Chapter 16: Apocalypse Version (Thanks to Ziche Chenju for the Alliance Leader Sponsorship)

Occult, Horror Tale, Apocalypse—these were the three version options Lu Yan could choose from this time.

The moment he saw the information on the three versions, Lu Yan instinctively furrowed his brow. Not one of them looked easy to deal with.

The Occult Version needed no further explanation—an extremely high-risk scenario involving Old Ones and True Gods. According to the description, even supernatural powers themselves were dangerous in that version.

Clearly, such a dangerous setting was not suitable for someone like Lu Yan who had just stepped into the First Layer of Qi Refining.

The Horror Tale Version, strictly speaking, seemed to follow the rules of a “Rule-based Horror Game.”

In the face of such structured supernatural rules, low-tier cultivators and ordinary people were basically indistinguishable. Without methods to manipulate or bypass those rules, the Horror Tale Version would be a terrible choice.

As for the Apocalypse Version, it had already appeared during the last version update.

Back then, it had been considered the most dangerous of the three options.

But in this current selection, the Apocalypse Version was ironically the safest of the bunch.

On the surface, a phrase like “after the end of the world” sounded terrifying, but whether it was nuclear fallout or zombie outbreaks, those dangers were at least comprehensible and predictable.

Without needing to think too hard, Lu Yan made his decision.

“Update to the Apocalypse Version!”

In the next moment, the world outside the window began to transform dramatically.

Towering, modern skyscrapers were replaced by decaying, run-down buildings. Dim yellow stains marked the walls like the erosion of time itself.

Large swathes of low buildings had already crumbled into ruins. Abandoned cars littered the streets, and the entire city looked like it had long since died.

Lu Yan looked around the room he was currently in. The furniture inside was a complete mess—many wooden pieces had been disassembled and used as firewood. Trash covered the floor.

“So this is the world after the apocalypse?”

He examined everything with curiosity.

This city seemed like it had been abandoned for decades. There was no sign of life anywhere.

After searching the room for a while, Lu Yan found that anything of value had long been scavenged—there wasn’t even a scrap of food left.

Water and electricity had clearly been cut off years ago. The only thing left was a discarded desk calendar, its date frozen in 2012.

Still, it wasn’t all bad news.

Lu Yan could clearly sense that the spiritual energy density in the Apocalypse Version was at least ten times greater than in the Urban Version.

Since he hadn’t cultivated during the Xianxia Version, he couldn’t be sure how this compared to that world—but it was obvious that the ambient spiritual energy here was more than enough to sustain his training.

Even spending three months in seclusion to cultivate in the Apocalypse Version would be a highly worthwhile investment for Lu Yan.

“In this world, the biggest shortage is probably going to be supplies.”

“Luckily, I had the foresight to prepare for the version update and stocked up on three months’ worth of food and daily necessities. This time, they’ll come in handy.”

“Still, this room isn’t livable anymore. I’d better find a better one to settle into temporarily, and then start exploring the threats of the Apocalypse Version.”

With a wave of his right hand, Lu Yan retrieved several talismans from his storage pouch, gripping a few of them tightly before stepping out of the room.

The building was an old residential complex. Lu Yan was on the seventh floor, and the stairwell was littered with garbage and dried blood. Some rooms even contained skeletonized corpses—how long they had been there was impossible to tell.

Lu Yan had expected this. He began searching for a suitable room to live in, but most had been completely trashed. Some were even being used as makeshift latrines, with piles of human waste inside.

Clearly, with water supply long gone and toilets no longer functioning, survivors had turned these places into communal restrooms.

He climbed nearly to the top floor before finally finding a room with its door still shut.

Examining the old, rusted lock, Lu Yan flicked his finger and channeled his mana, shattering the corroded core with ease before pushing the door open.

The room inside was chaotic—dried bloodstains covered the floor—but compared to the completely wrecked rooms he had seen earlier, this one was relatively intact.

Still, Lu Yan remained cautious, carefully scanning his surroundings.

With all the other rooms looted and destroyed, this one being left untouched was highly suspicious.

Just as he approached the bedroom, a sudden gust of fetid wind accompanied by a guttural roar assaulted him—a rotting zombie lunged at him from within.

Prepared in advance, Lu Yan activated a talisman. A spike of ice instantly materialized in midair and pierced the charging zombie, spreading frost that froze it solid.

But the danger was far from over.

That zombie’s roar seemed to trigger a switch—more zombies burst forth from the room. In that small bedroom, there were more than a dozen of them.

Lu Yan immediately realized what had happened: some former survivors must have lured the zombies in and then locked the door, turning the room into a makeshift containment chamber.

Their flesh was long since decayed—many had even lost their vocal cords and couldn’t make a sound. Yet their movements remained far more agile than any normal human’s.

Lu Yan’s expression turned serious. These zombies didn’t pose too much of a threat to him—he could easily destroy them with talismans.

But his supply of talismans was limited. If it cost this much just to explore a room, what would he do when facing stronger zombies later?

Forming a hand seal, he summoned the Soul Banner into his hand. With a flick, four resentful spirits with strength equivalent to the First Layer of Qi Refining shot out and pounced on the dozen zombies.

Chilling ghostly energy froze the zombies’ movements, and their claws tore into rotted flesh.

As the claws withdrew, wispy, ghostly souls were dragged out of the corpses. Deprived of spiritual support, the zombie bodies instantly collapsed to the floor, their flesh rotting away visibly until nothing remained but bone.

Lu Yan paused, then his face lit up with surprise.

“These zombies… actually have souls?”

“No—more accurately, it’s because they have souls that their decayed bodies have been able to persist until now.”

Most First Layer resentful spirits could only harm spiritual entities, so Lu Yan had assumed they’d be useless against zombies.

But to his surprise, these nearly rotten corpses still housed lingering souls—and they were far weaker than those of living people. Against these feeble undead, the resentful spirits slaughtered them with ease.

Every swipe of a ghostly claw stripped away the attached soul. And the zombies? They couldn’t harm the spirits at all.

In just one minute, all the zombies had been reduced to white bones. The room now held only fifteen drifting, ghostly spirits.

(End of Chapter)