The Previous Saintess

The Underground City only has twelve hours of daylight. Coupled with today's unexpected busyness, Yu Xing felt that she had only read a small portion of the books on the bookshelf before it was already dinnertime.

Perhaps it was also because his mind was constantly bombarded by the incredible images in the books that he sometimes felt a little dazed, and time would just pass by.

He finally made it to a mealtime.

The food room was also a high priority for cleanup. After the altar, entertainment area, and reception area, the food room was the fourth place to be cleared. However, this was thanks to the fact that the residential area was not affected much, otherwise it would probably have ranked fifth.

The traces left by ghosts are harder to clean than ordinary dirt. It took a lot of effort for these believers who did whatever they wanted on the ground to clean them up. Yu Xing was a newcomer, so no one pulled him over to work as a laborer.

When he arrived at the cafeteria, he found it to be quite lively during mealtimes, just like a regular university cafeteria. There were no rules about not talking while eating or sleeping, and the voices of more than two hundred believers were buzzing like mosquitoes, giving him a headache.

Yu Xing is a special case; it's rare for a newcomer to attract so much attention in such a short time. His fame among the believers was entirely built up by being approached by Ruben twice.

So when Klaus pulled him to sit at the same table, only a small number of believers who were oblivious to what was going on outside were surprised.

At the table were Klaus, Amber, and several other people Yu Xing recognized but couldn't recall by name. The table was laden with food, and each person had a bowl of rice in front of them, according to the number of seats.

"Who made all of this?" Yu Xing asked curiously.

"They're the ones in charge of food," a blond boy with a young Western appearance answered first, pointing to a table in the far corner. "Those twenty people over there are specifically responsible for cooking; they don't have to participate in any other tasks."

To put it bluntly, he's a pretty laid-back guy, clinging to a stable job as a chef, letting his intelligence remain locked away, and refusing to go out on the surface to do missions, because not only would he have to bear the punishment for failing a mission, but there's also a chance he'd encounter a powerful enemy and die on the ground.

"I see." Yu Xing nodded in understanding.

Klaus bearded man, chuckled. "Don't follow their example. They may be safe, but they're not doing very well. Anyone can be a cook, but the contributions others have made to Lord Wood God are irreplaceable."

"I understand." Yu Xing glanced down at the rice in front of him. The rice grains were very white, no different from ordinary food, if he hadn't seen the farmland with strange crops planted on both sides of the road.

The table was laden with a variety of dishes, mostly vegetarian, which was to be expected, since the Ghost Tree is a tree and can only provide plants.

"Where did these dishes come from? Are they all grown in the city?" Yu Xing asked knowingly.

"Of course not. The ones we plant in the city were just planted by people who were bored before. They went off to do missions and didn't come back for two years. Nobody had the heart to destroy the fields, so they just left them there. When there was a good harvest, they would pick the crops and eat them too," the blond boy replied.

The blond boy was in high spirits, seemingly eager to leave a helpful impression on Klaus and the others, so he answered questions very enthusiastically.

In contrast, Amber remained silent. Yu Xing glanced over discreetly and saw that Amber was eating meat with gusto.

I think I heard her mention something about "flesh" and "skin" before...

"There's so much meat today. This is Ruben Reed's reward for completing the mission, and it will last for a month," the blond boy explained to Yu Xing, before abruptly stopping halfway through his sentence.

He suddenly remembered that the newcomer Roy and Ruben Reed had a very serious argument that morning, and now he was saying that these were Ruben Reed's reward—wasn't that just making things awkward?

Klaus realized this too, glanced at Yu Xing, and chuckled to change the subject, "Didn't you want to know where the raw materials came from? Actually, they are all rewards from Lord Wood God. Every night after the darkness, new ingredients appear in the kitchen. This month, there will indeed be more meat in the kitchen than before. Eating meat has many benefits for us, so you'd better eat some too."

Amber looked up briefly, nudged Yu Xing, and pointed to a plate. "Mr. Roy, you can try this chicken leg... um, it should be a chicken leg."

Yu Xing: "..."

No, it isn't.

In any case, he didn't want to admit that the thing with bones growing out was a chicken leg.

The meat here is all somewhat mutated, but whether it looks good or not is another matter. The chefs may be weak, but their culinary skills are exceptional, probably honed through training. In any case, the dishes they make all look quite appealing.

The color and aroma were so strong that Yu Xing chose not to eat it.

It's better to eat vegetarian food; at least vegetables were once something that grew out of the soil and had no brains.

Playing along with the jokes from the people at the table, and accepting their attempts to fill him in with knowledge about the Underground City, Yu Xing glanced at the many empty seats. "It seems like there are quite a few people missing. There seem to be a lot of people out on missions at the same time?"

"Indeed, almost half of them are not here." Klaus followed his gaze and quickly understood what he was thinking. The bearded man had a somewhat fierce yet slightly honest appearance, but for some reason, he seemed strangely indifferent on Klaus.

"We only receive a mission to go to the surface once in a long while, but each time we go out, the world above ground is different. Based on our analysis, the world outside the Underground City should be divided into many parts, and the time in each world is also different."

"Sometimes we leave and come back in half a month, but sometimes it takes half a year, five years, or ten years. Although in those worlds we usually stay for more than ten years, in the Underground City, this ratio fluctuates." The bearded man explained, scratching his head.

It's really just a difference in the flow of time; Yu Xing completely understood what he meant.

To make up for his earlier slip of the tongue, the blond boy told what he thought was a joke, "It also depends on luck. I'm quite happy to stay in the Underground City, but I remember the original Saintess has been gone for twenty-three years and hasn't returned, yet the Tree Witch has never announced her death."

"That's right, these positions shouldn't be vacant for too long, that's why I was re-elected as Saintess." Amber's mouth was stuffed full, and when she smiled, she looked even more like a hamster.

These people were quite at ease about it, after all, it wasn't that they had used any tricks to obtain the positions that didn't belong to them, but rather that Wood God had voluntarily transferred the positions to them.

Yu Xing's brow twitched as she listened to the gossip they were casually spreading.

Chapter Twenty-Four: The Previous Saintess