Chapter 112: The Ingredients Are Attacking?
In a room converted from a cave formed by tributaries of the underground river.
Bai Kai sat quietly on a wide stone chair covered with animal hides, observing his surroundings.
Although the cave was somewhat crude, it was neatly organized. On the east side, against the wall, there was a slightly elevated stone platform with a bed on it. An unadorned cabinet held clothes on one side and various old books on the other, their pages yellowed.
The types of books ranged from children’s literature to encyclopedias and various novels, with a vast spectrum of content, and there were also many disorganized magazines.
Looking at those books, Bai Kai’s sense of guilt towards Furongluo increased slightly.
He had once told Furongluo that to be different from her ferocious kin, she needed to learn more. Knowledge might not make her and her tribe stronger, but it would give them more options.
The existence of those books proved that Furongluo had genuinely listened to his words and had worked hard over the past twenty years.
It is known that the Half Urban Legend Tribe on the Gobi Desert rarely interacts with humans. Even when they do, it is usually the relationship of hunter and prey. Twenty years ago, when the internet was not as developed, it was tough for a half urban legend to collect so many books without hurting anyone.
Moreover, acquiring knowledge is a slow process, and while Furongluo spent time and effort gathering these books, she must have faced misunderstanding from her tribe members.
If possible, Bai Kai really did not want to hurt Furongluo, but he must enter Yumen Pass.
Lu Ming had told him that to untie a knot, one must find the person who tied it. To completely break free from the “curse” that Yumen Pass had placed on their Yumen Sands Sea Branch, they had to delve deep into the pass and resolve it at the source.
Judging from what Lu Ming had glimpsed when successfully breaking free of the “curse,” the solution to the problem depended on either becoming the Lord of Yumen Pass or becoming a part of it.
He might find it difficult to accomplish this alone, but with the help of that b*stard General, it should be doable.
“Creak—!”
While Bai Kai was lost in thought, the wooden door of the cave was pushed open, making a whimpering sound.
Seeing Furongluo come in from outside, he quickly composed his solemn expression, revealing a smile. He opened his arms, leaning back in the stone chair so that when Furongluo approached to sit down, she could lean into his embrace.
His time as a male escort had taught him one thing—each woman is like a unique snowflake. While their appearances might be similar, their patterns could never be identical.
Thus, trying to understand the temperament of every woman and then using that understanding to approach them was impossible!
The simplest method was to hold them in one’s hands and embrace them, allowing them to melt.
Certainly, every snowflake’s pattern is different, but the similarity among water droplets is much higher.
However, he initially didn’t grasp this insight deeply enough, and he did make some guests cry…
Furongluo returned to the cave, smiling as she approached and sat down, resting her head on his shoulder.
Bai Kai lowered his head to take a look and gently asked, “Are you done? By the way, what was the matter earlier? You rushed out without letting me follow.”
Furongluo looked up at Bai Kai and pouted, “I just made a deal with the Gu Zheng Tribe. The people below brought the goods back, and I went to check on the situation.”
“A deal?” Bai Kai frowned.
The Gu Zheng Tribe did not have a good reputation among the many half urban legend tribes.
A bunch of guys who always disturb graves—how good could their reputation and character be?
What could be worth trading with them?
“Don’t overthink it; it’s not an unsavory deal,” Furongluo explained. “It’s just that the Gu Zheng Tribe recently got a large batch of supplies from somewhere, too much for them to consume alone, so they’re trading with other tribes.”
“Oh, is that so?” Bai Kai nodded thoughtfully.
While he could imagine where the supplies from the Gu Zheng Tribe might come from, it had to be better than what they dug out from graves.
Moreover, for the increasingly declining Zhanbu Tribe, purchasing from other tribes was a perfectly legitimate means of acquiring supplies.
After a brief exchange, they both fell into silence.
In contrast, Bai Kai was secretly planning how to extract information subtly.
Furongluo, however, was simply enjoying this rare moment of warmth.
Neither of them noticed a pair of eyes, peeking through the door crack, observing them in secret…
————
Underground in Devil City, within a cage.
A long time had passed since meal hours, and no one had brought lunch to Gu Qiqi, causing her hunger to grow increasingly intense.
Although she could always draw food from the Bamboo Slips Illusion, having become a hostage here, how could she not eat their food?
Not eating their food would be too good for them!
Receiving free food but unable to get it in hand felt like a massive loss.
After a long time, just as Gu Qiqi was about to voice her dissatisfaction to the half urban legend guarding outside the cage, warning that if lunch wasn’t served soon, she would take matters into her own hands, the half urban legend suddenly left.
Five minutes later, the half urban legend returned, carrying a large iron bucket and a dirty large basin.
The half urban legend walked straight to the cage, placed the basin on the ground, and with a “splash,” dumped the contents of the iron bucket into the basin, then pushed it into the cage through the gap below.
Great! Finally, it’s meal time! Gu Qiqi thought with joy as she hurriedly leaned closer, but as soon as she caught sight of the contents in the basin, she nearly vomited up the roasted bread and oily tea she had eaten for breakfast.
In the basin was a thick slurry filled with recognizable blackened vegetable leaves, bits of animal innards, and some oddly shaped insects, with a cloudy broth that had chunks of mold floating atop.
Mixed together, they emitted a nauseatingly intense stench.
Although Gu Qiqi had foraged for food in garbage bins during her time on the street, eating leftover food was one thing, but this godawful concoction was utterly unacceptable to her.
After waiting so long for lunch, receiving something like this felt like pre-ordering a game at a high price only to find out it was incomplete, riddled with bugs, and the developers forcing players to swallow trash — unbearable!
With her furrowed brows and clenched fists, Gu Qiqi was genuinely angry.
However, just as she was about to explode, the figures behind her quickly rushed forward, eagerly leaping onto the iron basin, using two hands to grab the scalding slurry, gorging themselves.
Seeing this, Gu Qiqi was stunned, her eyes wide, her stomach in turmoil.
How could they eat such a thing?
Had they gone mad?
She didn’t understand!
Eating was, without a doubt, one of the most important things for her in this world.
This basin of slop, worse than rubbish, was a desecration of ingredients and an insult to those who consumed it.
What if the ingredients were separated and cooked differently?
This wasn’t being finicky; Gu Qiqi, who had dug into termite mounds for ants and attempted to eat roasted pig trotters from muddy water, had no qualms about being picky!
Gu Qiqi even sensed a hint of alchemical potion-like spirit energy fluctuation within that slurry.
What did this mean?
It meant that those half urban legends were doing it on purpose, poisoning her!
So wicked!
In Gu Qiqi’s view, under any circumstances, at the very least, one should maintain the most basic respect for food.
“Respecting food is also respecting oneself.” This was what an elderly scavenger had told her while she was homeless on the streets.
Yes, before encountering the system, not everyone she met was trying to get her drunk on fake wine to do unspeakable things and accidentally poisoning themselves. There were also kind-hearted good people.
That elderly scavenger was one of them.
In fact, the survival skills like fishing, growing vegetables, and luring pigeons in the square to lay eggs at home were all taught to Gu Qiqi by that old man.
Though that old man lived a very frugal life, he still tried his best to uphold the dignity of being human.
The old man also told her, “To survive, if one must eat some bizarre things out of necessity, it’s understandable. But if one compromises over and over again to eat things that only beasts would consume, over time, one might forget they are still human.”
Gu Qiqi might not even realize it, but sometimes when she devoured the core of horror tales and became eroded, it was that old man’s subtle influence that brought her back on track.
And throughout history, it was this dignity that allowed people to create a rich variety of unique snacks and dishes using relatively rudimentary ingredients and their wisdom.
“Don’t eat! You mustn’t eat!”
After a brief silence, Gu Qiqi finally exploded.
As she spoke, she rushed forward, kicking over the iron basin.
With a loud “bang!” the basin under her foot instantly transformed into a cannonball, bursting through the cage and crashing onto the ground, spilling the slurry everywhere.
Then, she turned around to see the terrifying glares from the prisoners below.
Some say one cannot hide the desire to harm someone; she was sure that her fellow inmates now wanted to eliminate her.
She could even vaguely sense that those deprived of their food seemed to want to make her into a grand feast.
At unnecessary times, inmates were just inmates; when needed, inmates could easily become ingredients!
In fact, when Gu Qiqi was imprisoned, these inmates had initially viewed her as emergency rations.
After all, even that terrible food wasn’t available every day here.
And Gu Qiqi, with her tender skin and soft flesh, looked rather naive and was unlikely to live long.
Gu Qiqi was terrified by the scary inmates, taking a step back until her back hit the bars of the cage, causing her body to tremble slightly.
Watching the advancing inmates, Gu Qiqi’s clever mind raced. Suddenly, she spun around, grasped the bars and pulled them apart. Accompanied by a flash of electricity, she effortlessly shredded the bars engraved with a simple solidification spell.
“Sorry, I’ll go get you guys some food right now! Wait for me to come back!”
With that, under the astonished gazes of her fellow inmates, she sprinted deep into the underground cave, knocking out any half urban legends that rushed towards her with a single punch.
From a distance, it looked like a raging bull charging through a cornfield, toppling down a wide array of opposition in its wake.
“???
What’s happening? Are… the ingredients attacking?
