Corpse Change

Jin Rongxu poked Ma Dong.

“You go open one and take a look.”

Ma Dong wasn’t afraid, either.

He took off his coat. The muscles in his arms gleamed faintly with a metallic sheen.

After lowering his head to inspect his bulletproof vest, he gripped his dagger and cautiously approached one of the bags, striking it cleanly with the blade.

The porcelain jar inside shattered through the bag with a dull crack.

A shard of porcelain stained with ashes flew out of the bag and landed at Ma Dong’s feet with a crisp clatter.

Ma Dong bent down to pick it up.

From an angle Jin Rongxu couldn’t see, the instant Ma Dong’s hand touched the shard, he froze slightly.

Thin black veins seemed to emerge like snakes breaking the surface of water, winding across Ma Dong’s face.

Ma Dong instinctively raised a hand and touched his face.

“What is it?” Jin Rongxu’s voice came from behind him.

It seemed to have been an illusion.

“…Nothing,” Ma Dong said, rubbing his cheek hard once more.

The instant the jar had shattered, an intense sense of danger had suddenly washed over him. He had felt as if a needle had pierced his heart, bringing a sharp but tiny stab of pain.

It had seemed like an insect was crawling up his face—

But just the same, the itch had vanished in an instant, as if it had never existed.

His face was perfectly smooth too… Apart from the newly secreted layer of oil, there was nothing at all.

“Nothing,” Ma Dong emphasized again. “It’s just that, Captain, this jar is really strange…”

“Turn your face this way.” Jin Rongxu’s voice was cold and commanding.

He could hear Ma Dong’s thoughts as clearly as if the man had spoken them aloud.

They had gone through so many instances by now. Jin Rongxu didn’t believe the blood vessels on Wok Lid’s face had simply been a hallucination.

Now, Ma Dong rubbing his face—and his thoughts—only confirmed it.

Jin Rongxu pulled the military doctor, the only one who hadn’t shown any symptoms, farther away from Ma Dong.

The powerful beam of the flashlight suddenly shone directly onto Ma Dong’s face, and Ma Dong instinctively closed his eyes.

It was clean.

Jin Rongxu frowned and looked a few more times.

It really was clean.

He put away the flashlight, only to see Ma Dong let out a huge yawn.

“Captain, I think I’m getting sleepy.”

Ma Dong was still lucid enough to remain wary, glancing at Pot Lid, who was asleep.

“What’s going on? Pot Lid is like this too.”

A trace of panic entered his voice.

“But I—I’m so tired. Damn it, Captain, I don’t think I can talk…”

The military doctor’s face turned grim.

Without the slightest hesitation, he strode toward the wall and began pounding on it.

“Zhu Zeyu!”

The wall boomed under his blows, dust sifting down from above.

The other side of the wall was Zhu Zeyu’s room.

Yet even under such forceful pounding, there was not the slightest response from the other side. Zhu Zeyu seemed to have died in there.

Zhu Yan hadn’t heard him. He really hadn’t heard him.

The witch’s potion forced him to shut down for ten hours. At that moment, he was in a dream, frantically revising the memories of the three hours after he woke up while patching up any oversights.

He wanted to wake up quickly too, but he really couldn’t do it!

Deep furrows appeared between the military doctor’s brows.

“Captain, anyone would be able to hear this much noise.”

“Do you think Zhu Zeyu might have encountered the same thing as them?”

As he spoke, he glanced at Ma Dong.

Even in the darkness, the muscles bulging across the other man’s body and his thick, protruding veins were clearly visible. He was obviously doing his utmost to resist something.

But it didn’t seem to be helping much. The drowsiness on his face was impossible to hide, and all the muscles in his face were relaxing uncontrollably.

Only his eyelids would force themselves open from time to time, struggling to maintain the last threads of his reason.

“Mer—merchandise…”

Those were Ma Dong’s final words.

He kicked the broken porcelain jar hard. The object, shattered halfway through, rolled out of the bag and wobbled toward Jin Rongxu’s feet.

Jin Rongxu recoiled in fright. He hooked it up with the tip of his blade and hurled it back.

“It isn’t meat!” he said, retreating toward the window in alarm. “Look—”

The tip of his blade pointed to the floor, where a trail of ashes had leaked from the jar.

The military doctor’s brow furrowed tightly. He was just about to say something when Ma Dong’s massive body crashed to the ground.

A moment later, snores like rolling thunder filled the room.

“It looks like ashes.”

The military doctor backed up until he stood beside Jin Rongxu.

“Captain, there’s something wrong with this merchandise. They said they were giving us human flesh, but the jar actually contains ashes.”

“What information did you read earlier? What did it say?”

Cold sweat seeped from Jin Rongxu’s forehead.

What information?

Information about human flesh.

As for ashes…

Throughout the entire transaction, Jin Rongxu hadn’t heard the words “ashes” even once in the thoughts of those things!

Who knew what was going on?

Jin Rongxu clenched his teeth, feeling as if his entire face were burning with pain.

“Forget that for now.” His voice was icy as he swept the flashlight around outside the glass window. “Come take a look at this.”

The military doctor moved closer.

The beam of light clearly illuminated a patch of ground below the building. Lying there quietly was a crumpled 【Human Alliance】 uniform.

The uniform’s two sleeves were tied together, but one corner had come loose, revealing a purple nonwoven bag inside—and the vaguely visible bulging shape within it.

The military doctor’s face darkened. “Zhu Zeyu? Did he throw the merchandise out himself?”

Then he looked uncertainly at the wall. “But, Captain, there really hasn’t been any movement from him. Do you think he might have fallen victim to the same thing? After all, he must have touched that object…”

Jin Rongxu thought of the lively, vigorous Zhu Zeyu from the prophecy and gave a cold laugh.

“If he really did fall victim to it, I’ll kill the Seer when we get back.”

The military doctor fell silent, and Jin Rongxu continued explaining his theory.

“Can’t you see? This thing does whatever it wants. Once it realized that openly defying me wouldn’t work, it started pulling tricks behind my back.”

“Wasn’t there another warning earlier? It said: after dark, pretend to be asleep and don’t let anyone discover that you’re awake.”

“Zhu Zeyu is probably only pretending to sleep!”

The military doctor was very displeased. “He certainly is clever.”

Jin Rongxu had never felt his temper flare so badly before.

Zhu Zeyu looked timid and weak to the point of being useless, so how had he become this difficult to manage the moment they actually started working together?

What kind of logic was that?!

“It’s not realistic to settle accounts with him right now.” Jin Rongxu forced the words out through clenched teeth.

“I can see what he’s planning now. He has a room to himself, so he can ignore my orders, throw out the merchandise whenever he pleases, pretend to sleep as freely as he likes, and enjoy a spacious room all to himself.”

“And what’s more…” Jin Rongxu gripped the hilt of his saber tightly. “I have no way to open the door and go after him.”

In the thoughts he had read, opening the door was an extremely dangerous act.

Zhu Zeyu had clearly seized on that fact, which was why he dared to act so recklessly right under Jin Rongxu’s nose!

“Captain, what do we do now?”

Jin Rongxu took off his coat and draped it over the remaining ash-filled jars, then ordered the military doctor to throw the things out the window.

Afterward, he observed the military doctor’s condition for a while.

Only after confirming that the other man showed no abnormalities did Jin Rongxu finally relax a little.

“Let’s get on the forum,” he said, finding a corner to sit in before closing his eyes and feigning sleep.

“Stay in touch. Don’t actually fall asleep.”

The military doctor gave Jin Rongxu a slight nod, then went to sit some distance away.

Three hours later.

Black veins flickered across the military doctor’s face and vanished. He frowned and instinctively reached for his chest.

But drowsiness soon overwhelmed his reason.

He rested his head against his knees and quickly began breathing evenly and deeply. From a distance, he looked no different from someone merely pretending to sleep.