The supernatural price comes due

It sounded like Little Red usually ate better than he did.

At first, he had thought Yang Xiaomei had come to trade for food for herself.

He hadn't expected it to be for her Cat Bus.

It was the apocalypse, and she still had to feed her pet meat.

Then again, if it was a Cat Bus, perhaps that wasn't so unreasonable.

At the beginning of the apocalypse, Chen Fan had spent time among the survivors, and some of them had brought their pets along to survive.

They had even called them their sons and daughters.

But before long, after they experienced the pain of real hunger, the pets at their sides disappeared.

Who knew where they had gone?

As for Yang Xiaomei, strictly speaking, what she was doing didn't count as keeping a pet.

After all, she had transformed the big cat using supernatural power.

Chen Fan said nothing more. After some discussion, he traded twenty small vacuum-packed bags of meat for Yang Xiaomei's five liters of gasoline.

They were all packaged foods, like boneless chicken feet or half a pig's trotter.

Twenty packs for five liters of gasoline seemed like a reasonable deal to Chen Fan.

Chen Fan watched Yang Xiaomei take the meat over to the big cat nearby.

She took out an iron basin the size of a wheel.

She opened all the meat snacks she had traded for and poured them in, then took out a bag of cat food and filled the basin more than halfway.

She put on disposable gloves and worked to mix and mash the meat and cat food together thoroughly.

Only then did she set the huge basin of food in front of the big cat.

"Be good, Little Red. There isn't much meat today, but you can't be picky, okay? Eat plenty."

Chen Fan clicked his tongue as he watched. An ordinary adult man probably couldn't finish that whole basin of food.

The big cat might not use fuel, but its food consumption wasn't as simple as two steamed buns per hundred kilometers.

It seemed to consume quite a lot too.

Standing at the door of his RV, Chen Fan looked around at the others.

Everyone was resting, and each was in a different state.

But somehow... none of them seemed quite right?

Zheng Alin had brought out a folding lounge chair and was lying beside her car, apparently sunbathing.

But her limbs, exposed outside her clothes, were all wrapped in bandages.

Even her face was wrapped, leaving only her eyes and nose exposed.

Chen Fan went closer and saw that it wasn't just her arms and legs. Nearly her entire body was covered in bandages.

She had clothes on over them, and he had been too far away to notice earlier.

Chen Fan stood beside Zheng Alin, his shadow falling over her.

Zheng Alin opened her narrowed eyes, and when she saw it was Chen Fan, lazily closed them again.

"Need something?"

"In such a good mood you're cosplaying an Egyptian pharaoh while you sunbathe?"

Zheng Alin frowned, her face full of impatience.

Without opening her eyes, she turned her head slightly to the side.

"Get lost."

Chen Fan took a glass from his Storage Bag.

He opened his other hand, and the Water Purification Bottle appeared above his palm.

He drew out a stream of clear blue liquid and sent it into the glass.

He handed the glass to Zheng Alin.

"Drink up. I don't know what happened to you, but this should help your injuries heal a little."

Zheng Alin finally became interested. She opened her eyes and looked at the translucent blue liquid in Chen Fan's hand.

Sitting up in the lounge chair, Zheng Alin accepted the purified water.

She sniffed it with her little nose, then took a sip.

It was cool and refreshing in her mouth, leaving a deeply soothing sensation.

It tasted just like water, yet after she drank it, a feeling of comfort spread through her whole body.

It was as if her injuries had all improved considerably.

Zheng Alin knew that even if the stuff worked, it couldn't possibly take effect that quickly, but her body really did feel better.

It was as though her body had originally been under a negative buff, continuously deteriorating.

Her HP had been dropping: -1, -1, -1...

After drinking the water, her condition had switched to a buff in the blink of an eye. Her health bar was still nearly empty, but green numbers were already popping up.

HP +1, +1, +1...

Zheng Alin's eyes lit up. She finished the glass in three gulps and held it out again.

"Any more?"

Chen Fan smiled and drew out another stream of water, filling the glass.

Zheng Alin tipped her head back again and gulped it down.

She wiped her mouth and let out a satisfied sound.

"Ahh-nice. What is this? My body feels much better after drinking it."

Chen Fan smiled. "My bathwater."

Zheng Alin's face darkened. "Are you serious?"

"I'm not lying. I do bathe in this water."

Zheng Alin sprang up from the lounge chair and stared at Chen Fan with wide eyes.

"You use water this good to bathe?!!!!"

Her voice rose an octave, drawing looks from the people nearby.

"Ahem..." Chen Fan gave an awkward cough and changed the subject.

He had a whole lake of water this good. Was he going to tell her that?

He pointed at the bandages on Zheng Alin. "You're bouncing around so much. Doesn't it hurt anymore?"

Zheng Alin waved a hand dismissively, as though the bandages weren't wrapped around her.

"It's nothing, just the supernatural price. Every time I use one of my seven swords, I suffer damage from its corresponding element afterward.

"For example, if I use the Crimson Flame Sword, my body gets burned. If I use the Frost Sword, I get frostbite.

"I went too hard with my supernatural powers when we fought Huishi earlier. I used all seven swords one after another, and now that it's over, there are hardly any uninjured spots left on my body."

Chen Fan's gaze sharpened slightly. That supernatural price was no small one...

But this was Zheng Alin's own business, and Chen Fan didn't want to meddle.

If she really didn't want to pay the price, she could simply stop using her supernatural powers.

Still, with power at their disposal, few people would probably be willing to give it up and leave it unused.

He had come over purely because he was curious about her bandaged appearance, and also...

"The water you drank is called purified water. It helps injuries heal to some extent. If you need more, you can trade supplies with me for it."

With that, Chen Fan clasped his hands behind his back and strolled away.

Watching Chen Fan's retreating figure, Zheng Alin clenched her teeth in anger.

So the guy had come over to sell his product.

But... damn it, it really worked. She kind of wanted some...

After leaving Zheng Alin, Chen Fan went over to Nie Shufeng's car.

He had noticed earlier that Nie Shufeng had been squatting by one of the SUV's wheels the whole time.

He didn't know what Nie Shufeng was doing.

Now that he had come closer, he was dumbfounded.

Nie Shufeng was squatting on the ground with all sorts of stones, big and small, laid out in front of him.

Nie Shufeng held an egg-sized pebble, pretending it was a car driving along while making a constant "beep beep" sound.

Noticing Chen Fan standing there watching him, Nie Shufeng looked up and adjusted the lensless glasses on his nose.

"Do you want to play the little vroom-vroom car game too?"

Chen Fan stared blankly for a long moment, then burst out laughing.

He laughed louder and louder, eventually slapping his thigh.

Others looked over at the sound of laughter and saw Chen Fan in his white robes embroidered with golden thread, looking ethereal, yet slapping his thigh and laughing without restraint.

He had no image to speak of.

"Brother Shu, call me Uncle Chen, and I'll play toy cars with you."

But Nie Shufeng ignored Chen Fan and lowered his head to continue playing with the pebble in his hand.

The smile froze on Chen Fan's face.

He straightened up and looked around.

There, in the place where they had stopped to rest,

One person was feeding a big cat, one was cosplaying a mummy, and another was playing with stones.

"Everyone's doing great. What a talented bunch..."