"This makes things a bit tricky."
If it had been Plant Vitality Crystals, Tang Zhixue would have had no trouble at all, but these platinum crystals were a different matter.
He could only find a way to obtain them from outside.
He would either have to go out and search for them himself or trade for them through the trading box.
Shaking his head, Tang Zhixue turned his attention back to the mutated beast carcasses beside him.
Now that he had brought them back, he faced another problem: he had no idea how to process them.
"I'll go out and look again tomorrow. See if I can find a stream or some other source of fresh water."
Processing these two mutated beast carcasses would take quite a lot of water. He also could not do it near the Shelter, lest he attract other mutated beasts or eerie entities.
Tang Zhixue had not forgotten what sort of environment he was in.
Yet if he had been asked to abandon them back then, Tang Zhixue would have been rather reluctant. The meat on those two mutated beasts could feed him for a long time, and with the temperature so low, he did not have to worry about it spoiling.
Besides, he really coveted the spiked mutant tiger's pelt. After all, he did not even have a blanket to sleep under.
And that was how he had ended up in his current predicament.
"I wonder if anyone's selling knives or anything..."
After putting dinner on to cook, Tang Zhixue got up and walked over to the trading box.
However, the listings on the trading interface disappointed him.
There were still only ordinary basic materials, and in very small quantities at that. Nothing good had appeared at all.
Although an axe could also be used to process mutated beasts, it was nowhere near as convenient as a knife, especially since Tang Zhixue was a complete novice.
Dinner was white rice with White Melon again, but this time he deliberately added some salt to the rice to give it a little flavor.
Going without salt for too long could cause problems.
"I almost forgot!"
Halfway through dinner, Tang Zhixue suddenly remembered something and hurriedly searched through his pile of cards.
"This is it!"
After finding a Supply Card, Tang Zhixue tore it open.
The next moment, a bulging sack of potatoes appeared before him.
He opened the sack and saw that every potato was the size of a fist.
"They're so big. Nice. It's been ages since I had a baked potato."
He then raked some glowing coals out of the fire in the fireplace and moved them into a corner, separate from the fire.
Taking out a potato, he buried it straight in the coals without even rubbing the dirt off its skin.
With that done, Tang Zhixue continued eating dinner, wondering when his baked potato would be ready to eat.
After finishing dinner, Tang Zhixue divided the sack of potatoes into two portions, took one half into the storeroom, and spread them out.
As far as he knew, these potatoes could sprout in the dark.
Once they sprouted, he could use those sprouted potatoes to grow more potatoes.
With nothing else to do, Tang Zhixue came out of the storeroom, sat beside the fireplace, and opened the regional chat channel.
Although there were fewer people now, the channel was just as lively as ever.
[Xu Muqiu: Guys, you'll never guess what I found!] [Wow, Xu, you're keeping us in suspense now?] [Heh, I don't believe this guy can keep it to himself.] [Exactly, exactly.] [Xu Muqiu: Damn it!] [Xu Muqiu: Fine, I'll be merciful and tell you.] [Xu Muqiu: I found a cultivation manual~] [Oh.] [That's it?] [Luo Hongcai: Little Xu, did you find anything else?] [Xu Shi: Could you call him something else? It always feels like you're talking to me.] [Xu Muqiu: ???] [Xu Muqiu: What's going on?! Isn't this huge news?] [Wen Yue: Who doesn't know by now that pretty much all of us have ruins of buildings from another world nearby? As long as we hunt those humanoid monsters, we can usually get the corresponding items from them.] [Yuan Lexian: They might not drop the relevant cards, but if you search their bodies, there's still a chance of finding things like secret manuals.] [Tang Zhixue: Exactly, exactly.] [Yay, Cousin Tang's here!] [Tsk, we only ever see Cousin Tang at night.] [Xu Muqiu: Cousin Tang, Cousin Tang, when are you setting up shop? I want to buy some White Melons.] [Tang Zhixue: Hey, trying to use me to change the subject? Pretty much everyone's gathered food now. Who still needs my White Melons?] [Xu Shi: Exactly, exactly. Don't change the subject.] [Xu Muqiu: Aw, I'm just craving some.] [Xu Muqiu: Cousin Tang, how do we get energy for our Shelters?] [Tang Zhixue: I can't offer you any good solutions right now either. You can only wait for eerie entities to dissipate near your Shelters.] [Luo Hongcai: That takes too long. If you're unlucky, you can go several nights without getting any energy at all.] [Wen Yue: Exactly. I don't have any energy at all right now.] [Fang Yunxi: Same here.]
Tang Zhixue looked at the messages in the channel, deep in thought.
Then he got up and fetched ten Jade Flower seeds from the storeroom.
[Tang Zhixue: How about this? I have ten seeds here. Do you want them?] [Fang Yunxi: What seeds?] [Tang Zhixue: Seeds of a first-tier mutated plant called the Jade Flower.] [Tang Zhixue: Jade Flowers are mutated plants that developed from ordinary weeds. After blooming, they gather the surrounding energy of heaven and earth and condense special energy crystals in the centers of their flowers.] [Tang Zhixue: These energy crystals contain the energy our Shelters need.] [???] [Fang Yunxi: ???] [Xu Shi: ???] [Luo Hongcai: ???] [Xu Muqiu: Cousin Tang! You have something this good, and you said you didn't have any good solutions!] [Tang Zhixue: Don't get so excited, everyone.] [Tang Zhixue: I've only started growing these Jade Flowers. I don't even know when they'll bloom.] [Tang Zhixue: By the time they bloom, you might already have gathered enough energy for your Shelters.] [Fang Yunxi: What's the price?] [Xu Shi: Sister Fang's as direct as ever. I wanted to ask that too.] [Tang Zhixue: That depends on what you offer, hehe~]
He had only intended to watch the fun, but unexpectedly ended up doing business.
Several people made generous offers, so Tang Zhixue added them as friends, then traded away the ten Jade Flower seeds one by one through friend-to-friend trades.
In fact, he had another idea behind trading the Jade Flower seeds: he wanted to test whether other people's environments could produce platinum crystals, or similar energy crystals containing metal-attribute energy.
On his own, there was no telling when he would be able to forge spirit-patterned iron.
Still, he had to admit that this round of trading had earned Tang Zhixue plenty of good things.
Before you continue