Chapter Fifty-Four: Little Cabbage

After defeating the spider whose skin was as tough as steel, there were no worthy enemies left in the mine.

“Mr. Nimblehands, take Dogmeat and sweep the battlefield. No matter their size, kill every remaining spider,” Sun Licheng commanded Mr. Nimblehands, then took Jadebreaker and began cutting up the giant spider before him.

All magical beasts, especially the powerful ones, are treasures from head to toe. This spider was massive; its carapace, skull, and eight legs were as hard as iron—excellent materials. With Jadebreaker’s help, Sun Licheng quickly dismembered the spider. He picked up the carapace, weighed it, and tapped it with his fingers—it sounded like steel.

“A fine thing!” Sun Licheng exclaimed, unable to put down the carapace.

Before his own abilities improved, he needed stronger armor, and this spider offered the perfect material. In Elder Scrolls, there were many bone weapons and equipment; Sun Licheng had ready templates for them.

Besides the spider’s hard bones, Sun Licheng found a sizeable, dark green magic crystal in its head, shimmering with beautiful halos. Unfortunately, he had little knowledge of magic crystals and couldn’t tell its attributes or harness its full potential.

“These treasures shouldn’t just be used as ammunition. I must find out their classifications and uses someday,” he resolved silently, gazed at the crystal a moment longer, then put it in his magic crystal pouch.

At that moment, Mr. Nimblehands returned with Dogmeat; they had eliminated all remaining spiders. The mine was now spotless.

Sun Licheng and his companions returned to the surface, made two four-wheeled wagons, and, with the Wolf King, began loading all the spider corpses, preparing to transport them back to the forward camp.

These spiders were enormous—not only their fangs and claws were useful, their venom sacs made excellent biochemical weapon materials, and their meat was surprisingly delicious.

Of course, the Wolf King couldn’t eat it; he now only ate ordinary beasts.

In this world, every creature’s attributes varied greatly—some complemented, some contradicted—so eating the wrong thing could cause severe adverse reactions, even death. Most magical beasts, when killed, were simply left to rot. Only Sun Licheng, a bug-like anomaly, could use broadcast calisthenics and Tai Chi to fuse these energies into Yin-Yang forces, allowing him to eat freely.

Mr. Nimblehands was studying the Tai Chi vortex, but progress was slow due to scarce information and no precedent. Still, after Sun Licheng consumed more magical beast meat, his physical attributes noticeably improved, even his magical power increased—his flame abilities were gradually approaching the second tier. Therefore, all the spider meat from this cave must be taken away.

“Boss, everything inside the cave has been moved out,” Mr. Nimblehands reported.

“Well done,” Sun Licheng nodded. Then he had the Wolf King and Mr. Nimblehands each pull a wagon, and the group set off for home.

…

Four days later, under bright sunshine, Sun Licheng was in the council hall of the Silvermoon Tribe, reporting on the clearance of the salt mine to the tribe’s chiefs.

“Sun Licheng, so you’ve wiped out all the spiders?” Vol asked excitedly.

“Yes, I cleared all three layers, not even a spider egg was spared,” Sun Licheng nodded, answering calmly.

Chief Eve sat in the central seat, smiling with satisfaction. The incident had started with Sun Licheng challenging the tribe’s authority, but the outcome was unexpectedly positive, reclaiming the salt mine for Silvermoon. The tribe’s decline was largely due to losing this mine.

When they lost the salt mine, Silvermoon’s economy suffered greatly, losing the foundation to compete for resources and talent with the Moon Alliance tribes. Other tribes’ rise and suppression gradually led to Silvermoon's downfall.

Now, with the salt mine regained, trade with other tribes would surely bring back urgently needed supplies and attract more warriors to join, greatly boosting the tribe’s hopes for revival.

Isidor’s expression soured as he listened. He hadn’t expected Sun Licheng to be so formidable, accomplishing alone what the entire tribe couldn’t. He and his son had recently badmouthed Sun Licheng, belittling his abilities, but now Sun Licheng had proven them wrong.

After a while, Isidor’s face brightened, and he finally broke into a smile. He remembered he was the tribe’s elder in charge of material production; with the salt mine in hand, that authority would return to him. The importance of salt meant his status would rise. As for past grudges with Sun Licheng, they were trivial—after all, Sun Licheng was an outsider and posed no threat to his own elder position.

“Could I secure a better position for Luther?” Isidor’s eyes flickered with scheming, planning to discuss it with the chief after the meeting.

“Sun Licheng, tomorrow we’ll send envoys to other tribes to gather information. We hope you’ll stay, both to await news and to help our tribe. What do you think?” Eve asked gently.

“Certainly, thank you, Chief,” Sun Licheng replied. This was exactly the outcome he wanted; as for aiding Silvermoon, that was trivial.

In sum, it was a triumphant, satisfying assembly. That evening, Silvermoon held a grand banquet to celebrate the salt mine’s return. At the feast, Christina transformed into a mother leopard, repeatedly chasing away the goblin women who tried to pester her, making Vol and others laugh heartily.

The next day, after a tribal meeting, Silvermoon decided to set up a camp at Salt Mountain, and Isidor secured the position of Salt Mine Guard Captain for his son Luther.

Soon, the spirited Luther set off with his team, and it was expected that the first batch of salt stones would be delivered soon.

Alongside them departed envoys sent to other tribes for intelligence, and a female slave was brought before Sun Licheng.

“Master.”

Faced with her new master, the slave was quite timid.

“Don’t call me ‘master’—call me ‘boss’ from now on. Remember, you are my subordinate, not my slave. Everyone here is treated with dignity,” Sun Licheng, unaccustomed to slavery, immediately corrected her.

“Yes, Master—no, Boss,” she quickly replied.

“By the way, what’s your name?” Sun Licheng asked.

“My name is Dogskin.”

The goblin slave’s answer astonished Sun Licheng; it wasn’t a normal name.

“Did you have another name before?”

Sun Licheng voiced his doubt.

The slave’s face twisted in pain, as if recalling a sorrowful past. She shook her head, “My old name doesn’t matter. May I not tell you?”

Sun Licheng didn’t insist. After thinking, he said, “Alright, if it brings you pain, you need not tell me. But ‘Dogskin’ is an awful name—henceforth, you’ll be called Little Cabbage.”

“What is cabbage?” she asked, puzzled, having never seen one.

“It’s a kind of vegetable. Never mind, just know it’s a much nicer name,” Sun Licheng decided not to pursue the matter further—a name was just a name.

“Alright, thank you, Boss,” she said, pleased, for ‘Dogskin’ was truly unpleasant.

With the name settled, Sun Licheng told her to prepare food for the Wolf King, then went to find Vol to inquire about any special places nearby.

“Boss, may I ask you something?” Little Cabbage called just as Sun Licheng turned away.

“Go ahead,” he replied, turning back.

“Why did you stop Luther from hitting me? He’s Elder Isidor’s son—he’ll bring endless trouble for you. Do you regret it?”

Her question surprised Sun Licheng; he hadn’t expected this.

Indeed, does he regret it now? Sun Licheng asked himself.

To claim he never regretted it would be false, especially with his inexplicable emotional outburst—a lingering mystery. But now, he didn’t feel that way.

“I was reckless, but my upbringing told me I had to step up and stop Luther from beating an innocent woman, even if she was a slave. So no, I don’t regret it. That’s my principle.”

Sun Licheng spoke with conviction, then strode away.

Yes, stopping Luther—even beating him—would surely cause trouble, but to return home, Sun Licheng needed to help two hunted gods revive. In other words, he had to challenge this world.

Faced with such an almost impossible task, Sun Licheng could only rely on his heart, without the slightest retreat. Luther and Isidor were nothing. If he betrayed his own heart, he might as well settle down as a goblin, like that god who hid for centuries.

“I am a man! I am a man determined to go home! No matter how timid I was on Earth, here I will walk bravely, even if it means opposing the whole world!” Sun Licheng muttered, clenching his fists tightly.

Not far away, Little Cabbage watched his retreating figure, deep in thought.