Chapter 115
Staring at the inverted triangle marker on the map, Tang Yu’an couldn’t help but wonder if there was a system malfunction.
While he genuinely hoped Brother Chi Hao’s companion had survived, this was… the center of the Desolate City. A place swarming not with one or two, but hordes of creatures as terrifying as mutated giant bears!
How could anyone survive for so long in such a dangerous environment? Or could it be that some extraordinary luck was involved?
To confirm, Tang Yu’an used the map’s detailed view feature and verified again. He wasn’t mistaken; the glowing point indeed matched “Old Xie,” the man who had been with Brother Chi Hao.
“What’s up?” Zhou Qi noticed something odd and asked.
Tang Yu’an shared his discovery with Zhou Qi and then hesitated. “Should I tell Brother Chi Hao and Sister Hong Li?”
Zhou Qi frowned slightly, thought for a moment, then shook his head. “Let’s not, for now.”
The center of the Desolate City was exceedingly dangerous. No one knew Old Xie’s exact situation, and besides, Brother Chi Hao had already returned to Qingmu Fortress. Telling him now would be pointless.
As for Hong Li…
It would be hard to explain the origin of this lead. Saving others always comes after ensuring one’s safety; they couldn’t afford to expose themselves to unnecessary danger.
“So let’s keep it a secret for now.”
“Alright then.”
Finding no further clues, Tang Yu’an closed the map and said, “I’ll go fortify the remaining floors first.”
Only three floors of their building had been reinforced so far. The other floors were unsafe to inhabit, and even walking around required caution since the ceilings and partition walls could collapse at any moment.
Tomorrow, they had to head to Jufeng Town for trade. Zhou Qi wouldn’t have time to reinforce the building further.
As for relying on Ba Shi and his brothers to help again, given the current state of Store #1, it was no longer an option.
Thus, Tang Yu’an opened the 3D blueprint of Store #1 and began upgrading the building’s interior from the top floor downward.
Though the system didn’t have a specific “reinforce” option, replacing all the walls and floors with new materials would effectively achieve the same result.
He began with the floors. Since the exterior walls and load-bearing columns had already been reinforced, strengthening the floors was the priority. This way, there would be no risk of people falling through or getting hit by collapsing ceilings while walking around.
Each floor covered about 500 square meters. Strengthening six levels of cement flooring—from the seventh floor down to the second—cost over 3,000 points in total.
The partition walls weren’t as urgent, so Tang Yu’an closed the interface after finishing the floors.
His points balance was now reduced to just over 8,000.
“Tomorrow I’ll work on the windows; that’ll cost quite a bit too.”
Fortunately, five days later, when Hong Li delivered the remaining 500 kilograms of soybeans, he’d earn over 10,000 points again!
With the thought of an upcoming influx of points, Tang Yu’an couldn’t help but get excited.
“Brother Qi, do you think I should take advantage of the incoming flood to set up a teleportation point in the swimming center?”
Tang Yu’an wrinkled his nose as he spoke. “It’d be a shame if the swimming center got ruined by the flood after all the effort I put into cleaning it up.”
He’d been so busy with Store #1 these days that he hadn’t even had time to visit the swimming center. He wondered if Green Gem was still thriving…
“Let’s wait and see in five days,” Zhou Qi replied.
For now, it seemed manageable. Upgrading the protective barrier only required 6,000 points. After trading with Hong Li, if there were no other pressing needs, they could consider establishing Branch Store #3 first.
Even just activating the protective barrier temporarily would allow them to close the branch and shield the swimming center from flood damage.
“Got it!”
Tang Yu’an nodded enthusiastically. He and Zhou Qi then used the teleportation array to return to the main store.
The four pets didn’t follow them.
They much preferred the spaciousness of Store #1 over the cramped main store, where they could comfortably roam in any form they liked.
After eating the bear paw meat, Yin Bi and Wang Cai had grown sluggish and quickly went into hibernation.
Yuan Bao stood by, guarding them.
As for Black Pearl, she’s now refrained from returning to her abandoned parking lot.
Instead, as soon as Tang Yu’an left, the cat began wandering through the building.
The dark, nighttime environment posed no challenge to the cat’s night vision.
After thoroughly patrolling all the floors, the kitten eventually made her way to Old Li’s room. She jumped gracefully onto the bed and curled up on the soft, luminous green mattress.
It was just as comfortable as she thought it would be.
Despite the snoring human beside her, it didn’t detract from the quality of her sleep at all.
Yawning, Black Pearl soon drifted off contentedly…
Meanwhile, back home, Tang Yu’an and Zhou Qi took turns in the bathroom before climbing up to the attic, although neither was ready to sleep just yet.
Even though the space was much smaller than Store #1, Tang Yu’an felt that there was no place more comfortable than the attic.
“Didn’t we forget to draw the lucky draw today?” Zhou Qi asked.
“Oh, I almost forgot!”
Tang Yu’an sat up eagerly, his eyes lighting up. “I hope for another jackpot of points!”
With the seven-day flash sale about to refresh tomorrow, more points would undoubtedly be spent. Having experienced the distress of nearly running out of points before, what Tang Yu’an wanted most now was to stockpile them.
The pointer on the lucky wheel spun and spun until it finally stopped.
[Congratulations! You’ve obtained a rare material: ‘Void Stone’!]
“Huh?” Tang Yu’an blinked. A Void Stone? Why did that sound so familiar?
“What did you get?” Zhou Qi, noticing his expression, guessed it wasn’t points. As expected, Tang Yu’an took out a small black stone from his personal inventory.
The stone, about the size of a fingertip, was completely black and exceptionally smooth.
A faint red light flickered in Zhou Qi’s eyes.
He felt a ripple from the parasite inside him, and he frowned, closing his eyes to suppress it before asking, “What is this?”
If it could arouse the parasite’s greed, it was undoubtedly valuable. However, it clearly wasn’t an Energy Stone.
“A Void Stone.”
Tang Yu’an responded, “The system said it’s a rare material. I feel like I’ve seen it somewhere before…”
Hearing this, Zhou Qi fell silent.
After a while, he took a deep breath and said, “Why don’t you check your furniture upgrade interface?”
Tang Yu’an froze for a moment, then finally realized, “That’s it! It’s used for upgrading furniture!”
He quickly opened the interface to confirm. “Yes, that’s right! Several furniture upgrades require Void Stones!”
For example, the Super Storage Cabinet and the Auto Water-Storing Insulated Cup needed Void Stones to be upgraded to level 2. Since Tang Yu’an had no idea where to obtain these stones, he had put the upgrades on hold for the time being.
This Void Stone turned out to be quite important.
One of the conditions for upgrading the main store to level 3 was equipping it with five pieces of level 2 furniture. Materials like Void Stones, which were required for the upgrades, had been one of the obstacles in achieving this goal.
Who would’ve thought he’d get a Void Stone from the lucky spin of the prize wheel? It was like finding a silver lining in a dark cloud!
“Haha, this is awesome!” Tang Yu’an exclaimed. “I thought Void Stones could only be bought from the dimensional shop.”
He had checked the dimensional shop several times before, but Void Stones had never appeared. Over time, he’d forgotten about it, never expecting it to show up in this way.
“An’an, let’s have the Void Stone appraised,” Zhou Qi suggested.
If they identified it, the system might provide notifications whenever they came across one in the future. Maybe Void Stones could be found on the road, just like energy crystals. While it sounded far-fetched…
If anyone could pull it off, wouldn’t it be Tang Yu’an?
Unaware of Zhou Qi’s unwavering faith in him, Tang Yu’an nodded at his suggestion. “Alright.”
He used a basic identification skill on the Void Stone.
[Do you wish to pay 5,000 points for the identification fee and use the Basic Identification Skill on this item?]
The displayed fee made Tang Yu’an freeze in shock.
How… how much?!
Just identifying it cost 5,000 points! Tang Yu’an was left completely stunned, clutching the stone with trembling hands.
“B-Brother Qi,” he stammered, “this Void Stone is worth 50,000 points…”
No wonder Void Stones were practically nonexistent in the dimensional shop.
Such a small stone, yet it was valued at 50,000 points! If someone sold it at ten times the price, it would be worth half a million points!
Clearly, this was not something accessible at their current level.
Tang Yu’an only now realized that most items he had encountered in the dimensional shop were priced in the four-figure range. He had never seen anything costing five figures.
Was it because their level was too low? Or did they simply not have enough points?
Staring at the Void Stone in his hand, Tang Yu’an felt his mind cloud with confusion.
Zhou Qi gulped as well.
He joked weakly, “If we could use this stone to trade with Kang Kang tomorrow in one of his games…”
Tang Yu’an’s eyes sparkled. Wouldn’t that be an enormous windfall?
But then he quickly shook his head. “That won’t work. This Void Stone is bound to me.”
Because of the steep appraisal cost, Tang Yu’an had chosen not to spend 5,000 points to identify the stone and had instead closed the option.
However, he still managed to glean some basic information from the inventory’s item list.
[Void Stone]
[Description]: Rare Material
[Status]: Bound
[Owner]: Tang Yu’an
Bound items could not be traded. If they were taken too far away, they would automatically return to the owner.
Zhou Qi felt a twinge of disappointment but wasn’t too surprised. Considering how valuable the item was, the system was bound to have stricter controls.
Still, it wasn’t overly strict. Otherwise, why would such an item appear as a random reward in the lucky spin?
Zhou Qi glanced at the Void Stone in Tang Yu’an’s hand and mused, “Judging from this, upgrading the store will only get harder and harder.”
If each of the five level 2 furniture pieces required a rare material like the Void Stone, the upgrade process could take an eternity.
“That might not be the case,” Tang Yu’an said optimistically. “Not every furniture upgrade requires a Void Stone.”
He grinned. “Remember when I got the level 1 Auto Water-Storing Insulated Cup as a prize? Maybe I’ll win a level 2 magical piece of furniture next!”
“…”
Zhou Qi fell silent again.
Perhaps this was just the confidence of someone blessed with extraordinary luck.
Deciding to end the depressing topic, Zhou Qi asked, “So, should we upgrade the Super Storage Cabinet first or the Insulated Cup?”
Tang Yu’an thought for a moment and said, “The Insulated Cup?”
Though the Super Storage Cabinet was more efficient in terms of space, the Auto Water-Storing Insulated Cup was undeniably more practical in functionality.
“Then let’s upgrade the Insulated Cup first,” Zhou Qi suggested. “We can prepare the materials tomorrow.”
“Alright!”
Tang Yu’an nodded and carefully stored the Void Stone in his personal inventory.
Even though the stone was bound to him and couldn’t be lost, its hefty value of 50,000 points made him treat it with utmost caution.
After putting the Void Stone away, Tang Yu’an wandered over to the Dream Message Bottles by the window.
As the night deepened, more and more bottles floated in the sea of dreams.
Tang Yu’an noticed that in the sea of dreams, there were now three glowing drift bottles, including one belonging to Little Hai Lan and another with Lu Yan. The brightness of the three bottles was nearly identical, making it hard to tell which one was Little Hai Lan’s.
Due to his recent trade with Hong Li, his sea salt supply had run out, so he needed to replenish it through Little Hai Lan as soon as possible.
Fortunately, since the store’s level increased to Lv2, the number of drift bottles Tang Yu’an could retrieve daily had doubled to two, giving him a higher chance of grabbing Little Hai Lan’s bottle.
He opened the window, reached into the sea of dreams, and pulled out one of the brighter bottles.
As he unscrewed the cap, a brilliant light floated into the air, and a stranger’s voice echoed throughout the attic.
“Help me… help me…”
It was a plea from an unfamiliar man. The voice was weak and frail, suggesting he was in a dire situation.
Until now, apart from the mysterious Lu Yan, the dream wish-makers Tang Yu’an had encountered were usually children. This was the first time he had come across an adult.
Clearing his throat, Tang Yu’an spoke in his best impression of a mystical merchant. “I am the mysterious merchant with wondrous powers. Tell me what you need, and I might be able to fulfill your wish.”
“Help me… help me…”
Unfortunately, the man’s consciousness seemed hazy, and he could only repeat the same words.
Not wanting to waste this opportunity, Tang Yu’an tried asking, “Are you injured? Or are you sick?”
“Help me… help me…”
Hearing the repeated plea, Tang Yu’an exchanged glances with Zhou Qi.
“The glow is bright, like Lu Yan,” Zhou Qi observed. “It feels like he might have abilities or some other special traits.”
Tang Yu’an sighed. “Yeah, but if we can’t communicate, how are we supposed to make a trade?”
After a moment of thought, Zhou Qi said, “Let me give it a try.”
He addressed the glowing light, saying, “If you give me half of your Spirit Energy Stones, I will trade you this Basic Healing Potion.”
Zhou Qi retrieved a small vial from his personal inventory. It contained only four drops of healing potion, which wasn’t as effective as a healing bandage but could slowly mend injuries.
“If you respond with ‘Help me,’ it will confirm your agreement to this trade.”
After Zhou Qi finished, he paused. Soon, the man’s weak voice rang out again.
“Help me… help me…” Even though it was faint, it was still audible in the quiet of the attic.
And so…
[You have completed a profitable trade with a Dream Wish-Maker. Points +920, EXP +6, Dream Shard +1.]
[You have received five Earth Spirit Energy Stones. Please select a delivery address:]
[1. Peace Grocery Store Warehouse]
[…]
“Wow, five Earth Spirit Stones!” Tang Yu’an’s eyes lit up as he looked at Zhou Qi, admiration evident on his face.
Zhou Qi was also stunned. He had only been testing the waters, not expecting the man to actually have Spirit Energy Stones—let alone ten of them!
“It seems this man is an earth-element user,” Zhou Qi remarked.
He glanced at the Earth Spirit Stones in Tang Yu’an’s hand. Although the parasite within Zhou Qi stirred restlessly, it was no longer able to control his consciousness.
“Yeah!” Tang Yu’an nodded. “I wonder how badly he’s hurt to be this weak… His consciousness is so muddled that we can’t even communicate.”
After the trade was completed, the glowing light gradually faded.
Tang Yu’an tossed the bottle back into the sea of dreams, hoping that the next time he retrieved it, the man would have recovered some clarity.
Looking at the Earth Spirit Stones in his inventory, Tang Yu’an felt quite intrigued.
Counting the five he had just acquired, his total across various elemental stones now stood at 18, and he couldn’t complain about having more.
After all, upgrading furniture required these materials!
With that in mind, Tang Yu’an opened the map, curious to see where this Dream Wish-Maker was located. If he was in the Desolate City, perhaps there was a chance to save him…
“Huh?”
Staring at the new marker on the map, Tang Yu’an froze in surprise.
“What’s wrong?” Zhou Qi noticed his reaction and asked.
Tang Yu’an stared at the map for a long while before replying, “Brother Qi, that man just now… he seems to be Old Xie.”
Zhou Qi’s face showed clear astonishment.
“Really,” Tang Yu’an affirmed. “His glowing marker is in the center of the Desolate City, overlapping with Old Xie’s location.”
The map revealed a large golden marker in the center of the fog-shrouded Desolate City, motionless at its current position.
Tang Yu’an searched for the label marking Xie Chaori, and sure enough, the triangular icon overlapped perfectly with the large golden marker.
This gave him at least 99% certainty that the Dream Wish-Maker was none other than Brother Chi Hao’s companion—Old Xie.
Though it was a bit unbelievable, considering they were both in the Desolate City, retrieving his dream drift bottle didn’t seem so far-fetched.
“Looks like he’s alive, but not in good condition,” Tang Yu’an said. “I wonder how much longer he can hold on…”
“With the Basic Healing Potion, it should keep him going for a while,” Zhou Qi offered as reassurance.
But Tang Yu’an wasn’t so optimistic. Shaking his head, he replied, “In such a weak state, where his consciousness is muddled, how will he even drink the potion?”
That was a valid point.
Zhou Qi could only say, “Then we’ll have to leave it up to fate. There’s nothing more we can do to help.”
The center of the Desolate City was far too dangerous. It was impossible for them to mount a rescue at the moment.
“Didn’t Brother Chi Hao say he’d return soon? If Old Xie can hold on until then, I’ll tell him the location so he can save him.”
Tang Yu’an nodded. “That’s all we can do for now.”
He glanced at the map a few more times before deciding to set the matter aside for now. Reaching into the sea of dreams, he pulled out another drift bottle.
This time, it was finally Little Hai Lan’s.
“Mysterious Merchant… Mysterious Merchant…”
The little girl’s voice resonated through her dream, pleading tearfully, “Please look at me… My dad and I have prepared lots and lots of salt…”
*
It had been several days.
The mysterious merchant had not appeared in Little Hai Lan’s dream. No matter how much she prayed, there had been no response.
The down blanket they had traded for last time had allowed her and her father to stay warm during cold nights. The five kilograms of rice they received had kept them fed for a few days.
To gather more salt, Hai Jing had stopped venturing into the sea to fish, focusing instead on drying sea salt along the shoreline.
Compared to the tumultuous waves and ever-present dangers of the open sea, drying salt was significantly safer.
All it took was channeling seawater into shallow areas and letting it evaporate under the scorching sun. Within a day, the salt could be harvested. The only risky part was fetching the water.
Hai Jing remembered his daughter mentioning that the mysterious merchant wanted better-quality salt.
Though her explanation was vague, he managed to grasp the idea: the salt shouldn’t be left to dry completely before collection.
After some trial and error—and despite the inconvenience of not having a proper filter—Hai Jing succeeded in producing slightly whiter salt.
Around 30 kilograms of seawater yielded one kilogram of salt. After several days of hard work, he had managed to gather just under 20 kilograms.
This was largely because much of their time had been spent digging pits near the shoreline—pits that would fill with seawater during high tide. This way, they wouldn’t have to take the risky and laborious task of carrying water manually.
Their fellow villagers who foraged along the shallow shores couldn’t understand what Hai Jing was doing.
Why wasn’t he working hard to catch fish or find food? Why waste his energy drying salt?
Salt couldn’t be eaten directly, so what was the point of all that effort?
Some speculated that Hai Jing must be preparing the salt for trade, but after days of observation, they hadn’t seen him interacting with anyone.
Though puzzled, they didn’t interfere.
As the five kilograms of rice dwindled and the mysterious merchant continued to remain absent, Little Hai Lan’s worry and fear grew stronger each day.
Though her father constantly reassured her, she prayed every night for the merchant to return.
Until one evening…
“You wish to see me?”
That familiar voice suddenly echoed through her dream, and the heavy stone weighing on Little Hai Lan’s heart finally fell away.
“Wonderful! You’ve come to see me again!”
*
Hearing Little Hai Lan’s joyous voice, Tang Yu’an couldn’t help but feel a pang of guilt.
In truth, he had deliberately avoided picking up her drift bottle these past few days. Since he could previously retrieve only one bottle a day, he needed to expand his roster of dream wish-makers.
But now that he could retrieve two bottles daily, he could increase the frequency of trades.
“Have you been doing well recently?”
Seeing that the girl’s dream was stable, Tang Yu’an decided to engage in some casual conversation to gather information about Linhai Town.
“Uh-huh!”
Little Hai Lan, being just a child, quickly opened up when she realized the mysterious merchant was not only responding to her prayers but was also friendly.
Before long, Tang Yu’an and Zhou Qi had learned about the recent activities of Little Hai Lan and her father.
Hai Jing’s idea of digging pits near the shoreline to dry salt showed he wasn’t a fool. On the contrary, he was resourceful and quick to act.
Tang Yu’an continued gently guiding Little Hai Lan to talk.
Unfortunately, due to her young age, she had never been beyond the village or the shore and was unfamiliar with the power dynamics in Linhai Town.
“If you want to know, I can ask my dad!” Little Hai Lan offered. “As long as you respond to my prayers, I can tell you anything you want to know!”
Tang Yu’an remained silent.
Acknowledging this could easily be interpreted by the system as a completed trade. Instead, he changed the subject. “What do you need this time?”
“Food! I need food!”
“Please grant me food. I am willing to offer you all the salt we have at home!”
