Going Up the Mountain
Lang Zhan was unaware that he had been given a “good guy” card. After dinner, Bai Lou said he wanted to go hunting and gathering vegetables, and he hesitated for a moment before shaking his head.
“Hunting is out of the question. You don’t eat much anyway. From now on, you’ll help me grill meat and eat with us. If you want to gather wild vegetables and fruits, I can go with you.”
Bai Lou agreed without hesitation. He wasn’t a cat who liked to fight. Aside from arguing with other stray cats over territory and confirming the leader, he had almost never fought.
“It’s great that someone is willing to take care of a cat,” Bai Lou thought happily. Cats should eat their fill and sleep, sleep their fill and eat, bask in the sun every day, and enjoy snacks—a happy cat life!”
But happiness was still ahead. He needed to find seasonings and vegetables, and also needed to find goods to sell to earn world currency. He couldn’t rely solely on Lang Zhan to hunt dragon beasts, and judging from Lang Zhan’s injuries, it was very dangerous.
Lang Tu was too small and inconvenient to carry, so Lang Zhan took it to the main house. Many tribespeople who couldn’t survive alone lived there, and would help care for the cubs during the day. There were many companions in the main house, so Lang Tu wouldn’t be bored.
Originally, Lang Zhan planned to temporarily send Bai Lou there as well, but now…
Lang Tu glanced at the beautiful cat-beastman waiting obediently at the door, went to the warehouse, took a large piece of animal hide, and led Bai Lou outside.
“It’s dangerous outside, female…” Lang Tu paused, skipping the word. “They gather wild vegetables in the surrounding small forests. Male beastmen go there every few days to drive away wild beasts, it’s relatively safe.”
Bai Lou followed behind him, memorizing the way while curiously looking around. “Zhan, how can I get a house?”
He had just learned that some tribes shared housing!
Lang Zhan didn’t look at him, his tone as cold as ever, revealing no emotion.
“There aren’t any extra houses. Living in the big house isn’t convenient. Since you agreed to eat with us, stay at my place for now.”
“Oh, thank you.” Bai Lou was a little annoyed. He wanted a separate courtyard that would make everything much more convenient. However, staying at Lang Zhan’s house was much better than living in the big house, and he was still very grateful to Lang Zhan.
The trees in the small forest weren’t as tall as those in the Beast Forest. Lang Zhan handed Bai Lou the animal hide and cleared away the branches blocking his path to prevent them from hitting him.
Bai Lou, meanwhile, looked down carefully at the plants on the ground, wondering if the plants here were the same as those on Blue Star. If they weren’t, that would be terrible.
“Ding, detected available item for sale, identified as a levelless edible plant [vegetable], containing faint spiritual energy, a specialty of this plane [can be named].”
Following the system’s guidance, Bai Lou saw a small patch of green plants. As is typical of the Beastman plane, the plants were large, with white stems and green leaves.
Bai Lou couldn’t recognize what kind of vegetable it was, only thankful that the shop detector was there.
“Zhan, wait a minute!”
Calling Zhan back, Bai Lou excitedly ran to the small patch of wild vegetables, spread out his animal hide, and began to pull them up.
Lang Zhan also came over, looking at the few wild vegetables with a puzzled expression. “Can this be eaten?”
“Yes!” Bai Lou answered confidently.
“Help me dig up those three over there, make sure the roots are intact.”
He wanted to try planting them in the space to save seeds, otherwise, relying solely on wild vegetables was only enough for the three of them, but selling them wouldn’t be enough.
There were seven vegetables in total, not many, but each one was bigger than a cabbage on Earth, filling a large bag.
Lang Zhan consciously picked up the animal skin bundle and slung it over his shoulder, asking, “Shall we continue?”
“Continue!” Bai Lou was full of energy. He felt his luck was pretty good today, he hadn’t walked far and had already collected a large bag of vegetables.
However, what he really wanted were seasonings and grains. If he couldn’t find them, he would have to buy them from the shop, which would not only cost him world currency but also be difficult to sell.
“Ding, detected available item, determined to be a levelless edible plant [fruit], containing weak spiritual energy, not a specialty of this plane, common name [lemon].”
After walking for more than an hour, Bai Lou kept wiping away sweat. The sun was high in the sky, and the temperature was gradually rising. Even though the forest was slightly shady, the continuous walking made him unbearably hot.
Just as Bai Lou, this lazy cat, was internally convincing himself to give up for the ninth time, the shop system detector finally beeped. Relieved, Bai Lou looked up.
It was a large tree, eight or nine meters tall, laden with green and yellow fruit.
Lemons were too sour, and Bai Lou didn’t like them.
But they were still fruit, after all. Bai Lou remembered lemons could be used in cooking and grilling. If only he could get some honey, a glass of ice-cold honey lemonade would be incredibly refreshing on such a hot day.
Although Lang Zhan was walking ahead, he had been watching Bai Lou’s movements. Noticing Bai Lou had stopped, he stopped as well.
Following Bai Lou’s gaze, Lang Zhan frowned.
“This shouldn’t be eaten.”
Bai Lou, who had just transformed into a cat and leaped onto the tree trunk, paused, hanging on the trunk and turning to look at Lang Zhan.
“Meow?” Why?
“I’ve encountered this fruit before, but I’ve never seen a wild animal eat it. Generally, these kinds of fruits are inedible.”
Bai Lou was relieved, at least he hadn’t eaten anything that might have caused problems. “Meow~” Because it was too sour.
The white cat nimbly climbed up the tree trunk, picking and choosing until it selected a branch with the most yellow lemons.
It gestured with its paw, then meowed loudly down below.
“Zhan, get away! I’m going to break this branch!”
Lang Zhan glanced at the branch he was on and moved to the opposite side.
A faint, icy blue light flickered from Bai Lou’s paw. With a gentle stroke, a large section of the branch laden with fruit fell to the ground with a “crack.”
Lang Zhan, seeing the cat’s paw too clearly from below, didn’t notice the spiritual power in Bai Lou’s paw and looked at the broken branch in surprise.
The broken section of the branch was nearly as thick as a bowl, and he hadn’t expected Bai Lou to break it so easily.
Bai Lou transformed back into human form, and looked at the fallen branch and fruit with a pleased expression.
The fruit had fallen from a great height, many breaking off and some cracking.
Lang Zhan spread out the animal hide and helped Bai Lou collect the fruit.
After all the fruit was packed into the hide, Bai Lou stared thoughtfully at the branch.
“Zhan, let’s drag the branch back.”
He remembered that many trees could be propagated by planting stakes, he wondered if lemon trees could. Even if they shouldn’t normally, with the spiritual spring water, it shouldn’t be a problem.
Lang Zhan’s yard was large, one of the largest in the tribe, and now it was empty so it would be a shame not to plant something.
“Hmm? What do you need a branch for? This isn’t suitable for firewood,” Lang Zhan said, somewhat puzzled.
“I know, I want to plant it in the yard, so in a couple of years I won’t have to come up the mountain to pick fruit,” Bai Lou said with a grin, grabbing the large branch.
“Let’s go back first. By the way, is there another way down the mountain? Maybe we can find something if we take another route.”
Bai Lou’s little scheme was running fast.