Chapter 72: Utter Annihilation

After confirming his plan to visit the main city tomorrow, Lu Sheng informed Li Kuang of his intentions. This time, he also prepared to sweep up some interesting low-level items. As long as they were cards, he could enhance them—rank didn't matter to him. He would simply upgrade them.

Now, he needed to go out and find Wang Xian—not for anything else, but for fertility cards. Just like the Tenfold Fertility Card he'd used before, if Wang Xian could produce them—even if only at the first tier—he could raise their quality.

Lu Sheng knocked on Wang Xian's door. The door was almost always shut tight; were it not for the occasional explosions from within, Lu Sheng would suspect no one lived there.

With a creak, the door opened, and Li Nuannuan appeared—a petite girl, whose presence at the door was almost comical. "Big brother, are you here to see Sister Wang Xian?" she asked in a clear, childlike voice.

"Yes, that's right. Please take me in," Lu Sheng replied.

"Okay." Li Nuannuan stepped aside, letting Lu Sheng in before closing the door.

Li Kuang, who lived next door, watched these scenes unfold and couldn't help but smile to himself. Indeed, placing Lu Sheng's house next to Wang Xian's had been a wise move. Only a woman as outstanding as Wang Xian could be a match for Lu Sheng. He wondered whether they might truly become a couple; if so, he would be their chief benefactor.

Of course, this was all Li Kuang's own fantasy. In reality, Lu Sheng hadn't thought about any of this.

Wang Xian, clad in red, sat where she had last time. Her face, partly concealed beneath her veil, drew Lu Sheng's gaze. Humans are always curious about the mysterious, so long as their safety is assured.

This time, Wang Xian didn't send Li Nuannuan away; the girl remained standing behind her.

"Is there something you need?" Wang Xian asked.

Lu Sheng stated his purpose: "I'd like to know if you can produce some fertility cards, such as the Tenfold Fertility Card."

Wang Xian paused, then answered, "I can make those, but at most I can craft a Tier Two Tenfold Fertility Card. Is that useful to you?"

Lu Sheng replied, "I only need Tier One; Tier Two isn't necessary. But I do need a large quantity—the more, the better."

Wang Xian did not refuse him. Lu Sheng protected this settlement, and in doing so, protected her as well. Helping him a little was only right.

"No problem, but making these cards requires a certain material, which I don't currently have. I'd need to go to Knife Hill and find a plant called Vitality Grass."

"Where is Knife Hill?"

"You can have Li Kuang and the others take you there."

Lu Sheng then left Wang Xian's house and found Li Kuang.

"That's the situation," he explained. "I need to find Vitality Grass."

Li Kuang considered it. "My lord, there's a settlement with several hundred people at the base of Knife Hill. They specialize in gathering and selling Vitality Grass. It's not particularly rare—has a slight healing effect and can be made into various medicinal items. If you wish, I can have Lei Yan lead some people to purchase it?"

Lu Sheng nodded. "That works. Have them buy as much as possible—let me know how many source pearls are needed."

Li Kuang said, "There's no need for source pearls for such a small thing. You didn't take the pearls dropped by the frogmen yesterday; I'll just use those."

Lu Sheng agreed. "In that case, I won't interfere. Have Lei Yan lead the group to buy it."

Li Kuang replied, "Understood."

Lu Sheng turned and returned home. With subordinates, he didn't need to handle such trivial matters himself; he could let them take care of it.

At the settlement gate, eleven people departed. Lei Yan led ten subordinates toward Knife Hill.

...

It took an hour to reach the base of Knife Hill from their settlement, and by the time Lei Yan and his party arrived, dusk was nearing.

Lei Yan gazed at the settlement before him—filled with corpses and utterly ruined—and fell silent.

"Captain, what now? The people here seem to have been attacked by monsters; they're all dead," Zhou Jian remarked, a chill running down his spine. A monster capable of wiping out a settlement of hundreds must either be extraordinarily strong or numerous. Though there were some monster corpses on the ground, no one could be sure if all the monsters were dead.

From what they could see, all the settlement's inhabitants had perished.

"Search the settlement for any Vitality Grass. If there's none, we'll discuss what to do," Lei Yan ordered. He too felt uneasy, but he had come on Lu Sheng's mission and didn't want to return empty-handed. He could only see whether anything remained to be salvaged.

If they found some, they could bring it back; if not, he'd have to return and consult with Li Kuang.

"Be careful—work in pairs. If you encounter monsters, don't act recklessly."

Under Lei Yan's strict command, the team quickly dispersed and searched every room.

Soon, they all regrouped. The room doors had all been opened, and anything of value was gone—clearly already looted.

Lei Yan began to suspect that humans might have played a role in the massacre.

"Let's go back and report," he said. He couldn't stay in this place any longer; the chill on his back was growing. If whatever killed these people—monster or human—reappeared, they'd be doomed.

They hadn't found the Vitality Grass Lu Sheng needed, and the Gray Wolf settlement's inhabitants were all dead. To obtain the grass, they would have to enter Knife Hill itself.

With only eleven people, even staying here made them nervous—let alone venturing into Knife Hill.

Moreover, night was fast approaching, and night was the monsters' hunting time; danger would only increase.

They would return and await orders from Lu Sheng or Li Kuang. Whether they went into the mountain to search for Vitality Grass or not would depend on Lu Sheng's decision.

As they hurried back, Zhou Jian voiced a question.

"Captain, what kind of monsters were those black ones? We've never seen them before. And the corpses of those people turned black too—could the monsters be poisonous?"

"Probably. Let's head back. I suspect we'll be coming back here tomorrow—Lord Lu Sheng seems to value this grass highly."

Lei Yan led his team back to the settlement, empty-handed, and reported to Li Kuang.

Li Kuang was briefly taken aback, but after hearing the details, he knew Lei Yan couldn't be blamed. In this apocalypse, a settlement might perish at any moment.

For now, he could only inform Lu Sheng.

By this time, darkness had fully fallen.

At the base of Knife Hill, in the Gray Wolf settlement, the hundreds of corpses all began to move in strange postures.

Their bodies had turned completely black, and their fingers had grown sharp claws.

After 'reviving,' they paused as if receiving some message from the air, then began to stir under the cover of night.