Luo Xun stood at the gate Yan Fei created and stared at the huge volume of grey feathers left outside on the mutant bird they had robbed from the devil vines.

  "It’s like wild geese." Luo Xun was not sure as he carefully observed.

  None of the group had studied animals, even if someone was interested, they might look at it carefully. At this point it was nice to be able to roughly tell it was a waterbird.

  Yan Fei used metal to lift the bird’s foot and started to shake.

  *Patter* After last night’s fight, things would inevitably get stuck in the body – mutant plant vines, small stones and so on.

  After the shaking, Yan Fei transported the big bird to everyone. There were still many migratory birds in the sky. On the ground, the metal shell shielded them from the view as the team dressed in protective clothing and examined the wounds and removed feathers.

  "No problems."

  "The wound color is normal and should be edible."

  "The feathers are clean and there are no contaminants."

  "Process it? Break it down? There’s going to be bird meat to eat tonight right?!"

  "This one had a fire power! Xu Mei was really lucky this time!"

  Since Zhang Yi had harvested the nuclei from the wind sheep, they had confirmed that although mutant animal nuclei were huge they were only level one or two. But they contained a large amount of energy, could push an ability user to the apex of their current level. It was a smooth procession reaching the peak and then finding a higher level nuclei.

  After absorption, Xu Mei would need to find a level five nuclei and then she could rush straight to level five!

  After confirming that there were no problems with the bird, the team happily plucked feathers and processed the meat for storage.

  When everyone was almost finished handling the mutant bird, Luo Xun pointed at the pile of shook off from the body. "Get all those together and we can throw them into the plants."

  They were not sure what was inside those things and the safest way would be to return them where they came from. Yu Xinran’s ability came in handy for this case. The little girl nodded and used her sand to slowly move the things away.

  "……Wait! Bring it back, I’ll take a look!" Luo Xun suddenly noticed something and had Yu Xinran bring the items over for him to check.

  A pile of rags were scattered in front of him, Luo Xun took a metal stick and prodded through the pile, tattered plant pieces, dirt, bird down and his target items.

  Yu Xinran’s looked in curiosity and her mouth dropped as Luo Xun pinched a small object. He took a deep breath and searched through the clutter, sure enough there were two more!

  "Yu Xinran, let’s go dig for treasure!" Luo Xun crouched down and clapped a hand on Yu Xinran’s shoulder with excitement.

  "Dig for treasure?" Yu Xinran tilted her head and pointed at the item in Luo Xun’s hand, "This?"

  "Right!"

  The rest of the team was busy putting all the meat in the fridge. Like before, Xu Mei left a chunk of meat to add to their lunch or dinner. The rest went into the freezer.

  Yan Fei looked around but could not find a trace of Luo Xun. He furrowed his brow and headed outside towards the gate.

  Two people were crouching in the end of the passage. Luo Xun pointed in a certain direction. "Little Ran, over that way……"

  "What are you doing……" Yan Fei started as he noticed the pile at his feet. "These……where did you get these?!"

  Hearing the voice, Luo Xun smiled and turned around while patting the little girl’s shoulder. "Yu Xinran dug out these treasures!"

  The team sat around the large kitchen table and looked at the pile of things on the table with dull eyes.

  Luo Xun and Yu Xinran washed their hands and the latter coughed, "We just dealt with that mutant bird’s body, why be afraid of a little dirt?"

  He cleared his throat as everyone looked at him, "I first gathered these to throw into the devil vines, but found something shiny so I had Yu Xinran bring them over……"

  "There are nuclei in there?" Wang Duo interrupted in excitement.

  Luo Xun nodded a brought out a nucleus that resembled an unpolished sapphire. "Yes, I found three nuclei in it. There were no zombies around and the birds had been flying for a while, where would the nuclei come from?"

  He looked at the window, "I had Yu Xinran help get some dirt back and sift through it and found so many."

  There was a small pile of crystals on the table – they were the nuclei that they collected every time they came out to hunt zombies. There was large variety of nuclei, from level one to four!

  "That is to say, although these devil vines will people, mutant animals and zombies, but they won’t eat nuclei?!"

  "God, how many nuclei have those plants accumulated until now?!" The group exclaimed and looked at each other with excitement.

  Luo Xun took a breath and pointed out, "Don’t forget we are in the center of these plants. We found so many just on the outside road, how many would there be on the street?"

  How many zombies had those mutant plants killed during the last zombie horde?

  When they thought about it, the team lit up and looked at their captain with anticipation.

  Luo Xun smiled and made soothing gestures, "This matter will take some time, we also have to take into account places that Yu Xinran cannot access or are inconvenient. Let’s use some time everyday to pick up some nuclei." He paused they added, "It seems that it would be nice to plant more of these nearby……"

  These vines were good! Could help kill zombies, intercept animals, block passerbys and would not consume nuclei! A great tool and guard!

  Luo Xun lamented that they had too few wheat seeds and had no idea how to distinguish mutant plants. As for letting them grow on their own……he did not know how the vines reproduced. In his last life it was not possible to have this sort of information, so they could only slowly proceed.

  With more devil vines, if more zombies passed by they could effciently harvest more nuclei when they went out!

  Before that, they had to figure out how to get the nuclei in the middle of the field. Yu Xinran had a limited range and without sight, it would be even more difficult to carry out operations. There was a relation between her age and her control.

  At most Yu Xinran’s range was 10 meters, which was enough for regular farmland, but it was not easy for places with irregular shapes – the fields around them were like that.

  "We can first collect nuclei from both sides of the road. There should be some sand nuclei so that Yu Xinran can reach a higher level." Wu Xin patted the girl’s shoulder.

  "Yes, that’s a good idea." Perhaps as Wu Xin suggested, there would be some sand nuclei among the pile of variously colored crystals. With those, Yu Xinran could level up and upgrade her range!

  Only they did not know if there was a level five nuclei, or if the army had encountered a level five zombie.

  Luo Xun had reservations but it was their only approach for now to get at the cores hidden in the depths of the vines. Anyway, it was good to aim for the nuclei that they could reach for now.

  The migratory birds had gone but Luo Xun was worried about danger if Yu Xinran went out with only a few people. He made his decision – each day Yu Xinran would go out for an hour guarded by those strong combat abilities. The rest of time they would be busy with basement work. It would ensure everyone’s safety and that neither work nor digging for treasure would get delayed.