeing Fang Yuan in that position, hurried toward him.
"Mr. Lu??! Mr. Lu??!"
Then they asked Yuno, "What happened here? Why were you fighting Mr. Lu??!"
Yuno smirked and said, "Mr. Lu? That guy was staring at the young lady! I could read the malicious intentions in his eyes!"
One of the seniors shouted, "You fool! How can you be so ignorant?! Why do you attack others without a solid reason?! Didn't you consider that you might have misunderstood??! If due to your foolishness Lady Su Yun's savior dies, how will you answer Senior Su?"
[Lady Su's savior?! That man?!]
Fang Yuan pretended to be in bad shape and with trembling hands said, "Ah... no senior, this... was a misunderstanding... I'm... at fault. I just wanted to ask which way... was the way back to the clinic, but... eventually I found myself... in a fight."
However, he was laughing inside.
[Ha ha ha!! It couldn't have gone better than this! The timing of these seniors' arrival was impeccable. With this incident, their doubts about me...]
Suddenly, he coughed violently and spat out dark blood.
[Damn it, my thoughts!!!]
The seniors' anger flared up again.
"If anything happens to him, you'll have to answer for it!"
Then, under Su Yun and Yuno's astonished gazes, they picked up Fang Yuan and left the place.
Yan'er dropped her sword to the ground and said, "What did I just do?!"
On another side, in the special room of the three venerable elders, they were sitting around a small round table, discussing the disappearance of the Titan's body, the emergence of the zombie slayer, and of course, how to stop the Mist Sect.
Some time ago, after finding Fang Yuan and Su Yun, they had flown toward the mountains to investigate the area.
Everything matched what the two elders of the Mist Sect had mentioned; the plains were covered in the remains of the wyrms, but the spiritual lake had absorbed into the ground by that time, and the spiritual veins of that area had slightly recovered.
Due to the effect of the lake, ferns had grown on the Titan's remains, and the wyrms had turned into fossils. Even now, some smaller spiritual creatures were playing inside the hollow cavities of those remains.
The venerable elders then returned to the Mist Sect.
Initially, their plan was to pressure the sect by taking Su Yun hostage; while training her, they aimed to brainwash her and present her as a desirable candidate for future leadership of the sect.
"Lu Zheng…"
"What should we do now?"
"Brother, I'm now certain that the sect leader won't send Su Yun back on the pretense of injury and will try to make the most of that zombie slayer as a way out of this deadlock."
"Right, that zombie slayer is now the center of everyone's attention. But maybe this isn't such a bad thing."
"What do you mean, brother?"
"You know that in our Supreme Moon Sect, we are only mid-rank elders. This means we aren't truly venerable; the only reason they call us venerable is their own weakness."
"Exactly, brother! Now, if that Lu Zheng is indeed a zombie, he probably isn't an ordinary one but a zombie lord! If that's the case, by capturing that zombie lord, we can get promoted and gain access to higher-level techniques."
"Yeah! We came to hunt a tiger cub but ended up discovering the tracks of a huge bear."
"Ha ha ha ha!!! That's right, my brothers! Let's place bets on that Lu Zheng and return to the Supreme Moon Sect."