Housing Complex

The housing complex Huo Ling had chosen looked fairly good. Not only did it have walls enclosing the grounds,

but there was also plenty of open space inside, with abundant sunlight.

That was crucial. Wherever there was sunlight, most of the walking corpses would naturally be driven away.

And without walking corpses, goblin hunting parties would not be drawn here. Relatively speaking, it would be much safer for Huo Ling to hide here.

There were seven high-rise buildings in the complex, each more than twenty stories tall.

After being battered by time, the buildings had become somewhat dilapidated. Even the tiles on the walls had fallen away.

Plants also crawled over the lower walls, and their presence would no doubt speed up the buildings' corrosion.

Huo Ling chose the building with the best lighting. After setting down his backpack, he began scouting the complex.

It took him less than half an hour to sweep all seven high-rises with his mental power.

It had to be said, mental power was simply far too convenient. He did not need to go floor by floor, opening doors and checking them one at a time.

Though the complex was empty, there were still around a dozen walking corpses scattered throughout the various buildings.

After Huo Ling dealt with them one by one, he gained another two potential points. What a sweet haul!

Returning to the empty plaza in the complex, Huo Ling felt the warmth of the sunlight and pondered carefully.

The walking corpses in these buildings definitely could not have been original residents of the complex. They must have passed through from elsewhere at night, then found no way to leave and remained here ever since.

In such a huge complex, there was not even a single rat. They had probably all been eaten clean by those things.

Since he intended to use this complex as his hiding place for the next few days, safety naturally had to come first.

There would be no walking corpses during the day anyway, so making slightly more noise would not matter.

Huo Ling made a circuit around the complex walls. Aside from the front and rear gates, there was also a breach in the wall.

He had no idea how that breach had come about, but since he had discovered it, he simply needed to deal with it.

The iron gates that had once stood at the entrance had long since become mottled with rust under the erosion of time. Who knew how much defensive strength they still had left?

Still, Huo Ling closed them, then began tearing the place apart, moving all sorts of nearly rotten furniture out of the lower-floor apartments.

He piled the furniture at the front and rear gates, as well as at the breach in the wall.

With these things blocking the way, as long as he did not make any loud noises at night, even if a group of walking corpses came by, they would probably go around the complex when stopped by the walls.

The eyes of walking corpses were basically as good as blind, and they had no intelligence to speak of. When they encountered obstacles like these, they would not stubbornly bash their heads against them. They would simply follow the wall and leave.

After finishing all that, he still had some time. Carrying his backpack, Huo Ling climbed directly to the fifteenth floor, where the sunlight was best.

The apartment had windows facing both north and south, and it was also some distance from the ground below. It was suitable for settling down.

Next, Huo Ling cleared out every piece of unusable furniture from the apartment and piled it in the room across the hall. Then he picked through the floors above and below.

He finally gathered enough simple furniture. It counted as making a home for himself in the Spirit Realm.

He even found a set of bedding left by the apartment's former owner in a wardrobe, sealed inside a compression bag.

Not bad. Huo Ling immediately made up the bed. He had only been in the Spirit Realm for three days, yet he had managed to get himself a bed to sleep in.

Huo Ling returned to the room and sat in a chair, gnawing on compressed biscuits. Life was still fairly good right now, except the food left something to be desired. But he could not ask for too much.

After settling his stomach, Huo Ling watched the sun sink beyond the horizon once more, and the pitch-black night descended again.

He turned and took out his magic book, studying it by the faint moonlight. His next goal was to finish learning the remaining two spells.

"Use potential points to accelerate learning?"

"Yes!"

When the moon hung high among the branches, Huo Ling, who had studied diligently for several hours, finally put down the magic book with a smile on his face.

He formed the rune in his mind and poured in magic power.

"Ashen Mist!"

A mass of gray mist was released by Huo Ling and appeared in midair. Then the entire cloud slowly drifted down toward the ground.

It worked!

He then began casting the other spell. "Touch of Fatigue!"

The spell was cast, but there was no target on which to use it.

After looking around, Huo Ling had no choice but to test the spell on himself.

A phantom tentacle coiled around Huo Ling's body, then vanished from sight.

At once, weariness welled up within his body. If he had to compare it to something, it felt like he had just spent an entire morning hauling bricks. He was utterly exhausted.

I need to rest! Huo Ling thought. He hurriedly dispelled the magic, finally escaping that exhausted feeling.

He had learned both zero-tier spells. Next, he only needed to study and practice them diligently, so he could cast them faster.

He summoned the panel and checked his current attributes.

Name: Huo Ling

Bloodline: Human

Skills: Dark Breath Meditation Method Zero-tier Spells: White Bone Fangs, Ashen Mist, Touch of Fatigue

Potential Points: 5.5

He had spent four potential points in exchange for getting started with two zero-tier spells. That was an exceptionally worthwhile deal.

Before this, it would have taken him at least around twenty days to learn these two spells. Now, he had learned them in merely a few hours.

Even the geniuses of history probably could not accomplish something like this!

But at this point, he still could not turn to the next page of the magic book. It seemed there was no hope of obtaining new spells from it anytime soon.

Then Huo Ling looked at the meditation method, Dark Breath. Since potential points could accelerate the learning of spells, could they also speed up the learning of the meditation method?

At the thought, Huo Ling's breathing grew heavy. He acted as soon as the idea struck.

Huo Ling put away the magic book, then found a comfortable posture and entered meditation.

"Use potential points to accelerate learning?"

Just as he thought!

Potential points could accelerate the learning of the meditation method too!

Immediately, Huo Ling sank his consciousness into meditation, entering a deep meditative state.

After Huo Ling had tidied up the complex like this, it was fairly safe. Entering deep meditation for a short while would not be a problem.

He desperately wanted to know just how much potential points could accelerate meditation.

Come on, potential points. Let me see your limits!!!