After twenty minutes of riding, Han Qiwu suddenly spotted sothing familiar by the roadside.
A leather tent.
Outside the leather tent, a thin curl of cooking smoke was rising into the air.
"Could it be Liu Lang? Let’s go take a look." Han Qiwu, intrigued, first took so roasted at and pancakes out of his storage compartnt, wrapped them neatly in a clean plastic bag, placed them in the carriage, and then turned his bike toward the leather tent.
He had been wondering where to find Riverwhite Grass!
When he arrived at the tent, Han Qiwu got off his vehicle and saw Liu Lang sitting on a large rock, seemingly cooking sothing.
In front of him, a fire pit supported three criss-crossed branches, and hanging from these branches was a small pot. In the pot, so unknown wild vegetables were being boiled, giving off an unexpectedly enticing aroma.
"Oh, it’s you, kid." Liu Lang looked up at Han Qiwu and sniffed the air. "Been eating roasted at, huh? And you didn’t even use cumin? What a waste!"
Han Qiwu: "..."
This nose was sothing else.
Since he had already sniffed it out, Han Qiwu didn’t bother playing coy and directly handed over the roasted at and pancakes.
"That’s probably your lunch, isn’t it? Keep it for yourself," Liu Lang said, his Adam’s apple bobbing slightly as he waved his hand.
Han Qiwu chuckled. "I’ve got other things to eat. Besides, I was hoping you could help out with sothing. If you don’t take this, I’d be too embarrassed to even ask."
"Alright then." Liu Lang laughed and nodded, taking the roasted at. He inhaled deeply, then looked at Han Qiwu in so surprise. "Did you cook this yourself?"
"Yeah," Han Qiwu nodded with a grin.
Slowly unwrapping the plastic bag, Liu Lang picked up a skewer of roasted at with his left hand and began to munch on it. anwhile, with his right hand, he held up five fingers, gesturing, "With skills like yours, if you set up shop at the night market selling barbecue, you’d earn this much at least in one night."
Seeing Liu Lang enjoying the food, Han Qiwu seized the opportunity to ask, "Bro, do you know where I can find so Riverwhite Grass?"
"Riverwhite Grass? Locals call it Snake-Reverse Grass. Did you run into a snake?"
"No, I’m looking for it for a friend," Han Qiwu lied smoothly.
"Sure, a ’friend.’"
Liu Lang shook his head. "This stuff is everywhere in autumn, but in spring, it’s pretty hard to find. You’ll have to go up the mountains to locate so." He turned and went into the leather tent, rummaging through a corner before pulling out two dried strands of grass and handing them to Han Qiwu. "When dried, it looks like this. Use these as a reference while searching."
[Riverwhite Grass has been added to your Foraging Map (Incomplete).]
"Thanks." Pocketing the dried grass, Han Qiwu bid farewell and left the leather tent.
Today’s luck wasn’t bad. Hopefully, his fortune would hold when he entered the mine soon.
Upon entering the first level of the mine hall, Han Qiwu began gathering coal. Thanks to his Ring of Radiant Light, a faint halo of yellow light surrounded him wherever he went, making coal collection much easier.
Having gone a few days without gathering, the coal haul turned out surprisingly fruitful—21 pieces in total.
"Better hold off on tackling the beehive for now. Just one takes up eight pieces of coal... I can’t afford that expense." Stowing the coal away, Han Qiwu headed toward the cable car. "This coal’s better saved for slting tal ingots."
Once inside the cable car, Han Qiwu paused to think. He chose the fiftieth level; after all, he could now use the cable car outside of combat situations, so heading deeper seed like a good idea.
As the cable car descended, Han Qiwu suddenly felt his backpack jerk slightly.
"???"
What’s going on?
To his knowledge, his backpack only contained a few items for concealing his storage compartnt. There weren’t any electric devices or anything that could move on its own.
Placing the bag on the ground, Han Qiwu drew his refined longsword and cautiously unzipped it, ready for combat.
"Puff puff puff!"
The mont the zipper opened, an adorable and well-behaved atball—Xiao Lai—suddenly sprang out of the bag. With the montum of the descending cable car, the little creature leaped five or six ters high.
"Really now! You sneakily followed all the way out here?" Han Qiwu exclaid in surprise. He distinctly rembered seeing Xiao Lai napping when he collected chicken eggs earlier. When had it slipped into his bag?
"Puff puff!"
Xiao Lai appeared to be in high spirits, joyfully hopping into Han Qiwu’s arms and nuzzling against him.
"Alright, alright. If you start feeling cold later, let know in advance, so you don’t end up turning into a frozen atball." Han Qiwu chuckled and placed Xiao Lai on his shoulder.
[You have arrived at the fiftieth level of the mine.]
Entering the fiftieth level, Han Qiwu raised his torch and explored the area. Unfortunately, he found nothing of value—no treasures hidden beneath ice layers like the [Century Mysterious Ice Pendant].
The only thing worth ntioning was that, toward the far-right end, he vaguely heard the sound of flowing water. He speculated it might be an underground ice river, though it clearly wasn’t on this level.
"Fish from an ice river must be quite sothing. Could you eat them as sashimi without even chilling them?" Han Qiwu mused as he wandered into the next level.
[You have arrived at the fifty-first level of the mine.]
The mont he walked in, Han Qiwu felt a stark difference in the air.
Damn, it was freezing!
A chill wind seed to drill straight to his bones.
Without wasting ti, Han Qiwu set a fire bucket nearby and quickly picked up his massive copper pickaxe, striking at an iron ore node to his right.
[Iron Ore]×1
Considering the number of crops in the yard, he calculated it would take a total of 38 sprinklers, which translated to 190 pieces of copper ore, 190 pieces of iron ore, and 38 chunks of coal.
A daunting task indeed.
Only one thing to do: grind!
After picking at about ten pieces of iron ore, Han Qiwu suddenly heard a sharp scraping sound from behind—like sothing hard cutting across ice.
"What kind of creature is this now? Don’t tell it’s skating on ice blades." Turning around, he switched to his mysterious light crossbow and held it ready.
Reflected off the icy surface, he caught sight of a dium-sized, ice-blue creature with eight legs scuttling out from the corner of the passageway.
"Spiders again? This one’s an ice spider? Can you spiders survive in any environnt?" Han Qiwu muttered in exasperation. If he had the choice, he’d rather avoid fighting spiders altogether.
Spiders were awful to deal with from far away, where they’d shoot webs to annoy you, and even worse up close.
A few seconds later, the ice-blue spider erged fully and scurried swiftly toward Han Qiwu. Just as he’d guessed, this spider wasn’t walking—it was skating. Its legs were blunter than those of other spiders, making it easy for it to glide over the ice.
"Slick, aren’t you!" Han Qiwu quipped as he fired the mysterious crossbow bolt.
Without even glancing at the result, he swiftly switched to the [Fishbone Quiver] derived from fishbone moss and began arduously loading a pale white fishbone arrow onto his mysterious light crossbow.
Twenty seconds passed, and the progress of loading was still at 0%.
This was way too hard!
Seeing that the ice-blue spider was closing in, Han Qiwu had no choice but to switch to his refined longsword and engage in lee combat.
Fortunately, Master Shuzi hadn’t used the refined longsword as the base blade for one of his projects, or Han Qiwu wouldn’t even have a decent weapon for mining expeditions these past two days.
"Bang!"
A single slash only dealt a pitiful 16 damage, but Han Qiwu wasn’t aiming for pure damage anyway.
Activating the passive effect of the [Century Mysterious Ice Pendant], the ice-blue spider was sent sliding backward over two ters.
[Icebound Spider]
[Level: 50]
[Attack thods: Slam, Ice Web, Stab]
[Description: The Icebound Spider’s greatest weapon is its omnipresent cold.]
While retreating, Han Qiwu analyzed its attributes.
Of its three attack thods, what he feared most was the slam.
Was the slam move going to fling him against a wall?
No way, he wasn’t about to let that happen.
After retreating a few paces, Han Qiwu ducked behind a dium-sized rock to hide, then swapped to the Flexible Blade.
As the Icebound Spider approached, Han Qiwu suddenly dashed out and thrust several tis at its compound eyes, dealing damage and knocking it back seven or eight ters farther.
Seizing the mont, Han Qiwu bolted, slipping further away using the [Snowfield Skating Flip-Flops]. To his delight, he discovered an unexpected feature: by keeping the rhythm just right, he could mimic skating movents to glide forward.
This was aweso!
As the Icebound Spider regained its footing, it saw Han Qiwu already ten ters away. It crouched, charging up for a second before spitting out four or five ice-blue webs in his direction.
The webs flew quickly, overshooting Han Qiwu’s position and landing ahead of him to block his path.
"You think a flimsy spider web can stop ?" Han Qiwu sneered, pulling out his refined longsword and slashing at the web.
"Clang!"
What the...?
Han Qiwu froze for a mont, then rolled his eyes in exasperation.
The ice-blue spider web had settled on the ground, transforming into a temporary ice wall that completely blocked the way.
"Co on, Brother Spider, we’re fighting fair here! Can’t you use those skills to get hired at an ice sculpture park instead of hassling ?" Shaking his head, Han Qiwu plopped down a fire bucket near the ice wall, then turned and aid his mysterious light crossbow, which had finally auto-reloaded its mysterious bolt.
As Han Qiwu lined up his shot, he noticed his movents were oddly stiff. A quick glance at the status bar revealed the reason.
[Ice Web Inflicts Frostbite Effect: While in the vicinity of the Ice Web, you lose 2 HP per minute.]
"Two damage per minute? After twenty-five minutes, I’ll be toast!" Han Qiwu muttered anxiously. The frostbite effect wasn’t sothing he could counter with a Snow Lotus Fruit—it was an area debuff.
Despite his concern, he steadied his aim at the Icebound Spider’s abdon and fired the mysterious bolt.
[Armor Penetration]!
-886
A massive damage number floated above the Icebound Spider’s head.
Surprisingly, Han Qiwu found his aim seed steadier under the frostbite-induced stiffness.
"Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!"
Enraged by the attack, the Icebound Spider glided toward him, ready to unleash its most brutal slam to teach this audacious prey a lesson.
Han Qiwu, desperately loading fishbone arrows, kept muttering while working, "Don’t... co any closer!"
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