After his shower, Zhong Xuezhi suggested to Mu Yi, "You should wash up too. There are toiletries and clean clothes in my bag. Help yourself."
"I'll go out and have our morning briefing with the others."
Before turning away, he tossed Mu Yi a yellow shard crystal and added, "This is yours."
With that, he slipped through the waterfall so fast that not a single drop touched him.
Mu Yi stared at the curtain of water for a while before lowering his head to examine the crystal stone he had just caught.
Yellow crystal stones signified Grade A, and the energy inside really was vastly different from those he had probed before.
Not only did it hold a great deal of energy, but the concentration was also high, with very few impurities.
No wonder it was considered a watershed.
The abundant energy inside the Grade A shard crystal prompted Mu Yi to probe the electric current in its core repeatedly with his pheromones, exploring the subtle patterns in the movement of its charges over and over.
After sensing it repeatedly, he raised his hand and summoned a wisp of electric current, slowly adjusting the movement of its charges to match the frequency of those inside the shard crystal.
After continuous adjustments and fine-tuning, the two currents, one inside and one outside, finally reached a 100% match.
Mu Yi smiled, looped the replicated special current around his finger twice, and pondered how he could use it.
But after thinking it over for ages, he still had no ideas. Instead, the two tiny red dots on his fingertip caught his attention.
They were tooth marks left by a certain deaf and mute big cat.
He simply gave up thinking about it for now and brought his finger up to inspect it.
After studying it for a while, Mu Yi braced his hands on his knees and stood, stripped naked just as Zhong Xuezhi had earlier, and began to wash.
Although Zhong Xuezhi had said there were clean clothes, he wasn't keen on wearing someone else's, so he clutched his own blood-soaked clothes and clumsily scrubbed them.
Fortunately, the fabric didn't stain easily. Even without much experience washing clothes, brute force worked wonders.
Gritting his teeth, Mu Yi finished scrubbing, flash-dried them, and tossed them aside before beginning to scrub the blood off his body.
After an entire night, the blood splashed over him had long since dried. Now it dissolved in the water again, slick beneath his touch.
Mu Yi lowered his eyes and gazed at the bright red on his fingertips, almost able to feel that hot blood splashing over him again.
A flicker of pleasure flashed through his eyes and vanished. Then he quickly scrubbed himself clean.
A little over ten minutes later, after cleaning himself up from head to toe, Mu Yi looked presentable again.
Zhong Xuezhi happened to finish the morning briefing with his teammates just then and ducked back into the cave to tell him they were leaving.
Before they set off, Zhong Xuezhi put a huge adhesive bandage on each of his palms, which had long since stopped bleeding, then pressed an unidentified wild fruit into his hand for breakfast.
Finally, he held out his own insulated raincoat.
"Here. It's raining again outside. The mountains are damp and cold. You could get hypothermia if you get rained on too."
Mu Yi felt that, as an Alpha, he hardly needed a Beta to accommodate and look after him, so he didn't take it.
"Wear it yourself."
With that, he sent a strand of pheromones above his head, solidified it into a rain shield, and leaped out through the waterfall.
Zhong Xuezhi paused, then quickly packed up and chased after him.
He caught up with Mu Yi in a few strides and continued, "You're using too much energy like this. This rain won't stop anytime soon."
Mu Yi had never been fussed over like this. Impatiently, he retorted, "Why are you such a mother hen?"
Just then, Qiu Cai came over with a loud laugh and chimed in, "Ha! You've got that right.
"Our captain is a total mother hen. He loves fussing over people!"
Of course, that only applied when he wanted to fuss over someone.
Zhong Xuezhi kicked him. "Get lost!"
Qiu Cai cackled twice, patted his backside, and left.
As soon as Qiu Cai left, Wenren Jin wandered over, clicking his tongue. "Well, well. Sleep together once, and suddenly you're so much closer."
Mu Yi: "?" What the hell?
"Shoo, shoo!" Zhong Xuezhi kicked him too. "Every last one of you has such a big mouth. Aren't you tired of it?"
With an inscrutable smile playing on his lips, Wenren Jin sauntered away.
Once the nuisances were out of earshot, Zhong Xuezhi turned his head again. "Mu..."
Mu Yi cut him off just in time. "Stop nagging. I'll wear it."
As he spoke, he snatched the raincoat from Zhong Xuezhi's hands and haphazardly pulled it on.
Once it was on, he even spun around as if showing it off, then spread his hands. "Happy now?"
Zhong Xuezhi looked above his head. "Withdraw your energy."
Summoning his patience, Mu Yi snapped his fingers and dismissed the rain shield.
Then he looked Zhong Xuezhi over and noticed that he was already quite wet, so he asked, "What about you?"
Zhong Xuezhi pointed to the hat on his head. "I can handle the cold. This is all I need."
"Oh." Mu Yi had only asked in passing. He didn't really care.
He continued walking, the ill-fitting raincoat rustling loudly with his movements.
After that, the group hurried on through the fine spring rain, even eating lunch on the move, since they needed to get out of the Dread Gloom Forest as quickly as possible.
Mu Yi found this incredibly boring. They encountered no obstacles along the way, the rain never stopped, and the rustling of his raincoat was noisy.
Just before his patience ran out, Zhong Xuezhi finally called a halt.
"Rest here for two hours."
Du Jing was puzzled. "Captain, the Ruined City is right ahead. Why don't we just go in?"
"Are you stupid?" Zhong Xuezhi rolled his eyes at him. "Go in looking this travel-worn and let 403 and the others laugh at us?"
Besides, a certain younger guy had been stewing all the way here. It was time to coax him out of it.
With that thought, he turned and walked straight up to Mu Yi.
Mu Yi was leaning sideways against a fir trunk with a leaf between his lips, occasionally bobbing it. Boredom radiated from his entire body.
Seeing Zhong Xuezhi approach, he thrust out his arm irritably and demanded, "Take the band off."
The round-the-clock pain experience had ended long ago, but Zhong Xuezhi had tied the knot so tightly that he simply couldn't undo it.
Zhong Xuezhi smiled and easily recalled the Ice Band with a curl of his finger. Then he leaned closer and asked, "Want to go find something to eat?"
"No." Mu Yi always acted according to his mood, and his mood was poor right now.
Zhong Xuezhi wiped the rain from his hat brim and reminded him quietly, "There won't be anyone else around."
Mu Yi immediately straightened away from the trunk. "Let's go!"
Two minutes later, the two of them headed into the back of the Fir Forest together.
Following behind Zhong Xuezhi, Mu Yi had barely taken a few steps before he began urging him, "Where's the tail?"
Helpless, Zhong Xuezhi released his tail and placed it in his hand without being asked.
Mu Yi's mood visibly brightened, his eyebrows lifting unconsciously.
But after a few strokes, the tail got wet in the rain, seriously spoiling its feel.
He immediately raised a rain shield large enough to cover them both, then flash-dried Zhong Xuezhi from head to toe with a crackle.
Watching him, Zhong Xuezhi winced at the expenditure on his behalf. "Wasting energy again."
Playing with the tail, Mu Yi replied with his head lowered, "Because I want to."
"Fine, fine. Because you want to." Zhong Xuezhi tapped his palm with the tip of his tail and continued, "Done playing? Time to get to work."
Mu Yi closed his fingers around the tip of the tail and looked up. "I'll just hold it like this. It won't get in the way."
Zhong Xuezhi numbly dragged a hand down his face. "Fine."
I've already indulged him this much. Might as well go all the way.
So, for the rest of their search, he led Mu Yi by his tail as they scoured the forest for things to eat.
Mu Yi played with his tail while asking an endless stream of questions.
"What's this? It's all slippery."
"Moss Jelly. It only emerges on rainy days. It's pretty good served cold with dressing."
"What about this? I've seen it before. It looks like a radish in the ground, but when you pull it out, it's a mouse."
"Gopher Radish. Good for soup. Quite tasty."
"What are the petals for?"
"They're Bitter Sunfruit petals. You brew them into tea. They dispel dampness and boost yang energy almost instantly."
"This crooked, twisted thing is a kind of fruit?"
"Yes, it's called a Crooked Pear. Its flesh is rich in multiple vitamins. It's a rare variety, so we're lucky to find it."
After answering, Zhong Xuezhi bent down and began searching beneath the fruit tree.
Mu Yi was confused. "What are you doing?"
"Looking for seeds. Crooked Pear Trees are rare because their seeds have a dormant period. They only sprout five years after falling to the ground."
"But before that happens, most of the seeds end up in some other creature's stomach."
As he spoke, Zhong Xuezhi fished a round seed out of a gap between the roots, gave it a casual wipe, and tucked it into his pocket.
Watching all this, Mu Yi asked for the umpteenth time, "Are you taking it back to grow yourself?"
With seeds that take five years to sprout, wouldn't whoever planted them develop anxiety?
"Of course not." Zhong Xuezhi dusted off his palms and explained, "It's for Du Jing. Any seed he gets his hands on can be planted and harvested in seconds."
Only then did Mu Yi remember that their team also had a Mutant with a plant-type talent.
After considering it for a moment, he continued, "If he can plant and harvest them in seconds, the number of seeds will increase too..."
"Wouldn't that give you all the vitamins you could ever want?"
"Exactly." Zhong Xuezhi smiled in agreement, then said, "We've got enough. Let's head back."
Thinking about the seeds, Mu Yi followed slowly behind him, then lifted his eyes to study the things he carried in both hands.
He's pretty good at this whole living thing...
Five minutes later, the two returned to the Resting Place outside the Ruined City, only to find it rather "lively."
The four of them had been surrounded by a full squad of six.
The man in the lead was pointing in their faces and cursing. "I was just taking a fucking look! I never said I'd take anything! What's with you lot guarding against me like I'm some thief?"
"Haaack-ptoo!" Qiu Cai spat straight at him. "Who says you're worthy of looking?"
The man had a foul temper too. He roared, "Fuck! So what if I do just take it by force?"
"You've skulked your way back here. You can't have much energy left, can you? Think you can take us?"
"You're welcome to try." Zhong Xuezhi's voice came slowly from behind him, betraying neither anger nor pleasure.
Before you continue