For the next few hours, Ding Yun tossed out over twenty tons of flesh and blood, while her zombie grandparents acted like black holes, accepting everything without complaint.
Their evolution never stopped.
During their third evolution, they developed special abilities.
Their abilities became stronger with the fourth evolution.
By the fifth evolution, the bluish-purple corpse spots on their faces began to fade.
Signs of a reversal in their deathly aura were appearing within their bodies.
After the sixth transformation was complete, they not only regained their normal human appearance, but their faces also became decades younger. However, they still lacked intelligence, retaining only the instinct to pursue flesh and blood.
But when the seventh transformation occurred.
They finally underwent some new changes.
Externally, they seemed unchanged, but Ding Yun, using her mental power, could clearly see that the spark of life at the core of their zombie crystals was rapidly growing.
And after the transformation ended.
It manifested as a fragile soul.
With the birth of their souls, their bodies, as if enlightened like Nuwa creating humans, instantly became fully revitalized from mere instinct-driven husks.
In essence, they regained vitality.
They were, in a sense, human again.
Most miraculously, the original zombie virus within them became inactive. Although it still existed in their bodies, unlike how Ding Yun purged it after achieving Martial Saint, it had lost its ability to infect humans.
At this point, they were largely as the scientists who specialized in strengthening miracle factors had most hoped for, considered to have successfully evolved.
However, their evolution was not perfect.
Leaving aside the need to consume so much flesh and blood during the process, and the possibility of having unknowingly consumed many of their own kind, they were also significantly different from their original selves even after successful evolution. This was because their souls were essentially newborn, having no connection to their initial souls whatsoever.
There was no inheritance of memories or connection.
Rather than a successful evolution and resurrection, it was more like a new soul being reborn from a dead body. It was a new life.
They were not as blank and naive as a blank slate.
They were as naive as infants.
They possessed the ignorance born from the memory of past flesh consumption. Without someone to specifically guide them and change them, even after successful evolution, they would likely remain akin to feral children in the future.
They might even continue to prey on humans.
This was undoubtedly a troubling matter.
Ding Yun was currently unsure how to handle her zombie grandparents, who were still bound by chains. If they remained tied, with their current strength, it would be effortless for them to break free if hungry. Once they escaped, where would she find them?
But if she brought them back, how could she explain?
Although their appearance had become much younger, as long as her father and aunt's memories were intact, they should still recognize them as their parents in their youth. Would she have to tell the truth then?
Most importantly, if this matter were to leak.
Dealing with these zombies would become even more difficult. How would those who had personally killed many zombies, or even their own family members who had turned into zombies, cope with the ensuing pain, inner turmoil, and regret?
It would be a difficult hurdle to overcome mentally.
In short, the experiment was thrilling, but the aftermath was a disaster.
"It's over, haven't I brought this trouble upon myself?
And in this post-apocalyptic world where most life has already perished, even if my influence could reach all surviving humans, it probably wouldn't be enough to pry open the world's origins and inscribe a mark. So, in reality, there's only one way to complete the mission: end the apocalypse.
And there are only two ways to end the apocalypse: either eliminate all the zombies, or have all the zombies recover. Regardless of whether they have memories, whether they are reborn, at least make them lose their infectivity and return to being human.
Is my golden finger just for providing them with meat? Good heavens, am I a feeder?"
Ding Yun grumbled in distress as she frantically scratched her head, feeling more agitated than when she first arrived.
"Who said apocalyptic missions were easy? Just solve the apocalypse and the mission is done, no need to expend too much effort. Is the apocalypse that easy to solve?
My god, this is a death sentence..."
"This is so annoying. It feels like these zombies are bothersome whether I save them or not. It's a headache. If I save them, I'll have to produce so much flesh and blood, I might die of exhaustion.
If I don't save them, I can't get over it mentally.
Eh, wait, that's not right. Zombies don't necessarily have to eat flesh and blood. When Grandpa and Grandma evolved later, didn't they directly absorb and convert the flesh and blood into energy using their abilities? They just lacked evolutionary energy.
They didn't just eat their own kind; they ate other living animals too. If I could create a nutrient solution that they could directly absorb and digest, that might be a good idea!"
Amidst her frustration, Ding Yun quickly identified the core of the problem. She then made an effort to calm herself down and began to carefully consider her next steps.
Should she reveal the news directly, or what?
Or should she research it herself?
However, before she could come up with a solution, her alarm clock rang. It was a 3 AM alarm, which she had planned the day before to move the supplies promised to the base commander outside the base.
So, she had no choice but to stop thinking.
In the end, she could only forcibly press the sleep acupoints of her grandparents with her Martial Saint True Essence, and leave a potent stream of True Essence to maintain their pressure-point-induced slumber.
This would allow them to sleep for at least twenty-four hours.
Then, she quickly returned to Sunflower Base.
Since the Sunflower Base did not expect Ding Yun or their organization to be able to retrieve the supplies from those locations within half a day, when Ding Yun returned to the outside of Sunflower Base at 3:15 AM, there were no patrols outside the base, and everything was quiet.
There was no surveillance, so Ding Yun confidently released all the items she had received into her soul space the previous afternoon, except for a portion of her favorite clothes and toiletries.
She released the rest directly.
She piled them up outside the base.
Only then did she begin to knock on the base door. In the sleepy eyes of the gatekeeper, she presented the token given to her by the base commander, asking him to inform the base commander that she had completed the entrusted task and that the goods were outside.
They should quickly send someone to receive them.