Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Because their memories had been cleared, the two young ruffians fell into a brief coma. Seeing this, Xie Licheng left them be and returned to his personal world alone.

He had originally planned to go to the West Market to buy things, but thinking about how selling the animal hides had drawn too much attention today, which was why the two ruffians had targeted him, he decided to skip going out shopping that evening.

After Xie Licheng sent the two ruffians out, the task bar returned to (1/20). Just bringing people in for a quick tour didn't do anything; they had to stay inside for it to count.

He was genuinely curious—what would he get for completing this task of 20 people?

Would it unlock other maps, or would there be some special reward?

With that thought in mind, Xie Licheng picked up a basket and went to the chicken coop to collect eggs.

If he left the eggs sitting too long, they'd go bad in the coop.

He needed to collect the eggs and put them in the warehouse.

His farm had two chicken coops, built in the southernmost corner of the property.

He had fenced off this area and sown grass and vegetable seeds inside.

The chickens could eat the weeds, greens, and bugs that grew there.

Sometimes Xie Licheng would also give them extra grain or table scraps.

Planting, raising livestock, gathering, cooking... all of these could earn experience points.

But the experience gains were tiny. After Xie Licheng worked hard for two hours, the experience bar barely budged.

At eight the next morning, Xie Licheng grabbed two big meat buns, a bow, and a knife, and headed up the mountain.

He knew this mountain like the back of his hand, making his way deep into it with ease.

Along the way, he ran into a wild boar—a male, by the looks of it—and it even squared up to him a bit.

But today, Xie Licheng wasn't in the mood to play the hunter-and-prey game with it.

He was set on going deep into the mountains, hoping to catch a wolf cub early and finish Gu Zhangyuan's task sooner.

Once Gu Zhangyuan's task was done, he could focus on his own business with peace of mind.

Spring was the season when wild animals had their young.

At this time of year, you'd usually run into cubs pretty easily on the mountain.

But maybe he was just out of luck—he roamed the mountain all day and didn't come across a single wolf.

He didn't see wolves, but he did run into other wild animals.

As he was getting ready to head down the mountain, he ran into a tiger.

It was a full-grown tiger, and from a distance, he couldn't tell if it was a male or female.

Given that this was the season when many animals were breeding, Xie Licheng didn't dare make a move.

He climbed up a tree to observe for a while, then gave up the idea of hunting it.

Although he hadn't found any wolves today and hadn't hunted on the mountain either, he still gained something.

Xie Licheng gathered a good haul of mushrooms, wild fruit, and wild greens.

Spring is the best time to eat wild vegetables, and many tender shoots are incredibly delicious.

Even though Xie Licheng didn't enjoy cooking, he still liked to stock up on all kinds of wild greens whenever he went up the mountain this time of year.

Today, he went up the mountain and came back with a good bunch of wild greens.

Some were meant to be eaten fresh, while others were for drying and saving for later.

After returning, he simply sorted them—those that needed to stay fresh went into the storage room, and the rest were hung under the eaves to dry.

Having gone into the mountains twice in a row without running into many wolves, Xie Licheng left Lingzhou City the next day to explore the hills beyond.

At this time, Xie Licheng's health was back up to 69, and his stamina to 72.

He was in pretty good shape, and with all kinds of weapons on him, he wasn't too worried about heading into the mountains.

Then, right as Xie Licheng left the city, he ran into a group of bedraggled refugees.

Xie Licheng handed out some food and picked up a lot of useful info from them.

These refugees came from the south, where heavy rains had caused flooding that swallowed up countless farmlands and homes.

On top of that, there were plenty of pirates in the South Sea who used the chaos to come ashore and loot people's homes. To save their own skins, these southerners had no choice but to pack up their families and head north.

But the north wasn't exactly peaceful either—there were bandits, outlaws, and the Marquis of Xubei scheming to rebel.

Even if they made it here, they wouldn't really find much safety.

Xie Licheng said to a young man, "You guys should head southwest. There are big mountains out that way. Even if things go to hell, you can hide up in the hills."

The young man looked confused by that. "Lingzhou is very close to the capital. Even if Lingzhou gets chaotic, it won't spiral out of control. We just want to stay here."

Seeing the guy wasn't going to listen, Xie Licheng dropped it.

He wasn't a good guy—just giving that warning earlier was already more than most would do.

He'd read the books and knew what was coming—the whole of Dazhou was headed for chaos.

Lingzhou was rich, and a lot of people would want to get their hands on it.

Up north, plenty of people would declare themselves kings, and the middle—the Central Plains—would be stuck in endless warfare.

Lingzhou was on the edge of the Central Plains—not quite the heart of it, but still a frequent battleground.

And the south had its own problems—floods and pirates—so life was rough down there too.

Only in the mountains of the southwest—where the terrain was rough and the land wasn't good for growing grain—would warring factions bother to fight over it. So folks living there had it a bit easier.

Since the guy wouldn't listen, Xie Licheng kept heading for the mountains beyond the city.

He still had stuff to take care of, and now that he'd gotten the info he needed, there was no reason to stick around.

To speed up his journey, he later bought a horse.

Xie Licheng knew how to ride. In his past life, before the apocalypse, he'd had money and free time, and he'd taken horseback riding lessons at a club.

Previously, he hadn't wanted to buy a horse, mainly because he couldn't manage to care for one alone.

His farm had two chicken coops, and the novice village had a few ducks and sheep roaming free.

He could barely take care of them day to day, so he wasn't keen on adding a horse to the mix.

But now the situation was different—his portable world could hold people.

In the future, when chaos engulfed the land, a lot of the elderly, the weak, women, and kids would struggle to survive.

At that point, he could take a few in, and as payback for saving them, they'd help him take care of the animals and birds inside.

Since the portable world could wipe memories, even if they later wished to leave, Xie Licheng could let them go without having to kill them all to keep things quiet.

He wasn't a saint, and he wasn't a bloodthirsty maniac either.

If those people didn't have any bad intentions and simply didn't want to stay in his portable world, he wouldn't kill them for something like that.

Once he reached the mountains outside the city, Xie Licheng spent his days hunting for wolves and his nights resting in his portable world.

Nine days went by like this, and he finally found a den of wolf pups in the mountains.

During those nine days, Xie Licheng had a pretty good haul.

He finished the task Gu Zhangyuan had given him, and he also caught three rabbits and a wild chicken, all alive.

Then he found something really interesting: killing prey in this world also gave him experience.

In his past life, whether he killed zombies, humans, or animals, or even cooked or foraged, none of it gave him experience.

To level up, he could only rely on his portable world.

But this time, something was different—maybe it was because he'd activated the system quest? While looking for the wolf pups, Xie Licheng killed a snake and found it leveled him up.

Over the next nine days, Xie Licheng hunted down a wild boar, two snakes, a rabbit, and two wolves, which let him level up two more times.

Now, Xie Licheng was level thirty-eight, with 3 attribute points to his name.

Attribute points could sometimes save your life—like, if he was badly hurt, he could put them into health to keep himself alive.

For his own safety, he didn't rush to spend all 3 attribute points.

Xie Licheng brought the wolf pups back to Lingzhou City, but instead of heading straight back to the Gu residence to report, he hung around the city for three days before going back.

In those three days, he spent nearly two hundred taels of silver.

Two hundred taels wasn't like two hundred bucks or two thousand—it was a huge amount of money back then.

He blew through it all in just three days.

The stuff he bought was piled up in the living room of his house, and he hadn't had time to sort it all out yet.

Xie Licheng planned to go back to the Gu residence first, hand the wolf pups over to Gu Zhangyuan, and then find time to sort things out later.

Xie Licheng had been gone for half a month, and Xuan Cui was starting to think he might've run off with the money.

When she suddenly saw him come back, successfully bringing a wolf pup, she couldn't help but feel relieved.

It seemed their young master hadn't misjudged him—this stable hand really did have some skill.

Gu Zhangyuan had always trusted his own judgment, feeling that Xie Licheng wasn't as simple or ordinary as he seemed.

But whenever he thought Xie Licheng was something special, Xie Licheng would put on a clueless look, as if he didn't want too many people noticing him.

When Gu Zhangyuan heard Xie Licheng was back, he was in his study going over the account books. Hearing the news, he decided to take a walk and brought Yuan Qiao along to the front courtyard.

Xie Licheng met Gu Zhangyuan in a side courtyard off the front area. Seeing Gu Zhangyuan personally come with his people, he figured Gu really valued the wolf pup he'd brought back, thinking Gu didn't need to hold that prince in such high regard.

But with other people around, he didn't feel comfortable saying more.

Xie Licheng said, "Young master, I've brought back the wolf pup you asked for. Since I ran into a whole litter, I was worried one might die on the way, so I brought an extra one back."

Gu Zhangyuan leaned in for a look. He hadn't had much experience with wild animal cubs, and at first glance, they looked just like puppies.

Gu Zhangyuan asked, "Are these actually wolf pups?"

If not, giving them to that young lord might end up displeasing him.

Xie Licheng replied, "They're gray wolf pups—it'll be obvious once they get a bit bigger."

Gu Zhangyuan found them pretty cute and reached out to gently touch one.

Unexpectedly, one of the pups was really aggressive, and as soon as his hand got close, it snapped at him.

These pups were still young, so their teeth weren't that sharp.

But if you got bitten carelessly, they might carry germs, which was a real risk.

Xie Licheng was standing close to both the pups and Gu Zhangyuan, knowing wild animals like these were aggressive. Seeing the pup snap, he quickly grabbed Gu Zhangyuan's hand.