Chapter 129: The Corpse Tide

Over the past three months, Jiang Li had considered all kinds of unorthodox methods to help Luo Ying defeat the whale zombies in a short amount of time. For example, he thought about having him learn corpse-driving techniques, control zombies, and someday wave his hand to unleash an army of a million undead—forming a military battle formation to wipe out every last whale and shark zombie.
But unfortunately, Luo Ying was just a Ninth-Layer Qi Refining cultivator. Forget a million zombies—even controlling a hundred corpses was a stretch.

Or maybe he could learn a spatial summoning technique and call upon beasts from the Nine Provinces. Even a single Soul Formation Stage beast could solve the problem.
But Jiang Li quickly dismissed that idea. The summoned beasts couldn’t interfere with this world.

What if he founded a country and became its king, then used national fortune to boost his power?
That wouldn’t work either. National fortune only applied if over ninety percent of the population were cultivators. Without that, it was impossible to enhance a king’s cultivation through national fortune.

In the end, Jiang Li thought of one viable method—formations.
In a few days, once Luo Ying broke through to the Foundation Establishment Stage, the siblings could work together to set up a chain of killing formations. With proper preparation, even a Foundation Establishment-level formation could kill a Nascent Soul Stage enemy—not to mention the Tier-4 zombies, who were weaker than that.

Formations and poison—these were the most common ways to let the weak triumph over the strong in the Nine Provinces.

Based on Jiang Li’s calculations, the grand formation would need at least 100,000 Tier-1 brain cores and 500 Tier-2 brain cores. The more brain cores they had, the higher the success rate.
Right now, the siblings were nowhere near that number.

There was also another problem: ensuring the whale zombies gathered in one place. But according to Luo Ying, in a month, whale zombies would appear again, launching an attack on a human safe zone and causing massive casualties.
This time, they’d be moving in groups—it was the perfect opportunity to wipe them out in one strike.

Jiang Li noticed the Brahma Tower had been distracted lately and asked, “What’s wrong? Want to go back to the Nine Provinces?”
The Brahma Tower swayed its body. “No, I just want to check on my followers in the Buddha Nation.”

Jiang Li’s eyes lit up. “Can you enlighten those Tier-6 zombies and bring them here?”
The Brahma Tower shot that down. “Enlightening them isn’t hard—I can do that with just sound—but there are no Tier-6 zombies nearby. If there were, Luo Ying wouldn’t have had ten years of resistance in the last life. A Tier-6 zombie could’ve destroyed the planet already.”
“Besides, I can’t use the Dao of Space to bring a Tier-6 zombie here.”

Disappointed that a great plan had fallen through, Jiang Li shook his head. “If you want to go, then go.”
“Thank you, Human Sovereign Jiang.”

Human Sovereign… Sovereign…
Something clicked in Jiang Li’s mind. He glanced at Luo Ying, who was cultivating the Immovable Vajra Mantra, and exchanged a few words with the Brahma Tower. Then the tower shimmered and vanished into space, heading toward a planet thousands of light-years away.

“Two days until the corpse tide,” Jiang Li muttered.

If there was one moment when zombies gathered the most, it was during a corpse tide. Jiang Li planned to set up small killing formations along their path, using a small number of brain cores to wipe out the tide and collect large amounts in return.

According to Luo Ying’s memories, two days from now a corpse tide would appear, pass through Qiyu City, and overrun Fortunefall Zone, shocking the entire world.

Before this, no one had ever seen a corpse tide. All the safe zones were caught off guard. Everyone thought that as long as the whale zombies didn’t show up, humanity could hold out.
No one expected something like a corpse tide—walls could stop individual zombies, but not the ones who used their own bodies to build ladders!

But in this life, Luo Ying had already warned all the safe zones about the corpse tide. During construction, they had taken extra precautions.

Humans actually had ways to deal with corpse tides. While modern weapons were useless against Tier-4 zombies, they were still effective against hordes made up of regular, Tier-1, and Tier-2 zombies.

As for those who didn’t believe him and accused him of fearmongering—Luo Ying couldn’t help them.
No saving them. Let them die.

The killing formation couldn’t be placed right next to Fortunefall Zone. Once the formation activated and wiped out the zombies, it would leave behind a mountain of brain cores. Even if Luo Ying did the killing, Fortunefall’s Enhancers would swarm in to snatch the loot.

Luo Ying was sure of it—it wasn’t just a possibility, it was guaranteed. He knew these people too well. Expecting them to follow any moral code? Wishful thinking.

So Jiang Li chose to place the small killing formation in Qiyu City.

…

“Mr. Jiang, is this a good spot?”
“Step left. Bend down. Place the brain core.”
“Not that one. It has too much energy—it’ll mess up the formation’s balance. Use the one at the bottom of your pack.”
“Don’t place it on the ground. Go upstairs. Put it on the roof.”
“Place it at the Kun position—don’t know where Kun is? Take three steps back and bury it one centimeter underground.”
“Why are you placing a Tier-2 brain core? That stuff’s precious!”
“What? You ask what to use as the formation’s core if not a Tier-2 brain core? You, of course—you’re the formation core.”

Jiang Li barked instructions at Luo Ying and Luo Zhu. After wasting most of the day, they finally set up a half-decent killing formation.

“Done!”

…

“Mouse Bro, is Qiyu City really safe?”
A young man felt a chill run down his spine the moment he entered Qiyu City. Just thinking about the place’s dark reputation—Tier-2 zombies and all—made his skin crawl. One wrong move and their whole team could be wiped out.

“Of course it’s safe. There were seven Tier-2 zombies in Qiyu City, and both Luo Ying and Luo Zhu took care of them. I saw it with my own eyes. Now there are only Tier-1 zombies left,” said the mustached man confidently.

“B-but didn’t you say at the bar they only killed two?” The younger teammate was stunned. If all seven were dead, then their reputation was no exaggeration.

“That was just to fool the others. Qiyu City is loaded with good stuff. If those guys found out there were no more Tier-2 zombies, wouldn’t they all rush here?”

The mustached man regretted it deeply. That fake liquor had clouded his head, and he’d shown off too much. When it came time to explain, he couldn’t help mentioning the zombie kills.
Luckily, he caught himself in time—gave them nine truths and one lie, and only lied about the total count. If he hadn’t, this place would be swarming with looters.

“Mouse Bro, check it out—food! Tons of food, and it’s not even expired. How many Contribution Points do you think this could get us?”
“And here—solar chargers!”
“Man, we’re on a roll. Not even a single zombie around.”

The younger one grinned and patted his bulging backpack. This trip had been a goldmine—totally worth it.

“Yeah, real lucky…” Mouse Bro replied casually, but halfway through, his expression changed. Something felt off.
He had gotten too giddy, blinded by joy, and hadn’t noticed the problem.

This was a fallen zone. How the h**l could there be no zombies?
Even if those two legends were efficient, they only killed Tier-1 zombies. Never heard of them clearing out regular ones.

Then he heard noise in the distance—chaotic, overwhelming. He poked his head out and his face went ghost-white.

A sea of corpses. A mountain of death.