Chapter 107: The Dazed Little Grievance Spirit

Lin Yifan racked his brain, his head felt about to burst, yet he still couldn't recall.

Ruan Qingtan and Hong Shaoqiang were in the same boat!

Just as the three were at a loss, Xiao Hudie, whose hand was being held by Ruan Qingtan, suddenly grabbed a small waterweed and said cheerfully:

"Brother, sister, look! This waterweed is so pretty, and there's a tiny crystal on its leaf!"

Lin Yifan and the others, hearing this, instinctively turned their heads and saw Xiao Hudie's hand clutching a waterweed about half a meter long.

The waterweed quivered as if alive while Xiao Hudie squeezed it.

On that waterweed, there was a pea‑sized crystal.

Waterweed, crystal?

When Lin Yifan saw the crystal, a flash of insight sparked in his mind.

How could a normal waterweed have a crystal on it?

Unless the waterweed is abnormal!

Or the crystal is abnormal!

Seeing Xiao Hudie about to touch the crystal with a fingertip, he shouted urgently:

"Xiao Hudie, stop! Don't touch that crystal!"

But he was a step too late; Xiao Hudie's hand had already brushed the crystal.

The moment she touched the crystal, a vortex materialized out of nowhere in the water before them.

Lin Yifan, seeing this, instantly pulled the defenseless Ruan Qingtan and Xiao Hudie behind him.

In the next second, a massive Pipi Shrimp emerged from the vortex!

"Is... is that a Pipi Shrimp?" Ruan Qingtan, standing behind Lin Yifan, exclaimed in disbelief.

"It's not a Pipi Shrimp, it's a Grievance Spirit!" Lin Yifan shook his head, his expression solemn, and said:

"Actually these Grievance Spirits are right beside us. Did you see the waterweeds around? Each one bears a tiny crystal, and that crystal is the Grievance Spirit itself."

"Before the giant octopus appeared, we also touched a waterweed's crystal, but we had just arrived and overlooked that detail."

Hong Shaoqiang and Ruan Qingtan finally understood.

"But this Pipi Shrimp doesn't seem that powerful!" Hong Shaoqiang said, puzzled as he looked at the creature.

"If we hadn't teamed up, a single person could maybe wear it down, but it would take a huge amount of time."

"But this Pipi Shrimp is a far cry from that!"

It's not that Hong Shaoqiang despises the Pipi Shrimp; this one is indeed huge—over a meter long, like a giant centipede, and looks rather intimidating.

But compared with the earlier giant octopus, it's worlds apart.

Moreover, after emerging from the vortex, the Pipi Shrimp just stood at a distance, staring blankly at them without launching an attack.

At a glance, it's a mentally‑deficient Grievance Spirit!

Lin Yifan wasn't surprised; in a small town, residents' intelligence varies.

Even if those residents become Grievance Spirits, the dim‑wits won't suddenly turn into geniuses.

Of course, even if it were a dim‑witted Grievance Spirit, Lin Yifan didn't hesitate; he grabbed the Wind‑Chasing Cloud‑Breaking Bow and loosed an arrow at the Pipi Shrimp's head!

The arrow reached the Pipi Shrimp's eyes, and it scrambled to dodge, but instead of evading, its clumsiness caused the arrow—originally aimed at its brain—to pierce straight into its eye!

The Pipi Shrimp twitched, then collapsed motionless on the lakebed.

Lin Yifan twitched the corner of his mouth and said with a hint of reflection:

"If every Grievance Spirit were like this Pipi Shrimp, clearing the Instance would be a breeze!"

At that moment, the Pipi Shrimp's corpse dissolved into specks of light, eventually leaving a corpse.

"Huh! This looks like a child's corpse!" Ruan Qingtan stepped forward, exclaiming in surprise:

"I thought only adults became Grievance Spirits, but even children can turn into them!"

This Grievance Spirit's corpse, like the previous one, had pale blue skin and pointed ears, but it was a child's body.

In size, it was about the same as Xiao Hudie.

Lin Yifan was fine, but Hong Shaoqiang, as a father, couldn't help feeling an overflow of sympathy and sighed:

"Natural disasters are truly ruthless; the child was so young, and now it's gone—how unpredictable life is!"

He turned to Lin Yifan and asked curiously:

"Captain, do you think the world inside the Instance shares a connection with the Survival Realm?"

"There's definitely a link," Lin Yifan said, squatting by the corpse, carefully examining its attire while answering:

"The small town in this Instance was destroyed by a sudden flood; everyone perished in it, and the disaster we now face is the Heavy Rain Disaster—essentially both are water disasters."

"Perhaps the other races in this town, like us, fled their destroyed homeworld to the Survival Realm seeking a last chance, only to encounter an unstoppable terrifying disaster and all perished."

At those words, Hong Shaoqiang and Ruan Qingtan's faces turned pale.

Lin Yifan's speculation wasn't without basis.

In their District, there were initially 100,000 Survivors, but now just over 50,000—barely half.

After the First Disaster, over 40,000 Survivors died.

Now they're about to face the Second Disaster, and it's uncertain how many will remain afterward.

No one can guarantee!

No one knows how many more disasters will follow!

Perhaps one day they too will be buried beneath a terrifying disaster, like the other races of this town.

At that moment, even Lin Yifan couldn't help feeling a sense of tragic sorrow.

For a moment, the three fell into silence.

Until the Small Yi Ethnic Group corpse dissolved into specks of light, leaving a Treasure Chest, and the three finally recovered.

Lin Yifan got up and stepped back, Ruan Qingtan consciously stepped forward, and after performing a series of Prayer Rituals, opened the Treasure Chest.

However, perhaps because this Treasure Chest was left by a minor alien race, it did not yield the Advanced Cast Iron that Lin Yifan wanted, only a toy Bell.

A toy like that naturally belongs to Xiao Hudie!

Besides the small Bell, the chest also contained another item, namely a Mysterious Fragment; like the previous piece, it only has a name and no other description.

Lin Yifan used the Eye of Appraisal to appraise the fragment, and then put it away.