Chapter 40: Ferocious Animal Zombies, The Initial Prototype of the Zombie Army

Yet, not even five seconds had passed.

The tiger lying on the ground had its limbs stiffen. Two sharp fangs grew from the corners of its mouth. The already razor-sharp claws on its paws began to grow frantically outward. Its whitish eyes turned deep, ominous crimson. A foul aura of death radiated from its body.

When the fifth second arrived,

"Roar!!"

The dead tiger suddenly let out a deafening roar and sprang up from the ground.

"It... it underwent a corpse transformation... How is this possible?!"

A tempest raged within the peach tree spirit's heart, its peach-blossom eyes filled with profound shock. This wasn't just undergoing a corpse transformation in five seconds; it was completing the entire transformation in five seconds. The speed of the transformation was simply too terrifying. Furthermore, right upon transforming, it had already reached the early stage of a jumping corpse.

"Hiss!"

The tiger exhaled a breath of tainted deathly aura and began to prostrate itself before Qin Feng.

"It worked!!"

Qin Feng's face lit up with joy. Suppressing his inner excitement, he commanded the tiger, "Jump!"

"Thud!!"

The tiger leaped with all its might, soaring seven or eight meters high into the air.

"Holy shit, it jumps higher than I do?" Qin Feng was dumbfounded on the spot.

Is this what an animal corpse transformation looks like? It is way too hardcore. However, tigers were already natural leapers, so jumping high after transformation was normal. He just wondered how formidable its physical strength was.

At this thought, Qin Feng turned his gaze to the peach tree spirit. "Do you want to test its strength?"

"Me? Um, I think I'll pass." The peach tree spirit felt a twinge of fear.

Just looking at the zombie tiger's two sharp fangs and its long, slender claws made its scalp tingle. Especially when pinned under the gaze of those deep, scarlet eyes of the zombie tiger, even its soul trembled. This was the suppression of authority emanating from the king of the mountain.

"Don't worry, relax. I won't let it hurt you," Qin Feng reassured it with a reassuring look. "Besides, it's only at the early stage of a jumping corpse, while your strength has recovered to the early stage of the physical manifestation realm. You're two major realms higher than it; what is there to be afraid of?"

"Alright then..." The peach tree spirit bit its red lips.

"Go on, attack it," Qin Feng immediately commanded the zombie tiger.

"Roar!!"

The zombie tiger roared, charging toward the peach tree spirit like a streak of lightning. Its speed far exceeded the standard of a ordinary jumping corpse, almost matching that of a hairy corpse.

"Whoosh!!"

The peach tree spirit waved its right hand, and a tree root burst forth from the soil like a whip, lashing toward the zombie tiger.

"Hiss!!"

The zombie tiger swiped down with a paw.

"Bang!!"

The tree root was batted away by the sheer force.

"Whoosh!"

The thick, stiff claws lunged toward the peach tree spirit. The peach tree spirit's pupils contracted, and it hastily retreated. Then, it mobilized another tree root.

"Whoosh! Whoosh!!"

Two tree roots surrounded the zombie tiger from left and right. One thrust straight at the zombie tiger, while the other coiled around it.

"Clang!!"

The tree root struck the zombie tiger, producing a sound like striking iron. It failed to pierce the zombie tiger's defense at all. Instead, the tremendous impact sent the zombie tiger flying five or six meters away.

The remaining tree root pressed the attack, immediately wrapping around the zombie tiger in mid-air.

"Roar!!"

The zombie tiger let out a roar.

"Boom!!"

The tree root was actually snapped apart by brute force.

"Screech!!"

Upon landing, the zombie tiger dug its claws into the ground, sliding three meters backward and leaving twenty deep claw marks on the earth.

"Roar!!"

Stabilizing its footing, the zombie tiger roared once more and charged at the peach tree spirit like a fearless warrior resolved to die.

"Slap!"

The peach tree spirit whipped the zombie tiger away with a single root.

"Roar!"

The zombie tiger landed, picked itself up, and charged again.

"This won't do, Zombie Brother, please make it stop! Although its cultivation is only at the early stage of a jumping corpse, after transforming, it not only retained all its original abilities but also enhanced them immensely. Its true combat strength is no weaker than a hairy corpse, and it might even be more terrifying than a late-stage hairy corpse."

The peach tree spirit hurriedly said to Qin Feng. It was genuinely afraid of being injured by the zombie tiger. This was a zombie, after all—its entire body was saturated with corpse poison. Getting wounded by it would make purging the poison quite troublesome.

"Come here," Qin Feng instructed the zombie tiger.

"Thud!!"

The zombie tiger bounded to a halt right in front of Qin Feng. Husky and robust, it stood motionless like a docile little kitten.

Qin Feng patted the zombie tiger's head with satisfaction.

"Zombie Brother, you are simply defying the heavens! If you were to build a zombie army out of tigers, even people from the Daoist sects would shiver with fear upon seeing them. If you gathered enough numbers, you could even lead a zombie army to flatten those old priests' sects."

The peach tree spirit looked at Qin Feng with a mixture of shock and admiration. The zombie before it was truly extraordinary. How could such a monstrously gifted zombie appear in this world? What was even more baffling was that such a monstrous existence didn't even trigger a heavenly tribulation.

As for spirits like itself, after reaching the physical manifestation realm, they had to endure a transformation tribulation in order to take human form. A rare few spirits even had to beg humans to bestow a human title upon them. If that plea failed, all their centuries of Daoist practice would instantly vanish like smoke, forcing them to start cultivating all over again.

"I have you to thank for this. If you hadn't reminded me, I wouldn't have known that animals could undergo corpse transformation. The strength of an animal after a corpse transformation is far greater than that of a human."

Qin Feng looked at the peach tree spirit with genuine gratitude. It seemed helping the peach tree spirit earlier hadn't been in vain; without it, he truly wouldn't have thought of turning animals into zombies.

"Come, let's continue searching for large beasts."

Suppressing his surging excitement, Qin Feng led the peach tree spirit onward to hunt for more prey. He had abandoned the idea of finding more tigers. After all, they were solitary animals, with only one per mountain peak. As the saying goes, two tigers cannot share one mountain unless they are a male and a female, and this was not the mating season; there shouldn't be any tigresses roaming this particular mountain range.

Following that, Qin Feng tracked various scents and began a slaughter of the large beasts inhabiting the mountain.

Herds of wild boars, a massive black bear, lynxes, leopards, pythons, herds of wild mountain goats, and so on.

Five hours passed, bringing the time to two in the morning.

Qin Feng took inventory: he had hunted a total of five hundred and ten animals. This was an astronomical figure.

Five hundred and ten animal zombies stood aligned together, their dense aura of death soaring straight into the clouds. Just looking at them was enough to make one's scalp crawl.

In particular, the massive black bear stood upright and proud, its colossal frame resembling an iron wall. The skeleton of the zombie army was now truly taking shape.

Among these animal zombies, wild boars made up the largest proportion, numbering over three hundred. There was one giant black bear, one lynx, three leopards, ten pythons, and over a hundred wild mountain goats.

What left Qin Feng with a hint of regret was the absence of the largest land animal, the elephant. If he had an elephant, he wondered how formidable its strength would be after a corpse transformation. It would probably be able to battle enemies two major realms above itself. Then there were rhinoceroses, hippopotamuses, and the like—he wondered if blue whales and great white sharks could undergo corpse transformation too.

With such thoughts swirling in his mind, Qin Feng felt his blood race. Having the ability to turn animals into zombies greatly increased his chances of survival. Even if he encountered people from the Daoist sects, he would have no reason to fear them. He could even put up a fight against Daoist practitioners in the soul-wandering realm.

"All zombies, listen up. March!!"

Qin Feng waved his hand and gave a low shout, leading the five hundred and ten animal zombies leaping toward Qianyuan Cave.

The animal zombies followed one after another, forming a long, winding dragon-like procession. The spectacle was magnificent. As they bounded forward, the massive wave of deathly aura frightened the birds in all directions into flapping their wings and fleeing in a panic.

"Zombie Brother, um... can I follow you?"

The peach tree spirit, trailing quietly beside Qin Feng for a long moment, finally spoke up timidly. It felt that following Qin Feng offered a truly promising future. Its injuries had not yet healed, and rather than wandering the forests alone, tagging along with Qin Feng was far better. Not only could it cling to a powerful benefactor, but it could also avoid numerous dangers. Moreover, with such a massive force of powerful animal zombies by his side, there was no need to fear even the Daoist sects.

Qin Feng pondered for a brief moment before nodding in agreement. As the zombie army grew larger, it indeed required someone to manage it. He just didn't know if the zombie army would obey anyone else's commands besides his own. If they did, he could let the peach tree spirit direct the zombie army in battle.

In fact, he had long realized a major flaw in his zombie army: they lacked sentience and did not know how to adapt when facing enemies, only knowing how to blindly charge forward. If someone commanded them, their combat effectiveness would increase even further.

Thinking of this, Qin Feng stopped in his tracks. He turned to the pack of animal zombies and commanded, "From now on, aside from my orders, you must also obey the commands of the peach tree spirit. Do you understand?"

"Hiss!!"

All five hundred and ten animal zombies exhaled a simultaneous puff of corpse gas. Whether they understood or not remained a mystery.

"Wait, Zombie Brother, can they actually understand your meaning?" The peach tree spirit asked with a wry smile. These zombies lacked intelligence and were originally wild beasts to begin with. The fact that they could understand his own commands was already monstrously miraculous. For them to also understand its own commands would mean the sun was rising from the west. Such an absurd notion was simply impossible.