Whoosh!!
Just as Yi Tianxing stepped off the staircase, a sharp gust of wind rushed past his ears—the sound of air being torn apart.
Hearing the disturbance, he reacted instantly. His foot shifted, and his body twisted to the side. He looked toward the source of the wind and saw a green-skinned creature, over a meter tall, wielding a wooden club, swinging it viciously toward his head. If he hadn't dodged, his skull would've been shattered on the spot.
Thanks to his quick sidestep, the blow missed his head and crashed past his shoulder.
Clearly, the green-skinned monster hadn't expected Yi Tianxing to react so swiftly. Its club hit nothing but air, throwing its body off balance with a clumsy clatter.
To someone trained in martial arts, this was a field of glaring weaknesses. Yi Tianxing, who had studied traditional Chinese martial arts and had now embarked on true cultivation, would never let such an opportunity slip by.
Puff!!
The bronze spear in his hand lifted in a flash. With a sharp thrust, the powerful strike tore through the air with a screech. In a heartbeat, the spear pierced through the monster's throat. He pulled it free as green blood sprayed out. The creature collapsed to the ground, twitched twice, then lay still.
"Its strength exceeds that of an average adult, and its reflexes are fast. For ordinary people, lacking any combat skills, it would be difficult to kill one of these. But if a few teamed up, taking down a green-skinned monster shouldn't be too hard."
Yi Tianxing pondered, analyzing the creature as he hunted. Hunting monsters wasn't just survival—it was reconnaissance.
However, even with three average people against one, casualties would be high. The future of humanity... looked bleak.
"What's this?"
Just as Yi Tianxing was about to move on and continue gathering intel through combat, he abruptly stopped in his tracks. He looked at the body of the green-skinned monster he had just slain. A strange white light shimmered over the corpse.
The glow converged, forming a pearl about the size of a thumb, which dropped onto the body.
Yi Tianxing quickly picked up the pearl.
Inside, he felt a pure, unusual energy. It wasn't heaven and earth spiritual energy, but something even more refined, more potent. Holding it in his hand, a primal urge welled up inside him—to absorb and refine it. Even the sea of consciousness within his mind pulsed with hunger and desire.
He wanted to swallow it immediately.
"This pearl… it's Willpower—Faith energy."
Thoughts raced through Yi Tianxing's mind. The aura emanating from the pearl was familiar—he'd encountered it before. Then suddenly, his body trembled as a flash of recognition crossed his face.
Willpower—faith energy.
He remembered where he'd felt it: temples, shrines, Taoist sanctuaries. Because of his innate Yin-Yang Eyes, he had visited many spiritual places in search of answers. The statues in those temples exuded this very energy. But compared to those, this pearl's energy was incomparably pure.
There wasn't even a trace of impurity.
"What the hell is going on? I kill a monster, and it drops a pearl formed from the power of faith? And it's so pure... and potent."
Yi Tianxing frowned. This cataclysm was far stranger than he had imagined. The first time it had happened, he'd died instantly and hadn't learned any of this. Now, he could only guess at what lay beneath the surface.
"Whatever it is, it's a treasure. I'll keep it for now."
Though he didn't yet know the full use of the white Willpower Pearl, it was clearly valuable. As the old saying goes: "Men fight for breath, gods fight for incense." Incense and faith—they were both about belief, about power. And this pearl? It was undoubtedly a treasure.
He placed the pearl into his backpack and pressed forward.
Not long after, the noise of his earlier skirmish attracted more green-skinned creatures—this time, several dozen. Seeing Yi Tianxing, they shrieked with their raspy voices, eyes glowing green, clubs raised high as they rushed at him on their stubby legs.
Ordinary people might collapse in terror at the sight.
Yi Tianxing, however, simply sneered.
"Good. Saves me the trouble of looking for you."
He shifted the bronze spear to his left hand and drew his Tang blade with his right. Instead of retreating, he strode forward with unwavering momentum.
That was true momentum—not fearing death.
Slash!!
With a clean stroke, he decapitated the first monster to reach him. Green blood sprayed out. His left hand didn't pause either—another thrust, another monster skewered through the throat.
Though the monsters surged in numbers, their attacks were chaotic. Yi Tianxing waded into their midst, spear in one hand, blade in the other. Every strike was swift and lethal, targeting vital points with ruthless precision.
Within moments, the ground around him was littered with green-skinned corpses.
He had taken several blows himself, the wooden clubs slamming into his back despite his evasive maneuvers. The pain was intense, but not crippling.
"As expected, every time I kill one, it drops a Willpower Pearl. What is going on?"
Yi Tianxing scanned the area. Every fallen green-skinned creature had released a white glow that condensed into a Willpower Pearl. Without exception.
He quickly collected the pearls, adding them to his backpack. These treasures could help him grow stronger—he knew it in his bones. Altogether, he had gathered twenty-three pearls.
"Hm? What's that?"
As he finished collecting, he noticed something unusual. One of the monsters had a floating white light above its body—not a pearl, but a glowing sphere, starkly distinct.
Curious, he reached out and touched it. The sphere shattered, revealing a green bone, three inches long, etched with strange bone markings. It was surprisingly heavy in his hand.
Green Bone: Material – Can be used in crafting. Mortal Grade – Low Tier.
As he held the bone, knowledge naturally flooded into his mind—its name, properties, and usage. It was a crafting material.
"What the hell is going on…? Monsters drop pearls, crafting materials… Has the entire world changed?"
Yi Tianxing's confusion deepened. He could vaguely sense it now—the entire world had transformed, perhaps the very laws of existence rewritten. All of this... a result of the cataclysm.
ROAR!!
Yi Tianxing pressed forward, heading toward the location where he had seen a mysterious treasure fall earlier. Judging by distance, it was about one or two kilometers away. Once a short walk, now a deadly journey.
As he moved on, he had only just gone a little ways when a blood-curdling roar echoed in the air.
A zombie clad in ancient court robes leapt into view, blood still smeared on its lips, eyes filled with cold bloodlust. The moment it saw Yi Tianxing, it sprang forward, bounding several meters with stiff, iron-like limbs.
Its body exuded thick corpse qi and deadly poison. A single bite could turn someone into a zombie.
"A zombie… a Walking Corpse level one, and it dares show itself in broad daylight? Seeking death."
Yi Tianxing's eyes flashed with killing intent.
There were many types of zombies. Most began as corpses buried underground, corrupted by foul energy and slowly transforming. The first stage of this was the Walking Corpse—lowest of the ranks. The hierarchy was:
Walking Corpse → Pale Zombie → White Zombie → Green Zombie → Hairy Zombie → Flying Zombie → Bone Dissolver.
Even the lowest, a Walking Corpse, was iron-skinned and blade-resistant—lethal to ordinary people.
Drawn by the vitality radiating from Yi Tianxing, the zombie pounced.
"Yin-Yang Lock!"
Yi Tianxing's expression sharpened. His eyes turned stark black and white.
Clang!
With a sharp chime, a black-and-white chain, three to four meters long, shot out from his eyes like a living serpent. It coiled around the zombie with astonishing speed.
Bang!!
The zombie was yanked from mid-air and slammed into the ground. A brilliant white light flared from the chain.
ROAR!!
The light carried the blazing force of pure Yang energy. For the undead, it was like being scorched by direct sunlight. Where the chains wrapped around it, white smoke rose, flesh sizzled, and with a shriek, the zombie melted into a pool of foul liquid.
Undead beings feared nothing more than Yang energy. The Yin-Yang Lock, infused with both Yin and Yang, could shift freely between the two—making it a nightmare for anything unholy.
Clang!
As the Yin-Yang Lock retracted, it dragged a soul behind it—the spirit of the slain zombie. Pulled into Yi Tianxing's Yin-Yang Eyes, the soul was refined by the twin energies and merged into a third, illusory chain segment, forming a new Yin-Yang ring.
Part of the ring began to solidify—but it wasn't fully materialized yet. One soul wasn't enough for a complete transformation.