Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Three Sets of Tableware

As sunlight scattered down on the scavenger camp, Captain Thunder walked in front and Xu Qing walked behind.

Looking from a distance, one was tall and one was short, one was old and one was young, but there was still a hidden sense of harmony.

Maybe it was that they didn’t want to break this rare harmony, or maybe the python corpse in Captain Thunder’s hand served as deterrent, but none of the passersby attempted to disturb the pair.

Xu Qing liked this feeling very much. Whether it was the anticipation of eating the snake in the future, or the feeling of the sun on his face in the present, both gave him a sense of warmth.

He was very comfortable.

Every time his eyes fell on the python corpse that Captain Thunder was holding, he would drool a little.

He also thought snakes tasted good.

Captain Thunder's home was in the middle ring of the camp.

Compared with the brick houses in the inner ring and the simple tents in the outer ring, the residences in the central area were mostly made of stone or wood, and they usually consisted of three separate huts.

Although each hut wasn’t very big, they were still much better than when Xu Qing was in the slum.

Captain Thunder's residence in particular had a small courtyard, which was even rarer.

Soon, the gate of the courtyard opened, and Xu Qing watched Captain Thunder carrying the python corpse to the back hut and pointing at the small side hut[1].

"Kid, you can live there in the future. You should familiarize yourself with it first, and I will call you when the meal is ready."

With that said, Captain Thunder entered the back hut, and after a while, there was the sound of chopping meat.

Xu Qing swallowed and first observed the small courtyard carefully. Then he walked into the side hut, which contained a bed, a quilt, a table and chairs, and nothing else.

The floor was clean and the tables and chairs were free of dust. It was apparent that they were wiped frequently, and the bed was also clean, having the smell of being dried in the sun.

All of this made Xu Qing very satisfied.

He didn’t like big houses, preferring the kind of small houses where he could see everything at a glance.

It made him feel more secure.

After looking around carefully, Xu Qing looked at the clean bed. He thought some more and didn't go over to it, instead directly sitting down on the ground.

Crossing his knees and closing his eyes, he started his daily cultivation.

During his cultivation, along with the influx of spiritual energy, he heard the crackling sound of boiling oil in the back hut next door.

Soon, the aroma of cooking meat drifted in along the gaps in the stone and wood walls, filling the hut. Xu Qing’s stomach rumbled loudly.

It smelled very good.

Xu Qing involuntarily gulped and he opened his eyes to look in the direction of the back hut.

After years of living in the slums, he couldn't remember the last time he smelled such an aroma.

But he resisted the rumbling sound of his stomach and closed his eyes, calming himself down and continuing his cultivation.

Just like that, time passed. Soon, it was dusk.

When the sound of Captain Thunder calling for dinner came from outside the hut, Xu Qing, who had just finished his session cultivation, quickly opened his eyes.

He stood up and quickly walked out of the hut. He saw Captain Thunder standing at the door of the back hut and waving at him.

Glancing inside behind Captain Thunder, Xu Qing could already see that there were seven or eight different kinds of snake dishes on the dining table, including deep-fried snake, braised snake, steamed snake, and snake soup.

It was clear that Captain Thunder had excellent cooking skills, and the dishes he prepared were fragrant and full of flavor.

Xu Qing stared at the table with a burning gaze. Captain Thunder smiled, turned around, and went in to get the tableware.

Xu Qing also approached immediately, and as he walked into the back hut, the aroma of meat became stronger. However, he did not sit down immediately, instead waiting for Captain Thunder. But when Captain Thunder placed down the tableware, Xu Qing’s eyes suddenly froze.

There were three sets of tableware.

Even if the aroma was tempting, with the appearance of the three sets of bowls and chopsticks, Xu Qing instantly prepared himself for a fight.

“There’s someone else?”

He looked vigilantly at Captain Thunder and asked quietly.

"Don't be nervous, it's just my habit. That's someone... who will never come."

Captain Thunder spoke lightly. A look of reminiscence flashed through the depths of his eyes briefly before disappearing, and he sat down on a chair.

Xu Qing nodded, and as he sat down, he couldn't help but grab a piece of fried snake meat and put it in his mouth.

It was hot, but that didn’t stop him from scarfing it down. Grease covered his mouth.

As soon as he finished eating a piece of fried snake, he licked the grease on his mouth and reached out to grab the braised snake meat. Captain Thunder coughed lightly.

"Use the chopsticks."

"Oh." Xu Qing picked up the chopsticks awkwardly. After getting used to them, he picked up a piece of braised snake meat and swallowed it.

The two did not speak during the entire meal, and their manner of eating was completely different.

Captain Thunder didn’t seem like a scavenger. He chewed slowly, taking two or three bites of each dish. On the other hand, Xu Qing devoured the food rapidly with a voracious appetite.

Seeing Xu Qing eating like this, Captain Thunder couldn't help but speak.

"Why did you eat the steamed buns so slowly?"

Xu Qing swallowed the snake meat in his mouth, looked up at Captain Thunder, and answered very seriously.

"The steamed buns were yours, but the snake meat is mine."

One is asking to eat the food that belongs to someone else, and the other is asking someone else to eat the food that belongs to you.

The boy’s thinking was simple. Since it belonged to him, he didn’t have to hold back while eating.

Captain Thunder didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He watched Xu Qing rapidly grabbing snake meat with his chopsticks and drinking the snake soup, but he also noticed that the boy didn't touch the dishes that were on the other side of the table, and he still held back while drinking the snake soup.

It was only his own portion that Xu Qing devoured unrestrainedly.

"This python of yours is very large. It should be enough to eat for half a month, and the snake skin and snake bones are also worth a lot, so..." Captain Thunder said casually.

"I'll give you the rent, so there's no need to deduct it." Xu Qing suddenly said.

The snake meat was to repay the steamed buns and sleeping bag, and the value of the snake skin and snake bones was to repay Captain Thunder for covering up the matter with Savage Ox.

As for taking him out of the ruins and into the camp, this was a kindness.

Xu Qing felt that it was inappropriate to use material things to offset it, but he remembered it in his heart.

Captain Thunder took a deep look at Xu Qing and knew that he kept a clear record of gratitude and grudges. Seeing the seriousness in his eyes, Captain Thunder nodded, and after thinking, he spoke again.

"Kid, along the way you must have had a lot of questions about me."

Xu Qing didn't speak, but his eating slowed down slightly.

"Everyone calls me Captain Thunder. As for my name, it doesn't matter. In the scavenger camp, no one uses their real name."

Captain Thunder picked up a piece of steamed snake meat and chewed it slowly in his mouth.

"The reason why I have this name is that I have a few friends in this scavenger camp who’ve entrusted their lives to me.”

"We formed our own team together. Our team name isn’t anything fancy, just Thunder.”

"Normally, everyone works individually. If there is a more difficult task, the whole team gathers to complete it. There are four people in total, including me. Right now, all three of them have gone out and haven’t returned yet.”

"When they come back, I’ll introduce you to them. In the future, you will follow us as a new member of the team to scavenge resources for survival and cultivation."

Captain Thunder seemed a little full. He put down his chopsticks and looked at Xu Qing.

Xu Qing was not too surprised by his words.

He had long sensed that Captain Thunder was a loose cultivator. After being in contact with him for such a long time, although Xu Qing was a body refiner, he could naturally sense something.

"Okay." Xu Qing nodded and agreed without hesitation.

This also caused him to breathe a sigh of relief. Growing up in a slum, Xu Qing deeply knew that there was no such thing as unconditional kindness in the world, and everything had a reason behind it.

"You can continue to eat. I'm too old, and I can't digest it if I eat too much."

Captain Thunder coughed a few times. His face flushed, but he recovered quickly and stood up. As he walked out, more words came out of his mouth.

"The spiritual energy of this world is like poison. If you work too hard at cultivation, it is very likely that you will take in too much heterogeneity and mutate. Cultivation must be steady and not aggressive."

Xu Qing was silent and did not speak.

After walking to the door, the old man turned to look at Xu Qing and nodded his head.

"But you are right to cultivate like this.”

"The scavenger camp and the forbidden area next to it are different from the city where you were before. Because of the forbidden area, this place is an attractive gathering place for low-level loose cultivators and outlaws.”

"If you want to live here, you must go to the forbidden area, and if you want to go to the forbidden area, it’s better to have higher cultivation.”

Captain Thunder left.

Xu Qing sat there alone until he ate all the snake meat. After he finished eating, he did not leave immediately. Instead, he washed the tableware, cleaned up, and put everything away before returning to his room.

He sat down with his knees crossed and continued to cultivate.

Xu Qing was very clear that if he didn’t want to hang on to a feeble existence, bowing down and placing his life and death in the hands of others, then his own strength was the only thing he could count on.

Especially in this scavenger camp where there were many loose cultivators. In just one day, he saw more cultivators than the previous six years combined, and none of them were good people.

If the slum was a doghouse, this scavenger camp was a wolf’s den.

If he didn’t work hard on cultivation, he wouldn’t even have to wait for mutation – he would eventually die without a grave after getting into some conflict.

As for heterogeneity, Xu Qing knew from the Sea and Mountain Art bamboo slip that there was a medicinal pill that could resolve it.

Although it only healed the symptoms and not the root cause, it was still fine. From the conversations of the scavengers on the way to the camp, Xu Qing knew that this medicinal pill was called the White Pill.

The nearby forbidden area held important herbs necessary to make White Pills, so there were definitely White Pills for sale in the camp.

Thinking of this, Xu Qing touched the place where the purple crystal was buried in his chest.

During this period of time, he has clearly felt that in addition to his recovery power, his speed and strength also improved a lot.

Perhaps it was because of this that although he had reached the first level of the Sea and Mountain Art, Xu Qing felt that his power seemed to be a little different from the power of one tiger described in the bamboo slip.

"I could kill a lot of tigers."

Xu Qing muttered and sensed the spiritual energy in his body. Because of his diligent cultivation along the way, he seemed to be about to reach the second level.

"Tonight, I’ll break through to the second level." Xu Qing showed firmness in his eyes. He closed his eyes and began breathing according to the bamboo slip.

Spiritual energy soon poured in from all directions. Spiritual energy outside the forbidden area had much less heterogeneity than inside, which made Xu Qing’s cultivation speed relatively faster.

Xu Qing had already noticed this in the row houses by the beast-fighting arena yesterday.

He relaxed his body and allowed spiritual energy to charge in. As he inhaled and exhaled, a faint purple light flickered in his chest, but it was covered by the hide coat.

As time passed, there was a slight banging sound in Xu Qing's body, and black impurities were once again discharged from the sweat pores.

His whole body seemed to have been nourished somehow. His flesh and blood seemed to have more strength that could burst out at any moment.

At the same time, the little girl whom Xu Qing had switched bamboo sticks with approached the gate of Captain Thunder’s residence.

She stood there hesitating, as if she wanted to knock on the gate but was too nervous.

After a long time, she seemed to summon up the courage and knocked gently on the gate of the courtyard, but the sound was too weak to get in at all.

And just as the little girl knocked on the gate, the banging sound in Xu Qing's body also reached its peak.

As his mind rumbled, Xu Qing opened his eyes. A purple light flashed in his eyes, and his expression revealed joy. He looked down at his arm and saw that a second mutation point had appeared.

Qi Condensation, second level.

[1] – This is sort of confusing (at least it was to me), so I’ll give my best explanation at what Captain Thunder’s residence looks like.

Inside the courtyard, there are three buildings – a main hut, a side hut, and a back hut. Xu Qing lives in the side hut, Captain Thunder lives in the main hut, and they eat in the back hut.

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