Wang Zhenhong returned to his residence from the meeting room. A man with the bearing of a butler stepped inside.
"Master, the Young Master sent word. He wants you to find a way to get the Lin family's eldest daughter, Lin Yifei, under control."
"Lin Yifei? That wastrel still hasn't given up on her?"
"No, sir. This time it's because the Young Master discovered she's an Ability User. He wants her in his grasp."
"An Ability User?" Wang Zhenhong's eyes lit up, but after a moment's thought, he shook his head.
"The Lin family is too close to the military. Lin Yifei has Liu Yong's protection right now-it's not the time to move on her."
"We'll wait. When the moment comes, getting whoever we want will be as simple as saying the word."
"Tell A'Kai to stop overthinking and focus on building his strength. He's the one who matters down the line."
"Understood."
---
Residential area.
Yang Bin and the others holed up in the building and killed all day-morning to evening, no breaks, gnawing on bread between swings.
One full day. Nearly a thousand zombies.
That pace was actually slow for them. The stairwell bottleneck limited their throughput, and clearing corpses ate up time.
Still, the haul wasn't bad. One Tier-4 crystal, over twenty Tier-3 crystals, and more than a thousand lesser ones.
By now, Hu Wenliang had broken through to Tier 4. Zhao Kun and the other two had all reached Tier-3 Peak. Three Tier 4, three Tier-3 Peak-still miles ahead of anyone else.
But Yang Bin wasn't satisfied. Too few Tier-4 crystals.
"Can't keep doing this tomorrow. One Tier-4 crystal in a whole day-way too slow." Yang Bin frowned.
"Yeah, anything below Tier 4 is useless to us now. This approach is a waste of time." The others nodded.
"Head back for now. There should be more Tier-4 zombies tomorrow. We'll figure something out then."
"Got it."
The stairwell was blocked solid, but that didn't matter to them. They went into an apartment, snapped the security bars off a window, and jumped.
Zombies below swarmed toward them instantly.
Useless. At their current strength, nothing down here could slow them. They carved a bloody path straight through.
They ran all the way back to the villa. Just as they were about to go inside, Yang Bin caught movement in a villa not far off-human figures shifting behind the walls.
He activated True Vision Eye and focused on the building. Two people inside, watching them.
"What's up, Brother Bin?"
"There are people in this neighborhood."
"People?"
"Two of them. That villa over there." Yang Bin pointed at the upscale property down the road.
"I assumed everyone here got evacuated, so I never checked properly. Need to get up on the roof later and do a proper sweep of this whole area."
"Should we... deal with them?"
"Long as they don't come looking for trouble, leave them alone."
"Alright."
Everyone headed inside, ate a proper meal, and went upstairs to rest.
Yang Bin went straight to the rooftop terrace and started scanning the neighborhood.
One full sweep. Only that single villa showed signs of life. Everything else was empty.
But when he focused on that villa more carefully, he spotted something that made his eyebrows shoot up.
In the center of the backyard sat a massive iron cage. Inside it-over twenty zombies.
All Tier-3.
Every single one.
And hidden in the four corners of the yard, four Tier-3 Evolvers stood watch over the cage around the clock.
"What the hell are they keeping that many high-order zombies for?" Yang Bin muttered.
Then it clicked. His eyes went wide. "No way-Zombie Farming?"
"Holy shit, that's exactly what this is! How did I not think of that?"
Yang Bin looked like a man who'd just found buried treasure. His eyes practically glowed.
"Goddamn genius, whoever set this up." He stared at that massive iron cage, naked greed spreading across his face. The bandit in him was fully awake. "I'm taking this."
---
Late that night, the team gathered on the rooftop terrace again to watch the stars. As they were about to head back down, Yang Bin glanced toward that villa one more time-and a spark of delight lit his eyes.
"Liangzi, Zhao Kun-you guys head down and rest. Haozi, you're with me. Got something good for us." Yang Bin grinned.
"Sure."
The others were curious but didn't press. Do what Brother Bin says-that was how the team worked.
Yang Bin took the fire axe from Zhao Kun, then led Chen Hao around to the back of the target villa. They climbed a tree with a clear line of sight.
Chen Hao saw it now-the massive iron cage in the center of the courtyard, packed with zombies. His eyes went wide.
Yang Bin held a finger to his lips, then pointed into the cage and whispered:
"See the one near the edge? Gray plaid shirt. That's a freshly advanced Tier-4 Zombie. Go invisible, drop in, kill it, grab the crystal, get out."
Chen Hao's eyes lit up. He nodded.
Yang Bin passed him the fire axe. "There's a Tier-3 Evolver in each corner of the yard, but they're all dozing right now. The instant your axe connects, go invisible again. If your timing's right, your body won't fully materialize-they won't see a thing."
"And if they do spot you-kill them all."
"Copy that."
Chen Hao dropped from the tree, went invisible, vaulted the courtyard wall, and reached the iron cage.
He lined up the fire axe, measured the angle, and swung. The Tier-4 Zombie's skull split open like a melon.
The instant the axe connected, Chen Hao's silhouette flickered once and vanished.
The zombies in the cage erupted into agitation.
The four Evolvers cracked their eyes open, glanced over. Nothing out of the ordinary. They went back to sleep.
Every time the stars faded, the zombies got restless. Old news.
Chen Hao dug the crystal from the Tier-4 Zombie's skull, pocketed it, and slipped away clean.
Minutes later, both of them were back inside their villa.
"Ha! That's gotta be the easiest Tier-4 crystal we've ever gotten." Chen Hao held it up, grinning ear to ear.
"But Brother Bin-why sneak around? Why not just take over that whole villa? All those zombies would be ours."
"Not yet." Yang Bin shook his head. "That many high-order zombies-no way those few guys caught them on their own. There's a bigger force behind them. Until we know what we're dealing with, we don't tip our hand."
"But didn't we just tip our hand tonight?"
"If we don't move tonight, that Tier-4 Zombie is gone by tomorrow. You want to hand someone else a Tier-4 crystal? I don't."
"As for tipping them off-they never saw you, so we're fine for now. Besides, that zombie just broke through. They don't even know it was Tier 4."
"And whatever they think when they find a zombie with its head cracked open in the morning? Not our problem."
Yang Bin pictured their faces when they discovered the scene. A slow smile curled across his lips.
"Come on. Let's get some sleep."