Collecting the crystals from the slain zombies, Lu Heng found no more living zombies around him. He walked step by step towards Lin Xue.
"Master, here you go." Lin Xue opened her palm, revealing the red crystal from before.
Lu Heng observed Lin Xue's expression again and with a wave of his hand, instantly brought the crystal, along with Lin Xue, into his spatial dimension.
He summoned the carrion bird that was circling high above, and with a leap, Lu Heng landed on its back.
"Go that way." Controlling the reins on the carrion bird, Lu Heng applied slightly more pressure to the left.
The carrion bird glanced at the pile of zombie corpses in the distance, let out a long cry, and flapped its wings, soaring into the sky. In a short while, it disappeared from view.
Looking down at the houses from high above, Lu Heng analyzed the most likely hiding place of the zombie.
High-level zombies of this kind would definitely be surrounded by lower-level zombies. As long as he found something unusual below, he would most likely find the high-level zombie.
However, the most accurate method was still to summon Lin Xue. Once she was within a certain distance, Lin Xue could sense the surrounding zombie situation.
After hesitating for a long time, Lu Heng decided to trust Lin Xue. They had a contractual relationship, and Lu Heng could detect any ill intentions from Lin Xue immediately.
Reappearing beside Lu Heng, Lin Xue touched the seat beneath her. Gripping the vines tightly, she felt at peace. Turning her head towards Lu Heng, she forced a smile onto her stiff face.
"Master, that zombie is not far ahead. I sense it's a level nine zombie."
"Good. We'll discuss the exact location once we find it." Lu Heng raised his hand and stroked Lin Xue's hair. Her previously dry and yellow hair had already shown improvement.
Turning his gaze to the scenery ahead, Lu Heng dedicated a portion of his mind to thinking.
When he first contracted Lin Xue, she was unable to command or control the surrounding zombies due to the contract.
But just now, Lu Heng had indeed seen Lin Xue control those zombies again with his own eyes.
Seeing the zombies obediently following her, Lu Heng couldn't help but glance sideways at Lin Xue again.
"Since your level has increased, have any special skills been triggered?"
"I don't know. But after being released by Master today, I can clearly feel the signals emitted by the surrounding kindred, and it seems I can control them again."
Perhaps it was because Lin Xue's current level was much higher than other zombies that she could control the surrounding ones again?
He wouldn't worry about it for now, as long as Lin Xue showed no signs of betrayal. Otherwise...
"Master, it's over there. There are two more level eight zombies there."
Lin Xue's voice in his mind interrupted Lu Heng's thoughts. He looked up in the direction Lin Xue was pointing. Below was not a big city, but what seemed to be a factory built in the suburbs before the apocalypse.
He hadn't brought his mutant animals this time, so the exact location of the zombies below had to be pinpointed.
Controlling the carrion bird, Lu Heng circled the factory from high above, memorizing the locations below.
Finally, they stopped at a place that looked like a water tower. The tall cylindrical building was about ten meters high and made of reinforced concrete.
Following the vines, Lu Heng quickly landed on the tower and, using his usual trick, wrapped the entire building with vines the moment he landed.
Due to the decrease in human activity, the places where humans used to live were overgrown with weeds, and various plants grew wildly. This also provided good control objects for wood-element ability users in battles in the wild.
Wood-element ability users also greatly improved their combat capabilities and were welcomed in the ranks of ability users, no longer being considered a "chicken rib" profession as they were at the beginning.
Fortunately, the water tower was not large in area, and it was quite quick to control it as a whole. The zombies surrounding the water tower continuously crashed against the outer vines.
The vines searched rapidly within the water tower, and in a short while, Lu Heng killed all the zombies inside, giving the so-called high-level zombies no chance to retaliate.
Looking at the more than ten crystals piled up before him, Lu Heng waved his hand and collected them into his spatial dimension.
Looking down at the zombies from the top of the tower, the zombie horde, now without command and control, had begun to wander around. However, Lu Heng's sharp eyes still spotted several zombies around level six.
These zombies already possessed a certain level of intelligence. Without the suppression of higher-level zombies, they would soon advance to higher levels.
Without hesitation, Lu Heng controlled the vines below to kill all the zombies inside the factory and collected their crystals into his spatial dimension as well.
Heading towards Longcheng again, Lu Heng observed that the zombies he encountered along the way were indeed no longer controlled and were wandering aimlessly.
Among the zombie hordes below, Lu Heng saw many level six zombies mixed in. He cleared them out promptly upon discovery, but he didn't collect all their crystals.
He would wait for the team from Wuming City to clear them out later before collecting the crystals.
Returning to Longcheng, the crisis in Longcheng had already been resolved. The zombies in the distance were no longer gathering there.
Without the control of high-level zombies, ordinary zombies only reacted to the human scent they could sense. Although there were still zombies gathered outside Longcheng, their numbers were no longer increasing significantly.
"Brother Lu, a few minutes ago, I saw that the zombies in the distance seemed to no longer be under control." Lin Yu saw Lu Heng land on the city wall again and walked over with the Director and others.
"Yes, the zombies controlling from the shadows have been killed. The rest are waiting for the people of Longcheng to deal with."
The Director pushed aside Lu Bai and pounced into Lu Heng's arms, rubbing against him. "Master, you're finally back. When are we going back?"
Having been wandering on the city wall, although it had fur and wasn't afraid of the cold, who wouldn't prefer to stay in a warm place rather than come out and endure the cold?
Lu Heng pushed the Director to the ground and comfortingly stroked its head. "We're going back now."
Lin Zhongshan, who was standing beside him, quickly stepped forward and said politely, "Ah, City Lord Lu, you've worked hard. Since you've come to Longcheng and the crisis here has been resolved, you must at least come in for a cup of tea."
"No, we still need to check other places. Not only Longcheng and Pingcheng were attacked by zombies, but other places are probably worse off than these two."
Longcheng and Pingcheng, as bases with military garrisons, were built faster than other survivor bases at the beginning of the apocalypse.
Their city defenses were also more robust, which allowed them to successfully hold on through the night and wait for Lu Heng to arrive and relieve them.
However, for other survivor bases that Lu Heng was not familiar with, it was hard to say. Perhaps they had already been overrun by zombies by now.