Losing Face!

Looking at these chat messages, Lan Qingyou felt rather bewildered.

What was going on? How did this end up involving her?

She scrolled back to see what had happened, only to realize it had all been triggered by a call to action from Xintianle.

At first, people were simply discussing helping one another in response to Xintianle's initiative.

Then, someone started steering the narrative, gradually directing the focus toward her.

"If you ask me, the person in our district with the most supplies and materials is Lan Qingyou. Her potions are so profitable; a single one costs dozens of basic units in materials, and selling a hundred a day is enough to keep us busy."

"I've calculated it. She ships at least two hundred units a day. Even if we conservatively estimate based on +30 Mana Potion, that's 6,000 basic units, and that's not even counting the +50 Mana Potion or the +30 Healing Potion."

"I didn't know before, but now that you've broken it down, she really is making a killing."

"Good grief! So Lan Qingyou has that many materials?"

"Don't do the math, don't do the math."

"At a time like this, everyone should be helping each other out."

"@Lan Qingyou, help everyone out."

"@Lan Qingyou, it's just a bit of pocket change compared to your daily mana potion income, don't be so stingy."

"@Lan Qingyou, take a piece of advice from your uncle: if you can take a small loss, you can build connections. Everyone will have to patronize your business in the future anyway."

"@Lan Qingyou, you've earned so much, shouldn't you cough some of it up to benefit everyone now?"

"@Lan Qingyou, you wouldn't just stand by and watch us die, would you?"

And so, a group of people began tagging Lan Qingyou, wanting her to provide some relief.

"Hah!"

Lan Qingyou sneered, blocked the few people stirring up trouble, and went upstairs to read.

If they thought they could use moral kidnapping to deal with her, they had picked the wrong person.

And as for "patronizing her business in the future"—it sounded as if they wouldn't buy from her if she didn't give them handouts.

In one word: pathetic!

As for standing by and watching them die... this was the Valley of Villains; eight out of ten people were former criminals. The world would be a cleaner place if they died.

After going upstairs and composing herself, Lan Qingyou began to study the book in her hands in earnest.

Eventually, she didn't know when she had fallen into a deep sleep, and she didn't wake up until past ten the next morning.

"I didn't expect to sleep so soundly even with thunder outside. Was it because of the lullaby?"

Sitting up, Lan Qingyou poked her head out to check the weather.

Just like the past few days, the sun was bright and clear; the Mana Turbulence from last night seemed as if it had never happened, much like a midsummer thunderstorm.

But that was probably for the best; at least daytime life wouldn't be affected.

Lan Qingyou floated up from the mattress, grabbed her quilt, and headed out to the balcony.

Draping the quilt over the balcony railing, she looked around, but nothing in the surroundings seemed to have changed.

Only then did she feel at ease enough to take a hot shower.

Afterward, she used the water in the bucket to refill the tank and decided to head to the creek to fill the bucket back up.

After all, the beginner period had just ended, and they were in a critical time.

If anything in her home wasn't full, Lan Qingyou felt a sense of suffocating anxiety.

She was going to brew potions later, a process that would take eight hours.

No one knew if variables would arise during such a long stretch of time.

However, just as Lan Qingyou was floating toward the creek, she passed a medium-sized rock and suddenly, uncontrollably, slammed into the ground.

Although there was grass below, there were also loose stones, and the impact hit Lan Qingyou hard.

The bucket she had been holding clattered and rolled several times before coming to a stop at the edge of the creek.

Fortunately, because she was almost at the creek, her flight altitude hadn't been high—only about two meters.

Had it been any higher, no one could imagine what the consequences might have been.

Even so, Lan Qingyou's forehead was cut by a stone, and blood wouldn't stop flowing.

Yet, Lan Qingyou didn't try to crawl up immediately, nor did she cover her wound.

She just lay there quietly, smelling the mixture of soil and wild grass, her eyes filled with shock, fear, terror, and bewilderment.

For a split second just now, she hadn't been able to sense the existence of her mana, which was why she had fallen from the sky.

What was going on? Had her talent disappeared?

Her heart was full of doubt; she wanted to mobilize the mana within her, but she was terrified of the reality that it might be gone.

She did not want to return to that life where she could only lie in bed and do nothing.

At this moment, she saw the Moonlight Stone Dagger that had fallen from her body when she tumbled.

She reached out and gripped the hilt of the dagger tightly.

Mobilize!

If the mana was truly gone, then she might as well just die here and be done with it.

Although she felt it was a pity to leave without having her revenge, this hardly seemed like the time to dwell on that.

No!!!

I cannot just die and be done with it like this.

Even if I cannot walk, I still possess the magical knowledge from the other world.

Crawl back; if I find any way to crawl back to the tree hole, I will surely find a solution.

And so, after taking a deep breath and steeling her resolve, Lan Qingyou mobilized the mana within her body.

The mana was still there!!

Upon receiving this answer, Lan Qingyou's eyes lit up, and she immediately cast the Lightness Technique on herself, slowly floating upward.

Unlike before, even the simplest control was incredibly strenuous this time.

It felt as if the mana inside her body was rampaging everywhere, making it difficult to grasp.

Wait!

Mana Turbulence!

In an instant, Lan Qingyou realized where the problem lay.

It wasn't that her mana had vanished, nor that her talent had failed, but that the Mana Turbulence from last night was the culprit.

It had disrupted the flow of mana within her body, ultimately causing the situation she had just experienced.

Although it was only a guess, the probability was high.

"What the hell, so that was the reason."

Lan Qingyou tucked the dagger back into her belt, swayed unsteadily as she picked up the bucket from the ground, and then managed to draw a bucket of water with great difficulty.

Then...

Just as she lifted the bucket filled with stream water, Lan Qingyou fiercely smashed it against a nearby rock of moderate size.

With her strength stat reaching 32 points, the full-force strike caused the bucket to shatter into pieces upon hitting the rock.

"Damn it!"

Covered in blood, Lan Qingyou threw away the remaining fragment of the wooden bucket with a ferocious expression.

Humiliation!

Thinking back to her fearful state of mind and the thought of just ending it all, she grew angrier the more she thought about it; she instantly flushed red, broke down on the spot, and took her frustration out on a wooden bucket.

It was just mana disappearing, just her talent being unusable—how could she have been so terrified?

Honestly, this would definitely become one of those few "cringe-worthy moments" that would make her feel miserable whenever she remembered it.

It was fortunate that no one was around to see it; otherwise, it would have been even worse than being killed.

"Huang Wei! I won't let you die too easily!"

Wiping the mud and blood from her face with a hand dampened by the stream water, Lan Qingyou's dirty little face was filled with malice.