After his brothers went to take the marrow cleansing pills and start cultivating, Ye Xuan went to check the fridge for some ingredients to cook breakfast for himself.
Even though he had servants before when he lived in the villa on the mountain, and after moving into the apartment his brothers did all the cooking, it didn’t mean that he couldn’t cook.
Having served in the military and going on solo missions undercover sometimes, Ye Xuan had to be proficient in more than just military duties. Cooking is a necessary skill for all of them.
He had not eaten in 24 hours and he was a bit hungry. Hence, he took out some frozen vegetables from the fridge, steak, and also cooked some rice.
After eating breakfast, Ye Xuan went back to the sofa and started cultivating again. Chu Miao had told him not to look for her until he had broken through to the second level of Qi refinement, and he intended to fulfill the promise he made.
The sooner he advanced, the sooner he could see his beloved. Thus, he cast aside all distracting thoughts and cultivated diligently.
In a small town thirty kilometers away from Jianchen, the economy hub of G Province, a group of five soldiers were surrounded by zombies and fighting with their lives on the line.
They had been traveling for a few days, heading to Jianchen from City A. Before the apocalypse, driving from City A to Jianchen would have taken a maximum of six hours. Even with congested traffic, the longest it could take was eight hours.
However, they had been driving for two days and one night and still hadn’t arrived at their destination.
Zombies were fighting so fiercely to tear them into pieces and eat them as nourishment for their abilities. As such, they had to put in extreme efforts to survive.
The reason they had taken so much time on the road was because of these zombies and some people they encountered on the way who dragged them down for a while before choosing to remain behind.
As soldiers, they felt duty-bound to help those in need even if it cost their lives. But they were aware that with the situation of the apocalypse being that ordinary people couldn’t defend themselves, sacrificing themselves for such people was a loss.
Nevertheless, they had to find a safe place to leave them before continuing with their journey.
This had delayed them further resulting in traveling for so long without getting to their destination. The most beneficial thing on this trip was that Qi Long had discovered the use of crystal cores.
Yes, this group of soldiers was Qi Long’s team heading back to report about the completion of their task.
After killing the first group of zombies that attacked them, Qi Long had remembered the things Ye Xuan had picked up when he burned those zombies’ he had killed.
Thus, he asked one of his soldiers, Bai Yan, who happened to have awakened the fire superpower to burn the dead zombies. Once they had turned to ashes, he created a small tornado and swept them away. Qi Long was a wind-type ability user. Unfortunately, all of them were still level one.
When he remembered how formidable Ye Xuan had been, killing so many zombies alone, he was awed, and also had a desire to grow stronger. So, he was willing to investigate what Ye Xuan had been collecting.
To his surprise, once the ashes were blown away, he found shiny crystals on the ground. They were of different colors and different sizes, but he knew they were the ones Ye Xuan had been collecting.
Now he had to figure out their use. He was almost sure that Ye Xuan’s strength was associated with these crystals.
After collecting more than a hundred crystal cores, the group had found a safe place to rest and understand what they were and their use.
The young soldier, Fu Nie, had awakened the earth superpower and didn’t know many uses. All he had figured out was to use them as walls for defense. Something that had happened when his life was in danger and he was almost torn to pieces by zombies.
At that time, he had created walls around him by instinct. But after that time, he hadn’t discovered any other way to use his superpower.
However, at least now when his group was surrounded by zombies and needed some rest, he could protect them by creating walls and give them a chance to breathe and recover their strength before resuming the fight.
Fu Nie had just picked up a brown crystal to examine when he felt a high affinity and desire to devour it. He couldn’t understand such a thirst for something that had come out of the body of a flesh-eating monster like the one in his hand.
He was scared that he was turning into one too.
Just as he was about to throw away the crystal in his hand, he felt a pull from his body absorbing something from the crystal and at the same time, he could feel his strength recovering.
He was shocked and stopped his action of throwing the crystal away. Instead, he stopped struggling and actively absorbed the crystal. The crystal wasn’t big, just the size of his thumb nail.
It turned from brown to a dull grey in five minutes and then shattered.
When no more power could be absorbed, Fu Nie who had his eyes closed while absorbing the crystal core opened his eyes and looked at the shattered crystal in his hand. His face broke into a bright smile.
He felt that he had found out how Ye Xuan had increased his power. This little crystal that existed in the head of zombies could actually increase their power.
It was incredible just thinking about it. He thought that with time, humans who had awakened superpowers would not be suppressed by zombies anymore.
At least, there was a chance to fight back.