Elijah's preparations for his upcoming journey were meticulous.
With Quentin and his team securing the perimeter, the safety of the women on the island would significantly improve.
Now, Elijah focused on his personal preparations for leaving the island.
Once outside the range of the island's residents, his ability to mimic would decrease significantly.
Although his current strength made him virtually fearless, having multiple abilities to choose from was always advantageous.
It would allow him to handle unexpected situations with greater ease.
Without relying on the island's residents, Elijah would have to rely on the zombies he controlled.
"It looks like I'll need to cultivate a batch of zombies," Elijah mused to himself.
With 26 contract slots still available, he planned to use all of them to contract zombies starting tomorrow.
His goal was to develop them into awakened zombies and ultimately select a group with practical abilities to advance to the Second Stage.
Thinking about Second Stage zombies, Elijah summoned Abigail and four other female zombies to him.
"Abigail, can you command these zombies effectively now?" Elijah asked.
"Yes, Master!" Abigail replied confidently without giving any commands.
The four zombies dispersed and surrounded Elijah, causing a moment of alarm. If his abilities were to fail in the future, they might attack him.
However, they simply stood there without taking any further action.
In the next moment, they obediently returned to Abigail's side, lined up, and awaited inspection.
"???" Elijah looked at Abigail in surprise.
"What's wrong, Master?" Abigail tilted her head, puzzled by Elijah's reaction.
"You didn't give any verbal commands just now. How did you command them?" Elijah asked, intrigued.
"I just did!" Abigail replied matter-of-factly.
"Well..." Elijah circled around the zombies, pondering. Could zombies have their own unique means of communication?
He had imprinted Abigail's information on these zombies, and Abigail, being an unprecedented intelligent zombie, had slowly mastered this form of communication.
Elijah hadn't encountered this situation before, so he could only speculate.
Regardless, it was a positive development.
In future battles with a group of zombies, he wouldn't need to distract himself with commands; he could simply utilize their abilities.
Granting command to Abigail would enhance their combat effectiveness significantly.
Elijah fed each of the four zombies several corpse cores, hoping they would advance to the Second Stage soon.
That evening after dinner, Elijah briefed everyone on the plans for the next day.
He and Charlotte would lead a small team to meet Quentin's group and clear out zombies from another mall.
Elijah moved in immediately!
...
In the silent depths of the night, the two engaged in a friendly session of learning and exchange, deepening their understanding of each other.
Elijah's knowledge of yoga also grew richer!
After their study session, noticing how late it was, Elijah worried about Jasmine walking alone at night, so he carried her back.
In the darkness, unable to see the road clearly, they encountered some bumps along the way.
With great determination, Jasmine refrained from showing any signs of fear and successfully returned to her room.
The midnight adventure ended, and Elijah had originally intended to rest there.
However, by chance, he discovered upstairs that Grace and Katherine were lying side by side in a room.
They seemed awake, not yet asleep.
Elijah found this odd—why weren't they sleeping at this late hour?
So, after Jasmine fell into exhausted sleep, Elijah quietly made his way to Katherine's room!
...
The early morning of the 18th day of the apocalypse.
Olivia, influenced by her biological clock, woke up groggily.
She hadn't slept well last night, partly due to the sudden news from her mother.
And also... Elijah was quite the troublemaker.
Olivia had been using her sensing ability all along, so she had seen all of Elijah's antics.
Absolutely astonishing!
This had led her to change her underwear three times last night.
Struggling to get out of bed, she couldn't afford to miss her daily morning training to enhance her abilities.
Once she was ready and stepped out of her room, she happened to see Elijah coming down from upstairs.
"Morning... morning!" Elijah greeted.
"Morning!" Olivia blushed and replied before running off without another word.
"Huh? What's up with her?" Elijah scratched his head, but then shrugged it off, remembering the scene with Katherine and Grace from last night.
The reason Katherine hadn't slept early and had summoned Grace to her room was because she had cultivated a plant with faint Chi energy—a potted tomato seedling.
When Katherine first awakened her ability, Elijah had given her dozens of corpse cores, hoping she could cultivate plants similar to spirit plants.
Initially clueless, Katherine mechanically buried the corpse cores around various plants' roots, but with no success.
It wasn't until he helped her advance to the third stage and stimulated her while ripening spirit plants that she was inspired.