Northeast Base City, Eastern Military Region Supply Base.
When the train stopped at this Supply Base, Chu He got off with the crowd and entered the base.
"Heh, this time I'm on my own!" Chu He glanced back. Most Warriors traveled in groups, and very few went alone.
"Chu He? You came alone this time?"
At the base entrance, a staff member looked at the information displayed on the computer and couldn't help asking, "You know how dangerous it is to enter the Wilderness Zone alone, right?"
"Of course. I'm not suicidal." Chu He nodded.
"All right, if you know that, it's up to you." The staff member was clearly familiar with situations like this and went ahead and logged Chu He's information.
"Here, this is the key to Villa 203. This will be your residence while you're in the wilderness."
"Thanks." Chu He took the key and turned toward his lodgings.
Supply Bases built inside military districts all had basically similar layouts, so Chu He quickly found Villa 203.
After resting briefly at the base, Chu He headed out at noon and made for the Wilderness Zone.
On this trip to the Wilderness Zone, Chu He planned to collect and analyze as much Spirit Machine Material as possible. He would inevitably make several trips back and forth to the Supply Base, so there was no need to choose a particular time to set out.
Today was one of the rare bright, sunny days of winter in the Northeast Region.
"Not bad. Bright sunshine, perfect weather—a good omen!" Chu He looked up at the sun, his mood lifting.
He followed the cracked, dilapidated highway at an ordinary pace of fifty or sixty meters per second. Converted into kilometers per hour... that was far beyond the highway speed limit.
With his current physical abilities, close to those of a Junior War General, he could maintain this speed for a long time.
On both sides of the winding, cracked highway stretched a desolate wilderness. Many years ago, this might have been nothing but fertile farmland.
The Northeast Plain was the world's third-largest stretch of black soil. Agriculture here had once been extremely prosperous. Now, however, it had all fallen into ruin, overrun with weeds.
A little over half an hour later, Chu He arrived at a small county town.
"Pfft!"
Chu He killed the last Golden-Eyed Jackal with a single slash, clearing the pack that had occupied this villa.
"Not bad. This villa's in fairly good condition. It'll do as a temporary base." Chu He looked around the villa and nodded in satisfaction.
He had chosen this place because a small wooded hill lay nearby.
During the day, he could search the woods for all kinds of Heavenly Treasures containing Spirit Machine. At night, he could return to the villa to rest.
Chu He didn't want to be on the move every day. The round trip only took an hour, but it was much more satisfying to rampage through a small county town.
The problem was that the Spirit Machine needed for winemaking didn't come only from monster body parts. Most of the other ingredients were plants.
Roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruit...
And these things mostly grew in the woods, where there might also be monsters guarding them.
Chu He had no choice but to do things this way.
He couldn't exactly sleep out in the wilderness, could he?
Cleaning up the villa took quite a while. Now, Chu He looked out the window as the setting sun slowly turned red.
Winter nights came quickly, so Chu He gave up on searching for Spirit Machine today.
"Good timing. I'll clean the rooms first. Golden-Eyed Jackals lived here, and the place still reeks."
The next morning.
Chu He looked at the dimly brightening sky and stretched.
It was his first night alone in the wilderness, and he had needed to stay alert the whole time. Even when sleeping, he hadn't dared to truly let himself drift off.
He splashed cold water on his face. Once he felt alert, Chu He strode out of the villa and raced toward the woods.
"Great. Time to start searching for Spirit Machine!"
Days passed.
Ever since Chu He settled in the villas near the woods, the monsters living there had suffered.
Chu He didn't follow the same code of fairness as other Warriors, who fought their enemies head-on with blade and spear. Instead, he made full use of the mobility of a Spirit Reader.
Creating distractions, luring the enemy away, stirring up a hornet's nest...
He kept up a steady stream of little tricks to draw the monsters' attention.
Of course, that was mainly because Chu He's primary goal was the Heavenly Treasures guarded by the monsters. Their body parts weren't among the things he was collecting.
Still, since most of the monsters in the woods traveled in packs, he had collected quite a lot of monster materials as well.
Every time Chu He returned to the base with a bulging pack of valuable monster parts, the staff member in charge of purchasing them looked at him in astonishment.
On the seventh day after arriving near these woods.
"It looks like I've collected all the Spirit Machine in these woods."
Chu He looked at the more than 180 kinds of Spirit Machine data recorded in the White Jade Wine Pot and preserved in his memory, nodding with satisfaction.
"It's only a small patch of woods. Finding this much is already pretty good."
The Spirit Machine data included not only plant materials but also the body parts of monsters living in these woods.
This time, Chu He was alone, with no one else around, so he had stored all the materials containing Spirit Machine in the White Jade Wine Pot.
For the time being, the White Jade Wine Pot could only store materials that could be used to brew Spirit Wine.
Otherwise, Chu He could have treated it as a Space Ring and put his entire backpack inside.
The Spirit Machine Materials stored in the White Jade Wine Pot had also been recorded according to their shape, color, and other features. With a single thought, Chu He could sense them clearly.
If he had gathered all the ingredients required by a Wine Recipe, the White Jade Wine Pot would automatically begin brewing the Spirit Wine.
Unfortunately, so far, Chu He hadn't gathered all the ingredients for even a single Wine Recipe.
The closest he had come was about 80 percent complete: the Red Blood Wine brewed primarily from the hearts of monsters living in these woods.
After analyzing the various materials collected from the woods, the White Jade Wine Pot had also produced many new Wine Recipes.
Their effects were much the same, mostly accelerating Vital Energy circulation or regulating the body. They were even less effective than Red Blood Wine, so Chu He hadn't paid them much attention. After looking through them once, he had let them fade into the back of his mind.
But the more he studied them, the more he began to feel that he was starting to understand something.
So far, Chu He still hadn't found any material that matched the Crystal Antlers of the Frost Shadow Deer, and he still didn't know the exact Wine Recipe for the antlers.
But after studying more than a hundred kinds of Spirit Machine and their corresponding Wine Recipes, Chu He had a vague feeling that the Spirit Machine in the Frost Shadow Deer's Crystal Antlers was closer to the realms of spirit or energy.
If he could brew the Crystal Antlers into Spirit Wine, he estimated it would greatly strengthen aspects related to his spirit.
Most of the materials found in these woods were related to Vital Energy. They were a reasonable match for the Frost Shadow Deer's heart, but clearly had nothing to do with the Crystal Antlers.
"Great. I've finished exploring these woods. Time to head back to the Supply Base and rest."
After returning to the villas, Chu He shouldered his backpack, checked the approximate time, and set off for the Supply Base.
Before you continue