Chapter 22: Mid-Grade Artifact and Retreat

Lu Yan’s heart trembled. He immediately grabbed the Soul Banner and summoned all eight vengeful spirits, commanding them to scout the surrounding area.

The spirits concealed themselves within the walls of Building 13, cautiously weaving through the structure to covertly observe the outside world.

With hordes of zombies gathering under the moonlight, including many transcendent variants, Lu Yan didn’t dare send the spirits out openly.

Through their shared vision, Lu Yan saw clearly what was happening outside Building 13.

From the remaining uncleared buildings, over three thousand zombies surged forth like a tide, quickly flooding most of the neighborhood.

Nearly every building hosted at least one transcendent zombie. Most of them, however, were only at the early Qi Refining stage, similar in strength to the zombie hound from before. Only three were at the mid-stage Qi Refining level.

These bizarrely shaped transcendent zombies stood before their buildings, bathing in the nourishing moonlight.

Ordinary zombies lacked transcendent power, so they could only passively absorb the moonlight’s spiritual energy. Their absorption was random and inefficient—barely one-tenth effective.

Transcendent zombies, however, had already mastered some instinctive cultivation techniques. They actively drew in and refined the rare moonlight energy.

“No sign of a leader-class zombie?”

Lu Yan grew even more suspicious, becoming more cautious with every move.

Finally, after careful searching, he spotted it—on the rooftop of Building 7 stood a grotesque zombie, its back covered in blood-red, fleshy tendrils, greedily devouring the moonlight.

With each massive inhale, streams of silvery energy visibly flowed into its body, and the writhing tendrils danced wildly behind it.

“Peak Qi Refining!”

Lu Yan’s expression changed drastically. At that moment, the grotesque zombie turned its head toward the direction of the spirit.

The spirit quickly retreated into the wall, vanishing from sight, no longer daring to observe.

The zombie seemed momentarily puzzled before turning back to continue absorbing the moonlight.

Inside the room, Lu Yan’s expression had become grave.

Even in the Immortal Cultivation version, a peak Qi Refining cultivator was considered powerful—many of the top officials in the Bamboo Forest Market were at that level.

Lu Yan had once seen such a figure command a flying sword to kill three mid-stage Qi Refining rogue cultivators in a single slash. The power gap was enormous.

This leader-class zombie was far beyond what Lu Yan could handle.

Even though the Soul Banner was about to advance into a Mid-Grade Artifact, it was still nowhere near strong enough to contend with such a threat.

“There are twenty buildings in this neighborhood. I’ve only cleared two, and already the number of zombies has drastically decreased.

But Building 7, where the leader resides, is still a distance away.

These ordinary zombies are essentially resources for transcendent zombies, allowing them to draw in more moonlight.

If I keep killing them, it’ll affect the moonlight absorption and draw the leader’s attention.

If I get targeted, I won’t be able to escape with my current strength!”

“I have to leave this place before nightfall tomorrow!”

Having made up his mind, Lu Yan assigned a spirit to constantly monitor the area around Building 7 to ensure the leader-class zombie wasn’t on the move.

Back inside the room, he activated a Concealment Talisman, then sat down and resumed cultivation.

Moonlight spiritual energy was rare. Lu Yan didn’t know whether it would appear every night, so he had to take full advantage of this opportunity.

His cultivation lasted all the way into the next morning. As the sun rose, he finally stopped circulating his technique.

Unlike the transcendent zombies that could only follow instinct, Lu Yan cultivated the Red Lotus Karma Flame Scripture, which actively absorbed and refined spiritual energy, making his cultivation efficiency far superior.

After a full night, Lu Yan could clearly feel his soul had grown stronger—his mind was sharper, and his control over both the main spirit and the vengeful spirits in the Soul Banner had improved significantly.

Moreover, with the ambient spiritual energy ten times that of the city version—and aided by the moonlight—his cultivation progress was leaping forward.

Based on last night’s pace, he would reach the Second Layer of Qi Refining in under a week, a truly astonishing speed.

Looking outside, Lu Yan saw the zombies had retreated back into the buildings with the rising sun.

To his surprise, Buildings 12 and 13, which he had already cleared, now contained new zombies—wandering undead that had gotten lost while returning at night.

He casually grabbed some food from his storage pouch and ate a few bites, then picked up the Soul Banner and began the day’s zombie hunt.

He had to leave the neighborhood before nightfall, but with his earlier reconnaissance, he now had a full map of zombie locations.

It would be wasteful to just leave now.

So Lu Yan planned to avoid the leader-class zombie and the three mid-stage transcendent zombies and sweep the rest of the area clean before leaving.

Unfurling the Soul Banner, the eight vengeful spirits passed through the walls and began their slaughter.

Just yesterday, Lu Yan had only four spirits. Today, with eight spirits and the main soul, his efficiency had more than doubled.

Reaching another building, Lishi coordinated with the other spirits to kill an early-stage transcendent zombie. After that, the massacre became one-sided.

Each building took no more than ten minutes to clear. Nearly two hundred zombies per building were swiftly wiped out—the bulk of time was now spent on refining their souls into the Soul Banner.

As time passed, the number of vengeful spirits in the banner grew rapidly.

Nine… ten… eleven…

From morning until afternoon, Lu Yan worked tirelessly.

By the time he finished clearing the fifteenth building, the Soul Banner now contained twenty-seven vengeful spirits.

Once the spirit count had passed ten, the banner had already advanced to a Mid-Grade Artifact.

Now, with twenty-seven spirits, releasing them all at once turned a hundred-meter radius into a haunted hellscape.

Even early-stage transcendent zombies would be ripped to pieces instantly, and even mid-stage ones could barely hold their ground.

But controlling a mid-grade Soul Banner and so many spirits was an enormous burden on Lu Yan’s current cultivation.

Under normal circumstances, he could only keep nine spirits active at a time for combat.

Looking toward the center of the neighborhood, a few buildings still remained.

But they were too close to the leader-class zombie.

Despite his strength increasing dramatically, Lu Yan refused to take the risk of provoking a peak Qi Refining leader.

Without hesitation, he turned and made his way toward a building on the outskirts of the neighborhood—one that had no transcendent zombies.

Nine spirits swirled around him, clearing the way.

Night fell. The fifteenth had passed.

The moon above was no longer full, its edges now broken. The moonlight it cast was noticeably thinner than the night before.

Zombies once again emerged from their hiding places, and the transcendent ones returned to their respective territories.

At the Happy Community, the leader-class zombie known as Blood Tendril stepped onto the rooftop, preparing to absorb moonlight.

But as soon as it reached the top, Blood Tendril froze in shock.

Tonight, the amount of moonlight energy being absorbed by the zombies was less than a quarter of what it normally was.

Even though transcendent zombies weren’t exactly smart, they weren’t brain-dead either.

This drastic change made Blood Tendril boil with fury as it tried to identify the cause.

But when it scanned the area, it saw that the neighborhood—usually packed with undead—was now home to only a few hundred scattered zombies.

In building after building, the zombies were gone—only piles of bones remained.

A roar of pure rage erupted into the night sky!

(End of Chapter)