This Was Pretty Powerful

The reason Lan Qingyou thought Fire Elemental Essence was such a good thing was that she already had a plan in mind.

During the seven days of Mana Turbulence, Lan Qingyou had barely gone outside.

From then on, she had been thinking about carving out a Herb Garden in her shelter to grow rarer herbs or ones that were difficult to obtain.

Like Flame Bells, for example.

That way, even if Li Huai kicked the bucket someday, she wouldn't run out of herbs.

What did they call that? Diversifying her dependencies.

She couldn't rely on a single person for her resources.

Even if one Fire Elemental Essence wasn't quite enough for planting, it should still be enough to grow eight or ten plants.

After putting the Fire Elemental Essence in the storage room, Lan Qingyou filtered the two batches of +30 Mana Potions she had brewed that day. She poured them into a Wooden Barrel to nourish the Medicine Bag and Dagger, then put on the Steel Wool and returned to her second-floor bedroom.

She picked up Mineralogy and continued reading, with a copy of Basic Herbalism beside her.

After getting the book yesterday, Lan Qingyou had compared it with her own copy of Herbalism.

The contents were exactly the same, even down to the typeface.

This couldn't help but make Lan Qingyou wonder whether some Blue Star printing house had printed all these books in one go. Otherwise, how could they be so uniform—and still smell of fresh ink?

In fact, this wasn't the first time Lan Qingyou had wondered about it.

The World Will of Karim's world had even negotiated with the Blue Star World Will, which meant that they had communicated.

It wasn't impossible.

Over the next few days, Lan Qingyou continued her regular routine.

She brewed five batches of potions every day, then went outside to set off explosions and keep her skills sharp, so she could act immediately if anything unexpected happened.

One day.

After finishing a day of "bombardment," Lan Qingyou set off for her shelter, her Medicine Bag hanging at her side.

But when she was almost there, she spotted three furtive-looking men pointing at the big tree beside her shelter.

Were they planning to rob her?

Wasn't it impossible to enter a shelter without the owner's permission?

Curious, Lan Qingyou slowly descended onto a branch above the three men.

"Are you sure there's really a shelter here?"

"Dao Ge, it's real. I saw someone fly up there with my own eyes yesterday. Look over there—there's a huge wooden balcony. I bet it's a Level 3 Shelter."

"Idiot! You just said the person flew up. How are we supposed to get up there?"

"We can climb the Vines. I checked, and according to my calculations, they reach that broken branch. Then we can use the Grappling Hook to catch the balcony railing and climb up."

"Good. Shouzi, keep an eye out. If that woman comes back, attack immediately. Once she's dead, the shelter is ours."

"Got it."

Sitting on the branch, Lan Qingyou listened to their conversation and quickly figured out what they were up to.

Once a shelter was activated, nobody could enter without the owner's invitation.

But if they killed the shelter's owner, they could claim the shelter for themselves.

That even included the supplies inside the Magic Desk.

Quite a few people had been talking about this in the channel lately, and several had nearly fallen victim to it.

As a result, some people had started banding together, pooling their resources in one shelter in the hope of protecting themselves as much as possible.

Level 3 Shelters like Lan Qingyou's were still rare, but they did exist. Naturally, they attracted the envy of others.

Of course,

most people still lived on their own.

Lan Qingyou leaned forward to get a better look. The three men had come well prepared. The tall, skinny one even had a wooden crossbow in his hands.

It looked like they had brought it specifically to deal with someone like her who could "fly."

But when Lan Qingyou looked more closely, the men suddenly seemed familiar.

What a coincidence.

She recognized two of the three men.

Weren't these the two Thieves who had barged into the room where she and the others were waiting to die?

She still remembered the scar-faced one spitting at her in disgust.

You could've taken the road to heaven, but instead you came to my door. You could've avoided Hell, but you walked right in.

With that thought, Lan Qingyou took out an Explosive Potion.

It was time to try it in a real fight and gain some combat experience.

Lan Qingyou held out her hand, then released the test tube from between her thumb and forefinger.

"Ah..."

"My leg! My leg's broken!"

"W-what happened...?"

After an explosion, a series of heart-rending screams rang out.

That's pretty powerful.

Hearing the cries, Lan Qingyou leaned out for a look and muttered to herself.

One Explosive Potion had left two of them badly injured and one lightly injured. What more could she ask for?

It made sense.

Most people had at most ten points of Constitution, which meant around a hundred health points. One potion took away thirty health points at once, with a lingering effect that dealt another ten. That was practically half their health gone.

Compared to the Legendary Blast-Resistant King, the Sludge Monster, they really couldn't take much of a beating.

It wasn't that the Sludge Monster had a lot of health. It was that it healed quickly. Blow off half its body, and it would grow back in two seconds.

That was probably the advantage of fighting on home turf. After all, there was as much Sludge as you wanted in a swamp.

Lan Qingyou followed up with a Flame Potion.

She wasn't foolish enough to see that her enemies were badly wounded, assume she had the upper hand, and rush out to fight them with her Dagger.

Hanging back like this worked just fine.

The groans below continued as Lan Qingyou sat leisurely on the branch and waited.

The rising air from the burning Flame Potion kept licking at the branch beneath her. The heat washed over her, making her feel a little warm.

Only after the cries dwindled and gradually fell silent, and the heat faded, did she lean out to look again.

Three charred corpses greeted her.

Lan Qingyou looked at them without joy or sorrow.

She had seen corpses before. The first time had been a little like Hell, but she had seen them...

The second time was during those few days when she had been thrown into the slums.

Back then, she had nightmares almost every time she closed her eyes. She dreamed of her own corpse slowly rotting in a dim room, on a filthy bed.

Lan Qingyou glanced at the crossbow the tall, skinny man had been holding before the explosion sent it flying. She floated over and picked it up.

At room temperature, a corpse would show signs of decay after two or three days. The best outcome for them was probably to be eaten by monsters tonight.

Thinking this, Lan Qingyou didn't even spare those filthy things another glance. She flew toward her shelter.

Even though she had spent the whole day making potions, she still couldn't rest.

Today, she was going to try making the bullets Shang Chuan had ordered.