He propped himself up on one arm against the bedboard, scooting his hips backward, his back pressed tightly against the wall, trying to calm down and think of a countermeasure. However, his heart was pounding like a drum right in his ears, making it impossible for him to calm down!

The stench of blood and rot, wrapped in a chilly wind, kept pouring into Brian Cooper's nostrils.

The giant python slithered around him, sometimes near, sometimes far, searching for a chance to strike a fatal blow.

Brian Cooper was on the verge of despair.

He was preparing to activate the Wheel of Life and Death of All Heavens, to perish together with this serpent demon.

At that moment, a conversation drifted into Brian Cooper's ears, coming closer from afar...

"You truly didn't sense anything unusual from that old man?"

A cold female voice asked.

William Grant's voice followed, answering the woman's question: "He is angry and dying, truly just an ordinary old man. Senior brother, I am sensitive to the aura of life and death—I wouldn't make a mistake."

The woman let out a sneering laugh, then said, "You know you're sensitive to the aura of life and death?

Those you are close to have always been mostly corpses in coffins.

But now, you feel close to a living old man, and even took the initiative to ask me for the 'Five Defeats Decoction' for him. William Grant, don't you find that strange?"

William Grant said nothing.

But the woman pressed on relentlessly: "You were born in the Mud Ox River, originally a zombie born from the silt.

No father, no mother, severed from the past, by nature drawn to graves, wastelands, corpses, and all things steeped in death—how could you empathize with ordinary people?

Yet now you're so close to him, acting as if bewitched!

That old man might just be your kind!

A zombie as well!"

Chapter 9: Innate Affinity

William Grant is innately drawn to corpses?

What zombie?

Could such a thing exist in a monastery?

The stench from the giant python made Brian Cooper's head spin even more.

He had no more ghost elixirs to use, and was already half deaf and half blind, yet the voices outside the door kept coming, drilling incessantly into his ears.

It was as if something was secretly enhancing his hearing, allowing him to catch every word!

His mind spun with wild thoughts.

In his vision, the serpent demon became layered with afterimages, its head raised high, poised to strike with all its might.

At this moment, Brian Cooper was no longer nervous.

He heard heavy footsteps approaching from outside the door.

Only one person's footsteps.

"Senior sister, everything else can wait."

The always-silent William Grant suddenly fired off a string of words: "There's the stench of Three Delusions Qi in the old man's room."

"David Grant used tricks to harm him!"

Bang!

With a dull crash, the wooden door to Brian Cooper's room fell inward!

A figure strode into the room.

His form completely blocked the doorway, barely letting any light through!

This figure seemed to have some kind of substance flowing all over him, a gloomy and silent aura flooding into Brian Cooper's nose.

Tonight, his nose had already smelled many kinds of "scents."

The stench from the giant python; the bloody smell from the dog spirit; and now, this aura brought by the figure!

Each scent conjured a unique description in Brian Cooper's mind.

At lunch, he had thought this body's sense of smell was inferior to his previous life.

He never expected that feeling to be overturned tonight.

This body could actually detect so many kinds of auras that couldn't be sensed by smell alone!

It was simply a miracle!

The figure blocking the door was just a step away; Brian Cooper could clearly see what was flowing on "his" body: this figure was still wearing the gray-blue monk's robe of Xin Fo Temple, with a black patch on the left shoulder.

At this moment, on both sides of "his" neck, there were mud-yellow patterns winding like snakes, coiling around "his" entire body.

Thus, a net like muddy sludge wrapped around "him."

Brian Cooper's gaze moved upward and saw "his" face.

A bluish-black, utterly lifeless face.

This face was almost identical to William Grant's, whom he had seen during the day!

The only difference was that this face was even more terrifyingly pale, and from the purplish lips, two fangs about a finger long protruded!

A zombie!

Brian Cooper instantly understood the full meaning behind the cold male voice and William Grant's words!

William Grant really was a zombie!

A zombie monk!

He stared wide-eyed, feeling that tonight's situation had already collapsed to the point where it couldn't possibly get any worse.

Just then, William Grant shifted slightly to the side.

A black shadow darted out from behind "him," whirling straight at the giant python!

This shadow was only two or three palm-lengths long; compared to William Grant or the python, it was pitifully small.

"Hiss—" Faced with this shadow, the python seemed to have met its nemesis, suddenly springing up!

Immediately, the snake's head shot like an arrow at the rapidly charging shadow!

Swish!

Swish!

Swish!

The black shadow extended a tiny paw, and with a speed even faster than the python, lashed the snake's head three times like lightning!

The paw was so small that the blows seemed to lack force.

Yet after three strikes, the python's head shattered on the spot, and its body dissolved into a wisp of black smoke, vanishing from the room...