Chapter 019: Watching Someone Die Without Lifting a Finger

This man appeared dashing and debonair, likely the young master of some prominent family, who had come to the Divine Sword Villa to join in the excitement, only to end up in this sorry state. His arm had been struck by a sword, and the zombie poison on the blade had invaded his body, beginning to spread—though not very quickly.

In about a minute, it had infected one of the man's arms.

Compared to those poisons that kill on contact, it was nothing.

The man noticed this as well and quickly mobilized his internal energy to resist it, temporarily halting the zombie poison's invasion. He then channeled all his energy, trying to expel the poison from his body.

Even when Wang Bo captured him, he showed little reaction, for his entire mind was already consumed by the battle against the zombie poison.

He was completely oblivious to the outside world.

Wang Bo did not disturb this young master either, simply observing the virus inside him.

This unknown young master expended a great deal of internal energy to stop the zombie poison's invasion, but he only managed to halt its spread.

As for expelling the zombie poison from his body, that was nothing but wishful thinking.

Because Wang Bo discovered that once the zombie poison invaded the body, it had already infected the flesh, becoming part of it.

Internal energy could only prevent the zombie poison from spreading, not force it back.

And as the zombie poison and internal energy gradually contended, Wang Bo noticed that the zombie poison had actually infected the internal energy, causing it to take on the properties of the zombie poison.

This made Wang Bo suddenly understand—no wonder these martial artists became infected after being wounded.

So the zombie poison could infect internal energy.

When these people were wounded by internal energy, the internal energy carrying the zombie poison would infect the wounded person.

Soon, the young master's internal energy was infected, and the zombie poison began to infect his body on a large scale—from arm to shoulder, from chest to abdomen, even his dantian was not spared.

Finally, when the zombie poison invaded the brain, it would take control of the wounded person's mind.

Then these people would truly become puppets of the zombie poison.

Just as the zombie poison was about to invade the young master's brain, Wang Bo suddenly raised a hand, touched his fingertip to the young master's brow, and infused a stream of magical power.

The magical power entered the young master's brain and protected it.

When the zombie poison came into contact with the magical power, as expected, it was blocked and failed to successfully invade the young master's brain.

At the same time, the young master slowly opened his eyes and looked at Wang Bo.

"This young master..." he said slowly, "I am Huo Tianqing of the Tianqin Sect. Thank you for saving my life."

Huo Tianqing—another rather famous character.

He was a figure from the Legend of Lu Xiaofeng, the son born to the once-renowned Tianqin Old Man at the advanced age of seventy-seven. From birth, he became the junior apprentice-brother of the martial world's revered pillars, the Pine and Crane of Heaven's Summit and the Two Elders of Shangshan, the grand-uncle of the great hero Shanxi Yan, who had dominated the west with his iron palms for thirty years, and the sole heir of the Tianqin Sect.

Anyone else would have taken pride in these identities and become a rich second-generation idler living off their inheritance.

But Huo Tianqing was different—he was proud.

He did not want to live in the shadow of his elders, so these identities were not a refuge for him, but a pressure.

He had always hoped to accomplish something earth-shattering in the martial world, not relying on the power of the Tianqin Sect, but on his own strength.

He wanted to prove by this method that even without the Tianqin Sect, even without being the son of the Tianqin Elder, he, Huo Tianqing, could still dominate the jianghu and make a name for himself.

But it was precisely this pride that ultimately led him to cooperate with Huo Xiu, resulting in his death at Huo Xiu's hands.

The first thing Huo Tianqing did when he opened his eyes was to thank Wang Bo and, incidentally, reveal his identity as Huo Tianqing of the Tianqin Sect. This showed that when facing death, he was not as proud as one might imagine.

By revealing his identity, he merely wanted Wang Bo to show some regard for the three big characters 'Tianqin Sect'.

After all, in the jianghu, the Tianqin Sect's influence was considerable.

Ordinary people, when facing the Tianqin Sect, truly dared not act rashly.

In Wang Bo's view, this was only human nature.

Some people seem unafraid of death, but when death truly arrives, they realize they are not actually fearless; rather, they thought they would not die.

Now that death had come, they were afraid and would do everything to survive.

Wang Bo couldn't be bothered with Huo Tianqing's little schemes and asked frankly, "And how do you thank me?"

Huo Tianqing hesitated for a moment and said, "I've lost control of my body."

Wang Bo let out an 'oh.' The zombie poison had spread throughout every part of Huo Tianqing's body except his brain. In other words, apart from his brain, Huo Tianqing's entire body was infected with zombie poison.

Losing control of one's body was not at all surprising.

On the contrary, it was perfectly normal.

Moreover, as time passed, Wang Bo noticed that the zombie poison was gradually devouring his magical power, attempting to assimilate it and cause a mutation.

Hmm... that was quite formidable.

Meanwhile, while Wang Bo and Huo Tianqing were talking, Lu Xiaofeng and his group had finally escaped by boat.

The puppets of the Divine Sword Villa had no choice but to shift their attention to Wang Bo, charging at him one after another, trying to turn him into one of their own.

Just then, Hela, standing behind Wang Bo, suddenly stepped forward and swung her sword.

Whoosh!

A terrifying slash swept out, cutting across the area ahead.

In an instant, hundreds of heads flew high into the air, falling to the ground with thuds. The puppets that had been running forward collapsed one after another, their bodies twitching a few times before lying still.

Seeing this, Huo Tianqing's eyes went wide.

Such terrifying swordsmanship was unheard of to him. Even masters like Ximen Chuixue or Yan Nantian could not kill hundreds of martial artists in a single strike.

Such means were truly dreadful.

Wang Bo, however, noticed something else: although the zombie poison could control a person's body, once the head was cut off, the puppet died. The zombie poison could not control a headless corpse to attack others.

It seemed this stuff was somewhat similar to the zombie virus.

Huo Tianqing swallowed his saliva, turned to Wang Bo, and said, "This young master—no, this senior—this junior is willing to serve you like a dog or a horse. Please, senior, save my life."

"No saving you. Just wait to die." Wang Bo shook his head. The zombie poison was indeed troublesome; he couldn't save Huo Tianqing for the time being.

However, Wang Bo could pull out Huo Tianqing's soul, then create a body from his cells, and put Huo Tianqing back in, thus saving him.

But since the two were not related, Wang Bo couldn't be bothered to save Huo Tianqing, especially since in the original storyline, Huo Tianqing was not a good person.