Before Departure (Seeking Collection)

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"Reporting, sir, the mall has three floors in total. We have now explored to the entrance of the third floor."

Although Bone Ash couldn't fathom Gu Su's sudden line of questioning, he still responded respectfully and swiftly.

"If we only consider the mall itself, it will take another half a day to explore it completely.

But across the street from the mall, there's another street. If we include that area, it will take nearly a full day to loot everything clean."

From Bone Ash's organized reply, Gu Su could clearly see that the undead at the petty officer level were no longer as rigid and dull as ordinary skeletons. Instead, they possessed sufficient intelligence, capable of precisely executing orders and clearly reporting situations, saving him a lot of trouble.

Gu Su nodded in satisfaction, reached out, and pushed the offering plate stained with death energy on the Yin Soul shop stall forward. His tone was casual but held praise. "I understand. You've done well. Take these things and distribute them to the skeletons in your squad."

After speaking, he casually tossed a few gold coins onto the stall as payment for the offering.

Then, Gu Su picked up the cursed crystal and the blood-stained cloth doll from the stall and turned to walk in the direction of the strange tree.

He planned to use these two items to nourish the Yin Fire Pile and the strange tree. After all, the white-grade items here would refresh even if not bought. It was more cost-effective for Gu Su to take them now than to leave them to disappear.

Bone Ash was stunned for a moment, clearly not expecting Gu Su to bestow an extra offering. He quickly lowered his head stiffly and respectfully said, "Thank you, sir."

Then, he picked up the offering and hurried out.

He knew clearly that the exploration of the mall was not over, and he had to quickly return to command his squad so as not to delay progress.

As he walked out, he was also eating the offering fruit Gu Su had given him earlier. Yin energy rapidly entered his body, strengthening his physique.

Meanwhile, Gu Su walked forward without pausing at the Yin Fire Pile. He simply raised his hand and accurately threw the cursed crystal into the fiercely burning Yin Fire.

In the next instant, a strange change occurred.

The stones around the Yin Fire Pile instantly became semi-transparent. A small black vortex formed within the stones, slowly rotating. Even the color of the Yin Fire became deeper than before.

The system prompt sounded at the appropriate time, clearly marking the change.

[Yin Fire Pile (Level 1) attributes have been enhanced. It can absorb cursed energy and convert it into Yin energy.]

Gu Su raised an eyebrow and nodded inwardly.

It wasn't a waste to buy this cursed crystal. With just one toss, the Yin Fire Pile could gather one more type of aura.

However, what Gu Su cared about more was that the Graveyard Demon had a high degree of compatibility with items. As long as they weren't directly conflicting, most items could easily integrate into their corresponding systems.

It was like the cursed crystal; throwing it into the Yin Fire Pile was one situation, and throwing it to the strange tree might be another.

This discovery gave Gu Su a deeper understanding of how to arrange the items he possessed.

Continuing forward, he soon arrived under the strange tree. Gu Su raised his hand and threw the blood-stained cloth doll towards the base of the strange tree, his movements crisp and efficient.

This time, before the cloth doll could land, several dark green vines hanging from the strange tree quickly wrapped around it.

With a gentle pull, the cloth doll was hung within the dense foliage, complementing the animal skins and the large lily seeds hanging from the branches, adding a touch of the eerie.

However, while the cloth doll looked unique, its actual effect was quite ordinary.

Gu Su glanced at the strange tree's repair progress and found that it had only increased the repair rate by 5%. Apart from that, the strange tree showed no other changes; no new leaves grew, nor were any other effects added.

"Better than nothing," Gu Su muttered softly, not paying too much attention. After all, the cloth doll only cost 7 gold coins, so this much effect wasn't a loss.

After completing these two tasks, Gu Su slowly turned his head to look at the five elite skeletons and two magic-user skeletons resting in place not far away.

The simple chainmail on them was still stained with faint blood, but their spirits were clearly better. It was evident that the corrupted mycelium had some beneficial effect on the recovery of the undead.

They were now capable of going out to fight.

In fact, his core purpose in questioning Bone Ash about the mall's exploration progress earlier was to see if Bone Ash could spare some manpower to assist him in today's exploration.

After all, half of the elite skeletons under his command were still near the mall, responsible for protecting Bone Ash's squad and preventing surprise attacks from external enemies during exploration.

But from Bone Ash's report just now, the exploration of the mall and surrounding streets would take considerable time, and he couldn't spare any personnel.

This meant that his original plan had to be adjusted. Today's exploration would likely have to rely on the few elites present, along with himself, to push through.

As Gu Su was contemplating the subsequent exploration route, a sound of flapping wings came from the sky.

The white crows that had gone out to scout were returning one after another, their bony wings fluttering as they landed on the branches of the strange tree or the open ground around Gu Su. They reported the situation of the outer perimeter exploration with hoarse caws.

The first to return were the white crows that had scouted in the direction of the gas station.

They passed the location of the now-vanished gas station and ventured further into the distance. Finally, amidst a patch of overgrown weeds, they discovered a building that was heavily entangled with dense vines and had largely collapsed.

According to the white crows' report, the building was originally a commercial building of about twenty stories. However, due to some unknown incident, more than half of it had collapsed, leaving only five or six stories standing. Weeds grew among the ruins, giving it a dilapidated appearance.

Most striking were the extremely thick vines wrapped around the entire building's walls. The vines were dark green, tightly entwined with the reinforced concrete, almost completely covering the remaining walls.

But what truly made the white crows sense something unusual and eagerly fly back to report was not the building's decay or the thickness of the vines.

It was that these vines could emit a faint green luminescence, especially noticeable in dimly lit areas, exuding an indescribable eeriness. They were clearly not ordinary vines and must have a special origin.

Not long after this group of white crows finished their report, another group of white crows that had flown eastward also returned, bringing another crucial piece of information.

They had discovered a not-too-large puddle about two kilometers east of the Graveyard Demon. The puddle was murky and emitted a faint fishy odor. Around the puddle lived a pack of wolves with rotten skin and greenish flesh, numbering about twenty.

What made Gu Su's eyes light up the most was that the white crows had repeatedly scouted and confirmed that there was no wolf king leading this pack of rotten wolves.

In other words, they were just a scattered group of wild monsters without unified command. If a surprise attack were launched, the chances of success would be significantly higher.