Try and you die.
In the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, the black bear demon turned back into his true form, a big black bear, and limped on all fours back to the Nether camp.
"T-this female ghost is too rude, only hitting my old bear's face." The big black bear alone took up three or four seats. He lay sprawled across them, no matter how the ghosts from Taiyin opposite shouted, hoping the old bear would die, he refused to show his human form.
The blind bear had thick skin and flesh, good at taking hits. Ji Huaichu hadn't intended to kill him or fight to the death, only wanted to make him lose face. Unfortunately, his true form was a big black bear. As long as he refused to change back, naturally no one would know that he had been beaten black and blue, with two bruised circles under his eyes still on his face. Luckily he was a black bear—if he were white, he might as well have pretended to be a panda.
The Strong Ones of the Shattered Mirror Continent watched the spectacle, and the atmosphere grew lively. On the Taiyin side, along with the ghost kings who disliked the black bear demon, one after another they shouted, stirring things up, telling the black bear demon to call them grandpa. The big black bear turned around on his seat, stuck his rear toward the Taiyin side, and refused to respond no matter what.
…
Now, as for Mu Anqi's side.
The first time being carried while flying on a sword, Mu Anqi was very excited. But this excitement lasted only a few seconds before she realized she was a little afraid of heights.
When her face turned pale and she clutched Xia Yun tightly, not daring to let go, she further discovered she also got dizzy riding a flying sword.
In the end, the two of them didn't make it to the lakeside Xia Yun had seen earlier, but instead stopped at a flat stretch of ground.
"…I was too naive." Mu Anqi looked utterly despairing.
"We can also fly lower, at a slower speed," Xia Yun thought for a moment and suggested. But flying low in the forest wasn't very convenient—the dense weeds and branches made it hard to pass through. Still, at least it was a means of transport that would save them from exhausting themselves too much. "How about I first memorize the direction from the air, then bring you along?"
Mu Anqi thought it over and felt this could work. A flying sword just a dozen centimeters off the ground wasn't much different from a skateboard, and wouldn't make her afraid of heights.
Changing their method of travel, they smoothly made it to the lakeside.
"Do you have a container for holding water?" Mu Anqi looked at her own items. The storage ring she had wasn't really suited for carrying water.
"Yes, I once drew a big black pot." Xia Yun patted her pocket and took out a thumb-sized black pot ornament. "A portable black pot, nothing special about it. I used to treat it like a shield." She tapped the ornament, and the little black pot instantly enlarged, turning into the kind of big black pot used on a country stove. Xia Yun struggled a bit to lift it up. "How about this—after we fetch the water, I'll take you back first, then return the pot?"
"…It doesn't need to be that troublesome." Mu Anqi glanced at her storage ring, then at the big black pot, and sighed. "I have a storage ring. I'll… upgrade it first. Once we fetch the water, I can just store it in my ring."
"After we fetch the water, let's also try to catch a couple more fish. On the way back, we can take a different route and see if we find any wild fruits or vegetables."
"Alright." Xia Yun nodded, then suddenly smiled. "As expected, teaming up with you is always so easy."
Mu Anqi smiled a little shyly. Back during the trial dungeon, she hadn't had so many items and points. To be honest, she had envied other people's skills before. Even though she was afraid of heights and a bit dizzy riding the flying sword, so what? She still held a strong filter of fascination for sword-flying—it was only her body that failed to cooperate.
Xia Yun scooped up a whole pot of water. Once brought back, boiled, and filtered, it would be drinkable. Out here they didn't need to be too particular—even if the water was dirty or harmful to the body, spending 100 points in the Nirvana Space to heal would restore them.
Mu Anqi stored the water in her storage ring. While Xia Yun was using her flying sword to spear fish at the lakeside, Mu Anqi went nearby to pick some large leaves. She washed the leaves with lake water, then used them to wrap up the fish Xia Yun had speared and put them into the storage ring.
Xia Yun speared over a dozen fish in one go. Mu Anqi sorted them by size and placed them all into the storage ring.
Xia Yun didn't spear all the fish she saw in one go, after all… Mu Anqi's storage ring space was limited, and she hadn't yet learned the flying sword enlargement technique, so the supplies they could bring back were limited.
On their way back, they focused intently on observing the various wild grasses they passed. Mu Anqi, who had only been twenty before her death and was still a university student, had no knowledge of wild vegetables or anything like that. On top of that, she couldn't cook… so no matter how serious she was, she couldn't tell which plants were edible wild vegetables and which were just inedible weeds. Xia Yun was a bit better than Mu Anqi—she could cook and recognize some common wild plants—but in this Eternal Night Forest, even as the two of them shone their glowing brooch over several clumps of grass, neither could identify whether they were edible or not, and could only helplessly return to their base.
As soon as they returned, they happened to run into Sheng Wujie, who was dropping a large bundle of branches onto the clearing. The male player glanced at them, his expression shifting slightly, but before he could speak Mu Anqi quickly cut him off: "Stop!"
Stepping down from the flying sword, Mu Anqi chose a spot of open ground to set down the big black pot full of water. Then she took out two large fish wrapped in big leaves, before turning her head toward Sheng Wujie. "Alright, what were you about to say?"
Sheng Wujie: "…"
"N-nothing." Sheng Wujie's expression stiffened slightly. "Thanks for your hard work. I was just about to say I'd go out and gather some more firewood."
"Alright then, go ahead." Mu Anqi waved her hand, watching him leave.
"You're not afraid he'll get angry and lose it?" Xia Yun said with a laugh.
"He's not that brainless. Besides, he's still a teammate." Mu Anqi shrugged. "But even if he does lose it, it's no big deal. Eliminating him would still count toward our total of eliminated players."
"That's true." Only, that way they'd lose a survival point from their team's daily income. Looking long-term, it wouldn't really be a gain.
"By the time we count, the first supply crate should be appearing soon." Mu Anqi didn't continue speaking. She stretched her body a little, then took out her candy cane and told Xia Yun to hold out her hand. She gave her one of each of the three types of candies. As for the syrup, that was still best used as a weapon.
"Can your flying sword make fire?" Mu Anqi asked.
"…No, I'm not a cultivator." Xia Yun thought to herself, Mu Anqi really seemed to have mistaken her for one. She only had the special ability of Sword Heart; she wasn't all-powerful like a cultivator.
"Alright then." Mu Anqi sighed in slight disappointment. When this game ended, she figured she really ought to buy a lighter. Mm, but then again, who knew—if she got another S-rank rating, maybe she could buy a flamethrower? Even a small one would do.
She pulled out a crudely made grenade. "Then let's try this later." Mu Anqi glanced at the pile of firewood, feeling a headache coming on. Could she really start a fire with a grenade?
"I could try making fire by rubbing sticks together?" Xia Yun silently looked at the grenade and spoke in a low voice.
Just as Mu Anqi and the others were fretting, the Fang siblings returned as well. Fang Xunjiu had taken off his coat, his whole body covered in mud, and his arms were full of sweet potatoes. Behind him, Fang Yunjui also took off her coat, bundling together the branches she had gathered and carrying them on her back. The two siblings looked quite bedraggled, but it was clear they had truly put in effort searching for supplies.
"Wow, you actually found a water source? And fish too!" Fang Xunjiu's eyes lit up. "When we were gathering branches, we found a patch of sweet potatoes. Later we can go back and dig some more." He hurried forward, carefully placing the sweet potatoes on the ground, then draped his coat over himself and quickly went to Fang Yunjui's side, taking the branches off her back, untying her coat, and placing the branches together with Sheng Wujie's pile.
"These can wait. Do you… know how to make a fire?" Mu Anqi glanced at the pot of water. "This water still needs to be boiled and filtered once."
"I can." Fang Yunjui spoke. Unlike Fang Xunjiu's sunny, bright disposition—if Fang Xunjiu was the yang side, then Fang Yunjui was the yin side. She was untalkative, her whole person carrying an indescribable eerie air. She wasn't a ghost, yet she always gave people that impression.
Similar to the impression Fang Xunjiu gave, this seemed like a passive effect brought about by their abilities.
Mu Anqi blinked, her face showing surprise, when she heard the Fang sister continue in that slightly eerie tone—like a ghost woman out of a horror movie—asking: "Shall we make a fire now?"
"Ah, no, wait a bit. Let's get some stones first to set the pot on, make a… make a simple stove." Mu Anqi waved her hand. On the way there she had seen plenty of stones, big and small. Xia Yun could use her life-bound sword to help shave them down, and building a simple stone stove wouldn't be a problem. It just… might not be very stable.
"Then, little sister, you stay here. I'll go dig up some more sweet potatoes." Fang Xunjiu said with a smile. Seeing Fang Yunjui nod, he turned and left.
Standing at the base, Fang Yunjui raised her head and looked at Mu Anqi and Xia Yun. "Shall I come along?"
"Either way is fine," Mu Anqi said. "Let's go together, carry some stones, and also pick up branches and big leaves. And weeds too…" They could be twisted into grass rope.
Xia Yun's life-bound sword wasn't just good at cutting stone—it also worked well for chopping trees. But using it frequently seemed to drain her a bit; after all, Mu Anqi didn't really know how far her skill had advanced by now.
With the storage rings filled, Mu Anqi and Fang Yunjui each carried a large stack of big leaves, while Xia Yun used her flying sword to haul back a bundle of tied branches, holding in her arms some weeds that looked quite tough, and flew back to the base.
Taking out the neatly cut stones, Mu Anqi stacked them up to form a rough stove frame. Then, with Xia Yun's help, the two of them lifted the big iron pot onto it. They broke the branches, cut the thicker ones into smaller pieces with the life-bound sword, and placed them into the opening.
Fang Yunjui silently glanced at Mu Anqi and Xia Yun. Seeing the two of them staring at her in excitement, waiting to see how she would start the fire… Fang Yunjui bit her lip, her face—pale as if anemic—suddenly flushed faintly red. "You two, stand back. Don't watch."
Mu Anqi and Xia Yun exchanged a look, both a bit puzzled. But they obediently retreated behind the wooden shed and turned their backs. Mu Anqi thought of Fang Yunjui's posture and, for some inexplicable reason, it made her think of Si Cat. Could it be—
"Dark power slumbering in my bloodline, Awaken!" A firm and inexplicably chuunibyou-like chant began. "I am the supreme evil god— Submit and tremble beneath me!"
"Flame of the Evil God!——" [T/N: ..I feel like something died inside me (╥_╥)]
A ghostly purple flame ignited the firewood.