Jiang Li’s changes were impossible to hide. In just these three days, her stamina had increased from 4 points to 7.
For adults, the baseline reference was 8 points—at this level, the body was already close to normal condition.
Her bones had become sturdier, her flesh tighter and more compact, and her tendons strong and resilient. She no longer looked like the sickly, emaciated figure she had been when she first arrived.
However, she did not care whether others noticed her changes.
After all, in other people’s eyes, she was still young and at an age where the body was still developing.
“When will the station master return?” Jiang Li asked directly, neither avoiding nor deflecting Du Meiqin’s scrutiny.
Du Meiqin realized she had been staring for too long, to the point of rudeness, and quickly withdrew her gaze before answering honestly.
“The station master usually goes to the main city for restocking at the end of the month. The round trip takes about two days.”
Hearing this, Jiang Li frowned slightly.
If she waited two days, the Withered Leaping Frog meat in the cave would likely no longer be fresh. She would have to smoke or roast it tonight to extend its shelf life.
She already had a solution in mind and was about to leave after saying goodbye when Du Meiqin suddenly stopped her.
“What do you need to exchange for? I can help you.”
Jiang Li immediately stopped walking. She looked at the woman with neither joy nor excitement—only scrutiny and surprise.
For Du Meiqin to say this meant she had access to the trading station’s warehouse.
From the time she saw Huang Tao personally kill a worker, Jiang Li had already understood that he was extremely selfish and brutal. Even when restocking, he would never open the warehouse and let others enter freely.
After all, he was the station master, and those supplies were his lifeline.
Du Meiqin seemed to notice her confusion and took out a golden key from her pocket.
“I only have the outer warehouse key,” she explained.
The warehouse was divided into inner and outer sections. The outer warehouse stored cheap, common goods. The inner warehouse contained valuables, which Huang Tao kept on him at all times—even when bathing or sleeping. He would never let outsiders near them.
This outer key was merely a tool he used to control the three women.
During the two days he was away in Dongyao City to restock, having access to the outer warehouse meant they would not run away.
Food and daily necessities stored there were enough to keep them from worrying about survival. In this world, escaping without supplies meant certain death.
The temptation of resources was strong enough that even under Huang Tao’s abuse, they had never considered running.
Among all the women who stayed with him, only Du Meiqin had this key.
And why only her?
Because she had been with Huang Tao the longest.
Seeing Du Meiqin’s bitter expression, Jiang Li roughly guessed why he had entrusted her with the outer warehouse key.
But what Jiang Li could not understand was—why was Du Meiqin helping her?
They barely had any connection.
Jiang Li did not ask why. Instead, she directly stated what she needed: purification mushrooms.
“Purification mushrooms?” Du Meiqin recognized them. Usually, hunters came to trade for them—only hunters could kill disaster beasts, and consuming their meat required purification mushrooms to remove toxins.
She immediately guessed that Jiang Li had killed a disaster beast and urgently needed them.
Du Meiqin walked into the trading station while speaking.
“Come with me, customer.”
Purification mushrooms were not rare. They were stored in the outer warehouse.
Jiang Li followed her inside but did not enter the storage room, waiting outside for a few minutes.
Soon, Du Meiqin came out holding a cloth bag. In this world, there were no plastic bags—only cloth or leather bags, with leather being more expensive, while cloth was cheap and durable.
“There aren’t many purification mushrooms left in the outer warehouse. This is all there is—you can take them.”
Jiang Li did not reach out. She looked up at her quietly.
She had no Flame Star Stones or equivalent goods to trade. A bag of purification mushrooms like this—she could not afford it.
But Du Meiqin clearly intended to give it to her for free.
Jiang Li knew there was no such thing as a free lunch. If she accepted this, she would owe a large favor.
She disliked owing favors, and she was not in urgent need of purification mushrooms anyway.
“No need.” She refused directly.
Du Meiqin seemed to have expected this. She sighed inwardly and said nothing more.
She had her own intentions.
Her observational skills were sharp. From their last meeting, she had already noticed that this young man was different from others—he possessed a kind of rare goodwill in this cruel world.
She had not seen such a person in a long time. Here, countless people had already become unrecognizable.
She had investigated him: he did not live in Starfire Village, and there were no nearby settlements. The most likely explanation was that he lived in the wilderness. Moreover, given how much he had changed and that he had returned safely from the mine, he was clearly not ordinary.
If he needed purification mushrooms, then either he had killed a disaster beast on his own, or he had a hunter-like backer.
He was not an ordinary person—at least in Du Meiqin’s eyes, he was not.
If she could form even a small connection with him…
Leaving Starfire Village, Jiang Li headed toward the mine.
It was not that she was unmoved. If she had agreed just now, she would have obtained a bag of purification mushrooms and could immediately meditate to improve her physical strength.
But her life experience had taught her that favors were the most troublesome thing.
Yesterday, she had agreed to accompany Du Meiqin home to feed her daughter’s life-saving medicine, and in return, Du Meiqin had brought her to the mine and warned her about important information, helping her avoid many dangers.
That had balanced the favor between them.
Although tempted, Jiang Li did not regret her decision.
For Du Meiqin, giving away that bag of purification mushrooms would also be difficult to explain to Huang Tao.
Huang Tao knew every item in the warehouse. He could accept them consuming supplies, but not giving them to outsiders.
So this favor would have been too heavy.
……
Her thoughts shifted to the mine.
Jiang Li remained vigilant the entire way, constantly wary of dead trees, afraid of encountering another Withered Leaping Frog ambush.
They were masters of camouflage—any dead trunk could be hiding one.
Her meditation had only increased her stamina by two points, and her mental strength had not improved. At most, she could form a single fireball.
On full alert, she arrived safely at the mine.
After registering her name, she took the elevator down into the underground.
Although Supervisor Li was nowhere to be seen, she did not relax.
She knew that even though the tunnels were narrow, the people here had many ways to monitor miners.
On the way to Area 193, she passed several miners.
“Did you hear? Area 20 had another incident. It even affected Areas 21 and 22—more than ten miners died. I saw the bodies being carried out wrapped in white cloth yesterday.”
Two miners walked ahead, whispering.
“Good thing our area is far from 20. Otherwise we’d be done for too. But what exactly happened? Was it a disaster beast?”
“It’s not that simple. From the way those people died, it’s probably…”
“No way. How could something like that appear in daytime?”
“I heard…”
Their voices faded as they turned down another corridor and disappeared.
Standing at the intersection, Jiang Li’s gaze darkened.
‘Area 20…’