Lu Heng spent a few minutes in the space before releasing the golden eagle.
As they were far from the base, survivor teams were unlikely to be encountered, allowing Lu Heng to kill zombies without restraint.
The golden eagle flew out, circled in the sky for a while, scouting the situation at the city entrance. Then, it flapped its wings, unleashing a level seven wind blade towards the abandoned cars and zombies.
Soon, the blocked vehicles on the road were blown to the sides, and the zombies wandering nearby were scattered along with the vehicles.
However, the surrounding zombies were quickly drawn back by the loud noises from the scattered vehicles.
As the golden eagle cleared the road, Lu Heng successively released his animal legion, and the animals cooperated tacitly.
The speed-type black panther darted around the zombies. Due to the difference in ability levels, the level three zombies hadn't even touched the black panther before it nimbly dodged them, leading a pack of roaring zombies in pursuit, attracting a large number of them.
When the zombies gathered in considerable numbers, the fire-element white tiger, ice-element Siberian tiger, lightning-element cheetah, and wind-element golden eagle, each with their powerful killing abilities, instantly annihilated the zombies with their respective powers.
Yes, instant kills.
These contracted spirit animals had levels that corresponded to Lu Heng's. Therefore, as level seven spirit animals, their killing power completely overwhelmed these level three zombies.
Even when the zombie ranks included a few spirit zombies, they were unable to harm the contracted animals.
The battle ended in an instant. Lu Heng then emerged from the space, waved his hand, and collected all the exposed crystals in the air back into the space. Afterward, Lu Heng dispatched the black bear and antelope to search for any unexposed crystals.
Although some zombies were killed by headshots, their crystals were not directly exposed, requiring manual effort to find them again.
The black bear smashed the heads of the dead zombies with one punch. It didn't need to pick up the crystals; Lu Heng waited for them to be found before collecting them again.
The antelope was much faster at finding crystals than the black bear. It controlled its wood-element ability, summoning vines and branches from the surroundings. These vines and branches then quickly broke through the zombies' heads, precisely extracting the crystals from their brains.
After the black bear and antelope thoroughly searched the surrounding dead zombies, Lu Heng waved his hand again and collected the exposed crystals.
The road leading into the city had been cleared. There were no longer any blocked vehicles. Lu Heng took out his off-road vehicle and drove directly into the city.
Along the way, Lu Heng simply drove and occasionally waved outside the car, leaving all the zombie-killing to his pets.
The director and the turtle immortal were lying comfortably in the passenger seat, fast asleep, completely undisturbed by the zombies outside.
Upon entering the city, Lu Heng searched factories one by one. Since he was there to collect crystals, he could also gather any supplies he found into his space. He wouldn't leave empty-handed and would later give some to the base to help with its development, which would also benefit his long-term stay there.
However, he couldn't hand over such a large quantity of supplies to the base all at once; he needed to devise a reasonable plan.
The first factory he visited produced various sportswear. Besides finished clothing stockpiled in the warehouse, there were also many fabrics.
Lu Heng surveyed the area, killed all the zombies, and then collected the uncontaminated clothing, fabrics, and various production equipment into his space.
There were also many toy factories in the city. Lu Heng didn't collect the finished toys, but many of the raw materials used to make toys could be used to produce other things. Lu Heng didn't miss them, collecting them into his space along with the shelves.
After all, in the apocalypse, even if there were still children, they would have been hardened by the zombies and become numb. They no longer liked toys.
Under their parents' guidance, they began to train their bodies and learn various methods to kill zombies.
Although Lu Heng was fast at killing zombies, it took him over half a month to search such a relatively large city.
By the time Lu Heng left the city, almost all the zombies there had been killed by him. Except for those hiding in places like the sewers, Lu Heng had explored almost the entire city.
Unfortunately, he found no survivors here. It was estimated that even if they hadn't turned into zombies, they would have starved to death from not daring to go out during this long period.
Leaving the city, Lu Heng didn't go far. He found a secluded wilderness and slipped back into the space.
The crystals collected in the city this time were too numerous, almost piled up into a small mountain. After Lu Heng killed zombies in the city, the director returned to the space and began sorting them.
However, one beast sorting was too slow, far from keeping up with the speed of the few animals killing together outside. Lu Heng later had the black bear join him to learn sorting.
Fortunately, the black bear was quite patient. It sat down on the plaza, and after the director taught it a few times, it learned how to sort crystals.
Moreover, it seemed to have just learned to count and was now very addicted to it. Apart from eating and sleeping, it hardly moved from its spot.
"One, two, three..."
It seemed the saying about bears picking corn, picking one and throwing one away, wasn't true; this black bear was counting quite smoothly.
Lu Heng watched the two of them still sorting and sat back on the sofa with satisfaction. These crystals were more than enough for him to absorb and advance.
Lu Heng continuously absorbed the crystals and soon broke through to level eight.
A sharp pain shot through his mind, and Lu Heng took a while to readjust.
As he was closing his eyes to recover, the golden eagle flew over again. "Master, Master, I saw those houses, so many houses..."
Lu Heng: "...What houses?"
Golden Eagle: "The houses by the road, there are so many..."
A thought flashed through Lu Heng's mind. Could it be...?
...
At the entrance of a city within the space.
Lu Heng saw that the fog at the entrance had dissipated, allowing him to clearly see the scene on the other side.
At this time, within the space, apart from the entrance and exit, other areas were still covered in thick fog, so only by standing at the entrance and exit could one see the opposite view.
But why were the buildings on the other side...