?
The two of them searched through the supermarket together, during which Liu Yang casualy dispatched a few straggling zombies along the way.
With such a divine blade in hand, hunting zombies went from a chore to pure pleasure. Of course, for the undead, it was nothing short of a nightmare.
At Liu Yang's current speed, the zombies moved in slow motion. Before they could even close the distance, a single flash of his blade bisected them.
Sliced like fresh tofu, the seamless cuts were deeply satisfying.
Even if it cost him half of his current stockpile, trading for a weapon like this would be a steal!
It only cemented his resolve to visit the Ranking Stone.
If Zhang Jingyu's brother had gotten a treasure like this from a single test, what kind of reward would await a powerhouse like him?
Anticipation surged through Liu Yang at the thought.
After half an hour of navigating the aisles, they finally reached the main storage warehouse hidden down a rear corridor!
The facility was massive, divided into distinct sections: apparel, fresh produce, grain and dry goods, and cold storage.
The apparel section was packed with racks of men's and women's clothing, complete with innerwear, sleepwear, and swimwear. Liu Yang swept his hand across the aisles, instantly transferring every last item into his Dark Space.
The fresh produce warehouse held an endless supply of fruits and vegetables.
All of it went straight into storage as well.
What truly got Liu Yang's blood pumping was the grain storage! Neatly stacked row upon row sat at least a thousand bags of rice.
At 100 jin per bag, 1,000 bags totaled 100,000 jin-a staggering 50 metric tons!
Fifty tons of grain could sustain him, Su Xiao, and the rest of his group for over a decade!
And that wasn't even counting the stockpiles of soybeans, mung beans, and various other legumes, which easily totaled dozens more tons.
"Jackpot! Absolute jackpot! With this much loot, I could easily feed an entire survivor base!"
An ecstatic grin spread across Liu Yang's face.
In the apocalypse, food was the ultimate currency.
And this was just a single large supermarket.
If he cleared out a few more, wouldn't he easily stockpile thousands of tons of grain?
Food was capital-the ultimate foundation for building his faction in this fallen world.
It was no exaggeration to say that in a zombie-infested wasteland, 100 jin of grain could easily buy ten gorgeous women.
And if those ten women helped him expand his lineage and unlock system rewards, the returns would far outstrip even ten tons of grain!
It was a self-sustaining cycle of resource conversion and exponential growth.
Beaming with excitement, Liu Yang continued shoveling everything in sight into his Dark Space.
Watching his spatial pocket fill up to nearly a fifth of its total capacity filled him with immense satisfaction.
...
Meanwhile, outside the supermarket near the fallen mutated tree, a group of more than a dozen figures arrived.
They were travel-stained, rough around the edges, and oozed malice-a crew of hardened cutthroats.
"Looks like a mutated tree. Clean cut, sliced straight through. Must be that guy's doing."
One of them, a man with a large, bulbous red nose, sniffed rhythmically, filtering through the lingering scents in the air.
"The blood here belongs to him. He bled heavily-looks like taking down this tree wasn't easy. He's likely severely wounded, which plays right into our hands!"
Following the trail of blood, he kept sniffing intently.
After a few moments, he turned to a hulking brute over 1.9 meters tall, built like a black bear. "Boss Giant Bear, the guy's hiding over there!"
The crew followed his lead to a mound of loose soil.
They exchanged bewildered glances.
Yellow Dog nodded, whispering, "The scent leads straight into the dirt!"
Giant Bear's expression darkened. What kind of freak hides in the mud?
Still, he barked an order to his men: "Dig it up."
Before long, they unearthed a corpse.
"He's dead?" Giant Bear's coarse face twitched in surprise.
Even in Black Tiger Base, Zhang Jinglin's combat power ranked among the top three. How could he have fallen to a mutated tree?
Another bandit patted down the body. "Where's his katana? That was a top-tier blade-I've been eye-ing it forever!"
"His sister probably took it."
Scarface Mouse frowned. "Did his sister bury him here? That doesn't make sense. If a powerful ability user like Zhang Jinglin died, how could an ordinary girl like his sister escape?"
"He probably died buying time for her to run," another grunt chimed in. "With his strength, escaping on his own wouldn't have been hard."
"Even better!" Big Nose smirked, relaxing his posture. "Zhang Jinglin is dead, and his sister ran off. We just grab Zhang Jingyu, head back to claim the reward, and save ourselves a tough fight."
"Let's just hope she's still breathing," Giant Bear said grimly. "Boss Black Tiger was explicit-we bring her back alive."
Without her brother's protection, a weak girl like Zhang Jingyu could easily fall prey to zombies.
If she ended up dead, they'd have to answer to Black Tiger.
Giant Bear turned back to the red-nosed tracker.
"Yellow Dog, hurry up and lock onto Zhang Jingyu's scent!"
"I'm on it, I'm on it! Don't rush me-sniff, sniff!" Yellow Dog inhaled deeply, his expression suddenly stiffening.
"There's a heavy... intimate scent on her. Beside Zhang Jingyu, there was a man... sniff... wait, it smells like other women too? Did the guy carry the scent of a whole harem?" Yellow Dog's face twisted in confusion.
"Who cares if it's a man or a woman!" Giant Bear barked impatiently. "Find them! If it's a guy, gut him. If it's a woman, we'll all take a turn before putting a bullet in her head!"
He was in charge of this hunt and wanted no complications-just a smooth retrieval to report back to Black Tiger.
"Got it. They went that way!" Yellow Dog led the way along the trail.
Eventually, the group arrived at the supermarket entrance.
"They're inside," Yellow Dog said, pointing to the shattered glass doors.
"Alright, we go in. Yellow Dog, clear the way up front. Scarface Mouse, cover the rear and stay sharp. The rest of you, stack up on me!" Giant Bear commanded.
"Got it, Boss Giant Bear."
Yellow Dog stepped inside first. The moment he crossed the threshold, the reek of putrid zombie blood hit his nose.
When he looked up at the interior, his eyes went wide with shock and a sudden creep of terror.
Decapitated and bisected zombies littered the ground in every direction-each one sliced clean in two with absolute precision!
He swallowed hard, sucking in a cold breath. "This style... it looks just like Zhang Jinglin's attacks... But isn't that guy dead?"
Giant Bear's brow furrowed tightly. "No, it's a different expert! Someone took Zhang Jinglin's katana, brought his sister here, and wiped out hundreds of zombies single-handedly! This bastard might be even stronger than Zhang Jinglin... Everyone, stay on high alert!"