Lu Yan's mind jolted. He immediately picked up the Soul Banner and summoned eight Vengeful Souls, manipulating them to investigate the surrounding area.
The Vengeful Souls concealed their forms within the walls, cautiously moving through the floors of Building Thirteen while secretly peering beyond the Thirteenth Floor.
At night, large numbers of zombies gathered to bathe in the moonlight, among them no shortage of Transcendent Zombies. Lu Yan naturally did not dare send the Vengeful Souls out in the open.
With the Vengeful Souls' vision, Lu Yan clearly saw the scene beyond the Thirteenth Floor.
From the uncleared buildings, more than three thousand zombies surged out like a tide, swiftly occupying most of Happiness District.
Almost every building had a Transcendent Zombie, but most of them had merely reached the early Qi Refining Stage, barely stronger than the Zombie Dog from before. Only three Transcendent Zombies had reached the Mid-Stage Qi Refinement.
These Transcendent Zombies, each with strange and varied forms, stood before the floors they had occupied, enjoying the nourishment of the Moonlight Spiritual Energy.
Ordinary zombies had not mastered supernatural power and could only passively accept the nourishment of the Moonlight Spiritual Energy. Not only was their absorption a matter of chance, but they also found it difficult to draw out even a tenth of its effects.
Transcendent Zombies, however, possessed supernatural power and had already mastered some cultivation methods that were almost instinctive. They were currently swallowing and exhaling the precious Moonlight Spiritual Energy.
"No Leader-Level Zombie?"
The doubt in Lu Yan's heart deepened, and his movements became even more cautious.
Finally, after searching for some time, Lu Yan saw a strange zombie atop Building Seven. Its back was covered in tendrils of flesh and blood as it swallowed and exhaled the Moonlight Spiritual Energy.
As its enormous mouth opened and closed, the Moonlight Spiritual Energy visible to the naked eye was swallowed into its belly, while the tendrils of flesh and blood behind it writhed wildly.
"Peak Qi Refining!"
Lu Yan's expression changed drastically. In the next moment, the strange zombie, which had been swallowing and exhaling the Moonlight Spiritual Energy, turned its head toward the direction where the Vengeful Souls were.
The Vengeful Souls hurriedly slipped into the walls and concealed themselves, not daring to continue peering.
The strange zombie withdrew its puzzled gaze and began gulping down the Moonlight Spiritual Energy again.
Inside the room, Lu Yan now wore a grave expression.
Even in the Cultivation Version, Peak Qi Refining could already be considered impressive. Most of the senior figures in the Bamboo Forest Market were at this level.
Lu Yan had once seen a senior figure of the Bamboo Forest Market at Peak Qi Refining wield a flying sword, killing three Mid-Stage Qi Refining rogue cultivators with a single slash. The disparity in strength had been immeasurably vast.
This Leader-Level Zombie was already beyond the level Lu Yan could contend with.
Even if the Soul Banner was about to advance to a Mid-Grade Magic Item, it still could not possibly stand against it.
"There are twenty buildings in the district. Clearing two of them has already noticeably reduced the number of zombies here, but Building Seven, where the Leader-Level Zombie is located, is still some distance away.
"These ordinary zombies can draw in the moonlight. To a certain extent, they count as resources for the Transcendent Zombies.
"If I continue hunting zombies in the district, the reduction in moonlight will inevitably alert the Leader-Level Zombie. Once it locks onto me, with my cultivation, escaping will be extremely difficult!"
"Before nightfall tomorrow, I must leave this place!"
Having made up his mind, Lu Yan arranged for the Vengeful Souls to constantly monitor the area around Building Seven, preventing the Leader-Level Zombie from noticing that it was being observed.
Inside the room, Lu Yan used a Stealth Talisman before entering cultivation once more.
Moonlight Spiritual Energy was rare, and Lu Yan was not certain whether such Moonlight Spiritual Energy would appear every night. He had to seize this opportunity.
His cultivation continued until the next morning. As the sun slowly rose, Lu Yan stopped circulating his cultivation technique.
Unlike the Transcendent Zombies that merely followed instinct to swallow and exhale the Moonlight Spiritual Energy, Lu Yan's Red Lotus Karma Fire Sutra could actively absorb spiritual energy and refine it into magic power, making it far more efficient than the Transcendent Zombies.
After an entire night, Lu Yan could clearly feel that his soul was limpid and clear. As his soul gradually grew stronger, he found manipulating the Vengeful Souls within the Soul Banner increasingly effortless.
Moreover, the spiritual energy concentration, ten times that of the Urban Version, combined with the aid of the Moonlight Spiritual Energy, allowed Lu Yan's cultivation to advance by leaps and bounds. Judging by last night's progress, he would be able to advance to the Second Layer Qi Refining in less than a week. This speed was already astonishingly fast.
Looking outside, Lu Yan saw that as the sun rose, the zombies had all returned to the buildings. He noticed that zombies had gathered once more inside Building Twelve and Building Thirteen, which had already been cleared. They were all ordinary zombies that had returned to the buildings at night and wandered into the wrong places.
Lu Yan took some food from his Storage Bag and casually ate a couple of bites. Then he picked up the Soul Banner and began that day's hunt.
He had to move out of this district before nightfall, but Lu Yan had long since mapped out the distribution of the zombies inside. Leaving directly would be far too wasteful.
Thus, before leaving, Lu Yan decided to avoid the Leader-Level Zombie and the three Mid-Stage Qi Refining Transcendent Zombies, while clearing out every other area.
The Soul Banner unfurled, and eight Vengeful Souls passed through the floors, beginning that day's zombie hunt.
When Lu Yan had first descended into the Apocalypse Version yesterday, there had been only four Vengeful Souls in his Soul Banner. Today, with eight Vengeful Souls plus a primary soul, how could his efficiency have increased by merely double?
Upon approaching a building, the Warrior worked with the other Vengeful Souls to kill the early Qi Refining Stage Transcendent Zombie. After that came the one-sided slaughter by the Vengeful Souls.
The entire process would not even take ten minutes. Nearly two hundred zombies in a building would be slaughtered to the last, while most of the remaining time was spent refining the Zombie Wandering Souls into the Soul Banner.
As time passed, the number of Vengeful Souls within the Soul Banner began to rise rapidly.
Nine, ten, eleven. He hunted from early morning until the afternoon.
When Lu Yan finished clearing Fifteen Buildings, the number of Vengeful Souls within the Soul Banner had reached twenty-seven.
The moment the number of Vengeful Souls had reached ten, the Soul Banner had already advanced to a Mid-Grade Magic Item.
Now, once all twenty-seven Vengeful Souls within the Soul Banner were released, the area within a hundred meters would be shrouded in layers of ghostly shadows. Ordinary early Qi Refining Stage Transcendent Zombies would be torn apart in an instant by so many Vengeful Souls. Even Mid-Stage Qi Refining Transcendent Zombies would find it difficult to hold out.
Manipulating a Mid-Grade Soul Banner and so many Vengeful Souls was undoubtedly a tremendous burden for Lu Yan at his current cultivation level.
Under normal circumstances, he could only leave nine Vengeful Souls outside for him to command.
Lu Yan looked toward the center of Happiness District. Several buildings there remained uncleared, but they were too close to the Leader-Level Zombie.
Although his strength had grown tremendously by now, Lu Yan still did not dare risk provoking a Leader-Level Zombie at Peak Qi Refining.
Lu Yan decisively turned around and walked toward a building outside Happiness District that had no Transcendent Zombie, with nine Vengeful Souls opening the way around him.
Night fell, and the fifteenth day had passed. The full moon in the sky was waning, and the moonlight it scattered had decreased drastically compared to the previous day.
Large numbers of zombies emerged from the buildings once more, while the Transcendent Zombies also returned to their respective territories.
Within Happiness District, the Leader-Level Zombie Bloodwhiskers arrived at the rooftop, preparing to begin swallowing and exhaling the Moonlight Spiritual Energy.
For some reason, the moment Bloodwhiskers reached the rooftop, it suddenly discovered that the Moonlight Spiritual Energy drawn in by the zombies today was less than half of what it usually was—already less than a quarter of the normal amount.
Although Transcendent Zombies were not very bright, they were not fools. This situation sent Bloodwhiskers into a towering rage as it tried to find the source of the problem.
But when Bloodwhiskers looked around, it discovered that Happiness District, normally packed with zombies, now held only a few hundred scattered zombies.
Large numbers of zombies had vanished from those buildings, leaving behind only bones piled across the ground.
An enraged roar immediately rang out across the night sky!
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