Chapter 35: The Wicked Old Man
Xiao Zihao, Da Yan, and Niu Er all stared in disbelief.
The “Stinger” assault rifle—renowned for its armor-piercing power—had failed to even scratch Chen Ning’s skull. Not only that, but his white bone mask hadn’t suffered the slightest scratch. And when they heard Chen Ning call himself “Tyrant,” their faces went completely pale.
Xiao Zihao had already sensed that something was wrong, and a desire to flee sprouted in his heart. The scene before him was just too bizarre.
His eyes darted around, but he then shouted in a deep voice.
“Da Yan, Niu Er, don’t be afraid! This guy is just putting on an act! Let’s rush him together and cut him down! Charge!”
With that cry of “Charge!”
Xiao Zihao turned and bolted. Without even a shred of hesitation.
While Niu Er and Da Yan weren’t foolish enough to charge headlong at the eerie Chen Ning, they were still stunned by Xiao Zihao’s utterly shameless and immediate betrayal. He had abandoned them without a second thought, showing no loyalty whatsoever. In fact, he had deliberately left them behind, clearly intending for them to serve as a distraction and absorb Chen Ning’s initial attack.
Xiao Zihao was profoundly selfish, but also clever. In the brief moment it took him to turn and flee, Chen Ning—his left face now covered by the bone mask—was already on the move, attacking with a cold sneer.
Niu Er and Da Yan didn’t even see what happened. All they perceived was a blur before Chen Ning was right in front of them.
Their faces filled with terror, but before they could even offer resistance, Chen Ning’s hands shot out, seizing each of them by the throat.
Though both men were slightly more heavily built than Chen Ning, he lifted them clean off their feet, choking them. Before they could struggle, his fingers pierced their necks. They died instantly, like chicks with their necks wrung.
Chen Ning tossed the corpses aside and turned to look at Xiao Zihao, who’d already managed to run about twenty meters.
From behind the left side of the bone mask, his crimson eye gleamed with malice. A rasping voice followed, dripping with cold amusement:
“Trying to run?”
At that moment, Chen Ning’s body—still under the control of the Crimson Tyrant—was about to move in for the kill.
But then another voice rang out, clear and sharp—Chen Ning’s own consciousness shouting from within:
“Hey, old freak, don’t kill him yet! I want him alive. Let him taste despair first.”
A pause. Then the rasp returned:
“Torment first? I like that.”
It turned out that ever since Chen Ning had relaxed his mental guard, his body had been hijacked by the Crimson Tyrant—this wicked old spirit.
Chen Ning couldn’t move at all, not even a finger. The Tyrant had full control of his body.
But Chen Ning’s mind remained clear, and through his right eye, he could still see—as though he was sitting inside an auto-piloting combat mech, watching his own possessed body move.
The Crimson Tyrant’s grin widened behind the bone mask. “You think you can escape?” he stomped down hard with one foot on the ground
The earth trembled.
Instantly, the solid ground transformed, like a calm lake struck by a stone, producing a visible ring of air ripples that spread outwards from the point where Chen Ning’s foot had landed.
When the air wave passed by Su Luo on the ground, she was miraculously unharmed. But when it rapidly expanded to where Xiao Zihao was, the fleeing man was violently lifted and thrown heavily to the ground.
Xiao Zihao fell to the earth and couldn’t get up. The moment the shockwave had tossed him, the bones in his legs had been utterly shattered. Now, lying on the ground, he emitted screams of pure agony.
Chen Ning approached slowly, every step deliberate, the mask making him look like death itself. He loomed over Xiao Zihao, his raspy voice low and cruel:
“Demigod brat, how do you want to deal with him?”
Chen Ning’s clear, human voice replied from within:
“Let me think… Oh, I know—an eye for an eye. This bastard tied me to a tree trunk earlier, wanting zombies to come and eat me alive. Now, I’m going to tie him up here. Let the zombies catch the scent of his blood and come. Let him get up close and personal with our zombie friends.”
The rasping voice chuckled darkly.
“Heh, interesting. We don’t even need to wait for other zombies. The two I personally strangled were already infected with our zombie virus. It won’t be long before their corpses turn. This bastard’s legs are already broken. If I break his arms too and leave him here, soon enough, when those two bodies rise… his ‘fun’ will begin.”
Xiao Zihao heard the voice from Chen Ning’s mouth constantly shifting between two distinct tones, as if he were talking to himself, or like two people were having a continuous conversation.
Moreover, the words coming from Chen Ning’s mouth filled Xiao Zihao with even more terror and despair. His face turned ghostly white. His voice trembled.
“Chen Ning—you dare?! The Xiao family will never let you—”
Crack!
Before he could finish, the Crimson Tyrant-controlled Chen Ning stomped down on his left arm, snapping it clean in half. Xiao Zihao shrieked in agony.
“AAAHHHH!!!”
The Crimson Tyrant knew no mercy. Without hesitation, he raised his foot and crushed Xiao Zihao’s other arm.
Crack!
Finally, he tore a piece of cloth from Xiao Zihao’s clothes and stuffed it into his mouth.
Now, Xiao Zihao could neither move nor scream—only lie there, helpless, eyes wide, watching in horror as Da Yan and Niu Er’s corpses began to twitch and rise.
They were turning.
The Crimson Tyrant let out a chilling, raspy laugh.
“Don’t be sad. You three were good brothers, weren’t you? Now you’ll be together again—forever.”
“Hey, bastard old man,” Chen Ning’s voice barked inside. “That’s enough. You’ve had your fun. Now give me back control of my body.”
The Crimson Tyrant chuckled, voice thick with mockery.
“Hehehe… Demigod brat, should I call you naive… or naive… or just incredibly naive?”
Chen Ning’s tone sharpened. “What’s that supposed to mean? You’re not planning to play games with me, are you?”
“Heh, I was surrounded and relentlessly hunted down by those scum from the Empire military, and they even cut off my head. Losing my body was miserable enough, but I never expected to run into a damned demigod kid like you, who actually devoured my only remaining head.
I thought I would be trapped forever in your spiritual realm, but I never imagined that heaven never seals off all exits—you foolishly agreed to hand over control of your body to me. Haha, I’ve finally obtained a new body, and what’s more, it’s a demigod’s body! This is such a rare opportunity! Do you really think I’ll give control back to you?”
“Damn it, you scheming old bastard!”
“Hahaha! Not scheming—just smarter than you. And I already did you a favor, didn’t I? Took care of Xiao Zihao and his dogs. Be satisfied. From now on, you can rest quietly inside your mind. This body belongs to me.”
“Damn you, in your dreams!”
“Hey, hey, hey! What do you think you’re doing, kid? Don’t do anything reckless! If two spirits fight for control of the body, it’ll tear the vessel apart—!”
At that moment, the two consciousnesses within Chen Ning’s body were struggling for control. His arms and legs began to thrash about uncontrollably, as if he were having an epileptic fit.
The white bone mask on his left face expanded and cracked, while the flesh on the right side bubbled and churned like boiling water. The whole body looked grotesque, on the verge of bursting apart.
The Crimson Tyrant fought to seize complete control—to make this body his own.
But Chen Ning refused to yield. His willpower, forged through relentless training and countless near-death battles, burned like steel.
Although the Crimson Tyrant was immensely powerful, it was currently in a weakened state. As a result, the two were momentarily deadlocked, neither able to gain full control of the body.
And while the two warred within—
Not far away, the corpses of Da Yan and Niu Er moved.
Their muscles twitched. Their eyes opened, clouded and gray.
The infection had taken hold.
They stood up—staggering, groaning—now fully turned into zombies…
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