Scavenger Gourd

After forging the artifact!

Yin Ming had completely become an ordinary man with no cultivation.

He immediately bit his finger, squeezed out a drop of blood, and let it fall onto the battered yellow gourd.

The drop of blood met no resistance as it seeped into the gourd and lit up countless secret runes.

Once the gourd bore his mark, the initial refinement of the spiritual treasure was complete.

"This is... an Innate Spiritual Treasure!"

The instant it was refined, information about the yellow gourd flooded Yin Ming's mind. He knew he had gambled correctly!

This was an Innate Spiritual Treasure with one complete Divine Restriction.

Its name was: Scavenger Gourd.

Using this treasure to attain a divine position on the Immortal Path should make him a Beggar God or a Vagrant God.

It sounded rather similar to the Broom Star, which represented bad luck.

But there was one most fundamental difference between them.

The gods controlled by the Investiture of the Gods had all entered the list with only a wisp of their remaining souls.

Calling them righteous gods would be less accurate than calling them artifact spirits of Innate Spiritual Treasures.

But Yin Ming was a genuine immortal. Above, he was not governed by the Jade Emperor; below, he was not governed by mortal emperors. By the standards of the Immortal Path System, he was equivalent to a Primordial Innate Demon God.

Crack...

A crisp, ringing whip crack sounded!

Jeroen Hoven always appeared before the sun rose.

With a dark horse-like face, he berated them, "You have five minutes to eat. Today, you will turn over all the land on the southeastern side of the manor. Young Master Hank wants to grow the largest and most beautiful flower garden in Green Forest as a gift for his grandmother's seventieth birthday."

When he was in a good mood, even that old dog Hoven looked kind and approachable.

As a qualified serf, he had long grown accustomed to nobles saying one word while serfs worked themselves to death.

No matter how fiercely they complained inside, their faces had to show complete willingness and eager acceptance, without the slightest hint of resistance.

"Breakfast!"

Breakfast was still black bread, water, and a small dish of pickled vegetables.

However, just as Yin Ming picked up the black bread to eat it,

he suddenly thought of the Scavenger Gourd and hid the entire piece of black bread inside his clothes.

"Eno, black bread may taste awful, but you can't work without eating. Jettansen from the next room was twice as strong as I was. The day before yesterday, he skipped breakfast, collapsed, and never got back up."

Yin Ming had generously shared half a piece of white bread the previous night.

Randy now considered Yin Ming one of his own. Afraid that the white bread had spoiled his taste buds, he leaned over and quietly tried to persuade him.

Old dog Hoven might be vicious, but at most, one or two newly arrived serfs died beneath his whip as an example to the rest.

Old serfs like Yin Ming, Randy, and Jack were rarely whipped by him anymore.

The serfs in Count Golden Lion's territory were replaced so quickly because they did backbreaking labor while suffering from severe nutritional deficiencies. As a result, serfs usually did not live past thirty.

And picky serfs would not even survive a year!

"I ate white bread last night, so I'm not very hungry yet. I'll save this for when I'm tired from work."

Yin Ming made an excuse. Once all the serfs had finished their black bread, he followed the larger group toward the southern side of Tulip Manor with a hoe over his shoulder.

The land here was dry and barren. Growing grain on it yielded less than the seeds sown.

It truly was more suitable for growing flowers. The stony ground was difficult to turn over, but that merely cost a few serfs, and the expense was not particularly high.

"Store!"

The serfs worked separately.

That way, each person's workload could be clearly seen.

Taking advantage of the fact that no one was nearby, Yin Ming stored the black bread in his clothes inside the Scavenger Gourd.

[Name: Charred Black Bread.]

[Ingredients: rye flour: 64%, bran: 32%, gravel: 2.5%, grass scraps: 1%, trace elements: 0.5%.]

[Note: baked over charcoal. Contains the essential components required for daily human needs. Long-term consumption will damage health.]

[Extractable: Food Essence: 2, toxins: 0.01.]

All the information on the black bread was displayed before his eyes with incomparable clarity.

Like the most advanced virtual projection, it formed a 3D image of the black bread, with countless reference numbers labeling even its molecular structure.

This was the Scavenger Gourd's ability: it could analyze any item placed inside it, maximizing its utility.

It was precisely because of this "waste recycling" ability that Yin Ming had named it the Scavenger Gourd.

Compared to the Innate Spiritual Treasures of myth and legend that could destroy heaven and earth at a whim, the Scavenger Gourd possessed no combat power whatsoever. It was merely an exceptional support-type spiritual treasure.

Even if someone offered him the Jade Disk of Creation, Yin Ming would not trade it. The spiritual treasure that suited him was the best spiritual treasure.

"Extract!"

Yin Ming chose to extract the Food Essence.

The black bread began to melt, releasing two streaks of white light that formed into two pills.

What remained on the ground was a pile of residue and a tiny amount of black toxic matter.

The Scavenger Gourd had a storage space the size of a mustard seed, but once it held something, Yin Ming could no longer store the gourd in his sea of consciousness.

"Food Essence... it should taste better than black bread, right?"

Yin Ming pinched a white pill between his fingers and tossed it directly into his mouth without hesitation.

This was an extract from black bread, and the toxic material had been removed. It might taste bad, but it certainly would not be poisonous.

The pill melted as soon as it entered his mouth, and a faint wheaty fragrance filled his mouth.

Though bland, it did not taste bad. A gentle warmth spread through his stomach and intestines as his body rapidly replenished its energy, bringing a long-lost feeling of fullness.

"Food Essence! In the Immortal Path System, it should be called a Grain-Repelling Pill."

The main ingredient of black bread was flour, and its energy content was actually not low.

It was only because of the impurities that the human body could absorb only a small portion of it, while digestion itself consumed a great deal of energy.

The Grain-Repelling Pill improved the utilization rate.

Half a piece of black bread could satisfy an ordinary person's daily expenditure.

If Count Golden Lion had the Scavenger Gourd, he could cut the serfs' food rations by another seventy percent.

"..."

After taking the Grain-Repelling Pill, Yin Ming was brimming with strength. He finished half of his assigned day's work in a single hour.

So he deliberately slowed down and slacked off.

The best serf of the day could receive a small piece of white bread.

But aside from tasting better than black bread, it was actually a losing deal. It could not replenish the extra physical energy expended.

Experienced old serfs would only pace themselves and complete the standard daily workload.

"Wait! Could these weeds also be extracted into Food Essence?"

Cows ate grass and produced milk; people drank cow's milk. Why could people not simply eat grass directly and cut out the middleman?

In the past, such a statement could only be seen in idiotic online forums, but with the Scavenger Gourd, the idea seemed highly feasible.

"Store!"

There was no harm in trying.

Yin Ming stored a pile of weeds in the Scavenger Gourd.

[Name: Pile of Weeds.]

[Ingredients: Purpleroot Herb: 45%, Silverleaf Herb: 14%, Tigerclaw Vine: 11%... soil: 4%.]

[Note: A pile of common weeds. Their roots have a weak hemostatic effect. A master of medicine might be able to make use of this waste.]

[Extractable: Grain-Repelling Pill: 3, Hemostatic Powder: 1, toxins: 0.1.]

Yin Ming extracted the Food Essence, condensing it into three pale-green Grain-Repelling Pills.

It took weeds weighing twenty times as much as the black bread to produce the same number of Grain-Repelling Pills.

But weeds were everywhere. The weeds in Tulip Manor alone could yield a huge pile of Grain-Repelling Pills.

"It hasn't been easy! After one month and four days since transmigrating into this other world, I've finally solved the problem of food and warmth."