Chapter 14: Zombie Hunter

After Xiahou Yan instructed Lawrence to prepare some props "for an experiment," the two finally set off.

The Lord and the guard rode side by side, cutting diagonally across the camp until they quickly reached its southern edge. To Lawrence’s absolute astonishment, however, the Lord showed no intention of stopping. Holding the reins, it looked as though he was about to continue heading straight south.

"My Lord!" Lawrence called out anxiously, stopping the Lord, who had been riding with furrowed brows deep in thought the entire way. "Where are we going?"

"Didn’t I already tell you?" Xiahou Yan glanced at the guard. "To conduct a Magic experiment."

"Why... why do we need to leave the camp for a Magic experiment?" Lawrence’s brain felt like mush. "Where are you planning to take me?"

"To the south." Xiahou Yan raised his crowbar on horseback and pointed vaguely southward. "It’s not far. Just another three or four miles should do it."

South... three or four miles? The guard Lawrence racked his brain. What exactly was located three or four miles south of the camp?

The answer was the roar of a zombie.

The middle-aged guard’s face instantly turned deathly pale.

Xiahou Yan was about to continue their journey when he suddenly heard a flurry of footsteps. Turning his head, he saw the Igor Family’s Chief Mage, the esteemed Mr. Victor Laurie, rushing over from the camp while frantically lifting the hem of his robes. The Lord turned his horse around and leaned forward slightly, waiting to hear what Master Laurie had to say.

"Lord Eliot!" Master Laurie came to a screeching halt in front of Xiahou Yan’s horse, panting heavily. "J-just now, a farmer informed me that you and a guard were riding south, looking as if you were leaving the camp. Lord Eliot, what are you trying to do?"

"Relax, Master Laurie." Xiahou Yan felt a bit annoyed. He wondered why, as a noble Lord, there was always someone poking their nose into his business wherever he went. Aloud, he said, "We won’t go too far. Just a three or four-mile trip."

Master Laurie was utterly baffled. "It isn’t safe anywhere outside the camp! What are you running off there for?"

"It’s nothing important. Just wait here in the camp with peace of mind, Master." Xiahou Yan flicked the reins, and both man and horse shot forward. Before leaving, he didn’t forget to toss a casual remark at the Mage. "We’re just going to catch a zombie, then we’ll be right back!"

Master Laurie immediately felt relieved. He thought, "Ah, so the Lord is just going to catch a... Wait, catch a what?!"

Throwing his head up with a deathly pale face, Master Laurie was just in time to see Tom Lawrence—whose face was several shades paler—shoot him a look of grief and indignation before cracking his riding crop and dashing off after the Lord.

Today’s sudden trip actually stemmed from a dream Xiahou Yan had the previous night.

The contents of the dream were simple: the Lord had entered a video game, holding a bright green Peashooter—yes, a Peashooter, not an AK-47—standing in the middle of his garden and frantically pouring firepower into a horde of shambling zombies. With precise three-pea bursts, Xiahou Yan headshotted and eliminated every zombie that appeared in his line of sight.

And after the Lord swiped his card for some pay-to-win microtransactions in the dream game, pulling a Gatling Shooter (SSR) from a ten-draw, this absurd dream thoroughly evolved into a power fantasy. Wielding the Gatling Shooter, he stood proudly atop his roof, using an endless, pearl-like string of peas to smash every visible zombie into mincemeat. He felt as incredibly badass as Schwarzenegger in the movie *Terminator*.

In his second ten-draw of the dream, the item Xiahou Yan pulled was a Hallucinogenic Mushroom (SSR, limited time only) capable of turning zombies from foes into friends...

At that moment, he had jolted awake from his slumber.

A bold idea simultaneously sprang to mind: Was it possible to use Necromancy to control the zombies in the infected zone?

After all, right after the "Resurrection Technique" Chapter in the *Essentials of Necromancy*, there was an entire Chapter dedicated to explaining how to command resurrected zombies! Although the massive horde of "wild" zombies currently in the infected zone had not been personally resurrected by Xiahou Yan and would absolutely not obey his commands, according to the Master, the appearance of these wild zombies actually stemmed from the leakage of Netherworld Magic Power eight hundred years ago. Fundamentally speaking, these wild zombies shared the exact same origin as those created by the Resurrection Technique!

The force supporting their movements was entirely the exact same Magic Power! Therefore, was it possible to find a way to command wild zombies just like one commanded their own?

Xiahou Yan felt this idea was worth a try.

The fundamental problem currently facing the camp was a severe lack of combat power, leaving them unable to adequately protect a migrating caravan of up to five hundred people. This grim reality remained completely unresolved even after the Lord resurrected Alice and the other guards. But if he could successfully control the wild zombies in the infected zone...

A beautiful image surfaced in Xiahou Yan’s mind: the Igor Family’s migrating caravan roaming completely unhindered through the infected zone. On both sides of the wagons, rolling tides of zombies escorted them the entire way, much like fanatical fans following their idol...

So, the current primary objective was to catch a zombie and test it out, right?

At this thought, the Lord couldn’t help but feel secretly smug. Riding his galloping horse, he turned around in his saddle, just about to discuss the upcoming zombie-catching plan with Lawrence, only to find the middle-aged guard sitting ramrod straight on his horse, his eyes completely hollow and glazed over.

"Hey!" Xiahou Yan slowed his horse and waved a hand in front of Lawrence’s eyes. "What’s wrong?"

"My Lord..." Lawrence swallowed hard, then raised a trembling hand with great difficulty to point straight ahead.

Xiahou Yan quickly looked up in that direction.

On the horizon not too far away, small, round objects were popping up one after another between the heavens and the earth. They were bright green, they were filthy, they were hideous. They were the heads of zombies, one after another!

The Lord and the guard hurriedly pulled their reins, coming to a halt at the very peak of a small hill. They could clearly see that just below the hill, not far from them, the area was absolutely jam-packed with zombies shambling and staggering around in circles. Not one, not ten, nor even hundreds or thousands, but tens of thousands, packed tightly together!

An endless, surging tide of bobbing zombie heads spread out across the plains, stretching as far as the eye could see!

"So, the current problem is..." Xiahou Yan squinted at the rolling tide of zombies before him, licking his lips excitedly, "...figuring out how to grab one of them and bring it back."

Lawrence stared in sheer horror at the thoroughly enthused Lord beside him. For a split second, he felt that this nineteen-year-old black-haired youth before him was somehow even more terrifying than the zombies down the hill.

Xiahou Yan and Lawrence minimized their movements as much as possible, carefully climbing down from their horses. Although these wild zombies were ferocious, their actual hearing and vision were extremely limited. Therefore, even though the peak of the hill where the Lord and the guard stood was only a few dozen meters away from the zombie tide, as long as they didn’t make any loud noises, they wouldn’t attract the zombies’ attention.

However, if they accidentally did startle the zombies, the commotion would spread from one to ten, and ten to a hundred, causing the entire zombie tide on the plain to surge toward them... This dangerous, tightrope-walking sensation made Lawrence really want to flee back to the camp and change his pants.

"M-My Lord..." he asked softly, trembling with fear. "These zombies are all clustered together. How could you possibly catch a single one by itself?"

The guard wisely refrained from asking how, even if they did catch a zombie, they would bring it safely back to the camp. He figured that, compared to their current predicament, such a question seemed far too distant.

"Didn’t I have you prepare the props?" Xiahou Yan rubbed his hands together excitedly. "Bring them out, bring them out!"

Trembling, Lawrence took a bundle from his horse’s back, clumsily untied the knot, and then opened it on the ground. It revealed the "props" he had prepared back at the camp according to the Lord’s instructions—a long hemp rope and a dead rooster.

Xiahou Yan bent down, tying one end of the hemp rope tightly around the rooster while winking at Lawrence.

"So, Tom Lawrence, have you ever used bait to catch a fish before?"