Lan Qingyou frowned slightly.
She had just managed to relax after more than two hours of high tension.
And then this happened.
To be honest, her heart was thumping a bit.
Did a rock or something get blown into the shelter by the wind?
Lan Qingyou went down from the tree hollow to the second floor, intending to see what was going on.
As soon as she reached the entrance, she heard a continuous crackling and popping sound from outside, like firecrackers.
Feeling suspicious, she decided not to go all the way down. Instead, she just poked her head out to observe secretly.
"Hiss—"
The sight sent a chill down her spine.
As if she were in a horror movie, hundreds of crimson eyes were pressed tightly against the floor-to-ceiling glass doors of the second-floor terrace.
They looked terrifying on the unlit second floor.
Monsters!
And there were so many of them. Had they been blown here by the gale?
As if sensing her presence, those hundreds of eyeballs suddenly turned in unison toward her. The glass doors let out a teeth-grating creak.
Seeing this, Lan Qingyou frowned and silently retreated to the third floor.
In any case, the magic shield was active outside the shelter. Neither the glass nor anything else could be breached.
Thwack!
Just as she pulled her head back, she heard the same sound coming from the third floor.
Realizing she couldn't avoid it, Lan Qingyou had no choice but to face the problem head-on.
At the very least, she had to know exactly what was knocking at her window.
The wind was howling tonight, and there was no moon. Without a closer look, she couldn't tell what they were at all.
So, Lan Qingyou carried the magic lantern to the third-floor window, hoping to use its light to see outside.
But because it was so dark out, the window acted like a mirror. She couldn't see anything except her own reflection holding the lantern.
Just then, a monster slammed into the window with a thud.
In that split second, Lan Qingyou caught a glimpse of its form.
A Night Swallow!
She froze, then turned to look at the dead one on her magic desk.
She remembered the description saying that Night Swallows were very vengeful.
So that was it. Did "vengeful" refer to the flock rather than the individual?
"Sigh..."
Scratching her head, Lan Qingyou let out a sigh.
Fine, let them do whatever they want. They couldn't break through the magic shield anyway.
Thinking this, she injected some Glow Potion into the magic lantern she had scavenged, then carried it up to the fifth floor to get some sleep.
However, before sleeping, she planned to check the core and inject some energy into it. She could only sleep soundly if it was at full capacity.
To her surprise, she saw the energy on the core dropping rapidly.
It wasn't just one point per second; it was dropping at a rate of at least a dozen points per second.
Hiss—
So being attacked also drains energy?
Lan Qingyou almost slapped herself. Wasn't that obvious?
"Honestly, I thought I could finally sleep. They had to come so late and disturb my rest."
If she wanted a good night's sleep, she had to clear out these Night Swallows.
After thinking for a moment, she muttered a complaint, carried the lamp down to the second floor, and placed it right in front of the glass doors.
Then she went back to the third floor, took the magic lantern that was originally there, and placed it on the fifth floor.
With a firm push, she flung open the fifth-floor window. The freezing wind, mixed with snowflakes, poured into the small bedroom.
Snowflakes landed on her white neck, and the biting chill made her shudder.
But she couldn't worry about the cold now. She quickly leaned out and looked down. Light was shining out from the lower right, and shadows were flickering erratically.
Needless to say, that was the light from the lantern on the second floor.
Without a word or hesitation, she pulled out her cards, took out several Frost Potions, and threw them toward the light.
Crash! Crash! Crash!
The crisp sound of breaking glass was followed by a series of freezing sounds.
Upon hearing these, Lan Qingyou closed the window and hurried to the dark third floor to check the situation.
The Night Swallows that had been clinging to her glass doors were now frozen into blocks of ice, falling to the ground one by one.
But she didn't let her guard down. She pressed her face against the circular glass window and peered out.
The ten-second freeze duration wasn't long.
Once the time was up, she saw many Night Swallows flap their wings a few times and take flight again.
At this moment, perhaps because they had been physically cooled down by the Frost Potions, or perhaps because they had been hit so hard, their crimson eyes held a look of pure, blank stupidity.
After glancing around and seeing the remaining corpses of their kin on the ground, they flapped their wings and flew away.
Where one went, another followed.
Once a few Night Swallows took the lead, the rest of the survivors followed suit.
Within two minutes, not a single living Night Swallow remained on the second-floor terrace.
Lan Qingyou stood by the window for another ten minutes. Only after confirming that those pests wouldn't return did she finally breathe a sigh of relief.
Those ten minutes were incredibly intense.
Feeling her back soaked with sweat, she went to take another bath. After coming out and confirming that the Night Swallows really weren't coming back, she finally went up to the fifth floor.
After replenishing the shield's energy, she picked up her cards and began reading the papers.
The cards designed by the Magician and the others were truly interesting. Like a phone, if left idle for ten seconds, they automatically switched to the Tower's standby screen, waiting to be unlocked and used again.
As for the frozen Night Swallow corpses on the terrace, she would just leave them there for now.
With the freezing weather outside and the double buff of the mana tide, the corpses wouldn't rot.
It wouldn't be too late to clean them up once the mana tide ended.
The next morning.
Lan Qingyou woke up naturally. After getting out of bed, she first replenished the core's energy, then went to the first floor to carry the stone kerosene stove and kerosene up to the third floor.
Afterward, she contacted Shang Chuan and asked him to acquire a batch of D-grade fluorescent shells and fluorescent pearls.
Shang Chuan: "Acquiring those isn't hard, but the problem is you want the shells, right? Have you ever seen anyone keep the shell after eating the meat?"
Shang Chuan's words left Lan Qingyou speechless.
He was right.
Pearls were easy enough, but fluorescent shells came from fluorescent shellfish. They had meat and were a staple food for people in the beach areas. They could be kept alive just by digging a hole and adding some seawater.
Shang Chuan: "How about this: I'll discuss it with Gu Xiaobei. We'll buy the fluorescent shellfish. She can have the meat, and you can have the shells. What do you think?"
Lan Qingyou sighed in admiration: "...I have to hand it to you."
She felt she could never match Shang Chuan's knack for squeezing every bit of value out of everything.
But at the thought of potentially having a seafood feast with shellfish meat for lunch, she grew full of anticipation.
Rate on N.U.
