Chapter 15

No longer distracted by other zombies, Cheng Zhiyu could now focus entirely on the female zombie.

From what he could tell, this female zombie was clearly higher-level and stronger than the others; most notably, it was significantly faster and able to dodge.

Most importantly, it possessed a certain level of intelligence and even knew how to use diversionary tactics.

However, without other zombies to interfere, the female zombie was no match for him. As it dodged his attack and reached out toward him, Cheng Zhiyu swiftly swung his cleaver and lopped off its arm.

Then, before the zombie could react, its head hit the ground. Its body twitched briefly before it collapsed with a heavy thud.

The head on the ground still snarled and gnashed its teeth, trying to bite Cheng Zhiyu.

With a cold expression, Cheng Zhiyu raised his hand and finished it off.

Turning around, he saw that Little Black had, at some point, jumped onto a higher car and was idly swishing his tail. For every zombie that entered, he would mush its head like a watermelon.

After the female zombie was dealt with, the zombies stopped rushing in. Seeing that Little Black could handle the situation, Cheng Zhiyu felt relieved and focused on studying the female zombie.

This zombie was too different from the others; he wanted to find out where these changes came from.

Cheng Zhiyu found a stick and poked around its skull, noticing that it was harder than that of other zombies.

He suddenly recalled a novel he had once read, where evolved zombies seemed to have a core crystal in their heads. Fighting disgust, he searched through the brain but found nothing.

Had he been mistaken? Do evolved zombies not have core crystals? Or had this zombie simply not evolved to that stage yet?

It was also possible. Although Cheng Zhiyu clearly sensed that this zombie was more powerful than ordinary ones, it wasn’t that difficult to deal with.

If this zombie hadn’t yet reached that level of evolution, how powerful would a fully evolved zombie be?

At this thought, Cheng Zhiyu frowned.

Suddenly, he felt a cool feeling on his hand. Startled, he looked down and saw water enveloping his hand, gently washing it clean for him.

Cheng Zhiyu turned his head and, sure enough, saw Little Black standing not far away. Even though he was just a puppy, Cheng Zhiyu could see a look of disdain on his face.

Cheng Zhiyu explained: "I didn’t even touch it with my hands."

Little Black widened his eyes: You wanted to touch it with your hands?

Cheng Zhiyu understood his meaning: "..."

Once his hands were clean, Little Black also cleaned the cleaver. Satisfied with the result and ensuring it was clean enough, he stepped onto a floating orb of water, drifted over to Cheng Zhiyu, jumped into his arms, and dug into his clothes.

Cheng Zhiyu poked him, and Little Black stuck his head out, looking annoyed: What?

Cheng Zhiyu smiled. "Nothing."

Little Black looked at his smiling face and felt strangely uneasy. Really, why does he smile so much? And... his smile is oddly good-looking.

With no zombies nearby, Cheng Zhiyu piled the zombie bodies up and had Little Two burn them to ashes. With Little Two on his shoulder and Little Black in his arms, he returned home.

He took off his coat, disinfected, and only then felt safe to enter.

Finally, Cheng Zhiyu had time to get a good look at Little Black. Little Black felt uncomfortable under his gaze: What?

Today, Cheng Zhiyu had gotten a full look at Little Black’s extraordinary abilities. However, he knew Little Black didn’t mean him any harm. In fact, if it hadn’t been for Little Black, he couldn’t have handled the female zombie so quickly.

So, although Cheng Zhiyu was surprised by Little Black’s water powers, he felt no other negative emotions. He patted Little Black and asked, "Little Black, are you a dog spirit?"

Little Black: Dog spirit? How offensive! He was from the Winged Tribe—what did that have to do with dogs?

But Little Black didn’t argue. For one, he still couldn’t speak, and secondly, he didn’t know how to explain his situation. Might as well let Cheng Zhiyu believe what he wants.

Seeing that Little Black didn’t deny it, Cheng Zhiyu nodded understandingly and asked curiously, "Then, Little Black, can you turn into a human?"

Little Black used to be able to easily transform into human form. But now? He was in a juvenile form—what do you think?

Just by looking at Little Black’s expression, Cheng Zhiyu understood. He guessed that Little Black hadn’t cultivated to that level to transform into human form yet.

He patted Little Black’s head and comforted him gently, "It’s okay, take it slow."

Little Black: There’s no time to take it slow—he had no intention of staying this weak.

Unaware of Little Black’s thoughts, Cheng Zhiyu gazed at him with stars in his eyes.

Little Black couldn’t help but take a step back, feeling strangely nervous under the stare: What?

Cheng Zhiyu picked him up excitedly, went to kiss him, but Little Black stretched out a paw and pressed it against his mouth. Cheng Zhiyu smiled and said, "Little Black, you’re really my lucky star!"

Little Black quickly retracted his paw, unsure why his paw pads felt warm all of a sudden. And since when did humans like Cheng Zhiyu become so corny? Lucky star? What nonsense.

Cheng Zhiyu was overjoyed. "I was just worrying about running out of water at home, and it turns out you can make water, Little Black?"

Little Black: Make water? This is called water powers.

Still, Little Black felt a little guilty. His abilities had been too weak before, so he had wanted to keep his water powers a secret...

He stole a glance at Cheng Zhiyu’s expression and, seeing no sign of anger, sighed in relief.

Wait—why should he care if Cheng Zhiyu was angry? What was there to worry about? Hmph... It must be because he still needed to stay with this human for a while and didn’t want to ruin their relationship.

Yeah, that was it.

Having successfully convinced himself, Little Black followed Cheng Zhiyu’s request and conjured a bucket of water for him.

Cheng Zhiyu looked at the freshly conjured bucket of water, still amazed. How could something so small as Little Black produce such a large bucket of water?

He reached out and patted Little Black, concerned. "Will you get tired, Little Black?"

Cheng Zhiyu had no special abilities himself and didn’t understand how they worked, so he was worried Little Black might overdo it.

Little Black calmly jumped onto Cheng Zhiyu’s shoulder. Hmm, this height was pretty good—though still not as high as he’d like.

Seeing that Little Black was still energetic, Cheng Zhiyu felt relieved and patted him. "Aren’t you afraid of falling?"

Little Black sat steadily, clearly not worried in the slightest.

Cheng Zhiyu decided to let it be.

Although he hadn’t found much water during today’s outing, he had gathered some other supplies, including some cured meat. After a long day, he could afford a slightly more sumptuous meal tonight.

Cheng Zhiyu prepared stir-fried cured meat, steamed eggs, spicy stir-fried red cabbage, and steamed rice. He had found several bags of rice while out, which would last quite a while.

This meal would have been ordinary before the apocalypse, but now it was considered quite luxurious.

Cheng Zhiyu had also noticed that Little Black had a surprisingly large appetite—almost eating pretty much whatever he was given.

Although Cheng Zhiyu had no special abilities, he estimated that such powers must consume a great deal of energy, so he figured he needed to give Little Black more nutrients.

Plus, since he himself had a big appetite, even though he only prepared three dishes, Cheng Zhiyu made exceptionally large portions—all served in large basins—enough to satisfy both of them.

As the meritorious contributor of the day, Little Black boldly requested this time to eat at the table. After all, he wasn’t actually a dog—he refused to eat on the floor!

Cheng Zhiyu happily agreed. The table was quite spacious anyway. He picked up Little Black and placed him on the other side of the table, setting a small bowl in front of him.

Worried that Little Black might dirty his fur, Cheng Zhiyu also brought out a warm yellow feeding bib he’d found earlier that day, thinking it suited Little Black perfectly, so he brought it home.

Little Black took one look at the yellow bib and his whole body language screamed refusal.

Cheng Zhiyu: “Wow, Little Black, you look absolutely adorable like this.”

Little Black: Fine, he couldn’t be bothered to argue with Cheng Zhiyu over this.

Little Black’s small bowl was filled with rice. As Cheng Zhiyu ate, he kept adding food to Little Black’s bowl, managing to match his own eating pace with Little Black’s. They actually coordinated quite well.

After the meal, Cheng Zhiyu rested for a bit before starting his martial arts practice and cultivating his inner energy. He had been a little smug about his recent progress, but today he realized that while he was improving himself, the zombies were evolving too.

He had to stay ahead of the zombies.

After all, even though he had Little Black, Little Two, and Little Iron, evolved zombies could directly control lower-level ones—that meant group combat. Only by improving himself could he ensure he remained unbeatable.

Little Black wasn’t idle either; he sat nearby, training his own abilities. The room was quiet, and the pair—one human, one dog—looked quite harmonious together.

After what felt like an hour or two, Cheng Zhiyu, though not particularly tired, decided it was time to rest and took Little Black to bed.

Cultivation should be practiced in moderation.

——

Now that they had water, there was no need to worry about planting plants anymore.

Early the next morning, Cheng Zhiyu watered the plants in the system space and finally prepared to claim his rewards.

System: “Rewards have been distributed. Please check, Host.”

Cheng Zhiyu clicked to view and found that, as expected, the system had provided another plant. Compared to Little Two and Little Iron, this one looked much more ordinary—small, with two tender yellow leaves.

It looked a lot like the vegetables he used to grow.

Drawing on his previous experiences, Cheng Zhiyu skillfully planted the new plant, Little Yellow—yes, he had quickly named the new plant Little Yellow.

After planting Little Yellow, Cheng Zhiyu checked the other rewards. The system space had expanded again, now measuring 3*3 meters.

Honestly, it was no wonder Cheng Zhiyu wanted to grow vegetables—with so much space, planting only three plants was a real waste.

Next, the storage space had also been upgraded, but this upgrade offered two options: “Please choose between a freshness preservation function for the storage space or expanding the storage space to 2 cubic meters.”

Both sounded amazing. With freshness preservation, items wouldn’t spoil, but expanding the space would let him store more stuff. For now, in the rental apartment, he didn’t need a huge storage space, but it wouldn’t be long before he had to head outside, and that function would be very useful.

Cheng Zhiyu found himself really torn—he wanted both. He tried bargaining with the system: “System, can’t I just choose both?”

System: “Please stop dreaming impossible dreams, Host.”

Cheng Zhiyu: “...”