In a frigid apocalypse, I went on a shopping spree with the reborn.

After sleeping for two or three hours, Jiang Qingyue got up full of energy, showing no signs of fatigue.

She clenched her fist: "At this rate, once I reach a certain level of strength, will I no longer need to sleep?"

It was still early, so she went to where the zombies were working.

From afar, she could see her three friends sitting in a row, bored, watching the zombies work.

Another large section of the pine forest has disappeared.

At this rate, it's only a matter of time before the mountain becomes barren. Even so, Jiang Qingyue didn't stop the zombies; protecting the environment was something for before the apocalypse.

Their most important task now is to do everything in their power to ensure their survival when the next cold wave hits.

As they grew stronger, they were no longer afraid of the bitter cold.

Vegetables and grains can be grown there, but heating and electricity are also needed, which requires burning firewood.

"Sister Xiaoyue." Long Jiuxing's numb little face brightened with a hint of anger when she saw her arrive. "Why did you come so quickly? Aren't you going to sleep?"

"I've had enough sleep."

Looking at the king's cloak that they had placed under their buttocks, Jiang Qingyue picked it up.

"Xiao Yi, Xiao Yi, take this king's cloak to Liu Yuyao."

As soon as Xiao Yi left, the Corpse King, who had been huffing and puffing while chopping down trees, saw his cloak vanish into thin air and charged over like a madman.

Before he could even get close, he was kicked away by Long Jiuxing.

The speed at which it flew backwards was much faster than when it rushed towards us.

Normally, the Corpse King, who was already afraid of Long Jiuxing, would have obediently played dead after being kicked. But this time, he rolled over, got up from the ground, and charged forward again.

"Aba aba..."

Watching the Corpse King frantically grabbing at the air with his hands and gestures, Jiang Qingyue said, "I sold him."

"Aba aba..."

"Stop yelling, your mouth smells so bad and you're yelling so loudly." Jiang Qingyue couldn't help but take a few steps back.

Regardless of size, the stench emanating from these zombies is comparable to that of a biological weapon.

Upon hearing this, the Corpse King sat on the ground in a daze.

"Hiss~" The little snake flicked its tongue and climbed from Jiang Qingyue's leg onto her shoulder.

Long Jiuxing translated: "Zai Zai said that the Corpse King is quite pitiful."

Jiang Qingyue reached out and touched the little snake's cold head: "Don't be fooled by it. The fact that Nangong Zhao brought this guy to me means it was near a crowd, and who knows how many people it has eaten before?"

"And this guy isn't sad at all, don't be fooled by his pitiful appearance."

"Chirp chirp chirp?" It's crying!

Yan Bao jumped to the opposite side of the zombie and carefully looked into the eyes of the zombie king, discovering that it was indeed crying.

"Come here." Jiang Qingyue picked up Yan Bao and held her in her arms: "I'm going to teach you a lesson today."

Attend class?

The two little ones looked up cutely and immediately became serious.

Long Jiuxing also looked over curiously.

Jiang Qingyue pointed at the Corpse King, who was feigning pitifulness on the ground: "You all need to remember, shedding tears may not be because you are sad, but because... you want to be lazy and not do any work."

As she spoke, she delivered a lightning-fast kick to the zombie king, sending it flying several meters.

Then he made a threatening statement: "If you don't work, we'll mine the crystal cores."

Upon hearing this, the Corpse King, who had been looking pitiful just moments before, rushed over and picked up two large bundles of firewood, becoming a porter, much to the astonishment of Yan Bao and Zai Zai.

What's with the tears welling up?

What's there to be unwilling about?

They were carrying it with great enthusiasm.

"See?" Jiang Qingyue said, "This king's cloak is only good-looking; it's actually useless against zombies."

"Even without this king's cloak, the little zombies in its corpse nest still obey its every command, so for this zombie king, the king's cloak is just an ornament."

"Sister Xiaoyue is amazing!" Long Jiuxing led the praise.

The two little ones were not to be outdone.

The chirping and hissing sounds never stopped.

Jiang Qingyue tilted her chin slightly: "Just basic stuff."

The Corpse King's tricks are all things she played when she was a child.

Her parents run a seafood shop, and business has always been good. She goes to the shop to help out every Saturday and Sunday.

When she was little, she was quite lazy and didn't like to do chores, so she would often pretend to be pitiful to avoid doing them.

Sometimes she even hopes her parents will scold her before she leaves the house, so she can cry and pretend to be very sad, and then she won't have to do any chores.

It wasn't until I got older that I realized how hard my parents worked, and I would proactively finish my homework on Friday nights and go to help them early in the morning.

So for this zombie to try such tricks on her is like trying to show off one's skills in front of Guan Yu.

The day passed quickly.

The work efficiency of several hundred zombies is outstanding; they have added another twenty tons of firewood, and two new zombie lairs have been dug out.

She didn't plan to have anyone keep watch tonight, so she summoned all the Corpse Kings to her presence.

Jiang Qingyue: "Listen up, everyone. From now on, we will be called the Four Dragons Group, and I will be the chairman."

The group of zombie kings looked completely bewildered, as if they had dementia. What exactly was the Four Dragons Group? What was the chairman? Could they be eaten?

Jiang Qingyue then pointed to Long Jiuxing and the other two: "The three of them are the major shareholders of my Silong Group. What they say is what I say."

The zombies were full of questions. What was a major shareholder? Was it something with a big butt?

Jiang Qingyue called the strongest zombie king to her side and said to the other zombie kings, "From now on, it will be the domineering president of our Four Dragons Group."

The zombies blinked, wondering why they were becoming increasingly confused.

Jiang Qingyue didn't care whether they understood or not; as the new chairperson, she had a lot to say.

Besides, after a day of utter boredom, she now has an astonishing amount of energy.

"The rule in our Four Dragons Group is that I'm the boss." He then pointed to Long Jiuxing and the others: "The three of them are also bosses."

what?

The zombies were bewildered. Why were there so many leaders? How many leaders were there?

"You all need to remember this: when the boss is around, listen to the boss. When the bosses aren't around, listen to the CEO."

Actually, she said more than she meant.

Under the strict hierarchy of the zombie horde, the strongest zombie is the boss, and obeying the zombie king is an instinct ingrained in their bones.

Jiang Qingyue opened her mouth again, only to realize with embarrassment that she had already said everything she wanted to say.

Wait a minute, I remember when I was in school, the principal was always so eloquent.

She used to talk for one or two hours, but she finished in just a few sentences?

Seeing that Long Jiuxing and the others were all looking at him, Jiang Qingyue's ears burned. He coughed lightly and yelled at his newly appointed president, "What are you standing there for? Make them work obediently. If even one of them runs away, I'll dig out your crystal core."

"After you've given the instructions, come back to the shelter with me."

The CEO's eyes lit up. "What a great thing!"

Although it didn't understand what a domineering CEO, chairman, or major shareholder meant, it knew that it seemed to have been promoted.

At the very least, they moved from the dark den of corpses to this human nest.

More importantly, it doesn't need to do any work.

This relieved the Zombie King CEO. Although he didn't feel tired, these were not low-level zombies without intelligence, but geniuses with their own wisdom. They still couldn't accept that he was working day after day without stopping.

He immediately let out a low growl at the large and small corpse kings.

Then, somewhat obsequiously, he yelled at Jiang Qingyue twice.

Judging from its expression, Jiang Qingyue could guess that it was probably saying, "Boss, everything has been done as you instructed."

He nodded in satisfaction: "Let's go, come back to the shelter with me."

The CEO followed closely behind.

He thought he would have to squat at the door again, just like before, but Jiang Qingyue actually opened the door of the shelter and brought him inside.

It seems this CEO holds a very high position and enjoys excellent benefits.

Before the Corpse King CEO could even be happy for two seconds, Jiang Qingyue handed it a hoe and led it to the edge of the shelter.

Pointing at the wall, he said, "Keep digging! Don't stop for a second. My ears are sharp. If you stop, I'll think you're trying to escape. The next moment, my arrow will pierce your head."

The Corpse King CEO was stunned. Hadn't he been promoted?

Hasn't he already become the CEO? Why does he still need to work?

Ignoring its lamentations, and seeing the Corpse King CEO struggle for a moment before obediently expanding the shelter on the ground, she turned around with satisfaction and went to the living area.

Long Jiuxing and the two little ones were planning to make a late-night snack when Jiang Qingyue helped them, saying, "We're getting zombies even when we're working. It's so boring being idle all day."

Long Jiuxing nodded very seriously.

She noticed this too. Today, when she was supervising the zombies' work, it was quite interesting at first, with a group of zombies bustling around like little ants.

But after looking at it for a while, I started to get annoyed.

Especially as their strength increased, they slept less. They used to need eight or nine hours of sleep to feel energetic, but now they are full of energy after just two hours of sleep, and they don't even feel much if they don't sleep for two days.

Aside from eating and cooking, there's basically nothing else to do for the rest of the time.

The two little ones are doing well; they are both in their cub stage. Although they are quite strong, they still need a lot of sleep.

In addition, they are quite playful, occasionally bicker, learn to recognize characters, recite ancient poems, and watch cartoons, so they don't feel bored.

Long Jiuxing and Jiang Qingyue, however, truly had nothing to do.

"Right?" Jiang Qingyue said, "We can't just live a good life watching zombies do the work. We need to think of a way to actively improve our strength."

Currently known methods to enhance strength mainly rely on crystal cores and special items.

Special items are unstable and depend entirely on luck.

Regarding crystal cores, they can only reliably produce first-tier crystal cores every day at present.

There are indeed second-tier zombies, but these second-tier zombies are all quite talented and have the potential to become zombie kings. Jiang Qingyue is unwilling to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.

Moreover, the quantity is not enough. Based on previous experience with first-level crystal cores, to reach the point where second-level crystal cores are useless, each person would need at least one million second-level crystal cores, and even that might not be enough.

After all, it gets harder as you go on, just like upgrading a quantum computer.

It only costs 10 to upgrade from level one to level two.

It costs 100 million to upgrade from level two to level three.

Upgrading from level three to level four requires 1000 million transaction coins.

If combat power enhancement is similar to upgrading a quantum computer, then the amount of second-tier crystal cores they need can be described as massive.

Even if all the crystal cores were extracted from the second-tier zombies in the current zombie base, it would still be a drop in the ocean.

"Hey Yi, besides special items and zombie crystals, what other ways are there to increase combat power?"

[Replying to Master, Xiao Yi doesn't know either. Xiao Yi can ask the supervisor system, which will cost 1000 transaction coins. Would you like to ask?]

"Ask away."

If you can actually get some information out of them, then 1000 trading coins are definitely worth it.

Xiao Yi replied after a while, "[Master, the supervisor system said that you can refer to the zombies' improvement methods to deduce your own cultivation techniques.]"

"What the heck?" Jiang Qingyue thought he had misheard. "Cultivation techniques? Are you sure you don't want us to research constitution-enhancing potions and create our own formula?"

[Master, the supervisory system won't lie once it's been paid.]

Xiao Yi's words left Jiang Qingyue speechless. So even in the world of systems, everything is about money.

However, the true form of this Eternal Winter God is an extraterrestrial void controller, which she thought should be a technological intelligent entity.

But now even cultivation techniques have appeared, what's going on here?

"Never mind, let it be a cultivation technique. But how can I deduce it if I don't understand anything?"

"Deducing cultivation techniques—shouldn't that be the job of martial arts masters?"

"Xiao Yi, ask that manager again if we can buy a cultivation technique from him. Don't worry, I have the money."

[Okay, this is the second question, which requires another 1000 transaction coins.]

"Take it." What else could Jiang Qingyue do? After all, Xiao Yi wasn't the one in charge of the system.

After a while, Xiao Yi replied: [Sorry, Master, the system says there are no cultivation techniques within the system.]

Jiang Qingyue paused for a moment, then decided to try again: "Is there really no way? I can offer more money."

This time, Xiao Yi didn't ask the supervisor system any more questions. Instead, she said, "Master, the supervisor system doesn't lie. After all, taking money and not doing the job would damage its reputation and affect its future profits."

[Therefore, when faced with a question, the supervisory system will provide maximum assistance. If the supervisory system does not offer any help in obtaining the cultivation technique or through other means, then there is truly no other way, and you, the masters, will have to rely on yourselves.]

"Sigh." Jiang Qingyue sighed.

Unexpectedly, there really are things in this world that money can't solve, and it just so happens that she encountered them.

"Sister Xiaoyue, what should we do?"

"We have to do it, no matter how difficult!" Jiang Qingyue gritted her teeth. "There's no reason why zombies can cultivate on their own, but we humans can't!"

She put down the meat skewers in her hand: "You guys go ahead, I'm going to have a good talk with my CEO."

She had no clue about cultivation. When she read novels, there were some about cultivation techniques, but they were mostly mentioned in passing. Occasionally, an author would write down the contents of a secret manual, but it was all made up by the author.

She also found it troublesome and quickly skipped over it, so now she can't even copy and practice blindly.

However, since zombies grow stronger by using the power of ice and snow, and the system mentioned that it would deduce cultivation techniques based on how zombies grow stronger, it means that they can also use the power of the ice and snow to grow stronger.

However, zombies seem to have this ability from birth, and they need to use techniques to draw this power of ice and snow into their bodies.

"Hey, CEO, stop working here, come over and let's talk."

The Corpse King was stunned for a moment before realizing that the CEO was calling him.

Somewhat speechless, but still very happy to be spared work, it eagerly threw down the hoe and rushed to Jiang Qingyue.

Before it arrived, a stench hit you, and even in this relatively enclosed space, this small area had become stinking.

"Ugh!" Jiang Qingyue gagged.

He swallowed back the question he was about to ask about cultivation methods: "Come on, let's go outside first, and we'll figure out how to get rid of this stench on you."

Honestly, although she wasn't a germaphobe, she was still a clean person, and she really wouldn't want to keep the Corpse King by her side if she wasn't afraid he would run away.