Late at night, after the two finished meditating, they each returned to their own rooms.
As soon as Xu Qing entered his room, he locked the door and windows, took a backpack from the cabinet, slung it onto his back, and gripped his long saber.
Then, with a thought, the space around him rippled slightly, and his figure vanished.
Inside the police station on Parallel Earth.
Xu Qing appeared without warning.
Huh?!
Where was that zombie?
Had it left?
Just as Xu Qing was wondering, an enormous claw suddenly swiped at him from behind.
Sensing danger, Xu Qing dodged sideways and successfully evaded the ambush.
The enormous claw struck the wall, leaving five long gouges.
Xu Qing looked at the creature that had ambushed him.
"Oh-ho? It's you, big guy!"
The towering zombie let out a furious roar, its unbearably piercing sound waves reverberating through the police station.
Xu Qing instinctively covered both ears.
Shit!
The next instant, the towering zombie moved, its footsteps pounding against the floor with thunderous thuds.
Its enormous claws gleamed with a chilling light as it lunged at Xu Qing.
Xu Qing narrowed his eyes slightly at the sight. Rather than retreat, he charged at the towering zombie.
But just before he reached it, Xu Qing hurled the backpack from his back at it, then abruptly accelerated and rushed into a room, clutching his long saber and pressing himself tightly against the wall.
"Three, two, one! Explode!"
Boom!
The backpack Xu Qing had thrown onto the towering zombie erupted in a tremendous explosion. The floor shook violently, and dust flew everywhere.
An enormous severed hand smashed through a pane of glass above and to Xu Qing's left, landing not far from him.
Ever since Xu Qing had come out, he had been thinking about facing this creature.
Relying solely on himself, he would have a hard time taking it down without getting hurt.
So he could only rely on saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal. Unfortunately, none of those were used here, making the materials very difficult to obtain.
He had scoured all of Aolai City and only managed to buy enough for one.
As for soul-guided bombs, frankly, they were too expensive. He simply could not afford them.
As the dust slowly settled, Xu Qing finally saw the towering zombie's miserable state. Its head and all four limbs had been blown apart.
Not far from the enormous crater left by the explosion, Xu Qing found its hideously savage head.
Then came the exciting unboxing time. He plunged his long saber into the skull and levered it backward, extracting a translucent crystal that was pale yellow throughout.
This crystal core was larger and more solid in texture. The instant he held it in his palm, a tremendous amount of energy slowly emanated from it.
Xu Qing immediately took out the yellowish-white and grayish-white crystals he had collected earlier and placed them together for comparison.
This pale yellow crystal core contained several times as much energy as an ordinary zombie's crystal, and its purity was on an entirely different level.
Sure enough, the stronger the zombie, the better the crystal core it produces. And if they go from white to yellow, could there also be purple, black, and red grades of crystal cores later on?
Xu Qing carefully put away the precious pale yellow crystal core, thinking this to himself.
Indeed, that was the case. After Earth Consciousness sealed Parallel Earth within Xu Qing's body, Parallel Earth had begun adapting to Douluo Star's laws and absorbing the energy of heaven and earth from the universe, converting it into Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi.
After gathering his spoils, he lingered no longer. Tightening his grip on his long saber, he continued exploring the police station.
He followed the stairs up to the second floor, then carefully searched the rooms one by one.
The police station had many rooms: interrogation rooms, break rooms, storage rooms, and cells specifically for temporarily holding prisoners.
The cells' iron bars were mottled with rust, and the floors were covered in dust and dried black blood. Everything was desolate and deathly still.
Along the way, he encountered a few wandering ordinary zombies.
After his earlier fight to the death with the enhanced zombie, these ordinary zombies posed no threat to him whatsoever.
Xu Qing casually activated his Blue Silver Grass to perform Blue Silver Entanglement, finishing them all off in a few moves and collecting a few more ordinary gray crystal cores along the way.
Over the days that followed, Xu Qing went to school with Gu Yuena in the morning. After saying goodbye to her in the afternoon, he went with Tang Wulin to Mang Tian's Workshop to learn forging. At night, after returning home and eating dinner, he cultivated with Gu Yuena in the backyard, then entered Parallel Earth late at night to practice with his saber and collect crystal cores.
Yes, saber practice. Xu Qing understood perfectly well that he could lack knowledge of saber techniques, but he absolutely could not be unfamiliar with his own weapon.
He repeated the basic movements of cleaving, chopping, horizontal slashes, and vertical cuts over and over, gradually improving the fit between himself and his long saber.
As he honed those monotonous basic movements again and again, Xu Qing's arms gradually grew sore and numb, but he did not stop at all.
The saber, which weighed over a hundred jin, had been somewhat unwieldy to swing at first. But as he continued practicing, his wrists grew steadier, and he applied his strength more and more smoothly.
He had also discovered through studying zombie blood that, thanks to the presence of the Five-Clawed Golden Dragon, scratches inflicted by zombies would not turn him into one.
That also allowed him to slowly breathe a sigh of relief. At least he could afford to be a little bolder.
As for zombies, he specifically targeted those that were alone. After all, he would have a hard time handling too many by himself.
Through these days of hunting, Xu Qing also grew more practiced, his attacks becoming increasingly precise and decisive.
He activated his Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul, and countless strands of Blue Silver Grass grew and spread, entangling his target and restricting its movements.
Then he followed close behind, bringing his long saber down in a clean stroke and severing the zombie's head with a single cut.
Harvest the crystal core, withdraw his saber, and leave. The entire sequence was crisp and efficient, flowing like drifting clouds and running water.
Each repetition also made his control over the long saber more practiced, his blade growing ever steadier.
In the blink of an eye, a year had passed.
Parallel Earth.
Inside a dilapidated alley, the howls of zombies echoed without end.
As the camera turned, four zombies came into view, charging toward an eight-year-old child in the alley.
And that eight-year-old child was none other than Xu Qing.
Facing the zombies charging toward him, Xu Qing showed no fear in his eyes. He merely watched calmly ahead.
The next instant, Xu Qing moved. Countless strands of Blue Silver Grass burst from the ground and instantly entangled the two zombies at the rear, forcibly separating the four zombies into front and rear groups.
Seizing that opening, Xu Qing shot forward, heading straight for the two creatures in front.
The two zombies had no reason whatsoever and continued lunging at him madly. Xu Qing pushed hard off the ground with both feet, closed the distance in an instant, and drove a vicious kick into the leading zombie's chest.
The kick carried tremendous force. The zombie flew backward like a cannonball and slammed into one of the zombies bound by Blue Silver Grass behind it.
The other zombie remained utterly oblivious and raised its hand to claw at Xu Qing.
Holding his long saber, Xu Qing followed through with a downward slash, cutting its arm clean off.
Before the zombie could struggle, he exerted strength through both arms and brought the saber down again. With a crack, he severed its head outright.
The zombie he had kicked away had already climbed back up and charged brutally at Xu Qing once more.
Xu Qing gripped his long saber with both hands and held it horizontally before him, his gaze cold as he stared fixedly at the approaching zombie.
At the very instant the zombie's sharp claws were about to reach him, Xu Qing turned sideways, rotated his saber, and swept it horizontally.
In a flash, the sharp saber swept across, cutting the zombie in two at the waist.
But the zombie was not completely dead. Its upper body, now on the ground, still howled madly as it struggled to crawl toward Xu Qing.
Xu Qing lowered his wrist and stabbed his long saber straight down, precisely piercing the zombie's skull and finishing it off.
Only the last two zombies remained in the alley.
Xu Qing gave a soft snort and darted forward without the slightest hesitation. Two clean cuts soon sent them off to meet their great-grandmothers.
After finishing off all his enemies, Xu Qing began gathering his spoils.
Four crystal cores.
As he cultivated, Xu Qing had also noticed that his Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul seemed to have undergone some kind of mutation.
With the strength of his Blue Silver Grass now, ordinary zombies could not break free for a while once they were bound.