Pig Trough

Zhu Jiusi snorted like a pig twice and put away the scroll.

Something must have happened in District 33, but it had nothing to do with him—as long as it didn't affect him, nothing involving anyone else mattered.

He had only saved Monkey this time because they had cooperated in the Secret Realm, and he had accepted a job from Monkey afterward to protect him once.

Survival in the Journey Market really relied on luck. Monkey clearly belonged to the category of beings who possessed immense luck.

The gains from just opening the Gourd alone exceeded everything Zhu Jiusi had accumulated from killing people and looting goods.

Setting aside sentiment, simply maintaining a good relationship with such a person yielded abundant rewards.

His contact with the others wasn't purely out of preference either.

Based on his impressions of Sword Seven from her past life, this cold and aloof woman had her own bottom line and disdained conspiracies and betrayal.

Add to that her bizarre luck—as someone who opened a Dao Discussion Card every single day, it was as if the Journey Survival was pushing her forward.

In the future, if there were special dungeons, she would be the first choice for a team.

The same went for Scholar; although his mouth was full of foul language, his combat power was strong and his character was solid.

That was enough!

While Zhu Jiusi was contacting Rain Seeker for those few moments, the others were already collecting the spoils of war.

Killing people to drop equipment was a rule—the three who had crossed districts last time didn't count, as they had been struck dead by the Heavenly Tribulation, and everything they had turned to nothingness under the tribulation.

Or perhaps everything on them had turned into heaven and earth essence, which was what nourished the golden Gourd?

Zhu Jiusi walked over, and Monkey was already gleefully looting the corpses.

"Two Sword Nourishing Stones, this one goes to Sword Seven."

The group had no objections.

"A weapon, brass knuckles, with a special skill." He turned his head to look around, and White Beard's Fist raised his hand over there.

"Mine!" He ran over excitedly: "I can compensate with resources!"

A suitable weapon with a special skill was certainly worth a high price, so compensating with resources was reasonable.

The others had no objections.

"Fine!"

Monkey continued to loot for treasures.

After passing the novice period, everything had become much more formal. Aside from the three basic resources, which were clearly visible when dropped from killing monsters, everything else had concealment effects and could only be identified once looted.

It was unknown how this team had formed such a tacit understanding, but they all subconsciously let Monkey do the looting.

"A trough..." He stopped mid-sentence and then looked at Zhu Jiusi.

This thing was a pig trough used for feeding pigs; it was standard equipment!

Zhu Jiusi: "..."

"Let me see!"

If it were just a lump of rock, he certainly wouldn't want it, but if it had special effects, Zhu Jiusi wouldn't care what it looked like.

As long as it had tangible effects, he would be willing to sleep while hugging a rock from a latrine.

Zhu Jiusi inspected the lump of rock.

[Trough: Lair accessory, can be integrated into the lairs of Demon Cultivators such as pigs, cattle, and horses.]
[Special Attributes: Detoxification, Preservation, Palatability, Growthable.]

A good item!

Zhu Jiusi snorted twice: "It's mine, I can provide compensation."

The value of this item was clearly higher, and he might need to pay extra resources.

He had money now, so he wasn't afraid!

Zhu Jiusi gave his body a shake, and the backpack on his back dropped down and transformed into his lair. The trough nudged up against the lair, and the options appeared naturally.

[Integratable accessory, proceed with integration?]

Zhu Jiusi naturally chose to integrate.

[Integration countdown: 23:59:58]

It would take a full day for the integration to succeed.

Fortunately, the lair could still shrink back into a backpack during the integration process.

Monkey looted the corpses all the way through, and the drop rate this time was surprisingly high. These people must have also experienced the Journey Market, as they had quite a few things on them.

It was enough for the few of them to split.

In the end, Zhu Jiusi and White Beard's Fist didn't even need to provide compensation materials, though they didn't get a share of the other items either.

He was extremely satisfied with just a Pig Trough.

Slay monsters, split loot.

Then, the few of them idled away on the Monkey's path with nothing to do.

The Dao Discussion Card mechanism was a bit rigid; they had to honestly wait two hours for the path to split.

Of course, killing the Monkey would also work.

"Come, come, come! Why are you all standing there like statues? I have good stuff here!" The Monkey chattered away, as he loved a lively atmosphere most of all.

He hauled a pile of delicacies out from his carriage.

Bread, red bean buns, steamed buns, flower rolls, and even over a dozen hot dishes!

They hadn't exchanged for any dishes at the Journey Market; Rain Seeker had calculated that it wasn't cost-effective!

The actual value of items at the Journey Market did not match their Wealth Value.

For example, a Life Stone required ten Bronze Gourds to exchange, yet its Wealth Value was only 50.

At the time, Rain Seeker had calculated the optimal plan, compromising between utility and high Wealth Value.

As soon as the Monkey laid out the dishes, the eyes of everyone around lit up.

Even Zhu Jiusi's eyes shone with greed; it had been quite a while since any food had come out of his gourd. He had been relying entirely on plant roots to fill his stomach.

The last time he had improved his diet was when Heals Stomach Not Body roasted some wolf meat.

It was just that the taste was hard to describe; Zhu Jiusi suspected that fellow had paid for his chef's license.

At this moment, even seeing a plain white steamed bun made him feel so tempted he couldn't move his feet.

Even Sword Seven's cold gaze lingered on an apple twice.

Zhu Jiusi grunted a few times and, without standing on ceremony, walked over to the steamed buns and began to feast.

Ever since he became a pig, he couldn't really laugh anymore; any laughter that came out sounded like pig grunts to others.

There was no psychological barrier to eating off the wealthy. After chewing twice, the unique sweetness of the steamed bun exploded across his taste buds.

It made Zhu Jiusi squint his eyes in satisfaction.

Beside him, Sword Seven glanced over and let out a sigh of relief. Thankfully, although he had turned into a pig, he hadn't truly acted like one, wolfing down food while drooling. Otherwise, she would have felt restless sitting nearby.

Aside from being covered in mud, this pig was actually quite clean. The pig nest he had just put out was surprisingly made of leather, looking almost like a sofa.

"Little Friend Cave Master, is there some significance to this layer of mud on you?" White Beard asked while devouring a bun in two bites.

Compared to Zhu Jiusi, he was the one lacking decorum. He hadn't managed to open a single piece of food since entering Journey Survival. Now that he saw food, he didn't care about his image in the slightest.

Zhu Jiusi nodded while chewing: "It's mud opened from a Silver Gourd; it counts as armor."

White Beard nodded. No wonder this layer of mud didn't fall off.

He didn't ask any further; since Zhu Jiusi had already said it was armor, it wouldn't be appropriate to probe deeper.

After the group had eaten their fill, the Scholar stretched: "We still have over an hour before we can go back. Should we hold a small exchange meeting? Everyone can trade things they don't need?"

The last gathering had been too rushed and time was insufficient, so this was a perfect chance to supplement their supplies.

Naturally, the others had no objections.

Zhu Jiusi was the first to bring out a Shaft Orientation Device.

"Trading for basic materials or things useful for a Beast Nest."

No sooner had he set it down than several people's eyes lit up simultaneously.

Sword Seven put down something that looked like a giant rib, resembling a dinosaur ribcage: "Trade!"

[Beast Skeleton: A skeleton left behind by an unknown exotic beast. Having endured the erosion of time, it no longer possesses supernatural phenomena, but it is sufficiently hard and can be fused with a Beast Nest to enhance the nest's stability.]

"Deal!" Zhu Jiusi nodded and tucked the skeleton into his pack.

His pig nest was currently fusing with the Pig Trough; he would have to wait until that finished before he could fuse this skeleton.

The hour of trading allowed everyone to get what they needed. Although not everyone found exactly what they wanted, it was a good start.

This kind of exchange meeting could continue in the future.

An hour passed quickly. Sword Seven disappeared first, followed by Zhu Jiusi.

Back on his own mountain path, everything remained unchanged.

The nest was set down, and an area along the outer edge was constantly squirming; the trough was in the middle of fusing.

Zhu Jiusi glanced at it and crawled into the nest. Then, he let out a groan of annoyance: Pig brain! He had forgotten something.

He privately contacted Sword Seven, asking her to help him open the bottle of Moon Essence Dew.

Sword Seven Doesn't Learn Sword: "Wait, killing monsters!"

To encounter monsters the moment he returned—his luck was truly abysmal...

Zhu Jiusi mocked himself inwardly, then his eyes slowly narrowed as a chilling sensation crept up his back.

He turned his head to look and saw a dark green python as thick as a human thigh coiled in the tree, flicking its tongue and staring straight at him.