Mall

Early in the morning, as the sun rose once more, Huo Ling prepared to begin today's operation.

Daytime zombies did not move, and zombies were one source of potential points. He could not enter a treasure vault and return empty-handed.

Huo Ling took the weapons he had prepared and headed out again.

This time, he had bought a spear online. Combined with the spells he now possessed, hunting zombies during the day would be no problem at all.

He walked through the abandoned streets. Aside from the lush vegetation, there were also plenty of shattered bricks and stones along the way.

As the plants grew, they had forced apart the hard roads, leaving them pitted and uneven.

From time to time, Huo Ling spread out his mental power to search the buildings on either side for traces of zombies.

There was no shortage of zombies in this city of the dead. Before he had walked very far, Huo Ling found a target.

Inside a building that looked like a mall, Huo Ling detected quite a number of zombies.

He cautiously entered through the dilapidated main entrance. The moment he stepped inside, the sight before him made his heart leap into his throat.

There were too many zombies inside. At least dozens of them stood in the first-floor lobby alone.

When he raised his head and looked upward, the number was even more beyond imagination.

The mall building was still relatively intact, so after the power had gone out, its interior had become pitch-black.

Naturally, it had also become a perfect place for zombies to hide from the sunlight.

In the five- or six-story mall, every floor was packed densely with zombies. Even the escalators were covered with them.

One could imagine that there were at least a thousand zombies in this building.

Huo Ling swallowed nervously, turned around, and quietly left.

It was too dark here. Without sunlight shining in, although the zombies were all standing silently and motionlessly at the moment—

Huo Ling still did not feel at ease. What if, after he killed a few zombies, the rest suddenly rose up?

A gentleman did not stand beneath a crumbling wall. There would be plenty of zombies outside for him to hunt anyway.

Very soon, Huo Ling found a residential building nearby. There were also quite a few zombies here, but sunlight shone on the building.

The zombies inside had all been separated by the sunlight, each one hiding in dark rooms.

This was the perfect hunting ground. Even if something unexpected happened with the zombies, with the sunlight obstructing them, Huo Ling could escape in time.

This seventeen- or eighteen-story building contained at least a hundred zombies, more than enough for today's hunt.

After all, killing a single zombie took two or three minutes even without using spells.

The spear pierced into a zombie's chest. Unless it was completely dead, Huo Ling did not dare pull the spear out. He had to brace it firmly, preventing the zombie from suddenly rising and hurting him.

Starting from the lower floors, Huo Ling cleared his way upward floor by floor.

Squelch!

The sharp spear stabbed into the zombie's chest, and dark brown blood began seeping from the wound.

The zombie woke from its slumber and flailed both arms wildly, claws and fangs bared. Yet with the spear between them, it had no way to hurt Huo Ling.

Not only that, Huo Ling also traced a rune in his mind and released White Bone Fangs, killing the other two zombies in the room.

The zombies whose heads were blown apart by White Bone Fangs died in an instant.

As spell research deepened or one diligently practiced casting, spells could be cast more quickly.

Thus, whenever his mana naturally recovered to full, Huo Ling would cast it a few times. This not only sped up his zombie-clearing—

It also let him practice his spells.

In the Spirit Realm, a mage's mana recovered much faster.

A mage's mana recovery speed was linked to the amount of mana remaining in their body.

If a mage had completely drained all the mana in their body, relying on natural recovery alone would take roughly six hours.

If they recovered mana through meditation, that time would be greatly shortened to around two hours.

When a mage still had around half their mana left, their recovery speed became much faster. Relying on natural recovery alone, they could recover it in about an hour.

Through meditation, they could fully restore their mana in around twenty minutes.

When a mage had consumed only a small portion of their mana and still retained seventy or eighty percent, their mana recovery speed was extremely fast.

Even natural recovery took less than ten minutes. With meditation, it might take only one or two minutes.

Therefore, during battle, one crucial thing mages needed to learn was controlling their mana expenditure.

In war, mages generally kept their mana above 75%. Within that range, they would seize every reasonable opportunity to rest in order to maintain their combat strength.

After all, if they were careless and consumed too much mana—or used it all up—they would have no combat ability for at least half a day.

For mages, this was an extremely dangerous matter. A mage without mana was simply too fragile.

Especially in long-lasting battles, during pauses in the fighting and with teammates nearby, mages would meditate to recover mana more quickly.

That was why mages possessed such formidable combat power. Spellcasters were the absolute force that ruled the battlefield.

After more than three hours, Huo Ling had cleared all the zombies from this building.

The entire building reeked of blood. Corpses lay strewn across the rooms, and black blood covered the floors.

He could not stay here any longer. If the scent of blood attracted other Spirit Realm predators, things would become difficult to handle.

On the first floor, Huo Ling first cast Lesser Defensive Armor on himself. Only after his mana recovery slowed did he head out again.

He advanced cautiously along the way, doing his utmost not to leave any traces.

Only after returning to his lair did he finally relax.

Today's harvest was considerable. He had killed seventy or eighty zombies, which had contributed 17.5 potential points.

He should quit while he was ahead. Potential points had to be promptly converted into combat power.

If he changed to another building today, he could certainly continue accumulating plenty of potential points. But without meditation training, potential points would not help increase his strength.

Next, he first returned to Blue Star. Although he had been very careful during today's hunt, bloodstains had still gotten onto his clothes.

He returned to Blue Star to rest up a little, cooked himself a meal, and washed his clothes.

Only at dusk did he teleport back to the Spirit Realm.

After the sky had completely darkened, Huo Ling began today's meditation.

Darkness was his best camouflage, and zombies were his second-best bodyguards.

The potential points he had gained today were finally time to put to use.