The First Order

When Xu Xianchu returned to the hollow, he saw Wang Lei inspecting his wound. He asked Ren Xiaosu, “Do you still have any of that medicine?”

With Wang Lei acting as the guinea pig, Xu Xianchu knew well how important that black medicine was. If he sustained any injuries in the wilderness, his survival chances would greatly increase as long as he had the black medicine with him!

“No,” Ren Xiaosu instinctively replied.

“I’ll pay you for it…” Xu Xianchu said.

“In that case, I still have a little,” Ren Xiaosu replied. If it were for something else, he would probably not be willing to exchange it for money. After all, there was no use for money in the wilderness. However, the black medicine was different.

But Ren Xiaosu suddenly thought of a problem. “Haven’t you run out of money?”

Xu Xianchu said, “There was money on those three that you two killed, so I took it from them.”

Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt such a heart-wrenching pain that he couldn’t breathe. He was too inexperienced! How could he not have searched the bodies?! How could he have made such an amateur mistake?!

So it turned out that Xu Xianchu had gone outside to search the corpses just now. This guy was too good at waiting. He was afraid it would be dangerous during the night, so he waited until dawn before going outside.

Ren Xiaosu said resentfully, “That isn’t your money! It’s clearly my money! You have to at least share half of it with me!”

Xu Xianchu gave it some thought and said, “Money is of no use for me here. As long as you give me the black medicine, I’ll give all of the 8,000-plus yuan on me to you.”

When Ren Xiaosu heard that those three had more than 8,000 yuan with them, the pain in his heart grew even greater.

However, Ren Xiaosu carefully sized up Xu Xianchu. ‘This guy really isn’t greedy for money?’ He took out the bottle of black medicine, which was now half-used after it had been applied on Wang Lei, and handed it to Xu Xianchu. “Money, please.”

“Here.” Xu Xianchu took all the money out and handed it to Ren Xiaosu. He even purposely turned his pants’ pockets inside out to prove that he had no money left on him.

Ren Xiaosu nodded in satisfaction. Although he did not know Xu Xianchu well, it felt like he was rather sincere through his actions on the journey thus far.

And when Ren Xiaosu took the money from Xu Xianchu, the voice from his palace said, “It has been detected that the host is carrying 20,000 yuan in cash. Basic storage rights have been unlocked for purchase.”

When Ren Xiaosu treated Wang Lei’s wound, Wang Lei paid him 1,200 yuan. Then Luo Xinyu handed 10,000 yuan to him for his help. And now, he received a further 8,900 yuan from Xu Xianchu. Added together, Ren Xiaosu’s cash on hand reached 20,100 yuan.

But Ren Xiaosu was astounded this time. Before this, he had been very anxious to unlock the palace’s storage function, but the palace never once told him how to gain access to it.

He had guessed that he might have to complete a certain quest or side quest that was similar to unlocking the weapon.

But never could he have imagined he would have to spend his own money to unlock the storage! ‘As a virtual palace, why would you need money?!’

Ren Xiaosu had never saved more than 10,000 yuan in his entire life before. But now that he had received close to 10,000 yuan from Xu Xianchu, he was going to have to spend it all again. This really felt like going back to square one.

He had no choice but to spend the money! Ren Xiaosu knew very well how important it was to have a storage space in the wilderness. He clenched his teeth and said to his mind palace, “Purchase it!”

“Purchase successful. You’ve unlocked basic storage rights.”

At this moment, another door appeared in the palace and slowly opened. Then Ren Xiaosu saw a space measuring one cubic meter embedded in the middle of a wall behind it.

‘What a scam! 20,000 yuan bought me such a small space? What did the palace say just now? Oh right, the basic storage rights have been unlocked.’

That meant he could still buy the intermediate, advanced, and so on and so forth grades of storage in the future? The space behind this door would probably get larger after more purchases and maybe even turn into an actual house?

But how much money would he have to spend for that? Ren Xiaosu did not even know if he could make that much money in this lifetime!

Ren Xiaosu had thought it impressive to earn 20,000 yuan!

Ren Xiaosu felt it was bittersweet. Honestly, his harvest today was far greater than the previous days of the expedition combined. He went outside and broke a tree branch off, then peeled off the bark and used the white stem inside to scrape his teeth clean. Although he could do without washing his face, he needed to keep his teeth feeling clean and fresh.

To be able to live freely in this wilderness, you had to have good oral hygiene.

Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu discovered that Yang Xiaojin and Xu Xianchu were also “brushing” their teeth with the snapped off branches like he did. These two people had a very positive attitude regarding survival. They were learning from nearly everything Ren Xiaosu did.

Ren Xiaosu suddenly grabbed a handful of leaves and stuffed them into his pocket. As a result, Xu Xianchu and Yang Xiaojin also plucked a handful of leaves from the same type of tree and stuffed them into their pockets.

As the saying goes: “There will always be someone to learn from in a group of people.” When Xu Xianchu and the others realized that Ren Xiaosu had far more experience in wilderness survival than them, their first thoughts were to learn from him. Only by learning from Ren Xiaosu could they survive a little more comfortably in this wilderness.

But Xu Xianchu was a little curious. “What use do these leaves have?”

Ren Xiaosu chuckled as he took the leaves out and threw them away. “They have no use. I only wanted to see if the two of you would copy what I did.”

Xu Xianchu was surprised. He looked at Ren Xiaosu for a long time without saying anything. He stubbornly kept the leaves in his pocket and did not throw them away. He plucked the leaves because he wanted to pluck them and definitely not because he was copying Ren Xiaosu’s actions!

But Yang Xiaojin was different. She acted like no one was around and grabbed another handful of leaves and stuffed them into her pocket.

The mental fortitude of Xu Xianchu, Yang Xiaojin, and Ren Xiaosu was obviously better than Luo Xinyu’s and the others’. After witnessing so many deaths last night, the three of them could still face their circumstances with calm. It was as though they did not take these matters to heart.

But Luo Xinyu and the others could not do it. When Ren Xiaosu, Yang Xiaojin, and Xu Xianchu went out of the hollow to brush their teeth, Luo Xinyu and the others did not dare go out because they were scared of the three corpses lying outside.

Luo Xinyu, Liu Bu, and Wang Lei had to calm themselves for half an hour before they finally dared to come out of the cave. They just couldn’t understand why the others could still laugh after all that had happened.

“Let’s get ready to set off.” Xu Xianchu said, “Although we don’t know what dangers we might encounter later on, we can’t stay here. Before it gets dark again, we have to find a suitable place to set up camp for the night. I hope that no one is thinking of going around on their own anymore. After all, you’ve all seen what happened to those who went by themselves.”

They were now on the periphery of the Jing Mountains, and Ren Xiaosu could even see the black smoke spewing from the active volcanoes in the range. The further they went in, the more dangerous it would get.

“Can y’all say what exactly exists in the Jing Mountains?” Ren Xiaosu wondered.

Xu Xianchu thought for a moment and said, “It could be the mystery of the wild animals’ evolution that’s hidden within or perhaps the origination of a new taxonomic order.”

“When you came out of the stronghold, did they tell you what the site that possibly existed there might be?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

Xu Xianchu stopped hiding the information. “A mysterious city.”