Chapter 189 — Digging for Treasure
Grey feathers, massive size. Luo Xun and the others stood in the newly constructed metal corridor that Yan Fei had extended from the main entrance, peering through a specially designed set of bars at the mutated bird they had “snatched” back the night before.
“It looks a bit like a wild goose,” Luo Xun remarked, not entirely certain. He studied it closely before asking the others for confirmation.
As it turned out, not a single person present was an expert on avian wildlife. Even if someone had enjoyed Animal Planet before the apocalypse, it didn’t mean they had studied every single episode to precisely identify every species. Being able to broadly tell that the creature was a type of waterfowl was already quite an achievement.
Yan Fei manipulated his metal to lift the mutated bird by one leg, hanging it upside down. Once he hoisted it to a certain height, he began to vigorously shake its carcass.
Rustle, clatter, thud. A chaotic battle like last night’s meant various debris had inevitably clung to the bird—broken vines from the mutated plants, trapped pebbles, and clumps of dirt.
A series of sharp pattering sounds echoed as a messy pile of detritus rained down onto the ground.
Once the debris was fully shaken loose, Yan Fei manipulated the massive bird to glide over right in front of everyone.
High above, an unimaginably massive flock of migratory birds continued their relentless flight from south to north. Back on the ground, a large metal dome was deployed to shield the giant bird from view. Clad in full protective suits, the group gathered closely around the carcass. After a meticulous inspection of all its wounds and feathers, everyone let out a massive sigh of relief.
“No problem.”
“The color of the wounds is normal; it should be perfectly edible.”
“The feathers are quite clean. It didn’t bring back anything it shouldn’t have.”
“Time to butcher it? Let’s butcher it! We’ll have bird meat to eat tonight, right?!”
“This guy actually had a fire-type ability! Sister Xu is in luck this time!”
Ever since Zhang Su absorbed the crystal from the wind-type sheep, the team had confirmed that while the crystals inside mutated animals were massive, they were generally only around level two. However, the sheer volume of energy they contained was staggering—enough to instantly propel a superpower user who was ready to break through straight to the peak of their current level. Once they reached that peak and found a crystal of a higher tier, they could smoothly advance to the next level!
This fire-type crystal was perfect for Xu Mei to absorb. Once they tracked down a level-five crystal later on, she would be able to break through directly to level five.
Having confirmed the giant bird was safe and free of any hazardous hitchhikers, the group joyfully began plucking, butchering, and hauling the meat inside for storage.
As the team neared the end of processing the mutated bird, Luo Xun walked over to little Xinran, pointing at the pile of debris that had been shaken off the carcass. “Xinran, gather all that stuff together, and we’ll toss it back into the plants.” They couldn’t be entirely sure what was mixed into that debris, so the safest approach was simply to return it to where it came from. Little Xinran’s superpower was perfect for handling loose junk like this.
The little girl nodded. She manipulated the ground to sandify the earth, using the sand to “cradle” the debris as she slowly moved it outward.
…”Wait! Bring that stuff over first, let me look at it!” Luo Xun suddenly felt as though something had flashed in his eyes. A sudden hypothesis sparked in his mind, and he hurriedly called out to little Xinran to bring the pile back so he could inspect it personally.
A pile of junk lay scattered before Luo Xun. Using a metal rod Yan Fei had fabricated for him, he poked through the debris—broken bits of mutated vines, dirt, bird feathers, and… his target.
Seeing Luo Xun pinch something out of the pile, little Xinran widened her eyes, watching him with intense curiosity, her little mouth hanging wide open.
Luo Xun took a deep breath, clenching the object tightly in his palm. He poked through the pile a few more times and, sure enough, found two more!
“Xinran, let’s go treasure hunting!” Luo Xun knelt down, grasping the little girl’s shoulders, a look of uncontainable excitement written across his face.
“Treasure hunting?” Little Xinran tilted her head, then suddenly pointed with a bright smile at the object Luo Xun had set aside. “Digging for these?”
“Exactly!”
The team bustled about packing all the meat into the freezers. Following their usual routine, Xu Mei set aside a massive portion of breast meat for lunch or dinner, placing it into the refrigerator.
Yan Fei took a turn around the main lobby but couldn’t find any sign of Luo Xun. Arched eyebrows rising, he quickly strode back toward the newly built corridor at the main entrance.
One big, one small—the two were crouching at the very end of the corridor. Luo Xun was pointing in a certain direction, instructing little Xinran, “Yes, yes, just bring it over like that…”
“What are you two up to…” Yan Fei cut his own sentence short as he suddenly spotted the small pile of objects resting by Luo Xun’s feet. His pupils contracted instantly. “These… where did you get these?!”
Hearing his voice, Luo Xun turned back with a grin, throwing an arm around the giggling little girl and patting her shoulder. “Xinran dug them up on our treasure hunt!”
Inside the building, the group sat gathered around a long table in the first-floor kitchen area, everyone staring with wide, slightly glazed eyes at the small pile of objects resting on the tabletop.
Luo Xun and little Xinran returned after thoroughly washing their hands. Standing by the table, he cleared his throat twice. “Earlier, before everyone processed the giant bird, didn’t we shake it out because we were worried about contamination?” Seeing everyone look up at him with intense excitement, Luo Xun cleared his throat again. “I asked Xinran to gather that debris to throw it into the Devil Vines, but I noticed something reflecting light inside. So, I had her bring it back…”
“There were crystals inside?!” Wang Duo couldn’t help but ask excitedly.
Luo Xun nodded, pinching up a beautiful blue crystal that looked like an uncut sapphire. “Yes. I found three crystals in there. It got me thinking: we haven’t seen a single zombie around here, and those birds have been flying in the sky for a very long time. If these crystals fell off with a simple shake, when and where did the bird pick them up?”
Luo Xun pointed out the window. “So I decided to test it. I had Xinran bring back some soil, making sure not to shake off whatever was attached to it. And this is what we found.”
Resting on the long table was a small pile of items that everyone present knew intimately. They were the exact same things they obtained every time they went out to kill zombies—crystals!
Furthermore, the crystals resting before them came in all sizes, ranging from level one all the way to level four!
“So you’re saying… even though these Devil Vines ‘eat’ humans, ‘eat’ mutated animals, and ‘eat’ zombies… they don’t eat crystals?!”
“Good heavens! Think of how many crystals must be accumulated underneath all those mutated plants!!”
A collective exclamation erupted from the room as everyone stared at each other in sheer excitement.
Luo Xun took a deep breath, pointing outside. “Don’t forget, we’re currently at the innermost boundary of these plants, and we found this many just by casually looking around. If we head closer to the roadside and the streets outside, how many crystals will there be?!”
During the last zombie tide alone, think of how many zombies these surrounding mutated plants must have slaughtered!
At this realization, the eyes of everyone present lit up completely as they looked at Luo Xun with intense anticipation.
Luo Xun smiled, raising a hand in a calming gesture. “This is a meticulous task. We have to keep in mind that if we get too close to the center, little Xinran’s superpower won’t be able to reach, making it hard to retrieve them. For now, we’ll just utilize our downtime to spend about an hour a day collecting crystals near the perimeter.”
He paused, a thrilled gleam flashing in his eyes. “It looks like we really do need to plant a lot more mutated vegetation around the area…”
This stuff was incredible! It helped kill zombies, intercept mutated animals, and block passing strangers from snooping into their secrets—and it didn’t consume a single crystal! It was practically the ultimate automated home defense system!
Luo Xun only regretted that the rice and wheat seeds currently in his possession were too few. They barely had enough for their own consumption, let alone sparing a portion to cultivate mutated plants. As for waiting for the mutated plants to naturally propagate… he wasn’t entirely sure how the Devil Vines reproduced, and he certainly hadn’t done any deep research on it in his past life, so they could only take things slow.
Possessing more Devil Vines meant that if another zombie tide ever passed through this area in the future, they would reap a massive harvest of zombie crystals—far more efficient than going out to hunt them down themselves!
However, before they could do that, they needed to figure out a way to retrieve the crystals sitting in the middle sections of the fields.
Little Xinran’s effective range for her superpower had a distinct limit. Furthermore, if she couldn’t see a spot clearly, it became even harder for her to perform delicate manipulations—a limitation tied to her young age and relatively developing control.
Her absolute maximum operational range was nearly ten meters, which was sufficient for standard farmland. However, it became highly problematic for fields that were exceptionally wide or irregularly shaped—and the fields surrounding their location happened to be highly irregular.
“We can start by collecting the crystals from both sides. There are bound to be some earth-type crystals in the mix. Once the kid levels up again, her range might expand enough to reach them!” Wu Xin suggested, patting little Xinran’s shoulder.
“Hey, that’s a great idea!” The crystals Luo Xun and little Xinran had just retrieved came in every color and size, spanning practically every element. It was highly possible that, just as Wu Xin suggested, once they filtered through all the crystals from the accessible land nearby, they would easily piece together enough to upgrade little Xinran’s superpower!
The only question was whether any level-five crystals lay hidden out there—or rather, whether any level-five zombies had appeared in the massive zombie army that passed through previously.
Luo Xun maintained his reservations on the matter. Still, solutions were always devised by people; perhaps they wouldn’t even need to wait for little Xinran to level up before they figured out a way to extract the crystals buried deep within the mutated plants. For now, being able to secure the crystals within their immediate, reachable grasp was already a fantastic start!
The flock of migratory birds in the sky still showed no sign of an end. Out of concern for safety, Luo Xun and the team discussed the matter and decided against letting little Xinran operate with only one or two people.
They agreed on a routine: over the next few days, they would carve out an hour or so every morning during daylight to dispatch a few of their strongest combatants to guard the little girl, focusing on recovering crystals from around the open plaza. The rest of the day would still be dedicated to the basement renovations. This way, they could balance labor with leisure while ensuring everyone’s safety—ensuring that their primary construction work and their treasure hunting didn’t disrupt each other.
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