Chapter 20: Spicy Flavor
Tu Mingyuan’s spiritual entity, named “Hou,” was a large, fierce beast with pointed long ears, sharp claws, and white fur.
When fighting the Zerg, Hou usually coordinated with Lu Qingyan’s spiritual entity to confront the Zerg’s vanguard. These two spiritual entities could tear apart Zerg spaceships with their bare hands, without the need for other weapons or equipment.
Shu Yiheng’s spiritual entity was a walking tree called “Ruomu.”
This seemingly ordinary tree, indistinguishable from other trees in the forest, could silently extend its roots into the soil, forming a “perimeter” underground. In just a few seconds, the ground within the “perimeter” would rapidly heat up to a temperature unbearable for living beings, enough to vaporize Zerg who weren’t wearing specialized armor.
These two officers were close confidants who had fought alongside Lu Qingyan, and like Lu Qingyan, they were seriously injured in the battle three years ago.
A year ago, sensing that their spiritual entities were about to completely lose control, they instinctively locked their spiritual entities with a “spiritual valve.” This “spiritual valve” severed the connection between the spiritual entity and the main body, cutting off the spiritual entity’s energy source and fundamentally suppressing its berserk state.
For high-level spiritual power users, this method was tantamount to self-mutilation.
The moment their spiritual entities ceased activity, the two young officers also fell into a state of unconsciousness.
A full year had passed, and there was no improvement.
The doctors knew very well that if they couldn’t find a cure, death was the only fate awaiting Tu Mingyuan and Shu Yiheng. And the marshal’s spiritual entity…would one day become uncontrollably berserk, like theirs.
Unexpectedly, in the past two weeks, the situation had taken a dramatic turn for the better!
“Your Excellency, after Colonel Tu’s mental energy curve showed signs of easing and fluctuation, Major Shu’s mental energy curve showed the same pattern!”
“This is a curve change that only occurs during the recovery period of mental energy—in other words, their mental energy is slowly recovering!”
Doctor Sun excitedly reported.
“Very good.” A rare look of relief crossed Lu Qingyan’s brow.
He didn’t interfere with the doctors’ treatment plans, only made one request: to have the mental energy curve graphs of his two subordinates sent to him. He wanted the most detailed monitoring graphs, recording changes every minute.
*
Deep in the Forgotten Forest, Clear Lake.
Chu Jiu crawled out of his warm sleeping bag and stretched.
Ah…this yurt is really nice! It blocks the wind and keeps warm, without being stuffy. Much better than sleeping in a hammock.
Little Can, sleeping by his pillow, and Glug-Glug, rooted in the soil, also woke up one after another.
“Glug-Glug” was the little sapling’s new name.
Because it made “glug-glug” sounds whenever it spoke, Chu Jiu, who was terrible at naming things, naturally used this name.
The little sapling seemed to like it, making several “glug” sounds in a row.
After breakfast, Chu Jiu packed all the disassembled “yurt building materials” into his backpack and headed towards the Bamboo Collection Site indicated on the map.
Now, the Forgotten Forest map was 67% explored. After finding the bamboo, he estimated that the map would be 80% explored.
After finishing this map, he should be able to enter a new scene, right?
The map adjacent to the Forgotten Forest should be “Sunny Plateau.”
Just as he was thinking about what materials Sunny Plateau might have, Little Can raised its head and meowed:
“Something’s wrong ahead.”
“The birds nearby are all avoiding that tree straight ahead.”
Chu Jiu looked around: It was true.
The birds chirping and looking for fruit and caterpillars on the branches were all avoiding the tree ahead.
Glug-Glug, tucked into the side pocket of the backpack, “glugged” behind him: “That’s a dangerous tree!”
“The tree trunk is covered with bumps and thorns, and even the back of the leaves has thorns!”
“That tree is so dangerous that even birds don’t want to get close. We should stay away from it!”
Hearing this, Chu Jiu smiled instead: “I know.”
Instead of taking a detour, he walked straight towards the tree, scaring Glug-Glug’s leaves to tremble and Little Can to tense up.
A few meters away, Chu Jiu stared at the tree, and the corresponding illustration appeared in his mind:
[Thorny Ash: A plant that provides a spicy flavor!
Because the tree trunk is covered with thorns, birds can’t land on it, so it’s also called “Bird-Don’t-Step.”
The fruits and leaves can be used to extract aromatic substances, which can be used as a substitute for chili peppers—of course, the taste is a little different from chili peppers.
Collection Location: Deep in the Forgotten Forest]
Chu Jiu had read the description of this plant.
Before chili peppers were introduced to China, the southwestern regions of China used the fruits of the thorny ash as a seasoning, which could remove the fishy smell of beef and mutton, and could also be mixed into the oldest “spicy oil.” At that time, thorny ash, Sichuan pepper, and ginger were called “three spices,” the most important sources of spicy flavor.
Chu Jiu vaguely remembered that there were no “chili peppers” in this scene map.
In that case, before the next map was opened, thorny ash was the most important chili pepper substitute.
He unhesitatingly collected 99 Thorny Ash Fruits and 99 Thorny Ash Leaves.
After putting away the fruits and leaves, he smiled and asked the two little ones, “Can you guys eat spicy food?”
Little Can: ?
Glug-Glug: What’s spicy?
Chu Jiu smiled, “When we get back, I’ll make a little hot pot. When it’s cold, it’s so comfortable to eat hot pot together.”
Little Can, who didn’t know what hot pot was: …
Glug-Glug, who didn’t know what hot pot was: Okay, okay!
*
After another day of walking, they finally reached the bamboo forest area, and the map of the entire Forgotten Forest had reached 82% exploration, with an area development of 1.2%.
Unlike other areas in the forest, this bamboo forest was filled with a gentle breeze and a faint fragrance. The sunlight shining through the bamboo leaves was bright and soft, without any eerie atmosphere.
Chu Jiu stood in the dense forest of swaying bamboo leaves, looked up, felt the sunlight dancing on his cheeks, and took a deep breath.
After a moment, he got busy again.
Bamboo stalks, bamboo leaves, bamboo shoots…none could be missed.
Oh, and the bamboo flower chickens running all over the ground, and the bamboo flower pigs that like to eat bamboo shoots.
Bamboo flower chickens were about the size of Earth’s cuckoo chickens, liked to peck at insects in the bamboo forest, and were said to have very delicious meat—perfect for braising.
Bamboo flower pigs looked a bit like bamboo rats, chubby and tender, with big ears flapping. They just grunted when caught.
Chu Jiu praised, “How cute,” while turning the bamboo flower pigs into 10 Fat Pig Meat without hesitation.
Little Can, who was already used to this scene, looked calm, while the newly joined Glug-Glug looked terrified, its little leaves trembling.
To comfort the frightened Glug-Glug, Chu Jiu cleared his throat and made up a plausible excuse: “This little pig is sick. It needs to be eaten as soon as possible.”
Little Can: …?
Glug-Glug: …Oh, is that so?
*
In addition to quickly collecting bamboo stalks and leaves, Chu Jiu also wanted to dig up some bamboo to plant in the ground.
After all, there were too many places where bamboo could be used, and even if he collected 99 pieces, it might not be enough.
It was best to plant a bamboo forest himself.
Chu Jiu had heard that bamboo couldn’t be planted by digging up bamboo shoots—digging up the bamboo shoots and replanting them would only result in tough, old bamboo shoots.
To transplant bamboo, you needed to dig up the underground stems of the bamboo, the “bamboo whips.”
But Chu Jiu didn’t know what bamboo whips looked like.
He could only rely on his intuition and carefully dig for half a day, digging out a section of stem about the thickness of his forearm, with nodes.
Is this it?
When Chu Jiu put the mud-covered bamboo into his backpack, the system gave him this prompt:
[Special Item: Bamboo with Rhizome.
Special Attribute: Can be handed over to a spirit beast with planting skills for artificial cultivation.
Hidden condition ‘Discovery of Forest Seedlings’ has been met!
Obtained Forest Land Recipe X1
Forest Land: Can cultivate trees on land.]
[Special Note: Only for cultivating materials categorized as ‘seeds’, ‘saplings’, or possessing the ‘artificially cultivatable’ attribute.
Recipe Attribute: Facility Type
Recipe Usage Requirements: Development Points X800, Spirit Beast X1]
Great! He could get Rawr Rawr Rabbit to plant trees when he got back!
