39 A New Settlement

The power of spiritual weapons could be clearly seen from Cui Lie's flying knives and Xuanxuan's phoenix umbrella. Although ordinary weapons affixed with spirit-storage talismans could not be wielded as effortlessly and fluidly as true spiritual weapons, their sharpness was by no means inferior.

The physical conditioning and skills of everyone in the group were quite good. Wang Lin, Cui Lie, Xia Kai, and Wang启瑞 had all broken through to the Meridian Circulation realm. Their primary shortcoming lay in their inadequate weapons, which failed to pierce the monsters' defenses, leaving them with no choice but to flee when engaged in close combat.

Consequently, unless they relied on traps, they had to fight in coordinated teams and deliberately target monsters with relatively vulnerable defenses in order to obtain treasures.

As the drop rate of treasures continued to plummet, it had been a long time since any of them had acquired anything new.

Although Cui Lie possessed a set of flying knife spiritual weapons, they were a matched set. The amount of spiritual energy required to activate ten spiritual weapons simultaneously was a heavy burden for Cui Lie, who had only just reached the Meridian Circulation realm.

A matched set of spiritual weapons would undoubtedly become a formidable lethal weapon at higher realms of cultivation in the future, but given the current circumstances, Cui Lie's hands were tied, and he dared not use them lightly unless absolutely necessary.

Therefore, seeing the powerful enhancement that the spirit-storage talismans granted to ordinary weapons stirred excitement in everyone's hearts.

Wang Qirui's usual weapon had been ruined during the battle with the giant lizard monster.

The long whip he currently held looked decent and was quite durable, but its ability to pierce defenses was a source of great frustration.

Before the apocalypse, Xia Kai had been an ordinary person with limited combat prowess. The weapon previously assigned to him had also been destroyed, and the one he was currently using had been lent to him by Rong Xianxian.

In the battle against the giant lizard monster, since it was not a coordinated group hunt, treasures should have been distributed based on contribution. Jiang Jie had waived his share of the treasures obtained from the gas station battle. This time, the successful slaying of the giant lizard monster was primarily due to the traps laid by Rong Xianxian and Jiang Jie, so ultimately Rong Xianxian took two of the three treasures, and Jiang Jie took one.

The weapon Rong Xianxian lent to Xia Kai was one dropped by the giant lizard monster—to be precise, a set of concealed weapons: plum blossom throwing darts. Combined with the Wind God Incantation practiced by Xia Kai, they truly hit their mark every time, but unfortunately, the plum blossom darts were still ordinary weapons.

Although the guns and blades wielded by Jiang Jie and Wang Lin were considerably sharper than ordinary arms, they were still inadequate when facing monsters with relatively high defense.

"Sister Rong, give me one to try." Wang Qirui reached out swiftly toward Rong Xianxian.

Rong Xianxian handed him a talisman and watched as he pasted it onto his fiery-red long whip.

Wang Qirui circulated the spiritual energy within his body to activate the long whip affixed with the spirit-storage talisman, and gently flicked it toward the monster that had been sliced in half. With a crisp "crack," the whip snapped through the air, shattering bones and severing tendons wherever it swept.

"This is too exhilarating! It's simply unbelievable!" Wang Qirui jumped up in excitement.

"Sister Rong, is this talisman secure? It won't fall off with use, will it?" Wang Lin asked worriedly, staring at the talisman pasted on the hilt.

"That won't happen. However, the spiritual energy inside the talisman will eventually be depleted, and the amount consumed probably varies depending on the weapon. You'll have to observe and gauge it yourselves when the time comes," Rong Xianxian said, looking at the barely-contained excitement of the group.

"Sister Rong, with this talisman, I can go solo against monsters that we previously had to hunt in groups!" Wang Qirui patted his chest with an air of grand ambition.

"How is it? Good stuff, right?" Rong Xianxian felt quite smug inwardly as well.

"It couldn't possibly be better. With this thing, our strength has undergone a qualitative leap," Wang Lin said softly, bending down to inspect the two wounds on the monster's body.

Having demonstrated the power of the talismans, the group returned to the living room.

"Today, let's discuss our future arrangements. What are everyone's thoughts? Do you want to act together, or split up?" In a city that had already been cleared once by the military, Rong Xianxian felt there was not much danger left—though one could still not lower their guard, as Jiang Jie served as a cautionary tale.

"Sister Rong, following your suggestion, we explored several places these past few days. During our explorations, we ran into a few small factions, most of which had over ten people. Since our numbers are already small, we shouldn't disperse further," Cui Lie said, exchanging a glance with the others. The five of them had long since reached a tacit understanding.

"Sister Rong, why are we looking for other fallback locations anyway?" Wang Qirui asked, puzzled.

"Because the dangers we will face next come not only from monsters, but also from our own kind," Rong Xianxian replied.

"Then why don't we just head straight to the capital?" Wang Qirui asked.

"Our current strength is relatively good, but how do we compare to the military? I've already scouted out the safety zone. Up to now, none of the advance scouting parties sent out by the military have returned. The military has vehicles, personnel, and weapons, yet they still haven't carved out a safe route. Do you think we have any business trying?" Rong Xianxian asked bluntly.

To put it bluntly, safe routes were carved out entirely with lives.

"Then we'll just hole up in the city and wait for news," Wang Lin said, glancing at the others.

"Fine," the rest had no objections.

"Have any of you been targeted by others?" Rong Xianxian asked solemnly.

"Probably not," Wang Lin and the others exchanged uncertain looks and replied hesitantly.

"Our former neighbors once coveted the weapons in our hands. Even though they've gone to the safety zone now, what if they sold out our situation? Therefore, we cannot lower our guard, and we must be careful coming and going. This is the 17th floor; to say nothing else, if someone were to set a fire and trap us here, how would we escape? Human beings are far trickier to deal with than monsters." Rong Xianxian didn't want to leave this place either, but the current situation differed from her past life.

Rong Xianxian could not keep Ren Tian and the others trapped here indefinitely; wasting her energy minding them would be a waste of her own time. Besides, there were the neighbors on the 10th floor—that hidden hazard still existed. Rong Xianxian certainly didn't believe those people would let the matter rest. Lacking the guts themselves, there were plenty of adventurous scavenging teams inside the safety zone, and those teams were no pushovers.

If they really sold her information to those people and she was targeted, defense would become virtually impossible.

As the saying goes, one can be on guard against thieves for a thousand days, but who can spend a thousand days playing the thief?

"If we harvest abundant treasures and get targeted, we aren't in the safety zone anymore. If a turf war breaks out between both sides, regardless of the outcome, nobody will step in to ask questions," Rong Xianxian cautioned them in advance.

For some people, seizing things from their own kind was much easier than snatching things from monsters.

"How many fallback locations have you found in the past few days?" Rong Xianxian asked. She had previously discussed finding multiple boltholes with them. As the saying goes, a clever rabbit has three burrows, primarily to prevent being tracked down.

"According to your requirements—safe, hidden, structurally sound, rich in surrounding supplies, and not too far from here—we've only found one such place," Cui Lie said hesitantly.

Although given their current strength, they weren't afraid of troublemakers, if a fierce fight really broke out, swords and blades had no eyes, and if her two children were accidentally injured, it would be a regret too late for tears.