Chapter 49: The Onset of the Death Tide!

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In the world of Lou City, somewhere in the wilderness.
This was an unnamed valley scattered with jagged, dark brown rocks as sharp as blades, stretching endlessly. Clusters of wild grass stubbornly grew among them, giving the landscape an utterly desolate appearance.
Five poorly equipped wandering wild cultivators sat around together, each holding a hard, dry cake made from grass seeds, quenching their hunger with cold water.
Beside them lay a bloodstained leather backpack containing their latest haul: severed heads of corpse monsters and various organs from other beasts, serving as proof of their hunting mission.
Once brought back to the wanderers’ town, these trophies could be exchanged with the Blackrock City authorities for considerable rewards.
This time, the corpse tide had become a rampant disaster, with corpse monsters endlessly roaming near Blackrock City. Though it troubled the city’s rulers greatly, it also provided these wild cultivators, who lived on the edge of danger, a chance to make a fortune.
As Blackrock City progressively increased the hunting rewards, a single hunt now equaled the bounty of several past expeditions. With such lucrative opportunities, they had to seize the moment and come back for more.
Their spirits were visibly high, smiles brightening their conversations.
Yet, none of them noticed the sudden gathering of ominous black clouds on the horizon, slowly advancing toward their location.
It was not until the clouds nearly enveloped them that one of the wild cultivators sensed something was amiss.
“Big brother, what’s flying up there?”
A thin man furrowed his brow, staring at the sky before turning to his burly companion.
The burly man, addressed as big brother, glanced upward and saw a swarm of black, blood-red-eyed monstrous birds converging on them.
The wild cultivators in the wilderness possessed a keen instinct for danger—an edge over the city cultivators.
Before the big brother could warn them, the others who had noticed the strange birds already gripped their weapons and unleashed a furious sweep against the attacking death birds.
The crackling clash of blades rang out continuously. Though the birds carried a terrifying virus, their bodies were fragile, and many fell under the onslaught.
However, the true terror of these death birds lay in their sheer recklessness; if their target was not yet infected, they would not relent in their attack.
As the pile of dead birds grew, one of the attackers was finally grazed by a surviving bird.
Unaware of the toxin’s danger, the wounded man’s rapid movements accelerated its onset, and gradually his motions began to slow.

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A comrade noticed the change but was too overwhelmed by the relentless bird assault to offer aid. When a creeping black mist spread over the wounded man’s face, his expression twisted violently.
Unnatural muscle spasms flickered across his face, growing worse by the moment. Upon closer inspection, his eyes were veined with spiderweb-like bloodshot patterns.
With a sudden thud, the wounded man collapsed, his limbs contorted grotesquely, looking utterly monstrous.
“Lao Mo, what’s wrong with you?”
The leader of the group shouted urgently at his fallen comrade but received no response, his anxiety mounting.
Time passed slowly. The number of crushed death birds increased steadily. Except for the leader, the others were already injured. Meanwhile, the death birds ceased their assault.
Only the leader remained unscathed, fiercely driving the death birds back as the wounded assisted him.
Ten minutes later, after the last death bird was shattered, the leader collapsed, gasping heavily.
“Damn it, what kind of freak bird is this? I’ve never seen anything like it!”
Panting, he cursed but, unlike before, received no reply from his brothers.
Confused, he turned and saw them all lying motionless on the ground, their bodies twisted and deformed, their faces pale with the lifeless gray of the dead.
“Damn it, what happened to you?”
His eyes wild with despair, the leader struggled to drag his exhausted body over to check on them.
Though the wild cultivators had long prepared for the possibility of dying in the wilderness, when that day came unexpectedly, it was still unbearable.
He reached the side of Lao Mo, the first to fall. Only minutes had passed, yet his face had already turned a frightening shade of bluish-purple.
Checking for breath and pulse, he found his comrade long dead.
Tears welled unbidden in the leader’s clouded eyes, grief overwhelming him.
“Cluck… cluck…”
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A strange sound arose beside him. Startled, the leader turned his head and saw the once-dead comrade struggling to rise.
“Lao Mo… what’s happening to you?”
A grim sense of foreboding filled the leader’s heart, but before he could finish his question, Lao Mo lunged fiercely at him, knocking his exhausted body to the ground.
“Damn it, how did you become a zombie?”
The leader’s terrified words were cut short as Lao Mo bit into his neck, blood splattering his pale, ferocious face.
The leader struggled weakly, his last glance catching several other strangely moving figures rising unsteadily from the ground—the very comrades who had died.
“Heh heh…”
In his final moment before unconsciousness, the leader let out a bitter, sorrowful laugh, and then his eyes went completely dark.
In the valley of the wilderness, the shattered black bodies of death birds lay scattered. Several oddly moving wild cultivators crouched on the ground, tearing apart and devouring a mangled corpse.
“Smack!”
A bloodied, mutilated arm suddenly thrust out from among them, swinging forcefully to knock two wandering cultivators aside. Then, a skeletal head, stripped of flesh and hair but clad in remnants of clothing, rose from the group—it was the leader of the exploration team.
“Hiss…”
With one leg stripped bare of muscle and bone exposed, the leader’s bloodshot eyes scanned the surroundings. He let out a long, guttural roar at his zombie minions, then picked up a fallen weapon and turned toward Blackrock City.
The others followed suit, retrieving their weapons and staggering after their former leader through the wilderness.
From a bird’s-eye view, at the spots where the death birds had passed, more and more wandering cultivator corpses rose from the ground, clutching their former weapons as they slowly marched toward Blackrock City.
This undead horde continued to swell, growing from scattered flickers into a dark, ominous mass…