That night, despite having worked the entire day, Liu Weian didn't rest. He continued scavenging—shoes, bracers, shoulder pads, bows, shields… anything with even a scrap of value was looted. Even the things he couldn't identify, he took with him under the motto: better to grab something worthless than miss out on something precious.
Stone Fort wasn't a large city—maybe just a few tens of thousands of people. After subtracting those lucky enough to escape the slaughter or those who hadn't logged in, the actual death toll was estimated at just over twenty thousand. Around fifteen thousand corpses were concentrated near the city; the rest were scattered across the wilderness. But Stone Fort was remote and most of its residents were dirt poor—about a fifth of the corpses had no value at all. By the time darkness fully fell, the nearby bodies had been picked clean.
Liu Weian didn't even realize that his night vision had improved. He rushed into the wilderness where the corpses were more scattered, which reduced his efficiency. However, the ones who ventured into the wilds were generally the strong—and the strong were often wealthy. Fewer bodies, but richer loot.
By midnight, exhaustion finally caught up with him. Hunger gnawed at him, making his body weak and his vision blurry. He sold off everything he'd collected and counted his day's earnings. The number made his spirits soar—1,128 gold coins. He'd struck it rich—truly rich, overnight.
He stared longingly at the glittering gold before spending every last coin on Strength Seeds. Adding the coins earned from killing rot-zombies, he had a total of 1,310 gold, which bought him 1,400 Strength Seeds—each one the size of a zombie's fingernail. The price: 1 gold per seed. Outrageous. And that was already a discount because of how much he bought.
Still, Liu Weian had no choice. He was starving. Every cell in his body screamed for nourishment, and food didn't work—only the Strength Seeds made any difference.
He logged off and consumed all 1,400 seeds. The hunger immediately subsided, and color returned to his face. When he closed his eyes, the star-map in his mind lit up a little more—what was once a single centimeter now extended to two.
That's when Liu Weian began to understand—the star-map was likely a martial cultivation technique. From the complexity of its design, it must be incredibly powerful. But if over a thousand Strength Seeds only lit up one centimeter of the pattern… stretched out, this twisting diagram might span hundreds of meters. How many years—and how many seeds—would it take to complete?
Fighting monsters for seeds was too slow. Buying them? Too expensive. And if he stayed this hungry every day, he worried his stomach might eventually collapse.
Was this Dark Emperor Scripture truly a blessing—or a curse?
With that anxious thought in his heart, he drifted off to sleep.
The next morning, he bought two large bags of food and stuffed himself before logging back in to scavenge corpses again. This continued for three days. By then, every corpse within dozens of kilometers had been looted.
Over time, more people joined in the scavenging, and tensions rose. Fights, and even killings, broke out more and more frequently. After five or six days, many corpses had begun to rot. The stench was unbearable, and Liu Weian started to worry about the possibility of a plague.
On the fourth day, with no more bodies left to loot, he returned to his original profession—killing rot-zombies in the graveyard.
Thwip! Thwip!
With a flash of cold light, a rot-zombie fell. Before the next one could fully emerge from the shadows, an arrow pierced its brow, spraying blood as it lodged deep into its skull.
Chain Shot.
The first arrow took down one. The second? Two birds with one stone.
Liu Weian's eyes were like lightning. Even as dozens of rot-zombies charged, none escaped his sight. His bowstring hummed with continuous tension, each shot felling another corpse. He was nothing but skin and bones now, but oddly, his strength had only grown. This was one of the few things that still made him feel satisfied.
In just a few breaths, the entire horde collapsed. Dust exploded outward as more zombies rose from the earth. But Liu Weian had already predicted their appearance. A vision flashed through his mind, allowing him to see through the dust—he aimed precisely.
Vwoom!
The bowstring vibrated. The first arrow missed as expected—but the second struck home, burying itself in the zombie's brow and exiting from the back of its skull. It wasn't a metal arrowhead this time, but a wooden arrow tipped with a zombie claw.
Hidden Arrow—the secret shot within the Chain Shot—was twice as deadly.
Shrill howls rang out as more zombies clawed their way up. But Liu Weian remained calm. His arrows blazed like meteors in the night, each one leaving a trail of light before it sank into undead flesh. The zombies collapsed just as they emerged, convulsed once, and then went still.
The Dark Emperor Scripture seemed to be working. Before, he could barely shoot twenty arrows with Chain Shot before exhaustion set in. Now? Fifty, and he still felt fine.
After killing the last five zombies, he began collecting the loot. Over 200 rot-zombies, which meant 200 Strength Seeds. Over 40 ghouls, which were tougher and richer—each of their seeds was worth three zombie seeds. Altogether, he had around 500 seeds.
He'd started limiting his consumption two days ago—just 500 seeds per day. Even that was a luxury. From the next day on, he'd have to cut it to 300. Without corpses to loot, he simply couldn't afford more.
Wandering around, he picked off another twenty scattered zombies and two ghouls before the cart team finally arrived. It wasn't Black Ox and the others—Liu Weian had found their bodies during his scavenging. They'd been killed during the massacre.
Now he'd hired a new team: the Pegasus Wagon Group, six carts total.
The leader was a short old man with a greasy mustache and sharp, thieving eyes. His name was Old Li. Liu Weian disliked him instantly—but with all the other teams wiped out, he had no choice.
When Old Li arrived at the graveyard, his face twisted in disgust. He shouted, "Mr. Liu! The miasma here is way too thick—you didn't say anything about this!"
"What are you trying to say?" Liu Weian's brow furrowed. He shot Old Li a cold glance.
"More money," the man replied shamelessly.
"How much?" Liu Weian's face was expressionless.
"Twenty copper," Old Li blurted out after a quick calculation.
"Fine. Get to work," Liu Weian agreed instantly.
Old Li froze, regretting that he hadn't asked for thirty. But a deal was a deal. Grumbling, he got to work.
Liu Weian followed the caravan back to town just in case something happened on the road. Luckily, the trip was uneventful.
When they arrived and began unloading, Sun Lingzhi happened to be there. She gasped when she saw Liu Weian.
"Did you get liposuction or something? You look like death warmed over."
"It's a long story," Liu Weian said, rubbing his bony chin.
"I haven't seen you in over a week—I thought you'd died," she said, circling him with curious eyes.
"There was an emergency at home. I couldn't log in for a few days. Honestly, that might've saved my life. If I'd logged in that day, I might not be standing here now." Then he asked, "What happened in Stone Fort? Why did so many people die?"
"Best if you don't ask," Sun Lingzhi replied coolly. "The upper echelons are playing their own little game. Everyone else? Collateral damage. Stone Fort was lucky, actually—other cities had it worse. Anyway, never mind that. I have something to show you."
She grabbed his hand and dragged him away. The warmth of her delicate fingers startled him. His heart skipped a beat, and before he knew it, he was in her lab.
It wasn't until they entered that Sun Lingzhi seemed to realize what she'd done. A faint blush colored her cheeks as she let go and picked up a vial.
"Come with me."
Behind a small door in the lab was a courtyard. On the ground lay a zombie corpse. Sun Lingzhi poured a single drop of liquid from the vial onto the body.
Sssss—
White smoke erupted immediately. The stench was overpowering. The corpse began to dissolve at an alarming speed, vanishing into the mist. In just five seconds, the smoke faded with the breeze—and only a clean skeleton remained. Not a scrap of flesh was left.
"You finished the venom?" Liu Weian asked, visibly shaken. Even he felt fear. Zombie flesh was highly toxic and resistant to most poisons—yet a single drop of this stuff reduced it to bone. If that landed on a living person…
"What do you think?" Sun Lingzhi asked proudly. "I call it—Rotting Corpse Venom. Catchy?"
"Very fitting," Liu Weian said with a stiff smile.
"This is the first successful batch. You were instrumental in my research, so this bottle's yours," she said, handing it to him.
"I can't afford that," Liu Weian said, startled.
"Oh please. Do you know how many corpses and ghouls you've sold me? How much gold I've made off you? Don't play poor with me," she rolled her eyes. "Even the best stuff I make won't go for more than 10 gold. It's a gift. And stop being so stingy—it's unattractive."
Liu Weian could only smile wryly. Deep down, he felt wronged—he really was broke. All his money went to Strength Seeds. Still, he had to admit—high-tech products were lucrative. A single corpse brought in 3.2 silver. Add some cheap materials, and the total cost was around 5 silver. Yet the finished venom? Sold for 10 gold—a 200x profit.