In a frigid apocalypse, I went on a shopping spree with the reborn.

"You unscrupulous businessman, does that mean I overpaid?"

Five level-one crystal cores for one cabbage? Jiang Qingyue personally thinks this price is actually not bad.

While zombies are hard to kill, cabbages are hard to grow either.

Jiang Qingyue didn't dwell too much on the price, and didn't even have time to examine the corpse king's skull.

She led Long Jiuxing to the next location.

Knowing that zombies gather in crowded places makes things much simpler. Having lived in Spring City for so many years, she knows exactly where the crowds are.

Occasionally, they would encounter one or two lone zombies, which Jiang Qingyue would test them like monkeys before casually swatting them to death.

Seeing her serious expression, Long Jiuxing couldn't help but ask with concern, "Sister Xiaoyue, what's wrong?"

"The zombies are too weak."

Previously, I had only used weapons to kill them and hadn't felt much of a difference, but after some probing, I discovered that these zombies were actually weaker than normal humans before the apocalypse.

Whether it's speed or bone hardness, it's like a low-end version of a human.

If you can ignore the zombies' disgusting smell and terrifying appearance, you could kill anyone except the elderly and children.

"Isn't being weak a good thing?" Long Jiuxing didn't know why she was so serious.

"What's so great about it?" Jiang Qingyue explained, "Then the main god obviously couldn't have released so many experimental zones into them with zombies that pose no threat to humans, otherwise the purpose of the experiment wouldn't be achieved."

"These zombies are so weak now, which doesn't fit the purpose of the experiment. Therefore, it's highly likely that the zombies will evolve at an unimaginable speed."

After she said that, Long Jiuxing understood.

If zombies evolve too quickly, humanity will be in big trouble.

Given the current situation, it is almost impossible for humanity to grow rapidly.

Although physical fitness has improved and almost everyone can walk outdoors without fear of the cold, the toxic fog is a big problem.

In addition, resources also limit human growth. Besides food, clothing and daily necessities, the most scarce resource is special items.

"It seems we need to speed things up," Jiang Qingyue said. "Although we're currently in the lead, it's hard to say how long that lead will last."

"After all, it seems that apart from special items, the only way to improve strength is through zombie crystal cores. Special items rely entirely on luck, and zombie crystal cores are a race against the evolution of zombies."

Long Jiuxing said, "Then let's not sleep for a while."

Jiang Qingyue nodded: "Level 1 zombies are definitely not as good as Level 2 ones, but there are just more of them, and they are easier to kill than Level 2 ones."

Ten minutes later, the two arrived at another residential building.

This place is similar to an urban village; it's somewhat dilapidated, and the buildings aren't very tall, but there are a lot of them, so the population density is quite high.

Having learned about the zombies' strength, Jiang Qingyue released Jiang Qingyan, "Let him find some lone zombies to kill and practice his skills first."

As soon as he finished speaking, Jiang Qingyan sprang up and smashed the skull of a zombie with his furry rabbit paw, precisely prying out a red crystal core from inside.

Holy crap.

Jiang Qingyue's mouth was so wide it could fit a goose egg.

She knew that the little rabbit was quite powerful; otherwise, she wouldn't have been able to reduce Yu You, whose combat power was 888, to a state of near-death.

However, the ranking list did not include statistics on the combat power of the alien beasts, and Jiang Qingyue's impression of this little rabbit was still based on the early days of the apocalypse.

According to her estimate, the combat power value should not have exceeded 1,000 yet.

"Hiss." I'll join in too.

The little white snake slithered out of Long Jiuxing's underwear, nimbly climbed onto the zombie's head, and burrowed its sharp fangs inside.

Jiang Qingyue stared intently, waiting for it to use its teeth to pry out the zombie crystal core.

The little guy lay on one zombie's head for a few seconds, then ran to another zombie's head, continued to insert its fangs into the zombie's skull, paused for a few seconds, and then moved on to the next one.

"What's going on?"

Long Jiuxing shook his head, indicating that he did not know.

She walked over to the zombie that had been bitten by Zai Zai and was lying motionless on the ground. She casually smashed the zombie's head with the Burning Heaven Fire Staff, squatted down and touched it for a while, and said to Jiang Qingyue, "The zombie's crystal core is gone. Zai Zai must have eaten it."

Jiang Qingyue's face darkened: "This flavor is too strong. Remember to let it brush its teeth when you get back."

Long Jiuxing nodded seriously; she also felt that the baby needed to brush his teeth.

"There seems to be a battle ahead."

Jiang Qingyue could vaguely hear sounds of fighting coming from a distance.

However, due to the obstruction of the house, even though their eyesight had improved considerably, they still couldn't see it.

"It's nothing more than people teaming up to kill zombies. It's fine, there are so many of them. Let them kill theirs, we'll kill ours."

"I'll listen to Sister Xiaoyue." Long Jiuxing has always been indifferent to outsiders.

Seeing that there were more zombies, he grabbed his stick and charged forward again.

Jiang Qingyue wasn't idle either. She stayed behind to keep the two little ones from getting exhausted, and every now and then she would fire a couple of arrows at the densely packed areas of zombies.

It's always a string of more than one.

So far, any number or quantity of zombies in a line will be blown up by a single arrow.

Jiang Qingyue still doesn't know where her limits are.

As countless zombies fell and drew closer to the residents in front, Jiang Qingyue finally got a clear look at the group of people.

To her surprise, they were all women.

The person leading the group was a short and chubby girl who was less than 1.5 meters tall.

The girl, brandishing a watermelon knife, yelled at the top of her lungs, "Knife in hand, come with me..."

"Hey boss, there seems to be someone up ahead."

"Who's there? So what if there's someone? I'm not even afraid of zombies, why would I be afraid of people?"

"Shout the slogan: One day, with a knife in hand, we will kill all the faithless dogs in the world."

Jiang Qingyue...

Why does this sound so familiar?

Oh, so she shouted that in junior high. Never mind then.

Long Jiuxing, who was wielding a long stick and violently blowing the heads off any visible zombies, only came to Jiang Qingyue's side after scanning around twice and finding no standing zombies left.

Seeing that her face was a little red, she quickly asked, "Sister Xiaoyue, what's wrong? Are you hurt?"

"No." Jiang Qingyue touched the tip of her nose, quite puzzled as to how she could have said that back then.

Now, just hearing others shout it makes me feel inexplicably ashamed.

"Wow!" The chubby girl rushed over, carrying a bloodstained watermelon knife. "The one with the bow, you're Jiang Qingyue."

He turned to look at Long Jiuxing: "This is the Heaven-Burning Fire Cudgel, isn't it? So, you're that Long Jiuxing!"

"Mom, I've made something of myself."

She then knelt on one knee before Jiang Qingyue and the other person, saying, "This little sister pays respects to the two great gods and begs them to accept me as their disciple."

The loud shout startled the zombies in the distance, who huffed and puffed as they charged toward them again.

Behind them was a young girl who looked to be only fourteen or fifteen years old. She leaned closer to Jiang Qingyue and the others and smiled shyly, "Please bear with us, elder sisters. Our leader is just like this. She's usually a bit unreliable, but she's a very nice person."

Not far away, several older women also gathered around: "I'm sorry, that's just how Xiao Yang is. He shouts and yells when he gets excited."

"More zombies are coming this way. If you don't mind, why don't you come and take refuge at our house?"

"Come to my house. My house is right next door. The doors and windows are all welded up, so it's very safe."

"No need," Jiang Qingyue refused. She was now hoping the zombies would come by the scent so she wouldn't have to search everywhere.

The middle-aged woman who had invited them said, "Then we won't force you."

Pointing to the orange-yellow house next to him, he said, "This is my home. We just had a fight, and we're all exhausted. It's hard to even lift our arms. Before the zombies in the distance come, we'll finish mining the crystal cores and go back to rest."

"You guys are strong, aren't you? But even the strongest have their limits. We're all staying at my house, and there are lookouts. If you need to find a place to hide temporarily, you can come to my house anytime."

As she finished speaking, hearing the distant roars of zombies growing closer, the woman pulled the still excitedly shouting chubby girl home.

Almost as soon as the door was closed, the zombies arrived from afar.

After a fight that barely even served as a warm-up, Long Jiuxing charged forward again with his stick, and Zaizai and Jiang Qingyan were not to be outdone.

As more and more zombies gathered, Jiang Qingyue's hand never stopped pulling the string, and he didn't even have time to dig up the crystal cores lying on the ground.

More than an hour later, the zombies on the ground piled up like mountains, and the air, mixed with the already foul-smelling poisonous fog, made it even harder to breathe.

"Click."

With Jiang Qingyue's last arrow, a zombie that had been rushing to catch up with the main force was turned into a pile of shattered ice.

The surroundings fell silent instantly.

At that moment, a group of men walked over from behind, each carrying a weapon and a bag.

Judging from their physiques, they were all men in their prime.

They glanced at Jiang Qingyue and his group from afar, then at the zombies scattered on the ground, stopped in their tracks, and muttered to themselves.

The sound was very soft, but they overlooked Jiang Qingyue and Long Jiuxing's hearing.

Given their current physical condition and exceptional hearing, their whispered murmurs were no different from loud shouts.

"We haven't even had time to mine the crystal cores yet, but judging by the quantity, there are at least tens of thousands."

"Do you think we can just take advantage of someone who can kill tens of thousands of zombies?"

"That's not necessarily true. No matter how strong they are, they're still human. They'll eventually run out of strength. They've killed tens of thousands of zombies, and they might not even be able to lift their arms now. We have more than thirty strong adult men. It's just two women, so it'll be a piece of cake for us."

"Fools, look at the weapons in their hands. They are definitely Jiang Qingyue and Long Jiuxing, who have completed the hidden mission. They are the top two on the combat power list. They are just throwing their lives away."

After discussing for a while, the group didn't go any closer. Instead, they turned two corners and entered a house that was welded shut with steel bars.

Seeing that they didn't come looking for trouble, Jiang Qingyue was very satisfied and led Long Jiuxing and Jiang Qingyan to collect crystal cores.

Before they could collect many, the chubby girl with the watermelon knife called out through the window again, "Ladies, do you need any help? We've eaten something and recovered."

"If you don't mind, I'll bring some people out to help you collect the crystal cores. Don't worry, with me, Yang Qingqing, here, no one will dare to take a single crystal core from you."

Jiang Qingyue: "No need."

"Big sister, look at me! Don't refuse me! I really just want to help. You strong guys can kill the corpses, but leave the dirty and tiring work to us lowly karami."

"Don't worry, we're all sisters. We won't accept any payment. We just want to save you time so you can kill stronger zombies, grow faster, and lead all of humanity to survive."

A rebuke rang out: "Pah, Yang Qingqing, you talk so nicely, but you just want to sneak a few while helping to collect crystal cores. Do you think I don't know what you're thinking?"

Jiang Qingyue watched as a group of people slowly walked out of the other buildings. There were men, women, and children among them, and their eyes showed fear, but even more so, greed.

The one who was cursing Yang Qingqing was an old man who looked to be around seventy years old. He didn't dare to get too close, but just looked at the small basket in Jiang Qingyue's hand, which was already half full of crystal cores.

"Young lady, look at this old man, I'm getting on in years. I used to be a school teacher and I contributed to the country. Now that the apocalypse has come, I can't support myself anymore. As the younger generation, shouldn't you do something for me?"

Jiang Qingyue looked up, and the overhead light shone directly into the other person's eyes before moving away from his face to illuminate the people who kept coming out behind him.

"No matter if you're old or young, male or female, anyone who dares to touch one of my crystal cores will die."

Old man: "How can you be so inhuman? You have no respect for teachers or elders, no respect for the young. People like you deserve to be bitten to death by zombies."

The old man cursed for a while, but seeing that Jiang Qingyue ignored him and kept picking up crystal cores, he regained his confidence.

Thinking that Jiang Qingyue was one of those juniors who wouldn't fight back or talk back when hit, he gave a haughty snort, squatted down, and touched the crystal core in the pile of broken ice closest to him.

After searching for a long time, I finally saw something red in a piece of broken ice with my cloudy old eyes, and I quickly reached out to take it.

The moment my hand touched it, *snap*.

There was a pile of broken ice on the ground.

"Old Shi is dead. He killed someone."

Those who had been harboring various thoughts just moments before were terrified when they witnessed this scene.

He wished his mother had given him more legs, and ran back into the house crying and screaming. He barked the door shut, closed the windows, and drew the curtains.

Yang Qingqing on the other end let out a sharp cheer: "Sister is so cool! She'll crush them!"

The next second, she was covered by several women and dragged away.

Someone by the window explained to Jiang Qingyue, "Please forgive us, this child has never been very bright."

She wiped away her tears as she spoke: "It was normal before. When I was seven years old, I caught a cold and had a fever. My family really didn't have any money, so I thought that giving me some medicine would be enough. But it dragged on for a few days and damaged my brain. I haven't been able to get better all these years."

Jiang Qingyue hadn't cared at first, but now she was a little puzzled when she heard this.

Zombies are very sensitive to sound; you can easily tell by trying. But Yang Qingqing kept yelling and screaming.

For someone of low strength, being with Yang Qingqing is extremely dangerous, yet at least twenty women live in this house, and they don't seem to mind Yang Qingqing at all.

As if sensing her confusion, the woman by the window explained, "Qingqing is very strong. She always rushes to the front. In the early days of the apocalypse, she was the one who found a lot of food and supplies, which is how everyone barely survived, including now."

She pointed to the house behind her: "Those able-bodied men went out to kill zombies, but they didn't take us women with them at all. They said that women would only hold them back. It was Qingqing who led us out as a team to clear out the zombies at the door and got a lot of crystal cores."

Jiang Qingyue understood.

It seems that this small world of urban villages has also been divided into three forces.

There was one group of able-bodied young men, another group of women like Yang Qingqing, and yet another group of men, women, and children who had refused to go out and kill zombies.

However, none of this concerns her.

After collecting all the crystal cores on the ground, it was just dawn.

Jiang Qingyue observed two lone zombies and found that neither day nor night had any effect on the zombies, and the possibility that the zombies might be afraid of light, as they had guessed, was not true.

They found an empty house, took Long Jiuxing inside, took out food and water from their spatial storage, filled their stomachs, and rested for a while.

She planned to collect as many crystal cores as possible before the zombies evolved.

When the zombies manage to steal from them and they have to risk their lives, they will hide in the shelter.