Chen Ye did not kill the evolved zombie on the spot.
Instead, he kept it alive, beating it until it howled every day to lure over little zombies for him to kill!
On one hand, it was to hone his combat ability.
On the other hand, it was naturally for the extra rewards.
Although Tang Zichen had said that people who could now obtain the maximum rewards were extremely, extremely rare.
But...
To ensure that no one could snatch away the extra rewards, Chen Ye would rather kill a few more zombies.
It was not like he had anything better to do.
The evolved zombie was the one suffering the most from all this!!
Several days passed.
This evolved zombie, which could be called bronze-skinned and iron-boned, had been hammered beyond recognition by Chen Ye. Its mind developed serious problems, making it question its existence as a corpse. When the final day of the secret realm finally arrived, Chen Ye gave it a quick death and tossed it into the fire to burn.
Before being burned to death, other zombies would let out miserable howls.
Yet this evolved zombie actually looked relieved, calmly accepting death.
Who knew what kind of suffering it had endured at Chen Ye's hands to end up like this...
"Ah! Old friend, thank you for keeping us company these past few days. Now that we're suddenly parting ways, I really can't bear to let you go!"
Standing by the fire and watching the evolved zombie burn, Chen Ye spoke with fake sentimentality.
The evolved zombie, which still had one last breath left in it, desperately wanted to leap up and bite him.
But when it thought of this man's terrifying strength, it decided against it...
A moment later.
The evolved zombie was finally burned to ashes.
Chen Ye discovered that evolved zombies were rather fire-resistant. It took more than half an hour to burn this one completely.
Ordinary little zombies, on the other hand, could be burned clean in ten minutes at most.
This showed that the more zombies evolved, the less they feared fire.
Chen Ye even guessed that if this evolved zombie evolved one more time, it might no longer fear him. It might even be able to kill him instead.
Of course, he was not brain-dead enough to let such a thing happen.
Chen Ye scoffed at all that nonsense about lonely masters, rare opponents, and fighting evenly matched enemies being the only way to improve.
What he sought was overwhelming force!
Absolute power that crushed every enemy!!
Ideally, he would kill them with a single punch and never give them the chance to strike back.
What mattered was being "steady"!
"Chen Ye, we can leave tomorrow."
Tang Zichen spoke.
Her tone was somewhat wistful.
Back at school, Teacher Liu had spent every class talking about the horrors of the secret realm and all manner of hardships.
Yet after entering the secret realm, she found that surviving here was not nearly as difficult as she had imagined...
Only on the first day had killing zombies exhausted her.
After Chen Ye gave her two peachwood swords, killing zombies became very easy.
Especially during these final nine days.
Ever since Chen Ye revealed his secret, she had felt less like she was here to survive and more like she was on a trip...
If the conditions in the secret realm had been a little better, this really would have been a fine place for a vacation.
"Yeah! We can leave tomorrow."
Chen Ye echoed with a sigh.
These twenty days of survival had also been an unusual experience for him.
Tang Zichen smiled and said, "You've really had to take care of me these past few days!"
It was a self-deprecating joke.
Perhaps knowing that they were about to leave the secret realm had put her at ease.
Originally, she had promised Chairman Chen to enter the secret realm with Chen Ye in order to repay a favor and look after him.
Unexpectedly, things turned out completely the other way around.
Not only had Chen Ye helped her escape danger, he had practically carried her, allowing her to obtain the highest possible reward. And if nothing unexpected happened, the extra rewards would be theirs as well.
All things considered, she had struck it rich by teaming up with Chen Ye.
If she had teamed up with someone else, she probably would have died long ago, right?
"Class monitor, with how well we know each other, you don't need to be so polite with me," Chen Ye said.
Tang Zichen smiled, then suddenly said, "We still have more than half a day left. Why don't we just take a walk?"
"Sure!"
Chen Ye agreed without hesitation.
These two really had treated their trip to the secret realm like a vacation.
Compared to their carefree ease.
Everyone else was having a far more miserable time.
At that moment.
Two teams of freshmen from martial arts universities were gathered together with gloomy expressions.
Three boys and one girl.
The all-male pair consisted of Zhao Zheng and a young man named Tao Hu.
Ever since Zhao Zheng learned that the girl of his dreams had teamed up with Chen Ye, he had not hated Chen Ye, but he had still been deeply affected. He no longer thought about romance.
At this rate, this kid's development was looking a little dangerous...
These two teams had actually just met.
Being able to encounter each other in the secret realm already counted as rather good luck.
Basically, people who entered the secret realm from the same location would be transported to different places.
The secret realm used this method to prevent people from joining forces in groups.
From the looks of it.
All four of them had suffered quite badly.
Twenty straight days of eating wild fruit, often without even getting enough to eat, had left them much thinner.
Zhao Zheng had already been on the skinny side, but now he was practically skin and bones.
Furthermore, all four of them were filthy. If one got close enough, one could smell the sour stench on them. They had not found a water source, and after twenty days without bathing, even a fairy would stink.
Fortunately, the four of them were still in decent spirits.
"Brother Zhao, how many Jumping Corpses have you killed?"
The other young man asked.
Zhao Zheng did not answer, instead asking, "What about you?"
"Only four..."
The young man's expression did not look very good.
He was also an S-class talent, so for him, his performance in this secret realm had been somewhat poor.
"The first ten days were actually fine. We could basically encounter one Jumping Corpse every two or three days. But during the last few days, we couldn't find a single one. Even when we risked going deep into the mountains and forests, we still couldn't find any Jumping Corpses. It's really strange!"
By the end, the young man's expression was full of confusion.
His companion, the girl beside him, nodded repeatedly and added, "We ran into some foreign freshmen. They also said they couldn't find any Jumping Corpses anymore. It was as if all the Jumping Corpses had disappeared."
Upon hearing this, Zhao Zheng exchanged glances with his companion Tao Hu. Both saw relief in the other's eyes.
So it was not that they had simply been unlucky.
Everyone was in the same situation.
"Our experience was about the same as yours. During these nearly ten days, we only encountered one Jumping Corpse as well."
After thinking about it, Zhao Zheng said, "So far, we've killed a total of nine Jumping Corpses."
The young man and the girl immediately revealed envious expressions.
Zhao Zheng and Tao Hu had killed more than twice as many monsters as they had.
However, they were only envious, not resentful.
After all, Zhao Zheng's talent was the second best in the class, surpassed only by class monitor Tang Zichen.
Tao Hu's talent was not bad either—S11, even stronger than this young man's.
Zhao Zheng and Tao Hu joining forces was a combination of two powerhouses!
"Oh, right, Brother Zhao."
The young man suddenly said, "A few days ago, I met a foreign freshman. He said that in another area, he often heard monsters screaming. It was terrifying! And a huge number of Jumping Corpses had gathered there... Do you think our inability to find Jumping Corpses might have something to do with that?"
Zhao Zheng frowned upon hearing this.
Before he could speak, Tao Hu sneered. "You believe that? Jumping Corpses act on instinct and prefer to travel alone. Why would they gather together for no reason? What, are they holding a family meeting?"
"The fact that we can't find any Jumping Corpses can only mean that there were fewer of them this year to begin with..."
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