Chapter 31 – The Wolf Pack

Chapter 31 – The Wolf Pack

As they spoke, Li Wanshan and four others appeared before Cheng Yang in an instant. Judging by their expressions, their harvest had been quite bountiful. Li Wanshan now wielded an ordinary iron sword that boosted his attack power, and he was clad in a leather armor.

Cheng Yang immediately shared his plans with Li Wanshan, who was deeply grateful. Unlike Yu Kai and the others, Li Wanshan was genuinely moved by Cheng Yang’s trust in him after just a few days.

Cheng Yang then checked his spiritual energy reserves, which had surpassed 1,600 points. After a night of cultivation, his reserves had dwindled to less than 1,200 points, but clearing the difficult-level dungeon and collecting taxes from the territory had replenished them.

He promptly transferred 1,000 points to Niu Bing, as he was the only one among the four who hadn’t started cultivating yet.

After making arrangements, Cheng Yang opened the five profession statues and chose to upgrade their attributes. The 100 people who had changed professions this morning had depleted the territory’s spiritual energy, but after Cheng Yang and his team’s sweep through the dungeon, the reserves had surged to 1,300 points, even after deducting the nearly 70 points in taxes Cheng Yang had collected and the salaries paid to Yu Kai and the others.

Cheng Yang immediately upgraded the Level 2 Mana Enhancement for each statue. Once the upgrades were complete, everyone would receive an 8% mana boost. In the early stages, mana was the primary factor limiting the sustained combat ability of each profession, especially since Luofeng Village hadn’t yet built an alchemy room.

However, upgrading the Level 2 profession statue attributes would take 10 hours, meaning it wouldn’t be complete until evening. This round of upgrades alone consumed 900 points of spiritual energy, partly because the Priest statue was still at Level 1 and only required 100 points.

After handling this, Cheng Yang checked the time—it was almost 10 a.m. Niu Bing had already retreated to a civilian house to cultivate, leaving Yu Kai and the other two waiting for Cheng Yang’s instructions.

“Lord, do you think we’re strong enough to head to Xiangcheng City now?” Li Wanshan hesitated before asking.

Cheng Yang understood Li Wanshan’s concerns and thought for a moment. “If we’re willing to pay any price, we might be able to break into Xiangcheng City, but whether we can find your families is uncertain. Here’s what I suggest: today, focus on collecting wood in Huimin Town. If we can gather enough materials to build an alchemy room, we’ll gain access to potions. With potions, we should be able to make it to Xiangcheng City. Of course, this is just my speculation. I’ll scout the route to Xiangcheng City alone later and assess the situation.”

Li Wanshan nodded. He couldn’t find a reason to reject Cheng Yang’s suggestion. He knew he had no right to endanger the entire territory for his personal interests.

Cheng Yang then handed the Swift Boots he had just obtained to Liu Hao, who was overjoyed. With these boots, his speed advantage would be even more pronounced.

There was still one opportunity left to enter the Bloody Church on normal difficulty, but Cheng Yang decided against sending anyone in. Those who had already entered the dungeon had used up their chances for the day, and sending inexperienced people in would be too risky. Theory was one thing, but without practical experience, it was hard to feel confident.

According to Cheng Yang’s plan, Yu Kai, Niu Bing, and Cheng Yang’s teams would join forces to head to Huimin Town, primarily to rescue people and secondarily to collect wood. Since Cheng Yang would be acting alone, his team would be led by Zhao Chuan. Niu Bing was still cultivating in the civilian house, so his team would remain in the base to guard it until he finished cultivating and transferred his spiritual energy to the next person.

As for Liu Hao and Li Wanshan’s teams, they would head to other areas of the territory to seek out and eliminate suitable monster groups. This was a necessary task, as these monster groups would merge over time. Without external intervention, stronger groups would grow like snowballs, eventually becoming massive threats.

Cheng Yang vividly remembered that in his previous life, a base near the primal forest had failed to clear out the monster groups early on. Half a year into the apocalypse, the base was overrun by millions of monsters. The most troublesome part was that this group included a monster with peak second-tier strength, which was the main reason the base fell.

Before Cheng Yang’s rebirth, humanity still hadn’t figured out the rules governing the evolution of these demonic beasts. However, a few things were clear: like humans, these monsters were very weak when they first appeared in this world. Over time, they grew stronger, and at a rapid pace. Additionally, any group of more than 20 demonic beasts would have a mid-tier first-tier leader. When the group reached a certain size, higher-tier demonic beasts would inevitably appear. It was unclear whether the group grew larger because of the higher-tier beasts or if the higher-tier beasts appeared because the group grew larger.

Regardless of the reason, Cheng Yang didn’t want a massive monster group to appear near his base, as it would pose a significant threat to the territory.

After Liu Hao and the others left, Cheng Yang also exited through the north gate.

After walking a kilometer, Cheng Yang didn’t encounter a single monster. This wasn’t surprising, as this area was part of Luofeng Village’s territory, so no monsters would spawn here.

What was more bizarre was that the trees in this area had vanished overnight, as if they had never existed, leaving only weeds less than half a meter tall.

As Cheng Yang ventured further, things became less straightforward.

It was only the fourth day since the apocalypse began, but trees had already started encroaching on the roads, many reaching four to five meters in height. Walking through them, it was impossible to see far ahead.

Fortunately, Cheng Yang’s hearing had improved significantly, and he could detect any movement within 40 to 50 meters.

Along the way, Cheng Yang rarely encountered lone monsters, which didn’t surprise him. As time passed, the random spawning of monsters would gradually disappear. No one knew why the gods had arranged things this way, but most speculated that it was to give untransformed human survivors a chance to catch their breath while preventing transformed individuals from easily farming spiritual energy by killing lone demonic beasts.

Of course, the number of demonic beasts spawning hadn’t decreased; the additional ones simply appeared directly within monster groups.

For example, Cheng Yang now spotted a monster group ahead, numbering no fewer than 50.

Cheng Yang’s purpose for coming out was merely to scout, and taking on 50 demonic beasts would be troublesome. He’d rather face ten groups of fewer than 20 beasts than encounter a single group of 50.

However, when Cheng Yang climbed a tree and saw something lying on the ground at the center of the monster group, he couldn’t bring himself to leave.

PS: Today’s bonus chapter will still be posted late at night! The recommendation has ended, and the growth in collections isn’t as strong as hoped. Brothers, we’re still 60 collections short—can we reach the goal by tomorrow morning?