49: Chapter 49: I made a fortune! I lost so much money!

Behind Ye Fan.

Li Hao was so exhausted that his tongue was hanging out, and he limped as he ran, clutching a pile of zombie crystal cores of similar size in his arms.

As he ran, he turned to look back behind him.

He was terrified!

Only when he saw no zombies chasing him did he dare to slow down his running Speed, though he didn't stop.

He had to actually catch up to Ye Fan before he could truly relax.

"Holy crap, luckily that group of zombies didn't chase us. I'm exhausted."

"I really don't know how Master is so fast. Even though he's strong, his escape Speed is also incredible. My god!"

Limping, Li Hao quickly made his way to Ye Fan's side.

He was gasping for air so heavily that he didn't care about anything else, losing all the poise of a young master from a prominent family.

"Sigh, I finally caught up to you, Master." Li Hao plopped down on the ground, panting frantically as he struggled to speak.

As he spoke, Li Hao moved the pile of zombie crystal cores in his hands over to Ye Fan's side.

Then, he collapsed onto the ground, his sweat soaking a patch of the earth around him.

At this moment.

He didn't want to move at all; he just wanted to have a good rest and a long sleep right there.

It could be said that this was perhaps the most exhausting thing he had ever done in his life.

Although Ye Fan's stamina was much better than Li Hao's, he didn't want to move either, not even wanting to say a single word.

He just stared blankly at Li Hao lying on the ground, then quickly gave a light wave toward the pile of zombie crystal cores, instantly storing them into his system storage space.

After doing all this, Ye Fan cast a casual glance back at the path they had come from.

Seeing no trace of any zombies, a look of relief appeared on his face, and he lay down on the ground to rest just like Li Hao.

A short while later.

Both of them had rested enough.

Li Hao scrambled up from the ground, looking at Ye Fan with excitement on his face as he said with a smile.

"Master, didn't we hit the jackpot this time, getting so many zombie crystal cores?"

Beside him, Ye Fan slowly raised his head, sat up, and said without hesitation, "Hit the jackpot, my foot! Dammit, I've lost big time."

Speaking of this, Ye Fan felt a pang of heartache.

Recalling the items he had used to deal with that group of zombies, it really was a terrible loss; never mind the few zombie crystal cores and the rapid recovery serum he had consumed.

But those five Lightning Talismans—each one used individually would have been enough to kill over a thousand zombies.

They were essentially Ye Fan's current life-saving charms!

"You just don't know how precious those five talismans I used were. How can this pile of crappy Tier 1 zombie crystal cores even compare?"

"Uh..."

Li Hao quickly reached up to scratch his head, not knowing how to argue back, because he truly didn't know how precious Ye Fan's five talismans were.

But judging by their power, they were indeed genuine top-tier treasures, certainly not something this pile of zombie crystal cores could match.

"Sigh! Forget it. Regardless of when, these things are meant to be used. Using them sooner or later is the same." Ye Fan sighed, looking up at the sky as he spoke in a low voice.

Then, he suddenly thought of something, and his tone carried a hint of anticipation.

"I wonder what the haul is like this time? Let me see..."

With a thought from Ye Fan.

He quickly focused his mind and took out all the zombie crystal cores he had just obtained from the storage space, piling them to the side.

To his surprise, the haul of zombie crystal cores this time was indeed quite substantial.

A small mound had been piled up right in front of him.

"Holy crap, so... so many zombie crystal cores! How many are there?!" Li Hao stared at the pile of zombie crystal cores beside him, his eyes widening instantly as he cried out in shock.

Ye Fan didn't answer but quickly began counting the zombie crystal cores in the small mound one by one.

"One... ten... twenty... forty-seven! Exactly forty-seven. That's actually quite unexpected!" As Ye Fan counted, a faint smile couldn't help but appear on his face.

"Oh, wait! It should be forty-eight!" Ye Fan suddenly paused as if remembering something. With a thought, a special zombie crystal core appeared in his hand.

"I almost forgot about you." Ye Fan said with a smile, looking at the special zombie crystal core in his hand.

"A total of forty-eight zombie crystal cores—forty-seven are ordinary Tier 1 zombie crystal cores, and one is a special Tier 5 zombie crystal core!" Ye Fan muttered to himself.

However, as Ye Fan looked at the forty-eight zombie crystal cores before him, his heart was filled with doubt.

It felt somewhat surreal to him.

Among these forty-eight zombie crystal cores.

There wasn't a single Tier 2, Tier 3, or Tier 4 zombie crystal core; they were all Tier 1. This was very strange.

It left Ye Fan feeling extremely puzzled.

Ye Fan stared at the zombie crystal cores in a daze, thinking to himself.

"What on earth is the reason? Except for the Tier 5 zombie crystal core, all the others are Tier 1!"

At this moment,

Beside him, Li Hao's eyes were glowing as he stared at the forty-eight zombie crystal cores.

"Forty-eight zombie crystal cores... it seems we've really struck it rich this time. Since the apocalypse began, my Li family has been searching for these zombie crystal cores, yet we've only managed to get about a dozen in total."

Li Hao stared intently at the zombie crystal cores, a hint of greed appearing on his face as he spoke.

Seeing this, Ye Fan sighed and said, "Sigh, seeing as you've worked so hard, I'll reward you with these few zombie crystal cores."

As he spoke, Ye Fan casually picked out five zombie crystal cores from the pile and handed them to Li Hao.

Li Hao looked at the five zombie crystal cores Ye Fan held out to him.

His face was full of excitement. "Re... Really?"

"Don't want them? If you don't want them, I'll take them back." Ye Fan glanced at Li Hao and said quickly.

"Thank you, Master! Thank you, Master! From now on, whatever you ask of me, I will do it without hesitation!"

Li Hao was truly afraid that Ye Fan would take back the five zombie crystal cores, so he hurriedly clutched them to his chest and shouted loudly at Ye Fan.

His face was full of joy and excitement as he looked at the five zombie crystal cores in his arms as if they were precious treasures.

Only then did Ye Fan slowly speak, "These five zombie crystal cores should be enough to raise your blood qi to the peak of Tier 2."

Ye Fan paused for a moment before continuing, "At that time, if you want to upgrade your Supernatural Ability to Tier 3, you'll also need to find a Tier 3 fire-attribute zombie crystal core to assist you."