The Zombie King was dead, and the one to two thousand zombies remaining in the mall mostly continued to swarm Qin Shilei, while a small portion fled through the main entrance.
The phantom, having reached its duration limit, dissipated into bubbles.
Qin Shilei pocketed the treasure chest dropped by the Zombie King, along with its crystal core and psionic bead from its head, then charged back at the remaining zombies.
As for the zombies that escaped the mall, the vast majority were killed by Xiao Qiang, who was guarding outside.
Another half hour later.
Not a single standing zombie remained around Qin Shilei.
Zombies were piled up three to four layers deep at his feet.
The stench of decay and blood was so thick that Qin Shilei couldn't help but frown.
At this moment, Qin Shilei felt both pain and joy.
Killing five to six thousand zombies took him over two hours, while collecting treasure chests and digging out crystal cores took him nearly four hours.
But the rewards were immense.
There were nearly four thousand bronze treasure chests.
There were over three thousand level one crystal cores, several hundred level two crystal cores, and the rest were ordinary crystal cores.
Level one crystal cores could provide about five experience points, while level two crystal cores could provide fifty experience points.
A simple calculation showed that the crystal cores dug up in just one afternoon could grant over thirty thousand experience points.
This meant that the crystal cores needed for Zhang Xiaoli to advance to the Silver realm were more than half accumulated.
It might seem that Qin Shilei earned thousands of crystal cores in an afternoon, easily done.
If someone of the Silver realm were to come here, they might very well be overwhelmed and killed by the sheer number of zombies in the mall, or simply exhausted to death.
Qin Shilei could persist for so long primarily because his Blood Soul could absorb the life force of his enemies to replenish his own stamina.
Secondly, he possessed the ultimate skill of teleportation, allowing him to escape the zombie encirclement at any time.
By the time the battlefield was cleared, the sky had completely darkened.
Qin Shilei searched the sky for a long time before finding Zhang Xiaoli and the others in a residential complex.
"Brother Qin, why are you back so late? You worried me to death."
Zhang Xiaoli, who had been guarding the entrance of the complex, rushed over and hugged Qin Shilei tightly as soon as she saw him.
"Silly girl, your boyfriend is the number one expert on Blue Star, how could anything happen to me?"
Qin Shilei patted her back gently: "Alright, let's retreat to Chiyuan Haoting now."
To get a good night's sleep, the members of the Bedrock Battle Group sailed back to the Crane Mountain District.
In the early morning hours, An Qian also advanced to the Silver realm, becoming the second strongest cultivator on Blue Star.
Upon reaching the Silver realm, An Qian learned another ultimate move from Phoenix Dance in Nine Heavens called Shield of Blazing Fire.
Shield of Blazing Fire: Forms a shield of blazing flames around the body using elemental energy, capable of automatically defending against physical and psionic attacks.
After advancing, An Qian could refresh her third attribute slot again.
However, Qin Shilei had refreshed it several times without finding any good attributes, so he temporarily settled for a "Energetic" attribute.
"It's already past one in the morning, you should go back and rest," An Qian pushed Qin Shilei out of the room without even opening any treasure chests.
"Goodnight!" Qin Shilei watched An Qian lock the door, then turned and unlocked Zhang Xiaoli's room.
"Brother Qin, can you tell which one is my true body?"
"Stop messing around and retract your clone technique."
"Brother Qin, just touch them and see if you can distinguish the clone."
"This, I can see through it at a glance. Hurry and retract it."
"How about I have my clone bring us tea and water?"
"...What tea and water are you bringing at this late hour."
Finally, under Qin Shilei's strong objection, Zhang Xiaoli was unable to test the practical uses of her wood clone in daily life.
.......
For the next five consecutive days, Qin Shilei flew on Xiao Qiang's back above Nanzhuang City, hunting down powerful mutated zombies.
Currently, most of the powerful mutated zombies in Nanzhuang City, except for those hiding within buildings, had been eliminated by Xiao Qing.
The military had also established more than ten small bases here, using them as strongholds to gradually reclaim Nanzhuang City.
During these days, awakened individuals from the civilian population also crossed the river with the help of ships provided by the military to participate in the recapture of Nanzhuang City.
Villa Number Five.
Zhang Xiaoli said with a dejected expression: "Why is the drop rate for these cultivation techniques so low? We've opened over five thousand treasure chests, and haven't even gotten a Yellow-grade cultivation technique."
She had already reached Black Iron Nine Stars yesterday, and now all she needed was a cultivation technique to advance to the Silver realm.
It was truly a case of all systems go except for one crucial element, yet even that was nowhere in sight.
"No wonder those on the leaderboard are also stuck at Black Iron Nine Stars and can't progress further."
An Qian stretched her slightly sore wrists. She never imagined a day would come when opening treasure chests would make her hands ache.
On the leaderboard, perhaps spurred by Qin Shilei's progress, Caesar the Great, Steve, Mary, and Ito Hirobumi were all fiercely pursuing and had now reached Black Iron Nine Stars.
However, only An Qian was still Silver One Star, and Qin Shilei was Silver Two Stars.
Qin Shilei now needed thirty thousand experience points to level up.
Despite killing many mutated zombies in the past few days, he had only managed to advance by one star.
Qin Shilei casually placed the ordinary items obtained from opening treasure chests into his Qiankun Ring, while simultaneously opening a bronze treasure chest.
"A cultivation technique, and it's a wood-attribute one that I can use,"
Zhang Xiaoli took a milky white stone from the treasure chest, glanced at it casually, and then exclaimed excitedly.
Azure Wood Art: A Xuan-grade wood-attribute cultivation technique, with five layers, capable of cultivating to the Platinum realm.
Qin Shilei frowned and said regretfully: "After I finally found something good, it's only a Xuan-grade cultivation technique."
Zhang Xiaoli, however, wasn't picky at all: "It's good enough to have it, why be so demanding? Shall I learn it now?"
"Wait, let me take another look."
Qin Shilei took the cultivation technique.
[Do you wish to refresh attributes.]
[Refresh.]
Revival (Red): Psionic energy cultivated through the Azure Wood Art can promote plant growth.
Extraction (Red): Can extract the essence of plants to enhance one's cultivation.
Advancement (Purple): Azure Wood Art advances to the Earth-grade cultivation technique Spiritual Wood Art.
Nice!
Qin Shilei fixed the "Advancement" attribute for the cultivation technique, then handed it back to Zhang Xiaoli: "You learn it."
Zhang Xiaoli lightly touched it, and the Spiritual Wood Art transformed into a white light that shot into her body.
She then absorbed two level two crystal cores, one in each hand.
An Qian continued to open the remaining treasure chests.
Two hours later.
An Qian finally finished opening the last treasure chest.
She had finally obtained two cultivation techniques, an attribute-less Yellow-grade cultivation technique, salvaging a bit of her "European Emperor" reputation.
It was unclear if the overall drop rate had decreased, or if opening treasure chests from lower-level monsters with higher-level characters resulted in reduced loot.
Nearly ten thousand treasure chests had been accumulated over the past few days, and the vast majority were opened by the "European Emperor" An Qian. In the final tally, only five purple items were obtained, not even a single orange one.
Of the five purple items, three were equipment and two were special items, which Qin Shilei held onto for the time being.
At this point, Zhang Xiaoli had also successfully advanced to the Silver realm, becoming the third highest cultivator on Blue Star.
She had also learned two ultimate moves from the Spiritual Wood Art: Purification and Poisoning.
Toxin Application: Can apply poison to skills such as Thousand Vine Technique, or to weapons.
Purification: Unleashes a ray of purification light on a single target, capable of purifying abnormal status conditions.