Bang!

Zhao Yin kicked without hesitation, snapping the water buffalo's head to the side.

"I saved your life, and you still dare glare at me?" he cursed.

Gu gu!

A weak sound rumbled from the water buffalo's throat, but it kept glaring at Zhao Yin, showing no gratitude whatsoever.

Zhao Yin raised his foot again but ultimately didn't bring it down.

Why bother arguing with a stubborn ox? Once he contracted it, the Contract Soul would naturally change its mind.

He stopped feeding it leaves, wary of the beast turning on him. Placing one hand on the water buffalo's head, he activated the Contract Soul in his mind and unleashed the Contract Power.

A faint golden light slowly formed into the shape of a chain, flowing from Zhao Yin's palm into the water buffalo's brow.

Immediately, the water buffalo's entire body began to tremble violently. Then, as if understanding what was happening, it struggled fiercely.

Unlike Little Monkey back then, the water buffalo was an E-rank Mutant Beast-a full rank higher than Zhao Yin himself. Its mental energy crashed wildly against the chain formed by the Contract Soul.

But it was all futile. Zhao Yin straddled the water buffalo's head, using his weight to pin it firmly to the ground.

Against the Contract Soul, all of the water buffalo's resistance was useless.

The chain vanished into its mind in an instant. Its massive body went limp, and it slowly closed its eyes.

Zhao Yin stood up and turned to Song Xiaodao. "What's wrong with you? If I hadn't chewed those leaves and fed them to you, you'd be dead right now. And instead of being grateful, you're here spitting? Who are you trying to disgust?"

Song Xiaodao was already terrified of Zhao Yin and knew he was telling the truth. She wiped her tears but didn't dare argue.

Still, the emotions churning inside her refused to settle.

No one would feel good after swallowing someone else's mouthful of saliva.

"Come here!"

Zhao Yin crooked his finger at her. Song Xiaodao shuffled over slowly. "What?"

Smack!

Zhao Yin rapped her hard on the top of her head. "You trying to tear the roof off?"

Song Xiaodao clutched her head with both hands, looking up at him with tears streaming down her face. "Did you even brush your teeth this morning?"

Brush teeth?

Clean water was precious beyond measure in the apocalypse. If not for this place, Zhao Yin wouldn't have even bothered bathing last night.

He hadn't even brought a toothbrush when he left. What was he supposed to brush with?

The last time he remembered brushing was when the meteor shower was still falling. He hadn't brushed since.

"You haven't brushed either! I brushed last week-my mouth's cleaner than yours!" Zhao Yin argued shamelessly.

Song Xiaodao was momentarily speechless. She hadn't brushed in over a month. Usually, even getting a sip of water was a struggle. She'd completely forgotten about it.

How could she complain about him?

"Any more questions?"

Zhao Yin continued, "If not, then come chew leaves with me. These leaves have a sterilizing effect-think of it as brushing your teeth. Oh, and you can rinse your mouth with clean water. Feed the rinse water to the dead ox!"

"Chewing leaves really works like brushing?" Song Xiaodao asked naively.

"Try it and find out."

Zhao Yin turned back, grabbed a handful of leaves, and started chewing.

Then Song Xiaodao watched him expertly pry open the water buffalo's mouth... Ptoo!

She hurried forward, grabbed a handful of leaves, and stuffed them into her own mouth. Her cheeks bulged, and the bitterness made her frown...

After chewing for a while, Song Xiaodao also... Ptoo!

By the time they'd chewed through about five jin of leaves, Little Monkey returned. It had found a grass rope somewhere, strung with twelve zombie heads.

And so, two humans and one monkey chewed leaves together.

Ptoo! Ptoo! Ptoo!

"Monkey, watch it, you little bastard! You're spitting all over me!"

"Zhi zhi...!"

"Haha... hehe... hehe...!"

The 'dead ox' lying on the ground was force-fed gulp after gulp, its life force growing stronger with each mouthful.

By the time over a hundred jin of leaves and three large buckets of water had been poured down its throat, all the wounds on its body had finally healed.

Only its blind eye and broken horn remained unrestored.

Limb Regeneration required higher-grade medicine from Star Crystals. For now, this was the best they could do.

Soon, the water buffalo opened its single eye, rolled over, and climbed to its feet.

Little Monkey looked completely unfazed, but Song Xiaodao was startled. She dropped the leaves in her hand and quickly backed away. "Zhao Yin, what do we do now?"

Zhao Yin bent down to pick up the scattered leaves one by one, speaking calmly. "It's fine. From now on, it's one of us."

Just then, a voice echoed in his mind. "Master."

The water buffalo approached Zhao Yin, knelt on its front legs in an almost human gesture, and lowered its head.

Song Xiaodao stared in shock, her eyes fixed on the water buffalo and Zhao Yin. Then she glanced at Little Monkey.

In an instant, something clicked. "Zhao Yin... Little Monkey... was it the same?"

She had seen him signing the contract just now.

Finally, she understood what he'd been doing!

In Song Xiaodao's eyes, the man before her grew more and more mysterious. He must be hiding countless secrets.

Zhao Yin nodded but didn't elaborate. "It's different. I saved Little Monkey. We never had any bad blood between us."

Zhi zhi...!

Little Monkey immediately chimed in.

Unfortunately, Song Xiaodao couldn't understand what it was saying.

Zhao Yin kicked the water buffalo. "Go find some grass to eat. Don't leave without my order, or I'll break your legs!"

"Yes, Master!" The water buffalo's mental voice wasn't as lively as Little Monkey's. It sounded a bit dull.

It rose and wandered to the side, nibbling on the newly sprouted green shoots in the field.

Zhao Yin stored everything back into his Spatial Ring, walked over to retrieve his Spiked Club, and pointed at the fourteen heads Little Monkey had brought back. He ordered Song Xiaodao, "Go clean those up."

Song Xiaodao acknowledged and walked over, skillfully cutting open the 'watermelons.'

Finally, Zhao Yin approached the Zombie King's corpse.

By now, its head had been smashed to pulp. Zhao Yin used his Spiked Club to rummage through the brain matter.

Soon, three Star Crystals and one E-rank Zombie Core rolled out.

Zhao Yin was shocked to see three Star Crystals. No wonder this E-rank zombie had been so powerful-it really was a Zombie King!

In his past life, he'd only heard of Zombie Kings. Whenever he caught wind of one, he would immediately lead Lin Tianfeng and the others to flee. He'd never actually encountered one.

If this Zombie King hadn't run into Zhao Yin, it would have quickly grown to D-rank, dominated Guangzhou City, controlled all the zombies in its territory, and then conquered Jiangnan Prefecture-unstoppable.

Too bad. That was no longer possible.

Zhao Yin didn't know if he'd altered the timeline, causing this Zombie King-one he'd never heard of in his past life-to appear, or if it had always existed but gone elsewhere, leaving him unaware.

But now wasn't the time to think about that. His gaze at the E-rank Zombie Core burned even hotter than when he'd looked at the Star Crystals!