The reason Lan Qingyou considered the Fire Element Essence a good item was that she already had a plan in mind.
During the seven days of the magic turbulence, Lan Qingyou had basically stayed indoors.
Since then, she had been plotting to cultivate a medicinal field within her shelter to grow rare or hard-to-obtain herbs.
For example, things like Flame Bells.
This way, even if Li Huai were to kick the bucket one day, her supply of herbs wouldn't be cut off.
What was this called? This was called reducing dependency.
One couldn't pin all their resource channels on a single person.
Even if she only had one Fire Element Essence right now—which might not be enough for a full field—it should at least be sufficient to sustain eight or ten plants.
So, after placing the Fire Element Essence in the storage room, Lan Qingyou filtered the two cauldrons of +30 Mana Potions she had brewed that day. She poured them into the wooden barrel to nourish the herb gathering bag and dagger, then returned to the second-floor bedroom with Steel Wool.
She picked up 《Mineralogy》 and continued reading, with a copy of 《Basic Herbology》 resting beside her.
After obtaining the latter yesterday, Lan Qingyou had compared it with her own book on herbology.
The content was identical, and even the font was exactly the same.
This couldn't help but make Lan Qingyou wonder if these books were mass-produced by some printing factory back on Blue Star. Otherwise, how could they be so uniform, even carrying the scent of fresh ink?
In fact, this wasn't the first time Lan Qingyou had suspected this.
Given that the world will of Planet Karim and the world will of Blue Star had reached an agreement, it meant there had been communication between them.
Such a thing was not impossible.
Over the next few days, Lan Qingyou continued to live a disciplined life.
She brewed five cauldrons of potions every day and then went outside to toss a few explosions around to maintain her aim, ensuring she could act immediately if an emergency arose.
One day.
Lan Qingyou, with her herb gathering bag slung over her shoulder, finished her daily 'bombing' run and set off back to the shelter.
However, as she neared the shelter, she spotted three suspicious-looking characters pointing and whispering under the massive tree where her shelter was located.
Were they planning a robbery?
Wasn't it said that no one could enter a shelter without the owner's permission?
Driven by curiosity, Lan Qingyou slowly descended onto a branch directly above the trio.
“Are you sure there's really a shelter here?”
“It's real, Brother Dao. I saw someone fly up with my own eyes yesterday. Look over there—there's such a large wooden balcony. I'd bet anything it's a level 3 shelter.”
“Idiot! You said they flew up. How are we supposed to get up there?”
“Climb those vines. I've calculated it; the vines can reach that broken branch section. Then we can use grappling hooks to snag the balcony railing and pull ourselves up.”
“Good. Thin Man, stay sharp. As soon as that woman comes back, attack immediately. Once we kill her, this shelter is ours.”
“Got it.”
Sitting on the branch, Lan Qingyou listened to their conversation and understood their general plan.
While it was true that no one could enter a shelter without an invitation once it was activated, if the owner was killed, the shelter could be claimed as one's own.
This even included the resources stored inside the magic desk.
Many people had been talking about this on the channel lately, and a few had even nearly fallen victim to it.
This had forced some people to form groups, pooling their resources into a single shelter to maximize their protection.
Level 3 shelters like Lan Qingyou's were still rare, but they did exist, naturally attracting the greed of others.
Of course, most people still chose to live their lives alone.
Lan Qingyou peeked out. These three were quite well-prepared; the tall, lanky one even held a wooden crossbow.
It seemed they had specifically prepared it to deal with someone like her who could 'fly.'
However, as Lan Qingyou looked closer, she suddenly found these people familiar.
Heh!
What a coincidence.
She recognized two of the three.
Weren't these the two thieves who had burst into her room while she was waiting for death back then?
She still remembered the scarred man spitting at her in disgust.
There was a path to heaven that they ignored, yet they barged into the gate of hell where there was no entrance.
With that thought, Lan Qingyou pulled out an explosion potion.
It was time for some actual combat to accumulate some fighting experience.
Lan Qingyou extended her hand and released the test tube from between her index finger and thumb.
Boom!
“Aaaagh!”
“My leg! My leg is broken!”
“Wh... what happened...”
Following the explosion, a series of heart-wrenching screams rang out.
“Isn't this quite powerful?”
Hearing the cries, Lan Qingyou peeked her head out and muttered to herself.
A single explosion potion had resulted in two heavy injuries and one light injury. What more could she ask for?
It made sense.
Most people right now had at most 10 points of stamina, which translated to about 100 health points. One hit instantly took away 30 health, plus another 10 points of damage over time. It was equivalent to losing half their life.
Compared to those legendary explosion-resistant sludge monsters, humans were indeed fragile.
It wasn't that the sludge monsters had high health, but rather their incredible regenerative abilities; you could blow off half their body, and they'd grow it back in two seconds.
That was likely the advantage of their home-field bonus; after all, there was no shortage of mud in a swamp.
Lan Qingyou followed up with a fire potion.
She wasn't stupid enough to charge out with a dagger to duel them just because she saw they were heavily wounded.
Hanging back like this was perfectly fine.
The wailing below continued, and Lan Qingyou sat leisurely on the branch, waiting.
The rising air currents from the fire potion's flames licked the branch beneath her, the heat waves giving her a slight sensation of warmth.
She didn't peek down again until the screams faded from loud to soft and finally fell silent, and the sensation of heat dissipated.
Her eyes met three charred, black corpses.
Looking at the bodies, Lan Qingyou's expression remained neutral.
She had seen corpses before. The first time had been a bit hellish, but she had seen them...
The second time was during those few days after being thrown into the slums.
During those days, she had nightmares almost every time she closed her eyes, dreaming of her own corpse slowly rotting on a filthy bed in a dim room.
Lan Qingyou looked at the crossbow that had been blown away from the thin man's hand and landed nearby. She drifted over and picked it up.
At room temperature, a body would show signs of decay in two or three days. For them, the best outcome would probably be getting devoured by magic creatures tonight.
Thinking this, Lan Qingyou didn't spare another glance at those filthy things and flew toward her shelter.
Although she had been making potions all day, she couldn't rest yet.
Today, she was going to attempt to manufacture the bullets Shang Chuan had ordered.
Rate on N.U.
