Ji Lingbai remembered San Wu mentioning someone like that before.

A short man walked in, holding a rope in his hand, with a woman trembling and hunched over at the other end of the rope.

The woman was covered in blood, her breath shallow and labored.

She collapsed to the ground, gasping for air, her injuries too severe to be saved.

“Useless person, can’t even withstand a little torment.” Wang Haosheng’s eyes were full of gloom as he kicked the woman’s back, saying, “Feed her.”

The man next to him, wearing gloves, grabbed the woman’s chin. She had no strength left to struggle, her face so bloodied that her features were barely discernible.

A sprout bean was shoved into her mouth.

Ji Lingbai’s pupils contracted. The next moment, the woman began convulsing and foaming at the mouth.

She was undergoing zombification!

Bean sprouts grown with zombie toxins were indeed inedible.

But what were these people’s intentions?

Soon, Wang Haosheng made it clear what he wanted to do. Seizing the moment when the woman completely succumbed to zombification and went limp, he stomped on her head, crushing her skull.

A zombie crystal fell out!

“Young Master’s timing is becoming more precise.” The two flattered beside him. “This woman’s strength was just slightly lacking. If she were a mid-level ability holder, the crystal would have been even larger.”

Ji Lingbai crouched low. The stench of blood and decay in the air made him uncomfortable.

Wang Haosheng cleaned the crystal in his hands, finally revealing a smile.

“Why would I bother with such effort if the ability cores didn’t disappear after the death of an ability holder?”

“Low-ranking zombies are difficult to produce crystals. I’m afraid that even with a hundred of them, you wouldn’t get a single crystal, the efficiency is too slow.”

“It’s these ability holders, on the other hand, that directly convert their ability cores into zombie cores after zombification. They won’t disappear, and the burst rate is one hundred percent.”

Wang Haosheng glanced at his own palm, where the pale yellow core showed no sign of developing into deep purple. Impatiently, he said, “How long will it take for me to reach high rank based solely on my own speed? The zombie cores provided by those wastes every day are not enough to split.”

Ultimately, the fortress was still under his father’s control, with eighty percent of the cores collected from the residents going to his father. The remaining twenty percent had to be shared among some high-ranking ability holders loyal to them.

Wang Haosheng smirked triumphantly, saying, “Under the guise of seeking new territory, I’ll gather some unaffiliated commoners. By the time I reach a higher rank, I should be the one in charge of the fortress.”

His eyes were full of wild ambition, eliciting a cold sneer from Ji Lingbai.

“But, Young Master, the lord of the fortress doesn’t know our plans yet. If other fortresses find out about what we’re doing…”

Although the world was in chaos, the deliberate mass slaughter of humans by humans, especially by ability holders, was still frown upon.

“What’s there to be afraid of? My father isn’t in the fortress right now,” Wang Haosheng sneered coldly. “If you don’t speak, and I don’t speak, who will know that these bean sprouts are problematic? When he comes back, we’ll just say that those people were killed by zombies while exploring outside, and the yellow beans are gone, isn’t that simple?”

Wang Haosheng was full of confidence.

But Ji Lingbai caught the crucial point.

The lord of the fortress… wasn’t there right then.

In other words, the highest combat power of this fortress was gone?

Heh!

—–

In San Wu’s courtyard, two zombies, two plants, and one human sat around the table.

San Wu’s expression was solemn as she looked at everyone. “You all know by now that Xiao Bai has quietly run away.”

Kui Ku nodded.

Xiao San leaned against her, rubbing her head against her chest.

“Now that he’s gone, we’re all left here. I’ll just come out and say it.”

The night breeze brushed by, lifting San Wu’s hair, adding to the already heavy atmosphere.

Her serious gaze turned to the table… where two cleaned, opened fish lay.

She spoke slowly, a hint of suppressed excitement finally creeping into her voice, “Let’s cook a special meal!”

The small fish in the pond grew frighteningly fast.

In just one day, they grew to the size of a palm.

As for the two large fish from before, they had grown to the length of an adult’s arm, their dark shapes visible even underwater.

Both were kept for breeding, so despite her cravings, she couldn’t touch them.

However, the pond was now crowded with the rapidly growing small fish, some already as long as two palms.

San Wu scooped up a few fish, feeling their shiny scales and thick flesh.

“Three grilled, two stewed!” San Wu tossed the fish to Kui Ku, saying, “Kui Ku, go kill the fish. San Yi and San Xiao, go out and chop some thornwood.”

Compared to regular meals, the excitement of cooking something different thrilled everyone.

Kui Ku deftly manipulated her leaves. Though she couldn’t eat fish, she could drink the fish soup.

These fish, grown in purified water, were very beneficial for both her and Luo Bo.

When San Yi and San Xiao returned with plenty of thornwood, they also brought back many mutated crickets and earthworms.

San Wu chopped the mutated earthworms into small pieces to feed the ducks.

The two ducks grew quite large.

San Wu mixed purified water into the mutated earthworms. Suddenly, the ducks, who had little appetite before, buried their heads in the basin and began pecking frantically.

The two ducks had snow-white feathers and huddled in the corner, almost burying their necks in the soil.