Chapter 93: Venturing into the City Again

Hua Zheng scraped the plate clean with a spoon, pouring the remaining vegetable juice from the plate into his mouth.

Hua Zheng wiped his face, saw Lin Manzhi inside the house, and said apologetically, "Then, shall we set out for Kuangsha City tonight?"

Lin Manzhi gave him a glance and said, "No rush."

His clothes were speckled with sand, his hair was messy and spiky, his eyes remained bright and sharp; the next second, Hua Zheng leaned against the wall and yawned, unable to hide his fatigue.

Even cars need to rest and refuel; how could the Flower Leopard, already not good at endurance, keep walking in the desert for many days straight?

She said, "You rest for two days first; let me prepare, and we'll depart the night after tomorrow."

As she spoke, she looked at Mo Lie, his black eyes lively and sparkling, as if silently asking his thoughts.

Mo Lie: "Hmm."

Thus, after agreeing on the departure time, Lin Manzhi and Mo Lie left the courtyard, leaving the Flower Leopard inside to recuperate.

The day passed as usual; after breakfast, Lin Manzhi and Xi Tao, who had made plans, went together to dig for Sand-tail Grass Stalk.

When she arrived, she saw from afar that the stones beneath the Rock Wall at the tribe's entrance had already been moved; many Beastfolk hung their heads, hands empty, returning from outside, looking as if food was becoming increasingly scarce.

On the other side of the rock wall, the Sand-tail Grass Stalks, after only a month, had all withered; one must go deep into the pits to barely see a few stalks.

To sell a whole Sand-tail Grass Stalk, both leaves and root must be present.

It seemed that the ways the tribe could obtain Beast Coin had lost one method in the dry season, Lin Manzhi thought.

Seeing Lin Manzhi sigh, Xi Tao explained, "Sand-tail Grass Stalks set seed during the rainy season; rain washes the seeds everywhere. After the cold season, new leaves grow lushly, and then we will dig again!"

Lin Manzhi: "Alright, the dry season is too hot anyway; we don't need to go out anymore."

She crouched with Xi Tao; they avoided the pits that were too deep and dark, and after searching far all morning, they each only dug about twenty stalks.

If they stayed longer, the temperature would rise; Lin Manzhi and Xi Tao, being delicate females, couldn't endure the sun, and when their respective Beast Husbands came to fetch them, they would return together.

These past few days, Lin Manzhi truly has been preparing.

The Spiritual Field in the space was upgraded over sixty days ago; the cumulative planting count has reached 101, and the Spiritual Field still needs some time before reaching the third tier.

One plot can harvest three hundred Lettuce at a time; during this period, they produced over thirty thousand Lettuce.

Lin Manzhi thought she couldn't sell them all at once, fearing Su Li might eat them all, and she wanted to keep a low profile.

The warehouse now has only two slots; with more items it's inconvenient, so it's a good time to upgrade the warehouse.

How pricey: increasing a warehouse slot's capacity by a thousand jin costs 5,999 coins, while adding a new slot costs a full 10,000 coins.

Seeing the slot prices, Lin Manzhi opened three new warehouse slots, increased one slot's capacity, and spent the over thirty thousand coins she had saved.

Now the space's warehouse has five slots; one slot can hold 2,000 jin, while four slots can hold 1,000 jin.

However, it's good that Lin Manzhi saw the Mall upgrade requires 100,000 coins; her spending of over 30,000 coins shows a consumption of 36,000/100,000 in the Level One Mall, indicating that accumulating consumption to 100,000 coins will unlock the Level Two Mall.

Additionally, the Lettuce to be sold in Kuangsha City, over these two days plus four days of travel, can be harvested seventeen or eighteen times; gathering 6,000 Lettuce should be enough then.

Yet the appearance still needs to be staged: the four large Water Casks are filled and sealed, pretending they contain Lettuce; when trading, she can hide the amount from Hua Zheng, so he won't know how much Lettuce she actually brought.

Now, with such temperature differences, the leather greenhouse is built, but Lettuce still can't be cultivated on a large scale.

Lin Manzhi currently lacks Beast Coin to buy that many pottery pots for Lettuce; for now she only uses the greenhouse to create the illusion, enough to cope without Hua Zheng approaching the courtyard to open the greenhouse.

Lin Manzhi planned everything, feeling a bit at ease.

In the afternoon, she picked the Lettuce in the greenhouse that hadn't grown large leaves yet and ate them as snacks; with no one at home, it's not good to leave such precious Lettuce carelessly around the house.

When leaving the house, she naturally took the valuable items with her; otherwise she wouldn't have rushed to upgrade the warehouse slots.

Then, Lin Manzhi stored the Meat Jerky in the warehouse, also moved the water from the Water Cellar into the warehouse, and combined the over 130 Sand-tail Grass Stalks Xi Tao had gathered these days with her own, totaling about five hundred.

With everything ready, Lin Manzhi applied camouflage to herself, followed Mo Lie out of the house into the night; Mo Lie took the Water Casks first, so after leaving the tribe, she saw the familiar Flower Leopard in the desert night.

The elegant, beautiful yet fierce Flower Leopard now bore a large tapestry on its broad back, with five big Water Casks on its back like humps; the leather straps securing the five casks ran through its forelimbs, providing excellent stability.

When Mo Lie lifted Lin Manzhi onto the Flower Leopard's shoulder, the beast ran across the sand in the shadows at a swift speed.

In the dry‑season desert, daytime temperatures soar above seventy degrees; even a male beast cannot travel long‑term in the desert. Lin Manzhi's party switched to traveling at night, resting in the shade of dunes by day, and after more than four days they arrived at Kuangsha City in the afternoon.

Having paid the entry protection fee for three people, the Flower Leopard excitedly carried the two straight to the Iron Claw Gang's territory.

The Iron Claw Gang's location is in a more remote part of Kuangsha City, dozens of blocks away from the bustling area's Wushen Temple, farther than the Luo Lai Caravan's previous residence.

However, the building's rooms are much larger than those of the Luo Lai Caravan, Lin Manzhi thought as she looked along.

The surrounding structures are neatly built along the road, but unmaintained; many wall buildings have collapsed halfway, exposing roofs that were once likely splendid and beautiful.

Muscular strongmen line the roadside, staring lecherously at passing petite figures; their eyes show malice, but Mo Lie's imposing pressure turns their faces pale as they look away.

Along the way, Lin Manzhi, beside Mo Lie, followed Hua Zheng to a similarly dilapidated palace, entering from the back of a secluded alley.

This place isn't really a palace; stairs run up and down to various small courtyards, and faintly one can hear coarse shouting from the courtyards—a fairly large complex.