Rebirth as a Demonic Cultivator: Starting with a Zombie Planet

Chapter 63: Hanhai Province, Boat Gang

Hanhai Province.

Dominated by the sprawling expanse of Han Lake—one of the largest inland bodies of water in the Yanhan Celestial Dynasty—and bordered to the east by the boundless East Sea, the province’s name literally meant “Sea of Han.”

For centuries, Hanhai’s waterways had been its lifeblood. Fleets of all sizes, from humble wooden sampans to massive steel coast guard vessels, navigated its currents. When the Zombie outbreak decimated the mainland, the people who lived and worked on these waters—the fishermen and sailors—largely survived.

Rallied by powerful Espers, these aquatic survivors fractured into multiple factions before their leaders finally convened to forge a massive alliance: the Boat Gang.

The Boat Gang had no single overlord. Instead, it was governed by the Esper Council.

However, because the Boat Gang’s influence spanned the entirety of Hanhai Province, it was difficult to gather everyone at the Council’s headquarters in Yuhai City. Furthermore, the Espers were fiercely territorial, and bitter rivalries often kept them apart. As a result, full Council meetings were rare; most day-to-day operations and minor disputes were settled by a rotating skeleton crew of two or three Espers.

The Council’s headquarters was situated in Yuhai City’s First Shipyard. Before the apocalypse, this historic drydock had constructed six ironclad warships, earning personal praise from the Yanhan Emperor himself. Now, it had been repurposed into the beating heart of the Boat Gang.

High above the drydocks, in the top-floor conference room, two Espers sifted through a mountain of intelligence reports sent in from across the province.

Without exception, every document detailed the movements of high-level Zombies and mutated beasts. The undead and the flora and fauna were evolving just as fast as humanity. A single powerful Zombie could unleash a psychic roar and rally thousands of lesser infected to its banner, carving out a bloody fiefdom and relentlessly raiding human settlements.

As the dominant power in Hanhai Province, the Boat Gang was obligated to protect the weak. Culling these high-level threats was simply the cost of maintaining their empire.

Of the two Espers currently on duty, one appeared to be nothing more than a little boy. Yet, a closer look at his eyes revealed a cold, ancient weariness that completely betrayed his youthful face.

The other was a tall, statuesque woman with curves as lush as a ripe peach. Slumped in her chair, she held a half-empty bottle of liquor in her left hand and a crumpled document in her right, looking utterly bored.

Taking a heavy swig from the bottle, she lazily read aloud, “…Jinshan City. A high-level Zombie has surfaced. Innate talent: ice spike projection. It’s already wiped out three minor settlements. Suspected to be Level 2, commanding a horde of over a thousand ordinary Zombies and twenty Level 1s.”

The moment the words left her mouth, the little boy replied, “Ding Peng’s sector is the closest. Send word to him. Have him lead a strike team to cull the horde.”

The woman continued rattling off disaster reports from across the province. For every crisis, the boy issued a flawless, tactical directive in less than a second.

It was as if a living, breathing map of Hanhai Province was burned into his brain. Every Esper in the Boat Gang, every settlement under their protection—they were all luminous dots on a grid, and he manipulated them with absolute precision.

Suddenly, the woman paused, her eyes locking onto a specific document. A genuine smile touched her lips.

Without even looking up, the little boy spoke. “Sister Yu, that is the first time today your micro-expressions have indicated genuine interest.”

Sister Yu covered her mouth, chuckling softly. “Our moles in Linjiang Province just sent an update. That Two-Headed Python that broke through Ye Nantian’s encirclement? It’s popped up in Donghu City. Ye Nantian sent three of his commanders—Xiong Xing, Lin Qiao, and Li Tiemu—to hunt the injured beast down.” She grinned. “Xiao Liang, it’s that same snake we ran into before.”

Xiao Liang nodded analytically. “That Two-Headed Python is highly intelligent and possesses immense psychic energy. It will not be easily killed. Xiong Xing, Lin Qiao, and Li Tiemu are seasoned Level 2 Espers. I have already run the combat simulations. Assuming a maximum acceptable loss of two commanders and over ten Level 1 Espers, they have exactly a 72% probability of intercepting and killing the beast.”

Sister Yu laughed, sliding the document across the table. “You miscalculated, Xiao Liang.”

The boy frowned, his voice flat. “Impossible. The variables are constant. The outcome is deterministic.”

“Take a look,” she teased. “An unexpected variable just entered the board.”

Xiao Liang’s eyes darted across the page, absorbing ten lines at a glance. For the first time, a crack of genuine shock fractured his stoic facade.

“Sword Riding? Soul extraction? The methods of an Immortal?”

The boy found it hard to compute. He believed his understanding of psychic energy and Awakened talents was absolute. He had never accounted for something so entirely outside the bounds of their reality. And yet, this anomaly had effortlessly rewritten his calculated outcome.

“He didn’t even strike directly,” Xiao Liang muttered, his mind racing. “He controlled two mutant Zombies, using them to effortlessly cripple the Two-Headed Python. Based on this data, there is a 52% probability this so-called Immortal is a Level 4 Esper, and a 22% probability he is Level 5. Given his absolute dominance over the undead, there is a 55% chance his Awakened talent is tied to cerebral mutation or psychic domination.”

A strange, eager light flashed in Sister Yu’s beautiful eyes. “A Level 5 Esper? Brain enhancement? You’re rating him that highly?”

Xiao Liang nodded grimly.

Sister Yu giggled, pushing herself up from the desk. “Shall we go meet him, then? Maybe he can help us find our missing memories.”

“Judging by his behavioral patterns and ruthless efficiency, he is not someone easily befriended,” Xiao Liang warned. “Are you certain you want to risk this?”

“I am,” she nodded. “Even if he’s not the friendly type, if we show up bearing gifts, he surely won’t refuse us, right?”

Xiao Liang stood up, adjusting his clothes. “Understood. Let us depart.”

“Shouldn’t we tell the Boat Boss?” she asked with a smirk.

“No need. When we agreed to stay with the Boat Gang, the terms were clear: we assist him for one year, and then we are free to leave whenever we please.”

“Alright, then let’s go,” Sister Yu whispered, her eyes gleaming mischievously. “Mmm… but before we leave, I’m grabbing a few more bottles. The Boat Gang’s brew is just too good to leave behind.”

“I calculated a 99% chance you would say that,” Xiao Liang replied deadpan. He pointed at the floor. “The primary wine storage is on the east side of the second basement level. Two guards are on duty. It is currently their scheduled time to doze off.”

Sister Yu laughed brightly, reaching out to gently pinch his nose. “Breaking you out of that hospital was the best decision I ever made.”

Xiao Liang immediately dodged backward, his face scowling.

Still giggling, Sister Yu grabbed the boy’s hand and strode out of the conference room. As they stepped into the corridor, a strange, shimmering distortion rippled across their skin, wrapping them in an ethereal veil.

They walked right through the bustling shipyard. Men and women brushed past them, completely oblivious to their existence, as if they were nothing more than phantoms drifting through the crowd.

It wasn’t until over an hour later, when a subordinate arrived to deliver a fresh stack of reports, that the Council discovered the room was empty.

Soon, the news of their sudden disappearance was placed directly on the desk of the Boat Boss.

The Boat Boss was a man nearing seventy, his true name long swallowed by the sea and time. To the common folk, he was simply the patriarch of the East Sea fishermen. Even at his age, he still regularly took to the open ocean to cast his nets.

Long before the dead began to walk, his word was law on the water. When the apocalypse struck, he had been miles out at sea, safely bypassing the initial slaughter on the mainland. Later, he Awakened, naturally cementing his position as the absolute leader of the fleets and, eventually, the Chief of the Esper Council.

Though his hair was white and his face weathered, he possessed the rugged, indomitable vitality of a much younger man. Every deep, craggy wrinkle on his face seemed carved by the salt and damp breath of the ocean wind.