Chapter 45: The Joy of Solitude

“Congratulations, your combat level has risen to level 23.”

At last, when there were only a little more than twenty stones left in her system backpack, the soul corpse’s health bar was finally emptied.

Slaying this high-level monster, she gained two combat levels in succession.

In the village, soul corpses had to be burned quickly after being killed, lest their poisonous fumes spread and contaminate other things.

In her system backpack, Yun Qing had some dry firewood she’d picked up earlier, as well as a flint. After gathering more dry wood from the surroundings, she braced herself against the cave wall and slid down, leaping into the pit. This time, the impact was lighter, and her legs didn’t sink into the mud.

As she approached the soul corpse, concentrating on how best to incinerate it, the system prompted her:

“Soul Corpse. Cannot be gathered. Requires level 41 Gathering Skill.”

“Soul Poison. Cannot be purified. Purification level too low.”

So the soul corpse’s level was this high—no wonder her teammates, all at the ninth layer of acquired strength, needed several people to surround and attack it together to bring it down.

She recalled that it took nearly an hour to burn a soul corpse back in the village. With so little firewood and no one to help her, it would take even longer, perhaps she wouldn’t manage to burn it at all.

“Liu Liu, can I throw the soul corpse into the Energy Converter and turn it into energy?”

“Your Energy Converter is a bit low-level. If you convert it now, you’ll only get level-one energy. Any level-two energy it could have produced can’t be extracted.”

“Level-one is fine. It’s such a high-level monster; surely it will yield plenty of energy.”

“You’re mistaken. To prevent humans from killing each other for energy, human corpses yield very little when converted.”

“That’s still better than wasting firewood and time burning it.” Yun Qing touched the soul corpse, focused her mind, and stored it in her system backpack.

Looking at the soul corpse occupying a slot in her backpack, she saw she only had two ways to handle it: wait until her gathering skill was high enough to extract from it, or throw it into the Energy Converter. There was no way to bring it back to the village for the villagers to burn.

After storing the corpse, she touched the scattered pebbles and the two large stones half-buried in the mud. Those she could pick up all went into her backpack, though the quantity was much less than before—some small stones had been smashed so deep into the mud they were no longer easy to find.

Stones littered the ground, so she didn’t mind losing a few.

Once she was done, Yun Qing took a running start and leapt upward, then activated her Jump skill, easily vaulting out of the deep pit.

Stepping out of the pit, Yun Qing surveyed her surroundings. She was in a vast wilderness covered in weeds and trees, with not even a path in sight. She’d never been here before.

It wasn’t safe out here—there could be humans or animals turned into soul corpses, or animals that had absorbed too much poisonous gas. She needed to return to her team as quickly as possible; she might not be so lucky next time.

Judging by the distant landscape, Yun Qing roughly determined the direction of Ye Family Village and headed that way, moving cautiously to avoid any red-named monsters that could appear at any time.

There weren’t many red-named monsters, but plenty of contaminated herbs, and many trees—some polluted, some untainted.

So many resources, and not a soul around. She could use all her system’s functions to her heart’s content. This gave Yun Qing a new idea.

She negotiated with the system sprite, “Liu Liu, there are so many contaminated herbs here that can be converted into energy. So many trees, I could make charcoal and so on. Why don’t I just train alone in the wild for a while? Even if I’m in danger, running for my life isn’t my only option—I can always retreat into the cave-dwelling.”

“I’m fine anywhere, so long as there’s meat to eat.”

There were still a dozen pieces of pork belly and two pieces of mutton in her backpack; Liu Liu’s rations were safe for now.

Such a rare opportunity—she had to seize it to gather more resources.

With her refined iron tongs in hand, Yun Qing reached for a contaminated blood-staunching herb. Moments later, she’d dug it up and stored it in her backpack. It felt wonderful not to have Ye Little Wolf snatching herbs from under her nose.

When it came to gathering herbs, skill level didn’t matter so long as she could uproot them and store them in her backpack. Even if she couldn’t properly gather them, tossing them into the Energy Converter would still yield her some energy.

The joy of every harvest serving her own purposes was hard to overstate.

“Liu Liu, Liu Liu, look, there are several contaminated flax plants over there—those are all mine.”

“Liu Liu, Liu Liu, I want those contaminated chili peppers too. Once I purify them, I’ll season roasted meat with them—it’ll be delicious.”

“Liu Liu, I’ll get a bit of everything—scallions, ginger, garlic—great for stewing mutton to mask the gaminess.”

“Yun Qing, I think you should’ve bought a herb hoe instead of refined iron tongs. It’d be faster.”

“You’re right, but I didn’t have enough silver. The iron tongs are more versatile—I can use them to repair weapons, handle hot charcoal, or even roast meat…”

Like a treasure hunter, Yun Qing flitted from one spot to another, missing no collectible item.

If she encountered snakes, insects, rats, or ants she could defeat, she wouldn’t let any escape, gaining both combat experience and whatever materials she could gather—be it hides, meat, or scraps, all could be converted into energy.

Liu Liu simply grew too lazy to move, watching the “scavenger” from a distance as she filled her system backpack with junk that yielded next to no energy.

Oblivious to Liu Liu’s thoughts, Yun Qing continued to enjoy herself.

After harvesting several plants, Yun Qing approached a tree about the width of a bowl, unpolluted, its system display indicating she could interact with it: “Wood, can be gathered. Requires Gathering Skill level 20.”

The trees shrouded in black pollution mist required a higher gathering skill.

Aside from the ones she’d collected in the cave-dwelling’s farmland, Yun Qing had never chopped wood in real life. She summoned her axe and, recalling her experience felling trees in the cave-dwelling, murmured to the tree, “Use Gathering Skill.”

Nothing happened. Apparently, chopping trees in the cave-dwelling didn’t count; she’d have to fell one herself.

She surveyed the area, choosing the best direction for the tree to fall, then raised her tiger-head axe and struck the base from the opposite side.

Felling a tree was hard work; stroke after stroke, sweat soon poured down her face and her back began to ache.

“Liu Liu, I wish I had a chainsaw.” Yun Qing, who’d seen chainsaws on TV, found using an axe for this job increasingly unsatisfactory.

“Then you should befriend more people—perhaps one day you’ll draw a chainsaw blueprint in the lottery.”

Could she really? Whether she could win it depended on luck, but she’d rather save her luck for cultivation techniques than a chainsaw. After all, as an apprentice at the blacksmith’s, she could try making a hand saw herself.

As she pondered, only a fifth of the tree remained uncut.

With a powerful kick, Yun Qing struck the trunk. With a crisp crack, the bowl-thick tree toppled. The uncut portion was left raggedly attached, so she swung her axe a few more times until it was completely severed.