Is this what a zombie is?

3. The corpse under the bed

The sound of breathing echoed in the silent, deserted room, like an invisible bow, seemingly rubbing and tormenting every nerve in Jiang Chen's body.

His hearing had deteriorated, yet the eerie, dying gasps seemed to echo clearly in his ears.

This illogical phenomenon sent chills down his spine, giving him goosebumps all over.

Normally, he would have turned and run away.

He's not the main character in a horror movie, but he is now.

So he stood still, staring intently at the stairs leading to the second floor.

To survive, just to survive.

A strong will drove him to move his stiff legs.

"Squeak—"

The wooden planks beneath my feet emitted a long, teeth-grinding groan that echoed through the empty old house, yet even that couldn't drown out the sound of breathing around me.

Under such intense pressure, even his heart, which had stopped beating, beat a few times against his will.

My pace quickened involuntarily.

Finally, he stood on the second-floor corridor.

The source of the breathing sounds was in the master bedroom at the end of the corridor. As if drawn to each other, Jiang Chen locked onto it at a glance.

Jiang Chen reached out and gently turned the door lock.

"Creak..."

The door's bearings must be rusted; it was very difficult to push open and made a loud, protesting sound.

Jiang Chen didn't have time to resist and barged into the long-sealed bedroom.

Tables, chairs, wardrobes, bedside tables, and a double bed with curtains.

It has all the furnishings a bedroom should have, as if the owner had never left.

But the thick layer of dust, thick enough to leave footprints, silently tells the story—this place has long been forgotten by time.

The sound of dying breaths was so close, right in front of it.

On that bed?

Jiang Chen slowed his pace, took a deep breath to calm himself, and slowly approached the carved wooden bed, his gaze passing through the tattered bed curtains and landing on the bed.

However, there was nothing there.

There was only a thick layer of dust, which looked deathly gray-white under the moonlight.

The location is correct, this is the place.

But not on the bed, but under the bed.

Jiang Chen could see wisps of gray energy continuously emanating from the gaps under the dark bed.

To see under the bed clearly, he had to lie down, brace himself with his hands on the floor, and peer into the dark space beneath the bed.

With the unique penetrating power of black and white vision, darkness is not an obstacle, but rather an aid, allowing him to see more clearly.

He could vaguely make out a human-shaped outline beneath the wooden bed.

Jiang Chen wanted to see more clearly, so he subconsciously moved forward.

Perhaps sensing his approach, the humanoid silhouette actually managed to turn its neck with difficulty and turn its head around.

For a moment, their eyes met, and they remained silent.

But Jiang Chen couldn't read any emotion in those cloudy, lifeless, unfocused eyes.

Her face was swollen, sallow, and her features were distorted, making it difficult to recognize her.

As a medical student, the phrase "giant mentality" instantly popped into Jiang Chen's mind.

This is a phenomenon that appears in the later stages of corpse decomposition. The person in front of us has obviously been dead for some time.

But...but...but she's still desperately trying to breathe!

His chest rose and fell very faintly but stubbornly with his weak breaths.

The airflow from his nostrils hit his face, but it didn't have the warmth a normal person should have.

"Thump!"

Jiang Chen was so frightened by this scene that defied medical and physiological norms that he went limp and collapsed to the ground.

His mind went blank, and he couldn't recover for a long time.

The thing under the bed... is the same as me.

They were all corpses.

The difference is that it can still walk and move around, and still looks somewhat human, so it can pass for the real thing.

The body under the bed, apart from a faint breath, was already highly decomposed and completely incapacitated.

Jiang Chen's gaze fell on himself, then looked at the corpse under the bed.

If he doesn't get a second piece of the Soul-Returning Incense, he will soon suffer the same fate as her.

The thought was like a bucket of ice water, waking him from his fear.

A strong will to survive transformed into unwavering determination, overcoming inner fear.

At that moment, he had only one thought: find the Resurrection Incense and survive!

The other person is just like me, so she must also have the Resurrection Incense, and it must be on her.

So Jiang Chen had no choice but to go over and carefully examine the corpse under the bed, searching for his lifeline.

Finally, he smelled a completely different scent in the "corpse's" mouth.

A medicinal aroma wafted from her mouth.

The scent of the medicine was exactly the same as the pendant around his neck.

Although they look different, they taste and have the same effect; that's the Resurrection Incense.

Having confirmed the location of the Soul-Returning Incense, Jiang Chen faced another challenge: how to extract something from the mouth of a "living dead" who had been dead for who knows how many years?

It's one thing to be disgusted, but it's another to be extremely disrespectful to the deceased, especially considering the state of the person in, who is dead but not completely dead.

Jiang Chen couldn't guarantee what might happen the moment he touched her.

After we pry the incense out of her mouth, will she truly die?

However, when faced with the need to survive, one can lower their moral standards slightly.

In order to survive, to escape this zombie-like state, and to not be like her, there are some things he has to do; he has no other choice.

Jiang Chen took a deep breath of air that he didn't need, in order to prepare himself mentally for the last time.

He moved under the bed and carefully reached out to her slightly open mouth.

The fingertips were icy cold, touching the icy lips; two beings without body temperature made zero-distance contact.

"I'm sorry, I need it to survive."

After a soft apology, Jiang Chen did not hesitate at all. He used his fingers to pry open the other person's mouth and touched what he wanted.

that's it!

Jiang Chen forcefully pried the Soul-Returning Incense out of the other party's mouth. Although the incense was still covered with an unknown liquid, Jiang Chen still held it tightly in his palm.

This is his hope for resurrection.

The moment he held the Resurrection Incense in his hand, the round bead pendant on his chest trembled slightly, as if the two resonated with each other and were attracted to one another.

A wisp of extremely faint smoke rose from his palm.

Another wisp of smoke drifted out from his chest, piercing through his clothes.

The two pieces of resurrection incense spontaneously combusted, and a rich, wondrous medicinal fragrance spread with the smoke.

The smoke mingled and swirled in the air, quickly filling the entire room.

Amidst the thick smoke, Jiang Chen saw a pair of emerald green eyes gazing at him from outside the window.

What are those emerald green eyes?

My eyes are probably not able to distinguish colors now.

But Jiang Chen could see that touch of emerald green clearly, and it was breathtaking.