kingnovel Chapter 827 - 512: Possession and Scheming (Part 2)
Chapter 827 - 512: Possession and Scheming (Part 2)
"The cube has drilled into his heart and is absorbing all his blood!"
Wang Zhifan instantly focused his perception to investigate and confirmed the truth of the matter. Simply put, the young man in the suit had his heart taken by the unusual cube and his body dominated.
Feeling that things were spiraling out of control, he continued to closely observe the state of the young man in the suit, finding that externally there was surprisingly little change.
Aside from his cheeks appearing slightly thinner, his complexion somewhat paler, and his gaze seemingly more profound, there was no visible difference.
"How strange... The young man’s heart has been replaced by something else, yet he acts as if nothing happened. Could it be..."
Wang Zhifan was utterly bewildered. He could not understand how a normal human, facing such a drastic change, could remain calm and untroubled; the only plausible explanation was that he had been completely controlled, including his thoughts!
Amidst his shocked thoughts, Wang Zhifan, maintaining his clandestine observation, saw the young man in the suit complain a few more times to those around him before saying:
"Well then, let this tomb expedition be... At least we’ve gained invaluable experience... Let’s head back now, and I’ll trouble Mr. Zhao to bring the coffin."
Having said this, the young man in the suit displayed a lackluster expression and was the first to head back the way they came, walking towards the darkness ahead.
The others around found this slightly strange but said nothing more, turning one after another to follow, knowing that failing to find what he sought could naturally sour his mood.
"Don’t run ahead! Without a torch, can you even see the path?"
A robust middle-aged man in a Zhongshan suit was similarly influenced by this mood; he frowned and scolded, thinking the young man in the suit had lost his composure due to momentary setbacks.
"Oh... Thank you for the reminder, Mr. Qiu."
The young man in the suit, already at the front, immediately stopped, turned back, and took the torch from the robust middle-aged man, whom he called Mr. Qiu, before leading the way again.
This made the robust middle-aged man feel that the young man in the suit had suddenly become a bit unfamiliar, yet he thought nothing more of it, assuming the young man’s change in demeanor was due to emotional turmoil from the setback.
In no time, the group of five, led by the young man in the suit at the front, began their return to the surface, with a bald zombie carrying a valuable jade coffin at the rear.
Wang Zhifan continued to covertly follow them for a while at this stage, but before the group emerged from the underground palace, he could no longer hold back and revealed his presence.
At that moment, the five were walking in the middle of a corridor within the underground palace when, suddenly, a tall figure wearing a bamboo hat with a long knife strapped to the waist appeared at the corner ahead of them, blocking their path.
"Stop right there!"
Wang Zhifan, who had suddenly revealed himself, spoke forcefully, single-handedly halting five individuals and a bald zombie with a jade coffin on its shoulder.
"Who are you? And what do you want?"
Their path suddenly blocked, the group was startled and reflexively assumed combat stances, except for the young man in the suit at the front who remained calm, holding a torch and asking two questions in a deep voice, as if he had known all along that Wang Zhifan was following nearby.
"Heh... I should be the one asking who you are."
Wearing a bamboo hat, Wang Zhifan at this moment paid no heed to the man in green military clothing pointing a raised gun at him, the Zhongshan suit-wearing middle-aged man drawing the Eight-sided Han Sword, the middle-aged woman in white with her fingers on the black substance jar, the short man in black with a Luoyang Shovel, or the bald zombie setting down the jade coffin; his entire focus was on the young man in the suit at the front.
"I’m just a young adventurer, kindly let us through."
Confronted by Wang Zhifan’s aggressive gaze, the young man in the suit remained unusually calm, contrary to his initial temperament, and responded with a deep smile. Despite having superior numbers, he did not immediately launch an attack.
"Is that so..."
Wang Zhifan immediately caught the deeper implication in the response but had no intention of letting it slide. He felt as though he had been played thoroughly by this entity and was determined to regain his advantage and achieve his original aim.
"These days, even a zombie can claim to be an adventurer? Isn’t that a bit too absurd!"
Wang Zhifan mercilessly ridiculed, hoping to see shock revealed in the young man in the suit’s eyes when exposed.
Yet the reality was, the young man continued to smile at him, his expression unchanged, as if Wang Zhifan’s words were mere fantasies.
"I’m sorry, I don’t understand what you’re saying... If you insist on blocking our way, my friends and I are not pushovers."
The young man’s expression turned cold, flashing a fierce chill in his eyes, directly threatening Wang Zhifan.
Such a profound, chilling gaze was not something a young man of limited experience could possess, appearing as if steeped in millennia of solitude.
"Heh... Is this your plan? Quite a scheme indeed..."
At this moment, Wang Zhifan was 100% certain that the young man confronting him in the suit was no longer the same; some ancient entity had replaced him, secretly seizing control through the mysterious metal cube.
While he did not have all the details, based on his current understanding, this was the only explanation, aligning perfectly with the intuition and puzzlement he felt during the earlier confrontation.
When he first discovered the ancient zombie, Wang Zhifan judged it to be immensely powerful, figuring that the group of five tomb raiders couldn’t defeat it despite being professionals and well-equipped.
But the result was baffling: the ancient zombie performed poorly, failing to mount a counterattack despite having the strength to do so.
Midway, Wang Zhifan had felt an inexplicable intuition, deducing that the ancient zombie had detected his hidden presence and played weak to avoid a detrimental struggle.
Unexpectedly, the zombie ended up exhausting itself unto death, leaving Wang Zhifan without a clue about any flaws to exploit.
Initially, Wang Zhifan thought that this concluded things in a sloppy but somewhat acceptable manner, only to find the ancient zombie had a deeper scheme all along.
Astonishingly, it managed to transform itself into a human ally, successfully escaping while gaining four strong human companions, coming to directly confront the secretly observing Wang Zhifan.
This verified Wang Zhifan’s intuition; the ancient zombie had indeed detected his presence and, perceiving him as a threat, implemented a fitting plan, treating the other locals as mere tools unworthy of true attention.
This also demonstrated the ancient zombie’s significant wariness of Wang Zhifan, willing to stage such an elaborate act just to gain the upper hand rather than opting for straightforward violence.
If Wang Zhifan were an indigenous individual of this world, with complex local relations and only marginally greater strength than the ancient zombie, dealing with the situation would be challenging.
After all, mere words were unlikely to expose the fake identity; direct confrontation would lead to being outnumbered, while feigning ignorance would allow the old zombie to concoct larger schemes.
However, the reality was different; despite the ancient zombie’s careful planning and near-flawless escape, it still underestimated Wang Zhifan’s capabilities.
Wang Zhifan always had another option: to solve it through brute force, and he had decided to do just that.