I Am Your Natural Enemy

The clean-up on Scorching Sun Department's side is basically done; all the walking dead in the chemical plant domain have pretty much been dealt with.

They also have professionals here, running all sorts of tests to dig up the underlying logic of this chemical plant domain—once it's figured out, they'll have a way to destroy it.

According to their estimate, when the Soul Devouring Beast fell, it pierced the domain and used the Black Water to link this chemical plant domain, as its core, to a bunch of other domains, both known and undiscovered.

Now, all they need to do is destroy this chemical plant domain, and the Soul Devouring Beast will have only one fate left: falling into the void below. Given how it's been shrinking day by day, it won't last much longer before it snuffs itself out.

That's the best possible outcome.

Right now, there's still a group of people rummaging around here, just trying to find Fake Mo Zhicheng's glasses—so far, that artifact is known to have the strongest camouflage effect of any wondrous item.

It's not just a simple change in appearance but a complete transformation. All kinds of current detection methods—fingerprints, iris scans, even DNA tests—can't reveal it.

Only someone close, talking face to face, might be able to spot something off.

This sort of thing, seemingly harmless but extremely dangerous in the wrong hands, absolutely has to be recovered.

Unfortunately, according to Qin Kun, it was total chaos at the time—dust flying everywhere, a bottomless pit nearby—he never saw what happened to those glasses.

When Fake Mo Zhicheng was finally reduced to ashes, the glasses still didn't show up.

Qin Kun also said that all the Black-haired Zombies Wen Yan brought were killed in action—he was heartbroken at the time, had no energy left to care about some glasses.

Of course, only maybe one or two people know Qin Kun's full of crap there. The zombies Wen Yan brought from Fuyu Mountain? Hell no, those were Big Executors.

And by the end, those Big Executors were probably about to evolve into Flying Zombies.

And then—just gone like that. No way Wen Yan wasn't upset about it.

The glasses are gone, but they definitely have nothing to do with Wen Yan.

Meanwhile, Gan Tang and her crew were way off to the side just watching—no way she took them.

The Deformed Corpse Gan Tang brought wouldn't dare snatch anything in front of her. The Little Zombie? Not a chance. That one needs Gan Tang holding its hand at all times just to avoid an accident.

In the end, it was chaos. Couldn't find them. Nothing anyone can do about it.

Feng Yao came out of the tent, rubbing his aching head. Looks like from now on, some places are going to have daily password checks as standard procedure.

The higher-ups don't care how you get things done, but he can't just call up Wen Yan asking, "Hey, did you see Fake Mo Zhicheng's glasses?"

If he really asked that, would anyone ever get along with him again?

Forget it. Whatever. Just keep an eye out and make a note of it, that's good enough.

Compared to first-priority issues and a few secondary ones, not finding one wondrous item is a minor flaw at best.

...

At Fuyu Mountain, Gan Tang had a long chat with Fuyu Temple's Grand Uncle Master.

She glanced back and let out a heavy sigh.

She figured that even if they talked for three days and nights, she'd barely scratch the surface.

Too bad Grand Uncle Master is just too old now, couldn't keep going. In the end, he shoved a cellphone into her hand—told her to look things up herself if she wanted to know more.

She took out the phone, turning it over in her hands. She'd seen one before with Wen Yan, just hadn't bothered to ask then.

Right now, following Grand Uncle Master's instructions, she tried using the phone. Soon she found all kinds of things, and was struck by how fast the world had changed.

Back when she was young, this would have counted as a top-class treasure.

Now everyone has one. She was enjoying the phone like crazy; so much info and knowledge that used to be worth its weight in gold is right at her fingertips. It's seriously addictive.

She was playing with her phone, heading back to the Zombie Cave, scrolling along—then suddenly the page wouldn't load. She paused, shook her head. This thing still isn't all that reliable. Better just go talk to someone real soon.

She put away the phone and went through the Stone Gate, all the way to a stone chamber deep inside. With a sweep of her voluminous sleeve, the Wooden Armor Mask flew out on its own and landed in a groove in the stone room.

The Wooden Armor Mask is still way too dangerous for regular people—there's no way they can withstand its power. Once contaminated, there's a huge chance they'll turn into the walking dead.

But for zombies whose evolution path matches, it can actually be used—the experience inside the Wooden Armor Mask, both the successes and the failures, is really valuable.

If anything, making mistakes might be even more valuable.

If a powerful evolved zombie picks the wrong path even once, it's total disaster—no coming back from that.

She put away the Wooden Armor Mask, and took out a box containing a golden Phoenix Hairpin—this was a gift from Fuyu Temple's Grand Uncle Master.

Said an old demon friend of his was so grateful that Wen Yan saved her last surviving descendant, and then discovered the Little Zombie was from Fuyu Mountain, so she sent it over as a thank-you.

Gan Tang touched the Phoenix Hairpin, full of complicated feelings.

She'd already seen another one just like it with Wen Yan; the Little Zombie had proudly shown it off to her.

Just one hairpin isn't good for much—it's basically just a gold antique. But both together? That's a different story.

She hadn't expected that the long-lost tokens, missing who knows how many years—one would be found by Wen Yan, and the other, because of Wen Yan, would be sent to Fuyu Mountain.