Senior sister, stop working and go home for dinner.

The closer you get to that door, the stronger and more pungent the stench of decay becomes.

The corridor was eerily silent, save for the heavy breathing and heartbeats of the three of them.

Chen Anran and the others stopped in front of the door. Chen Anran took a deep breath, and without hesitation, suddenly kicked open the half-closed door with a "bang"!

The door slammed against the wall with a loud bang, and dust fell in a flurry.

This is an abandoned house. The living room is very dark, and the furniture is overturned and covered with a thick layer of dust.

But what caught their attention was not the dilapidated scene, but a figure dressed in tattered clothes and covered in filth, squatting on the ground with his back to them, seemingly gnawing on something.

Upon hearing the sound of the door being broken down, the figure abruptly stopped.

Feng Xiaolu and Wang Anxi's hearts nearly jumped out of their throats.

Immediately afterwards, the figure turned around stiffly, inch by inch.

A lifeless, bluish-gray face came into view. Its lips were everted, revealing yellowish teeth, and dark red, viscous liquid and bits of unidentified flesh clung to the corners of its mouth. Most chilling of all were its eyes—cloudy and murky, the pupils shrunken into tiny dots, gleaming with a dark, eerie green light!

"A zombie... a real zombie!" Wang Anxi was so scared that he fell to the ground with a thud, but being dutiful, he kept his phone camera fixed on the zombie in front of him.

Feng Xiaolu's scalp tingled, and a scream caught in her throat. The visual impact was far more terrifying than she had imagined!

She instinctively looked towards the window, and remembering that zombies fear sunlight, she thought of rushing over and opening the window.

Just as Feng Xiaolu lifted her foot, Chen Anran stopped her, saying, "Junior sister, the window is behind it. Let's try a safer method."

As he spoke, Chen Anran stuffed the thousand-year-old evil-repelling wooden sword into Feng Xiaolu's hand, and then quickly took out the packet of "evil-repelling glutinous rice" that had already evolved from the small cloth bag he was carrying.

"Junior sister! Your senior brother will use this warding-off-evil glutinous rice to protect you! You take your magic sword and go!"

Feng Xiaolu was instantly dumbfounded. This was what they called a "safe method"? Using a "twenty-yuan craft item" to chop down zombies?

But she had no time to think about it. As the stinking, green-glowing "zombie" turned around completely, making strange "hoarse" sounds from its throat, it stiffly moved toward them. She was terrified.

"Senior Brother! I can't do it!" Feng Xiaolu was almost in tears. She was good at acting and deceiving people, but what could she do with her limited early-stage Qi Refining spiritual power when it came to fighting this kind of monster in real combat?

"Believe in yourself, Junior Sister! You are the rightful successor of the Cloud Hidden Sect!" Chen Anran encouraged her while keeping a close eye on the "zombie's" movements. He found that the thing was not moving fast and its movements were extremely stiff, as if its joints were rusted. Rather than a zombie, it was more like a puppet driven by evil energy.

Just then, the "zombie" seemed to be stimulated by the presence of a living person, and suddenly accelerated and pounced, its target being Wang Anxi, who was closest to it and whose legs were weak with fear!

"Watch out!" Upon seeing this, Feng Xiaolu didn't know where she got the courage from. Perhaps it was the instinct to protect her "sugar daddy," or perhaps Chen Anran's composure infected her. She screamed, closed her eyes, and thrust the peach wood sword in her hand forward!

She even subconsciously poured the meager amount of spiritual energy within her body into the sword.

However, this time, something unexpected happened!

The seemingly ordinary peach wood sword seemed to be ignited the moment it came into contact with Feng Xiaolu's spiritual power, its blade suddenly emitting a soft yet firm golden light! A surge of pure yang energy burst forth!

"laugh--!"

The tip of the peach wood sword was pressed precisely against the lunging zombie's chest. There was no clang of metal on metal, only the sound of a red-hot iron searing rotten wood! A plume of black smoke, accompanied by a foul stench, billowed from the zombie's chest!

"Awooo—!"

The "zombie" let out a mournful howl, forced back by the exorcising power contained in the sword, leaving a charred mark on its chest, and its green eyes were filled with pain.

Feng Xiaolu froze, staring incredulously at the glowing, radiant peach wood sword in her hand, then at the repelled "zombie," her mind blank: "This...this sword..."

Wang Anxi, having narrowly escaped death, scrambled to hide behind Chen Anran. Seeing this, he was so excited he was almost incoherent: "Amazing! Amazing! Master Feng! You are truly a master!"

Chen Anran felt reassured; it had indeed worked! Seizing the opportunity, he shouted, "Evil spirits, begone!" and scattering a handful of "evil-repelling glutinous rice"!

The glistening glutinous rice, as if imbued with a spirit, was precisely sprinkled onto the "zombie".

"Crackling!" A series of dense, popping sounds, like popping beans, rang out! The moment the glutinous rice touched the "zombie's" body, it burst into tiny white sparks. Each spark was like a miniature anti-evil bullet, causing the "zombie" to smoke and curl up in pain, letting out an even more shrill howl. The evil aura on its body dissipated at a visible speed.

"It...it works! It really works!" Feng Xiaolu's eyes widened at the sight, her fear instantly replaced by overwhelming joy and disbelief. She looked at the "divine sword" in her hand, then at the seemingly ordinary yet incredibly powerful bag of glutinous rice in Chen Anran's hand. An absurd yet heart-pounding thought surfaced: Could it be that what Senior Sister said about the revival of spiritual energy and the spiritual rice was true? This rice and the sword...

Chen Anran didn't give her much time to think. Seeing that the "zombie" was severely injured and moved even more slowly, he stepped forward, took the peach wood sword back from Feng Xiaolu, and the next second, Chen Anran stabbed the "zombie" in the forehead without hesitation!

"puff!"

This time, like a hot knife through butter, the peach wood sword pierced the "zombie's" forehead without any resistance.

The zombie froze completely, the green light in its eyes quickly dimmed, and finally turned into a cloud of black smoke that escaped from its seven orifices, emitting a foul stench. Its torso, as if stripped of all support, slumped limply to the ground, motionless, and rapidly decayed.

"Is it over?" Feng Xiaolu gasped for breath, still shaken as she looked at the rapidly decaying mess on the ground.

Wang Anxi collapsed to the ground, breathing heavily, feeling utterly exhausted as if he had just survived a catastrophe.

Chen Anran drew his peach wood sword. The sword's light dimmed, returning to normal, though its warm, smooth feel remained. He carefully examined the rotten remains on the ground, then bent down and pulled out a jade pendant that was cold to the touch and had a dark luster.

Before Chen Anran could figure out the origin of the jade pendant, Feng Xiaolu said from the side, "This is... a corpse-nurturing jade?"

Chen Anran looked at Feng Xiaolu with surprise. "You know her background?"

Feng Xiaolu rolled her eyes. Although she was a fake Taoist priest and a coward, she had still been out in the world for many years.

However, since Wang Anxi was also present, Feng Xiaolu couldn't say that directly. She could only say, "We have a 'Mutual Help Taoist Group' where we occasionally share strange and unusual things. I think I've seen a similar picture before, saying it's a kind of evil ancient jade that can gather yin energy and nourish corpses."

..............................