Upon seeing Gu Lingxiao, Lin Yu breathed a sigh of relief. "How was it?"

"It's alright, let's go check on the crystals first."

The three of them entered the building next door, to the first room on the second floor.

The guards let the three in as soon as they saw them, just as Hua Zhiyuan had told them before.

There were three leather suitcases and several glass boxes in the room.

"The suitcase contains ordinary zombie crystals, while the remaining glass boxes contain some from mutated zombies and some from mutated animals."

Gu Lingxiao walked in and examined them one by one. He didn't know what kind of superpowers they contained without absorbing them, but he could distinguish them by their color from their form, energy, and spirit.

There were seven glass boxes, five of which were milky white. Even if these five had special abilities, they were still in the form of something else. Without knowing whether there were any powerful special abilities inside, we decided to give up on them.

The remaining two are a yellow crystal and a purple crystal.

One is angry, the other is divine.

Seeing Gu Lingxiao staring at the two crystals, Zheng Guohao explained, "You should know that crystals come in different colors, right? This purple one came from a mutated fox; its alluring ability caused us a great loss."

"As for the yellow crystal, I'm not too sure either. At the time, it was just a black expanse spreading out. We sensed danger and bombarded it with firepower, and in the end, only this one crystal remained."

There aren't actually that many here, maybe around ten thousand.

"Are there any other colored ones? The ordinary ones are too troublesome to carry around," Gu Lingxiao said.

Zheng Guohao shook his head. "This is all we can offer right now; most of the rest have already been distributed."

"Can't I exchange these for it?"

"Then let me ask for instructions," Zheng Guohao said as he went out. After a while, he returned with several glass boxes.

However, they are mostly milky white, with only two crystals of the air element: one of water and one of wood.

Gu Lingxiao returned the suitcases and several shape-attribute crystals to Zheng Guohao.

Gu Lingxiao accepted the rest. With the remaining time, Gu Lingxiao considered whether to absorb the third ability. In the end, he directly absorbed the crystal that could extend the darkness.

The process went smoothly; with a flick of his hand, a black object appeared in Gu Lingxiao's hand.

The virus spread out and enveloped the newly caught rat, killing it instantly. As time passed, the body rapidly decomposed, eventually turning into a pile of ashes, just like weathering.

Gu Lingxiao was very satisfied with the power of this ability in its first stage. He tested it again and found that the element controlled by this ability should be the dark element in the air.

Gu Lingxiao has now gathered all the elements: Form – Rapid Regeneration, Qi – Dark Element, and Spirit – Teleportation.

Once the Dark Element is upgraded to Stage 3, we can then proceed to attempt Stage 4.

If we focus all our efforts on breaking through, we should be able to do it quickly, but unfortunately, we need to complete the rescue mission next.

With about an hour left, Gu Lingxiao frantically absorbed the crystals.

When I first came here, Gu Lingxiao gave me more than 10,000 zombie crystals. With the military giving me more later, I have at least 20,000.

More than a dozen of them are crystals of mutated zombies and super-powered crystals of evolved creatures.

Gu Lingxiao grabbed them all and absorbed them all in a few minutes. Then, he put his hands into his backpack and frantically absorbed the super energy inside.

In less than an hour, his dark elemental ability broke through to the third stage.

With less than 10,000 crystals remaining, Gu Lingxiao stopped absorbing them. He figured he wouldn't be able to break through to the fourth stage even if he absorbed them all, so he might as well keep them for recovery.

A black dot appeared in Gu Lingxiao's hands, instantly enveloping his fists with a squeeze. With a casual flick, two spikes composed entirely of dark elements appeared on his hands.

He scratched the wall and managed to cut through it, but it wasn't as sharp as he had imagined. However, Gu Lingxiao soon noticed that a layer of black frost had formed on the cut.

He retracted his supernatural power and teleported to appear beside the group who were ready to depart.

Zheng Guohao, who was just about to call Gu Lingxiao for a meal, decided to set off since they were already there.

Each person carried the corresponding supplies, as well as a set of radio equipment.

The psychic with the codename "Thousand-Mile Eyes" was still leading the way, having previously outlined many routes.

The target is about 30 kilometers away, and the detour would take about 50 kilometers.

Although it was a relatively safe route, we still encountered quite a few dangers along the way.

As they passed a park, a mutated chameleon suddenly rushed out and attacked Kim Soo-ran. Its tongue shot out with a sharp, explosive sound, aimed directly at Kim Soo-ran's head.

Zheng Guohao, who was standing next to him, had a drastic change in expression.

"Xiulan, be careful!"

They wanted to help, but it was too late. But the next moment, Gu Lingxiao suddenly appeared and punched the tongue that shot towards him.

With a loud bang, the chameleon's tongue was shattered, but Gu Lingxiao's right fist was also smashed into a bloody mist.

The stinging pain made Gu Lingxiao frown, and the next moment his figure disappeared from the spot, chasing after the direction from which the tongue had shot.

But in that very instant, the chameleon vanished.

Does it have an invisibility effect?

Gu Lingxiao sniffed, but didn't smell any blood.

"Keep a close eye on that side," Zheng Guohao instructed.

The other surviving military personnel quickly gathered around, cautiously surveying their surroundings.

The official evolved beings reacted more slowly, but traces of training were still visible.

At this moment, Jin Xiulan's face turned pale as she finally snapped out of her fear.

"Are you alright?" She had previously been prejudiced against Gu Lingxiao, but now he was willing to save her, even though he was injured.

Gu Lingxiao ignored him. Right now, he missed Gu Lingchuan, who was like a human radar. Being invisible was useless in front of him.

"There's a small blade of grass that's slightly bent about 50 meters away at the three o'clock position; it could be the chameleon," said the all-seeing eye.

But Gu Lingxiao's figure had long since disappeared. With a loud bang, a chameleon bigger than a person was sent flying.

Even when the chameleon was already half-dead, Zheng Guohao finally reacted and launched an attack, instantly engulfing the half-dead chameleon in flames.

"So fast!" Zheng Guohao exclaimed.

After shaking the blood off his hands, Gu Lingxiao waited for the flames to die down, then stepped forward and took a crystal from the charred chameleon carcass, putting it into his backpack.

Before Qianliyan could finish speaking, Gu Lingxiao launched an attack the instant he heard the location, which was naturally very fast.

Once everything was over, Zheng Guohao immediately stepped forward to stop the bleeding and bandage Gu Lingxiao's wounds. "How badly are you injured?"

"It will recover soon, let's continue our journey."

"Why did you save me?" Jin Xiulan was still a little dazed and asked such a stupid question.

Gu Lingxiao smiled, a look of utter disdain. "Because you're too useless. If I don't save you, you'll die."

“How dare you talk to Sister Jin like that? If I hadn’t been so far away, I could have saved her too,” said Ye Xiaofeng, who was seventeen or eighteen years old.

“You’re even more useless than this old woman,” Gu Lingxiao retorted directly.