"It's you?" Despite being hungry and tired, Jiang Yuan still walked over, gripping the nicked knife.
"They're all dead! They're all dead!" Wang Hetai muttered in a daze.
"Everything is dead?" Jiang Yuan frowned, a sense of foreboding creeping over him.
Wang Hetai's emotions calmed down a little when he saw Xu Feng, Xu Lian, and the others. He said numbly, "We encountered a hunting party when we tried to escape, and everyone else was killed!"
"But how do you survive?" Ning Yanlan asked warily. Ever since being tricked by Xu Deping, she no longer trusted anyone.
Just as she used up the bullets she should have saved for herself, the former Ning Yanlan died last night.
"I escaped by hiding in the monster's territory using my psychic abilities!" Wang Hetai's legs were still trembling as he spoke, and he suddenly grabbed Ning Yanlan.
With a clang, Jiang Yuan's knife landed in front of Wang Hetai before he could reach him.
"If you dare touch it, I'll chop off your hand!" Jiang Yuan said mercilessly.
"Let's go, let's hurry! The hunting team will be here tomorrow, and they'll eat people, they really will!" Wang Hetai's voice was filled with fear.
"We're all human, how could we possibly eat people!" Ning Yanlan sneered.
"It's true, I saw it with my own eyes, they really were eating people!" Wang Hetai was on the verge of tears.
"There are only a few of us left now, so don't cause any more trouble!" Jiang Yuan sheathed his sword, pulled Ning Yanlan up, and said to the remaining people, "If you don't want to be captured by the Bloodbelly Eagle, you'd better go inside immediately!"
None of them objected. Xu Lian called another male companion to help lift Xu Feng, and the group helped each other into the same room.
Wang Hetai was even more disgusted and immediately followed the others into the house.
“Maybe what Wang Hetai said is true, otherwise she wouldn’t have been so terrified!” Ning Yanlan said thoughtfully.
"But why would anyone eat people? It's only been a few days since the apocalypse, there's plenty of food, there's absolutely no need to eat people." Jiang Yuan really couldn't figure out why anyone would eat people.
"Could it be a cult?" Ning Yanlan wondered.
"I don't know!" Jiang Yuan shook his head. "Never mind that, come with me to retrieve the core and the Holy Spirit Stone! These Blood-bellied Eagles in the sky are too annoying; I'm afraid they'll ambush me if I'm alone!"
"Mm!" Ning Yanlan nodded.
Ning Yanlan, who uses psionic energy and has a shield, is quite intimidating to the Blood Belly Eagle. Although she can't be said to be a counter, defending against it is not difficult.
A total of five bulls died, all of which were killed by Jiang Yuan. Therefore, the Balance Messenger's passive ability directly affected the probability of cores appearing. Three cores appeared from the five bulls: two black iron cores and one mithril core.
Of course, in addition to the core, Holy Spirit Stones were essential, and Jiang Yuan acquired five Tier 1 Holy Spirit Stones.
However, he did not intend to take it all for himself. Xu Feng and Ning Yanlan were both of great help in this battle. One acted as a meat shield against the raging bull, and the other controlled the field to stop the Blood Belly Eagle. Both of them played an indispensable role.
"Yanlan, can you keep watch for me?" Jiang Yuan said.
After the previous experiment, he learned that absorbing the power of monsters using the Great Wilderness Body Tempering Technique could also improve the progress of Spirit Awakening. In several battles, he gradually discovered that simply having an empty shell full of power was far from enough. To truly become a strong person, he still had to successfully awaken his spirit.
Only after his spirit is awakened will his physical body have a continuous supply of power; otherwise, no matter how strong his physical body is, it's like a three-year-old child holding a knife—he can only cut vegetables!
"Hmm!" Ning Yanlan held the scepter and stood guard behind him.
Jiang Yuan sat beneath the bull, the massive wound directly facing him. Having had several experiences absorbing essence, he was much more adept this time, absorbing most of the bull's essence in just a short while.
"Not bad, the Spirit Awakening progress has increased by four thousand points!" Jiang Yuan withdrew his hand, and he began to envy those who could easily awaken their spirits by simply swallowing a Holy Spirit Stone.
"Are you done?" Ning Yanlan's eyes looked a little tired. The Blood Belly Eagles had indeed taken the opportunity to launch a sneak attack, but after she blocked them a few times with her shield, the Blood Belly Eagles became a little scared and dared not rush forward to attack.
"Okay, let's move on to the next one!" Jiang Yuan put aside his depressed thoughts. Life had to go on. No matter how difficult it was to awaken the spirit, he had to do it. Otherwise, he would not only give up the awakening process, but also his chance to survive in the future.
The progress provided by the five bulls was roughly the same, around four or five points each. After all the bulls had contributed their power, Jiang Yuan's progress had reached 32 per thousand.
"No, I remember that the Spirit Awakening progress would grow on its own back then!" Jiang Yuan frowned because absorbing monster flesh added too little to the Spirit Awakening progress. If he relied solely on killing monsters to awaken his spirit, then achieving Spirit Awakening would be a long way off.
Moreover, he remembered that the first time his Spirit Awakening progress increased on its own was when he was fighting the Fire Hound. At that time, he was at his limit, and his Spirit Awakening progress increased by two thousand points.
"What are you muttering about?" Ning Yanlan asked, noticing Jiang Yuan's distracted state.
"I was wondering if there are people who can awaken their spirits without consuming the Holy Spirit Stone?" Jiang Yuan asked.
“Of course! Many disciples from ancient martial arts families in the South City are not allowed to use the Holy Spirit Stone to awaken their spirits. Instead, they rely on their own senses to sense the power between heaven and earth to complete the awakening!” Ning Yanlan said.
"Ancient martial arts family? Could they be some kind of superhuman?" Jiang Yuan asked, puzzled by the unusual name.
"Don't be surprised! What you know is just what others want you to know. What you don't know may still exist. It just means we haven't reached that level yet!" Ning Yanlan sighed.
"I understand!" Jiang Yuan said with a wry smile. This is indeed the law of the world; one's perspective changes with one's level of understanding.
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