Chapter 468: A Little Versailles (2/10, Autumn Subscription)

Seeing Captain Wu's stance, Fang Yue set his mind at ease.

Except for leaving a small portion to hold down the inn, such as Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu, whose leg injury still hadn't healed.

Everyone else followed Captain Wu out to gather information.

As for Fang Yue, he took the fragments of the Fluorescent Bracelet and headed straight for the Green Division.

Today's Green Division was much quieter than usual.

"Ye Baiyi."

Yu Baiyi, who had once nearly been demoted, happened to be heading out and bumped into Fang Yue, greeting him with a complicated expression.

As far as he knew, no one had been able to leap from being one of the captains of a village below directly to the rank of White-Clad Green Guard in just a few short days.

But he had personally gone to Gu Yue Cun and other places to investigate, and knew exactly what Fang Yue had been through.

To survive amid such a horde of Possession, and to repel the Possession with Lord Han's power—such strength and fortune were beyond what an ordinary person could match.

"Yu Baiyi? Perfect timing, let me ask you, where is Lord You?"

Tian Erjun was busy managing the Possession-infected personnel at Qingluan Lou, with limited time and energy, so Fang Yue naturally set his sights on the relatively idle You Sisi.

"Lord You should be dining at Shanshi Fang at this hour."

"Many thanks."

Feet swift as the wind, Fang Yue entered the Green Division in a flash, heading straight for Shanshi Fang.

Upon arriving at Shanshi Fang and catching sight of You Sisi, Fang Yue froze for a moment, instinctively covered his nose, and took two steps back.

There she was, like a quiet, well-bred lady from a great house, eating with impeccable manners and unhurried poise… a lump of rotten meat with green mold blooming on its surface.

The rotten meat gave off an extremely complex smell.

It carried both the foul, putrid stench unique to rotting flesh, and the desperate efforts of a cook wielding seasonings, trying to mask that stench.

Yet the two combined were nothing short of an epic-level disaster!

That mingled, biochemically bizarre stench nearly made Fang Yue gag.

The people around her had all distanced themselves far from her.

If not for You Sisi's Blue-Clad status, which kept anyone from daring to flee outright in her presence, Shanshi Fang would probably already be empty.

But You Sisi, as if no one else existed, picked up her chopsticks, stabbed them into the rotten meat, and with an expressionless face, calmly ate that stinking lump of rotten flesh one bite at a time.

Immortal!!

Fang Yue was instantly stunned, his eyes going wide.

His impression of You Sisi changed in an instant.

Stench Girl!!

From today on, she has only one nickname in my heart: Stench Girl!!

Amid the other diners' horrified gazes, You Sisi finally finished the rotten meat, dabbed her mouth with a silk handkerchief, and stood up.

She looked around, and froze for a moment.

"Ye Baiyi?"

Everyone's gaze instantly shifted to Fang Yue.

Some recognized Fang Yue, others were rather unfamiliar with him.

Watching You Sisi walk toward Fang Yue, only to be called outside by him.

Those still lingering in Shanshi Fang immediately breathed a sigh of relief, and their eyes as they looked at Fang Yue instantly filled with gratitude.

……

"What… did you just eat?"

"Lümei Rou—a type of Ghost Hunter Meat that can cleanse the marrow and refine the constitution, altering one's aptitude while also boosting cultivation."

Huh… sounds pretty powerful.

Fang Yue suddenly felt a twinge of envy, but the moment he thought of Lümei Rou's nauseating smell, he was afraid he'd throw up before he could even swallow it.

From that angle, Stench Girl is still pretty hardcore!!

Holding his breath, Fang Yue mumbled, "Um, the stench…"

"Hmm??"

"…my Merit Points—have my Merit Points been tallied up yet?"

"Should be soon, I'll go check for you in a bit."

Fang Yue really wanted to ask You Sisi how she managed to stomach that stuff, but in the end held back.

Just then, You Sisi popped two pills into her own mouth, chewed twice… then suddenly bent over and went "wah" in a dry heave.

The sudden reaction left Fang Yue stunned.

So your taste buds are just slow on the uptake, huh??

Fang Yue hurriedly patted her back, and the motion made You Sisi's body stiffen at once.

"…I'm fine."

When You Sisi straightened up, she explained: "Lümei Rou is a great tonic for martial artists, but its smell is bizarrely foul. I took poison to numb my taste buds with the toxin, then ate the Lümei Rou. Of those two pills just now, one was the antidote, and the other was a Fresh-Breath Pill to keep my mouth clean."

After holding his breath for a while, Fang Yue sniffed the air lightly, and sure enough, the breath You Sisi exhaled now carried a fragrance, sweet as lavender.

As for You Sisi's dry heaving, it was most likely because once the antidote kicked in, she immediately smelled the Lümei Rou's stench, and couldn't help gagging.

Too hardcore, too hardcore!

Fang Yue couldn't help asking: "Why not refine Lümei Rou into a pill before taking it? Even if you sacrifice some of the effect, it would still be better than eating it raw like this."

You Sisi gave Fang Yue a strange look: "Because pills made from Lümei Rou as a raw material carry extremely violent pill toxins—the gains simply don't compare to the cost.

And if you were to supplement the refinement with massive quantities of targeted medicinal ingredients to preserve efficacy, remove the smell, and reduce pill toxins, the material consumption would be so severe you could just buy more precious and effective high-grade pills instead.

So under normal circumstances, the most economical method is to have a chef cook it, pile on heavy seasoning to mask the taste, and try to preserve the original effects of the ingredient."

So that's how it is.

Other people don't have a talent like 【Night Breathing】, the Night God of War's innate ability, so they have to be extremely careful when popping pills, weighing the pros and cons. If the accumulated pill poison gets serious, they could drop dead on the spot, lose lifespan, or even have their drug tolerance plummet sharply, seriously harming their health and causing problems like a drop in strength.

Fang Yue, however, had no such troubles.

Just take the pills whenever he has them. As long as he doesn't gobble them down in one sitting like he did last night, the pill poison never has time to accumulate before 【Night Breathing】 suppresses it.

Pitiful, pitiful!

This world where even popping pills to level up requires such caution is too pitiful!

Fang Yue thought smugly to himself. Fortunately, he only thought it in his heart — if he actually said it out loud, combined with the fact that he could pop pills without fearing pill poison, someone would probably arrange for a dump truck to run him down the next time he stepped outside. In a game, that would mean getting stabbed through the heart with a sword.

"Right, you came over so early — was it specifically to find me?"

The two chatted as they walked, already some distance from Shanshi Fang, when You Sisi finally asked in puzzlement.

"No, I'm looking for you about something else."

Saying so, Fang Yue unfolded the cloth bundle containing the pile of Fluorescent Bracelet fragments.

"Can you tell what this thing is?"

You Sisi frowned slightly, took out a small fragment, and examined it for a while.

"A bracelet?"

"Right. Can you find out what material it's made of? And where the material was sourced, which craftsman made the bracelet, and also… whether any formations or the like have been inscribed into it."

Fang Yue's barrage of questions left You Sisi a bit dumbfounded.

Seeing that Fang Yue wasn't joking, her expression gradually grew solemn.

"Did something happen?"

(End of chapter)