Chapter 5: Ingredients Everywhere
Su Muyao’s expression shifted the moment she heard the System’s words.
Sweet potatoes!
With sweet potatoes, they wouldn’t go hungry today. Sweet potatoes were a fantastic food, versatile enough for all sorts of delicious dishes. Plus, they were a high-yield crop, perfect for farming.
“System, you’re the best! With these, we won’t have to starve today.”
She certainly wasn’t counting on her other two beastmen husbands to bring back any food from a hunt.
The Space System replied excitedly, “Just keep walking, Host! I can detect food sources in the surrounding area. My scanning range is a hundred-meter radius around you.”
Su Muyao smiled. “Great. But first, let’s dig up these sweet potatoes.”
She walked over to the spot the System had indicated, pushed aside the tall grass, and saw the tell-tale leaves of a sweet potato plant. She quickly picked a handful of the edible greens.
Wen Nanxi had stayed close by to protect her. He paused when he saw her gathering what looked like common weeds from the ground.
“What are those?”
“These are sweet potato leaves,” Su Muyao explained. “You can cook them in many ways.” She paused, recalling this world’s limited culinary knowledge, and added, “Trust me, they’re not just grass.”
According to her predecessor’s memories, the people of this beast world had no idea what a sweet potato was. Even in the bustling and prosperous Beast Emperor City, no one knew that food could grow underground. They only ate what grew above the soil.
After a moment, Su Muyao turned to Wen Nanxi, blinking her clear, innocent eyes. “Wen Nanxi, could you help me dig here?”
Wen Nanxi met her soft gaze and heard the gentle lilt in her voice. He felt a stir within him. In the past, she only ever commanded them, never speaking in a kind tone, let alone one so deliberately soft.
“Of course,” he said quietly.
He channeled his power into the bone knife in his hand and drove it into the earth. With a single powerful motion, a large crater appeared in the ground. It revealed several red tubers, but the force of the blow had also shattered a few of them.
“Wait, not so hard!” Su Muyao exclaimed. “That’s the food down there!”
Wen Nanxi froze. Those red lumps in the dirt were food? In their world, food grew on plants, above ground. He glanced at Su Muyao’s earnest expression, then lightened his touch, carefully digging away the soil with less force. One by one, he unearthed the sweet potatoes.
Seeing the pile of tubers, Su Muyao’s eyes curved into bright, happy crescents. As Wen Nanxi cleaned the dirt from each one and placed it in the basket, she said softly, “Thank you.”
Wen Nanxi paused again. He was almost certain he’d never heard her say those words before. He gave her a long, searching look before letting out a soft, self-deprecating chuckle. “This is what I am supposed to do.”
The baskets they had woven weren’t nearly enough to hold all the sweet potatoes. Fortunately, Su Muyao had her pocket dimension. She simply placed her hands over the pile, and they vanished into her personal space.
Wen Nanxi watched as a large pile of food disappeared into thin air. A realization dawned on him. No matter how calm and composed he usually was, a look of utter disbelief crossed his face.
He whispered, his voice full of awe, “A pocket dimension?”
Su Muyao nodded. “Yes, I also have a space ability.”
If she wanted to live comfortably in this exiled tribe, a pocket dimension was essential. It would be incredibly convenient for storing food and supplies gathered during hunts. For that reason, she had no intention of hiding it. Besides, displaying her powers might give her husbands pause, make them think twice before plotting to kill her for revenge.
Hearing her confirmation, Wen Nanxi’s mind reeled as if struck by a tidal wave. She not only had healing powers but a space ability as well? A dimension for storing things was an incredibly rare ability among the beastmen. A healing ability was even rarer. He had never even heard of a dual-ability user.
“My lady, you truly are different from before.”
It felt as though she were shrouded in layers of mystery. Just when he thought he’d peeled one back, another was revealed.
“I told you, I want to turn over a new leaf and live a good life. In three months, I’ll set you all free.”
So there was no need to rush to kill her. In three months, they would have their freedom.
Wen Nanxi said nothing more.
Su Muyao stored a large quantity of sweet potatoes in her dimension.
“There are mushrooms and wood ears over here. Let’s pick some to take back.”
“Those are poisonous.” In Beast Emperor City, it was common knowledge from childhood that mushrooms and the “black ears” were toxic.
Su Muyao explained patiently, “Some mushrooms are poisonous, but others aren’t. And if you prepare wood ear mushrooms correctly, they’re not poisonous either.”
If they didn’t believe her and refused to eat them, that was fine. More for her.
Ignoring Wen Nanxi’s apprehension, she began gathering the fungi. A little further on, the System spoke up again. “Host, a hundred meters to your left, there’s ginger and scallions.”
Su Muyao hurried over to dig them up. With ginger and scallions, she could cook so much more, and they were perfect for removing the gamy taste from meat. With all this food, they wouldn’t have to worry about starving for the next few days.
Perhaps because Wen Nanxi had killed the mutated beast, the area was temporarily clear of other predators. Seeing that the sun was getting low, they decided to head back.
On the return journey, Wen Nanxi once again transformed into his snake form. This time, Su Muyao sat primly on his back, not daring to move recklessly, and certainly not daring to hug him.
But Wen Nanxi began to move at a breakneck pace, the wind whipping past her ears. Su Muyao lost her balance and nearly fell off.
Wen Nanxi used his tail to gently steady her. “My lady can hold on to me tightly.”
Hold… hold on tightly? Wasn’t he the one who disliked her touch? She clearly remembered how his entire body had gone rigid with revulsion when she’d hugged him earlier, as if he couldn’t wait to throw her off. The reaction was subtle, but she had felt it.
“No…”
Just as Su Muyao was about to refuse, the System shrieked in her mind: “Host, hug him! Hug him tight! Even if it’s just a hug, if you do it long enough, the dimension might drop some small permissions!”
Resigned to her fate, Su Muyao wrapped her arms around Wen Nanxi.
The moment she embraced him, his speed seemed to decrease slightly. Now she could look down at the forest scenery passing below. Her eyes caught a clear river flowing through a valley, and she could see fish swimming in the water. They were huge—many were easily five or six pounds, with some looking closer to ten. The smaller two or three-pound fish looked tiny in comparison.
“Wen Nanxi, let’s go to the river! I want to catch some fish!”
Wen Nanxi descended and landed by the riverbank. This time, he shifted to his human form and gently lifted her off his back, placing her carefully on the ground. Su Muyao felt that his attitude toward her had definitely changed.
“Does my lady wish to catch fish for fun?”
“No, I want to eat them.”
A faint, elegant smile touched Wen Nanxi’s lips. “As you wish.”
He remembered how she used to despise fish because of the smell and the bones. Once, someone in the tribe, starving, had tried to eat a fish and choked to death on a bone. Since then, almost no one in the tribe ate them.
Wen Nanxi simply used his wind ability, sweeping it across the surface of the water. A dozen large fish were lifted from the river and deposited on the bank. He then gathered some long blades of grass and expertly threaded them through the gills of each fish. Even doing such a simple task, his movements were graceful and noble.
Su Muyao figured that if they had too much fish, she could always make fish balls.
As they were preparing to leave, she noticed something else in the reeds by the riverbank: river snails and river shrimp.
Her eyes lit up. The beast world was so much better than the apocalypse. Resources were so abundant; there were ingredients everywhere!
