Is this what a zombie is?

39. Surrender in place of another

Time, ticking away, slowly slipped by, second by second.

Jiang Chen was the only one left in the office. He flipped through the files page by page, his movements unhurried and deliberate, carefully searching for clues.

Time flies, and it went from 11 p.m. to the early hours of the morning.

Maintaining intense focus for several hours is very energy-consuming, and Jiang Chen hadn't rested much today either.

I rubbed my eyes and blinked hard a few times; my eyelids were so heavy I could barely keep them open.

He yawned, picked up the slightly chilled black coffee, and drank it all in one gulp.

After closing his eyes for a short rest, Jiang Chen prepared to continue his investigation. However, everything in front of him began to appear double. He tried to stand up, but felt dizzy and couldn't stand steadily.

"Well……"

Jiang Chen collapsed forward, slumping onto the desk, his arms hanging limply, knocking over the files in front of him.

Being young is great; you can fall asleep as soon as your head hits the pillow.

She was sleeping so soundly, almost like she was dead.

One minute, five minutes, ten minutes...

More than twenty minutes after Jiang Chen died, the tightly closed office door was quietly pushed open a crack, and a slightly hunched figure stealthily crept in.

He walked straight to his desk without making a sound.

Looking down at Jiang Chen, who was lying face down on the table and was already "dead," his gaze fell on the pendant hanging around Jiang Chen's neck.

There was a kind of ecstatic joy in his eyes, as if his wish was about to be fulfilled.

But he did not let his guard down because of his ecstasy. He stared intently at Jiang Chen, who was lying on the table, for nearly five minutes.

After confirming that Jiang Chen was not breathing, he cautiously extended two fingers and placed them on Jiang Chen's carotid artery.

He checked Jiang Chen's pulse, and as expected, his heart wasn't beating at all.

Even his body temperature had completely disappeared; he was completely devoid of warmth, a cold, lifeless corpse.

After repeatedly checking his breathing, pulse, heartbeat, and body temperature, Uncle Chen's tense face finally relaxed completely. He exhaled a long breath, and his hunched back straightened up in that instant.

A slight smile played on his lips; the Resurrection Incense was finally his.

Just as his heart was filled with ecstasy and greed, and his mind relaxed—

A sudden change has occurred!

Jiang Chen, who should have been completely dead, suddenly opened his eyes.

not good!

Alarm bells rang in Chen Bo's mind, and he instinctively tried to pull his hand away and back.

But it was all too late!

Jiang Chen's hand was like an iron clamp, grabbing the wrist that was resting on his neck.

"you……"

Chen Bo was horrified, but Jiang Chen didn't give him a chance to utter a second word.

Blue arcs of electricity gathered in the palm of his other hand. He didn't even straighten up, but kept lying on the table and slammed out a powerful palm strike.

It's the same old formula: deception and a sneak attack. This time, the target really is an old man in his fifties or sixties.

This palm strike was swift, accurate, and ruthless, pressing mercilessly onto Uncle Chen's chest.

The attack, launched at such close range and when the opponent was most relaxed, left Chen Bo with no way to avoid or defend himself.

A violent electric current instantly pierced through his internal organs, and his just-erect figure was violently blasted away.

It slammed heavily against the wall, leaving spiderweb-like cracks.

Then, his body slowly slid down the wall and collapsed to the ground.

His chest was charred black, and you could even see the charred tissue from being electrocuted. A pungent smell of roasted meat mixed with the scent of ozone quickly filled the air.

His eyes were wide open, his face still frozen with the horror and disbelief of his last moments, and his life was cut off on the spot.

Jiang Chen slowly stood up from behind the table, shook off the remaining electric arcs on his hands, and coldly looked at the corpse on the ground.

Just as Jiang Chen was about to step forward to confirm the other person's death and search for clues on their body, a bizarre scene unfolded.

A strange, eerie crimson light flashed across the corpse that should have been completely dead.

Immediately afterwards, the fatal charred wound on Uncle Chen's chest stopped carbonizing, and the surrounding flesh began to writhe at a visible speed.

Accompanied by a series of "crackling" sounds, a chilling sound of bones grinding together, Uncle Chen gasped for breath, a long and deep breath that seemed to draw all the air in the office into his lungs.

The next second, he actually stood up from the ground, swaying slightly.

Jiang Chen stopped and looked at the supernatural scene before him, but his face did not show much surprise.

There was only an indescribable sense of helplessness, knowing that it wouldn't be so easy to solve.

"I knew you were in a hurry, but I didn't expect you to be this eager. You made your move after just a little provocation."

"You've been afflicted by my Corrupting Heart Curse. You're clearly dead, with no breath, no pulse, no heartbeat, no body temperature..."

As he spoke, Uncle Chen finally understood the key point and roared.

"So that's how it is. You're no longer alive. You're a living dead person who's been kept alive by the Resurrection Incense. Hahaha, the Resurrection Incense really does have the effect of bringing the dead back to life."

At this moment, Chen Bo was no longer the honest and simple man he had been before; his expression was violent, crazed, and filled with naked greed.

His undisguised greed for the Resurrection Incense was something he was determined to obtain.

"And what about you? You took a direct hit from my palm strike. Normally, your heart and internal organs, even if not charred, should have been roasted. How did you survive?"

"Hahaha, hahahaha..." Uncle Chen let out a piercing laugh. "Your thunder magic is indeed very powerful, but I have a substitute curse. This prison is full of my substitutes."

"You can't kill me, you never can!"

Despite Chen Bo's arrogance and conceit, Jiang Chen showed no sign of panic.

A substitute for someone else; a scapegoat.

From this simple and straightforward name, Jiang Chen understood that this must be a secret technique for transferring damage.

Although it's not as rare as resurrection items like the Resurrection Armor, it's definitely a precious item. It's not like cabbages in the field; how could it possibly become an overabundance?

Therefore, the other party is bluffing.

Jiang Chen sneered and said, "If you really have thousands of scapegoats as you say, you wouldn't have dragged this out for three years with the blind lawyer, hesitating to confront him directly."

"Such life-saving methods are either difficult to produce or extremely expensive. Your stockpiles are definitely not inexhaustible."

"Two digits? There shouldn't be that many, maybe five?"

Chen Bo's eye twitched slightly, and Jiang Chen, who had been staring intently at him, did not miss this subtle change in expression.

"Judging from your current reaction... I'd guess no more than three?"

Uncle Chen's face instantly darkened, as if he had been hit where it hurt.