The Food Problem

Time: one day a month later. The Blizzard that had raged for over a month finally stopped.

Place: a large clearing in the forest. Er Dongsheng had evaporated all the thick snow here, exposing ground overrun with vines and weeds. These tenacious plants were still thriving, and by the look of them, they were in good shape.

People: Er Dongsheng, Lulu, Bei'er, Sibya, the sisters Xierjie and Ximir—ah, and the little mutant fairy Ximir. Like Little Lulu, she was a mutant Abyssal Species. Little Lulu was very close to her, so Er Dongsheng turned a blind eye and tacitly allowed her to become the little girl's playmate. This made many other fairies green with envy.

"Let's begin. Collect every kind of vine you can find, roots, stems, and leaves included!" At Er Dongsheng's direction, everyone got to work.

In this forest, vines were the uncrowned kings. There were tens of thousands of varieties: poisonous and harmless, thorny and smooth, in a dazzling array of forms. This small patch of ground alone held no fewer than a hundred kinds. Compared with animals, plants in the Abyss mutated far more readily!

"Watch out for poisonous insects!" Er Dongsheng reached out and caught a scorpion shooting toward him. It was the size of his thumb. A little pressure from his fingers, and the terrifyingly venomous creature went to meet God. He pinched off its tail and tossed it into the basket on his back. No sense wasting it. Collect enough of these, render out some animal fat back home, and fry them up, and they would make a delicious snack to go with a drink!

That flavor—ah, just thinking about it!

Though Cold Winter had arrived and snow had sealed the land for a thousand miles, these little creatures were still living quite