When the corpses started crawling out of the mountain of bodies and staggering toward them, almost everyone instinctively stepped back a few paces.
Lao Gao, nerves of steel as always, actually asked, "They've been dead for days and they're still moving, so are they zombies, or are they… jiangshi?"
Was that really the point right now?
Huang Jinghe muttered, "Whatever they are, this isn't normal."
Ling Jiang snapped back, "Of course it's not! In heat like this, those bodies should've rotted long ago. But zombies or jiangshi, I've never heard of either having decomposed bodies."
Lan Jin thought for a moment, then said, "Wait, that's not right. Before, when we dragged corpses far away, we couldn't smell them. But these bodies are piled so close, and there are so many of them… shouldn't we have smelled rot these past few days?"
Judging from the way the things were crawling, they had to be zombies. Jiangshi hopped, zombies didn't.
The four of them huddled together, analyzing what species they were dealing with. Captain Zhou and Captain Zhang, on the other hand, were about to lose it. Captain Zhang shouted from a distance, "You four, quit analyzing! We can't even see clearly in this light. Let's deal with them first and talk later."
Lan Jin frowned. "Deal with them how? Living things fear electricity, but who knows if the dead do?"
Of course they feared it. Living or dead, nothing could ignore electricity. The only difference was how much power it took—living things died, dead things burned.
Lao Gao suggested, "Sister Lan, just zap one lightly to test it. If that doesn't work, fry the lot of them. I don't believe they don't fear fire."
Lan Jin didn't hesitate. She raised her hand, lightning crackling, and struck a small pile of corpses nearby. Just like she'd guessed, nothing could ignore electricity. The corpses shook violently where they stood. But her output was too low. After staggering for a moment, the corpses started lurching forward again. It looked like her lightning had no effect at all. Everyone watching shrank back in fear.
Lan Jin gritted her teeth, then poured out real power. This time, her lightning was blinding, turning night into blazing day. The corpses convulsed, their bodies scorched to black husks, and then disintegrated altogether.
The sheer display left not only the base members stunned, but even the creatures themselves—zombies, jiangshi, whatever they were—froze in fear, trembling in place.
Wait. Did these things actually know fear? Did that mean they had intelligence?
The realization struck everyone at once. Their faces darkened.
Captain Zhou's eyes were hard. "Don't let a single one get away. All ability users, keep them contained."
Captain Zhang barked orders without hesitation. "Ice users, freeze them to the ground. Fire users, start burning from the torso up—go!"
Abilities exploded across the battlefield.
But compared to Lan Jin's lightning, everyone else's powers were weaker. Their attacks landed, but the effect was cut by more than half. Killing these things with abilities alone was almost impossible.
Lao Gao glanced at Captain Zhang. "Guns. Try guns. Maybe they work better than abilities."
He had a point. Most of the ability users had only awakened recently, but they'd all been using firearms for far longer. If they worked, the situation would flip immediately.
At once, the teams pulled back, holstered their powers, and drew their guns.
The first volley rang out. Bullets tore through the creatures, slowing them down like they were badly wounded. Black, tarry blood gushed from the wounds, filling the air with a suffocating metallic stench.
It worked. Weapons worked.
For so long, the survivors had relied too much on abilities, forgetting their real strength. Now, it was time to remind everyone what firepower could do.
In seconds, every non-ability user raised a gun and opened fire. Bullets ripped through their bodies, but it didn't bring them down. Soon someone shouted, "The head! Blow the head!"
"Don't waste bullets anywhere else. Hit the head and they'll die for sure!"
The command spread like wildfire. Every gun muzzle locked onto heads. The air thundered with gunfire, until, fifteen minutes later, the battlefield went quiet. The corpse mountain collapsed back into stillness, and this time, none of the dead rose again.
Before darkness fully fell, Captain Zhang ordered every light available to be turned on. Under the harsh glow, the survivors studied what was left.
Huang Jinghe rubbed his chin. "From all the novels I've read, I'd say they're zombies. They must've been exposed to some neurotoxin. After death, it triggered a chemical reaction that made them like this."
Captain Zhang raised a brow. "Alright, say we buy the neurotoxin theory, maybe from mutated creatures. But where'd your chemical reaction come from? In daylight they were fine, then the second night falls, suddenly—" He paused. "Wait, you're not saying they absorbed the essence of the moon, are you? Like werewolves transforming under a full moon?"
The timing lined up a little too well. Day after day of sunlight, nothing happened. But the moment the moon came out—
And then it hit them.
Captain Ji's face drained of color. "Shit. The official base. Eighty percent of them were infected, and more than half died. Their garrison's too small. They won't be able to burn them all in time."
Captain Zhou swore. "Get through to them now. Find out what's going on. If they can't handle it, we've got to send reinforcements fast."
Captain Li relayed the report back to base while Captain Ji tried again and again to contact the official base. But on the other end, overwhelmed by the same nightmare, nobody had time to pick up.
===
Jiangshi refers to a specific type of undead creature from Chinese folklore, often translated as a "hopping vampire" or "hopping corpse."
The word 僵尸 (jiāngshī) literally means "stiff corpse." A jiangshi is a reanimated corpse that moves by hopping with its arms stretched out, often dressed in the robes of a Qing dynasty official.
Key Difference from Zombies: While Western zombies are typically mindless, rotting creatures driven by a hunger for brains, a jiangshi's behavior is more like a vampire. It sucks the life force ("qi") out of living people, and it can be warded off using Taoist talismans, mirrors, or specific types of rice.