Zombie Life Begins in Hongxi Village

Lin Yi's figure reappeared at the entrance of Master Ikkyu's courtyard.

The kerosene lamp in the courtyard was still lit, its dim light leaking through the crack in the door. Master Ikkyu and Qingqing sat inside, seemingly waiting for him.

When Qingqing saw him push the door open and come in, she subconsciously stood up to greet him, but didn't know what to say.

Master Ikkyu stood up, clasped his hands together, and when his gaze fell on Lin Yi, a barely concealed shock flashed deep in his pupils.

Only now did he realize that this Mr. Lin was extraordinary, not because of his supernatural ability to shrink distances, but because he could not sense any of Mr. Lin's presence even when he was standing right in front of him.

If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he would have thought there was no one in front of him.

Is it...

"Amitabha. Mr. Lin, are you a deity?" Master Ikkyu's tone was even more respectful than before.

Lin Yi shook her head. "I am neither an immortal nor a god, but merely a passerby in this world."

Then, regardless of whether Ikkyu believed it or not, he turned to Qingqing and suddenly asked, "Is Miss Qingqing's surname Ren?"

Qingqing paused for a moment, then shook her head sadly.

"I don't even know my own surname. I'm an orphan who grew up on the charity of many families until I met my master three years ago."

As she said this, she subconsciously glanced at Master Ikkyu, her eyes filled with longing.

In her heart, Master Ikkyu was not only her teacher, but also her father.

"Mr. Lin knows about Qingqing's background?" Master Yixiu understood the implication in Lin Yi's words, and a glimmer of light suddenly appeared in his cloudy eyes.

"Hmm, her bloodline is somewhat similar to my wife's, so they must be related by blood."

My wife's name is Ren Tingting, and Qingqing looks almost exactly like her cousin in Renjia Town, which is why I said that.

This time, I also went to Renjia Town for a funeral; her great-uncle passed away.

Lin Yi immediately noticed that the girl had blood that was related to Ren Tingting.

As the progenitor of zombies, he could be considered an expert in blood, the kind of person who could easily perform paternity tests.

Combined with her appearance, she looks exactly like Ren Zhuzhu from the movie.

She is likely from the Nintendo lineage, and is very likely an illegitimate child. It's just unknown whether she is Nintendo's daughter or granddaughter.

Master Ikkyu looked delighted, and the deep wrinkles on his face smoothed out.

He knew, of course, that Lin Yi was a highly skilled person and that what she said couldn't be false.

Over the years, he had come to regard Qingqing as his own daughter, but as he grew older, he became increasingly worried about her.

He will pass away sooner or later; Qingqing, a young woman, can't live a lonely life forever.

Now that we have information about her family, this young apprentice is no longer a rootless duckweed.

Qingqing kept her head down and didn't speak, her fingers unconsciously twisting the hem of her clothes.

Of course she wanted to know whose child she was.

But looking at her master's gray hair and genuine smile, she didn't feel a strong urge to acknowledge her ancestors.

If she could, she would rather live a peaceful life with her master in this mountain courtyard, caring for him in his old age and seeing him off in his final days.

Master Ikkyu, however, did not think so. He already regarded Qingqing as his daughter, so how could he let her grow old alone in this desolate wilderness with him?

She should find her family and live a normal life.

So, disregarding Qingqing's objections, Master Yixiu solemnly clasped his hands together and said to Lin Yi:

"Mr. Lin, this humble monk wishes to accompany Qingqing to Renjia Town. Would it be possible to trouble you to go with her?"

Lin Yi nodded.

"Of course."

That night, Lin Yi stayed in Master Yixiu's guest room. On the surface, she slept in the guest room, but in reality, she entered the Ghost Painting Cave and told Ren Tingting about Qingqing.

Ren Tingting was leaning against the headboard reading a novel when she heard this. Her eyes lit up, she stuffed the book under her pillow, and grabbed Lin Yi's arm, asking her all sorts of questions.

"How old is she? What does she look like? How much does she resemble Zhuzhu?"

Lin Yi answered them one by one, becoming more and more excited as she listened. Their two branches of the family were sparsely populated, so having another sister would be extremely beneficial.

As night deepened, Lin Yi sat cross-legged in the main hall of the haunted house within the cave, his consciousness sinking into the depths of his sea of ​​consciousness.

This time, he finally saw the true nature of this void—

It wasn't a dream, but rather his sea of ​​consciousness.

Previously, his soul strength was insufficient, and every time he entered, he thought he was dreaming.

Now that his soul is whole, this realm of consciousness that belonged only to him has finally opened completely to him.

He saw his current divine soul form—

Dark golden bat wings silently unfurled behind him, and his dark golden pupils were the soul of his newly born zombie progenitor.

In the center of that void, a blue teardrop hung in mid-air, emitting a soft blue light.

This time, it no longer gave him that feeling of being so close yet so far away.

He reached out and grasped the blue teardrop.

The moment his fingertips touched it, the blue teardrop transformed into a stream of light and merged into his soul, condensing into a blue teardrop-shaped mark between his brows.

A flood of information rushed into the depths of his consciousness—the origin, function, and rules of this extraordinary treasure were as clear as instincts etched into his soul.

This thing is indeed part of a system called the "Plot Twist System," which rewards you by participating in and influencing a predetermined plot.

Unfortunately, the previous host was too reckless. Before he could completely abstain from beef, he offended someone he shouldn't have, and was beaten up along with the system.

The part he found only contained a pre-set plot reward module and a fragmented time-travel function.

Lin Yi cannot change its inherent operating mechanism. He doesn't even know the principle behind the rewards, or whether those rewards are formed by the circulation of Qi or the condensation of the so-called world power.

There is no system wizard, no system backend, only a bunch of pre-set reward rules running mechanically.

As for the time-travel function, which is of most concern to him, the information stream provides a clear answer:

Time travel is possible, but which world you travel to is random and uncontrollable. And it's a one-way ticket—once you go, you can't come back.

Lin Yi opened her eyes, a look of satisfaction flashing in them.

This is already pretty good; the core reward features are still there.

Moreover, he doesn't need to curry favor with any system master, nor does he need to worry about being controlled by the entity behind the system.

The ability to travel through time can also be considered a life-saving trump card; if he encounters a fatal threat, he can immediately activate the ability to travel through time and leave this world.

The only thing that bothered him was that his hope of going home had become even more remote.

Random time travel, one-way ticket, once you go you can't come back—meaning the probability of him getting lucky and traveling back to his original world is about the same as finding a needle in a haystack.

But there's no use rushing things like this. At least he's still alive, and he's thriving better than ever before.

Then, the information feed for the story rewards arrived as scheduled.

"Complete the Uncle Zombie storyline."

Slay the royal zombies, kill Steward Wu, and rescue Qianhe, Adong, Abei, and Anan.

Plot engagement is rated A+.

Rewards received: Qiankun Ring expanded to 101,000 cubic meters, Black Zombie Royal Family corpse constitution boost, a complete Sunflower Manual, and a century-old lightning-struck peach wood sword.

"Holy crap, they even have the Sunflower Manual! Could it be because of that eunuch, Steward Wu?"

When Lin Yi saw the Sunflower Manual, he felt a chill run down his spine, and the classic line from the movie involuntarily popped into his mind—"To practice this skill, one must first castrate oneself."

Anyone who practices this is a fool, so he decisively threw the Sunflower Manual into the deepest corner of his Qiankun Ring.

The rewards for A+ grade are indeed much worse than those for S grade. They don't have ancestral treasures like the essence of the drought demon, nor rule-level abilities like aerial fire, but every little bit helps.

He casually accepted the physical enhancement from the royal zombie, feeling a slight tingling in his muscles, a slight increase in physical strength, and a significant increase in resistance to lightning.

He stored the century-old lightning-struck peach wood sword in his Qiankun Ring. This thing was already considered a top-grade magic weapon, and it could even kill flying corpses.

The next day, just as dawn was breaking, Lin Yi, Master Yixiu, and Qingqing set off.

Before leaving, Lin Yi glanced at the tightly closed gate of the neighboring courtyard—

Master Simu and his apprentice Jiale stayed up very late because of Qianhe's arrival and helping Axi pass on to the afterlife, and they are still fast asleep.

Master Yixiu didn't knock on the door to say goodbye. He just stood at the gate of the courtyard, put his hands together and chanted a Buddhist prayer. Then, carrying his simple luggage, he followed Lin Yi on the road to Renjia Town.

Whether Jiale and Qingqing's relationship can continue is already unknown.

Because of the presence of Master Ikkyu and Qingqing, Lin Yi couldn't use the Shrinking Earth technique to travel quickly and had to walk.

Along the way, Qingqing asked about the Ren family, and Lin Yi patiently answered her questions one by one. She also mentioned that Tingting had already arrived in Renjia Town and that she would introduce them to each other later.

He didn't let the conversation get awkward either.

Just kidding. Master Qinghai is a Tantric master, whose Buddhist knowledge is enough to guide Ikkyu, let alone just discuss it.

The two talked about Zen Buddhism and Tantric Buddhism, from the emptiness view in the Diamond Sutra to the attainment of Buddhahood in this very life in the Mahavairocana Sutra. The more Ikkyu talked, the more alarmed he became, and the more respectful he became of Lin Yi.

He no longer considers Lin Yi to be a young person.

What young person knows so much, even the details of the Tantric initiation ritual can be recited casually, and the cultivation order of the Six Laws of Naropa is clear to them?

He had a vague feeling that Lin Yi might really be a deity, someone who had lived for countless years.

Later on, he refused to call Lin Yi "Mr. Lin" anymore, and instead respectfully addressed him as "Senior Lin".

As they passed a hill, Ikkyu suddenly fell silent for a moment, sighed as he looked down at the desolate, abandoned village below, and clasped his hands together, saying:

"In this chaotic world, demons roam freely, and war is rampant. A little over a month ago, this humble monk, along with Qingqing, passed through a county in Guangdong and encountered something extremely terrifying."

A Japanese garrison of over two thousand men was completely wiped out overnight by some terrifying entity.

That overwhelming murderous aura is still vivid in my memory.

He chanted a Buddhist prayer, a look of lingering fear on his face. "I wonder if that thing is still around. If it is, it will probably be another massacre."

Lin Yi paused for a moment.

More than a month ago, in a county in Guangdong, there was a Japanese army garrison of more than 2,000 soldiers—wasn't that his doing?

In Huaqing County, a combined Marine Corps and Army garrison squad, totaling over 2,500 men, was wiped out by him alone.

It turns out that Ikkyu and Qingqing were also nearby at the time; it seems they really were destined to be together.

He didn't say anything, of course, and nodded without changing his expression, then uttered a couple of platitudes like "chaotic times are full of hardships, and monsters are rampant."

Master Ikkyu had no idea that the "extremely terrifying being" he spoke of was right in front of him, discussing Buddhist teachings with him.

As evening fell, they finally arrived at the territory of Renjia Town in Guangxi.