Chapter 10

Because he had gone an entire night without sleep and had also sacrificed a huge number of brain cells arguing with his pet over snacks, Ye Jingyan slept extremely deeply. When he finally woke again, he discovered that the sun was already sinking toward the western horizon.
He checked his phone and saw a “No Signal” notice. Irritated, he gave up on the idea of calling his mother. The full release of gamma radiation had completely disrupted Earth’s electromagnetic waves and communication fields. Until a new usable radio frequency could be found, communication would apparently have to rely almost entirely on shouting.
Ye Jingyan switched on the bedside lamp and discovered that the development zone had not yet lost electricity. His mood improved slightly. He got up as quickly as possible, took a shower, then placed a chicken on the stove to stew slowly. Only after that did he summon the Heaven-Devouring Plant and tell it to “spit out” the spoils from the day.
Although the Heaven-Devouring Plant loved treasure, it never hid anything from Ye Jingyan. Hearing its master’s instruction, it obediently poured all the crystal cores collected during the day onto the bedsheet. Ye Jingyan had walked all the way from the city centre to the development zone, so although the production rate of crystal cores had been low, the final accumulated number was still impressive. Now, with all of them piled on the bed, they formed a small sparkling mound.
So one man and one plant sat at the head of the bed with shining eyes and began counting crystal cores.
During this process, Ye Jingyan discovered something that left him unsure whether to laugh or cry. Although the Heaven-Devouring Plant had been acting spoiled and demanding crystal cores from him, it had no idea what quantity any number actually represented. In other words, his pet could not count at all.
Most likely, even the original “five” had simply been a random number it blurted out…
Ye Jingyan suddenly felt that all his previous bargaining with his pet over its “wages” had been unbelievably foolish…
So, in order to work out his pet’s actual “appetite,” Ye Jingyan began feeding crystal cores to the Heaven-Devouring Plant one by one. He instructed it that the moment it could not finish another one, it had to spit out whatever remained. The Heaven-Devouring Plant nodded obediently and lowered its head to eat with complete concentration. One fed while the other ate. When it had absorbed half of the fourth crystal core, all the leaves on its body suddenly spread open. A flash of green raced through its stem and leaves, and the remaining half of the crystal core dropped onto the bed.
Looking at the Heaven-Devouring Plant lying in his palm after eating its fill, acting spoiled and adorable, Ye Jingyan helplessly took a small velvet pouch originally meant for diamonds from the space. He placed the rest of its wages inside, hung the pouch from one of its vines, and told it that it could eat no more than four crystal cores per day. The rest could be stored and digested gradually.
Watching his pet practically dance with joy at its master’s thoughtfulness, Ye Jingyan privately reminded himself that no matter how busy he became over the next few days, he absolutely had to make time to teach the Heaven-Devouring Plant how to count. Young creatures were greedy and could easily overeat. As its master, he needed to control its intake. Besides, the Heaven-Devouring Plant had been famous for gluttony in his previous life. If it caused trouble because it ate too much, Ye Jingyan would still be the unlucky one dealing with the consequences…
The Heaven-Devouring Plant had no idea its master had already arranged a “preschool curriculum” for it. At that moment, it was happily hooking the pouch of crystal cores with a vine and swinging it back and forth for fun. Once it grew bored, it opened its mouth with an enthusiastic “Awoom!” and swallowed the pouch whole, then curled up in Ye Jingyan’s palm and rolled around in delight. From time to time, it lightly scratched his palm with its leaves, constantly acting spoiled toward him.
Ye Jingyan could not resist gently teasing its leaves with his index finger. The Heaven-Devouring Plant seemed ticklish and wrapped two leaves around his finger. Finally, it simply leaned its large head over and rubbed continuously against his hand. Watching his pet enthusiastically display affection, Ye Jingyan’s gaze gradually softened and the corners of his lips unconsciously lifted. “You’re such a vicious plant, so why do you love acting spoiled so much? Mm, stop rubbing… How about I call you Xiaotian from now on?”
The Heaven-Devouring Plant clearly sensed Ye Jingyan’s happiness and was also extremely pleased with its new name. It nodded excitedly, then began pushing the crystal cores around the bed with its vines, entertaining itself with a game of “building sand piles.”
Ye Jingyan, meanwhile, stared at the remaining crystal cores and worried. Gaining so much on the very first day of the apocalypse was certainly something to celebrate, but raising an ability level had to be done gradually. There was no way he could absorb all the crystal cores he hunted at once. That meant storing the cores had become a major problem.
The jade space could upgrade itself by absorbing the energy inside crystal cores, so unlike other items, any crystal core placed inside would automatically be absorbed and digested. Ye Jingyan had already confirmed this by throwing one inside earlier.
The problem was that as time passed and his abilities continued improving, the number of crystal cores he accumulated would only increase. At this rate, one day he might end up carrying a huge quantity of them conspicuously on his body… Thinking of his miserable previous life, when he had rarely carried more than five crystal cores of the same level at once, Ye Jingyan let out a blissful sigh. Having too much money brought its own troubles…
Of course, Ye Jingyan did not reflect at all on just how irritating his complaint about possessing too many crystal cores would sound to other people…
In the end, he decided to package the remaining crystal cores and store them with Xiaotian. No matter what, Xiaotian was his ability-linked pet and remained very obedient when he gave serious instructions. Four crystal cores per day was already the limit of what it could absorb. Even in the worst-case scenario, if the wasteful little creature really “ate” every crystal core at once, it would be unable to digest the excess and would eventually have to obediently “spit” the extras back out…
Time passed slowly amid the interaction between master and pet, while the aroma of stewed chicken gradually filled the room. Only then did Ye Jingyan realise that after sleeping for an entire day, he was already ravenously hungry. He let Xiaotian play inside the origin-energy sphere, walked into the kitchen, poured himself a bowl of chicken soup, and considered his next plans while drinking.
Less than twenty-four hours had passed since the disaster began. Most surviving ordinary civilians should still be hiding inside their homes, while the government and police probably had not yet understood reality and still believed the situation could be controlled. So it would probably take several more days before they admitted that everything had completely escaped control. Only then would they begin organising survivors in the urban area to evacuate toward the relatively sparsely populated development zone, establish a temporary safe point there, and wait for assistance from the S City garrison several dozen kilometres away.
What they did not know was that the S City military command was currently in chaos as well and had no attention to spare for the situation inside the city. These people would therefore remain here for some time. It would not be until the appearance of Level-Two zombies one month later that they fully accepted reality and collectively relocated to the safe zone established around the military base dozens of kilometres away.
To be fair, Ye Jingyan desperately wanted to set out for B City immediately. But he knew this was not the right time. Last night’s meteor shower had caused multiple nearby mountainsides to collapse, so transportation routes throughout the surrounding cities were basically blocked. If he tried to force his way north now, walking would be his only option, and he would have to make long detours. That would add at least three months to the journey. Moreover, because of gamma-radiation interference, every compass had stopped working. With maps and electronic navigation now effectively useless, leaving immediately was definitely not the correct choice.
Fortunately, his memories from his previous life told him that his mother would remain quite safe for more than a year at the beginning. Combined with his advance warning and Edison’s protection, her life should be easier than it had been before. He therefore planned to remain temporarily in the northern outskirts for a while and set out for home only after the military completely cleared the mountain roads.
So over the next several days, Ye Jingyan settled into a regular routine of sleeping during the day and going out to “hunt” at night. As his origin energy increased day by day, the stockpile under Xiaotian’s control also grew steadily richer.
However, as the temporary safe point was established and more refugees arrived, signs of disorder gradually emerged in the development zone. Most people had fled in such a hurry that they had been unable to carry many belongings. Problems involving accommodation, heating, food, and water therefore slowly surfaced. The government could not possibly prepare enough supplies on short notice to satisfy everyone, so apart from ensuring zombies did not break into the temporary safe point, officials left the refugees to solve their own food and accommodation problems.
Fortunately, at the beginning of the apocalypse, most people had not yet abandoned the kindness in their hearts. The original residents of the development zone initially willingly provided food and assistance to the survivors. Some particularly kindhearted people even allowed vulnerable women and children to stay in their homes.
But as time passed, people grew increasingly irritable because they could not return home. Fights caused by trivial disagreements became more common. The police generally chose to look the other way—as long as no one died, they preferred to avoid unnecessary trouble. After all, as survivor casualties increased, the number of zombies also rose rapidly and the safe point became increasingly difficult to defend. Who knew when they might need the help of these violent men themselves?
The result of handling the problem this way was that worse behaviour began to appear. Because the weather was cold, some strong and healthy refugees grew dissatisfied with spending the night shivering under blankets in draughty factory buildings. They formed small groups and began harassing the original residents of the development zone. Eventually, some even used force to drive residents from their own homes and seize their food and living space.
Under those circumstances, Ye Jingyan, who occupied an entire house by himself, naturally could not avoid being disturbed. Unfortunately for the men who chose his place, they arrived just after he had fallen asleep. After receiving a thorough beating, they were then fortunate enough to witness Ye Jingyan take a steel pipe as thick as a child’s arm, twist it into a spiral with his bare hands, and slowly restore it to its original shape…
In short, after that morning, not a single thug in the safe area dared come within ten metres of Ye Jingyan’s home, and his life finally returned to peace…
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Late at night, after a noisy day, the northern outskirts finally became quiet. Aside from the patrol officers on guard, the people inside the safe point wrapped themselves in blankets against hunger and cold and tried to fall asleep early. At that moment, Ye Jingyan was standing on a rooftop at the outer edge of the safe point, looking into the distance.
In the blink of an eye, seven days had passed since the apocalypse began.
During those seven days, increasing numbers of refugees had arrived in the northern outskirts. The safe point had become more crowded and the situation more chaotic. None of this affected Ye Jingyan much, but judging by the time, it was nearly time to leave for the safe zone established by the military.
He might as well hunt for only half the night tonight and set out first thing tomorrow morning.
After making the decision, Ye Jingyan let Xiaotian sit on his shoulder, held the Tang saber in a reverse grip, flooded his legs with origin energy, and pushed violently off the rooftop. His entire figure rapidly disappeared into the night…
The northern outskirts had never had a large population to begin with. After several days of Ye Jingyan’s efforts, most nearby zombies had already been eliminated. The occasional larger groups he encountered had merely wandered over from the city centre and were nowhere near enough for him to hunt. He now spent most of his time travelling rather than killing zombies, which had also made last night’s gains extremely limited. This was the most important reason he was eager to leave.
Just as Ye Jingyan was wondering whether he could find a relatively high-level target, he suddenly heard unusual noises ahead. Delighted by the discovery, he quickened his pace.
Sure enough, not far ahead he saw the corpse of an enormous mutated snake lying in an open area, covered in obvious bite marks and claw wounds. Beside the corpse, more than a dozen zombie dogs were attacking a mutated snow wolf. The snow wolf struggled to dodge their snapping jaws while repeatedly launching wind blades from its mouth at the monsters surrounding it.
After spending five years living in the wilderness in his previous life, Ye Jingyan was quite familiar with mutated creatures, and mutated wolves were among the species he understood best. Wolves of this kind were normally renowned for their speed. What confused him was that the snow wolf before him moved stiffly and sluggishly. Not only did it struggle to avoid attacks from the zombie dogs, but nearly all the wind blades it launched missed. Several times when it leapt or dodged, it even staggered as though it might collapse. It clearly could not hold out much longer.
Sure enough, when the snow wolf turned again, Ye Jingyan clearly saw two distinct puncture wounds on one of its front paws. He immediately confirmed his suspicion—the wolf must have fought the mutated snake lying nearby and been bitten by its fangs. Judging by the swollen, blackened wound, the snake’s venom had apparently been potent.
Ye Jingyan was secretly delighted. Tightening his grip on the Tang saber, he approached silently, planning to wait until the snow wolf killed several more zombie dogs before moving in and eliminating all of them at once. But as he drew closer, he suddenly noticed a small round patch of black fur behind the snow wolf’s right ear.
How could it possibly be this one?
Ye Jingyan’s mind went completely blank, but his body reacted instinctively. Drawing his blade, he charged straight toward the zombie dogs…