Chapter 44 – Flower Stealing, Wood Grafting (2)

Chapter 44 – Flower Stealing, Wood Grafting (2)

The battle had raged for nearly half an hour, and Cheng Yang had already slain over eight hundred demonized beasts. However, his supply of mana potions was completely depleted. Relying solely on his natural mana regeneration, eliminating the remaining three hundred or so demonized beasts would be an immense challenge.

Cheng Yang decided to ignore the bloodthirsty jackals and rushed toward the direction where Yu Kai had previously been stationed.

A few minutes later, Cheng Yang reunited with Yu Kai.

“Boss, how’s the situation? I heard quite the commotion from your side,” Yu Kai immediately asked.

Cheng Yang quickly replied, “It’s mostly dealt with, but there are still over three hundred ordinary jackals left. I’ve run out of mana potions. Get me five of the medium-sized ones you prepared.”

Yu Kai had brought the medium mana potions specifically for Cheng Yang. Upon hearing the request, he promptly retrieved them from his backpack.

After taking the potions, Cheng Yang said, “Hold the line for another ten minutes, then meet me at the passage entrance.” With that, he turned and left.

Cheng Yang swiftly returned to the original battlefield. The pack of ordinary jackals had already chased after him for three to four hundred meters. When Cheng Yang arrived, it signaled the end of their lives.

In just a few minutes, Cheng Yang completely annihilated the jackals. Seeing the 1,200 spirit energy points in his account, Cheng Yang deeply felt that the greater the crisis, the greater the rewards. Such high-intensity battles were indeed the best way to accumulate spirit energy.

With the battle over, Cheng Yang paid no further attention to the jackal corpses. Although the meat was usable, most people still couldn’t accept jackal meat at this stage—it was simply too dirty.

When Cheng Yang returned to the passage, he was startled to find an item lying on the ground. This was something he had never encountered in his previous life. Had his presence in this timeline caused some changes? Or was he just incredibly lucky? Unbeknownst to Cheng Yang, this wasn’t a change caused by him. In his previous life, someone had indeed obtained this item, but they had used it immediately during the chaos, and no one had noticed. That person had died shortly after securing the passage, and the matter had quietly faded into obscurity.

Cheng Yang quickly walked over and picked up the item. It resembled a scroll.

In his previous life, Cheng Yang had seen many such items. They were either skill scrolls, one-time dungeon entry tokens, or, best of all, building blueprints that could add new structures to a settlement.

With a sense of anticipation, Cheng Yang opened the scroll, only to find that it wasn’t the building blueprint he had hoped for, but a skill scroll. This left him slightly disappointed.

However, when Cheng Yang read the skill’s description, his disappointment vanished. This was an incredibly powerful skill.

Just seeing the word “special” told Cheng Yang that this skill was extraordinary. In his previous life, special skills were exceedingly rare, and each one was incredibly powerful. Of course, leveling up special skills was also extremely difficult.

After reading the skill’s description, Cheng Yang instantly understood why the jackal leaders had suddenly surged in speed during the previous battle. The jackal chieftain must have also possessed this skill, and its level was likely far beyond Level 1. After all, Cheng Yang had needed four magic missiles to finally take it down.

Among the jackals’ attributes, health was their weakest point. With Cheng Yang’s current attack power, his first three rounds of attacks had undoubtedly taken away at least 90 health points from the jackal chieftain. This meant that even if the jackal didn’t have a weakness in health, the reduction from using Flower Stealing, Wood Grafting would still be less than 20%. What an overpowered skill!

Cheng Yang could already envision leading a team of five to farm monsters. He could transfer his attack power to the five of them, occupy a strategic location, and hold off countless enemies. At this stage, it would be an impregnable position, and their farming efficiency would be off the charts. Of course, if all five were ranged attackers, it would be even more perfect.

The only downside was that Flower Stealing, Wood Grafting was a skill scroll, not a skill inheritance orb. If it had been the latter, it could have been widely disseminated, making Luofeng Village practically invincible.

Cheng Yang immediately chose to learn the skill. In the apocalypse, no one would complain about becoming stronger, and no one was more suited to use this skill than Cheng Yang at this moment.

A few minutes later, Yu Kai and the others arrived near the passage. Many of the warriors’ armor showed signs of damage, indicating that the battle had been far from easy. If not for the system’s influence, they would likely be drenched in blood.

“Yang, you look pleased. Must’ve had a good haul,” Liu Hao said with a grin.

Cheng Yang nodded. “Not bad. How about you guys? How did you fare?”

Liu Hao replied, “My team killed around five hundred demonized beasts. On average, each person earned about fifteen spirit energy points. Combined with what we collected on the way here, we’re close to thirty points each. Much better than the past few days.”

Yu Kai reported similar results.

Li Wanshan, however, looked troubled. “Lord, my team’s harvest was about the same as Captain Liu and Captain Yu’s, but we suffered casualties. This was due to my poor command. I request punishment!”

Cheng Yang’s expression froze. Although he had mentally prepared for this, the sudden news of casualties was still hard to accept. In the days since the apocalypse began, he had been extremely cautious, never acting without absolute certainty, precisely to avoid losses. After all, every combatant who had grown since the beginning of the apocalypse was a valuable asset.

But war inevitably brought death. Though the scale wasn’t comparable to past wars between nations, the brutality was even greater. This wasn’t a conflict between humans but between humans and demonized beasts. Defeat meant death—there was no concept of prisoners. Massacres, once the cruelest form of warfare, had now become commonplace. Entire cities could be devoured.

“How severe were the casualties?” Cheng Yang asked.

Li Wanshan replied, “One death. The injured have fully recovered after using health potions.”

Cheng Yang felt slightly relieved. One death was within his acceptable range. “Bury the deceased here. We can’t let our comrades become food for beasts. If they have families, provide extra care, offer them a chance to reclassify, and compensate them with spirit energy. Consider this your punishment. From now on, we’ll establish a system: any team that suffers casualties will be responsible for the bereavement arrangements, and the compensation must meet a certain standard. We’ll discuss the specifics later.”

PS: Seeking collections and recommendations…