Chapter 191: The Zombie Lord

The Zombie Lord

"My lord, the intruders have been captured and secured in the Nine-Lock Prison."

The deep voice echoed through the underground hall.

Its ceiling disappeared into darkness, supported by enormous stone pillars carved with ancient patterns. Iron lanterns hung between them, their crimson flames casting long shadows across the polished black floor.

Narrow channels had been carved into the stone, carrying thin streams of water through the hall. A faint metallic smell lingered in the air.

Beyond the pillars, rows of iron doors vanished into the gloom. Masked guards stood at measured intervals while pale-blue flames burned inside the wall sconces, illuminating the hall without providing any warmth.

At the far end sat the master of the underground city.

Leon.

He wore dark crimson and black robes, their long sleeves draped over the arms of his chair. His skin was pale and almost translucent beneath the lantern light. Long, dry hair fell down his back like dead leaves clinging to a withered branch.

One side of his face was smooth, though unnaturally pale. The other was disfigured, with dark veins crawling beneath the skin. Black tendrils shifted slowly along his cheek and jaw.

His eyes were the most unsettling part of him.

They were blood-red.

Leon rested his cheek against one hand and listened to the report with little interest.

"Tsk."

He clicked his tongue.

"And here I thought the Four Great Sects might finally give me a challenge."

The two figures kneeling before him remained silent.

Both wore black robes and masks. One mask was plain, with narrow eye slits. The other had two pointed ears resembling those of a wolf.

They were not ordinary zombies.

They were the strongest beings Leon had personally trained—the results of years spent pushing his people beyond the limits of their former existence.

"Anything else?" Leon asked.

"The prisoners remain unconscious, my lord. Their weapons have been secured, and their belongings are being examined."

"Good. Keep them alive until I decide what to do with them."

"As you command."

Leon waved a hand.

The two masked figures bowed before rising together. They turned and left through the enormous doors, their footsteps fading into the passage beyond.

Leon leaned back in his chair.

The Four Great Sects.

He had heard of them long before their cultivators began interfering with his territory. Their influence had spread across Country B, and their disciples grew stronger with every passing day.

But none of that changed the truth.

The world above had no place for his people.

Leon lowered his gaze to his hand. Beneath his pale skin, faint black veins pulsed in rhythm with the energy flowing through his body.

He remembered when that hand had belonged to an ordinary man.

Before the apocalypse, Leon had been a factory worker.

His days had been simple. He woke up, went to work, endured long hours beneath harsh lights, and returned to a small room where he ate, slept, and prepared to repeat the same routine.

He had no extraordinary talent, prestigious family, or hidden inheritance waiting to be discovered.

He was just another man trying to survive.

Then the apocalypse arrived. The world changed almost overnight.

Strange energies swept across the land.

People died in ways no one could explain, while others awakened powers that had never existed before. Cities fell into chaos.

Leon had been inside the factory when the first outbreak reached them.

The screaming began near the production floor.

By the time he understood what was happening, one of his coworkers had already lunged at him.

Teeth sank into his arm.

Leon fought desperately, striking the creature with anything he could reach, but the damage had already been done. The wound burned. His body grew cold. His heartbeat slowed as the infection spread through his veins.

He knew what would happen.

He had seen it happen to the others.

They died.

Then they rose again, no longer themselves.

Leon refused to accept that fate. He did not want to become one of those things. He did not want his life to end in a forgotten corner of a ruined factory.

He wanted to live.

That desire became the only thought left in his mind.

Even as his consciousness faded, he clung to it with everything he had.

I will not die here.

I refuse to die!

A translucent screen appeared before his fading consciousness.

[System Activated.]

[Host’s vital signs are critically unstable.]

[Adapting to current conditions...]

[Adaptation complete.]

The changes began immediately.

The infection that should have destroyed his mind was suppressed. His failing body stabilized, and the strange energy spreading across the world began circulating through him.

But the transformation did not end there.

Leon sensed something beyond his own body.

The infected workers scattered throughout the factory were no longer completely separate from him. Their movements, agitation, and hunger became sensations he could feel.

At first, he thought he was losing his mind.

Then one of the creatures turned toward him.

Leon felt its presence as clearly as he felt his own heartbeat.

He concentrated.

The creature stopped. Its dead eyes remained fixed on him, its jaws hanging open.

Leon stared at it in disbelief.

He tried again.

This time, the creature turned around and walked toward the wall.

A strange ability had awakened within him—an ability to influence and command the infected.

The system had given him a beginning.

Everything that followed depended on what he did with it.

Leon did not waste time celebrating.

The factory was full of zombies, and the outside world was collapsing. He had no guarantee that help would arrive. He didn’t know how long food, shelter, or safety would remain available.

If he wanted to survive, he needed strength.

He began with the creatures he could control.

In those early days, he drank their blood.

It was revolting, but the strange energy inside their bodies strengthened him. His senses sharpened, his physical abilities improved, and his control over the zombies became more stable.

At first, Leon knew nothing about cultivation.

There were no teachers, manuals, or experienced cultivators to explain the energy flowing through his body.

He learned through trial and error.

He observed how the energy moved, tested different methods of refining it, and slowly developed a cultivation method of his own.

Blood was only the beginning.

He learned to absorb the energy and essence within the zombies, converting it into power that he could refine.

The process was dangerous. Mistakes left him weakened for days, and some experiments nearly killed him.

Still, he continued.

Every failure taught him something.

Every breakthrough brought him closer to the strength he needed.

As his cultivation improved, so did his control over the zombies. He could issue commands without speaking, coordinate groups from greater distances, and assign them specific tasks.

But strength alone could not explain the strange world beyond the factory.

That discovery came when a dark rift opened.

It appeared without warning near the abandoned storage wing.

The air tore apart. Black miasma poured through the opening, spreading across the ground like living fog.

Leon stood at the edge of the storage area, staring at the rift.

The zombies behind him became restless.

For the first time since his transformation, he felt something that did not belong to the world he knew.

Something was watching from the other side.

Then a figure moved within the darkness.

Leon’s expression changed. The system interface at that time had flickered before his eyes.

[WARNING]

[Unknown dimensional passage detected.]

[Foreign lifeform presence confirmed.]

[Recommended action: Do not approach.]

Leon stared at the warning. Then he smiled.

The world had already ended once. He had no intention of being afraid of what came after.?