This piece of the carcass appeared to be from the white rat's abdomen.
Han Ning reached into the white rat's mangled flesh and rummaged around. A frost-white crystal, slightly smaller than a soybean, appeared between his fingertips.
A wisp of bone-chilling air coiled around his fingertip, rotating slowly.
'Could this be one of those legendary things, like a Golden Core or a Demon Core?' Han Ning thought, recalling the fantasy Cultivation novels he'd read. He wasn't entirely sure.
'Either way, I'll absorb the Energy first.'
He squeezed the crystal. A faint, cold light seeped out from its surface and flowed into his Body.
[Energy +0.5]
'A crystal this small actually gives 0.5 Energy... Not bad at all.'
As the Energy within the crystal was depleted, its smooth surface cracked all over. It grew dim and lusterless before shattering into pieces.
Next, Han Ning picked up the white rat's head and absorbed the Energy within, gaining another 0.1.
'0.2 plus 0.5 plus 0.1... Just from killing one white rat, I've gained a total of 0.8 Energy.'
In truth, compared to an ordinary Monster Rat, the white rat just had an added ranged attack. Its movement speed and Power had increased slightly, but not significantly.
It was still no match for Yin Yi.
However, the white rat's Frost Freeze still had some effect on Yin Yi. The branches on its right side showed signs of frostbite, and they seemed stiff when it moved.
"Yin Yi, are you okay?" Han Ning asked, holding one of its branches and using his body heat to warm it.
"Bubo~" Yin Yi swayed its body and struck a pose as if to say, 'I'm plenty strong!'
"That's good. I'll reward you with a feast when we get back," Han Ning said with an encouraging smile, patting its body.
"Bubo!" Hearing that it would get to eat more delicious Soul Beast corpses, Yin Yi began to sway its body excitedly.
For Yin Yi, who had never tasted many delicacies, Soul Beast corpses were the most delicious food in the world.
The three of them quickly cleared the area. As was their custom, Han Ning took a 50% share, while Lin Tianhe and Chen Linyu split the remaining 50%.
That was another eight Monster Rat corpses in the bag.
They stuffed the Monster Rat corpses into burlap sacks, tied them beneath their backpacks, and continued toward the tall academic building.
"Let's not go anywhere else. We're heading straight for the labs on the third floor. Other than the labs, the rest are just standard lecture halls with nothing inside," Han Ning said, pulling out a hand-drawn map of the building's interior from Teacher Fang.
The Bioengineering building was five stories tall. With no elevator, they could only take the stairs.
The academic building was somewhat safer than the areas outside; they didn't see a single Soul Beast on their way to the third floor.
There were only a few human corpses scattered across the stairs and hallways.
Due to the ravages of time and the gnawing of Soul Beasts, the bodies were mangled beyond recognition, with only scraps of dried, rotting flesh clinging to the skeletons.
"I think they must have inhaled too much of the white mist, which paralyzed them and caused them to suffocate," Chen Linyu analyzed, crouching beside a corpse whose face was still relatively intact and studying it carefully.
In the beginning, there were two main culprits for the massive casualties at the academy. The first was the powerful Soul Beasts with their terrifying destructive capabilities. The second was this omnipresent white mist.
It seeped in everywhere. Before humans found any effective ways to protect themselves, inhaling it was a death sentence.
"Room 302. This must be the lab."
Stepping over the bodies, the three of them reached a large, tightly shut, green-painted door.
They pushed, but the door didn't budge.
"It's locked." Han Ning motioned for the others to stand back. Pointing to the lock, he said to Yin Yi, "Yin Yi, blast the door open. Aim here."
"Bubo~"
A slender Silver Thorn shot out from Yin Yi's body, striking the lock with perfect accuracy.
With a loud BANG, the stainless steel lock was severely warped but not completely destroyed.
'Damn, stainless steel really is tough...'
Han Ning hadn't expected his normally infallible Silver Thorn to be stumped by a simple door lock.
'Then again, no matter how tough a Soul Beast's body is, it's probably not as hard as stainless steel.'
"Bubo!"
Seemingly surprised that its attack had failed, Yin Yi fired three more Silver Thorns.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Finally, after the fourth Silver Thorn, the lock shattered completely, and the door swung open inward.
Before the three of them could even step inside, a thick, acrid stench of rot and dust washed over them.
Inside the classroom, which was over two hundred square meters, a dozen long-dead bodies lay strewn about.
All sorts of experimental equipment were laid out on rows of lab benches.
Optical microscopes, incubators, centrifuges, microbial soil... and so on.
Since the room was completely sealed, the smell had nowhere to go. It was also clear that no Soul Beasts from outside had discovered the people here, as the bodies were still in the process of rotting.
"Sigh... These people must have also inhaled the white mist and suffocated."
Han Ning shook his head sadly as he looked at the bodies covering the floor.
'They were smart enough to lock the door to keep the Soul Beasts out, but they never expected the even more dangerous white mist.'
Even with their masks, the stench relentlessly assaulted their noses. Fighting back nausea, the three of them dragged the bodies out into the hallway one by one and opened the windows to air out the room.
"Han Ning, come here! See if these are wheat seeds," Chen Linyu said, picking up a glass bottle filled with yellow grains from a lab bench and giving it a shake.
A white label was stuck to the bottle, with "1001" written on it in marker.
"Yes, they're genetically modified wheat seeds. Pack them up," Han Ning said, glancing at the information on his map to confirm.
The three of them split up to gather supplies, sweeping all the bottles and jars from the tables into their backpacks.
As for the lab equipment, some of it was too bulky and required power, so they only took the relatively more portable optical microscopes.
There were five labs of this type on the third floor. They searched them one by one, managing to collect most of the plant seeds from all five before nightfall.
In addition to all sorts of crop seeds, they also found two hydroponics kits, over ten kilograms of nutrient soil, three optical microscopes, and some basic lab equipment. These odds and ends completely stuffed their backpacks and the burlap sacks they carried.
Even Yin Yi and the two Silver Lotus Wood plants were laden with bags of all sizes.
Notably, in two of the labs, they also found two barrels of clean, pure water, each weighing at least fifty-five pounds—a welcome surprise.
Han Ning tied the two barrels, a total of 110 pounds of water, and secured them above his backpack.
"That's enough, that's enough! We can't carry any more. We still have to make it back, and if we run into a powerful Soul Beast, we won't even be able to run."
Seeing Lin Tianhe about to pack even more, Han Ning quickly stepped in to stop him.
He did a quick calculation. His two roommates were each carrying about ninety pounds of gear. He and Yin Yi were carrying even more, well over one hundred and ten pounds.
However, the three of them were no longer the weak homebodies they had been just a dozen days ago. Their physiques had improved dramatically. Leaving Han Ning aside, even Lin Tianhe and Chen Linyu could carry ninety pounds without it being a major hindrance to their walking, even if it wasn't exactly effortless.