Lu Li’s sharp voice rang out like the beating of morning and evening drums, striking heavily against Zhao Zongchang’s nearly shattered heart and mind.
He looked from afar at Zhao Mingyin, who was slaughtering frantically ahead, completely devoid of reason, like a mad demon.
Then he glanced at the severely wounded clansmen and city guards surrounding them.
The last trace of his stubborn madness finally began to melt away like ice and snow, replaced by endless pain and confusion.
“Ah… no, it’s not like this…”
“Yinyin… she was just frightened…”
Zhao Zongchang muttered as he held his head, as if trying to convince himself, and at the same time, trying to convince Lu Li.
Yet at that moment, the zombie Zhao Mingyin, having successfully forced back several guards, suddenly fixed her blood-red eyes on a young Zhao family member nearby, who had collapsed weakly on the ground from fear.
Then a bloodthirsty low growl came from her throat as she prepared to pounce on the young Zhao kin!
“Yinyin! No!”
Seeing this, Zhao Zongchang suddenly charged forward, ignoring his own injuries, spreading his arms wide to block between the young kin and zombie Zhao Mingyin.
He faced his daughter’s fierce face directly, his voice trembling with almost pleading desperation.
“Yinyin! Stop! He’s your cousin! You know him, right?”
“Yinyin, think carefully! When you were little, he even held you! You… you’re not a monster, you still remember that, don’t you?”
Zhao Zongchang shouted urgently, trying to prove both to himself and to Lu Li, who was quietly reciting the Sword Purging Incantation behind him, that his daughter had not entirely lost her mind.
“Master Lu, look! She’s stopped!”
“Yinyin! She recognizes me! She understands what I’m saying!”
At Zhao Zongchang’s words, the zombie Zhao Mingyin’s attack halted slightly.
Her crimson pupils shifted faintly toward Zhao Zongchang, the low growl in her throat seemed to lessen, and a hint of hesitation appeared in her eyes.
“Master Lu! Look! She’s stopped! She…”
But before Zhao Zongchang could finish, the once quiet Zhao Mingyin suddenly erupted violently, her speed lightning fast as her sharp claws aimed straight for Zhao Zongchang’s chest!
“Yinyin! Don’t!”
Zhao Zongchang did not dodge or defend.
Instead, as if giving up resistance, he threw his arms wide, intending to embrace those deadly claws!
Tears mixed with blood streamed down his face as his voice became both heart-wrenching and desperate.
“Yinyin! It’s Daddy! It’s Daddy!”
“Look at me! Wake up and look at me!”
He tried to awaken the last remnants of consciousness in his daughter’s mind with his so-called “fatherly love,” hoping to soften the killing shell before him.
Pfft!
The black claws stabbed straight into his chest.
Though they did not pierce his heart, the wound was deep to the bone, and blood immediately soaked his robe.
The intense pain made Zhao Zongchang’s body convulse violently, yet he still did not push Zhao Mingyin away.
Instead, he used his other intact arm to hug the cold, stiff body, calling out over and over, “My Yinyin…”
Faced with Zhao Zongchang’s fatherly embrace, Zhao Mingyin showed no reaction, only obeying her instinct to devour flesh and spirit.
She opened her mouth again, biting into Zhao Zongchang’s blood-drenched shoulder!
“Sigh… such is the heartbreaking love of parents…”
Lu Li sighed softly, eyes flashing with complexity at this tragic and foolish scene.
There was anger at Zhao Zongchang’s stubborn blindness, yet also an unspeakable pity.
He sighed once more before instantly moving forward to grab Zhao Zongchang, throwing him behind and kicking Zhao Mingyin’s corpse away.
But as he kicked the zombie, feeling its Foundation Establishment strength, Lu Li frowned.
The fight with Zhao Zongchang had drained a great deal of his strength.
Now, taking down this zombie had become a somewhat difficult task.
He then turned to Zhao Zongchang, his voice no longer sharp but heavy with weight.
“Lord Zhao, stop. There’s still time to turn back! What you just saw, what you personally experienced—isn’t that enough to face reality?”
“That thing is no longer your daughter. Your actions only add to your pain, allowing that monster, wearing your daughter’s skin, to commit more atrocities and bring shame upon your deceased daughter.”
Zhao Zongchang struggled to endure the severe pain in his body.
His face had grown pale from excessive blood loss, and his aura was rapidly weakening.
But he still stubbornly shook his head, his voice faint but filled with his last bit of obsession.
“Master Lu… you don’t understand… I can feel that Yinyin still recognizes me…”
“Yinyin is just too hungry… she needs me…”
He spoke while laboriously rising, moving toward zombie Zhao Mingyin like a demon.
Just then, the Zhao Mingyin that Lu Li had previously sent flying suddenly lunged toward Lu Li.
Clearly enraged by Lu Li’s earlier attack, she wanted to retaliate!
But before she could reach him, a massive treasure cauldron suddenly flew out, crashing into Zhao Mingyin like a mighty torrent and sending her flying!
“Master!”
“Senior Lu!”
Two clear, anxious voices sounded simultaneously.
Gu Qingying and Gong Shangyu appeared like streaks of light, swiftly flying over from the direction of the ancestral hall and landing beside Lu Li.
“Master, are you okay?”
Gu Qingying asked urgently, her violet eyes quickly scanning Lu Li to confirm he was unharmed.
Having worried about her master’s danger all along, she finally breathed a tentative sigh of relief.
Gong Shangyu, on the other hand, wore a puzzled expression.
Seeing their master completely intact and Zhao Zongchang covered in blood and injuries, he thought to himself…
Which one here is the villain, our master or Zhao Zongchang?
No matter how he looked, Zhao Zongchang’s wounds were far more serious!
And… those wounds were clearly inflicted by that zombie!
So… what exactly was going on?
Qingying had just said if that zombie escaped, it might team up with Zhao Zongchang against the master.
Yet looking at the current situation, it seemed like their master and that zombie were teaming up to mercilessly beat up old man Zhao Zongchang!
“Uh… Senior Lu, what’s going on?”
Gong Shangyu asked, confused.
Lu Li was about to explain when the Zhao Mingyin, who had been knocked flying by Gong Shangyu’s treasure cauldron, suddenly attacked the Zhao clan relatives and ordinary guards nearby once again!
Seeing this, Lu Li quickly spoke to Gong Shangyu and Gu Qingying beside him.
“Bai Yu, Qingkong, the situation is urgent. There’s no time to explain. Both of you, do your best to repel the zombie and evacuate the civilians nearby!”
“I’ll set up the Sword Purging Formation! We’ll kill that Foundation Establishment zombie Zhao Zongchang created right here!”
Just as Lu Li finished speaking, a mournful yet anxious female voice suddenly tore through the night like a wailing lament from the courtyard gate.
“Ah… Master! Master! What’s going on in the backyard with that blazing fire?!”
At this, everyone in the courtyard turned toward the voice.
They saw Lady Ruan, supported by two personal maids—one at Qi Refining Second Level, the other at Qi Refining Third Level—stumbling into the bloody, chaotic battlefield.
Lady Ruan’s puzzled cry also stirred the bloodthirsty hunger inside Zhao Mingyin, who craved the blood of her kin to restore her own foundation.
Zhao Mingyin’s ruined bloodshot eyes fixed directly on her biological mother Lady Ruan, flooding with greedy, savage light.
“Ah… Mother, mother…”
“Mother! So delicious…”