Around the Mental-Type Zombie, ten more zombies stood guard, clearly acting as its protectors.
Six of them were massive, each at least four meters tall, with skin as black as steel—thick, solid, and imposing.
The other four zombies were much smaller, only about a meter tall, but their fingernails were at least thirty centimeters long, gleaming with a sharp metallic luster.
"Omniversal God-Eye!"
Ian Song focused his gaze on one of the giant zombies.
"Power-Type Zombie, level four. Tremendous strength, extremely high defense...!"
Next, he turned his gaze to one of the petite zombies. Instantly, its details appeared in Ian's mind: "Speed-Type Zombie, level four. Incredibly fast, but defense is somewhat weak...!"
"Mental-Type, Power-Type, Speed-Type! So these are the evolutionary branches of zombies!"
Ian narrowed his eyes, locking onto the tumor-headed Mental-Type Zombie, debating whether to kill it with his flying sword.
Unexpectedly, the Mental-Type Zombie seemed to sense his killing intent. It suddenly raised its head and looked up, spotting Ian standing in the sky.
"Roar!"
It let out a low roar, and instantly, its ten bodyguard zombies rushed to its side, tightly surrounding it. At the same time, the zombies that had been standing still nearby suddenly surged forward, quickly gathering around the Mental-Type Zombie to form a thick wall, completely shielding it from view.
"Hmph. If I want to kill you, it won't matter how far you run—you can't escape!" Ian sneered, controlling his flying sword to leave the grove and land outside the trees.
Killing the Mental-Type Zombie would be easy, but Ian worried that if it died, the thousands of zombies would lose control—and the four hundred-plus girls would become their next meal.
"What should I do?"
Ian frowned in deep thought.
After a moment, Ian came up with an idea: use Puppet Mastery Divine Art to enslave the Mental-Type Zombie.
Of course, he'd only ever used Puppet Mastery on humans before, so he wasn't sure if it would work on zombies.
Thinking this, Ian once again mounted his flying sword and shot into the sky, arriving directly above the clearing at the center of the grove.
However, the tumor-headed Mental-Type Zombie remained extremely cautious, still surrounded by a large crowd of zombies guarding it.
"Mm!"
With a cold snort, Ian dove down from the sky.
"Roar!"
As soon as Ian appeared, the Mental-Type Zombie's eyes flashed with a violent light. It let out a low roar, and Ian, still in midair, immediately felt a surge of psychic force crash into him, invading his consciousness and trying to hypnotize him.
Unfortunately for it, Ian's spiritual power had already reached over 900 points—far stronger than this level-five zombie. There was no way it could hypnotize him.
Spatial Stasis.
With a buzz, a small space appeared, enveloping the level-five Mental-Type Zombie and all the nearby zombies.
Whoosh!
Ian appeared beside the Mental-Type Zombie and fired Puppet Mastery Divine Art straight into its mind.
Then, he flew his sword back up into the sky to wait for the result.
The effect of Spatial Stasis faded.
The Mental-Type Zombie regained its freedom, but immediately began howling in pain, feeling a powerful, mysterious force trying to enslave it.
Ian, standing in the sky, watched the scene with some concern.
Second by second, time passed. Finally, at the tenth second, the Mental-Type Zombie stopped howling, looked up at Ian, and knelt before him.
"It worked!"
Ian couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
"Escort these survivors out of the grove!"
Ian gave the Mental-Type Zombie a direct order.
Now fully enslaved by Puppet Mastery Divine Art, the Mental-Type Zombie couldn't and wouldn't dare defy Ian's command. Under its control, the brambles in the grove parted, opening a passage, and the hypnotized survivors lined up to walk through.
Once all the survivors had left the grove, Ian began to consider whether he should kill the Mental-Type Zombie.
Using Clairvoyant Vision, Ian saw a thumb-sized green Evolution Crystal inside the tumor-headed zombie's brain. He was certain the crystal contained a huge amount of psychic power—if he absorbed it, his own spiritual strength would soar.
In the end, Ian gave up on the idea.
Now that the Mental-Type Zombie was his slave, killing it would only throw the other zombies into chaos. Better to let it lead them for now, and later order it to fight other zombie hordes.
After ordering the Mental-Type Zombie to gather all the zombies in South China University, Ian flew down outside the grove.
A few minutes later, all the surviving girls walked out of the grove.
At Ian's command, the Mental-Type Zombie released them from hypnosis.
"Ah, how did I get here?"
"Where is this place?"
The girls looked around in confusion, finally spotting Ian standing ahead of them.
"Hey, handsome, do you know what's going on?" one girl asked Ian.
"No need to ask. Just follow me," Ian said coolly.
"Why should we listen to you?"
A chubby girl protested.
"Yeah, where are you taking us?" another girl chimed in.
"Quiet! Do you want to attract all the zombies?" Ian snapped.
At the mention of zombies, fear appeared on the girls' faces. They remembered being brought here by zombies, but couldn't recall what happened next.
Ian swept his gaze over the group and said in a low voice, "Listen—I rescued you from the zombies. I'm taking you to the base I've built. Of course, you can refuse. If you don't want to come, suit yourselves."
No one moved. They weren't stupid—if Ian could rescue them and had built a base, he was obviously capable. With zombies everywhere on campus, leaving alone would be suicide.
They didn't know that at least ninety percent of the campus zombies had already been gathered here by the Mental-Type Zombie.
Seeing no one planned to leave, Ian turned and walked ahead. The girls hurried after him, not daring to fall behind.
After more than twenty minutes of walking, Ian finally led the four hundred-plus girls to the survivor base. Along the way, they encountered several groups of zombies, all easily dispatched by Ian. The girls now looked at him with awe.
Some of the more clever ones were already thinking about how to get closer to Ian.