Xu Nuo obediently withdrew his hand, leading his spouse out, collected the zombie cores from his array from the previous day, and then knocked on Ge Qing and Lu Shang's door, asking them to wake everyone up.
Everyone had rested well, and after a night with no incidents, their confidence in Xu Nuo's talismans was significantly boosted. They all hoped to obtain one such talisman, as having it would make overnight stays outside much safer in the future.
However, good things always come at a price, and for them, even just supporting themselves and their families was challenging enough; wanting something like these talismans felt somewhat luxurious.
Still, they now understood why Park Su and Xu Nuo were so calm when letting them loot a mall for two hours without worrying about what was happening outside. With these talismans in place, zombies outside couldn't sense anything inside, so fewer zombies would be drawn to the area.
It was merely a matter of dealing with any stray zombies that wandered too close and managing the blood scent. If one's strength was sufficient, like that of a third-tier ability user, holding off for two hours to let the team loot would be feasible.
If they could loot for two hours in each large mall, it would accumulate into substantial wealth. Now, the entire team felt that winning this bet might not be as hard as they initially thought.
When Xu Nuo showed off these talismans, he knew it would boost everyone's confidence in the bet. So, when they went to loot the malls, there would be less worry about speed, leading to a more thorough scavenging, bringing out more goods.
This time, Xu Nuo decided that while he and Park Su guarded the outside, it wasn't just about setting up arrays; more importantly, his peachwood sword hadn't seen action in a while.
Although the bet was important, relying solely on arrays wasn't ideal for a true Taoist like him.
So today, with the team's high spirits, they tackled two more large malls, giving them five hours this time. While Xu Nuo and Park Su were outside, by the time the team came out, they were exhausted.
To maintain his image as the team leader, Xu Nuo sheathed his peachwood sword and stood there with an air of nonchalance, waiting for Ge Qing and the others.
Park Su, seeing Xu Nuo's nonchalant demeanor, couldn't help but admire how much better Xu Nuo was at maintaining this 'cool' facade. Park Su was already so tired he could barely stand and had to retreat to the car to rest.
Last time, with Xu Nuo's arrays doing most of the work, Park Su only needed to lure zombies into traps. His vines and dandelions could also handle zombies.
But Xu Nuo, perhaps because he had used too many talismans before, only set up three arrays this time. The rest was him dodging through zombies with his footwork, his peachwood sword cutting down swathes of them.
Park Su had to admit, Xu Nuo looked incredibly cool doing this, and more importantly, after killing the zombies, he had the time to throw the dead ones into a purification array to cleanse their blood scent, all in one fluid motion, leaving Park Su momentarily stunned.
However, he couldn't stay dazed for long; standing there for only a short while, zombies started charging towards him. After such a long time, the proportion of second-tier zombies had increased, and these zombies, though not very intelligent, had a rudimentary sense of fear.
Given Xu Nuo's god-like killing state, the zombies naturally avoided him, targeting Park Su instead. So, he quickly summoned his vines for assistance.
After a round of combat, Xu Nuo returned to his side and said, "Don't always rely on external forces; you need to enhance your own strength. I remember you have a military dagger in your space.
You can use your own strength along with the footwork I taught you to kill as many zombies as possible. I don't need you to throw these zombies into the purification array; I'll handle that. Just focus on killing zombies.
I also want to see what your physical limits are without relying on your vines and hallucinogenic dandelions, so I can tailor your Taoist physical training accordingly."
Although Park Su found Xu Nuo's words somewhat odd, they made sense upon reflection. If he encountered an emergency outside and ran out of talismans without any self-defense means, it would be quite troublesome. After all, both the vines and dandelions had their limitations.
So, he obediently took the dagger and used the footwork he had learned to weave through the zombies.
However, he was quite unaccustomed to this footwork, nearly getting injured several times. Fortunately, Xu Nuo was close by, offering guidance now and then. Since most of these were first and second-tier zombies, even minor injuries wouldn't lead to zombification.
Over time, this allowed him to slowly increase his speed and reduce the likelihood of getting hurt. He himself didn't mind these small injuries, as they helped him integrate his footwork with the combat techniques he had developed in the apocalypse.
This actually improved his attack power significantly, making the injuries feel worthwhile. Seeing that Park Su was getting the hang of it, Xu Nuo sped up his own zombie-killing pace.
However, he somewhat regretted pushing Park Su into this danger so quickly. Although he knew it was the right choice for Park Su to face these zombies now, seeing the scattered wounds on him, Xu Nuo realized for the first time that he could feel pain for someone else.
He wished those wounds were on him instead. After clearing the zombies around Park Su, he sent him back to the car to tend to his wounds.
Xu Nuo then lazily used arrays to deal with the remaining zombies, not bothering with his peachwood sword.
Park Su, feeling exhausted, returned to the car, and Xu Nuo, after dealing with the zombies, waited outside for the looting to finish before directing them to the next location.
This time, he unusually had Lü Xia drive their vehicle while he carefully tended to Park Su's wounds in the back.
Since they hadn't incinerated all the zombies with arrays, the corpses from both Park Su's dagger and Xu Nuo's sword were left in the purification array. They were accustomed to this scene, but the lower-tier ability users, upon finishing their sweep and seeing the mountain of zombie corpses, were astounded.
More importantly, each zombie had a small hole in its head, indicating that their crystal cores had already been extracted.
They hadn't expected that in the five hours they spent inside, so many zombies were killed out here. Yet, despite the mountain of corpses, there was hardly any scent of blood.
This led them to think about the isolation talismans from before. Could they have used those again? As they pondered this, they saw Xu Nuo take down five or six talismans from around the zombie bodies and signal everyone to get into the vehicles and move out.
This sparked interest among many in the team who began to wonder if they could get a discount on these talismans from Xu Nuo, considering how amazing they were. If these talismans could even mask blood scent, the benefits would be immense.
They were also curious whether Xu Nuo himself made these talismans or if they were treasures from some master. They would love to meet this master.
Shi Lei was taken aback by the sheer number of zombie corpses, as the first time they looted a mall, they only saw piles of ash, not this shocking scene. Now, looking at the mountain of bodies and the heaps of white ash around, he couldn't help but marvel at the combat prowess of Xu Nuo and Park Su, which was beyond his imagination. Following such powerhouses would not only ensure a worry-free life but also allow for personal growth.
No wonder Lü Xia and the two third-tier ability users were so obedient to Park Su and Xu Nuo; even he was starting to feel a sense of admiration.
As for Lü Xia, seeing Xu Nuo so carefully tending to Park Su's wounds, she was a bit worried but didn't want to interrupt their good atmosphere. Knowing their relationship, she felt it was best to give them space to nurture their bond.
When they finally seemed to have had enough of their tender moment, Lü Xia found her chance to ask about their condition. Park Su had just mentioned that the minor injuries were nothing when Xu Nuo, frowning, cut him off, insisting he shouldn't disregard these small wounds and giving a strict order that at the next stop, Park Su would only use his abilities, not physical force.
After this, Xu Nuo addressed Lü Xia, "I specifically had Park Su try using his own strength to deal with these zombies. It's to ensure that if he ever runs out of abilities, he still has the combat skills to escape from zombies rather than just waiting to die.
More importantly, have you noticed, Park Su, that the higher the zombie's level, the lower the success rate of luring them into our arrays? I'm wondering if, when zombies reach fourth, fifth, or sixth-tier with their own thinking, can we still kill them in such large numbers like this?"