Chapter 192: The Yangbane Locust

The Yangbane Locust

The air beyond the rift was different.

Leon sensed it from a distance. The energy was denser, wilder, and filled with unfamiliar fluctuations. Something large moved within the darkness beyond the opening.

He didn’t enter immediately.

Instead, he sent several zombies through first. Through their senses, he gathered fragments of information: strange vegetation, unfamiliar terrain, pools of concentrated energy, and beasts far stronger than those wandering the ruined cities.

It wasn’t another part of the world.

It was a separate realm.

And it contained resources Leon could use.

He started cautiously, sending small groups to explore and retrieve whatever they could. Once he understood the realm’s dangers, he turned it into a training ground.

The zombies hunted the beasts. They fought, suffered injuries, recovered, and returned to battle.

Leon studied every fight. He observed their weaknesses and changed their training accordingly. He forced them to face stronger opponents instead of allowing them to rely only on their numbers.

Some were destroyed.

Others grew stronger.

The survivors became more dangerous. Their movements improved, their bodies grew tougher, and their coordination became more precise.

Leon trained alongside them, absorbing the energy of defeated beasts and refining his cultivation day after day.

He had no miraculous technique that erased every obstacle. His progress came from countless battles, painful experiments, and a willingness to take risks that would have forced most people to retreat.

Eventually, his efforts paid off.

His cultivation advanced through several breakthroughs until he reached the Early Stage of Nascent Soul Realm.

As his cultivation grew, so did his influence over the undead.

The zombies under his command multiplied. Their territory expanded beyond the factory where everything had begun. He could direct them with a thought, coordinate them across the underground settlement, and command powerful individuals capable of fighting cultivators who would once have destroyed them effortlessly.

His strength had grown.

His army had grown.

And his system had evolved with him.

When he reached Level 5, a new notification appeared.

[TITLE UNLOCKED]

[Title: Zombie Sovereign]

Leon stared at the words for a long time.

He had not been born a ruler. He had not inherited an army or received a throne from an ancient being.

He had built everything himself.

The title had not made him powerful.

It was simply recognition of what he had become.

Yet one thing had never changed.

The zombies grew stronger, but they never became the people they once were.

They learned to fight. They followed complex orders. Some even retained fragments of old habits, reacting to familiar places or objects.

But their memories never returned. Their personalities never recovered.

The longer they remained undead, the farther their former lives slipped away.

Power also brought another danger.

Occasionally, a zombie that had grown too strong would lose control. Its instincts would overwhelm the commands Leon had spent years teaching it, and it would attack everything nearby.

Such creatures became killing machines.

Some had to be restrained.

Others had to be destroyed by their own kind.

Every incident left Leon with the same bitter realization.

He could make his people stronger. He could give them purpose.

But he still couldn’t give them back their lives.

Aboveground, humanity treated zombies as natural enemies. Survivors hunted them for safety, cultivators killed them for resources, and some factions used their existence as an excuse to destroy anything that had once been human.

Leon had seen enough.

If the living world refused to accept his people, he would build a place where they could exist without being hunted.

He expanded the underground settlement, established laws, organized defenses, and gathered the undead beneath his command.

Over time, the settlement became a hidden city beneath the surface.

It was not the life Leon had once imagined.

But it was something he could defend.

And he would defend it.

——————————

Leon opened his eyes.

The memories faded, leaving him in the quiet underground hall.

A few weeks earlier, he had led an expedition aboveground to retrieve several zombies trapped inside a collapsed settlement. The mission should have been simple. His subordinates had located the survivors, and Leon had gone personally to bring them back.

Then the madness began.

At first, it had been a faint disturbance deep within his consciousness. He thought it was exhaustion.

But the sensation quickly intensified.

It spread through his mind like countless insects burrowing into his thoughts.

His Spiritual Qi became chaotic. The connections between him and his subordinates began to fracture. The familiar presence of his people turned into a storm of conflicting impulses.

Their hunger, rage, and killing instincts flooded his consciousness.

Soon, Leon could barely distinguish his thoughts from theirs.

He had endured countless battles, but nothing had prepared him for that experience.

For the first time since awakening his ability, Leon lost control.

His vision blurred. The world twisted around him. The urge to tear apart everything nearby overwhelmed his reason.

Even his Nascent Soul cultivation could not stop it.

He had been close to losing his sanity when a strange energy entered his body.

It was neither ordinary Spiritual Qi nor the corrupted energy circulating through the undead.

It carried an ancient and unfamiliar quality.

Yet it didn’t clash with his power.

Instead, it moved through his chaotic Spiritual Qi and suppressed the violent fluctuations threatening to consume his mind.

The madness receded.

The voices in his consciousness gradually quieted. The connection between him and his people stabilized.

For the first time in years, the pressure inside his mind eased.

The same change spread through the zombies under his command. Those on the verge of losing control regained their composure, while the more unstable ones became noticeably calmer.

Leon had never discovered what that energy was.

But he knew it had saved him.

He leaned back in his chair, his red eyes fixed on the empty entrance.

A moment later, footsteps echoed through the hall.

A figure in dark robes walked between the towering pillars. Crimson lanterns illuminated the polished floor beneath its feet, casting its shadow toward Leon.

The Zombie Lord watched as the figure approached.

"The children are secured within the formation," Leon said.

"Good," the figure replied.

Its gaze shifted toward him.

"The energy you absorbed a few weeks ago has been keeping you and your people sane."

Leon remained silent.

The stranger continued, "A trace of it still remains inside you. If I follow that trace, I should be able to locate its source."

Leon’s expression didn’t change, but the words stirred memories he would rather forget.

That energy had not only stopped the madness consuming him. It had also calmed the unstable impulses spreading through his people.

For years, Leon had searched for a way to reverse their condition. He had tried countless methods, refined his cultivation, and pushed his ability to its limits.

None had worked.

Yet this unknown energy had achieved what he couldn’t.

If the stranger found its source, perhaps the curse tormenting his people could finally be undone.

The figure turned away.

"Begin the next phase of the plan."

Leon’s eyes narrowed slightly. "What are you planning to do next?"

The being paused. Then it answered. "The Yangbane Locusts."

A faint buzzing sound spread through the hall.

The masked guards turned toward the distant passage.

Leon’s fingers tightened around the armrest. The buzzing grew louder. Something was approaching from the darkness.?