Chapter 405: Chapter 274: Is This the Zombie God? Very Nice

’If I don’t use my full strength, I won’t be able to fulfill my promise to Yang An.’

Fu Ming had just walked ten meters from the bonfire when the howling gales brought with them countless rotting birds. In an instant, the sky filled with their shadows and a putrid stench.

A massive flock of these birds charged over, descending like a violent storm. They rushed Fu Ming, but also aimed for Yang An’s location.

Immediately, a mass of tentacles erupted from Fu Ming’s body, forming a thick wall in front of Yang An.

The Array had been destroyed by Huai Du earlier, so he couldn’t use it to block them anymore.

The birds fearlessly slammed into the tentacles, shattering on impact. Blood and viscera splattered everywhere.

However, the blood clung to the tentacles and began to rapidly corrode them.

At the same time, Fu Ming faced his own assault from the birds. Flames erupted from his body, incinerating any that came near.

But it wasn’t long before a large hole was corroded through the tentacles shielding Yang An.

They were corroding far faster than he could regenerate them.

Fortunately, the birds weren’t too difficult to handle. Fu Ming detached some tentacles, which swept out and quickly smashed the creatures to pieces, littering the ground with flesh and feathers.

Just then, a figure shot in from the distance, appearing before Fu Ming in a flash.

It was a man fused with a tree. Countless vines wrapped around his body and pierced through it, binding his arms and legs.

"Suppress!"

He uttered a single-word command. Fu Ming instantly felt an immense weight pressing down on him, forcing his body to sink into the earth.

His flaming tentacles stabbed out, a blur of countless afterimages lunging toward the man.

"Charge!"

In an instant, the man uttered another single-word command.

Countless vines erupted from his own body, lashing out even faster than the tentacles.

The flaming tentacles were like eggs striking a stone against these vines. In the blink of an eye, the vines pierced through them, snaking along their length to reach Fu Ming’s body.

Fu Ming was already struggling under the strange, immense pressure, his movements severely slowed. He had no way to dodge.

The vines plunged into his flesh but were simultaneously set ablaze by the fire shrouding his body.

"Die!"

Fu Ming’s figure vanished. A massive black shadow erupted from the ground, soaring into the sky and viciously sweeping toward the man, knocking him back over a hundred feet.

In his place, the old tentacles had crumbled to decaying ash. Fu Ming reappeared, his new tentacles already regenerating at a visible rate from their severed stumps.

The man steadied himself mid-air, but in the next instant, countless tentacles erupted from within him. They burst violently from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, sealing his lips shut.

VMMMM!

The tentacles detonated, unleashing a fiery explosion that blew the man to smithereens.

SWOOSH—

Another whistle cut through the air. Fu Ming reacted instantly, narrowly dodging the projectile, but it still sliced off a few strands of his hair.

It was a light gray game piece—it must have originally been white.

Fu Ming knew this was bad. His still-regenerating tentacles contracted sharply to shield him, but a moment later, a dark gray piece pierced straight through his body.

’Where there’s white, there must be black. I dodged the white piece, but not the black one.’

The moment the piece pierced him, half of Fu Ming’s torso exploded into a gray mist of blood. He coughed up a mouthful of his own.

Just then, another tall figure appeared before Fu Ming as if by Instant Teleportation, throwing a punch at his head.

The punch was about to connect, an instant away from splattering his brains, when it abruptly halted two inches from his skull.

Seizing the opportunity, Fu Ming instantly retreated. He wrapped his remaining tentacles around the ruined half of his body to speed up his recovery, his gaze fixed on a figure not far away.

Jin Tong had returned. Blood streamed from his shattered eye sockets, and his entire body trembled.

The punch meant for Fu Ming’s head finally landed. Jin Tong reeled as if struck by lightning and vomited a huge mouthful of blood.

Fu Ming had no time to wonder why Jin Tong had returned to save him. He had just discovered that countless squares and lines had suddenly appeared beneath his feet.

Dark gray and light gray game pieces materialized from the void, landing in an orderly pattern on the intersections of the lines.

He didn’t know when, but he had been trapped on a chessboard, enveloped by a suffocating killing intent.

The pieces of both colors suddenly transformed into chains, anchored in the void. They tightened abruptly, and a look of agony twisted Fu Ming’s face.

A glance revealed the chains had pierced him from the inside out, skewering his entire body and binding him tight.

At the same time, the countless rotting birds reappeared overhead. They coalesced into one gigantic bird and dove straight for him.

The punch that had missed him before was once again in front of his face.

Even so, there was no despair in Fu Ming’s eyes. Only a deep sigh... and the madness of spreading, bloodshot veins.

’I’ve failed my promise to Junior Brother. What a disgrace.’

’If this is it, then I’ll just have to die one more time!’

An intense, maddening killing intent suddenly erupted from Fu Ming. His head began to split apart as if something inside was about to burst forth.

But just then, a voice suddenly reached his ears. Simultaneously, an impossibly deep black light spread out in an instant.

In that moment, everything froze. The bird diving from the sky, the fist about to crush Fu Ming’s skull, and even Fu Ming himself—all were suspended in place as if time had stopped.

"Senior Brother, this is the first time I’ve ever seen you look this pathetic. I can’t thank you enough. Leave the rest to me."

Yang An had awoken at some point and fully emerged from his meditative state. This meant his Cultivation Level had broken through, and he had arrived just in time.

The black light emanated from his body, shrouding everything within hundreds of meters. Fu Ming’s eyes could move, but he could see nothing of Yang An’s expression—only endless darkness.

The next moment, the darkness vanished. In its place stood a humanoid figure bathed in Golden Radiance, one hand clamped around the tall figure’s neck. The Golden Radiance pulsed, surging into its victim.

At the same time, countless rays of Golden Radiance shot skyward, blooming like a gigantic lotus that swallowed the descending bird whole.

BOOM—

In the sky and on the ground, a massive amount of Golden Radiance exploded, reducing everything to ash.

At the epicenter of the brilliant explosion that lit up the gray world, a black shadow flickered. Yang An appeared before the two-toned gray creature, his expression as calm as if he were out for a stroll.

Yang An even seemed to be in a good enough mood to look the creature up and down.

"So you’re the one playing chess?"

The creature didn’t speak. An instant later, a giant hand clutching a light-gray game piece slammed down on Yang An.

"A game of chess has two sides, black and white. But take a look at me... what color am I?"

Yang An spoke slowly, unhurriedly.

The next moment, a succession of brilliant lights erupted from his body.

Gold light held white, white held black, black held cyan, and cyan held red—an incomparably splendid sight.

The hand holding the game piece descended, but the moment it touched the light, it disintegrated. The light then consumed the chess player himself.

In the distance, shattered flesh and blood re-formed, and the man fused with the tree appeared once more.

When he witnessed this, he had to choose between attacking and fleeing. He decisively chose to flee.

But before he could get far, Yang An’s figure appeared before him, a hand thrusting effortlessly through his chest.

VMMMM!

Another burst of light filled the world.

A moment later, all was calm again.

When the light faded, the world was gray once more, leaving nothing but scattered ash.

Yang An hovered quietly in mid-air, carefully sensing the power within his body. A satisfied smile spread across his face.

’So this is the power of a Zombie God?’

’Not bad at all!’