Talent Spells

After successfully refining the Main Soul Warrior, Lu Yan's gaze swept over the dozens of remaining Zombie Wandering Souls on the first floor. He raised the Soul Banner, and the Ghost Mist reversed its flow, swallowing all the surrounding Zombie Wandering Souls.

The sixth Vengeful Soul within the Soul Banner, which had already begun to take shape, rapidly solidified. Another Vengeful Soul pattern appeared on the banner.

A Vengeful Soul emerged from the Ghost Mist once more, appearing on the first floor.

Six Vengeful Souls at the First Level of Qi Refining and one Main Soul at the fourth level of Qi Refining—such a lineup could already be called luxurious, far surpassing Lu Yan's situation when he had first arrived in the Apocalypse Version.

And this was only after clearing the first building in the residential complex. There were a full twenty buildings like it in the entire complex.

Similar residential complexes were scattered throughout the city. A rough estimate suggested that the city's number of zombies had already exceeded one million.

Even though Zombie Wandering Souls lacked the souls of Heaven and Earth and were far inferior in quality to ordinary people, such a colossal number was enough to make up for everything!

"However, such a huge number will inevitably give rise to even stronger Transcendent Zombies.

"When hunting zombies, I must remain vigilant at all times and never let my guard down."

With that thought, Lu Yan glanced at the sky outside. It was still early, leaving him enough time to clear another building.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Lu Yan could also search for a suitable place to settle down.

Lu Yan left the building strewn with white bones and headed toward another building next to it. On the surface of its long-broken outer walls, the words "Building Thirteen" could just barely be seen.

After leaving the dark, dilapidated building, Lu Yan's surrounding chill faded slightly under the warm sunlight outside.

Lu Yan raised his head and looked at the warm sun high in the sky.

In this Apocalypse Version, where the concentration of spiritual energy was ten times greater than in the Urban Version, Lu Yan faintly sensed that the sun in the sky seemed to have changed as well.

Its radiance contained traces of spiritual energy, already exceeding the concentration in the surrounding environment.

Sunlight was the natural nemesis of Yin Souls. Zombie Wandering Souls, lacking the souls of Heaven and Earth, could very likely have their own souls dissipate after being exposed to spiritual-energy-infused sunlight for too long. That was why most zombies hid inside buildings to avoid the sun.

If ordinary people remained beneath the sunlight for a long time, the abundant spiritual energy would be enough to awaken certain special potentials within them.

"Spiritual energy ten times denser than in the Urban Version, along with this strange sunlight... Perhaps survivors in the Apocalypse Version have already developed a supernatural system?"

A look of surprise appeared in Lu Yan's eyes, but he had no interest in coming into contact with humans for now.

Although this Apocalypse Version concealed dangers, it was obvious that these ordinary zombies were opportunities belonging to Lu Yan. All he could do was increase his strength as much as possible in the Apocalypse Version to prepare for the coming Version Update.

Once he left the Apocalypse Version, where else could he find a place where he could refine the Soul Banner without having to fear pursuit from orthodox cultivators?

Lu Yan raised the Soul Banner, and the Ghost Mist spread through the sunlight toward the nearest building. The Warrior led the six Vengeful Souls, and they quickly stormed into Building Thirteen.

"Boom!"

A violent crash erupted. Lu Yan could see that, under the Warrior's lead, the six Vengeful Souls had abandoned their former eerie and sinister methods. Like reckless brutes, they charged straight into the horde of zombies.

Unlike the other Vengeful Souls, which attacked by relying on their soul bodies' ability to ignore physical matter, the Warrior directly manifested a soul body condensed from Ghost Mist and clashed head-on with the zombies.

With one punch, a zombie covered in rotting flesh exploded. Rotten blood and flesh splattered in every direction, while its fragmented soul vanished into thin air along with the collapse of its physical body.

When the zombie's claws struck the Warrior, they could not even leave behind the slightest wound.

Just then, a threatening howl rang out in the corridor.

A Zombie Dog, roughly two meters long and shaped like a wolfhound, emerged from the horde. Not a single strand of fur covered its body.

Lu Yan noticed that the Zombie Dog's aura was only at the early Qi Refining Stage, far inferior to the Warrior's.

Yet waves of low growls came from the Zombie Dog's mouth, as if it were threatening the Warrior and ordering him to retreat. Instead, this conduct roused the Warrior's ferocity.

A vicious smile spread across the Warrior's blue-faced, fanged visage. He charged at the Zombie Dog like a cannonball. Several zombies along the way were smashed apart, and amid the flesh flying through the air, the humanoid beast reached for the Zombie Dog's head.

Facing the threat at such close range, the Zombie Dog did not choose to evade. Instead, it opened its maw filled with fangs, attempting to trade injury for injury.

At that moment, a streak of black light flashed across the Warrior's body. Armor that seemed forged from black iron surfaced over his frame.

Talent Spell—Ghost Armor Art!

Amid the clash of metal, the armor transformed from the Ghost Armor Art blocked the Zombie Dog's sharp fangs.

Only then did the Zombie Dog realize the danger. It tried to dodge and flee, but it was already too late.

A heavy fist crashed down, violently smashing away most of the Zombie Dog's skull. As blood sprayed through the air, the Warrior raised his fist again, but a cold rebuke stopped him.

"Stop!"

The Warrior's body instinctively trembled. He withdrew his fist, allowing the Zombie Dog, half its head missing, to lie on the ground and twitch continuously.

Only then did the six Vengeful Souls arrive belatedly. Several Ghost Claws reached into the Zombie Dog's body and extracted its utterly defenseless soul.

The Vengeful Souls then continued joining the slaughter of the ordinary zombies, leaving only the Warrior trembling in place like a primary school student waiting to be reprimanded by his teacher.

At the entrance of Building Thirteen, Lu Yan could not help feeling a headache as he looked at the Warrior.

The Warrior's displayed strength certainly lived up to the status of the Soul Banner's Main Soul. The zombies' metallic supernatural ability had also transformed into the Ghost Armor Art, a Talent Spell belonging to him, after he was refined into the Main Soul.

When the Main Soul Warrior cast the Ghost Armor Art, he could clad himself and the soul bodies of the Vengeful Souls under his command in armor, strengthening their soul-body defenses. It was an extremely practical spell.

There was only one thing Lu Yan was dissatisfied with: the Main Soul Warrior did not look like a ghost at all. Instead, he resembled a Daoist guardian Venerable God—the Yellow Turban Warrior.

In the Xianxia Version, the Warrior's formidable close-quarters combat ability could be considered an advantage. The Ghost Armor Art made up for his lack of defense and restrained cultivators who focused more on spell cultivation.

But in this Apocalypse Version, Lu Yan hunted zombies to collect wandering souls and refine the Soul Banner. The Warrior charged straight in and smashed a zombie to pieces with one punch, making it impossible to strip out a complete wandering soul.

Every zombie the Warrior killed represented the loss of one wandering soul for sacrifice. That was precisely what gave Lu Yan a headache.

If he had not stopped him in time, the Zombie Dog's soul would probably have been smashed to pieces along with its body by the Warrior.

Ghostly shadows flickered through Building Thirteen. The massive number of zombies gathered on the first floor were slaughtered by the Vengeful Souls. They did not even spare the other floors within the control range of the Soul Banner.

More than two hundred wandering souls were sent into the first-floor hall. Building Thirteen was more than half cleared, and the speed was far beyond before.

The greatest key was that the Transcendent Zombie in Building Thirteen had been swiftly killed by the Warrior, leaving no other force capable of stopping the Vengeful Souls' slaughter.

The Ghost Mist spread, and all the wandering souls were refined.

There had been too many wandering souls this time. Lu Yan spent nearly an hour completing the refinement, and two more Vengeful Souls appeared within the Soul Banner.

Looking at one Main Soul and eight Vengeful Souls within the Soul Banner, Lu Yan faintly realized something.

"The Soul Banner is not far from advancing to a Mid-Grade Magic Item!"