The Zombie Emperor, Zhang Yiming, felt severe pain from all over his body. Since the apocalypse, it was the first time he experienced such intense pain.

"It seems that consuming Ganmu wasn’t entirely beneficial."

The corners of the Zombie Emperor Zhang Yiming’s mouth lifted slightly, and the coldness in his eyes intensified.

The zombie fish didn’t understand the Zombie Emperor Zhang Yiming’s muttering; it just kept crashing into the riverbed repeatedly.

The Zombie Emperor Zhang Yiming let the zombie fish crash around, slowly pushing a dagger with his fingers, indifferent to his injuries.

The sound of bones breaking became more frequent, and black blood oozed from unknown breaks in the skin.

This black blood, like ink, lingered in the river without dispersing.

The black blood spilled during the fight between the Zombie Emperor Zhang Yiming and the zombie fish deterred any nearby creatures from approaching.

"Roar!"

As the Zombie Emperor Zhang Yiming pushed the dagger once more, the sharp tip finally touched the zombie fish’s brain.

The zombie fish went completely berserk, increasing the force with which it crashed against the ground.

Deep pits appeared one after another at the riverbed.

If someone stood on the bridge over the Huangpu River, they would have seen the river’s surface continuously splashing.

A nearly ten-meter-long zombie fish, reeking of decay, occasionally leaped out of the water before crashing back into the riverbed.

The Zombie Emperor Zhang Yiming didn’t utter a single sound of pain, his fingers continuously twisting the dagger, his gaze cold as ice.

"Ten, eleven, twelve..."

The Zombie Emperor Zhang Yiming silently counted the number of times he was slammed into the riverbed.

A hint of malevolence played on his face as if the battered body wasn’t his own.

The struggle continued.

Three hours later, when the Zombie Emperor Zhang Yiming reached fifty-seven in his count, the massive zombie fish finally floated on the river’s surface.

The decaying body emerged, exposing more white bone, especially on its back, where even the bones seemed deformed upon closer inspection.

The zombie fish used all its strength to hit the ground but couldn’t shake off the Zombie Emperor Zhang Yiming.

The Zombie Emperor Zhang Yiming sat on the zombie fish’s head, with his entire arm almost embedded in the fish’s skull.

Large pieces of the zombie fish’s rotten flesh fell into the Huangpu River, sinking to the bottom.

No creature would eat this rotten meat, which nature would slowly absorb and purify before other creatures could ignore it.

This process is a lengthy one.

When the purification capacity of the river couldn’t keep up with the increasing amounts of rotten meat and black blood, the entire river might turn into a black ocean.

The sea and rivers generally are living waters with strong purification abilities, making the likelihood of an entire river becoming a zombie animal park slim.

If it’s stagnant water and someone deliberately dumps zombie animals and rotten meat, it will quickly become a zombie paradise.

Once, the Zombie Emperor Zhang Yiming playfully fouled several stagnant lakes, turning all creatures within into zombie animals or zombie insects.

In a vast area, humans and animals dared not reside there.

Human living spaces have been compressed to the extreme.

Now, he no longer wishes to repeat his past actions.

The Zombie Emperor Zhang Yiming’s body was covered in black blood, thick and ink-like, which flowed from him.

The blood from the zombie fish was also black, but one glance revealed the two bloods were different.

The blood on the Zombie Emperor Zhang Yiming was excessively black, without impurities.

The Zombie Emperor Zhang Yiming stabbed the dagger repeatedly into the zombie fish’s skull.

The zombie fish had sustained severe brain damage, truly dead, so when the Zombie Emperor Zhang Yiming stabbed the skull again, it was much faster.

Under the moonlight, the Zombie Emperor Zhang Yiming’s grip on the dagger looked twisted, with even one finger bent outward.

It was obviously broken.

Not only his fingers, but numerous places on his body had broken bones, and almost every inch of his bones or skin screamed with pain.

The Zombie Emperor Zhang Yiming didn’t immediately absorb the crystal core to heal himself but instead extracted the zombie fish’s crystal core.

Meanwhile, the Zombie Emperor Zhang Yiming slowly closed his eyes, feeling every trace of pain on his body.

Sometimes, for zombies, to feel pain is a kind of happiness.

The Zombie Emperor Zhang Yiming spent a good twenty minutes with twisted fingers before finally reaching into the zombie fish’s brain and extracting a fist-sized crystal core.

Generally, the larger the creature that turns into a zombie, the larger the crystal core in its brain.

The world’s largest creatures are in the sea.

The most powerful mutant animals and zombie mutants are also in the sea.

Even zombies can’t return whole from the sea, let alone human superpower users.

But to advance superpowers to higher levels, one needs more energy-rich crystal cores.

Human superpower users ultimately cannot fully display their abilities in water; if accidentally scratched and coincidentally near zombies or animals with black blood,

the chances of infection with the zombie virus increase substantially.

And zombies clearly have no such concerns.

So that’s why, even after the apocalypse lasted a long time, human superpower users still couldn’t match zombies.

The Zombie King could go into the sea for crystal cores, whereas humans could only hunt zombies on land.

The Zombie Emperor Zhang Yiming held the fist-sized crystal core up to the moon. In the cool moonlight, the transparent crystal core reflected a faint glow.

Such a beautiful crystal core, yet extracted from the brain of such an ugly zombie fish.

The Zombie Emperor Zhang Yiming casually pocketed the crystal core and climbed out of the Huangpu River.

With a flick of his fingers, black flames fell on the zombie fish, and the sound of crackling echoed as the zombie fish turned into thick black smoke and slowly dissipated.

Afterwards, the Zombie Emperor Zhang Yiming collapsed to the ground, lying quietly by the riverbank.

Ink-like black blood continued seeping from him, yet the Zombie Emperor Zhang Yiming had no intention of healing his wounds with the crystal core, just attentively feeling every inch of pain.

It’s said that physical pain is better than mental anguish.

Sometimes, when the body aches, the emotional agitation in the heart seems to ease a little.

Until the east slowly saw the rise of the sun, the Zombie Emperor Zhang Yiming finally opened his eyes.

Gripping the fist-sized crystal core within his twisted fingers, it took less than a minute for the energy-rich crystal core to crumble into shards.

The terrifying energy surged into Zombie Emperor Zhang Yiming’s body, swiftly mending his injuries.

The faint sound of bones creaking could be heard.

Only zombies could heal injuries so quickly.

Ten minutes later, the Zombie Emperor Zhang Yiming had no wounds left to seep black blood.

Zombie Emperor Zhang Yiming stood up from the ground, slowly heading toward his motorcycle.

But the place where he had lain all night had soil turned ink-black.

Nearby plants had already begun to wither and die.