This Meat Isn't Fresh, I Don't Like It

After a burst of ecstasy, Lin Li reined in his excited emotions, climbed up from the damp grass, and quickly walked over to the unremarkable little tree at the center of the island.

"Who would've thought you'd look so ordinary, like you're half-starved, and yet you're a real treasure," Lin Li thought to himself as he carefully studied the nondescript little tree, barely two meters tall.

"When I first came to this mysterious small island, this little tree didn't have any fruit on it. How did it grow such a miraculous little fruit in just one day? Since it can grow one, does that mean it can grow a second? How do I get it to keep producing more little fruits?"

Just as Lin Li was staring at the little tree, his mind full of puzzled thoughts, he reached out and touched its trunk. The moment his fingers made contact, a stream of information about the tree appeared in his mind out of nowhere.

"So that's it. For this miracle small tree to keep growing strong and produce more of those miraculous little fruits, it needs a lot of exotic beast flesh!"

Having learned how to nurture the miracle small tree, Lin Li's face broke into a delighted smile. He decided to go to the market tomorrow and buy some exotic beast meat to test if this method would work.

The fireball he'd conjured earlier with his ability had nearly drained all the spiritual energy from Lin Li's body.

Just as Lin Li resolved to buy some exotic beast meat at the market the next morning, his vision went dark, and just like last time, he was ejected from the mysterious small island.

After Lin Li vanished, the mysterious small island returned to its calm state—the ripple-free water, the drifting white mist, the undernourished miracle small tree. If not for the damp grass at the island's edge, everything would have been just as it always was.

"Hiss..."

"That hurts..."

Lin Li, who had materialized on the sofa, raised his right hand and tapped his head. It took him half a minute to recover.

"Sigh, even though the pain is still bearable, there's no need to put myself through this. From now on, I'll be more careful with my spiritual energy and won't drain it dry again."

Once the headache faded, Lin Li estimated how long it would take for his spiritual energy to fully recover. Suddenly, he froze.

"This... why has my spiritual energy recovery speed increased so much? Could that miraculous fruit have improved my cultivation aptitude?"

If before, it took Lin Li a full day to recover all his spiritual energy after exhausting it, now that recovery time had been cut by a third.

Feeling the earth-shattering changes within his body, Lin Li's face lit up with another ecstatic smile. Tonight was destined to be a sleepless night.

The next morning, as soon as the first rays of sunlight appeared in the eastern sky, Lin Li, who had tossed and turned all night in bed, threw off the covers, got up, dressed quickly, and ran to the bathroom to wash up.

The whole process of washing his face and brushing his teeth took him less than three minutes. After that, without even eating breakfast, he rushed out of the house and headed straight for the market.

The vendors at the market had already started business before dawn. By the time Lin Li arrived, quite a few early shoppers were already browsing the stalls.

Lin Li had a clear goal. He walked straight past the ordinary vegetable stalls and headed for a lavishly decorated storefront inside the market.

This was a shop specializing in exotic beast meat. Although the price was much higher than regular meat, quite a few people still came here to buy it.

When Lin Li reached the shop, there was already a long line of people waiting to buy meat.

"So many people! I should've gotten up and left even earlier," Lin Li muttered to himself as he took his place at the back of the line.

"Boss, when was this exotic beast meat from?"

"Don't worry, Old Zhang! This meat is absolutely fresh—I just got it in this morning. The wholesaler who sold it to me said these beasts died less than twenty-four hours ago."

After waiting in line for over ten minutes, it was finally Lin Li's turn.

"Young man, how much do you want?" The butcher, wearing an apron and holding a gleaming cleaver, was a little surprised to see a young guy like Lin Li buying meat so early in the morning. After all, it was rare to find a young person willing to get up this early to shop at the market.

"Give me three jin," Lin Li said. He planned to test things out first, so he didn't ask for more.

"Sure thing." The butcher nodded, raised his knife, and neatly cut three jin of exotic beast meat for Lin Li.

"Beep." Taking the three jin of meat from the butcher, Lin Li pulled out his phone, scanned the QR code, and paid three hundred yuan.

Lin Li had bought boar beast meat, which cost a hundred yuan per jin. Regular pork from farm-raised pigs was about twenty-something yuan per jin—nearly a fivefold difference.

With the exotic beast meat in hand, Lin Li quickly left the market. He couldn't wait to find a secluded spot and enter that mysterious small island.

After leaving the market, Lin Li crossed the street and entered a nearby park.

Because the park was small and in a somewhat remote location, there were hardly any morning exercisers around.

Lin Li had initially planned to find a secluded grove in the park and enter the mysterious small island directly. But after thinking it over, he decided to play it safe. So he went into the public restroom in the park, found an empty stall, locked the door, and with a thought, a pale gold spiritual light flickered over his body as he vanished from the restroom.

The barren island, the ordinary little tree, the still water, the white mist—everything was exactly as Lin Li had left it the night before.

Appearing on the mysterious small island, Lin Li pulled the freshly bought exotic beast meat from the plastic bag and placed it at the base of the miracle small tree.

One minute passed. Two minutes. Five minutes.

Lin Li stared at the piece of Exotic Beast Meat placed under the tree for a full five minutes, but saw no change in the meat he had bought.

"Why isn't there any change at all? Could it be that the message that appeared in my mind yesterday was wrong?"

Just as Lin Li was feeling deeply disappointed, a message suddenly popped into his head.

'The Exotic Beast Meat before you is not fresh. Meat from an Exotic Beast that died no more than an hour ago is required.'

"..."

After seeing this message that had suddenly appeared in his mind, Lin Li was stunned. He had never imagined that this Miracle Small Tree before him would have requirements for the freshness of the Exotic Beast Meat—this was completely unexpected.