At that time, he probably understood that Xu Nuo was worried he couldn't handle things on his own outside, which is why he gave him a few talismans for protection.
He was actually very grateful for Xu Nuo doing this because if Xu Nuo was worried, he could have chosen another method, like staying by his side to protect him. However, that would have deprived him of the chance to train and improve himself.
Of course, the reason he didn't do so might also be because he really didn't like interacting with others and didn't want to waste his time protecting someone like him.
But he had to admit that having those talismans with him allowed him to handle situations that weren't extremely dangerous by himself. This not only helped him train his response to crises but also enhanced his superpower.
However, after using Xu Nuo's talismans and witnessing their potent effects, he couldn't help but admire Xu Nuo even more, hoping to collect more of them. If he had these talismans in his last life, even if he was pushed into a horde of zombies, he would have had the capability to fight back. How could he have been torn to shreds without any resistance!
In fact, during the five days he was out there, he only used two of the talismans Xu Nuo gave him. After experiencing their power, he was reluctant to use them further. The rest were well hidden in his space ring, but even so, he had only managed to accumulate about ten of them in total.
But now, Xu Nuo was actually offering to give him talismans voluntarily; wasn't this something to get excited about?
What he didn't expect was that while he was looking at Xu Nuo with such anticipation, Xu Nuo gave him a sly smile and said, "I said earlier that your performance this time didn't qualify for an excellent rating, so you probably won't get those ten talismans. Try harder next time."
Park Su's face fell instantly. Seeing the smirk on Xu Nuo's face, he felt like he had been played. What about the noble and aloof demeanor that supposedly kept people at bay? Why did it seem like Xu Nuo enjoyed teasing him?
From past to present, it seemed like he was always being teased by Xu Nuo. Was this the quirky humor of a master?
Even though Park Su was internally fuming, he couldn't do anything about it and just turned around, no longer paying attention to Xu Nuo.
Forget it, he hadn't truly expected to get the talismans anyway. Even if he tried to act cute or be petulant to get them, it would only make him a laughingstock. He wouldn't do that. Instead of wasting time, he might as well focus on cooking, so they could eat earlier and he could go upstairs to cultivate sooner.
Although he thought this way, his movements became heavier, clearly venting his frustration on the pots and pans.
Seeing Park Su's actions, Xu Nuo's smile only grew, thinking to himself that he really had a child's temperament.
After Park Su finished preparing dinner, he and Xu Nuo ate in the living room. Initially, Park Su wanted to call the mother and son to join them, but Lü Xia had fallen asleep from exhaustion once she relaxed.
Chen Jingxuan, worried about his mother, stayed by her bedside, telling Park Su he wanted to watch over her until she woke up to eat with her. Although he said this, his stomach growled loudly, indicating he was really hungry.
Seeing Chen Jingxuan like this, Park Su was moved by his filial piety. In such a world, these pure emotions were even rarer.
So he served some food and placed it beside him, patting his head and saying, "You should eat something too, so you'll have the strength to look after your mother. If she gets a fever tonight, you'll need strength to care for her. If you stay hungry, you won't have the energy to take care of her when she really needs it."
"Rest assured, I've kept your mother's portion for you too. When she wakes up, you can heat it up for her. Now, be good and eat this, understand? If you don't eat, I won't pay attention to you anymore."
Chen Jingxuan, looking at the steaming food with tears in his eyes, raised his head to look at Park Su and said with a choked voice, "I know big brother is doing this for my good. I will eat, so please don't ignore me."
He quickly took the chopsticks and ate a few mouthfuls, tears streaming down his face. With a trembling voice, he said, "I never knew rice could taste this good. Thank you, brother."
He wiped away his tears and looked up at Park Su with hopeful eyes, "Brother, my mom will be okay, right? She hasn't had such good rice in days, so she'll wake up to eat this, won't she?"
Seeing the child like this, Park Su felt a pang of sadness. In this cruel apocalypse, the ones who suffer the most are the children, with no combat abilities and often becoming burdens to their parents. At the beginning, parents might still take their children with them, but later, for ordinary people who can barely survive themselves, taking care of a child becomes an impossible task.
Thus, many abandon their children, and some die trying to protect them. The happy, peaceful life before the apocalypse turns into a distant dream. If they hadn't experienced that calm, happy life before, the stark contrast wouldn't hurt so much. But because they had, the change was even more painful for these children, whose resilience is far less than adults, making the transition even harder. Yet, this child impressed him. He remembered the first time he saw him, hiding in a corner, trembling, while his mother protected him. Now, he was much stronger, facing these hardships on his own and even wanting to take care of his mother.
Park Su sighed and didn't say much more, just reminding him to knock on his door if anything happened to Lü Xia during the night. He then left, preparing to clean up and go upstairs early, as this was the only thing he could do for this mother and son at the moment.
What he didn't expect was to see Xu Nuo standing at the stairwell watching him, which made him feel a bit embarrassed. When Xu Nuo saw him coming upstairs, he couldn't help but curve his lips, "I see you're the one who cares about Lü Xia, not me, huh? I didn't expect you to be so concerned for this mother and son."
Park Su twitched the corner of his mouth, "How could that be? I just feel a bit sorry for them."
Xu Nuo gave a cold laugh, "There are plenty of people in this world who need sympathy more than they do. It's hard enough just to manage your own life. You should figure out what you should and shouldn't do. Being soft-hearted in this world doesn't always lead to good outcomes."
Park Su was momentarily speechless by Xu Nuo's words. Although he didn't understand why Xu Nuo's mood could change so unpredictably, he knew Xu Nuo was right.
Moreover, he felt arguing with Xu Nuo would be futile since he could never win, only feeling like he was in the wrong. So he quickly ignored Xu Nuo, cleared the dishes, and hurried upstairs. Fortunately, Xu Nuo wasn't there when he went up.
He entered the room he had chosen earlier, closed the door, summoned Little Green Vine, and grumbled a couple of sentences, "Why is he so hard to please? Sure enough, one needs to have real strength, or else you'll just get bullied. Sigh, let's hurry up and cultivate!"
Little Green Vine didn't quite grasp human emotions, so she couldn't comment. However, hearing Park Su mention cultivation, she got excited because she knew it meant absorbing those crystal cores. Thus, she had no interest in the matters between Park Su and Xu Nuo.
Soon, Park Su gathered all forty zombie crystal cores he collected today and began to absorb their energy with Little Green Vine. As they started, the room was filled with green wood-based superpower, and the life energy of the wood element began to gather slowly.
Xu Nuo, standing outside the door, immediately sensed the movement of spiritual energy around him and sighed internally. Sure enough, Park Su was cultivating again. He quickly placed an isolation talisman on Park Su's door to prevent the two downstairs from noticing anything unusual.
Although they seemed harmless, one could never be too sure. He didn't like any surprises.
As for the convoy in the back row, he thought that since they were quite far, and he had previously gauged the range of energy emitted when Park Su absorbed powers, it shouldn't affect them.
Unless there was someone in that convoy as sensitive to spiritual energy as he was, they wouldn't notice, and such individuals were one in ten thousand.
More importantly, if he put isolation talismans all around, it might affect the speed at which Park Su absorbs spiritual energy, which would impact his cultivation. So he decided not to add any more protections.
Instead, he returned to the room next door to start drawing some talismans while also cultivating a bit.
In fact, the conversation with Park Su today and the events they experienced had given him a sense of crisis. If, as Park Su said, the spiritual energy in the air becomes denser over time, then both zombies and humans would become increasingly powerful.
This means that his current abilities might not be enough to ensure complete freedom in this world in the future.
Xu Nuo knew very well that if you have no skills, others will look down on you. But if your abilities are just average with potential, other forces will want to recruit you, and you'll have to make choices among these factions, or else you'll end up surviving in the cracks, or even be killed.