In a cold and damp night where one could hear loud shrieking and roaring of beasts. A man laid down on his stomach with his head raised up looking ahead at another man who knelt on both knees in front of him as a shield. They were both completely covered in wounds and bloody, with a crowd surrounding them looking at the two men like bugs being squashed. " Jiang Rong now with the state in which you're, you still pretend to be dignified." a very slender and handsome man squatted beside of the man laying on his stomach and sneered as he said to him.

Jiang Rong ignored him and was in dazed looking at the crying man who knelt in front of him to shield him with his body. Jiang Rong felt inexplicable and at loss. He turned to the slender looking man and paused as if in thought " ....... Pang Shao you've being cheating on me before the doomsday, and you've betrayed my trust over and over again yet i still cared for you. All of you here, i risked my life to protect you all. Did i not lead you well? Did i not treat you all well?" he asked not even sure if it was a matter of question. He already knew in heart that of all them he risked his life protecting for so many years in the end of the world, he knew that they were just using him but he still stood with them.

His so called family whom even before the doomsday came, kept using and going after his properties. His so called white eyed wolf lover whom he cared for so much doing everything in his power and beyond his power to make him live a carefree life. And those people he saved in the doomsday forming a team of both ability users and those without abilities, yet here they are after so many betrayals from them. They finally came for his life, he was a level 9 metal ability user. Already an overlord who even the base commander respects very much, but he found out that his so called lover and family had actually sold him out to the base commander and were already planning to take him out.

It was only after he was drugged did he know that they never cared for him not even once, and now in this pathetic and miserable state he was in. It was only that person who constantly wanted to get close to him, that person who tried to warned him. That person whom he found to be an eyesore, his warm eyes which always looked at him asking to be noticed. But Jiang Rong had never once noticed that person, Ye Xuan. Infact he didn't remember that person very much since he avoided him like a plague. "........ Senior" Ye Xuan looked at him with red eyes and in rage.

Seeing his so defeated state Jiang Rong was flustered, because the Ye Xuan whom he has seen a couple of times was strong willed and never showed weakness to others. The only times he showed weakness was whenever he was in the presence of him. Hearing Ye Xuan called him senior Jiang Rong felt it sounded familiar, but he couldn't recall where he had hear it before. Infact he was just dazed, confused and dizzy from the drug fed to him and loss of blood. He was hurt so bad but he couldn't feel the pain at all, his head was muddled. He was so angry but to whom would he direct his anger to? Those who betrayed him and brought him this state, or himself who gave them that opportunity? Jiang Rong was at loss.

He could only look at Ye Xuan who was desperately trying to beg the crowd and save him, Ye Xuan was willing to give himself to them for him to be spared. Jiang Rong found it infuriating but he wasn't infuriated at Ye Xuan, but to himself. " Pang Shao let's go now! Zombies are coming our way! " A woman with long hair said to a handsome looking man who seemed to be the leader of the crowd as she called to Pang Shao too. " Pang Shao c'mon we gotta go" the crowd started to flee to the cars parked around in a hurry. Pang Shao stood up on his feet intending to walk away from Jiang Rong and Ye Xuan but suddenly walked to Ye Xuan and stabbed his left chest with a dagger. "i knew you were a **** after him, so why don't you go to hell along with him!" he said in a sanister tone into Ye Xuan's ear. He didn't have to bother to end Ye Xuan himself since they'll both die anyway and it was a given since the zombies were approaching after smelling their blood, but he had always despised Ye Xuan for always looking at Jiang Rong with love and tenderness. Everyone in the team had already come to know that Ye Xuan loved Jiang Rong, but Jiang Rong was the only one ignorant to that. Pang Shao ran to the leader looking at him tenderly and acting coquettish.

Ye Xuan gasped and fell to his back, tears rolled down from the corners of his eyes with him gasping slowly. Jiang Rong dragged his body to Ye Xuan, he looked at Ye Xuan feeling heartache. He felt miserable seeing Ye Xuan's breath slowly thinned. "why?" he asked in a hoarse voice. He didn't know what to say or what to feel. Everything happening to him now was something which he expected and he was unfazed but for Ye Xuan to stick with him to the very end, he really didn't expect that change of events.

Ye Xuan slowly raised up the corners of his lips into a beautiful and dazzlingly smile. "because i love you" he said softly. Jiang Rong was mesmerized in his beautiful and bright honest smile. His heart skipped a beat, he was silently and regretful. Looking at Ye Xuan now carefully he looked very familiar to him. 'Senior...thank you for saving me' 'senior.....for...you' 'senior' 'senior!' there were flashes of memories in his mind. He remembered a timid looking guy who always stalked him back in his college days. The guy was so timid that Jiang Rong disliked him because he was often bullied. Jiang Rong dislike weak guys and that that guy was exactly the type he disliked weak and Vulnerable. The last time he saw that guy was the last day of his senior year when that guy passed him a letter, but Jiang Rong talked rudely and shit to him without even opening the letter and threw it somewhere. It was later after years when he found the letter that he read it and saw it was a love letter from that guy confessing if his love to him.

But at then Jiang Rong was already with Pang Shao so he shrugged and brush it off, not in his wildest dream would he think that he would meet that guy again even in the ends time. And now he was lying in front of him dying all because of him. Jiang Rong was so lost in a heart wrenching self blame and thoughts that he didn't notice that he was in tears. His tears slid down his face onto Yes Xuan's face. Ye Xuan felt pained seeing that, he blamed himself for not being able to protect Jiang Rong well. He groaned bitting hard on his lips, he slowly raised up his hand and sent it to Jiang Rong's face. He wiped away Jiang Rong's tears, Jiang was stunned and looked at Ye Xuan who was looking at him pained and frowning. He felt distressful.

"senior... you shouldn't cry, it was my fault i didn't do my best to warn you and protect you well" Jiang Rong felt stuffy in heart hearing Ye Xuan address him as senior and self blamed himself. Even in this situation Ye Xuan continued to prove his love to him. Jiang Rong truly felt regretful and remorseful, he knew that there was no amount of apology in the world to fix up all things he messed up. He grabbed hold of Ye Xuan's hand and brought it to his lips kissing it, "Ye Xuan, senior wronged you." he said. Ye Xuan's smiled widely and brightly hearing that, he put away the pain he was feeling behind his back and struggled to hold both hands of Jiang Rong. " Senior remembers me, I'm truly happy." he said honestly feeling happy.

Jiang Rong's tears slide down more seeing him in this manner. Even in this state which was clearly his fault, Ye Xuan could be so happy just because he remembered him. Jiang Rong felt uncomfortable in heart. " I'm sorry Ye Xuan" Ye Xuan slowly shook his head. His breathing was getting thinner and thinner, " i... I'm....happy senior.... I've always loved senior.....and will .....always ....d" he struggled to say, but time wasn't with him. His hand slip from Jiang Rong's hand as he breathed his last breath. Jiang Rong quickly took back his hand but he no longer felt the warmth in them. He was sorrowful and his heart felt as if it was crushed, " Ye Xuan! Ye Xuan!" he called desperately but there was no response. His tears poured out heavily and bitterly. " i love you" he whispered and brought his lips to Ye Xuan's lips placed a kiss on his already cold lips. He raised up his head staring at the darkened sky without an ounce of light, he heard the roar of the cars informing him that his killers had flee from there and the roar of the zombies got near and near in seconds.

He laid defeated in wait of his death, he felt regretful of all the choices he made in his life. And for how he treated Ye Xuan the last time they met and not reading the letter then, but he knew it was already too late because there was no medicine for regret in the world. He felt a sharp pain on his neck as a zombie bit down on his neck, he held it without showing any pain as his whole body was covered by zombies biting his ever part. He suddenly smiled thinking at least Ye Xuan wouldn't be killed by zombies and also turn into a flesh eating zombie, his senses started to go numb not feeling anything.

Blood slid down from his neck to his chest where he wore a green jade pendant of the Buddha statue. The pendant's colour changed to bright red after being soaked by his blood. It started to emit light brightly blinding Jiang Rong's eyes and engulfing his surround in a bright light. Jiang Rong was shown a very beautiful and peaceful place with tall mountains, a spring, a bamboo house and beautiful scenery. But he couldn't admire such beautiful scenery as he was already loosing his consciousness not sure what he was really seeing. Jiang Rong only felt his chest side burn as the light subsided into his body before everything went black.

It was a busy and bright morning. Honking of cars could be heard and the noise made on the busy streets traveled far with the help of the wind. In bright and well furnished room, Jiang Rong sat in dazed on a king sized bed. His face was wrinkled showing his confused look. He couldn't understand what was going on since the Only thing he recalled was him dying being eaten alive by zombies and some flash light with a magical place. He wasn't even clear on that, to him he thought it must have been his desire to live.

But he suddenly woke up about an hour ago back in his room in the villa he lived before the apocalypse, he was unsure thinking whether the 18 years spent in apocalypse was a dream. Or whether the apocalypse itself never happened, he was in dire state and in search for answers. His mind was jumbled up and in a state which wasn't good. "Ding~ Ding~Ding~" the ringing of a phone startled him out of his thoughts.

Jiang Rong turned to look at it strangely and the feeling of nostalgia soared up. 'There used to be something like this' he thought. He stretched out his hand for the phone "little Shao" was showing on the screen. He felt a raging fire burning in his being and was agitated. All the memories in the apocalypse flashed through his mind over and over again with his face blackened.

He squeezed the phone in his hand almost smashing it into Smithereens, that one person he would rather have never existed at all. His family's betrayal was to be expected since he already saw signs of it after the death of his mother and he inherited all her assets. But he wasn't really expecting Pang Shao to betray him too. Just thinking about it sent him in fury. The ringing came to an end when he didn't answer, he brought the phone closer to his face looking intently on at the screen. 1/11/21 was showing on the screen. "i came back a month before the apocalypse" he muttered to himself thinking he only got a month to prepare himself for the apocalypse.

He knew he'd have to run against time since there wasn't much time but a lot had to be prepared. The phone started to ring again disrupting him from his thoughts, seeing the same name he was really furious and hostile. His whole body was emitting feint colours of green,red and gray but he had no knowledge of it. He hang up the call without giving it a second thought and off the phone, Jiang Rong looked at the phone wide eyed as something caught his attention.

His eyes were bright red looking aggressive and invigorating. He dropped the phone startled at his eye color, there was no white sclera, iris or pupil. It was bright aggressive red with hostility in them, it was the type of eye color he was used to for very much and had seen it for years in the apocalypse. His now eye color was that of a high level zombie, level four zombies going up had the same eye color as him now. Jiang Rong was scared out if his mind and his thoughts was mixed up, he quickly got off the bed and ran into the bathroom.

He stood in front of the mirror looking at his eyes in daze thinking he was a zombie, now thinking about it Jiang Rong felt like he wasn't breathing and his heart beat... He felt inexplicable looking at himself in the mirror lost of words. He was dumbfounded, he felt everything of himself different. His senses were sharpened enabling him to smell and hear from afar. His ears picking of voices everywhere and his nose smelling people walking around from irritating perfumes to smell of foods. But he didn't have the urge for flesh like how zombies had "what am I?" he questioned himself.

He needed answers to his questions and he needed them fast because he felt that he would go crazy, he felt foreign to himself. Blurry flashes went through his mind and vision to the night of his death, recalling the flash of light from his pendant and the burning on his chest. His memories was groggy and confusing because he wasn't sure of what he saw or happened, but he was sure of one thing and that was the answer to his questions was related to the pendant he was wearing. He looked down on his chest but there was no pendant, he froze. He quickly raised up the gray shirt he was wearing and searched beneath but still no sight of the pendant, instead he saw something which he never had on his left chest. A statue of the Buddha was imprinted on his chest in black ink like a tattoo, Jiang Rong was stunned.

He had never had a tattoo before, not before the apocalypse nor after the apocalypse. He looked at it through the mirror mesmerized by it and felt it with his fingers. As soon as his fingers touched it there was suddenly a flash making him blink his eyes a couple of times trying to adjust his sights. When he opened his eyes again he dumbstrucked, he took protective stance and on defense. He was in his bathroom looking at the tattoo and now he blinks and he was in a whole different place. He was stunned by the scenery reminding him more of what he saw before his death, it was exactly the same as what he was seeing now.

When he raised to look afar there were tall mountains making him gasp, a spring not far from where he stood and a bamboo house with a peach tree in front of it. He was stunned, and everything felt magical yet he felt a kind of familiarity in that place. He relaxed his vigilance and muster up his courage to venture in this familiar yet unfamiliar place with alertness.

"get off my tail you moron!" he hadn't ventured far yet when he suddenly heard an angry voice scolding him which startled him. He stood vigilant and turned around all sides. "who's there?" he asked. But he was met with silence "hello?" he asked again in a loud voice. "you fool I'm under your feet!!!" the voice replied angrier than, it was. Jiang Rong quickly took a step back revealing a fox cub with red fluffy fur. He was stunned and stared at the fox cub with his words stuck in his throat. "he steps on my tail after i saved him!!! is this how you repay me?!" the fox asked in an angry voice as it struggled to face Jiang Rong.

Jiang Rong was flabbergasted dumbstrucked "it talked!" he said with his jaws dropping. The fox looked at him as if facing off with a total idiot "i am the guardian spirit of this space, of course i can talk!" it said proudly. But Jiang Rong's attention wasn't on what it was saying rather he still hasn't gotten over seeing it talk "you talk!" Jiang Rong pointed at it and said. The fox's fur stood up as it bared it's canines at him looking pissed "you moron listen to what i say!" it demanded bringing Jiang Rong back to reality.

"what are you? And what is this place?" Jiang Rong asked. The fox looked pleased gaining his attention, it sat up on its hind legs in an elegant and majestic way. "i am the fox spirit guardian of this space, my master left me to take care of this space for the generations after him to inherit it. Be honored you're the twentieth generation of my master to inherit here." it said smugly and arrogantly as it licked it's paw and used it to smoothen it's fur.

Jiang Rong looked at it strangely "you're the one who saved and brought me back?" he asked one of the important question on his mind. The fox raised up his head with hostility in it's eyes all of a sudden making Jiang Rong feel goosebumps and vigilant "what?" he asked it. "you almost got my master's space destroyed because of your ignorance! if i hadn't saved you with all my power and restore here this space would have been tainted and lost for eternity!" it bared it's canines. Jiang Rong listened to it complained to him of the events that took place and how it saved him, he was thankful and at the same time sorry blaming himself. Knowing that he almost destroyed such a place which was older than time itself and the fox which was thousands of years now looking like a cub because of him.

"how do you get back your strength? what do i have to do?" he asked wanting to take fully responsibility. The fox stopped what it was doing and raised it's head at him, it grin and got on four paws and walked over to him. It raised it's front paws grabbing his sweatpants, Jiang Rong bent and picked it up into his arms with its face closer to his. "well I'm cultivating to regain my strength back with the help of the spiritual spring. But to speed up my cultivation and adding more spiritual energy into the space you have to feed the spiritual spring lots of jade. It's been long since the spiritual spring was feed with spiritual energy so it's energy has reduced!" it complained as it explained the ins and outs to him. Jiang Rong nodded " I'll find some good quality jade and feed them to the spiritual spring" he gave it his word. The fox was very happy and excited "and those crystal things too, the energy in them can be fed to the spiritual spring" it added happily.

Seeing Jiang Rong looked at him waiting for an explanation it shrugged "i can see everything that goes on around whoever has the jade, but because you didn't bind with the space i couldn't help even if i wanted to." it said looking at Jiang Rong with a sneer "that's how i know you're a moron!" it added and Jiang Rong didn't refute. Because he knew he made wrong choices, thinking about everything Ye Xuan's dying face appeared in his eyes making him feel uncomfortable. "what happened to me? am i a zombie?" he asked the fox.

The fox jumped down from his arms and landed on the soft grass on four paws, it started to walk to the spring and he followed behind. "not really. You're a human and a zombie, half of each. You not being able to control your changes is because you're agitated and unstable." It answered Jiang Rong's question as if it could read what was on his mind. It pointed to the spring pool "soak in it, it can't cure you now but i do not know of the future when my strength is back to its peak. But for now it can reform you and help you control your new changes, you should've have felt it there are a lot of changes in you." Hearing him say that Jiang Rong wasn't troubled at all, at least he was given a second chance to redo it all so he was very glad. All his choices from now on would be didn't from the past, and him now being a half zombie he didn't bother about it. He only had one thought find Ye Xuan and get stronger.

When Jiang Rong walked into the spring pool he began to feel refreshed. He felt as if cold water was passing through his meridians and veins in his whole body from under his feet, it gave him a very comfortable feeling which urged him to go deeper into the spring pool. His whole body was submerged into the pool with his figure no longer in sight, he already didn't feel the need to breath so he didn't have any problem being submerged into the pool and not being able to breath.

He felt his consciousness leaving him, unknown to him after loosing consciousness his body began to glow in the pool in green, red and gray. The fox sat on his hind legs staring focused at the glowing Jiang Rong and in deep thoughts. It felt things weren't as simple as it seems, because it may have saved Jiang Rong also depleting it's power to nothing. But it felt that something didn't seem right. It was either Jiang Rong regressed back with no changes except the space or the saving of Jiang Rong fails completely.

But regressing back as a half human half zombie with a lot of changes wasn't right, it felt that even the space itself had gone through a bit of changes but it couldn't tell where. It could only come up with a conclusion that it's saving of Jiang Rong was tempered with but it didn't know who did, it could only tell that whichever being tempered with saving Jiang Rong was strong and had no intention of harming Jiang Rong so it said in heart to conceal his guess for now and not tell Jiang Rong since it wasn't entirely sure and it didn't know what the being which tempered with them wanted.

The glowing subsided after a long while and Jiang Rong emerged from under the pool, he swarm to the surface and got out with his clothes soaked and dripping water from head to toe. But instead of feeling or shivering from cold from being in water for God knows how long, he didn't feel that or any discomfort. Instead he felt very refreshed and strong, he felt he could soar high and into the sky with a slight jump.

He felt more powerful then he had ever felt and even more powerful than he was as a level 9 ability user. "how do you feel?" the fox ran to his side and asked looking at him with eyes of expectations. Jiang Rong smiled widely "better than i have ever felt" the fox grinned and circled around him sniffing on him. "that's to be expected, this spiritual spring pool is a life source itself. It'll become more powerful after being fed Continuously with spiritual energy." it emphasized.

Jiang Rong didn't doubt it at all after, he felt the spiritual spring pool 's power too. Just soaking in it when it's power had been reduced could give him this much power, he got excited thinking how much powerful it'll get when fed with spiritual energy, Jiang Rong couldn't wait. He virtualized energy to pass through his meridians to his palm as it glowed green. Jiang Rong was stunned and flabbergasted at that moment, because in his last life whenever he did that it would glow gold but now it was a green glow with two more colours. It took him a couple of minutes before he was able to get over the fact that his abilities have changed and now he was a triplet ability user.

Wood ability which was the green glow, speed ability which was the red glow and mental ability with gray glow. It was really exciting and shocking at the same time, his previous ability was gold which was one of the powerful abilities to have with strong combat. But wood was somehow also strong but it was secondary same as mental and speed wasn't an ability which was liked at all, all the abilities he hard now where on the logistics side. But that didn't break down his spirit, because he felt if he combined the three and used it well then it would surely be strongest and also he felt that his abilities were already at level three which was comforting and really good.

He didn't have to start from scratch this time around, having a cheat space with spiritual spring and a guardian fox spirit felt like being crowned a ruler, he said in his heart grinning from ear to ear. "did Yu change my abilities?" he asked the fox. He had already accepted it but he still needed to ask to be to know, when he asked he decided to do that using mental ability so he didn't have to say it with his mouth. The fox turned sharply at him shocked, it really didn't expect so many turn of events. But it didn't want to brief Jiang Rong on that just yet and also it had no hands in Jiang Rong's change of ability.

"........no. Maybe it changed because of bringing you back?" it thought hard before answering decisively not showing the changes of it's expressions. Jiang Rong was so immensed in his own world that he didn't notice the fox's weirdness. "i am now a level three triple ability user" the fox nodded looking natural as it was given another shock. "good!good! starting from such level is good enough" it praised like an old man who had insight but it was actually trying to hide it's distorted expression.

Seeing so many changes which didn't affect Jiang Rong negatively, the fox didn't know what to think of such things. It was it's first time also experiencing such changes in the master of the space, all the masters it had served before Jiang Rong hadn't come across things like this before. And also it was it's first time turning back time, so it didn't know what solutions or actions to take. Everything it knew were all knowledges from it's original owner, if it could recall clearly sometimes it's master said things which it couldn't understand. 'when the time is right and when you meet the right owner, you'll understand everything master says.' It's owner would say this and nothing more, the fox couldn't tell whether this was the right time and the right owner it's master refered to.

It raised it's head and glanced at Jiang Rong who looked to be in a dead thought, it's eyes flashed feeling inexplicable and confused but it didn't panic since to the fox it didn't matter how long it had to wait. It's master always taught it to have patience and that was what it had been doing serving new master's one after the other. "how do I get out? There's only little time and I have to start hoarding for food and daily necessities and also........ be on time to be able to find Ye Xuan as early as possible when the apocalypse comes" Jiang Rong said feeling at loss again. He would've preferred to find Ye Xuan whiles he hoard for the things needed but he didn't know where Ye Xuan was at the moment.

He only knew that him with his group of vicious people met Ye Xuan about a month after the apocalypse when they went out to hoard a big super market, even though he had to wait until a month later in the apocalypse to find Ye Xuan he was thankful about one thing. And that was they were both in country K at the moment, so he could focus on hoarding now with somewhat peace of mind. "just think about going out." the fox answer his question bringing him back from his thoughts, Jiang Rong nodded. He looked down as the fox patted on his wet dripping sweatpants "take me out with you, i want to see the outside world." it said somehow pitifully, Jiang Rong looked at it as he struggled with in mind and nodded after about a minute.

It would be hard to explain where the red fox came from if found by the authorities, but thinking of the apocalypse which would arrive not long he thought it didn't matter as long as the fox wasn't seen by authorities before the apocalypse. He bend to pick up the fox "when was the last time you went out?" "hundreds of years ago" the fox answer nonchalantly but infact it was very happy and excited to be taken out. It always felt lonely being left in the space alone, it wouldn't admit it but so far Jiang Rong was the nicest master it had met ever since it's owner left.

All the masters it served after it's owner were rude, vicious and hard to talk to, so it was somewhat looking forward to its life with Jiang Rong in the future. In a blink of an eye Jiang Rong found himself back in the bathroom, he quickly discarded the wet clothes and step into the shower leaving the fox on the sink. He was very uncomfortable with the wet clothes sticking onto his body so he wanted to freshen up and get on with the important things. "what name did the masters before me called you?" he asked whiles showering.

He felt it was rude to call it a fox when it could clearly speak and express itself. The fox was had a look of bewilderment and turned it's attention from the mirror to Jiang Rong who was busy showering, no one had ever asked it of it's name before and it's owner hadn't ever thought of giving it a name. It felt suddenly felt warmth in it's fox heart after so many years "my owner didn't give me a name and neither did my master's before you" it answered without any expression.

Jiang Rong stopped scrubbing after hearing it "then let's call you Mao Qui, you're so furry" he said and continued on as feeling it was a trivial thing to name a pet, well a talking pet. But Mao Qui didn't feel the same, it lowered it's heard as it played with its tail with happiness. "call me whatever you want" "okay" Jiang Rong hooked the corners of his lips hearing the bashfulness in it's voice. He dressed in a black suit with a black tie, as a CEO of a big company and a workaholic all the clothes he hard were all formal wear and looking at the time it was already noon. He walked out of his room with one hand in his pocket showing the silver wrist watch and the other hand holding Mao Qui, he looked elegant with a powerful and scary Aura raising up from his body.

He was already a very handsome looking man but after soaking in the spring he looked very white and more handsome and with his well chiseled jawline and well built body he was smoking hot and looked like the sun was directly focused on him making looked dazzlingly. His face suddenly darkened and he turned cold as soon as he started walking down the stairs with his eyes looking at a person he would rather not want to see at the moment, he saw Pang Shao seating comfortably on a couch in the hall talking to the butler. Jiang Rong's whole body started reeking of bloodlust and his eyes flashed red for a second.