Su Bai was still thinking about how he felt when communicating with zombies through their spirits. It was a wonderful feeling; he had never been taught, but he could master it naturally. This story world was named "Mr. Zombie", so the most dangerous enemy must be a zombie, despite there being a creepy fox demon. So… could he communicate with that zombie?
If it could work, this story world might get a little easier to some extent. At least, there was one more option.
However, before Su Bai could finish his theory, Lam Ching-Ying appeared by the door. He saw the zombie Su Bai wearing the clothes that belong to Liang, his student!
Lam Ching-Ying would beat and scold both students from time to time, but that was merely to educate and discipline them as their father. Liang and Kuan were orphans, and Lam Ching-Ying was living by himself, so he was actually treating them as his own. Now, out of rage, Lam Ching-Ying couldn’t think about why a zombie would bother changing its clothes. The only thing in his mind was to get revenge for his students!
Ancestor of Chen’s family or not, he must be destroyed!
"Die! You evil creature!"
Lam Ching-Ying stepped forward, pulled out a belt from his waist, pinned the buckle onto a zombie’s neck and pulled it away. Then he did the same with several other zombies.
Fearing for more misunderstanding, Su Bai ordered the zombies to retreat. But his good intention was not taken. After "saving" Kuan, Lam Ching-Ying came at Su Bai.
"Lam…"
Su Bai tried to talk, but Lam Ching-Ying kicked him. It was a special kick against zombies, aiming at a zombie’s weak points.
Su Bai was kicked right in the place under his neck but above his chest, and his words were cut. That was such a strong kick that Su Bai was bounced off, and the wall behind him became sunken when he hit it.
There was an altar in the room and a set of Taoist tools on it. Lam Ching-Ying pulled out a peach wood sword, edged it with his own blood and turned to stab Su Bai.
Su Bai wanted to turn back to human, since he was a little scared of Lam Ching-Ying as a zombie. But the Taoist was going for the kill, Su Bai might be killed before he could say anything if he turned human at this moment. Only a zombie would last for a little while longer.
After a fancy movement, the sword came with an unstoppable force. Su Bai didn’t dare to take the risk, so he retreated rapidly; but his way was soon blocked by the wall. Ching-Ting Lam held the sword with one hand, took out a handful of spell papers with the other hand and spread them all over Su Bai. Next, Lam Ching-Ying bit the tip of his tongue and spit out his blood. With the catalysis of human blood, the spell papers. .h.i.t Su Bai, and immediately, electric current went through Su Bai’s body. Su Bai groaned, dashed through the wall and fell into the yard.
Now Lam Ching-Ying had decided to kill Su Bai at all costs while Su Bai was timid and hesitant because of his main task. Su Bai was losing his fight.
Having no choice, Su Bai switched back from his zombie form.
However, Lam Ching-Ying just thundered: "Bah! You can turn into human form, so your intelligence must have been enlightened. That’s not easy for zombies. Why are you so obsessive with killing? Don’t you understand, you’ll be punished for that!"
Su Bai: "..."
I’ve turned back to human! What else do you want me to do!
Su Bai felt helpless. But Lam Ching-Ying had come at him again. Apparently, he was insane because of his student’s "death". His eyes were red, he couldn’t listen or think. All he wanted was to kill Su Bai!
"d.a.m.n it!"
Su Bai was also p.i.s.sed off. Lying on the ground, he threw his head backward and had two fangs grown out of his lips. Turning gloomy and creepy, he turned into a vampire. He had Fatty to test him once, a vampire wouldn’t be suppressed by Taoist stuff, so Lam Ching-Ying’s moves wouldn’t work on Su Bai. Such an ability to s.h.i.+ft from one physical state to another was an unexpected profit from his terrible encounter with the deadly blood leech in the last story world.
The peach wood sword scratched Su Bai’s shoulder, leaving an open wound. Normally, a peach wood sword was used to hit a zombie instead of stabbing because one, zombies were stiff, and two, it could easily dispel the evil in zombies, which was important to them as their essence.
As a result, this time Lam Ching-Ying didn’t hurt Su Bai as much as he had done before. If the sword was made of silver, it might be different, but a peach wood sword was indeed useless against a vampire.
Su Bai took the chance, jumped up and grabbed Lam’s neck. His sharp fingernails touched Lam’s skin, but he somehow managed to restrain his instinct and impulsion to stick his fingers into Lam’s neck; instead, he rushed forward with Lam, and pressed Lam onto the ground with his arm.
"Listen to me, I’m not…"
Before he could finish, something came at him from behind with a whoosh. Instantly, he jumped off Lam and found that it was Kuan trying to sneak up on him and attack with the dagger Su Bai brought from the demon nest. Su Bai didn’t know what effect the dagger could have, but he had no intention to figure it out through personal experience.
Kuan didn’t wait for Lam to get up. He came at Su Bai again and seemed to be a little… overconfident about himself.
Su Bai dodged quickly, then grabbed Kuan’s wrist and squeezed. Kuan’s hand opened and the dagger dropped right into Su Bai’s palm. Then, Su Bai got rid of Kuan with a strong kick at his chest .
By that time, Lam had already risen to his feet, picked up his peach wood sword and came at Su Bai again.
"Again?"
Su Bai clenched his teeth. He felt so helpless toward Lam, who seemed to have been insane. It was his duty to protect Lam, but now he had started a life-and-death fight against him. He didn’t know what to say. From the beginning, Su Bai had been innocent but unfortunately got involved in trouble; he had just managed to escape from the demon nest and hadn’t got back aground when Lam poked and poked and poked him with that peach wood sword! He was innocent!
Apparently Lam wouldn’t give up until one of them was dead; but Su Bai couldn’t kill him or even hurt him, and was thus holding back. Therefore, he made up his mind to flee for the moment and come back with a plan B. At least, he could do something with his wounds. Immediately, Su Bai turned around and climbed up the wall.
However, Lam leaped onto the wall and swept the sword toward Su Bai’s neck!
It was a real Lightness Skill[1]!
And this time, Lam had learnt from his last mistake; he tried to stab Su Bai instead of hitting him. Su Bai was forced to lean backwards and jump off onto the ground.
Lam stood on the wall, completely unharmed, staring at Su Bai coldly.
Just then, someone showed up behind him, waved a stick and hit Lam’s head. Caught off guard, Lam was. .h.i.t heavily; he vomited blood and fell off the wall. Now he was lying still on the rock plates, completely motionless.
"That’s…" Su Bai moved his lips but didn’t know what to say.
Gyatso appeared on the wall. He was bruised and scarred, and there were several scratches on his face. Apparently he suffered a lot before escaping from that demon nest. Gyatso was a martial artist with special training; Lam was a master in Taoism. Of course the Taoist was no match to Gyatso; besides, Gyatso had attacked him in surprise.
Without even glancing at the Taoist, Gyatso jumped off the wall, walked to Su Bai and offered him a hand to help him up.
But Su Bai didn’t get up. He looked at Gyatso: "You didn’t get the main task, did you?" He was wandering if he was the only one receiving the main task.
"I did. But just when I arrived in this town, I found a familiar sense, and I knew it was you. So how about you, are you alright?"
"What’s your main task?" Su Bai went on.
"Well, I was just about to discuss with you, how can we find that man named Lam Ching-Ying, do you have any clue?"
Su Bai looked at the motionless Taoist lying in front of them and took a deep breath. It suddenly occurred to him that, judging by Gyatso’s growing process and lifestyle, it totally made sense that Gyatso had never seen a zombie movie of Lam Ching-Ying.
But…
… What should they do now?
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FOOTNOTES:
[1] Lightness Skill: sometimes also left untranslated as "Qinggong". The ability to lighten the body and move with great agility and swiftness. At high proficiency, pract.i.tioners of this skill can run across water, leap to the top of trees, or even glide through the air.