After climbing up the passage, the two found a spot where they could take a breather.
This place didn’t seem like a passage with metal ladders installed; instead, it appeared to have been haphazardly dug out with crude tools.
However, it conveniently allowed them to look down and observe the situation ahead.
“They’re coming.”
Ning Yu whispered in an extremely soft voice. The two were standing close enough that Shen Yiyue could just barely hear her.
From their vantage point, they looked down at the area below. At the center was an empty mechanical base, with some lighting equipment, steel materials, and storage containers piled up in the corners.
As Ning Yu spoke, several groups of figures began pouring in from various entrances below.
The two of them stared intently for a moment, both startled by what they saw.
Those figures weren’t living humans—they were zombies!
But what was strange was that they didn’t seem frenzied or aggressive. Instead, they were neatly lined up in rows, all wearing identical uniforms.
Each of them was carrying or dragging various materials. Their bodies were severely hunched, yet they somehow managed to bear the weight of their loads.
At regular intervals, fully armed soldiers stood guard, holding firearms.
What was going on?!
Neither Ning Yu nor Shen Yiyue had ever seen zombies like this before. They looked like oppressed slaves, with fresh human flesh right beside them, yet they showed no sign of resistance.
They simply carried their materials, silently moving forward—true walking dead.
Ning Yu narrowed her eyes, focusing on the zombie at the front of the line.
“Something’s off. These zombies are... strange.”
“What do you mean?”
Shen Yiyue turned to her, about to set up her machine gun, but Ning Yu gently stopped her.
“Look at their skin.”
Ning Yu pointed to the zombie she was observing.
It appeared to be a young male zombie, with hair dyed blond during his lifetime.
His skin still had the grayish hue typical of zombies, but it was noticeably different from the rotting flesh of ordinary zombies.
Upon closer inspection, his skin was surprisingly intact. By this stage, a regular zombie’s body would have already begun to decay, with flesh hanging loose and bones exposed.
This one had dark circles under its eyes, and its mouth was tightly shut, unlike the gaping maw of a typical zombie, forever craving flesh and blood.
If not for the eye dangling from its socket and the characteristic zombie shuffle, one might mistake it for a living person with an odd skin tone.
The most peculiar thing was its expression, which seemed to carry a hint of exhaustion—something never seen in zombies.
Ning Yu scanned the rest of the laboring zombies, her sharp eyes taking in every detail.
Not a single one had the bloodthirsty, frenzied look typical of zombies.
“They... seem like they’ve gained consciousness,” Shen Yiyue whispered, exchanging a glance with Ning Yu.
Ning Yu nodded, agreeing with the observation.
The two of them remained hidden in the shadows above, unnoticed by those below.
Soon, the area around the empty mechanical base was densely packed with laboring zombies carrying materials.
Was this some kind of post-apocalyptic cotton plantation, with zombies as the enslaved laborers?
As Ning Yu watched the soldiers scattered around the corners, guarding the laboring zombies with their guns, she couldn’t help but feel a sense of absurdity.
The zombies looked like they had been on the move for a long time, with some even having bones protruding from their lower backs. Yet, they showed no signs of resting.
Immediately, they began working diligently around the mechanical base.
Some were hammering nails and tightening screws, while others passed materials back and forth.
The scene was hard to believe—these creatures, once mindless beasts that only tore into their prey, were now cooperating like humans.
It was both astonishing and deeply unsettling.
These tireless, painless monsters had developed the intelligence to work together, and among them were the terrifyingly powerful mutated zombies.
This was truly...
Suddenly, a minor incident occurred in the center.
A short male zombie lost its grip on a thick steel plate, causing it to fall to the ground. The plate landed on its leg with a loud thud, bending it at an unnatural angle.
The zombie tried to straighten its leg, but the bone was already broken, leaving it flopping around at odd angles.
“What are you doing?!”
The nearest soldier quickly approached to assess the situation.
The zombie had just managed to push the steel plate aside and was trying to stand up shakily when it lost its balance and stumbled toward the soldier.
“Damn it!”
The soldier reacted swiftly, kicking the zombie away. Unfortunately, the kick tore the already unstable leg completely apart.
The zombie let out a howl, as if it could feel pain.
“Stop howling! Get back to work! Now!”
The soldier, visibly annoyed, raised his gun and aimed it at the zombie’s head.
Another short female zombie, seeing the gun pointed at its companion, dropped the materials it was carrying and rushed over to help the injured male zombie.
But the male zombie could no longer stand, so it hobbled on its one good leg, trying to keep both feet at the same level.
The soldier spat on the ground and cursed,
“Great, another useless one.”
He didn’t lower his gun, and the female zombie immediately dropped to the ground, prostrating itself and kowtowing repeatedly.
It looked like it was begging for mercy!
This scene left Ning Yu and Shen Yiyue utterly shocked. These weren’t zombies—they were acting like living humans.
“Hahaha, it’s bowing to you for the New Year,” another soldier nearby joked, the cigarette in his mouth bobbing as he spoke.
The soldier called Old Yu kicked the female zombie, causing it to stagger.
“Get back to work, or I’ll put you both out of your misery.”
“Stop wasting your breath. They can’t understand you.”
Just as Old Yu was about to pull his leg back, he realized it was stuck—the female zombie had grabbed it tightly.
“You’ve got some nerve!”
He raised his gun to shoot, but suddenly let out a bloodcurdling scream.
“Ahhh!!!”
The female zombie had bitten down hard on his leg, tearing through the flesh.
That scream was like a battle cry.
In the space below, all the laboring zombies suddenly dropped their materials and turned in unison, locking their gazes on the soldiers who had been watching them.
young master of the Shen family—a figure of immense power and wealth beyond measure—and awakened the "Destined Ultimate Villain System"! His starting scenario? Running into his icy fiancée who shows up with a mountain-descending divine doctor to break off their engagement. The divine doctor arrogantly taunts: "What does your Shen family have besides a bit of stinking money? You're not even worthy of tying Qingxue's shoelaces!" Shen Fei just smiled. He completely defied the usual script: "Fine, I agree to break off the engagement. Also, notify the finance department to withdraw all investments from the Su family." Minutes later, with its capital chain severed, the Su Group teetered on the brink of bankruptcy! The once aloof and proud ice queen CEO was thrown into utter panic. That very night, she went to Shen Fei's villa, casting aside all dignity to beg and plead desperately... From then on, in this world teeming with Sons of Destiny, Shen Fei embarked on a path of extreme dimensional suppression! A mountain-descending divine doctor? Peerless medical skills? Shen Fei: "Reporting you for practicing medicine without a license! I'll gladly take your ancient medicinal cauldron and twin sister assassins." The Crooked-Smiling Dragon King? Commanding a hundred thousand soldiers with a single order? Shen Fei: "Illegal assembly and suspected treason! Let a fleet of attack helicopters sanitize the area and teach you what the state apparatus really means!" A reborn tycoon? Knows all the golden opportunities of the next decade? Shen Fei: "A trillion in capital to reverse and pump the stock market, making you blow your margin and jump on the very first day of your rebirth!" What Chosen Ones? What bearers of Heavenly Fortune? In Shen Fei's eyes, they're all just chives (i.e., suckers/marks) waiting to be harvested! Shen Fei: "Sorry, but as the Destined Ultimate Villain, I don't play by the rules of honor. I only play the game of dimensional suppression."
close your eyes and open them again, only to find yourself transmigrated into the role of a villainous male supporting character. Readers familiar with urban wish-fulfillment novels know that it is only through the relentless antics of the villainous male supporting character that the plot between the male and female leads can progress. As the villainous male supporting character, Long Aotian not only has to bully the female lead, harass the second female lead, and flirt with the third female lead, but he also has to go all out to antagonize the male lead. In the end, when his body is discovered, he is still clutching half a moldy fried dough stick in his hand. Fully aware of the plot, Long Aotian is determined to change his fate, starting with the female lead! In the beginning, the female lead lacks confidence: "Big brother, I hope I didn't scare you?" In the middle, the female lead treads carefully: "Brother Long, please don't hit me, okay?" Later on, the female lead becomes coquettishly clingy: "Aotian, it's time to pay the 'public grain' tonight." Long Aotian's legs go weak, and he feels like crying: "I taught you to be thick-skinned, not shameless!"
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
ive and Ruthless] Before his transmigration, Ye Xuan was playing a game called "Severing Emotions to Attain the Dao." The game's core wasn't about leveling up by fighting monsters, but about conquering various "bad women" with wicked personalities and cold, fickle natures. There was only one method to conquer them: stay unwaveringly by their side, then die at a critical moment, driving them to madness after losing the protagonist. The higher their level of regret, the higher the player's score. To dominate the server, Ye Xuan conquered all the bad women. In the early stages, he showered them with boundless tenderness, only to choose to sacrifice himself for them later, making them weep bitterly and drown in regret. Among them were: Xia Lengyue, the unfaithful immortal wife who chased after powerful men and discarded her husband like trash. Ye Qingcheng, the Demonic Venerable of the Joyous Union Sect, who appeared pure and innocent but was, in reality, promiscuous. Wu Lingxiao, the Empress of the Great Xia Dynasty, who lusted after men and loved maintaining a harem. Bai Qiangu of the Endless Demonic Sect: a bloodthirsty mass murderer. However, when the protagonist transmigrated into the game world, he made a horrifying discovery. Eight hundred years had already passed. The bad women he had conquered had now each become deities and revered ancestors. Faced with the endless stream of toxic women coming for him, Ye Xuan could only rely on his god-tier acting skills to carve a path of survival through this world of treacherous women.
