Moonlight Spiritual Energy

Among the many wandering souls offered in sacrifice, the early Qi Refining Stage Zombie Dog's wandering soul was among them.

But the Zombie Dog had never been human to begin with. Even after advancing to the Qi Refining Stage, the strength of its soul was only a notch above that of an ordinary zombie, with little value to speak of. Thus, Lu Yan casually refined the Zombie Dog together with the other zombies.

Thanks to the presence of the Zombie Dog's soul, the eighth Vengeful Soul had a dog-like face, and its aura was several notches stronger than those of the other Vengeful Souls.

By the time he had cleared Building Thirteen, the sky had gradually darkened.

Once the sun went down, the zombies that had hidden from the sunlight during the day would inevitably emerge from the buildings. Lu Yan had no intention of making a move while the zombies were active at night.

There did not seem to be any survivors in Building Thirteen. Although some locked rooms were covered in dust, they were still fairly tidy.

Lu Yan found one of them and settled in temporarily.

He casually tore open a dust-removing talisman of no grade. Gust after gust of breeze swept through, rolling up a great cloud of dust and rapidly cleaning the entire room spotless.

Only after doing all that did Lu Yan take out the supplies he had prepared in advance from his Storage Bag.

Before the Version Update's progress bar had filled, Lu Yan had not actually known there would be three versions to choose from. As a result, the supplies he had selected were not very targeted; he had merely brought some food and water that were convenient to carry.

After entering the First Level of Qi Refining, Lu Yan's need for food had decreased greatly, but he still had not completely reached the Bigu Stage.

Without these supplies, surviving this Apocalypse Version would certainly have been extremely difficult.

Searching for food and water in an abandoned city that had no one knew how many years of abandonment behind it, with zombies everywhere inside, would be no different from fishing for a needle in the sea.

But with these foods in hand, Lu Yan had completely turned this Apocalypse Version survival experience into an entirely different scene.

On the dining table before the floor-to-ceiling window, an opened self-heating hotpot was bubbling and steaming. Beside it sat a portion of luncheon meat that had just been opened.

Lu Yan handed the cola in his hand to a Vengeful Soul. The Vengeful Soul's sinister ghostly aura spread and swirled around the cola, and a layer of frost immediately rose over it.

After taking a hearty gulp of ice-cold cola, Lu Yan looked out at the abandoned city beneath the setting sun, which had taken on the scene of a doomsday dusk. He then enjoyed the self-heating hotpot and luncheon meat, eating to his heart's content.

Placed in the Urban Version, this would absolutely not count as a remarkable dinner. But amid these doomsday ruins, it was an incomparably precious resource, enough to draw those Transcendent survivors into slaughtering one another for it.

After dinner, the sun had completely set. Lu Yan sat cross-legged before the window and began his first cultivation session since entering the Apocalypse Version.

The spiritual energy concentration in the Apocalypse Version was ten times greater than in the Urban Version. As the "Red Lotus Karma Fire Sutra" circulated through its cycles, Lu Yan easily drew spiritual energy from the air and refined it strand by strand into magical power.

At this level of spiritual energy concentration, Lu Yan could cultivate with ease even without the assistance of Spirit Stones.

Time slowly passed. As the Cultivation Technique circulated, Lu Yan entered a state in which he forgot both self and things, while the magical power within his body grew at a speed visible to the naked eye.

After a long while, a chilly strand of spiritual energy was drawn into his body. It actually ignored the Cultivation Technique circulating through its cycles and merged into Lu Yan's spiritual platform.

In an instant, his spiritual platform became crystal clear, and even his soul seemed to have received a measure of nourishment.

Lu Yan immediately awoke and raised his head to look outside. He saw a full moon rising from the west, scattering pure moonlight across the earth.

Lu Yan could clearly sense that within the moonlight of the full moon was spiritual energy of a chilly nature, completely opposite to the sunlight of the day.

The spiritual energy hidden within the moonlight could nourish the soul and nurture the spiritual platform with just a single strand.

"Such strange spiritual energy actually exists within the moonlight. Then does the sunlight during the day also contain some kind of special spiritual energy?"

Lu Yan was utterly astonished.

The surprises brought to him by the Apocalypse Version were simply too many. First, there was hope for the Soul Banner's advancement, and then there were the hidden properties behind this Moonlight Spiritual Energy.

To other people, the Apocalypse Version was a despairing land filled with danger. But to Lu Yan, the apocalypse could be said to be overflowing with opportunities.

Just as Lu Yan was pondering, a high-pitched roar suddenly rang out from outside.

"Roar!!!"

The sound came from the center of the city. Its force seemed capable of piercing the firmament. Even from more than ten kilometers away, Lu Yan could still clearly sense the intimidation contained within it.

Lu Yan's expression changed drastically, and he immediately looked toward the center of the city.

From all directions, one after another, the furious roars of zombies rang out in succession, as though answering the voice from the city center.

The next moment, Lu Yan witnessed a magnificent sight the likes of which he had never seen before.

In the city, which had been deathly silent during the day, zombies emerged from the shadows one after another and walked onto the streets bathed in moonlight, rapidly occupying the streets that had previously been empty.

Buildings, ruins, shopping malls, sports arenas—everywhere was packed with zombies, dense as a tide. They raised their heads toward the pure full moon overhead and roared, while the moonlight seemed to be drawn down by some invisible force, pouring over the zombies in great quantities.

The denser the zombie horde, the more moonlight it drew down.

Lu Yan had been wondering earlier why those ordinary zombies, despite their physical bodies being almost completely rotten, could still maintain the continued existence of their Human Soul Seven Spirits.

This was especially true of the zombies in the lower floors of the buildings. Their physical bodies were far more intact than those of the zombies trapped on the upper floors.

This scene now gave Lu Yan his answer.

It was precisely this special Moonlight Spiritual Energy at night that nourished their souls and maintained the souls the zombies lacked.

The zombies on the lower floors could leave the buildings and face the moonlight directly, accepting more of the Moonlight Spiritual Energy's nourishment. Naturally, their bodies and souls were more intact.

Beyond these ordinary zombies, strange-looking Transcendent Zombies also emerged into Lu Yan's view one after another.

Some stood atop high-rises, bathing in the moonlight. Some occupied patches of open ground that the other zombies did not dare approach. Others had countless zombies voluntarily piled together into a mountain of corpses, upon which the enormous Transcendent Zombies sat.

This city, abandoned for who knew how many years, revealed its true doomsday terror at night.

Lu Yan watched the Transcendent Zombies appearing beneath the moonlight. They seemed to occupy fixed territories, and every one of their auras far surpassed that of a Warrior. They were at least in the Late Stage Qi Refining.

The closer they were to the city center, the denser the zombie hordes became, and the more powerful the Transcendent Zombies were.

As for that roar from the city center, it came from at least a Zombie King at the Foundation Establishment Late Stage—an existence Lu Yan absolutely could not contend with at his current stage.

At this moment, Lu Yan suddenly felt somewhat fortunate. Since the room he lived in had long been abandoned and had no lighting equipment, the darkness inside did not stand out.

If he had lit a fire rashly without knowing what the night was like, it would inevitably have attracted a great number of Transcendent Zombies. By then, even with the Soul Banner's protection, escaping would have been extremely difficult.

Surveying the surrounding scene, Lu Yan firmly memorized the areas where those powerful Transcendent Zombies were located, to prevent accidentally encountering them while hunting zombies during the day.

As Lu Yan continued observing, he suddenly realized something.

"Since every area where the other zombies gather has a Transcendent Zombie resembling a leader stationed there, then this residential complex where I am should also have a powerful Transcendent Zombie.

"I cleared two buildings and killed several hundred zombies. Have I already attracted its attention?"