Bandages + Public Setting Details, Part Two

The three arrived at Beianqi's room. With the help of intravenous injections, the girl, who had been fasting for two days, even had a rosier complexion, and her sleeping expression was very relaxed. After a thorough examination, Qiluo confirmed that Beianqi was not as good as she appeared.

She's actually a very good person!

"What are these?" she asked curiously, looking at the intravenous drip in Beianqi's wrist.

"A device that injects highly purified drugs and nutrients into veins," Zijin explained. "Incredible, but very effective. It's technology from Su Ming's hometown."

Qiluo initially showed considerable interest, but upon hearing that it was Su Ming, she gave him a look as if he were trash.

"Since she's alright, I'll go to the driver's seat," Su Ming said tactfully. He had wanted to leave earlier, but he followed in in case Beianqi had any questions for him.

Su Ming had just turned around when Qiluo called out to him, "Wait a minute!"

She pointed to the back of Su Ming's neck. Su Ming turned his head and glanced at it; it was a knot in a runic bandage. When Zijin tied it, she had made a very large knot, which couldn't be contained by her clothes at all, and a large piece of thread was sticking out from the back of her neck.

Qiluo walked over, tiptoed, and reached out to pull out the bandage. "This feeling is so familiar!"

"I took it from Beianqi's suitcase," Zijin explained.

"No, this isn't familiar!" Not tall enough, Qiluo simply transformed back into her unicorn form and sniffed Su Ming's neck.

Su Ming immediately felt the unicorn's aura was so intense, and its slightly pink lips so alluring— Su Ming turned around and banged his head against the wall. He was in heat with a unicorn; he didn't want to live anymore!

Qiluo turned to Beianqi with a grim expression, "That bastard!"

"Oh, is there a problem with the bandage?" Zijin asked.

"Untie him," Qiluo said. "I'll deal with this girl."

Although she didn't understand what had happened, Zijin still helped Su Ming remove the rune bandages. The remaining healing power gradually dissipated, Su Ming moved his shoulders, and looked at Qiluo again. Sure enough, the strange feeling quickly subsided.

Qiluo's long horns emitted light as she lowered her head to touch Beianqi's forehead, a touch that lasted for about fifteen minutes.

Then the unicorn raised its front hoof and kicked the girl on the forehead, causing her to groan and wake up.

[This older sister is so fierce.] Su Ming secretly sent a message.

What do you think of her now?

[A unicorn that looks elegant but is actually a bit fierce doesn't have those strange thoughts anymore.] Su Ming replied, [That's normal, isn't it!]

[The runes on this bandage only seem to have healing properties.] Zijin examined it with some curiosity.

Qiluo transformed into human form, removed the rune bandages, then jumped onto the bed and straddled Beianqi's stomach. The bone bed cried out and bent in the middle.

Su Ming's eye twitched. The Polymorph didn't change the weight; the unicorn really had the guts to do that!

Beianqi winced in pain, trying to get up, but Qiluo pressed her back onto the bed. The latter raised the bandage in her hand, looking down at her and saying, "My dear sister, explain this?"

The girl struggled but couldn't move. "Sister, um, medical equipment recycling and reuse—" she quickly explained.

"Why haven't I seen you recycle other people's used items?" Qiluo said, squinting. "Why is it me?"

Zijin moved a step to the side next to Su Ming, increasing the distance between them.

[Hey, that's the one you brought to tie me up!] Su Ming said, dissatisfied.

"Sister, my head still hurts!" Beianqi said tearfully, trying to sound pitiful.

"It's okay, I'm good at dealing with mental health issues, you won't die." Qiluo reached out and tickled Beianqi's waist.

"Hahaha, sister, hahaha, don't..."

After being tortured, Beianqi finally confessed, "Ming, sister, someone is willing to pay a high price for the bandages you used."

Does this thing even have an original flavor?! Different worlds, same gentlemanly spirit indeed!

"Hmm?" Qiluo pinched Beianqi's chin, her expression angry. "This bandage was taken by Su Ming. Your sister went through so much trouble to travel across the ocean to see you, and I was almost raped!"

Su Ming wanted to explain that it wasn't that exaggerated, but Qiluo glared at him.

"Huh, is it really possible for it to have this effect?" Beianqi asked, puzzled.

"The bandages were imbued with Qiluo's aura and energy," Zijin explained, "And then resonated with her own natural power, allowing Su Ming to endure effects far exceeding those of normal."

"Waaah, sister!" Beianqi suddenly hugged Qiluo tightly, her voice filled with regret, "I sold it too cheaply!"

Qiluo raised her hand and flicked her head with her thumb.

Since Beianqi's injuries hadn't fully healed, she played around with her sister for a while before quickly falling into a deep sleep again.

"My sister still needs to rest," Qiluo said to Su Ming and Zijin. "I'll take my leave before I go."

"You're welcome!" Zijin said.

"Mr. Su Ming, I'm so sorry, I misunderstood you." Qiluo turned to Su Ming.

"It's alright, it's alright, I'm partly responsible too!" Su Ming took a small step back. "Um, I'll go prepare dinner."

****

Qiluo said that she had lived in the human world for a long time and her tastes were no different from those of humans, so Su Ming was free to make his own choices.

Looking at the remaining pancakes, Su Ming decided not to waste food. He asked Miao Xin to buy an electric griddle from a kitchenware store and have it teleported over.

Su Ming reheated the pancakes in the electric griddle, making their crusts crisp again. He chopped some freshly caught seaweed, made a large bowl of cold salad, then fried some bacon and cooked a potato soup with sausage.

The aroma quickly filled the workspace.

Qiluo quickly sat down at the table. She noticed that the other two had pancakes, fried meat, and soup in front of them, while she only had a large bowl of seaweed in front of her.

"Well, I think I've said before that my tastes are the same as humans'," Qiluo said to Su Ming.

"I mixed it with minced garlic and sauce." Su Ming asked, puzzled, "Is there a problem?"

"I mean, I eat meat."

Su Ming and Zijin exchanged a glance.

Did I make a mistake again?

[No, you're not mistaken, unicorns are herbivores.] Zijin affirmed.

"Okay." Qiluo decided to explain, "I've lived with the Beianqi family since I was little, and we have exactly the same eating habits. At first, I did get diarrhea from eating meat, but now I'm completely used to it."

Su Ming immediately pushed his plate in front of Qiluo, "You eat first, I'll make another one."

"Please make three servings," Qiluo said. "I look small after transforming, but I'm still a unicorn." She picked up her cutlery, stuck some bacon in her mouth, and said, "It's rude of me, but I flew too far today, so please don't be shy!"

"It's alright, do as you please!"

Su Ming started cooking again, and the two girls chatted while eating.

"Actually, eating meat is much easier than eating grass," Qiluo said. "Before, I needed to use buckets to eat, but after learning to eat meat, I can just use a bowl. And before, I had to eat five or six meals a day, but now I only need three meals a day, just like humans!"

Zijin felt the same way, "When I was little, Xiwo always fed me vegetables. Every time I ate until my belly was full, I would get hungry again in no time!"

"Exactly! Vegetables and hay are useless. I only brought a sack of dried meat with me when I set off this time; if I had been carrying hay, I would have fallen into the sea long ago!"

"Yes, meat is the most convenient source of supplies when you're out and about." Zijin wholeheartedly agreed. "When I was still a dragon, I would hunt wild animals in the wild. In crowded towns, I could find a secluded corner to catch someone—it saved time and effort."

Clang, clang!

Qiluo's fork and Su Ming's spatula both fell from their hands. One smashed onto the plate, and the other smashed into the pot.

Zijin looked up at the two surprised people. "Is it strange that you asked around about places with lots of rats?"

Su Ming breathed a sigh of relief, but immediately realized, "A rat? No, you're such a big dragon, you eat rats?"

"Where can you catch wild animals in a crowded place?" Zijin complained. "But where there are many people, there are bound to be many rats! I'm very good at this. If I find the right spot, I can use a Small Animal Lure Spell and collect a basketful in minutes! Then I can trap them in Flame Cage..."

Burn off the hair, then sprinkle with a few packets of salt—it smells delicious!

Qiluo's eyes lit up. "This method is good. What are the specific techniques?"

The scholar generously wrote down the incantation and handed it to Qiluo.

"Thanks!"

"This method works the same way for catching fish in watery areas, except the fish scales are easier to remove since they don't have any hairs," Zijin added. "Of course, sometimes if you're lucky, you can also catch water rats, which are super delicious!"

"Hmm, I catch fish all the time, here's a quick way to remove scales." Qiluo also wrote down a spell and handed it to the scholar. Listening to the two foodies' exchange that was pushing the boundaries of their understanding, Su Ming looked at the bacon frying in the pan and wondered if it would be better to just serve it raw.

In short, he made up his mind not to let Zijin cook anymore.

This isn't a matter of cooking skills; it's a fundamental barrier between species!

****

After dinner, the two people and the beast began to discuss serious matters.

"The cargo ship 'Mist Veil' won't arrive at Earthworm Island until tomorrow, and unloading will take a whole day," Qiluo told the two.

"That means we can only get there tomorrow night." Su Ming calculated the White Triangle's distance and time, "We need to reduce the ship's speed by half."

"Are you going to take Beianqi to the Mist Veil and then return to the Eastern Continent?" Zijin asked.

Although Beianqi was not seriously injured, she had suffered Saint Rank mental attack and needed to return to the Dwarf Continent for further treatment. "We are returning to the Eastern Continent, but we cannot board the Mist Veil," Qiluo said. "To conceal our actions, the Mist Veil is also carrying a large amount of normal cargo. After leaving Earthworm Island, they will sail directly to a port on the Western Continent."

The ship's higher-ups knew everything about the crew, but the lower-ranking sailors couldn't be entirely innocent. Qiluo couldn't guarantee there wouldn't be any problems, so she used the transoceanic voyage to keep the sailors on board, minimizing the risk of leaks. She explained her reasoning to the two men.

"That's a good method," Su Ming agreed. "By the time the Mist Veil docks, the relevant intelligence will have lost its value."

Zijin thought for a moment and said, "How about we pick up the goods on Earthworm Island, then continue driving Eastern Continent to a distance where you can fly back to the mainland?"

"In that case, I have a suggestion: let's go directly to Brown Gold Island." Qiluo reached out to point to the sea chart, but found her arms were too short. She simply transformed back into her original form and used her hooves to press down on a small island to the northeast. "Beianqi said you're looking for coal, and I've already found out that there's low-viscosity coal there that you need. I'll arrange a ship to go there and pick me and Beianqi up to take us back to the Dwarf Continent."

Su Ming glanced at the sea chart and thought the suggestion was good.

"It's better if we get away from here for now," he said to Zijin. "We can wait until we have more information about the dragon."

With a new fuel, the White Triangle will have greater range and power output, which will be of great benefit to future responses.

Zijin nodded in agreement. They had actually gained a lot from this trip and needed to find a place to organize it.

Qiluo had been flying non-stop at sea for more than two days and was very tired. After finishing her meal, she prepared to rest.

"I'll be sleeping in Beianqi's room," Qiluo said. "Could I have some blankets?"

Zijin sent her skeleton servant to fetch it, and Su Ming asked the unicorn, "Do you need me to make you a bed?"

"No need, I want the blanket to be placed on the floor." Qiluo deactivated her Polymorph and returned to her unicorn form. She flicked her mane. "Maintaining the Polymorph is very taxing; I need my real body to sleep."

Goodnight, Miss Qiluo!

"Thank you for your hospitality! Good night, you two!" The unicorn nodded, turned, and flicked its tail as it left.

The skeleton cleared away the dishes, and the two sat down at the long table.

"This phase is over. I just did a rough calculation; our current income is about 600,000 gold coins, with nearly 500,000 actually deposited into our account." Su Ming asked Zijin, "Is this enough to build a dimensional portal?"

"That's enough for start-up capital," Zijin replied. "The cost of materials related to teleportation has been steadily increasing over the past few years; I estimate it will eventually cost five million."

"We can always make more money," Su Ming said. As he became more familiar with the other world, Su Ming also had a general idea of how to make money.

"I don't doubt your money. I can mobilize quite a few people at the Blue-Eyed Chamber of Commerce, but manpower is a problem," the senior scholar raised. "The teleportation array you used to come here was modified from the existing teleportation array at White Bone Fortress. It took me and dozens of Galio's men half a month to barely complete it—by the way, my knowledge of spatial domains is only average. Several of the academic backbone members who built the array later died. Especially Galio himself, whose specialty was teleportation-related things; his nickname was ' Traveling Crow.'"

No matter what you do, human resources are the core.

Su Ming recalled the magic array densely covered with runes, which the truck had mostly destroyed when it passed through. "How many people do we need to rebuild the magic array from scratch?"

"This is a complex system engineering project. Just the magic array itself, with a team of about ten professional scholars, plus your assistance with the calculation and recording equipment, could probably be completed in two or three months," Zijin pointed to the computer, printer, and camera in the workspace. "But the work doesn't stop there. There are too many unknowns regarding space; the reason for our lucky success last time is completely unclear. I've kept all the previous records, but the analysis, calculations, and adjustments will take at least six months to a year. This is an optimistic estimate, taking into account the help you, as the owner of the Space Element, can provide."

"If that's the time frame, I'm willing to wait, and I can figure out a way to secure the funding. So, where are we going to find people?"

Zijin did not answer, her brows furrowed slightly, clearly weighing some things.

Su Ming didn't urge her, but just quietly watched her and waited patiently. In fact, he rarely had the opportunity to observe the other person so carefully. After this period of rest, the girl's hair had become lustrous, her face had a healthy blush, and her originally thin cheeks had become fuller.

However, it's also possible that her toothache these past few days led Su Ming to discover that she was actually growing her last set of permanent molars.

So how bad must her nutritional status have been before?!