Chapter 82
“This is a Water Crystal?”
Tang Yu’an reached out his hand, and the thin vine placed the blue crystal into his palm.
Then, the tendril wrapped around his finger, transmitting feelings of joy and gratitude that infected Tang Yu’an as well.
It seemed that after cleaning the room, the mutated vine was genuinely happy.
Looking down at the crystal in his hand, Tang Yu’an noticed it was slightly larger than the one Old Li had given him.
He wasn’t surprised that Green Gem possessed a Water Energy Stone, as he had previously found a Water Crystal in a glass bottle.
It wasn’t unusual for Green Gem to have found one.
“So, is this for me?” Tang Yu’an asked.
The thin vine affectionately touched his cheek with its leaves, confirming his guess.
Tang Yu’an did not refuse and happily accepted the gift, then cheerfully showed the Water Crystal to Zhou Qi.
“Brother Qi, look! Green Gem gave this to me!”
“Mm.”
Zhou Qi nodded. Seeing firsthand the interaction between Tang Yu’an and the mutated vine improved his impression of this strange plant.
As for the Water Crystal…
The parasite within his body became momentarily active, but realizing it couldn’t control him, it quickly quieted down.
“The red dot on the map has disappeared!” Tang Yu’an said excitedly.
After making it his pet, the red dot representing the mutated vine hadn’t disappeared from the map, indicating that its danger hadn’t been fully eliminated and could erupt at any time.
But now, after Tang Yu’an helped it truly solve its problem, it has completely calmed down.
Correspondingly, the red dot on the map had also vanished.
Perhaps plants are inherently peaceful and only become violent when provoked. If he had to stay in such a foul environment for a long time without being able to leave, Tang Yu’an felt he would go crazy too.
Thinking of this, Tang Yu’an felt a bit sympathetic.
However, since Green Gem wasn’t an animal, taking it away from its familiar environment might affect its growth, so he couldn’t just casually take it with them.
“Bear with it for a few more days. I’ll come every day to clean up and strive to make this place spotless as soon as possible.”
The thin vine approached Tang Yu’an again, rubbing his face affectionately with its leaves.
“Brother Qi, let’s go back.”
Noticing it was getting late, Tang Yu’an decided to return to the grocery store. Before leaving, he carefully comforted the mutated vine.
“Green Gem, I’ll come to see you again tomorrow.”
The mutated vine reluctantly held his hand, but when Tang Yu’an insisted on leaving, it didn’t try to stop him further.
Soon, Zhou Qi carried Tang Yu’an out of the swimming facility.
The setting sun hung low in the sky, casting warm orange light over the land.
Feeling the breeze and breathing in fresh air, Tang Yu’an couldn’t help but squint his eyes in enjoyment.
Evenings in the Desolate city always seemed particularly tranquil.
Of course, that was because they had cleared out the nearby dangerous creatures.
“We gained so much this time!” Tang Yu’an hugged Zhou Qi’s neck, saying happily.
Just completing the task of clearing the giant lizard’s nest had earned them many rewards.
Zhou Qi also smiled slightly.
The harvest was indeed surprising, especially the mutated vine. Being able to successfully soothe it and make it a pet was truly unexpected.
“Green Gem probably has more crystals,” Zhou Qi said.
Who knows how many years it had been collecting; if floods occurred annually, the mutated vine might have gathered quite a few valuable items.
“Haha, then we’ll just ask Green Gem if we need any!”
Of course, even if Green Gem didn’t give them crystals, Tang Yu’an would continue to clean the swimming facility as promised.
Besides, he looked forward to turning it into a fish pond so they wouldn’t have to worry about meat in the future.
Before long, Zhou Qi carried Tang Yu’an back to the grocery store.
Wang Cai and Yin Bi enthusiastically ran out to greet them, but then—
“Yuck—”
Yesterday, Wang Cai had fallen into a dormant state after licking the Dark Green Spider’s blood, so this was the first time it smelled the strong stench on its owner.
The poor little orange cat couldn’t help but retch.
Having more experience, Yin Bi held its breath just in time, but its gaze toward Tang Yu’an and Zhou Qi was clearly tinged with confusion.
Why does the owner keep falling into cesspools?
Is it some kind of special hobby?
Tang Yu’an: “…”
Zhou Qi: “…”
Even Tang Yu’an couldn’t stand the stench on himself. Since he had used up all his Purification Spells, he had to rush to the bathroom to take a shower.
Zhou Qi took off his outer clothes and, enduring the strange looks from the two little ones, waited silently.
They had spent over a hundred points just on showers today, but fortunately, they had plenty of points, leaving a balance of 7,654 points.
Moreover…
[Employee “Xiao Cao” has completed a profitable transaction with an old customer. Points +10, Experience +1]
[Employee “Xiao Cao” … ]
During their showers, notifications of Xiao Cao’s profitable transactions kept popping up. It seemed that as night fell and the temperature dropped, she and Shi Tou had resumed their business.
This little girl was really diligent. In comparison, Chi Hao, who had also reached Jufeng Mountain, was somewhat disappointing to Tang Yu’an.
As a mid-level ability user, he shouldn’t have to worry about being robbed. Why didn’t he think to do some trading along the way?
Those guards probably knew him; he could have developed them into customers!
No wonder his ability evaluation was only a C.
Finally, Tang Yu’an couldn’t resist giving Chi Hao a guidance task, prompting him to trade with the mountain people along the way. After half a day, he finally received a notification of a profitable transaction.
He couldn’t help but shake his head.
As night fell, Xiao Cao’s profit notifications also stopped.
This time, she had attracted 25 customers in total, earning 258 points and 52 experience points for Tang Yu’an.
He looked at the experience bar: Level 8 (148/160).
Great!
He could level up again tomorrow.
Humming happily, Tang Yu’an walked to the warehouse, preparing to check on the lizard eggs they had brought back. As soon as he opened the door, a foul odor wafted out.
He quickly closed the warehouse door, then used the item list function to separate out the lizard eggs and transferred the remaining waste into his portable warehouse, finally eliminating the stench.
“Wang Cai! Yin Bi! Come help me.”
So, Tang Yu’an called the two little ones and, with their help, dug a big hole in the yard to bury the waste, before returning indoors.
When he opened the Super Storage Cabinet again, he saw the smooth and shiny lizard eggs inside.
It was really satisfying!
Tang Yu’an stroked the lizard eggs. He planned to upgrade the freezer tomorrow and place it in the warehouse to absorb heat, ensuring that the lizard eggs wouldn’t spoil or hatch due to high temperatures.
He didn’t want to come home one day to find the house full of little lizards.
After the battle with the mother lizard, Tang Yu’an now had a strong aversion to lizards and had completely given up the idea of raising one as a pet.
Moreover, he didn’t have any extra pet slots now.
The Super Storage Cabinet had an area of 2×5 meters. The 40 lizard eggs, placed upright on one side of the cabinet, occupied less than one square meter of floor space.
But looking at the space above the lizard eggs, Tang Yu’an felt it was necessary to get a regular cabinet.
[The “Cabinet” upgrade is complete. Please check.]
At this moment, a system prompt popped up.
[Furniture sprite YaYa was very satisfied with your hospitality and gave you a five-star review.]
[Warm reminder: Furniture that receives a five-star review from a sprite has a chance to trigger additional effects. Please check.]
Wow! The cabinet upgrade was finished too!
Tang Yu’an quickly ran to the front of the store and saw that the cabinet had been completely renewed.
The old cabinet had become a luminous green color. In addition, the base on the outside of the cabinet featured some dark red patterns, giving it a playful yet mysterious texture.
Inside the empty cabinet, there was only a ceramic bowl, and the red bean soup in the bowl was gone.
Wow, YaYa accepted his red bean soup!
Seeing the empty bowl, Tang Yu’an couldn’t help but cheer happily, then eagerly checked the attributes of the upgraded cabinet.
[Luminous Green Cabinet]
[Level: LV1]
[Size: 2 x 1.2 x 0.8 meters]
[Description: A very sturdy cabinet that can bear up to 1,000 kg. Even bullets cannot penetrate it. Seeds placed on the lowest shelf have a chance to mutate.]
[Special Effect: “Red Beans Growth”]
[When there are red bean seeds in the cabinet, it will emit heat until the temperature stabilizes at the optimal growth temperature for red beans.]
Tang Yu’an: 0.0
After carefully rereading the description, Tang Yu’an’s eyes lit up as he looked at the cabinet.
A special effect that can release heat!
Not only can it be controlled to “turn on and off,” but it will stabilize at the temperature just right for red bean growth.
This is perfect for use during the wasteland’s nights!
It was already nearly 7 p.m., and the temperature had suddenly dropped by ten to twenty degrees. After his shower, Tang Yu’an put on thick clothes.
By midnight, the temperature would drop even further.
As the indoor temperature dropped, the heat absorption effect of the freezer had gradually stopped, automatically switching to electric power.
However, because of the low temperature at night, the freezer wasn’t very useful, so it didn’t consume much electricity.
To help the potted plants cope with the cold at night, he usually covered them with a layer of cotton cloth and turned on a heating lamp underneath.
But now, if this cabinet could really release enough heat, they wouldn’t have to go to such trouble!
Tang Yu’an quickly ran to share the good news with Zhou Qi.
“‘Red Beans Growth’?”
Although Zhou Qi had noticed that the bowl of red bean soup had decreased when they returned, he hadn’t expected that it would trigger such a special effect.
He quickly pulled Tang Yu’an back to the cabinet, cleaned the empty bowl, filled it with red beans, and placed it in the Luminous Green Cabinet.
They didn’t close the cabinet door but stood by patiently waiting.
Sure enough, within a few seconds, the cabinet shelf, which had felt cold to the touch, gradually became warm.
Zhou Qi touched the outside of the cabinet and found that it was about the same as room temperature.
But because the cabinet door was open, they could already feel noticeable heat emanating from inside.
About five minutes later, standing next to the cabinet, Tang Yu’an already felt slightly warm.
He couldn’t help but take off his jacket.
Feeling the change in room temperature, Zhou Qi nodded and said, “This cabinet can indeed be used as a heater.”
In just five minutes, the room temperature had increased by at least four or five degrees and might rise even more.
“Mm-hmm, then I’ll move the plants to the front?”
After organizing, most of the non-perishable goods had been transferred to the portable warehouse, freeing up a lot of space in the front of the store.
Since they weren’t planning to open for business for now, they might as well move the potted plants from the back room.
After all, the back room wasn’t very big, and with the potted plants, there was hardly any space to move around.
“Okay.”
Zhou Qi had no objections.
So he began to use the Remote Item Retrieval skill to move the potted plants one by one to the front of the store, even placing some directly inside the Luminous Green Cabinet.
The cabinet was extremely sturdy, more than enough to hold these potted plants, and the warm environment inside was perfect for plants.
They would need to move them to a place with sunlight during the day, though.
“Great! With the heat-absorbing freezer during the day and the heat-releasing cabinet at night, the temperature in the grocery store can always be kept at a comfortable level!”
Zhou Qi nodded, then glanced at the time. “I’ll go make meat and egg pancakes for Lin Zhen.”
Only then did Tang Yu’an remember the commission they had agreed to with Lin Zhen earlier. He truly admired this Sister Lin from the bottom of his heart.
If it weren’t for her taking great risks to explore the giant lizard’s nest and opening up a safe route to the pool, they might not have ventured into the swimming facility and wouldn’t have had subsequent gains.
Since the lizard eggs were what Sister Lin had promised them, making them extra delicious was a way to repay her.
Zhou Qi skillfully prepared the ingredients, and Tang Yu’an helped on the side.
Soon, they finished making meat and egg pancakes for Lin Zhen, and they also took out a lizard egg to make some for themselves, so they could eat whenever they wanted.
One lizard egg was substantial, making up to fifteen meat and egg pancakes, but only the meat was used up; there was still leftover egg and batter.
Zhou Qi thought for a moment and simply used the remaining ingredients to make wild vegetable and egg pancakes—or rather, wild vegetable and lizard egg pancakes?
Tang Yu’an cleaned the biscuit tin provided by Lin Zhen, lined it with large leaves, and placed the freshly made pancakes inside, filling it up.
The rest, which couldn’t fit, were wrapped in large leaves.
Once everything was done, they put them into the portable warehouse, planning to deliver them to Lin Zhen the next morning.
After finishing their tasks, Tang Yu’an collapsed onto the sofa.
Zhou Qi looked at his face, making sure he wasn’t running a fever due to fright, then asked, “Want some yogurt?”
“Sure!”
Tang Yu’an immediately perked up, took the yogurt he handed over, inserted a straw, and took a big sip. Then he remembered something and took out a book from the portable warehouse—
“Eggs on the Tip of the Tongue.”
It was the reward for completing the task of clearing the giant lizard’s nest today!
Tang Yu’an sat next to Zhou Qi and opened the book to read together.
It was called a book, but it was actually a recipe.
This book recorded various ways to cook eggs, including lizard eggs, but the recipes didn’t focus on making the eggs delicious; instead…
“So many strange effects!”
There were recipes for restoring vitality, enhancing physique, increasing strength… various effects, but the required ingredients were bizarre, and most of them Tang Yu’an didn’t recognize.
“Strengthen the Yang Soul? What’s the Yang Soul?” Tang Yu’an scratched his head in confusion upon seeing a term.
Zhou Qi’s expression turned slightly awkward for a moment.
“Probably means strengthening the soul,” he said vaguely.
“Oh!”
Tang Yu’an nodded. “These effects sound great. It would be wonderful if we could make them successfully.”
Zhou Qi agreed.
An An wasn’t an ability user and had a noticeably weaker physique, often catching colds and fevers. If he could eat something to enhance his physique and strength, it would be beneficial.
“I’ll keep an eye out; maybe these materials can be bought in the Dimensional Shop.”
Tang Yu’an agreed but didn’t rush to check the Dimensional Shop.
After all, building a branch store might require a lot of points; better to save them for now and consider it after the branch is built.
“I’ll decide on the branch location tomorrow.”
Zhou Qi said, “Once we confirm the location, we’ll get Ba Shi to come over for renovation and reinforcement, striving to build it before the flood comes.”
“Mm-hmm, okay.”
Tang Yu’an nodded. After quickly flipping through the recipe, he put it into Warehouse Slot 2 and then opened the Lucky Draw panel.
“With the task rewards, we have four draws today!” Tang Yu’an said.
Zhou Qi nodded. “Let’s use them all.”
Although the more times they drew, the lower the probability of getting good items, that was only relative to the 100% win rate. 🙂
Zhou Qi had already begun to guess whether they would get a skill or a special item today, or maybe a magical piece of furniture.
Soon, the result of the first draw came out.
“Wow, we got 150 points!”
Although not a huge amount, it was still enough to exchange for many things, so Tang Yu’an was happy.
Zhou Qi nodded; it was expected not to get anything great on the first try.
“Keep drawing.”
“Okay!”
The result of the second draw:
[Congratulations! You got 10 points]
Tang Yu’an’s expression immediately fell. “Only 10 points this time, so little…”
Zhou Qi calmly said, “It’s okay; the next one will definitely be something good.”
“Mm-hmm!”
So, Tang Yu’an breathed into his hands for luck, then clicked to draw again. This time, he kept silently chanting “special item, special item” in his heart, and finally…
[Congratulations! You have obtained the special skill ‘Purification Spell LV1’]
[Detected that you already have the same skill; the reward has been converted to skill level +1]
[Purification Spell upgraded to LV2. For details, please check the skill panel.]
“Wow! Brother Qi, you guessed right; we got something good this time. My Purification Spell leveled up to LV2,” Tang Yu’an said happily.
Zhou Qi: … smiles
“Check the upgraded skill effects,” he suggested.
“Okay!”
Their experience in the swimming facility that afternoon had proven that this was not a useless skill only for cleaning; at least until they completely cleaned the swimming facility, this skill would be very useful.
Tang Yu’an opened the skill list to check.
[Purification Spell LV2]
[Attribute: Magic-type skill.]
[LV2 Effect: Removes filth and purifies evil; the range of effect is doubled.]
[Limit: Can be used 10 times per day.]
[Remaining today: 10]
Originally, the range of effect was a diameter of four or five meters; doubling it would make it close to ten meters, greatly improving cleaning efficiency!
“Great! This way, Green Gem can be relieved sooner.”
Zhou Qi nodded.
“There’s one last draw… Since we just got a skill, we probably won’t get anything good this time, right?” Tang Yu’an said.
Zhou Qi thought that might not be the case…
Tang Yu’an began the last draw. The pointer spun and spun, finally stopping at…
[Congratulations! You have obtained the special skill ‘Levitation Spell LV1.’ For details, please check the skill panel.]
Wow!
“Brother Qi, I got a new skill again!” Tang Yu’an exclaimed in surprise.
Even though he had anticipated it, hearing that Tang Yu’an had gotten something good again made Zhou Qi’s expression freeze slightly.
“What skill did you get?” he asked.
“It’s the Levitation Spell.”
Tang Yu’an opened the skill panel and shared the information of the new skill with him.
[Levitation Spell LV1]
[Attribute: Magic-type skill]
[LV1 Effect: Can release a force of wind, causing the target to float three meters above the ground.]
[Duration: 120 minutes; can be used 3 times per day.]
[Remaining uses: 3]
“Does this mean I can fly?” Tang Yu’an said excitedly.
Zhou Qi wrote down the skill effect he described and then touched his chin, saying, “I guess it’s different from real flying.”
“Should I go outside and try it?”
“Okay.”
But before leaving, Zhou Qi had Tang Yu’an find a bundle of rope, and then they went together to the open space in front of the grocery store.
Yuan Bao had already returned. Seeing them going out, it led its two little followers and tagged along.
The three little ones squatted at the entrance of the grocery store, watching Tang Yu’an and Zhou Qi.
Tang Yu’an opened the map to check. Seeing that there were no dangerous creatures around the grocery store and no traces of humans, he felt relieved.
Zhou Qi tied one end of the rope around Tang Yu’an’s waist and nodded to him.
“Ready,” he said.
“Okay!”
Then, Tang Yu’an cast the Levitation Spell on himself.
He felt his body being enveloped by a gust of wind, feeling light, without any heaviness.
The next moment, Tang Yu’an’s feet left the ground.
His body floated upward.
“Brother Qi, look! I’m really flying!” Tang Yu’an said excitedly.
Zhou Qi nodded. Infected by his laughter, he also smiled.
But soon, a night breeze blew over, and Tang Yu’an, who had been slowly floating upward, was blown uncontrollably by the wind.
“Brother Qi!”
Tang Yu’an cried out in fright.
Fortunately, Zhou Qi held firmly onto the rope tied around him, preventing the wind from blowing him away.
As the rope tightened, Tang Yu’an finally stopped in mid-air.
He flailed in the air but found it hard to control his body, completely different from the flight he had imagined.
Soon, the wind changed direction again, and Tang Yu’an lost control, flying in another direction, but Zhou Qi held onto the rope.
Tang Yu’an tried for a while in the air and finally learned to use the force from the rope to control his body.
But his “flight” was still influenced by the wind.
After messing around for a while, Tang Yu’an became tired. He looked down at Zhou Qi on the ground and suddenly said, “Brother Qi, this feels like you’re flying a kite.”
Originally watching him nervously, Zhou Qi was stunned for a moment upon hearing this, then couldn’t help but burst into laughter.
Indeed, it was like flying a kite.
But he was flying the world’s cutest “kite.”
