After eating a hearty meal, Yinxing felt both her body and mind completely filled with food, and her energy returned.
Having enjoyed such a sumptuous meal, Ling Xiao naturally wasn’t going to just leave right away; he casually helped her pitch the tent she had brought back.
Yinxing: As expected of my good friend.
She had always been generous toward her friends. Using the disposable paper box he had brought over yesterday, she packed him a small half-bowl of roasted peanuts—these were all purified by her, and they tasted delicious.
When she held it out to him, Ling Xiao was puzzled. “Still want to eat?”
“Didn’t I just eat my fill? Do I really look that starving?” Yinxing felt helpless. Eating her fill seemed like a good thing, so how did she leave the impression of being a glutton?
“You did so much for me, and I don’t have anything to thank you with. Take this small half-bowl of roasted peanuts back to eat—you can even boil them!”
Ling Xiao didn’t stand on ceremony with her. Taking the peanuts, he poured them into his waist pocket.
“Thanks. As it happens, I have to make a long-distance trip. With your peanuts, the journey won’t be so boring.”
This news surprised Yinxing a little, and her voice unconsciously raised a few notches.
“What? You’re leaving? Will you come back?”
He was the first friend she had made since coming here; it had only been a few days, and he was leaving already? She felt a tiny bit sad.
“I’ll be back. I’m just going out to handle some matters, and I’m not sure when I’ll return.”
“Is that so…” Her eyelids drooped, making her look like an abandoned kitten and inexplicably giving off a hint of aggrieved helplessness.
Not knowing when he’d return meant he didn’t know when he’d be back—or he might not even come back at all!
“Isn’t it very dangerous outside? There are so many polluted and mutated animals and plants—do you really have to go?”
Ling Xiao nodded. His gaze drifted off into the distance, though it was hard to tell where it landed. Yet as Yinxing looked at him, she only felt a gloominess around him, like dark clouds holding a heavy accumulation of rainwater that could pour at any moment, making her feel stifled and uncomfortable.
“I have my mission; I must go.” After saying that, a faint smile appeared on his face, as if this trip were not a plunge into a dragon’s lair or a tiger’s den, but a casual outing.
He held up a finger, a streak of purple lightning swirling phantom-like around his index finger.
His tone was calm, quiet yet backed by immense confidence.
“Dangerous? Not necessarily for me.”
Yinxing: How did he manage to pull off such a cool flex?
“When I come back, can I still come to your place for meals?”
“Of course! Who knows, maybe by the time you’re back, I’ll have become a little rich lady. I’ll host a grand feast for you then and feed you till you can’t walk!”
Erm.
Ling Xiao was genuinely amused by the words that suddenly blurted out of her mouth.
“Miss Yinxing, I highly suspect your Chinese language skills were taught by a gym teacher.”
“What are you saying?”
She looked innocent and utterly bewildered, pure and confused, genuinely not understanding what he meant by that statement.
What Chinese language skills? And what gym teacher?
“Nothing.” Ling Xiao didn’t say anything further, though the smile at the corners of his mouth faded the moment his wristwatch lit up with a red light.
“I should go. Goodbye, Miss Yinxing. I look forward to the day we meet again.”
Yinxing hummed twice in response and was about to wish him smooth sailing, but in the blink of an eye, the man’s silhouette completely vanished right before her eyes.
“Why is this guy like this? He vanished before I even finished speaking! Hmph, next time I’ll only cook half a meal for you!”
Shaking her head, she thought that since Ling Xiao was so powerful, he could live just fine without her blessings. Rather than worrying about a sequence powerhouse like him, she might as well worry about what she would eat tomorrow.
Rule Number One of Yinxing’s Survival Guide: Physical health comes first.
Now that the tent was pitched, she placed the cot inside and covered it with the thin blanket Ling Xiao had given her. She finally had a simple bedroom—and a private space of her own!
Her gaze landed on the sweet potato sitting beside the pile of pots, pans, and tableware.
Sweet potatoes tasted truly delicious: they could be roasted or steamed, they were large and filling, and most importantly, their fragrant, soft, and chewy texture won Yinxing’s heart.
If she ate this one, she would have to buy another next time she wanted to eat one. Rely on what? Rely on that one single point in her account?
As a famous person once said: As long as you swing the hoe well, there’s no sweet potato you can’t plant.
The famous person Xing picked up the sweet potato and walked outside. If nothing else, there were vast patches of open land outside—more than enough to plant sweet potatoes!
She picked a spot not too far from the water well, right inside the remaining half-wall of the courtyard. This spot required less effort to prepare and could provide a bit of cover.
She didn’t want someone eyeing her sweet potatoes before they even grew; after all, this was her life-saving food!
Clearing away a few broken stones on the surface, she revealed the dark brown soil underneath. It smelled a little foul, but that was no trouble for Yinxing.
Plunging her fingertips into the soil, her initial feeling was one of comfort—a sense of intimacy, like returning to the embrace of Mother Earth. Releasing just a tiny bit of energy was enough to make this small patch of land clean once again.
Finding a wooden stick to loosen the soil, she dug a hole and placed the purified sweet potato—which had already sprouted tiny tender leaves—inside. Covering it with soil and pouring a ladle of purified water over it, the sweet potato was considered planted.
However, that wasn’t the end of it. Yinxing continued to channel her growth-promoting ability. The tiny pair of tender leaves kept expanding outward under the infusion of this energy; the vines crawled further and further, and the leaves grew denser and thicker.
In just a few breaths’ time, what was originally a few tiny green leaves transformed into a lush cluster of foliage.
Yinxing was already sweating profusely, and all the strength in her body felt completely drained as if she were near collapse, so she immediately stopped using her ability.
Her physical condition had indeed improved a lot now; at least she didn’t feel like passing out after using her ability.
Taking advantage of the little strength she had left, she snapped off a few sweet potato vines and inserted them into the soil at intervals. Sweet potatoes were crops that could be propagated through cuttings; she would plant them first and leave the rest for tomorrow when she regained some energy.
Carrying her exhausted body, she fetched a basin of water, washed herself up slightly, changed into the new clothes she had bought today, and collapsed onto the cot, instantly falling asleep.
Holding out until now was already her absolute limit; she didn’t have a single drop of energy left.
Under the night sky, the world was dead silent, except for the forest beyond the courtyard wall in the distance, where rustling sounds occasionally echoed as if the wind were rubbing against the leaves.
She did not know that the sweet potato planted in the courtyard was growing crazily. The sweet potato buried deep underground was expanding at an unimaginable speed, driving the leaves and vines to grow thicker and larger, lush enough to rival a small tree. It continuously digested the energy inside its body, wanting nothing more than to keep stretching itself out without end.
And the distant forest was also thrown into turmoil because of this power…