Chapter 68

Chapter 68: Ke Li Nuo Grasslands

With A Sha’s help, the Ding Ding Fish beastmen lined up in a long, orderly queue.

A large part of that was because Ling Mo had promised everyone would get something.

Otherwise, with how excited they were, they would have been fighting in seconds.

At the front of the line were A Sha and her best friend.

Each of them produced a palm-sized white shell bag with a strap made of linked pearls. When they opened the shells, the inside was packed with pearl-like beads.

“This is sunscreen made from pearl essence,” A Sha’s friend explained. “One bead blocks the heat, and a single bead can last for days.”

The summer heat of Ke Li Nuo Grasslands was deadly to the Ding Ding Fish, so they’d developed this sunscreen for survival.

Each shell bag held around two hundred beads.

Two hundred pearl sunscreen beads, plus a shell bag thrown in—Ling Mo didn’t hesitate. She let A Sha and her friend pick first.

A Sha chose a clownfish. Her friend picked the anemone.

The rest of the line brought mostly pearl sunscreen as well, though some offered vegetable purification tablets.

According to them, the vegetables they grew were only enjoyed by Ding Ding Fish themselves—too fibrous for outsiders to chew. But once processed into vegetable purification tablets, they became extremely popular.

Ling Mo accepted everything with a smile. The tablets were good stuff.

Back home, food prices were climbing by the day. Vegetables were especially bad—almost extinct. She’d sold plenty of Waterwood Stone to 123 Wood before, but for an entire country, that was still only a drop in the bucket.

Some ordinary people had already started suffering from constipation simply because they couldn’t get vegetables.

So Ling Mo happily swept up every last vegetable purification tablet the Ding Ding Fish offered.

Once everyone had traded for what they wanted, Ling Mo waved and said her goodbyes.

The area’s purifying moss and water-storage mushrooms had already been harvested clean. She needed to move on anyway.

She checked the time. Five in the afternoon.

At this hour, even if she went searching, she might not run into another beastman village. Better to rest here for the night and set out tomorrow.

That night, Ling Mo didn’t know how many trees she stripped bare. She only snapped out of it when Qie Man reminded her it was time for breakfast.

Somehow, it was morning again.

Harvesting purifying moss and water-storage mushrooms was addictive in a way that felt genuinely dangerous.

Ling Mo climbed a tree, covered herself with leaves for concealment, and then finally ate.

Three boxed meals, two huge eggplant-and-meat buns, and a cup of milk tea to wash it down. Only then did she let out a satisfied burp.

She rubbed her completely flat belly, baffled by where all that food had even gone.

Then she sensed movement inside her mental power detection range.

To avoid unnecessary trouble, Ling Mo decided it was better to leave.

But she hadn’t gone far before the people behind her suddenly sped up. The distance between them closed fast.

Rapid footsteps pounded closer. Ling Mo turned as if she’d only just noticed them, her expression innocent and confused.

Three people appeared behind her—two men and a woman.

The men looked Asian. The woman was white, with blond hair, deep blue eyes, and striking features.

They looked just as surprised to see Ling Mo.

The blond woman, dressed in clean, practical clothes, greeted her with fluent Chinese and an easy smile. “Hi! What a coincidence. Did you also just come out of that Avatar beastman village? Want to travel together?”

Ling Mo stared silently, already thinking of escape routes.

Turn invisible and run?

But the ground was wet. Even if she vanished, her footprints would give her away.

The woman didn’t seem bothered by Ling Mo’s silence. She introduced herself. “My name is Alice.”

Then she gestured to the two men behind her. “This is BBQ Lover, and this is Wolf-Fang Potato.”

Both men smiled and nodded, their expressions friendly.

Alice continued warmly, “It’s dangerous to move alone. Why not join us? We can look out for each other.”

“Yeah,” the two men chimed in. “We can protect you.”

Ling Mo watched them closely. People didn’t offer kindness for free in this game.

Every “helpful” person she’d met before had turned out to be a sweet, deadly trap.

These three were no different.

But if she refused… three against one. Unless she hid in her Pocket Space, she had no chance.

Even invisibility wouldn’t save her on wet ground.

When Alice saw Ling Mo still wasn’t moving, a flash of irritation crossed her eyes—gone in an instant, replaced by a gentle smile. “If you don’t trust us, you can walk in front. We’ll cover the rear.”

Cover the rear so you can stab me from behind?

They stayed in a tense standoff for several minutes. Wolf-Fang Potato grew impatient and strode forward. “If we tell you to come, then come. Do you really think we’d hurt you?”

Ling Mo rolled her eyes inwardly. Outwardly, she looked terrified—stepping back, waving both hands frantically to signal him not to come closer.

Wolf-Fang Potato didn’t listen.

In the next second, something foul and rancid slapped across his face.

Ling Mo made a strangled, panicked sound—more like “Ah! Ah!” than actual words—flailing wildly as if to say, Didn’t I warn you?

Alice’s expression shifted. “You can’t speak?”

Ling Mo nodded.

“That just now—was that your talent?”

Ling Mo nodded again.

“We were trying to protect you,” Alice said, voice tightening. “Why did you attack us?”

Ling Mo shook her head hard, pointed at Wolf-Fang Potato, then backed away another step, making it as clear as possible that she hadn’t meant to—he’d been the one advancing on her.

Alice inhaled sharply. A flicker of killing intent flashed through her eyes.

She glanced at BBQ Lover.

He took a step forward.

And immediately had something slammed across his face as well.

Alice didn’t even have time to react before she suffered the same treatment.

The three of them clawed at their faces, trying to rip the stinking mess off—but more foul lumps kept pelting them, one after another. With their vision smeared and their hands scrambling, they couldn’t even manage the simplest act of dodging.