Chapter 182

Chapter 182

Chen Ji, who was scrolling through his phone, heard a few weak cries. He instinctively locked his screen and turned toward the sound. From the grass emerged a thin, sickly yellow little fox. It called out softly to Chen Ji a few times and came to a halt about two meters in front of him.

Chen Ji motioned for it to come. "Come here."

Only then did the little fox cautiously approach. Chen Ji had already taken a bottle of ginseng chicken soup from his backpack. The little fox didn't know what it was, but it recognized it as food. Obediently, it opened its mouth. Chen Ji squeezed the bottle hard, and the soup shot into the fox's mouth. The little fox quickly clamped its mouth around the bottle's spout and began sucking on its own.

Seeing it eat so pitifully, Chen Ji simply scooped it up, placed it on his lap, and patiently fed it mouthful by mouthful. The little fox ate until its belly was round and full before finally letting go. Chen Ji used a twig to poke out the remaining half of the ginseng root from the bottle and stuffed it into the fox's mouth, then screwed the cap back on. The little fox swallowed it in one gulp. Finding it both docile and adorable, Chen Ji took out a piece of candy as a treat.

Having eaten and drunk its fill, the little fox looked much more energetic than before. It called out to Chen Ji a few more times, its voice soft and sweet, then disappeared back into the grass.

Chen Ji sighed and continued deeper into the back mountains. The front mountains, due to traces of human activity, actually had far fewer animals than the back mountains, which were the real disaster zone.

Little Spirit Flame, Second Grandfather, and the others had already gone on patrol, burning any highly decomposed corpses they found on the spot.

"I'm back!" Little Red suddenly appeared from somewhere, a few fruits still in its mouth. Chen Ji had been getting hungry quickly these past two days. The medicinal stews he made for the animals weren't exactly culinary masterpieces either. Just as they arrived here, Little Red had mentioned a tasty fruit nearby and went off to find it.

A cluster of yellow fruits, each about the size of a longan, was carefully placed into Chen Ji's hand. They were flawless, without a single blemish. Even before peeling, a fresh, sweet fragrance wafted from them. Chen Ji had never eaten these before. Hesitating for a moment, he peeled one open. Inside was a paste-like substance resembling egg salad. In his mouth, it was soft, sandy, glutinous, and sweet.

"You must have gone through a lot of trouble to find these." Chen Ji peeled one and fed it to Little Red, then scratched behind its ears. Little Red instinctively tilted its head, rubbing its head vigorously against Chen Ji's palm. Just as it was about to act coquettishly, it suddenly caught a scent on Chen Ji.

Aha! A little fox spirit had come to seduce Brother Chen!

"A little fox came by just now... so pitiful." Chen Ji continued scratching behind its ears. "I don't know if it'll survive."

"Hmph!" Little Red snorted lightly. Its form shifted, transforming into a massive black fox, nearly four meters tall. It lowered itself, gesturing for Chen Ji to climb on.

Chen Ji climbed onto its back. The thick, sleek fur felt like sitting on a bed. Little Red carried him further into the back mountains.

Chen Ji had learned his lesson. Carrying all that soup was too heavy. Now he brought along egg yolk pastries and candies. Most animals wouldn't refuse these, and they helped replenish energy. The ginseng chicken soup was reserved only for the extremely weak animals.

At this rate, the ginseng at home would soon run out.

The dietary supplement recipe Chen Ji had System Cat disseminate online seemed to have been seen by quite a few people. He noticed the sales of several online medicinal herb shops had skyrocketed, and even the overseas purchasing agents he used to follow were now selling Korean ginseng.

Two bouts of rain yesterday had been devastating.

Entering the forest in the back mountains, Chen Ji immediately saw numerous snake corpses. The entire woods emitted an unpleasant odor. Chen Ji scanned the area and called out, "Fifth Grandfather? Fifth Grandfather?"

Fifth Grandfather didn't appear, but Chen Ji heard its voice. "What?"

*Fifth Grandfather's fine, that's what matters.*

"It's good that you're alright." Chen Ji breathed a sigh of relief and scattered a handful of peeled candies and egg yolk pastries on the ground. "Call me if you need anything. I'm going further in."

"Mm." Fifth Grandfather responded, its voice sounding much more weary than yesterday. Chen Ji didn't know if the rain had caused any harm to Fifth Grandfather—probably not, right?

Or perhaps the effect was negligible?

Little Red swished its tail. Seeing Chen Ji was done, it coiled him up and settled him comfortably on its back. Little Red was much more skilled than Chen Ji at searching for animals, so it didn't require much effort from Chen Ji. He just needed to sit tight.

Suddenly, Chen Ji's phone vibrated. He pulled it out and saw a message from Blue Sky and White Clouds—White Impermanence. Chen Ji glanced at it. He was asking why so many people had died suddenly in Y Province and if Chen Ji knew which idiot was responsible.

Chen Ji replied with a question mark.

Soon, his phone vibrated again. This time it was a message from Black Impermanence. He was brevity itself: "Wrong phone."

Someone asking if he knew which idiot was responsible implied they already knew it was the idiot Chen Ji was enshrining. However, to avoid implicating a source when gathering information, they used 'idiot' as a substitute.

Chen Ji sent a reply: "He's been acting up these past few days."

Black Impermanence: "Acting up on this scale?"

"Yeah." Chen Ji sent a smiling, waving emoji. "Can't control him."

Black Impermanence typed a '1' to indicate understanding. Just as Chen Ji was about to put his phone away, he received a call. "Hello? Uncle Zhao? What's up?"

Chen Ji had a good idea what he wanted to ask and got straight to the point. "I know. Can't control it. Don't get caught in the rain."

Uncle Zhao paused. "Xiao Chen, you must know that's impossible."

Chen Ji said helplessly, "I don't have the ability to control it either."

Uncle Zhao fell silent again for a moment. "How about playing with that thing from last time again?"

Chen Ji: "That's just for playing around."

"It's different this time. Want to try a bigger one?"

"That's still just playing around." Chen Ji switched the phone to his other ear, shrugging to hold it in place. "I've been very busy lately, probably won't have time to play."

Uncle Zhao asked if launching a few missiles at Little Green Mountain would help. Chen Ji indicated that throwing those things down would be useless, like child's play. Uncle Zhao asked if a bigger one would work. Chen Ji said it still wouldn't, and besides, he couldn't leave Little Green Mountain at the moment.

"Alright." Uncle Zhao said. "Take care of yourself then. I'll think of something else."

Chen Ji hung up and couldn't help but sigh again. Little Red looked back at him. Chen Ji patted its spine, signaling to continue forward. Soon, they passed by the den where Chang Xu used to sleep often. Since its owner hadn't returned for a long time, a large patch of wild grass had grown there, making it look no different from ordinary grassland.

He missed Chang Xu.

But Chang Xu couldn't come back now.

Chen Ji had even blocked Chang Xu's account. That blond guy was definitely monitoring him around the clock. If even a trace of Chang Xu's voice or aura leaked out, Chen Ji might as well wait for death.

Little Red stopped by the stream in the back mountains. This stream used to be crystal clear, teeming with small fish and shrimp, one of Chen Ji's important sources of river delicacies. Now, looking at it again, the stream had turned into a turbid, muddy yellow, churning with various grass stems and dead fish and shrimp floating belly-up, emitting a nauseating stench.

This was a tough one. Chen Ji mentioned it to System Cat, who indicated it would handle it.

Chen Ji was still curious. [How are you going to handle it?]

System Cat tossed its head coldly and proudly. [Watch me work.]

Just as Second Grandfather returned to the temple, he saw System Cat trotting over, a phone in its mouth. He paused. "What?!"

System Cat looked at Second Grandfather with its big, watery eyes and placed the phone in front of him. Second Grandfather looked at the voice message on the screen and tapped it. He heard 'Chen Ji's' voice say, "Second Grandfather, there's some leftover quicklime in the basement from the renovation. Tie it to the drone; I've already set the program... that stream in the back mountains is a mess."

Second Grandfather clicked his tongue and obediently went to the basement to haul out the quicklime. While Second Grandfather was busy working up a sweat, System Cat stood by watching, even casually grabbing a chew toy snack to munch on—what could it do? It was just a weak, helpless little kitten who only knew how to eat.

After Second Grandfather tied five sacks of quicklime to the drone, which became a tiny dot in the sky, he finally breathed a sigh of relief. Then his phone chimed with a notification. Second Grandfather very skillfully opened the voice message. He heard 'Chen Ji's' heavy voice say, "Ah, this water is really a shame. We won't have any shrimp to eat from now on... didn't bring a net..."

Humans are really fragile and hard to care for!

Seeing this, System Cat replied to Chen Ji in a cold voice: [Task Taker Chen Ji, task items quicklime and fishing net will be delivered within fifteen minutes. Delivery guy: Second Master Huang. Please use the fishing net to salvage as many fish and shrimp corpses as possible. Afterward, pour the quicklime into the stream to complete the task. Task reward: None!]

Chen Ji walked to the stream's edge, leaned over to look at it, and calculated that having Little Red and Second Grandfather pull the net later should be much more efficient. He smiled and said, [Our Xiao Ba is really amazing!]

The voice messages were, of course, synthesized by System Cat. What did Chen Ji know about using quicklime to purify water? He relied entirely on System Cat's on-the-spot searches for assistance.

He remembered there wasn't much quicklime left at home, probably only about ten sacks. The surplus mainly came from a mistaken order—otherwise, there wouldn't have been this much extra... Now it seemed it might not even be enough. Should he buy more?

Suddenly, Little Red let out a low, rumbling growl. Chen Ji instinctively turned around, only to have a hand abruptly emerge from the murky stream, gripping his arm tightly and dragging him downward. Taken completely by surprise, Chen Ji plunged headfirst into the water. It happened too quickly—even Little Red couldn't react in time, let alone Chen Ji!

Chen Ji felt the foul, muddy water wash over his face. Struggling to open his eyes, he should have seen nothing, yet a ghastly blue-black face suddenly appeared before him, leering at him with a grotesque smile. The nails on the hand clutching his arm grew sharply, digging almost into his flesh!

At that moment, Chen Ji was yanked out of the stream—the water was only knee-deep, and he could have climbed out easily if not for the grip.

"Cough! Cough..." Chen Ji coughed violently as Little Red held onto the back of his clothes. The demon emerged from the water, about to lunge at Chen Ji, when several vines inexplicably sprouted from the stream. In a flash, they coiled around the demon layer by layer. With a sharp crack, the vines crushed it into pieces!

Was that Huang Mao?!