Chapter 230: Saving a Life, Delivering the Message (Please Subscribe)

Bang!

Boom!

Rumble, rumble...

Huizhun had already been exhausted by being surrounded and intercepted, and with his wounds yet to heal, he now faced three green-furred zombies whose cultivation realms were higher than his own, compensating for the gap in talent and combat power. At this moment, fighting until his strength was spent, he crashed into the mountain rocks, blocking the cave entrance and nearly burying himself in the process.

"Cough!"

Unable to hold back, he coughed up a mouthful of fresh blood. He lay powerlessly in a crevice between the rocks, gazing up at the bright moonlight of this night. At the edge of his vision were the three ugly zombies, whose corpse Qi had become somewhat thin and whose finger-long green fur no longer swayed without wind, yet they remained terrifying and hideous overall.

Their bodies also bore numerous wounds: piercings from dharma treasures, damage from artifact explosions, scorch marks from flames, slashes from golden light...

The combat power that Huizhun erupted with while fighting like a trapped beast made the person behind the scenes feel a sense of shock.

—The fourth one being controlled, the green-furred zombie that had just returned, subconsciously paused in its tracks, watching only from afar, not daring to get too close for fear that the opponent might still have some strange trick left that could pass through the direct line of control and truly harm them.

But in fact, Huizhun had no tricks left.

The only unknown trick was the secret messaging method of the Surveillance Guard, which he had secretly used by taking the opportunity when his dharma treasure self-destructed, transmitting the key intelligence he had gathered.

Mission accomplished...

Thinking this, Huizhun felt no emotional fluctuation regarding the fact that he would die, or that his corpse would likely be turned into a zombie after death, only to be destroyed later by his colleagues or superiors.

Because he was a soldier of the Surveillance Guard, it was destined from birth that he would give everything for the cause of surveillance; this was a fate he had long accepted, understood, and fought for!

He felt no sorrow, no despair, no fear, no anxiety... just, inexplicably, a little bit of melancholy.

Yes, melancholy!

Huizhun opened his eyes slightly, though his vision was already a blur.

And so, he looked at the moon in the sky, and in this blur, it felt as if he had returned to the moment he was born.

His mother's hoarse, desperate screams, his father's faint, desperate wails coming from afar—these things were just like the present, very blurry.

He truly could not understand why they would be like that; clearly, a life as a Surveillance Guard soldier was very wonderful and far superior to that of an ordinary person.

He was also willing to give everything for it, but come to think of it, his biological parents would not think so.

Unable to understand, wanting to understand, or understanding at least a little, even just a tiny bit—but he couldn't do it, and that was why he felt a bit of melancholy.

"Roar!"

Detecting that Huizhun had opened his eyes and seemed to be raising his hand, the three green-furred zombies were immediately controlled, erupting in angry roars, their corpse Qi surging and their green fur standing on end.

With sharp claws and tyrannical bodies, they transformed into terrifying killing machines, about to shatter the mountain rocks and tear apart everything belonging to the person in their eyes!

Boom!

They attacked in unison, their corpse claws terrifying and sinister.

Then, each received a punch.

Amidst the sounds of cracking and squelching, one corpse hand after another exploded on the spot.

A calm figure suddenly appeared within Huizhun's blurry vision, standing as still as a mountain rock, making him suddenly think:

Perhaps, my biological father would also have such a back...

Thinking this, he lost consciousness.

The melancholy quietly dissipated, and inexplicably, he only felt at ease, sleeping as soundly as an infant.

"Who is it?!"

"Who exactly are you?!"

The person behind the green-furred zombies could not help but cry out in alarm, because the Du En before them was truly hair-raising, actually completely crushing zombies of the same rank in physical combat!

One must know that zombies, compared to demonic beasts, are even simpler, more direct, and more brutal; it is precisely by relying on the strength and tyranny of that stiff, dead flesh that they can reign supreme among their peers!

But what was the result?

In Du En's hands, they were no stronger than soft, mushy flatbread; they shattered upon contact and cracked when grazed. Three—no, four—green-furred zombies hadn't even seen his face clearly before they were dismantled into a pile of parts on the ground.

"Although this caused some accidents and temporarily severed the direct connection with the person behind the scenes, it is not a big problem. Deep within this cave, there is still some hidden connection; when the time comes, I can just break through and enter directly..."

Du En saved the person and eliminated the corpses without a moment's hesitation.

After finishing, he thought this, then glanced at Huizhun, seeing that he wouldn't die for a while, and decided to bury the corpses while they were still fresh.

The divine ability Deathly Land appeared once more; he took out the third-tier demonic bone shovel he had upgraded and replaced, and nimbly went about his old trade, burying the parts of the four green-furred zombies.

Although they were a bit scattered, they were at least full weight and full measure.

"It is also fortunate that zombies are already another form of life; by eliminating them, I can still generate life-number connections, which is why I can bury them and assimilate them into a part of the Deathly Land."

After finishing this work, Du En went to dig Huizhun out.

"Although you are sleeping very soundly, I am sorry, but I need to ask you to wake up now."

While thinking this, he had already taken a third-tier Red-Leaf Phoenix Tree Fruit from his storage bag, pried open the other's mouth, crushed the fruit to squeeze out the juice, and let it flow directly into his stomach.

In previous appraisals, he had determined that this spiritual fruit had the effect of warming the physical body and nourishing the spirit; with no other finished recovery pills on hand, he could only use it to make do.

After all, it was a third-tier low-grade item, so for a top-tier prodigy at the Foundation Establishment perfection stage, even if it couldn't restore him to his original state, it was enough to stabilize his injuries and make him wake up.

"Cough!"

Coughing up the sticky fruit peel and blood scabs from his throat, Huizhun opened his eyes and saw Du En standing beside him.

"Are you alright?"

"I am alright."

Huizhun replied, quickly performing a self-check, then stood up and retreated with a sense of distance, maintaining a wariness toward Du En that was inherent to his profession.

While circulating his energy to recuperate, he scrutinized the other person.

"Apologies, although doing this is very rude, but..."

"It is a matter of habit; I can understand. Moreover, this kind of behavior is not necessarily incorrect."

"Thank you for your understanding, and also, thank you, Senior, for extending a helping hand this time."

Seeing Huizhun's behavior, Du En knew that if he asked about the mission or the person behind the scenes, he would likely only receive a "no comment" answer, so he did not waste any effort and went straight to the point.

"Actually, in terms of age and seniority, I might not qualify as your senior."

"This..."

"You are Huizhun, right? Born in Nanmo, the child of a low-level cultivator."

"That is exactly right; what is your intention, Excellency?"

Because Du En had saved his life after all, and showed no hostility, setting aside the education and habits instilled by the Inspectorate, he could even find a sense of ease in the other party; thus, there was no nervous stress response here, and he admitted it quite readily.

"That is good. I am here because I was entrusted by your father on his deathbed to return his personal effects to you."

Du En took out a wooden box.

Back then, when Shi Lei was dying, he could barely speak much at all, only saying he needed help finding his children and would provide a reward at the end; but his actual intention was simply to have him hand over the personal effects buried alongside that reward to his children, whose specific gender he did not even know.

The "finding" of a low-level cultivator was just like this.

Seeing this, Huizhun walked closer and raised a hand to take the box, but then felt it was improper, so he raised both hands, subconsciously drew back just as he was about to touch it, then realized his loss of composure, his breathing becoming somewhat rapid, before finally raising his hands again to take it.

It was an old, waterproof box.

It was not locked; upon opening it, one could see three small wooden puppets inside, equally old and showing their age.

The puppets were two large and one small: a burly man, a gentle woman, and a petite child, clearly in the style of a family of three.

On the back, names were carved: Shi Lei, Zhao Lan, and, respectively, different homophonous characters.

Yu, Yu.

Looking again at the child puppet, its face was a blank slate, without extra carving or adornment, and one could not even see any gender characteristics.

They were just three ordinary wooden puppets, which left Huizhun stunned for a moment, unable to help but reach out to stroke and wipe them, as if by doing so, he could clear the haze in his memory and illuminate the faces of parents he had never actually seen with his own eyes.

(End of chapter)