Chapter 691: Fair Point

"The demolition team usually leaves the foundations intact," Ye Xuan said.

She looked toward a large crater where a shopping center had once stood.

"Fair point."

Because Chu Miao had left the Soul Ring connected to the outside world, those inside could see what was happening through a light screen. After confirming that the city was safe, several members of their group came out to help.

Chu Hao arrived first.

Lei Ying followed with the saber-toothed tiger, while Little White and the Black Tortoise came out soon after. The two divine beasts had already stabilized the gains they received from the blessed rain.

The saber-toothed tiger sniffed the air and sneezed heavily.

A cloud of ash flew up around its face.

Lei Ying took two steps away from it.

"Watch where you’re pointing that nose."

The tiger turned its head and gave him an offended look.

"It wasn’t deliberate."

"It covered my clothes in ash."

"You can clean them."

Lei Ying stared at it for a moment before deciding that arguing with his contract beast in front of everyone would damage his dignity.

Chu Miao watched their exchange with amusement.

"Since you two have so much energy, you can take the eastern district."

The saber-toothed tiger immediately stopped complaining.

Lei Ying looked at the endless ruins to the east and felt that he had suffered because of someone else’s sneeze.

Still, everyone got to work.

Chu Miao released her spiritual power and swept it across the surrounding streets.

The ashes shifted.

A moment later, countless crystal cores rose from beneath the grey layers. They floated into the air like colorful stars before gathering above her.

There were far more than she had expected.

Some were as small as fingernails, while the high-level ones were the size of walnuts. The lightning had removed most of the impurities from their surfaces, so they looked especially bright beneath the dim sky.

Chu Miao separated them according to level and sent them into empty storage rooms inside the Soul Ring.

Ye Xuan collected the cores from another direction.

His movements were even faster. Wherever his spiritual power passed, crystal cores flew from the ruins and disappeared into his space ring.

Chu Hao used his sword intent to lift the rubble before sweeping the cores into several containers.

Compared with his sister and brother-in-law, his method looked much more laborious.

After watching a huge river of crystal cores fly toward Chu Miao, he stopped and looked at the bucket beside him.

There were only a few hundred inside.

"Bunny."

Chu Miao turned. "What?"

"I think I should supervise instead."

"Who are you supervising?"

Chu Hao looked toward Lei Ying, who was digging through a collapsed building with the saber-toothed tiger.

"Them."

Lei Ying heard him and immediately shouted back, "We don’t need supervision!"

Chu Miao waved her hand.

"Stop being lazy. The high-level zombies were hiding inside the buildings. Their crystal cores are more valuable."

Chu Hao could only continue working.

It took them several hours to clean the central part of the city.

Most of the crystal cores were low-level, but the total number was astonishing. There were also thousands above level five and more than a hundred belonging to intelligent zombies.

Those cores contained much purer energy.

Ye Xuan held one of the largest cores in his palm.

It was deep red, with thin black lines running through its center.

"This one came from a level-eight zombie."

Chu Miao took it and examined it with her spiritual sense.

Besides the familiar energy of a crystal core, it contained a trace of something cold and oppressive.

It was similar to the death energy they had seen around the realm scar.

"The intelligent zombies in this city were probably strengthened by that energy," she said.

Ye Xuan nodded. "City S may have been one of the Zombie King’s training grounds."

Tens of millions of ordinary zombies had been gathered here, while the intelligent ones remained hidden inside buildings and maintained order.

If Ye Xuan hadn’t chosen this place for his breakthrough, no one would have discovered the truth until the zombie army marched out.

Chu Miao placed the red core in a separate jade box.

"Keep every core with black lines apart from the others. We will let the professors examine them."

They continued searching and found twenty-seven similar cores.

Near sunset, Little White called out from the northern district.

"Master, there is something underground."

Chu Miao and Ye Xuan arrived at the location a moment later.

A collapsed office building covered the entrance to an underground parking lot. Little White had already pushed aside most of the rubble with one paw, revealing a wide metal door beneath it.

The door wasn’t an ordinary security door.

It was more than half a meter thick and covered in deep claw marks.

"These marks are on the outside," Chu Hao observed after arriving behind them. "Something wanted to get in."

"Or the zombies wanted people to think that," Ye Xuan said.

He placed his hand on the metal door and sent his spiritual sense through it.

After a few seconds, his eyes narrowed.

"There are no living beings below."

"Any zombies?" Lei Ying asked.

"No."

Chu Miao stepped forward and placed both hands against the door.

With a loud creak, the thick metal bent inward before being pulled from its frame.

A cold, stale smell drifted out.

The passage beyond the door was dark, but that didn’t affect anyone present.

They descended two floors and entered a large underground command room.

Maps covered the walls.

Several cities and human bases had been marked with different colors. Some had crosses over them, while others were surrounded by arrows showing possible attack routes.

City A was marked more heavily than any other place.

The Chu Sect’s location had also been circled, although the mark wasn’t entirely accurate.

On the central table lay a much larger map of the country.

At its center was the same symbol they had seen through the ancient gateway.

Three circles surrounding a crown.

Chu Miao walked closer and stared at the city beneath the symbol.

This time, they finally had a name.

"City K," she read.

Ye Xuan stood beside her.

"So that’s where it is."

The Zombie King had not only been gathering an army.

It had been preparing for war.

And judging by the dates written beside several human bases, some of those attacks were supposed to begin very soon.