How Did an Extra Fruit Appear on the Tree?

Night fell, and the dim yellow streetlights along the road flickered on simultaneously, casting light for the pedestrians below.

"I'm so full! How does Su Yue's cooking taste even better than last time?"

"Burp... burp..."

A little overstuffed, Lin Li let out a burp and strolled slowly out of the Happiness Garden residential area.

Today, he had helped Su Yue unclog her drain, and at noon, he enjoyed a hearty lunch she cooked herself at her place. He'd planned to head home after eating, but she dragged him into staying to play games together for a while afterward.

Don't let the fact that Su Yue is a primary school Music Teacher fool you—she's also a gaming enthusiast, mostly into mobile games, with fewer PC games in her rotation.

Time always flies when you're gaming. An entire afternoon felt like it passed in the blink of an eye, and before he knew it, dinner time rolled around... and then, naturally, Lin Li ended up mooching another meal at Su Yue's place.

Just as a well-fed and content Lin Li was ambling back toward his own neighborhood, a large truck emerged from a street corner in the distance, carrying a massive wild boar—three meters long and two meters tall...

Pedestrians on the road spotted the giant boar on the truck and started chattering among themselves.

"Wow... that's a huge boar. To take down a beast that big, the Beast Hunter who killed it must be at least Second-Order, right?"

Heaven is fair.

In this wondrous world where spiritual energy drifts freely through the air, humans can absorb that ambient spiritual energy to become Cultivators with extraordinary strength...

Conversely, ordinary animals living in the wild can also gain supernatural power through the same method.

Those animals capable of using spiritual energy are collectively referred to by humans as exotic beasts.

Exotic beasts are far more terrifying than ordinary animals—they're smarter, fiercer, and if a human appears in their line of sight, most will choose to attack.

Nowadays, the number of exotic beasts in the wild is enormous, posing a significant threat to the safety of human cities.

As a result, some Cultivators choose to become hunters and kill those exotic beasts. These Cultivators, who fight exotic beasts in the wild, are known as Beast Hunters.

Risking their lives to battle exotic beasts, Beast Hunters protect the cities while also earning a considerable fortune.

Because the meat of these exotic beasts has one extra thing compared to ordinary chicken, beef, pork, or mutton—it contains a trace of spiritual energy.

Long-term consumption of this Exotic Beast Meat, which holds spiritual energy, won't skyrocket your cultivation, but it will provide at least a little bit of help.

So now, Cultivators aiming to break through to higher levels regularly use this wild Exotic Beast Meat as their daily food source.

Where there's market demand, naturally many people become Beast Hunters, jumping into this fast-money business.

As times have evolved, every city, driven by local authorities, has established a Beast Hunter Guild.

To prevent Cultivators whose strength clearly doesn't meet the bar from risking their lives hunting exotic beasts in the wild for money—and dying for it—the Beast Hunter Guild has enacted corresponding regulations.

The regulations clearly state that only Cultivators who have reached First-Order Peak are qualified to take the assessment at the Beast Hunter Guild.

After passing the assessment, they receive a corresponding certificate, officially earning the title of Beast Hunter, allowing them to engage in exotic beast hunting. At the same time, they can obtain various intelligence about exotic beasts from the Beast Hunter Guild.

"That big of a Boar Beast must be worth a lot of money, huh?" Lin Li watched the departing truck and silently estimated the price of this massive beast in his mind.

Fifty thousand yuan.

One Boar Beast is worth fifty thousand yuan. There are plenty of exotic beasts in the wild—if you have the strength to become a Beast Hunter and aren't afraid of danger, you'll quickly become a wealthy man.

The truck carrying the enormous exotic beast disappeared at the end of the street. Lin Li withdrew his gaze and continued walking toward home.

Before today, Lin Li had given up on becoming a Cultivator years ago, planning to just coast through life as a Salted fish at home.

But ever since he acquired that mysterious little island, his once-calm heart had stirred up new waves.

For now, that barren little island seemed only good for growing vegetables, but Lin Li didn't want to use it for farming so soon.

He felt that island must have something special about it—he just hadn't discovered it yet.

"I've read so many novels in my past life. No one reborn in a parallel world ever gets a cheat that's useless. I refuse to believe my luck is so bad that my golden finger can only be used for growing vegetables."

Lin Li mulled over the matter of that Mysterious Small Island in his mind as he quickened his pace toward home.

"According to the latest news from our station, at ten o'clock last night, a leopard exotic beast secretly crossed the defense line and attacked a village on the outskirts of the city. Fortunately, a Beast Hunter happened to be passing by and killed the leopard exotic beast on the spot..."

Lin Li sat quietly in the living room, watching TV as if the content deeply captivated him. If you observed him closely, you'd notice his eyes occasionally flicking to the clock hanging on the wall behind the television.

Three minutes to ten, and the spiritual energy in his body was almost fully restored.

"Tick, tock, tick, tock..."

Time was passing so slowly!

As the hour crept closer to ten, Lin Li, sitting on the sofa, grew more and more excited.

The moment came. Feeling his spiritual energy fully restored, as if he'd been born knowing how to enter that Mysterious Small Island, Lin Li focused his mind. A Pale Gold spiritual light bloomed around him, and then he vanished from the sofa entirely.

"Mr. Li, thanks to you yesterday, otherwise many people would have died in that leopard exotic beast's jaws."

"It's what I should do. Killing those vile exotic beasts is every Beast Hunter's duty..."

On the wide-screen LCD TV, a reporter was interviewing the man who had slain the leopard exotic beast the night before.

The empty living room had no one in it, only the sound from the television echoing through the space.

"I'm back... This time, I'm definitely going to uncover your secrets..."

Lin Li appeared on this mysterious small island, a hundred square meters in size and surrounded by thick white mist, muttering to himself under his breath.

He looked around, poked and prodded here and there, and even took a sip of the sweet water, but found nothing of value.

"No way? Could this place really only be good for growing vegetables?" Lin Li stood by the shore, staring at the distant white mist, speaking with some disappointment.

Just as he was about to leave the island, his eyes swept over the ordinary little tree growing in the center. That casual glance made Lin Li instantly halt his intention to leave.

"I remember that little tree didn't have any fruit on it before!"