Chapter 696 - 567: Golden Quality!

"Dr. Xie, how are you and Dr. Fu getting on with your work?"

Zhang Su looked at Xie Yanshan while inviting him into the house.

"Weijun is performing cranial surgery on a zombie. I came over to see if there’s anything here I can lend a hand with."

Xie Yanshan walked into the house and felt more at ease upon seeing Qiu Hui had calmed down.

Zhang Su closed the door, placed the plastic bag of medicine aside, glanced at the stable condition of Qiu Hui, and then turned his gaze to Xie Yanshan and Duan Wuhu.

"Dr. Xie, have you ever come across a situation like Qiu Hui’s, where someone swings back and forth between normal and zombified states?"

Hearing Zhang Su’s question, Xie Yanshan took off his glasses and shook his head: "To our knowledge, zombification is an irreversible process at the cellular level. Why Ms. Qiu’s case occurs, I really can’t say, but I think it has something to do with the Corpse Transformation Inhibitor."

The Corpse Transformation Inhibitor is a very immature technology and could lead to various bizarre phenomena.

"Alright, let’s not study how this happened for now. Let’s discuss Qiu Hui’s situation instead. Neither of you is an outsider, so I’ll speak frankly, and Qiu Hui, don’t take it to heart. I believe... since she oscillates between being a zombie and a normal person, it’s likely she possesses both states at the same time. What do you think?"

Zhang Su looked at the two, his eyes showing a bit of expectation, as if hoping for an affirmative answer.

"Hmm... Weijun said something similar." Duan Wuhu stood by, rubbing his chin and frowning: "He said Xiaoqiu is teetering on the verge of zombification, one moment human, the next a zombie. This state is very unstable and dangerous."

"No!" Zhang Su shook his head: "That’s not what I mean. To speak plainly, I want to conduct an experiment!"

"An experiment? That’s easy enough. This whole place is a lab."

Duan Wuhu shrugged, indicating that the entire Cui Leng Pavilion had become an experimental site, with each room gradually being utilized.

"Brother Zhang, wh- what kind of experiment?"

Qiu Hui sensed something unusual from Zhang Su’s serious tone, believing the experiment might be dangerous, and the danger was aimed at her.

"I’ll be straight with you, Qiu Hui. I sense zombie traits from you, so I want to know whether zombies would see you as one of their own. Even if they do, you are still one of us on Celestial Horse Island!"

Seeing Qiu Hui’s face turn ashen, Zhang Su quickly offered a word of comfort.

"Then, what do I need to do?"

Qiu Hui didn’t waste time on sadness, having grown much stronger during these months of the apocalypse.

"Old Duan, are there any living zombies left in the camp?"

Zhang Su turned to look at Duan Wuhu.

"Living zombies?" Duan Wuhu made a peculiar face: "Do 003 and the Fire-breathing Zombie count?"

"Not at all..."

Zhang Su was speechless. These two zombies couldn’t be used for experiments; neither 003’s slap nor the Fire-breathing Zombie’s phlegm was something humans could withstand.

"Then there aren’t any left. Those ghostly things at the temple in the scenic area were all wiped out. Want me to go search outside?"

Duan Wuhu pointed in the direction down the mountain.

Zhang Su shook his head and jerked his head towards the front door: "Take me to see Liu Tianji. Then I’ll go searching, and you all carry on with your own tasks."

Having said that, he turned to Qiu Hui and said: "Don’t worry too much. You’ve got enough medication for a long time. If anything happens, just call Old Duan."

After these instructions, Zhang Su and the others left Qiu Hui’s room. Passing by the door to Fu Weijun’s room, they didn’t pause, continuing their conversation as they headed towards the room where Liu Tianji and others were, unaware that Fu Weijun was facing a difficult choice at that moment.

Several lamps lit the room brightly, and on the bed lay a small zombie corpse, its skull already opened. Fu Weijun sat in a wheelchair, his back to the door, staring blankly at the tray before him, both fists clenched, resembling Qiu Hui’s earlier headache state.

"There’s a problem, there must be a problem with this thing. What to do, how to..."

He heard footsteps outside the door and a drop of sweat fell from his forehead. Eyes filled with rare anxiety, he instinctively hid the tray under the experimental bed. As the footsteps receded, he finally exhaled and retrieved the tray once more.

With tweezers, he carefully fiddled with the contents of the tray. It appeared to be a zombie thalamus, but rather than the typical dull gray, it had a faint golden hue!

Typically, if a zombie had been dead for some time, the thalamus would lose its activity and couldn’t heal injuries, so when performing cranial surgery, Fu Weijun hadn’t thought to focus on the thalamus.

But at that moment, he unintentionally glimpsed that subtle golden hue, and his heart felt as if hit by a heavy hammer!

His intuition told him the golden thalamus had an unusual function, and coincidentally, Duan Wuhu had stopped by to fetch some tranquilizers, providing an excuse to send Xie Yanshan away.

The faint golden thalamus on the tray wasn’t dazzling, overall smaller than typical zombie thalami, only quail egg-sized, scentless, and prettier than ordinary ones. If it weren’t labeled, it might pass for a small piece of special alloy without seeming out of place.

If a researcher had seen such a thalamus initially, likely they’d have paid immediate attention, and the secret of the thalamus would be known to more than a few.

Just like Fu Weijun now, he deeply wanted to know the function of this golden thalamus.

"Just a small cut, a tiny piece won’t be noticed, but..."

Fu Weijun listened for sounds outside, raising a hand to measure against the golden thalamus, like a gambler unsure where to cut the unpolished stone, filled with hesitation.

After half a minute of internal conflict, he took a deep breath, glaring at the golden thalamus with apparent frustration, yet uncertain from where this anger stemmed.

"Why have you become afraid? This isn’t in the spirit of exploration. Have you forgotten the vow you made back then?"

Fu Weijun internally questioned himself.

He wasn’t worried about Zhang Su questioning his use of a special thalamus for research purposes; that was normal. He was anxious about what unexplained consequences might arise if he ingested the special thalamus!

Like death.

Life on Celestial Horse Island had tempered him, at least concerning himself, made him more... careful with his life.

"Right!"

Suddenly, an idea flashed in Fu Weijun’s mind, and he devised a daring plan.

Picking up a sterilized scalpel, he swiftly cut the thalamus into four equal pieces. Initially intending to slice them smaller but refrained, fearing ineffectiveness.

Quickly, he placed the thalamus into a sealable bag, pocketed it, and after a brief cleanup, resumed his calm demeanor and continued to work!

About ten minutes later, the door swung open, letting in a draft of cold air as Xie Yanshan and Duan Wuhu entered.

"Mr. Zhang is truly a responsible leader, personally catching zombies... Whoa! Weijun, what’s this?"

Upon entering, Xie Yanshan noticed a small square crystal on the tray next to the corpse. Entirely black, less than three centimeters long per side, neatly symmetrical, impossible to identify by material but with a curious black substance flowing within, its appearance was striking.

"This is its energy source. Found it nestled in the brain with little effort!"

Fu Weijun explained calmly, eyes fixed on the black crystal, the little square absorbing all his attention like a black hole.

Within the lab, it wasn’t a secret that Mutated Zombies had special energy sources. However, lacking Chen Hanzhou’s precise sensing ability, typically, they started with the brain. Luckily, the Fire Zombie’s energy source lied there, uncovered quickly.