Chapter 26: The Zombie Tyrant

In terms of status and background, Jian Qing clearly came from a prestigious family — and despite her youth she was already a major and Chen Ning’s instructor. Chen Ning, by contrast, was born in the slums and was only an ordinary trainee in the elite squad. On top of that, Jian Qing’s exceptional beauty and elegant demeanor make her nothing short of a goddess in Chen Ning’s heart.

Getting into the goddess’s dormitory was something Chen Ning had never even dared to imagine; standing before Jian Qing, he felt a flush of inferiority. After Jian Qing ordered him once more, he stepped into her suite with a pounding, anxious heart.

Jian Qing’s dorm was far nicer than the dorms of the elite trainees like Chen Ning — a living room and two bedrooms. Although the apartment was decorated in a minimalist style, subtle feminine touches still conveyed the unique warmth of a women’s dorm. Whether it was the faint, sweet scent lingering in the air or the pink plush toy on the living room sofa, everything gave Chen Ning a distinct feeling.

“Sit down. I’ll find some ointment to dress your wounds,” Jian Qing instructed.

Chen Ning sat stiffly on a chair, formal and upright. The arrogance he’d shown earlier — breaking someone’s leg, snapping back at an instructor — had vanished completely.

Jian Qing rummaged through a cabinet and finally took out a bottle of red medicinal oil and a syringe of the Angel’s Kiss restorative serum. She came over, handed the serum to Chen Ning, and told him to drink it first.

Chen Ning felt honored and obediently swallowed the medicine. Instantly, much of the pain in his injuries eased.

“Take off your jacket. I’ll apply the ointment,” Jian Qing said.

Chen Ning blurted awkwardly, “Instructor, perhaps you could just give me the medicated oil, and I’ll apply it myself when I get back.”

Jian Qing hadn’t only called Chen Ning to treat his wounds. She also wanted to check his body — Chen Ning killed a level three zombie as a level one soldier, and the fact he’d beaten several of Huang Haifu’s men alone earlier that day had surprised her. She worried the zombie virus inside him might be acting up, causing physical mutation that made him unusually powerful.

“Stop babbling. Take it off when I tell you,” she snapped.

Chen Ning had no choice but to obediently pull off his shirt, exposing a torso covered in wounds — his back in particular a grisly sight of torn flesh and dried blood.

Without changing her expression, Jian Qing asked, “Don’t you feel any pain?”

Chen Ning forced a smile. “I do. But i try to tell myself not to pay attention to it.”

If he felt pain, he wasn’t a zombie.

Jian Qing examined his wounds, and at the same time subtly probed for his martial veins.

Chen Ning originally had two martial veins: a black one, swirling with dark energy and radiating a terrifying, sinister aura; and a white one, flashing with silver light and giving off a resolute, iron-like spirit. But when Jian Qing probed for his veins, the black vein seemed to sense her intrusion and instinctively hid itself. In the end she only detected the white vein — and found it had already ignited a second node, the mark of a level two soldier.

“Oh?” Jian Qing exclaimed with surprise. “You’ve already lit a second node.”

Chen Ning wondered why she hadn’t mentioned his dual veins. Could it be that she didn’t detect the dark vein?”

He answered Jian Qing’s remark, “Yes. It lit last night.”

Jian Qing was stunned. “My goodness. Your cultivation talent clearly isn’t outstanding, yet you filled the Spirit Lake’s martial water so quickly and lit a second node — that’s astonishing.” 

No sooner had Jian Qing spoken than it occurred to her: Chen Ning always trained as if his life depended on it, constantly pushing his body to its absolute limit. Perhaps this very relentlessness was why his mastery of the Mighty Tigers Art was advancing at such a startling rate. Igniting one node per week—even if for one the lower nodes—was an exceptionally rare feat, a pace that could only be described as genius-level.

“Looks like diligence can make up for lack of talent,” she mused, then began to rub the ointment onto Chen Ning’s back.

She poured a little red oil into her palm and smoothed it over the wounds on his back. The gentle hand, the delicate touch, and the sting of the medicine on his injuries made Chen Ning’s body shiver slightly.

Jian Qing glanced at him and noticed Chen Ning had his eyes tightly shut. She frowned. “What are you doing?”

Chen Ning still had his eyes closed but answered honestly: “I’m afraid my rib will break again.”

Jian Qing froze for a moment, then her pretty face colored with a mix of annoyance and embarrassment. Chen Ning’s words reminded her of when she’d checked his wounds earlier and he’d sneaked a look at her collar — and she’d kicked him hard enough to break a rib.

Closing his eyes now and saying he feared a rib would break again was obviously a hint: Jian Qing was so pretty he couldn’t control his eyes and would be punished again.

Jian Qing was equally angry and amused. She lifted her hand and gave Chen Ning a light slap on his back.

“Ouch,” Chen Ning muttered softly.

The same thought flashed through both their minds: their current behavior was too familiar, their proximity far too close for propriety.

Jian Qing restored her cool, indifferent demeanor, and Chen Ning went silent, sitting properly again.

Soon she finished applying the ointment. She stood up. “Alright, it’s getting late — almost class time. Go back to the classroom.”

“Okay.”

Chen Ning put his shirt back on and started to leave. At the doorway he hesitated, turned, and looked at Jian Qing with sincere gratitude. “Instructor Jian Qing, thank you.”

Jian Qing was slightly taken aback. Seeing the pure gratitude in his eyes, she said lightly, “No need to thank me. Train hard and repay the Empire someday.”

“Yes, Instructor!” he answered.

Chen Ning left the instructor dormitory building and went to the elite classroom in the teaching building. The moment he stepped in, dozens of trainees turned and cast strange looks his way.

Word had already spread about how Chen Ning had handled Huang Haifu’s group by himself, how he’d brutally snapped Huang Haifu’s leg in front of Instructor Shi Yu, and even that Instructor Shi Yu had severely punished Chen Ning until Jian Qing had intervened to rescue him.

When Chen Ning entered the classroom, he was met with a mix of looks. Some held admiration for his sheer audacity, others were stunned by his ferocity. Some thought he had been foolishly disrespectful to Instructor Shi Yu, while others envied the staunch support and special attention he had received from Instructor Jian Qing.

Bai Yuhao had long believed Chen Ning was more than a mere level one soldier; Chen Ning’s brawl in the food hall only strengthened that belief. He smiled and quietly greeted Chen Ning, “Nice one.”

Chen Ning gave a wry smile and made his way to his seat.

As he passed Xiao Zihao’s seat, Xiao hissed low and cold, “Kid, Huang Haifu answers to me. You dared touch him — you’re dead meat.”

Having had the audacity to break Huang Haifu’s leg right in front of Xiao Zihao, Chen Ning clearly wasn’t afraid of any trouble Xiao might stir up. So now, faced with Xiao’s provocation and threats, Chen Ning merely raised an eyebrow and returned to his seat.

Before long, Instructor Jian Qing arrived.

Normally she taught the morning session. But today, the Butcher was also present. The room fell slightly tense.

Jian Qing went to the podium and spoke first. “We were scheduled for a normal class, but the base received an urgent notice: we have a mission. Training is suspended. You’ll participate in a task; the specifics will be explained by Lieutenant Colonel Butcher.”

Puzzled looks spread through the room as Butcher walked to the podium and began, “A small city less than 500 kilometers from us was overrun by zombies last night. According to first-hand intelligence, it was likely the work of a Zombie Tyrant. The Tyrant is an 11th-level entity with terrifying destructive power. All surrounding provincial cities have been placed under martial law. Various special corps have been mobilized to converge on this area, and many War Officers, even Brave Commanders level military experts from the empire have received orders to hunt down this elusive Zombie Tyrant.”

He paused, then continued gravely: “As one of the garrisons in the surrounding area, our Azurebird Base isn’t qualified to take part in eliminating such a tyrant. But we do have another duty. Because of the tyrant’s presence, many civilians were killed and subsequently turned into zombies. Our urgent task is to deploy and exterminate these newly born zombies — we cannot allow them to spread.”

When everyone heard the words “level eleven zombie tyrant,” the room went deathly quiet.

They only breathed easier when Butcher clarified they weren’t being sent to hunt the tyrant itself, merely to clean up the mess it had made.

Some even muttered, “Thank goodness we’re not being sent to hunt the tyrant.”

But Butcher shot a glance at that trainee and said coldly, “Our mission is to clean up the newborn zombie horde — but the tyrant has appeared in that area. The chance that we encounter it is not zero!”

That single sentence drained the color from every trainee’s face. As Jian Qing had already warned them, if these rookies ran into a zombie tyrant, it would certainly be a one-way trip.