Chapter 256

Ding Hao is stunned that a stranger knows his name. For a moment his zombies, the two green-hair ones and the horde around the camp alike, go still, but he collects himself and the fighting resumes. ^{ch. 256}

Fang Yuan tells him it was their master, the Second Zombie King, who gave him the name, and Ding Hao steps out from the bushes shaken, though he keeps his two green-hair zombies circling Fang Yuan as he asks who he really is. Fang Yuan names himself the Second Zombie King’s eldest disciple, Hei Tu, and threatens to kill him if the zombies are not called back within a count of three; Ding Hao, still doubting, calls them back anyway. When Ding Hao calls him senior brother, Fang Yuan snaps that the title is not his to give, since their master has not yet accepted him as a disciple at all. ^{ch. 256}

Fang Yuan then names the stone slab in Ding Hao’s cave, the one Ding Hao has confided in for years, believing it ordinary. No cultivator, however high their rank, could see anything unusual in that slab; Fang Yuan knows of it only because Ding Hao himself described it, in his previous life, long after these events. Ding Hao, shaken by a secret he thought was his alone, is nearly convinced. ^{ch. 256}

Still unsure, Ding Hao asks Fang Yuan to prove himself with the lineage’s own Zombie Heart Gu, a rank three Gu shaped like a seven-holed heart, hard as stone, cold and bronze to the touch. It produces the Rank Two Running Corpse Gu used to raise zombies from corpses, much as Fang Yuan’s own Charred Thunder Potato Mother Gu produces Charred Thunder Potato Gu, except a zombie raised this way can grow from one stage into the next. Fang Yuan does not carry one, but rather than admit it, he scolds Ding Hao for asking: a secret mission in disguise leaves no room to carry a Gu that must feed on zombies in plain sight. He then bares his rank three peak stage cultivation, plainly stronger than Ding Hao’s own rank three middle stage, and warns that commanding a zombie horde while fighting divides the mind and leaves gaps an enemy could kill through. ^{ch. 256}

Fang Yuan then softens, claiming their master sent him only to judge whether Ding Hao is fit for discipleship, and that falling a little short of the standard would not have mattered. Ding Hao, ashamed at having attacked before being sought out, calls him eldest senior brother again; Fang Yuan says nothing, only looks at the two green-hair zombies, and Ding Hao takes the hint and sends them away. ^{ch. 256}

Fang Yuan then scolds him for wrecking the secret mission that he and his second senior sister worked hard to set up inside the caravan; when Ding Hao offers in a panic to recall the whole horde, Fang Yuan raps his head and warns that a sudden retreat would only raise suspicion. Pressed for a true count, Ding Hao admits to close to four thousand white-hair zombies, over one hundred and twenty black-hair zombies, three green-hair zombies, one left guarding the cave, and not a single blue-hair zombie after close to ten years on the mountain. Relieved that Ding Hao has raised none, Fang Yuan falsely claims two blue-hair zombies of his own, and invents for him a method: find a rank four Gu Master’s corpse, hope it had used a Gu to raise its own strength in life, and feed it fresh blood for a year or two to bring it from green-hair up to blue. Ding Hao, easily deceived by his honest nature, is won over completely. ^{ch. 256}

Fang Yuan gives him detailed instructions to act by, then fights his way back to the camp with Ding Hao’s secret cooperation and no further harm. The caravan, believing he could have simply escaped, receives him with surprise and awe. Shang Xin Ci apologizes for being a burden; Fang Yuan brushes it off, adding that Bai Ning Bing is there too, a remark meant to move the two women further, and Bai Ning Bing, catching his wink, understands he is up to no good. ^{ch. 256}