The Magical Little Fruit Reappears

As the pigeon-egg-sized clump of white mist was absorbed by the Miracle Small Tree, a piece of information surfaced in Lin Li's mind.

"One percent."

What did that mean? Was it telling him to kill ninety-nine more of these exotic beasts for it, and only then would it grow another one of those miraculous little azure fruits?

Though this question arose in Lin Li's mind, no further information appeared.

"Time to get to work! Ninety-nine exotic beasts, that's nothing—I'll finish it soon enough."

Encouraging himself inwardly, Lin Li shifted his thoughts and left the Mysterious Small Island.

The golden sun in the sky slowly climbed higher. As it rose, the heat it cast upon the earth grew more intense, and the damp wilderness gradually dried out.

Around noon, on the desolate, uninhabited wilds, a tall figure chased a short one.

They fled and pursued. When the desperately fleeing short figure reached a stream and prepared to dive into the water to escape, the tall figure who had been relentlessly chasing caught up.

Pfft.

The Spirit Artifact Longsword, glowing with Pale Gold Spiritual Light, thrust out like lightning, instantly piercing through the Rabbit Exotic Beast's head.

Thud.

The Rabbit Exotic Beast, which had been about to leap into the stream, died instantly. Its body lunged forward from inertia, hit the ground, and rolled several times before stopping.

"Whew..."

Panting heavily, Lin Li muttered as he looked at the Rabbit Exotic Beast he had killed with a single blow, "This thing really knows how to run! One more step and it would've jumped into the stream and gotten away."

After returning to the real world from the Mysterious Small Island, Lin Li had started searching everywhere for exotic beasts to hunt.

After a morning of work, including the one he had just killed, he had taken down six Rabbit Exotic Beasts in total.

Only six in a whole morning—Lin Li was far from satisfied.

If the afternoon went at the same pace, he'd manage at most thirteen or fourteen Rabbit Exotic Beasts in a day.

And his current goal was to kill ninety-nine exotic beasts. At this rate, it would take about a week to finish.

Too slow.

There were too few exotic beasts around here! He'd searched for ages just to find one.

Maybe after lunch, he should push deeper into the wilderness?

Killing several exotic beasts with ease that morning had boosted Lin Li's confidence, making him consider breaking the one-kilometer radius he had initially set for himself.

The outer edges of the wilderness had been swept clean by Beast Hunters many times, so most of the exotic beasts living there would instinctively flee deeper into the wild at the slightest disturbance.

A group of bolder Rabbit Exotic Beasts had originally lived in this area, but after Lin Li killed several of them in a row, many that caught wind of the danger began to escape.

That was why it had become increasingly difficult for Lin Li to find more Rabbit Exotic Beasts.

"Decision made. After lunch, I'll push a little deeper into the wilderness... five hundred meters! Going five hundred meters further shouldn't pose too much danger."

To speed things up, Lin Li pondered briefly and then made up his mind.

He walked over to the Rabbit Exotic Beast whose head he had pierced with his sword, reached out his right hand, and pressed his index finger against its body.

With a thought, Lin Li stored the Rabbit Exotic Beast into the Mysterious Small Island.

A blood-soaked Rabbit Exotic Beast corpse materialized on the Mysterious Small Island.

Within seconds of the corpse appearing on the island, it dissolved into a clump of white mist, which was then absorbed by the nearby Miracle Small Tree.

After absorbing the flesh and blood of six Rabbit Exotic Beasts in a row, the Miracle Small Tree, which had looked somewhat malnourished, perked up considerably.

Its yellowing leaves began to turn green, and on its brown branches, a tiny azure fruit the size of a grain of rice sprouted.

If one didn't look closely, it was impossible to spot that grain-sized azure fruit with the naked eye.

"Cicada, cicada..."

By the crystal-clear stream, Lin Li found a large tree where the cicada's chirping was a little quieter.

He stepped into the shade to prepare his lunch.

After a busy morning, he hadn't used much Spiritual Energy, but chasing after those frantically fleeing Rabbit Exotic Beasts had drained a lot of his stamina. Now his stomach was growling with hunger.

With a thought, Lin Li took a black backpack out of the Mysterious Small Island.

He unzipped the backpack and pulled out a box of self-heating rice.

He tore open the packaging, fetched some water from the stream, and the rice began to heat itself.

A few minutes later.

Lin Li held the heated self-heating rice in his hands, leaned his back against the lush tree, felt the cool breeze of the wilderness, listened to the cicadas above, and ate the self-heating rice with relish—even though it wasn't particularly tasty.

When you're hungry, even food you usually don't like tastes like a feast.

In fact, the self-heating rice Lin Li was enjoying so much was something he had bought online half a year ago.

Back then, he had bought three boxes at once. After eating one, he decided it didn't taste great, but throwing it away would be a waste... So he had stashed the remaining boxes in the storage room.

Lin Li had already forgotten about the two boxes of self-heating rice he'd stored in the utility room, but now his entire net worth was down to just a few dozen bucks.

It was poverty that reminded him he still had two boxes of nearly expired self-heating rice left uneaten.

"Burp~"

Full now, Lin Li let out a burp. The taste of the self-heating rice lingering in his mouth made him frown slightly.

When he was hungry, eating this bland self-heating rice felt like a feast. Now that he was full, he found himself turning up his nose at it.

"Sigh, I'm already dead broke. If I don't make some money soon, forget about eating—I won't even be able to pay the electricity bill."

Lin Li, who spent nearly two hundred bucks on electricity every month, suddenly remembered that today was the day the bill was due.

He figured he'd better stop feeding that Miracle Small Tree exotic beast flesh for now and focus on hunting some exotic beasts to earn cash and keep himself afloat.

"Rustle, rustle, rustle..."

A sound came from the waist-high Bushes a few yards away, and then a Rabbit Exotic Beast nearly three feet tall burst out from among them.

This Rabbit Exotic Beast had just woken up in its little den, feeling a bit thirsty, so it decided to head to the stream for a drink.

What rotten luck! This was just too unlucky.

The Rabbit Exotic Beast had barely scrambled out of the Bushes, aiming to get to the stream and quench its thirst, when it spotted a human standing under a lush, leafy tree by the stream. The guy's face was full of delight, and he was staring at it with a greedy, fixed gaze.