Ye Mian was momentarily stunned. She eventually released her grip, stood up, and looked at the battle that had seemingly reached its conclusion.
Although she was the one who had engineered this outcome, the person involved—herself—was extremely bewildered.
After a while, Ye Mian looked at the cluster of Wild Sanqi, which had conscientiously uprooted itself and used its flower vines to shuffle behind her. Then she glanced at the mutant osprey, which had been completely defeated by Da Hei’s jaws and was only twitching occasionally to show it wasn’t quite dead yet. Belatedly, she understood what had happened.
The Wild Sanqi’s attacks looked weak, but they did carry some negative status effects.
However, since Ye Mian was immune to all attacks and Da Hei had recently consumed a Twin-tailed Snake and gained poison resistance, the only one to suffer was the mutant osprey.
It was a bit ridiculous, yet it seemed perfectly logical.
One successful taming and one imminent kill—all in all, it was a good result.
Thinking this, Ye Mian ignored the dying osprey and opened the taming interface to check the illustrations for information.
Name: Wild Sanqi
Combat Power: 2
Skills: [Spray], [Herbivore]
Trait: Cowardly, excels at blending into the environment.
Herbivore? No wonder there was such a sudden, bare clearing here.
Ye Mian glanced at the Wild Sanqi behind her, her eyes flashing with a mix of affection and relief. Fortunately, she hadn’t rejected it; otherwise, the farm would have missed out on a master weed-killer!
After a moment’s thought, she crouched down, gently tugged on a leaf of the Wild Sanqi, and said with a smile, “Remember to eat your grass properly when we get back. Don’t eat things you shouldn’t.”
The Wild Sanqi’s stems and leaves trembled, and its clusters of red flowers swayed slightly, as if saying it understood.
Ye Mian didn’t know if it truly understood or was just faking it, but the words were said. She would just have Da Hei keep an eye on it back at the farm.
Over there, Da Hei had finished off the mutant osprey and begun unceremoniously eating it. However, the feathers were long and thick; every time he ended up with a mouthful of feathers, he would let out a whine of complaint, which looked oddly hilarious.
Ye Mian was now certain that Da Hei only ate mid-level mutant beasts or higher. This “eating” wasn’t just for sustenance; it was a form of leveling up.
Once he finished eating, the prompts for picking up items popped up.
[Pick up “Damaged Osprey Tail Feather”?]
[Pick up “Lusterstone”?]
Ye Mian clicked to pick them up. She opened the warehouse and exchanged the black feather for ten points, then turned her attention to the three Flame Fruits given by the side quest.
Their shape was similar to the Jade Fruit—both were oval. However, unlike the smooth skin of the latter, the surface of the Flame Fruit had dark cracks, though upon closer inspection, it wasn’t actually cracked.
Thinking of something, Ye Mian opened the extra “Corn Pizza Recipe” she had obtained. Sure enough, she saw the words “Flame Fruit” listed there.
“It seems I should do the side quests whenever I can.”
However, Ye Mian really wanted to know what the reward would be for the collection mission involving the three special foods. She resisted the urge to refresh the quests and decided to leave it for now.
With the exploration complete and the hunt successful, Ye Mian contentedly led Da Hei and the timidly following Wild Sanqi back home.
Because her physical stamina was average, she had to stop and rest frequently. The round trip took up most of the afternoon, and by the time they returned to the farm, the day was drawing to a close.
Under the glow of the yellow sunset, Ye Mian looked at the small farm, which had already transformed significantly, and her pace slowed down.
Xue Kai had finished harvesting the corn and had planted the tomatoes. Right now, the ripe red tomatoes contrasted beautifully with the green leaves, shimmering in the sunlight.
On the other side, the cornfield hadn’t survived to yield a second crop; instead, the stalks had turned yellow and dry, rustling softly in the breeze.
Harvest and decay were presented before her eyes simultaneously.
At the same time, she could see Xue Kai’s busy figure moving through the wheat field. Since there were no water pipes, he was industriously watering each seed by hand.
When he saw Ye Mian and Da Hei return, he was about to wave a greeting, but the next second he saw the Wild Sanqi shuffling forward on its flower vines, and he froze.
It wasn’t until Ye Mian had settled the Wild Sanqi to “eat grass” around the front and back of the house that he snapped out of it and hurried over.
“Is that a mutant too?”
Ye Mian nodded. “Yes, similar to Da Hei. Though it’s one of us now, you’d better not get too close to it.”
Even though the Wild Sanqi likely wouldn’t spray poison at people randomly after being tamed, it was better to be safe.
Xue Kai didn’t need a special reminder; he wouldn’t dare get close anyway. He nodded like a chick pecking at grain, then remembered something. “That rabbit’s fur is too tough. I couldn’t find a saw, so I haven’t touched it yet.”
“So, dinner is vegetarian again.”
He said this, but once dinner was actually served, one could see he had put a lot of effort into this vegetarian meal.
The main star was the potatoes harvested today: french fries, potato chips, stir-fried shredded potatoes, and boiled potatoes. The accompaniments were carrot and corn soup, plus a freshly made, simple homemade tomato sauce.
The meal felt both luxurious and like someone was trying their absolute best with what they had.
Because of this, Ye Mian finally tasted textures other than “fragrant and sweet.” The fried items were salty, fragrant, and crisp. Paired with the sweet and sour tomato sauce, it felt refreshing and appetizing.
The stir-fried and boiled potatoes were waxy but not sticky; eating them while they were hot was incredibly satisfying, and her body warmed up instantly.
Xue Kai, sitting opposite her, was also eating heartily. However, halfway through the meal, he seemed to remember something, and his mood turned somber. Although he took a moment to pull himself together, his movements slowed down afterward.
It wasn’t hard to guess that he was thinking of his loved ones.
Ye Mian had only ever had one important person in her life—the master who taught her all her skills. But he had been dead for years, and she rarely thought of him anymore.
As for the original owner of this body, fragments of memory suggested she was essentially an orphan—her parents divorced when she was young and remarried, having new children. She became the redundant one.
The people who had actually abandoned her were her stepfather and half-brother. Her mother had become a mutant.
Stopping those memories in time, Ye Mian saw that Xue Kai had lost his appetite and put down his chopsticks. She took out the three special recipes from the system warehouse and handed them to him.
“See what ingredients can be prepared in advance. Tomorrow, we’ll go into the city to look for them.”
“Huh?” Xue Kai’s attention immediately shifted to the recipes. He found that besides the Fruit Sandwich he’d seen yesterday, there were now Vegetable Salad and Corn Pizza. They were all relatively simple Western dishes. Aside from the special fruits and vegetables, the rest could be substituted with ordinary ingredients.
For example, flour for the pizza dough, yeast, sugar, salt, oil, and the like.
Although going into the city was risky, seeing that Ye Mian had already made up her mind, he nodded. “Okay, I’ll make a detailed list.”
After listing the items, Xue Kai still had to clean up, wash the dishes, and tidy the kitchen. After finishing her dinner, Ye Mian conscientiously took a basket to harvest the tomatoes.
As usual, Da Hei came over to snag a few tomatoes. He ate them one by one, clearly enjoying them.
Seeing this, Ye Mian wiped the skin of a tomato and ate while she picked. Unlike the tomato sauce, the fresh tomatoes were sweet and sour, crisp and fresh—perfect for an after-dinner fruit.
Xue Kai had likely considered that harvesting was exhausting and that they couldn’t eat too many vegetables at once if they piled up, so he had only planted twenty tomato plants for now. Thus, the extra harvest wasn’t much.
There were only two types: Tomato Seeds x10 and Cherry Tomato Seeds x10.
Ye Mian opened the warehouse to check and found that after she had left in the afternoon, Xue Kai had continued harvesting corn and obtained two more packs of different corn varieties: Black Corn and Fruit Corn.
Adding it all up, they had a total of fifteen extra harvests, only five away from completing the mission.
She hoped the Spiritual Essence value would be higher tomorrow.
Because they were definitely going to leave for the city early the next day, the busy Xue Kai didn’t stay up late to do farm work. He only did a quick patrol of the wheat field and checked the status of the sweet potato seeds they’d planted not long ago. After Ye Mian went upstairs, he followed and picked an empty room to rest.
Ye Mian was also preoccupied with the trip to the city and woke up naturally just as the sky was turning grey at dawn. She instinctively opened the system interface. Confirming there were no issues, she felt relieved and lingered in bed for a while.
When she was ready and went downstairs, she heard Xue Kai exclaiming outside, followed by Da Hei barking.
“?” What now?
Ye Mian hurried out the door and saw the source of the commotion—the wasteland on the right side of the house, which had been left untouched, was now bare. Not only were the calf-high weeds gone, but even the roots were completely gone.
Not only that, but the grass near the corners of the house had been eaten clean.
That was fast!
As she thought this, Ye Mian looked around for the Wild Sanqi. She was momentarily stunned when she found it hiding in the middle of the tomato field they had harvested yesterday.
Then, she said between laughter and tears, “It’s fine. It was that cluster of flowers from yesterday.”
It was quite honest; besides the weeds, it hadn’t touched the harvested vegetable patches at all.
Xue Kai finally understood. Ye Mian had likely brought that mutant flower back specifically because she saw its potential as a lawnmower.
Truly, no one here was a freeloader.
He nodded, relaxing. “Then I’ll go dig up the sweet potatoes for breakfast.”
“I’ll help.”
While bringing out the hoe and basket, Ye Mian checked today’s Spiritual Essence: 9+1. Her footsteps paused, and she raised an eyebrow.
She didn’t know if 10 was the maximum value, but this was the highest it had been in three days.
Besides the sweet potatoes ready for harvest, the wheat field was already covered in lush green sprouts. She believed they would be mature by the time they returned from their trip.
By then, if she planted all the fast-growing vegetables and tomato seeds, she should be able to rake in a huge wave of extra harvests.
As if hearing her inner thoughts, Xue Kai deftly swung the hoe. As he dug up the first sweet potato plant, complete with sprouts and tubers, a text box popped up instantly.
[Obtained extra “Sweet Potato Seeds” x100!]
Ye Mian glanced at it, then calmly followed suit, swinging her hoe and prying open the soil. A cluster of plump sweet potatoes was revealed.
[Obtained extra “Sweet Potato Seeds” x100!]
“…”
Was this probability and quantity for real?
Ye Mian was momentarily lost, not knowing whether to be pleasantly surprised or terrified. After they finished digging up all of them, she was completely numb—from a mere ten sweet potato seeds, they had harvested nearly two hundred sweet potatoes and three hundred sweet potato seeds.
What “Sweet Potato King”?
However, Ye Mian soon happily accepted her self-proclaimed title and even looked forward to the days of planting sweet potatoes in the future.