Chapter 257

The zombie horde’s assault stalls into a standstill that runs two hours, until Ding Hao, at Fang Yuan’s instruction, steepens the attack and breaks the caravan’s failing defense. Only about thirty people remain. Jia Long calls to give up the mortals so the rest can break through, and the ordinary caravan members are abandoned, leaving only Shang Xin Ci and Xiao Die under Fang Yuan and Bai Ning Bing’s protection. ^{ch. 257}

Near the breakout, two green-hair zombies appear, so Fang Yuan pulls the four of them back into the encirclement instead, and the escort Gu Masters are left fighting the pair, each rated as strong as a thousand beast king. The fight draws the horde toward them and eases the pressure on Fang Yuan’s group. Under Ding Hao’s hidden direction, the zombies blocking the path fight far below their true strength, and Fang Yuan charges through, deliberately taking a wound to look heroic to Shang Xin Ci and Xiao Die. Bai Ning Bing is not told of the arrangement. She notices the strange weakness and cannot explain it. ^{ch. 257}

Fang Yuan gets the girls clear to the edge of the burning camp. The escort Gu Masters, still trapped in the horde, call out for help, and he promises to return once the girls are safe. Farther on, at a point Ding Hao has already seeded with zombies, Fang Yuan tells Bai Ning Bing to take the girls ahead while he claims he will hold the line. Once they are gone, he slips past on a jumping grass Gu to find Ding Hao instead. ^{ch. 257}

Only three of the escort Gu Masters are still fighting, one green-hair zombie already dead to a detonation Gu. At Fang Yuan’s word, Ding Hao sends the horde forward and the three are swallowed. None of the caravan escapes. Fang Yuan praises the clean battlefield and corrects a couple of oversights: leave some primeval stones behind, and do not convert every corpse. Ding Hao reports about thirteen thousand primeval stones taken, five undamaged corpses of rank three Gu Masters, and about a dozen more Gu Master corpses, all strength-path cultivators, the whole haul bound to become zombies. ^{ch. 257}

Fang Yuan tells him to rest his strained mind, promises to bring him along to see their master, and asks where his cave is. When Ding Hao turns to check a claimed escapee, Fang Yuan drives a bone spear through the back of his skull. He weighs Ding Hao’s worth against Shang Xin Ci’s, and the risk if the Shang clan investigates. Abandoning him, he judges, is safer. He drags the body to the burning camp and watches it burn to ash with its Gu worms, then leaves while the leaderless zombies are still feeding on the corpses around him. ^{ch. 257}