Is this what a zombie is?

60. Five-clawed golden dragon totem

"Of course, it was a failure." Cat Master shook his head and continued, "Island countries have Onmyoji, Southeast Asia has sorcerers, do you think the West doesn't have mystical forces? Exorcists, Crusaders, and witches, they're not pushovers either."

"Of course, the most important thing is that the Four Spirits Clan also intervened to suppress the riot. The riot was quickly quelled. The most tragic victims were the civilians at the time. Many people were bitten to death and were infected and transformed."

"Because there were too many of them, it was impossible to completely eradicate them. That's why during the most chaotic period of the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China, so many zombies wreaked havoc in various places, causing widespread panic."

"Where did he get this ability?" Jiang Chen asked the crucial question.

"This brings us to that old hag," Cat Master licked his paws. "In her quest for immortality, Empress Dowager Cixi ordered Li Lianying to search for the legendary living flesh of the 'Tai Sui.' That old eunuch was a ruthless character; he used every underhanded means imaginable and actually managed to find the 'Tai Sui,' and traded it for a piece of living flesh."

"Unfortunately, by the time he brought the live flesh back to the capital, the capital had fallen, and the old witch had already died. Seeing that the live flesh was about to lose its vitality, he made a snap decision and swallowed it himself."

"After consuming live flesh, Li Lianying survived and thus awakened his own companion spirit—the zombie fungus."

Cat Master explained in detail, "That thing is like a fleshy Ganoderma lucidum that emits a pale green glow and can absorb the essence of moonlight on its own. It spreads in many ways, the fastest being through blood infection, turning living people or corpses into zombies controlled by it."

"It's similar to zombie fungi in biology; you should know more about that than I do."

Jiang Chen nodded, indicating that he understood. Although it was about biological fungi, he had some knowledge of it and read it as extracurricular material.

"So, the other side kidnapped Ai Yi to infect him..."

"Don't worry about him," Cat Master interrupted him, saying with absolute certainty, "He'll definitely be fine. It's hard to say whether he'll suffer a bit, but he definitely won't die."

Why?

"Because Ai Yi is useful to him, very useful. He kidnapped Ai Yi probably to get that thing."

A strange light flashed in the cat's emerald green pupils.

"The Imperial Seal of the State!"

The moment those four words were uttered, the atmosphere changed completely.

"He went to all this trouble just for an artifact. Could it be that the Imperial Seal of the State has some kind of treasure map or something?"

"You know what, it's pretty much true. There's no treasure map, but it's the key to summon the five-clawed golden dragon totem."

"You might not believe it, but the First Emperor was an awakened being. He was awakened because of his childhood experiences, and his spirit was initially a black dragon."

"Later, when he completed the unification, he possessed his own unique spirit rune, a five-clawed golden dragon."

"He wanted to take the Five-Clawed Golden Dragon spirit mark to a higher level and make it a totem, even an immortal spirit like the Four Spirit Families, so that the Qin Dynasty could last for thousands of generations."

"As you know, the First Emperor consumed too many elixirs in his later years, which caused his health to collapse, and he died before achieving his goals. So he sealed the five-clawed golden dragon in the imperial seal, the symbol of the emperor, and placed his hopes on his descendants."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Chen couldn't bear it and closed his eyes. Hu Hai, the Qin dynasty only lasted two generations.

"After hundreds of years of inheritance, the five-clawed golden dragon spirit pattern absorbed the faith of the people and the beliefs of emperors, and indeed it was promoted to a totem, but by then the dynasty had changed countless times."

"There is only one way to activate the five-clawed golden dragon totem inside the Imperial Seal: the person who bears the mandate of heaven must ascend the throne and, as the supreme ruler, personally wield the seal. Based on this alone, that eunuch Li Lianying could never do it."

"Therefore, Ai Yi, who possesses the bloodline of the previous dynasty's royal family and is born with the destiny of an emperor, is the key to unlock the treasure."

Hearing this, Jiang Chen calmed down completely. Before the treasure was opened, Ai Yi's life was still guaranteed.

But he must act quickly, so his immediate priority is to deal with himself, this ticking time bomb.

The electric shock survival plan that Cat Master had mentioned before flashed through his mind, but he rejected it without hesitation.

Fortune favors the bold, and right now he needs enough power to deal with Li Lianying, the "Green Zombie King," the source of the Qing Dynasty's zombie scourge.

Jiang Chen sat down cross-legged, his brain working at a rapid pace. During the past two days of seclusion and constant self-satisfaction, Jiang Chen had actually had some epiphanies.

He has always been very quick to understand, especially when he is under pressure and has to roll up his sleeves.

A moment later, he opened his eyes and said to Cat Master, "I have comprehended a body tempering method. I would appreciate it if you could protect me."

"What are you trying to do now? Don't keep messing around just because you have the Resurrection Incense to protect you."

Now, whenever Jiang Chen says he has an idea, Cat Master feels a bit overwhelmed. This kid's ideas are too imaginative, even quite crazy.

If it weren't for the Resurrection Incense, he would have died countless times over.

"I want to use the electrical markings on my body as a foundation to connect the blood vessels, nerve plexuses, and major meridians in my body, and build a complete and closed-loop circuit network in my body."

"Then, I will divide the massive overload of electricity in the plasma heart into multiple smaller units and distribute them to every energy node in the body."

In a sense, this is also a form of discharge, only it is not released to the outside.

Instead, they are dispersed within the body, forming a cycle in the form of circuits, constantly circulating within the body.

Jiang Chen can be mobilized at any time if needed.

Do you think your body can handle it?

"So, body tempering is necessary. Don't cultivators in novels undergo tribulations to temper their bodies when they ascend to immortality?"

"That's just made up, okay? Most of the time they were hacked to death on the spot, chopped into charcoal."

Although Jiang Chen knew that this was basically fictional, he could now make it a reality.

"Do you know that there are two kinds of torture called slow slicing and death by a thousand cuts? Judging from your description, I think you want to experience both of these tortures at once."

This idea is indeed very good, but it is too difficult to implement, since the human body's meridians and blood vessels are very fragile.

Moreover, Jiang Chen has only been cultivating for a short time, less than two months. He started cultivating after he came of age, so he had long missed the best time for cultivation, and his meridians had already been fixed.

So when Cat Master heard Jiang Chen's bold and crazy idea, his pupils shrank to pinpoints.

However, Jiang Chen nodded calmly without any hesitation.

Be ruthless to the enemy, but be even more ruthless to yourself!

"I know!"