Chapter 208: Cannot Upgrade
“You think it’s too ruthless,” Zhuang Mingxu said, taking the words out of his mouth.
Lu Weiyi was a pampered young master. He might not be a very good leader, but at least he was willing to listen to the opinions of his subordinates, even if it made him uncomfortable inside.
Zhuang Mingxu felt both relieved and sympathetic. He leaned over and embraced Lu Weiyi, gently running his fingers through his hair. “You’ve done great. Besides, those people weren’t innocent, you know that in your heart. If you let them go, given their abilities, they would probably just become tools for some faction again.”
Liu Dali was able to exclude all ordinary people from the base; how clean do you think his subordinates really were? “I know.”
Lu Weiyi clearly understood this, but he was someone who didn’t like to meddle in others’ affairs. He always felt that those matters had nothing to do with him, so it wasn’t his place to be the righteous avenger.
He wiped his face and forced himself to perk up. “It’s fine.”
“This is the jade space I took from Liu Dali. Do you want me to get two more? Or distribute some to them?” Zhuang Mingxu took out over twenty pieces of jade stones of varying sizes from his clothes.
“So many?” For the first time, Zhuang Mingxu thought the jade space was not very valuable. He took them and counted—twenty-eight in total.
“Liu Dali alone had twelve, with a total area of over three hundred square meters. The rest belonged to those ability users and his daughter, the largest amount doesn’t exceed dozens,” Lu Weiyi picked out the biggest pieces.
“One is enough for me. There’s usually nothing much to store,” Zhuang Mingxu said, taking one piece. “I’ll keep this one for Ai Yi to use later. Try using the others to better repair your space. If it works, it will fully restore your space. Maybe repairing your jade pendant will have unexpected benefits.”
Lu Weiyi was also eager to repair his space. He nodded and put several large pieces inside. Normally, jade stones need to be placed in well water to be absorbed, but these pieces seemed to merge with the world as soon as they were taken in. An indescribable energy radiated from the jade stones, then dissipated into the space. The stones turned into white powdery residue and scattered on the ground.
“Hmm? … Hmm!” Lu Weiyi frowned and was about to enter the space to check when he suddenly felt a violent shaking inside. It was as if an invisible hand quickly smoothed the damaged area, and a sharp pain radiated from his navel.
“Xiaoyi!” Zhuang Mingxu was startled, watching him nervously.
“It’s fine, just a prickly pain from the space repairing,” Lu Weiyi looked at the small repaired patch. “It’s even bigger than the area fixed by those several-thousand kilos jade stones before.”
“Looks like the effect is good. How much is left unrepaired?” Zhuang Mingxu was pleased as well.
“Only a quarter remains,” Lu Weiyi surveyed the space.
“Then use the others too,” Zhuang Mingxu said.
Lu Weiyi nodded and paused. “Li Zhuang saw me take the jade stones. He knows about the jade space. Is it important whether I use them all? Should we keep some? After all, the space can also be repaired with ordinary jade stones.”
Although Zhuang Mingxu couldn’t tell what attitude Li Zhuang had towards Lu Weiyi, he felt Li Zhuang wouldn’t say anything reckless. “Everyone already accepts you as the leader, so you have the right to distribute these things. No one has the right to question you. But what you say makes sense. The jade space is rare, so keep some for now. Your space is big enough. When it’s not, you can get more jade stones. We should try using ordinary jade stones first.”
“Alright, then keep these for now.” Lu Weiyi handed the remaining small pieces to Zhuang Mingxu. “Do you want to organize the crystal cores?”
Talking about this clearly excited Lu Weiyi. He boosted his mental barrier and showed Zhuang Mingxu the antique gold bars one by one, then finally took out the crystal cores.
“All five elemental attributes, not a single ordinary one. No wonder we have to run fast. You’ve basically taken all their reserves,” Zhuang Mingxu laughed, thinking about how the others had worked so hard in the apocalypse only to lose it all.
Zhuang Mingxu packed the crystal cores by attributes into 100-unit packages, totaling over 30,000. More than 5,000 were B-level cores. Lu Weiyi was shocked by the amount.
This made him realize the degree of the zombies’ evolution now.
“This haul is good. Let’s give everyone 100 each as team benefits,” Zhuang Mingxu counted and reminded, “Don’t give Xu Sa any. Consider it a debt from before.”
Lu Weiyi nodded and stored most in the space. “You take the rest for daily distribution.”
Ability users needed crystal cores to cultivate. Now that they were taking small roads, they encountered only a few dozen zombies per day, not enough to meet their daily absorption needs. Lu Weiyi had been supplementing with what he earned before.
Just as Zhuang Mingxu finished storing the items, Lu Weiyi felt a strong mental energy fluctuation. He quickly dispersed his mental energy to protect the others.
Outside, the busy people sensed the mental energy, quickly dropped what they were doing, and gathered together. They exchanged glances, all looking towards Lu Weiyi’s room.
They tacitly assumed it was Lu Weiyi releasing the mental energy.
“They know I’m a mental-type ability user?” Lu Weiyi was a bit surprised.
“Have you ever fully hidden it?” Zhuang Mingxu sighed at his naivety.
Thinking about how often Lu Weiyi accidentally let it slip, he felt their teammates were really good.
Then another wave of mental energy suddenly spread out. Bai Miao shouted, and his loud “WTF” echoed explosively in the quiet surroundings.
“Bai Miao?” Several people called out and headed towards the room.
Lu Weiyi withdrew his mental energy. “Lu Xi has upgraded. Bai Miao got injured.”
No sooner had he finished speaking than Lu Xi’s anxious knocking rang out. “Brother, brother, Bai Miao is bleeding from his nose! Come see what’s wrong with him!”
Lu Weiyi opened the door. “The mental energy you released stimulated his brain. Next time when upgrading, be more careful to contain it. Ice it and rest a bit—it will be fine.”
Lu Xi hurriedly went outside to find some ice. Antonio stood in the yard holding a wrench like a repairman, peeking over. “Lu, I need metal, to build beds, and also crystal cores.”
In the yard, the nine-meter-long truck had already been wrapped in metal by Antonio, covering the cargo area. It had two levels, totaling about seven or eight meters high, like a moving two-story building.
Lu Weiyi took some metal products out of his space and threw them on the ground, then gave Antonio two hundred crystal cores and went to look at the design drawings beside him.
“Near the front of the truck is a vertical bed one and a half meters wide, leaving eighty centimeters for cooking. Behind that, there’s an arrangement of beds one point eight meters wide and one and a half meters tall, alternating in layout, all bunk beds. Everyone will have a place to rest,” Antonio proudly explained, pointing at another drawing. “The second floor has three areas: a generator, a chicken coop, and Xiao Lu’s room—perfect.”
“Perfect,” Lu Weiyi gave him a thumbs up and handed over another hundred crystal cores. “Bonus.”
“Oh, thanks,” Antonio quickly accepted and handed them to Dean, who was wrapped in a cotton coat. “Baby, it’s all for you.”
Dean happily took them and planted a big smack on Antonio’s cheek. The big guy leaned in and gave him a French kiss.
Lu Weiyi turned his head to look around. Gu Qingji and Li Dongsheng sat on the roof, each watching a different direction. Strange vines had wrapped around half the house.
Lin Yimu and a few others were busy preparing food. Bowls and plates filled half the living room. Ai Yi stayed close to the group, occasionally fed a bite or two and responded with babyish thanks and praise.
Xu Sa and Liu Rui were guarding Li Zhuang as he upgraded, refilling the crystal cores he consumed. Almost an hour had passed, and he was still calm and steady.
Xi Shi had prepared dinner, and Xiong Jie was pacing at the door, listening.
“We’ll eat first,” Lu Weiyi said, glancing at Ning Yuan and Wu Yue, who had returned from patrol and entered together.
Both wore smiles they didn’t bother to hide.
“There are live animals in this village. Should we get some?” Ning Yuan ran a few steps up to Lu Weiyi, lowering his voice to ask.
“Cows, sheep, rabbits, chickens, ducks—just what we’ve seen,” Wu Yue added.
“Opportunity can’t be missed,” Antonio immediately agreed, whispering a few words to Dean. Dean looked at Lu Weiyi eagerly.
Lu Weiyi’s gaze passed through the dirty glass dotted with spots. In the hall, Zhuang Ai Yi held a small bowl, sipped soup, and smiled happily, praising how tasty it was.
Xi Shi’s face was full of kindness, and the wrinkles at his eyes were gentle. “This is ordinary mutton bone broth. Drink more if you like it. There’s also meat to eat.”
The weather was cold. What everyone wanted was a warm mutton soup—two big pots full of meat and bones—served with noodles, scallions, cilantro, and chili oil. Each person could eat two big bowls.
Freshly baked flatbread steamed hot, looking delicious.
Even before the meal started, a few people in the hall had already sneaked several pieces.
Lu Weiyi glanced around the space. The huge area was densely packed but sorted carefully. Divided evenly per person, it felt even less.
“Ask them what they need,” Lu Weiyi sighed silently. His eyes scanned the truck, hesitating between modifying another one to load livestock or for slaughter and storage.
*
Halfway through the meal, Xu Sa opened the door, looking anxious, whispering, “Weiyi, come look, something’s not right.”
Everyone in the hall put down their bowls and chopsticks, following Lu Weiyi to the room and gathering at the door.
Inside, Li Zhuang was casually leaning against the wall, eyes closed, brows furrowed tightly, sweat dripping from his temple. The crystal core in his hand was still being consumed but at half the usual speed.
“What’s wrong?” Lu Weiyi approached. He could feel the unstable energy fluctuations around him, as if he was at the final hurdle but couldn’t quite make it.
“…Can’t upgrade,” Li Zhuang murmured clearly in the quiet room.
The energy, which had already been fully charged and should have broken through the barrier to upgrade successfully, was still insufficient despite thousands of crystal cores absorbed. His body had reached its physical limit and instinctively stopped absorbing energy.
No one in the hall had heard of such a situation before. They exchanged looks, then focused their gaze on Lu Weiyi.
