Cornered, Zu An had no choice but to raise his sword to deal with the incoming attack. Swords weren’t built to collide directly with blunt weapons, and the black lump of a weapon wielded by the attacking zombie seemed to pack quite a punch. So, he chose to use the ‘flick’ form of the Elementary Swordplay in order to redirect the attack to the side.

Despite this, the force of the impact was strong enough to numb his arm. The zombie’s strength was on par with his own, and it had the advantage in terms of the type of weapon as well. While he had managed to hold his ground for the time being, things weren’t looking good for him.

He rolled across the ground to dodge the next few attacks from that zombie. When he turned around and saw the holes left in the ground, he belatedly realized just what kind of weapon the zombie was wielding.

It was actually a hoe!

Now that he thought about it, most of the zombies he’d encountered along the way had wielded wooden bats, carrying poles, choppers, axes, and other such improvised weapons. Only a small number of them wielded swords, sabers or spears, which were more typical weapons.

Why do they look like refugees?

Zu An had noticed earlier that these people wore tattered clothes, and had thought that they had simply decomposed from having been buried underground for too long. But right now, he couldn’t help but wonder if their clothes had been this tattered right from the start.

The sight before him really resembled an army of refugees that he had seen in the historical dramas in his previous life.

Regardless of whether they were refugees or whatever, it was still undeniable that they had turned into zombies. Not daring to let his mind wander, he brought his focus back to the battle and used his Sunflower Phantasm to dodge the attacks flying at him from all directions.

His initial intention had been to run out of the valley. Those monstrous golden-furred rats that had made it out with their lives proved that it was a viable escape route, and it seemed plausible that these zombies had somehow been limited to the valley.

Unfortunately for him, the rats had lured far too many zombies to the entrance of the valley while they were escaping earlier, and it was now blocked by a huge, shuffling mass. He attempted to make his way through a couple of times, only to be forced back in the end. 

Left with no choice, he could only head deeper into the valley.

He knew that he was only placing himself in greater danger by heading deeper into the valley, but he had no other choice. The hoe-wielding zombies were all roughly as powerful as him, and those wielding sabers and swords were even stronger.

In one-on-one fights, he could still hold his ground using Sunflower Phantasm, but he was up against a huge army right now. Just keeping himself alive on this battlefield was tough enough for him, let alone attempting a counterattack.

In fact, it was thanks to Sunflower Phantasm that he was still managing to hold on thus far. If a different, more powerful cultivator from the academy had been in his place, it was likely that they would have already been overrun by the horde of zombies by now.

“Whatcha starin’ at? Whatcha starin’ at? Why aren’t you staring at me?!”

Zu An’s furious curses echoed through the mountain valley. He tried to use his Whatcha Starin’ At skill to distract the zombies, but they simply stared at him as if he were a fool, not showing the least bit of reaction.

Apparently, Whatcha Starin’ At only worked on intelligent lifeforms that were capable of speech, and so these undead zombies were unaffected by it.

After running for what seemed like an eternity, Zu An finally found himself cornered. Sunflower Phantasm was a powerful skill, but there were limits to what he could do with it. The valley was cramped, and the terrain was tough to navigate. There was only so much he could do to dodge the zombies.

He found himself standing with his back against the cliff face, a crowd of zombies gathered in a semicircle in front of him. He swallowed nervously, wondering if this was where he would meet his end.

Dammit! I haven’t even released my seal yet. Am I going to die without even becoming a real man again?

Zu An found himself empathizing with the eunuchs he had seen in dramas in his previous life. No matter how dangerous it was for them, they still insisted on retrieving their ‘treasures’ so that they could be buried with it.

What the hell am I even thinking about?

While Zu An was still shuddering in disgust at that thought, the zombies had already darted impatiently at him. He immediately summoned Grandgale, and the bird avatar manifested in front of him. Taking a single step, he leaped onto a tree growing out off the cliff face and clung tightly onto it.

His sudden disappearance confused the zombies for a moment, but one of the zombies swiftly spotted him, pointed in his direction, and released a piercing screech to inform its comrades.

The other zombies raised their heads, and upon spotting him, they immediately began climbing up the cliff face. Their movements were astonishingly agile, almost as if they were monkeys.

Zu An was horrified. 

Hold on a moment! Aren’t these zombies supposed to be slow? Why the hell are they so good at climbing? If this was a game, that would definitely be a bloody bug!!

He quickly scanned his surroundings, hoping to find another place to leap to. With the recent rise in his cultivation, he was now able to summon Grandgale twice, which meant that he could make another escape attempt. However, the entire area was crawling with zombies. Even if he managed to leap somewhere else, it wouldn’t take long before he was cornered once more.

I should probably save it for when I’m in a really desperate situation.

In this short moment, the zombies had already reached the roots of the tree, and were starting to climb onto the trunk in order to reach him.

With a cold snort, Zu An thrust his sword out and knocked the incoming zombies down to the ground. It was a desperate attempt, but it was unexpectedly successful. It dawned on him that he was actually in an advantageous position here.

The tree trunk hadn’t been nibbled through by monstrous golden-furred rats, so it was still quite hardy. On top of that, this tree was hanging off the cliff face, making it hard for the zombies to dislodge it. There were only so many zombies which could approach him at once, and he could easily knock them off.

In other words, he was currently standing on a fortress that he could guard to the end of time!

Knowing that he could finally catch a breather, Zu An heaved a sigh of relief.

However, he knew that he wasn’t out of danger yet. His circumstances hadn’t really gotten much better. He wasn’t in a game, where killing the zombies would give him experience points and equipment for him to gear up and make a comeback. He had merely found a foothold for himself for the time being.

The zombies tried to rush at him a few more times, but Zu An was able to knock them down by exploiting his advantageous setup. Eventually, the zombies gave up on climbing the cliff face altogether.

Zu An exhaled deeply. He finally had some time to rest. 

Are the zombies giving up now? If so, as long as I can last until daybreak, I’ll be able to reunite with Ji Xiaoxi. I did sacrifice myself to save her this time around, so even if she doesn’t betroth herself to me, at the very least, her affection meter toward me should have hit the max, right?

A commotion suddenly broke out beneath him. The horde of zombies suddenly parted to open up a path, and dozens of new zombies strode through.

“Hm? These zombies look much cleaner.” Compared to the other ugly zombies, whose decomposing flesh was dripping with pus, these newly-arriving zombies looked far more pleasant to his eyes.

However, the smile on his face quickly froze. These zombies were retrieving bows from their backs, nocking arrows and aiming them toward him.

“Holy sh—” Zu An.

He felt like cursing right now. How in the world could zombies be able to shoot arrows?

How are these refugees? They’re practically a real army!

By then, the archers had already released their arrows. Over a hundred arrows whistled through the air, leaving Zu An so frightened that he quickly hid behind the trunk of the tree.

*Pu!*

Zu An’s body jolted. He inched forward a little before glancing back to look at the arrow tips that had pierced through the tree. They were stained with traces of crimson blood.

Holy shit! 

He realized that he had gotten careless. He was in the world of cultivation right now! Regardless of whether they were zombies or not, how could the arrows they fired possibly be stopped by a mere tree? 

It was all those dumb dramas that I watched! Somehow, people are able to magically survive a hail of bullets just by hiding behind a car. They’re misleading their viewers terribly!

Damn it!

Does this world have tetanus as well? Those zombies have rotting flesh and pus all over them. Eek, who knows how much bacteria was on those arrows? Shit!

Goosebumps rose on Zu An’s skin, but another barrage of arrows was rising towards him, and this was no time for his thoughts to be wandering. Not daring to use the tree trunk to shield himself from the arrows anymore, he raised his sword and prepared to deflect the incoming arrows.

His strength and speed had been enhanced significantly, thanks to the injuries he’d suffered from the arrowheads that had pierced through the tree earlier on. Nevertheless, he still found himself struggling to cope with this rain of arrows.

He could deflect the arrows that were aimed directly at him, but he couldn’t deal with those that were flying towards the tree. On top of that, the arrows had been fired with great force, jolting his arm and turning it numb. It probably wouldn’t take long before the arrows cut through the tree and caused it to fall. When that happened, he would be a goner.

While his mind was wandering about, he failed to stop one of the arrows, and it pierced straight into his shoulder. The sheer force of the blow nearly knocked him out of the tree, but he managed to grab onto one of the tree branches in the nick of time.

Am I really going to die here today?

The call of an old but majestic horn echoed across the valley at this moment. It seemed to carry some sort of mysterious power that left one’s blood pumping furiously.

However, it failed to rouse Zu An’s mood at all. Having watched so many historical drama series, he knew that such horns were used as signals by armies in wartime. 

He had still been a little uncertain, but the horn dispelled all his remaining doubts—these zombies were indeed an army!

It’s all over. I can’t even deal with these zombies, and they’re still bringing reinforcements in! Hm? Wait a moment. Why aren’t they firing anymore?

Zu An looked downward, and to his surprise, he saw the zombies staring towards the other end of the valley. These zombies were incapable of speech, but Zu An could still sense the nervousness on their half-decomposed faces.

What’s going on?

Zu An was taken aback by the anomalous behavior of these zombies. Nevertheless, he still made use of this opportunity to take out some medicine to rub over his wounds.

He didn’t use ‘Faith in Brother Spring’, which he had drawn from the keyboard. It would be a waste to use that miraculous medicine that could heal even the most severe of injuries right now. Now that he thought about it, it had really been a huge waste for him to use it on the injuries from the Wailing Whip as well.

The medicine he was using now was given to him by Ji Xiaoxi. To be more exact, it was the medicine the male students had given to Ji Xiaoxi, only for her to pass it to him.

“Is it possible for some of them to secretly place poison in these medicine bottles in order to harm me?” murmured Zu An contemplatively. If they had predicted that Ji Xiaoxi would pass their medicines to him, there was a good chance that they would try to tamper with them.

However, he quickly dispelled those thoughts from his mind. He didn’t think that those male students were that smart, and he trusted in Ji Xiaoxi’s judgment as well. She had taken a look at the medicine herself, and given her astute sense for medicine, she would have been able to tell if they had been tampered with or not.

*Tok! Tok! Tok!*

A series of coordinated footsteps sounded from afar, causing Zu An’s face to darken, and his heart to thump nervously. A heavy atmosphere loomed in the air.