120: Puppet Hand

[Successfully killed a fifth-rank military official zombie! Congratulations to the host for obtaining Bronze Treasure Chest +4!]

Four Bronze Treasure Chests? Both are fifth-rank, but this reward is one more?

Thinking for a moment, Chen Ming believed this setting was quite reasonable.

Just looking at combat power in terms of fists and feet, military officials were inherently stronger than civil officials. Furthermore, after becoming zombies, some things from their lives were retained, such as attack patterns.

Therefore, at the same rank, military official zombies receiving one more treasure chest reward than civil official zombies was not something Chen Ming couldn't understand.

Finishing his thoughts, he selected and extracted Undead!

[Extracting...]

[Extraction successful! Congratulations to the host for obtaining new Undead Servant: fifth-rank military official zombie +2!]

[Extraction successful! Congratulations to the host for obtaining new Undead Servant: fifth-rank civil official zombie +3!]

...

Having become a hands-off manager, with Bai Yuan leading the charge, Chen Ming wasn't worried at all.

Stealing skills?

It wasn't that Chen Ming hadn't thought about it, but rather, the strength of these zombies relied entirely on themselves and didn't depend on skills.

Unless Chen Ming could fish up another skill that could extract attributes.

Otherwise, he could only slaughter, farm treasure chests, and then extract Undead.

The only thing he could count on was the Emperor zombie lying in that golden coffin.

"Hmm?"

His gaze focused.

When Chen Ming's gaze fell upon the carved dragon pattern at the head of the coffin again, he discovered something strange.

"One, two, three... four? Aren't emperors all five-clawed dragons? Why are there four here?"

"Four-clawed dragons should be used by members of the royal family."

A trace of strangeness enveloped Chen Ming's heart.

"Could it be that some royal relative, who failed to seize the throne and become emperor during his life, specifically had a stone imperial palace built for himself after death, wanting to experience the treatment of an emperor?"

"If that were truly the case, why would he use a four-clawed dragon instead of a five-clawed one in the most crucial place..."

Chen Ming couldn't understand the logic behind it.

"Master, be careful!"

Bai Yuan's sudden voice pulled Chen Ming back from his personal world of thought.

Chen Ming noticed that a Prime Minister zombie, dressed in a crane-embroidered patch, with large patches of white in his eyebrows, beard, and hair, and two points of bright white light emanating from his eyes, had broken free from Bai Yuan's control and was leaping towards him.

Meanwhile, Bai Yuan was engaged in a chaotic battle with several Advanced Zombies.

The higher the rank of the zombie, the higher its attributes and the harder it was to deal with.

When Bai Yuan chopped down with her sword, she couldn't easily sever the opponent's limbs like before; they were much harder than synthetic metal.

After a flurry of slashes, sparks flew, but only a few not-so-deep cuts were left.

Moreover, Advanced Zombie and Advanced Zombie alike, possessed powerful self-healing abilities.

Before this slash landed, the wound from the previous slash had already healed, making them truly troublesome.

Bai Yuan couldn't deal with that first-rank military official zombie.

Likewise, the first-rank military official zombie couldn't do anything to Bai Yuan.

Both sides were in a stalemate.

When Bai Yuan wanted to stop the Prime Minister zombie, the first-rank military official zombie would seize the opportunity and immediately attack, giving no chance to breathe.

Chen Ming did not blame Bai Yuan; for one person to still not be at a disadvantage when facing so many Advanced Zombies, fighting back and forth, already surpassed countless professional Hunters.

Returning to the Prime Minister zombie leaping towards him with large strides, Chen Ming did not retreat half a step, showing no fear.

His five fingers opened, and when half-closed, he could clearly feel as if invisible fine threads were wrapped around his fingertips.

The other end of the fine threads was connected to the Prime Minister Zombie's body.

This skill was called Puppet Hand, S-Rank.

As the name suggested, after activating the skill and connecting the puppet strings to the target, Chen Ming could freely control all their actions; they could not disobey.

Upon landing, the Prime Minister Zombie was only half a step away from Chen Ming.

Yet, it stood there quietly, motionless.

It had already lost control over this body.

The puppet strings on Chen Ming's five fingers could freely control its limbs and head.

If he wanted to perform more delicate operations, such as opening and closing the teeth, he could use his other hand to add more puppet strings.

His right pinky and ring fingers moved slightly, and the Prime Minister zombie immediately executed, jumping in place and turning around.

With two fingers hooking inward, then flicking up sharply, the Prime Minister zombie jumped several meters high and charged towards the first-rank military official zombie to assist Bai Yuan.

Bang! Boom!

With a large jump, it pushed with both palms, sending the unsuspecting first-rank military official zombie flying ten meters away, crashing into and breaking a supporting stone pillar.

The strength was astonishing!

Just as Bai Yuan was wondering, she noticed the movement of Chen Ming's fingertips.

Realizing that this strangely behaving zombie had been controlled by her Master, she gave up the idea of attacking it.

"You go deal with the others; I'll handle these two troublesome guys," Chen Ming said, activating Puppet Hand again, connecting his left hand to the first-rank military official zombie.

The two zombies, who were below one person and above ten thousand in court and country, were both controlled by Chen Ming.

His ten fingers moved in the air like playing a piano, performing various actions.

The two zombies, under his precise control, fought fiercely against each other, neither yielding.

There was no holding back; every strike was aimed at taking the other's life.

After several exchanges, they were evenly matched, and neither could do anything to the other.

Unlike disciples taught by the same master, the reason these two Zombies found it difficult to break the stalemate was that their attributes were not much different.

Even though the military official zombie could perform more varied and complex attack movements, it still couldn't break the civil official zombie's defense.

Chen Ming tried a few more times and gradually lost patience.

The Gate of Shadows opened, summoning the Centipede King.

It straightened its upper body, its abyssal maw suspended above the heads of the two zombies, and plunged straight down.

Rumble!

It swallowed the two zombies whole, slammed hard onto the ground, kicking up a considerable amount of dust and sending gravel flying.

After being soaked in the corpse-dissolving venom, when it opened its mouth and spat them out, only two stark white, eerie skeletons remained.

The Centipede King could, of course, corrode and digest the bones as well.

But Chen Ming still needed to extract Undead.

He was unwilling to miss out on these two first-rank zombies for nothing.

In terms of strength, he was quite satisfied.

[Successfully killed a first-rank civil official zombie! Congratulations to the host for obtaining Gold Treasure Chest +1!]

[Successfully killed a first-rank military official zombie! Congratulations to the host for obtaining Gold Treasure Chest +1!]

This time, the number of treasure chest rewards dropped by the civil official and military official was the same.

The subtle difference in fist and foot combat skills was not enough to bridge the large gap.

[Extracting...]

[Extraction successful! Congratulations to the host for obtaining new Undead Servant: first-rank civil official zombie!]

[Extraction successful! Congratulations to the host for obtaining new Undead Servant: first-rank military official zombie!]

Just then, good news also came from Bai Yuan's side; all fifth-rank to second-rank Zombies had been annihilated.

While harvesting a large number of treasure chests, Chen Ming wasn't picky at all; he selected all of them and extracted them as Undead.

Continuously adding to his Undead Legion, adding the large category of zombies.

As a collector, it was extremely satisfying.

After doing all this, Chen Ming looked up towards the high platform.

"Now, only that guy is left. Still not preparing to open the coffin? Is this forcing me to provide a wake-up service?"