Zombie Crystal Cores, Hundred-Year Azure Ghosts

As Zheng Yi refined large numbers of Vengeful Spirits, the Fierce Ghost Land that had occupied this place was destroyed, and its cold, sinister aura dispersed.

Sunlight streamed in. Without that yin energy and ghostly aura, the place naturally grew warm.

Turning back, Zheng Yi strode outside, his gaze resolute and the corners of his mouth faintly curved in a smile.

Along the way, Zheng Yi encountered batch after batch of zombies.

These monsters were like walking corpses, still retaining a basic human shape.

Their skin was pale, their eyes dull and bloodshot, and their bodies covered in all kinds of wounds. They had lost human intelligence, leaving behind only empty shells and the instinctive hunger to madly pursue living creatures.

When Zheng Yi appeared on the street, the great mass of zombies caught the living yang energy on him and went completely mad, surging toward him like a tidal wave.

Zheng Yi showed them no mercy. Spiritual power within him drove the Fine Steel Longsword, sending streaks of icy Sword Qi soaring into the sky. Every zombie he encountered was killed without exception. With a single slash, he split their flesh open, cleaving them from the crown of their heads straight down to their crotches.

This was something Zheng Yi had figured out later on.

These zombies could no longer be considered true living beings. They were merely walking corpses controlled by viral genes.

Their fatal weakness lay at the tops of their heads. More precisely, what drove those zombie shells to walk was the Zombie Crystal Core inside their brains.

Split open or directly destroy the Zombie Crystal Core, and the zombies would die completely.

During this time, several vengeful spirits attacked Zheng Yi as well, but he simply waved the Soul Devouring Banner and drew them inside, where the fierce ghosts within tore them into fragments of Spirit Body.

Along the way, Zheng Yi had killed over a hundred zombies and harvested more than a hundred Zombie Crystal Cores.

"What can these Zombie Crystal Cores be used for?!"

As he walked, he casually tossed the multicolored crystal cores one after another.

After killing the zombies, Zheng Yi had not wasted the Zombie Crystal Cores in their brains. He collected them all, placed them in a small pouch, and tied it around his waist.

Since leaving the school, aside from ruined clusters of buildings, all Zheng Yi had seen along the way were walking corpses—zombies tearing into one another.

These zombies, with only their bloodthirsty instincts remaining, would roar and charge at Zheng Yi whenever they saw him, their clouded eyes filled with longing for flesh and blood.

Left with no choice, Zheng Yi could only grant them release one by one. As a result, he harvested another large pile of Zombie Crystal Cores, bringing the number in his possession close to two hundred.

Although Zheng Yi had learned from the natives of this world how to absorb crystal cores.

The method was simply to swallow them. As long as one could withstand the corrosion of the Zombie Crystal Core, one could awaken an ability.

Zheng Yi had originally been eager to try, but when he thought about how these crystal cores had all been taken from zombie heads—and that he was not some Ability User—he feared that if there were any side effects after swallowing one, he would have nowhere to cry.

It was better to honestly focus on cultivating immortality!

This Apocalyptic World had abundant resources needed for his cultivation. There was no need to take such a risk for such trifling profit.

As for throwing away these Zombie Crystal Cores, Zheng Yi found that hard to bear.

After all, every one of these multicolored crystal cores contained a unique life energy.

If he truly discovered a way to use these crystal cores later, he would regret having casually thrown away such a vast amount of resources.

The only option was to store these Zombie Crystal Cores for now and see what came of it.

Walking and stopping along the way, Zheng Yi killed zombies and refined vengeful spirits until he ran into a heavy rainstorm.

To avoid getting drenched, Zheng Yi chose the entrance to an underground parking garage and entered a building.

This Apocalyptic World had been almost completely destroyed in the great catastrophe, leaving behind only broken walls and ruined remnants.

Dilapidated structures like the underground parking garage entrance Zheng Yi had chosen were everywhere along the road.

However, just as Zheng Yi stepped into the entrance and turned the corner, he immediately felt a biting chill rush straight at him.

The nearly tangible yin energy seemed to freeze the air itself. Bone-piercing cold surged up from the soles of his feet, making him shudder involuntarily.

"Not good, there's something ghostly here?"

In an instant, Zheng Yi waved the Soul Devouring Banner in his hand. As the half-transformed Azure Profound Fiend circulated, it activated the Soul Devouring Banner, and a cloud of black mist directly enveloped his body.

After doing all this, the first thing Zheng Yi intended was not to tangle with the other side.

Instead, after striking back with all his strength, he intended to immediately turn and flee outside.

But before Zheng Yi could retreat to a safe position, a savage shriek pierced straight into his mind like a steel needle.

Intense pain shot through his nerves, so unbearable that his foot slipped and he nearly fell to the ground.

At that moment, three ferocious old ghosts came roaring toward him, surrounding Zheng Yi in an instant.

Zheng Yi was startled, but not the least bit flustered. He waved the Soul Devouring Banner and pushed the half-evolved Azure Profound Fiend to its limit.

He summoned all the fierce ghosts refined within the Soul Devouring Banner, spreading them around him to protect his body.

Shriek!

Shriek...

The piercing Ghost Howls that assaulted his nerves rose and fell one after another. Only then did Zheng Yi clearly see the appearance of the three old ghosts attacking him.

Their entire bodies were iron-blue, their clothes long reduced to tatters, and their fingers had become sharp claws. Two bloodthirsty fangs protruded from their mouths.

Their bodies were gaunt, yet they possessed enormous strength. With one strike, they directly blasted away one of the fierce ghosts from the Soul Devouring Banner.

Their movements were lightning-fast, giving the many vengeful spirits of the Soul Devouring Banner almost no chance to form a formation and surround them.

"Green faces, protruding fangs, shriveled bodies, boundless strength, swift as the wind!"

"These are Hundred-Year Azure Ghosts?!"

Drawing on his extensive knowledge, Zheng Yi immediately seized upon the key details and identified the origins of these three Evil Ghosts, his heart sinking.

The so-called "hundred years" did not necessarily mean these old ghosts had existed for a full century. Rather, it meant their cultivation had reached the level of a hundred years.

Cultivators needed to breathe in the essence of the sun and moon and the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to cultivate. As for ghostly creatures such as vengeful spirits, aside from being nourished by Profound Yin Energy, their primary method of cultivation was devouring one another.

It was like raising venomous insects in a jar: within a vast space, all the ferocious ghosts devoured and gnawed at each other, until the few vengeful spirits that emerged in the end possessed cultivation far deeper than ordinary Vengeful Spirits.

These three Green-Faced Old Ghosts were merely ordinary ghostly creatures, their rank far inferior to the Red-Clothed Female Ghost, the main soul of the Soul Devouring Banner.

Yet the cultivation of these three Evil Ghosts was exceedingly deep, far surpassing that of the Red-Clothed Vengeful Spirit. Who knew how many Vengeful Spirits and Spirit Bodies they had consumed to reach their current level?

Moreover, this apocalyptic space was unspeakably eerie and strange. The disaster had only occurred a few decades ago.

Yet in such a short time, so many sinister ghostly creatures had emerged. There was clearly something highly abnormal about this.