One person: Starting with the Snow Drinking Blade

Nie Lingfeng didn't give it a chance. With a backhand slash, he cleanly and decisively severed its head. The head rolled on the ground, spinning a few times, the light in its red eyes flashing twice before going out completely.

But in those brief two seconds, the other zombies had already surrounded them.

Four zombies pounced simultaneously from the left and right sides, opening their blood-red mouths and biting at Nie Lingfeng from different angles! Although their coordination was simple and brutal, their timing was extremely precise, clearly indicating some degree of coordination—this was precisely what made the red-eyed zombies so terrifying; they were not lone beasts fighting alone, but a group of hunters who knew how to cooperate.

Nie Lingfeng swiftly turned, his feet moving with exquisite precision, and he passed through the gap between the two zombies like a gust of wind. At the same time, his Snow Drinking Blade traced a perfect arc in his hand, its blade gleaming like the moon, and its sharp aura forced all four approaching zombies back two steps. The zombies struck by the blade's aura suffered deep wounds on their chests; although no blood flowed, the dark red markings severed by the blade's energy noticeably slowed their movements.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Nie Lingfeng slammed his toes on the ground, leaping into the air and flipping once before landing steadily on a pile of stacked wooden crates. The crates, bearing his weight, made a dull thud. Looking down at the creatures below, he quickly counted them—seventeen, plus the one he had just killed, making a total of eighteen, more than he had initially estimated.

The zombies couldn't climb; they could only circle around the bottom of the wooden crate, heads tilted back, stretching out their withered arms in vain, trying to reach him. Their claws scraped against the edges of the crate, making a teeth-grinding "crunch." A few of the smarter zombies began to try to push the crate, attempting to tip it over and make him fall, but the crate itself was heavy, and because it was stacked so tightly, it couldn't be moved quickly.

Taking the opportunity, Nie Lingfeng carefully observed the distribution of the zombies, confirming that they had basically gathered in the central open area. Then, he whispered into his headset, "Chen Duo, are you ready?"

"Ready." Chen Duo's voice came through the earpiece, calm and composed, as if she were talking about something trivial. "They are densely packed directly below, and the Gu worms can cover the entire target."

"Let's do it!"

As soon as she finished speaking, Chen Duo's figure silently emerged from the shadows on the side of the warehouse. After sneaking in through the side door, she had been hiding behind the pile of sacks printed with "Qingshan Iron Mine," blending into the shadows so well that even the zombies on guard duty hadn't noticed her.

At that moment, she simultaneously unleashed both hands, her fingertips spreading out as if playing some silent instrument in the air. Dozens of Gu worms swarmed out from the jars at her sleeves, collar, and waist, like a black raindrop, scattering down upon the horde of zombies below. The Gu worms' wings vibrated rapidly, emitting a buzzing sound almost inaudible to the human ear, forming invisible ripples in the air.

The zombies didn't react at all.

The Gu worms landed on them, and upon contact with the bluish-gray skin, they immediately burrowed in like water seeping into sand, leaving no visible wounds. Some Gu worms burrowed into the ears, some into the nostrils, and some directly into the pores of the skin. They were only the size of a grain of rice, but their movements were astonishingly fast, disappearing into the zombie's body in the blink of an eye.

Then, the zombies began to let out painful howls.

It wasn't the intimidating roar of before, but a heart-wrenching scream squeezed from the depths of their souls. Their bodies began to tremble violently, as if they were being electrocuted. Some zombies even lost control of their bodies, frantically tearing at them with their claws, trying to dig out the foreign objects that had burrowed into them.

But they can't do it.

Once the Gu worms enter the body, they rapidly spread along blood vessels and meridians, precisely eroding the nervous system and muscle tissue. The "paralysis Gu" cultivated by Chen Duo is specifically designed for zombies—it prioritizes attacking the zombie's motor nerve nodes, cutting off the brain's commands to the muscles, while simultaneously releasing a special toxin that temporarily inhibits the activity of the zombie poison. Although zombies don't feel pain, the panic of losing control triggers their remaining instincts, plunging them into extreme chaos.

The zombies' roars grew weaker and weaker, their movements increasingly stiff. First their arms went limp, then their legs lost their strength, and finally their torsos collapsed to the ground one after another. Their eyes remained open, the red light still flashing, but their bodies were completely unresponsive, lying on the ground like puppets whose strings had been pulled out.

In less than a minute, all seventeen zombies had fallen to the ground. Silence returned to the warehouse, broken only by the occasional faint whimper.

"Done." Chen Duo emerged from behind the sack, clapping her hands lightly. Her breathing remained steady, not a drop of sweat on her forehead. Her calm and collected demeanor made it seem as if she had just watered a flowerpot, not completed a seventeen-kill streak. She crouched down to examine the nearest zombie, prying open its eyelids to check its pulse, then stood up to report to her superior, "My Gu worms have temporarily paralyzed their nervous systems, severing the connection between their brains and bodies. They are now in a state of suspended animation, which should last at least twelve hours, enough time for us to move and study them."

"Well done." Nie Lingfeng jumped down from the wooden crate and landed next to Chen Duo. He looked around at the zombies lying haphazardly on the ground and nodded slightly. "I just counted them. There are eighteen in this batch. Adding those from when we were forging the sword and those we cleared out yesterday, there should be very few low-level zombies left in Qingshan Town. The rest are the tough nuts to crack."

He took out a walkie-talkie from his waist and pressed the call button: "The first batch of zombies in the East District has been subdued, eighteen in total, ready for transport."

"Received." Wang Ye's voice came through the walkie-talkie, with the sounds of wind and rustling talismans in the background. "The array at the bottom of the furnace is all ready and can be received at any time. Let me tell you, after this array is activated, the entire bottom of the furnace will glow with a faint golden light. It looks quite spectacular, like a light show."

"Save your energy for your banter, you'll be busy this afternoon." Nie Lingfeng said, then hung the walkie-talkie back on his waist.

He and Chen Duo found a fairly intact handcart in the corner of the warehouse—probably one that the workers used to transport ore. Although the iron cart was rusty, the wheels could still turn. The two of them loaded the fake-dead zombies one by one onto the cart, stacking them neatly, and then pushed the cart back to the foundry along the way they had come.

The wheels rolled on the gravel road, making a rumbling sound, accompanied by the occasional faint whimpers of the zombies on board, echoing through the empty streets of the eastern part of the town, like an eerie funeral procession.

At the same time, clearing operations were also being carried out simultaneously in the western and southern districts.