The destruction of a small town was just an appetizer for Lu Yan.
The last time Lu Yan encountered the apocalypse version, his cultivation was only at the early stage of Qi Cultivation, and he could only control early-stage Qi Cultivation resentful spirits.
The resentful spirits once hunted zombies by using Ghost Claws to strip the zombies' souls; they had to surround and kill early-stage and mid-stage Qi Cultivation extraordinary zombies.
But now, not only have the Yin Soldiers' cultivation improved to the late stage of Qi Cultivation, surpassing most extraordinary zombies, they have also undergone modifications, enabling them to condense standardized Yin Armor and Soul Hooks using Yin energy.
Absolute power coupled with the use of Soul Hooks has multiplied the speed at which the Yin Soldiers slaughter zombies. Unless a Golden Core Stage Corpse King appears, almost no zombie can restrict thousands of Yin Soldiers.
Furthermore, the greatest boost comes from the Abyss God, a ghost god controlling the Power of Space that can precisely teleport the Yin Soldiers to small towns miles away, letting them harvest all the Zombie Wandering Souls before returning.
This can be called a strategic deployment ability, ensuring that the Yin Soldiers can harvest Zombie Wandering Souls at the fastest speed.
Moreover, the towns were small to begin with, and most zombies would leave their coverings at night to absorb Moonlight Spiritual Qi, making it easier for the Yin Soldiers to harvest.
When the harvest of forty thousand Zombie Wandering Souls was completed and brought back by the Yin Soldiers to the Soul Banner, the other three ghost gods immediately began the ritual of refining wandering souls and modifying Yin Soldiers, striving to quickly increase the number of Yin Soldiers within the Soul Banner.
The entire Soul Banner, under Lu Yan's control, was forcibly turned into an assembly line, seamlessly integrating the harvesting of wandering souls, their refining, and the modification of Yin Soldiers, with the excess wandering souls directly transformed into ghost fog spreading deeper into the Soul Continent.
After one round of harvesting, the Abyss God locked onto the next gathering place of zombies and opened the Teleportation Gate for another harvest.
Throughout the process, Lu Yan could comfortably remain in the zenith, absorbing Moonlight Spiritual Qi at night and Great Sun Spiritual Qi during the day, not wasting a single opportunity for cultivation.
At some point, a myth about the Underworld Yin Soldiers began to circulate on the apocalyptic wasteland.
In widely spread versions, it was claimed that the apocalypse descended because humans disobeyed the gods, so the heavens sent down catastrophe, taking away part of human souls and turning them into ferocious and terrifying zombies.
This catastrophe affected the entire world and lasted for a full thirteen years.
A year ago, the Lord of the Underworld, out of compassion for all beings, descended upon the wasteland and suppressed the turmoil caused by ghost gods.
Then, a few months ago, he dispatched the ghost gods of the Underworld and the Yin Soldiers to battle and slaughter zombies in the ruins of cities.
Millions of zombies had their souls harvested by the Underworld Yin Soldiers, and numerous dangerous forbidden city zones turned back into a desolate silence, as the shadow covering the apocalyptic wasteland for thirteen years gradually dissipated.
The more chaotic the background, the more extreme religious beliefs tend to arise, and naturally, this apocalyptic wasteland was no exception.
In the past thirteen years, countless apocalypse religions appeared abruptly, such as the Saviour Church, the White Lotus Virgin Mary Church, the Doomsday God Cult, the Flaming Fire God Cult, the Flying Spaghetti Monster Cult, and so forth.
Initially, the surviving lower classes were beguiled by these fanatical religions, willing to offer faith and even their lives.
But as time went by and survivor settlements gradually formed, they suddenly realized that these so-called religions had no practical effect.
These religions couldn't provide them with a stable environment, delicious food, or opportunities to become Transcendents, and even exploited their hard-earned food in the name of religion.
Over time, apart from some religious organizations that formed extraordinary forces, most of them completely vanished.
Regarding the recently spread stories about the Underworld, everyone considered it a joke.
However, as time went on, more and more Extraordinary Scavengers took the risk to venture to the nearby zombie forbidden zones, bringing shocking news back to the settlements.
In towns turned into forbidden zones, tens of thousands of zombies vanished overnight.
Initially, people thought it was fake, but as more and more people took the initiative to step out of the settlement for verification, whether extraordinary zombies or tier-five Corpse Kings, all turned into piles of white bones, and numerous towns and even ruined cities were reclaimed.
Although thirteen years had passed in the apocalypse, most of the materials in the ruined cities were no longer usable, but there were certainly some preserved industrial machinery and chemical materials in such large cities.
These items wouldn't completely deteriorate in a decade or so; they just needed a little restoration to be reusable.
With these items as a foundation, settlements could escape difficult environments, laying the groundwork to resume industrial production.
Similar events occurred in more than one survivor settlement.
Through communication among the high-levels of the settlements, among the thousands of survivor settlements in the Eastern Country, several dozen of them have had their nearby zombie forbidden zones resolved, leaving only small groups of zombies in the wilderness and countryside.
These zombie groups didn't even have extraordinary zombies, let alone tier-five Corpse Kings, thus posing no threat to the survivors.
This meant that these dozens of settlements had already seen the dawn after the apocalypse.
In the process, many Extraordinary Scavengers claimed to have seen scenes of thousands of Yin Soldiers descending from the sky to assault small towns and ruined cities. The source of this content ɪs 𝚗𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚕·𝚏𝚒𝚛𝚎·𝚗𝚎𝚝