The old woman with the cat face leaped onto the dining table, staring incredulously at the zombie in front of her.
Li Zhiyuan seized this opportunity to quickly spit out the dry fruit in his mouth, involuntarily pressing his hands against his forehead as he had felt like his mouth was stuffed full of star anise while chewing the fruit earlier.
By now, he had found himself unable to grasp the situation at all.
It made sense for the cat-faced old woman to hold a birthday feast here, and he understood, even tried to muddle through by exploiting the rules of this place.
But what was this zombie doing here all of a sudden?
This was a dream-like but not quite dreamy environment, wasn’t it supposed to be her home turf?
Li Zhiyuan did not believe that the old lady held her birthday party because it was too quiet and thought that hiring a child performing troupe was not enough, so she invited a zombie to liven up the atmosphere.
At this moment, Li Zhiyuan felt incredibly stupid, like a student ranking at the bottom of the class.
It was like the teacher was explaining a problem that still seemed baffling, then the teacher added, "Let’s look at another problem, it’s a variation of this one, let’s talk about them together."
Li Zhiyuan felt even more bewildered.
However, what Li Zhiyuan didn’t know was that the cat-faced old woman standing solemnly on the table felt even more bewildered... and even fearful.
Because even though the zombie just stood there, the mere Evil Qi emanating from it had already terrified her.
From the zombie’s mouth and nose, white vapor continuously emerged; it seemed to be curiously scrutinizing the surroundings, and finally, its gaze settled on the cat-faced old woman.
Feeling the mighty creature’s gaze upon her, the old woman’s body shivered, her arms slightly retracted, fingers curled, and her whole body appeared somewhat bowed, as if displaying submission.
Having recently become a Corpse Demon, she naturally felt fear when suddenly facing such a despised and detestable existence, and could hardly muster any courage to resist.
"Why are you here in my place, where have I offended you?"
Li Sanjiang, who was leading zombies in exercise at The Forbidden City, scratched his head in confusion. He had just made a turn leading the group, which had been arranged in three columns, each with three zombies, but how come the last row now only had two?
"Did one of the zombies go missing? Could zombies also get tired and slack off?"
The zombie stretched its arms forward and leaped straight at the old woman.
Why would it care about the old woman’s display of weakness and appeasement? Ridiculous, it didn’t even know why it appeared here!
Seeing the zombie’s movements, the old woman had no choice but to brace herself and jump as well, both claws slashing out.
The two tangled above the table for a while before landing on it simultaneously, the table instantly shattered into pieces.
Fortunately, Li Zhiyuan had already left the table to avoid danger, and he immediately ran to Qin Li, seeing that she was still watching the fight, he grabbed her hand:
"Stop watching, hide quickly!"
He pulled Qin Li to a corner, right in front of a stacked table board that could offer some sense of safety.
Crouching under the cover, Li Zhiyuan peered through a gap, observing the ongoing battle.
The old woman turned sideways, using her cat-like agility to dodge the zombie’s piercing fingers, then she clawed at the zombie’s right arm.
The zombie’s clothes were torn open, revealing festering skin beneath from which pus continuously seeped out.
But quickly, the zombie swept its arms horizontally like a heavy whip, striking the old woman.
The old woman was flung away, crashing heavily against the wall and falling to the ground. She then blankly stared at her fingers, and then back at the wound on the zombie.
"How come, it’s not as terrifying as I felt?"
On the second-floor bedroom, Li Sanjiang’s right arm bore a scratch mark from which blood flowed.
The Li Sanjiang leading zombies in exercise in his dream lost his balance due to the pain, falling to the ground, and all the zombies behind him uniformly laid down to their left side.
Li Sanjiang puzzledly turned his head to look at the first row of three zombies behind him:
"Which one of you is attacking me?"
The three zombies didn’t respond but instead also turned their heads to look further back, as all the other zombies followed suit.
"Damn, can getting hurt in a dream feel so painful?"
Li Sanjiang didn’t bother to dress his wound, quickly getting up and continuing to jump.
He knew he couldn’t give these zombies any time to think clearly, even just resting a bit longer could lead them to swarm him and tear him apart.
"Come on, keep jumping!"
Inside the hall, the zombie leaped at the old woman again.
This time, the old woman did not confront it head-on, but glanced around instead; the green ghostly light in her eyes flickered, and all the paper figures previously standing dully around charged at the zombie.
Some grabbed the zombie’s legs, some tugged at its arms, others even jumped onto the zombie’s head.
The zombie started flailing its arms and biting around, tearing several paper figures into shreds each time, but luckily Grandmaster’s House owned a paper mill.
Using the paper figures to hinder the zombie, the old woman started moving around, and finally, seizing an opportunity, she pounced behind the zombie, claws ready, and scratched at its back.
This time, much of the zombie’s official robe on the back was torn into strips, the ten claw marks created wounds from which pus profusely flowed.
On the bedroom bed on the second floor, Li Sanjiang’s body stiffened, followed by his mat gradually soaking with fresh blood.