Chapter 581: Golden Quality!

"Dr. Xie, how are you and Dr. Fu getting along with your work?"

Zhang Su glanced at Xie Yanshan and invited him inside.

"Wei Jun is performing craniotomies on zombies; I came over to see if you need any help."

Xie Yanshan entered the room and saw Qiu Hui had calmed down, which eased his concerns.

Zhang Su closed the door, placed the bag of medicine aside, glanced at Qiu Hui—who looked in good condition—then turned his gaze to Xie Yanshan and Duan Wuhu.

"Dr. Xie, have you ever encountered a case like Qiu Hui's, where someone shifts back and forth between normal and zombified states?"

Xie Yanshan removed his glasses and shook his head: "Within our current knowledge, zombification is an irreversible cellular transformation. Why Qiu has this condition, I simply cannot explain—but I suspect it's related to the Zombification Blocker."

The Zombification Blocker is an extremely immature technology; all kinds of bizarre phenomena are possible.

"Alright, let's not focus on how this happened. Let's discuss Qiu Hui's condition. You two aren't outsiders, so I'll speak plainly—Qiu Hui, don't take this the wrong way. Since you toggle between human and zombified states, you might simultaneously possess traits of both. What do you think?"

Zhang Su looked at the two men, his eyes carrying a faint hope, as if he longed for their agreement.

"Hmm… Wei Jun said something similar." Duan Wuhu rubbed his chin, frowning. "He said Xiao Qiu hovers at the threshold of zombification—one moment human, the next zombie. It's unstable. Dangerous."

"No," Zhang Su shook his head. "That's not what I mean. Let me be blunt—I want to run an experiment."

"An experiment? That's easy—this whole place is a lab."

Duan Wuhu spread his hands. The entire Cuileng Pavilion had become a testing ground, with rooms being gradually put to use.

"Brother Zhang, what… what kind of experiment?"

Qiu Hui sensed something unusual in Zhang Su's tone. She felt this experiment would be dangerous—and the danger was aimed at her.

"I won't beat around the bush. Qiu Hui, I sense zombie traits in you. So I want to know: will zombies recognize you as one of their own? And even if they do, you're still one of us on Tianma Isle!"

Seeing Qiu Hui's face pale, Zhang Su quickly added a reassurance.

"Then… what do you need me to do?"

Qiu Hui didn't waste time grieving. Months in the apocalypse had hardened her far beyond her former self.

"Old Duan, are there any live zombies left in the camp?"

Zhang Su turned to Duan Wuhu.

"Live zombies?" Duan Wuhu made a strange face. "Do Zero-03 and the Fire-spitting Zombie count?"

"Are you kidding?"

Zhang Su was speechless. Neither of those zombies could be used for experiments—Zero-03's slap or the Fire-spitting Zombie's spit would kill anyone instantly.

"Then there aren't any. We wiped out every damn thing in the temple grounds. Should I go out and search?"

Duan Wuhu pointed toward the mountains below.

Zhang Su shook his head and gestured toward the door. "Take me to Liu Tianji's place first. Then I'll go look. You two keep doing what you're doing."

With that, he turned to Qiu Hui. "Don't worry too much. These medicines will last you a long time. If anything happens, call Old Duan." After giving his instructions, Zhang Su and the others left Qiu Hui's room. Passing by Fu Wei's door, they didn't pause, chatting as they walked toward Liu Tianji's room. They didn't know that Fu Wei was now facing a difficult choice.

Several lamps lit the room brightly. On the bed lay a thin zombie corpse, its skull opened. Fu Wei sat in his wheelchair, back to the door, staring blankly at the tray before him, fists clenched—just as Qiu Hui had been when her headache struck.

"There's something wrong. This thing is definitely abnormal. What do I do? What…?"

Fu Wei heard footsteps outside the door. Sweat dripped from his brow; rare tension flickered in his eyes. He instinctively shoved the tray under the examination bed. Only when the footsteps faded did he exhale deeply and pull the tray back out.

With tweezers, he carefully prodded the object on the tray: a structure resembling a zombie's thalamus—but instead of dull gray, it glowed with a faint golden hue.

Normally, after prolonged death, a zombie's thalamus loses viability and can no longer heal wounds. So when Fu Wei opened the skull, he never considered examining the thalamus at all.

Yet at that moment, he'd accidentally glimpsed that faint gold—and his heart had been struck like a heavy mallet.

His instinct told him this pale-gold thalamus held extraordinary power. Coincidentally, Duan Wuhu had just come by for a sedative, so Fu Wei had smoothly sent Xie Yanshan away.

The pale-gold thalamus wasn't gilded or dazzling. It was smaller than a normal zombie thalamus, about the size of a quail's egg. It had no odor and looked far more refined. If you didn't know what it was, you'd mistake it for a small piece of special alloy.

If this were the first zombie thalamus anyone had ever seen, any researcher would have immediately recognized its significance—and the thalamus's secret wouldn't be known to only a handful.

Just like Fu Wei now—he desperately wanted to know what this dark-gold thalamus could do.

"Cut off a sliver. Just a tiny piece—no one would notice. But…"

Fu Wei listened intently to the sounds outside, his hand hovering over the pale-gold thalamus like a gemstone buyer unsure where to cut the raw stone—torn, agonized.

After half a minute of hesitation, Fu Wei let out a long sigh, glared at the pale-gold thalamus, his eyes clearly filled with anger—he didn't even know where it came from.

"Why are you afraid now? This isn't what the spirit of exploration permits. Have you forgotten your oath?"

Fu Wei questioned himself inwardly.

He wasn't afraid of Zhang Su questioning him for taking a piece—it was normal for research. He feared what might happen if he ate it himself: unpredictable consequences. Death, perhaps.

During his time on Tianma Isle, Fu Wei had become less reckless—at least toward himself. In plain terms, he'd learned to value his life…

"Yes!"

Fu Wei's eyes suddenly brightened. A bold plan flashed into his mind.

He picked up a sterilized scalpel and swiftly sliced the thalamus into four roughly equal pieces. He'd planned to cut even smaller, but feared insufficient effect, so he stopped.

He neatly packed the pieces into a self-sealing bag, slipped it into his pocket, tidied up briefly, and resumed his work as if nothing had happened. About ten minutes later, the door opened, letting in a chill breeze. Xie Yanshan and Duan Wuhu entered one after the other.

"Mr. Zhang is such a responsible leader—he even handles zombie capture himself… Huh! Wei Jun, what's this?"

As soon as he entered, Xie Yanshan spotted a black cubic crystal on the tray beside the corpse. It was less than three centimeters per side, perfectly shaped, straight-edged, its material unidentifiable—but a dark substance flowed slowly within it, radiating strangeness from within.

"It's the energy source. Hidden in the brain. I found it without much trouble!"

Fu Wei spoke calmly, his gaze locked on the black cube. The tiny block acted like a black hole, pulling his eyes in.

Inside the lab, it was no secret that mutated zombies possessed unique energy sources. But without Chen Hanzhou's precise sensing ability, they usually started with the brain. Fortunately, the Liquid Gas Zombie's energy source was in its brain—so it was quickly located.

(End of Chapter)