Chương 8: Insects Also Have Souls, You Know~

Ren Qingquan heard Fatty's suggestion and rolled his eyes.

'Is this fat guy trying to kill me? He knew I am injured and wanted to make me go and drink?' Ren Qingquan wanted to decline Fatty Zhang's offer when I could hear him suddenly changing his mind.

'Wait a minute, this might be my chance to complete the newbie mission I got.' Ren Qingquan smiled and said, "Actually, Fatty Zhang, I am currently not in the mood to drink. Instead, how about we go to the nearby forest and hunt for fun today? I missed the taste of your roasted meat." Fatty Zhang laughed as his plump head became even rounder.

"Alright, Young Master Ren. But I didn't bring any carriage here. So, I need to bother you with preparing one for us." Ren Qingquan nodded. Coincidentally, Xiao Cai has arrived while holding a tray of food. She paused in front of the door leading to Ren Qingquan's courtyard, which had been smashed by Fatty Zhang. Through [Scan], I could see Xiao Cai sending a death glare at Fatty Zhang after seeing the broken door. All the while, she calmly walked to the table and set the food before Ren Qingquan.

"Young master, here is your breakfast." She then asked while staring at Fatty Zhang.

"Do I need to prepare food for Sir Zhang?" Before Ren Qingquan could reply, Fatty Zhang waved his hand.

"There is no need. I've eaten my breakfast before arriving here.

""Furthermore, Young Master Ren and I planned to go hunting and roast some meat. So, I need to leave some space in my stomach." Fatty Zhang said while rubbing his fat stomach. Xiao Cai looked at Ren Qingquan and said.

"Young master, you're currently injured. It's dangerous to go and hunt in your current state. Furthermore, the forest you usually visit to hunt is connected to the periphery of Endless Mountain, where many powerful ferocious beasts reside. So, please reconsider." Ren Qingquan recalled the existence of powerful ferocious beasts in this world that could rival martial artists and said to Xiao Cai.

"Then, prepare some guards for me. Staying cooped up in my courtyard is boring. So, I want to try hunting instead."

"I'll prepare it." Xiao Cai replied upon seeing Ren Qingquan's persistence. Still, she also added.

"But please allow me to join you, so I can make sure you're safe."

'Well, I only wanted to test the system's [Devour] function. So, having a powerful expert like Xiao Cai should be helpful.' Ren Qingquan thought as he replied to Xiao Cai with a nod. After Xiao Cai left, Ren Qingquan ate his food, which consisted of a porridge, a bowl of unknown mixed vegetables, and a bowl of stir-fried meat. From my [Scan], I found whether it is the porridge, the meat, or the mixed vegetables. All of them contained a great deal of energy.

I dug into the original Ren Qingquan's memory and found that the food he usually eats is actually something expensive. For example, the rice and vegetables Ren Qingquan eats daily are pretty much a medicine that could boost his martial arts training speed. Meanwhile, the meat comes from ferocious beasts hunted on the Endless Mountain, where many such beasts reside. Eating those meats will allow Ren Qingquan to regain his energy much faster. Which will speed up his martial arts practice.

While Ren Qingquan is busy eating. In front of him, Fatty Zhang is busy checking the inner side of his vest. I am a bit curious what Fatty is doing. So I focused my [Scan] on him and found that the inner side of his vest is actually filled with herbs, medicinal paste, and condiments. I saw Fatty Zhang ignore the medicinal herbs and paste. Instead, he weighed the condiments like salt, pepper, chili powder, soy sauce, and other unknown things that had been stored inside a small jar.

Occasionally, he nodded or entered into thought after weighing the condiments. The scene makes me speechless. I never expected I would see a walking talking condiment shelf in another world. Then, I checked Fatty's energy and found that the energy in him is actually only slightly lower than Ren Qingquan's. That should've meant he is someone at the peak of Martial Apprentice realm. Only one small level lower than Ren Qingquan.

As I don't know what else to do, I activated [Scan] and observed the herbs and medicinal paste on Fatty Zhang's inner vest. I stored the data of those herbs and pastes in the database I created through [Calculate], and tried to understand their composition by thoroughly scanning them. While I am busy learning about medicine from the paste and herbs stored in fatty, Ren Qingquan has finished eating. Soon after Ren Qingquan finished his food, Xiao Cai returned and said.

"The guards and carriage has been prepared." Ren Qingquan and Fatty Zhang followed Xiao Cai and saw a small carriage that could seat four people. Around the carriage, there are ten guards riding on horses. Nine of them are at the Martial Master realm, and one of them is at the Martial Grandmaster realm. Each of them seems battle-hardened and looks extremely strong. As for the carriage's coachmen, he is actually also a Martial Grandmaster-level expert.

After Xiao Cai opened the door to the carriage, Ren Qingquan was the first one to enter the carriage. Followed by fatty and finally Xiao Cai herself. Because fatty alone actually has taken one and a half seats. I must say Xiao Cai has done a great job at selecting the carriage. The group traveled through the city toward the eastern gate, the one closest to the forest Ren Qingquan usually hunted in. While the carriage passes through a busy street. I found an interesting person among the pedestrians.

Amidst the crowd on Ren Qingquan's left side, my [Scan] detected Ren Xuan. The person who has caused the original Ren Qingquan to die from stress. He is currently wearing a hood that hides most of his face and a tall shoes that allow him to change his height. Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. Inside his robe, my [Scan] saw many bottles and boxes containing herbs, medicinal pastes, and unknown liquids.

There are also several empty bottles and empty boxes he stored in his pocket. That makes me utterly speechless. If Fatty Zhang is a walking condiment shelf. Then, Ren Xuan is basically a walking apothecary. Is it a trend to hide medicines in your clothes these days? I also tried to focus on the energy in his body. But, he has left the range of Ren Qingquan's [Scan] before I could do so.

After the accidental meeting with Ren Xuan, Ren Qingquan's group encountered nothing interesting. Soon, they exited through Burning Sky City's eastern gate and drove on the official road for a few more hours. During the journey, I've been storing a map of the surrounding terrain in Ren Qingquan's [Scan]. Thanks to the surrounding guard's occasional chatter that I overheard while trying to [Scan] the surroundings. My knowledge regarding the energy of someone at the Martial Master realm is already mostly complete.

Right now, I should be able to know which small realm someone at the Martial Master realm is at based on their energy. Amidst the guard's chatter, the group arrived near a forest, took a dirt path, and drove through a place full of vegetation for a whole hour. After arriving at an opening, the coachmen stopped and said.

"Young master, we've arrived. From here on, you need to continue on horses." Ren Qingquan and his group walked out of the carriage, while Xiao Cai took the hunting equipment placed in the carriage's storage compartment. Among the guards, three people at the Martial Master realm descended from their horses and lent them to Ren Qingquan, Fatty Zhang, and Xiao Cai. Together with seven guards, Ren Qingquan, Xiao Cai, and Fatty drove deep into the forest. As for the three guards without any horses.

They stayed with the coachmen to guard the carriage. I guess the original Ren Qingquan's skill has indeed been inherited by the current Ren Qingquan, as I actually saw him controlling the horses with ease. My attention is also pulled toward the scenery around the forest. But soon after, I found it quite boring. This left me slightly dazed as I mechanically recorded the surrounding maps with [Scan] and stored them in [Calculate]'s memory. Luckily, it didn't last long; the group soon found a small, ordinary rabbit.

Ren Qingquan held the bow that was among the hunting equipment Xiao Cai had brought and shot an arrow toward the rabbit. Even as a noob in terms of archery, I could see that Ren Qingquan's form was incredibly wrong. But, through sheer luck, the arrow he shot hit that rabbit right in the head and killed it.

"Congratulations for young master on doing such an amazing shoot." Behind him, Xiao Cai's praises can be heard. Which makes Ren Qingquan full of smug thought. I think Xiao Cai means she didn't expect his trashy shot to hit the target. But whatever makes Ren Qingquan happy. ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯ After showing a smug smile, Ren Qingquan recalled his goal and quickly thought, 'System, activate [Devour]!' [Ding! Devour has been activated.] When I activated [Devour], I felt an invisible suction force appear on Ren Qingquan. It swallowed something from near the rabbit's corpse, and in exchange, I felt a small increase in energy in the dark space around me. I instinctively felt the thing I just absorbed should be the rabbit's souls. So, I tried my luck and released some of the [Scan]'s filters. Who knows, among them, there might be one that allows me to see souls.

Feeling my command, [Scan] released another thing I had blocked due to information overload. With it, I could now sense a faint mist-like thing nearby the rabbit. A part of the mist is continuously dispersing toward the surroundings, while another small part has been sucked toward Ren Qingquan. Is this soul? While I was in a trance at the sight of the rabbit's soul being swallowed, I saw several other extremely tiny, mist-like souls drift toward Ren Qingquan.

After searching around where the source of those souls came from, I found they actually came from some insect that had been accidentally killed. Compared to the rabbit's soul, the soul of insects contained much less energy. From my observation, after some of it dispersed, the rabbit's soul is equal to less than a thousandth point, which is frickin little. Meanwhile, the souls coming from those insects are so incredibly small that I couldn't even feel any sort of increase. In conclusion, I am fucking damned!

Gathering 1 point of energy is actually so difficult! Are you kidding me? To collect 1 point, I would need to kill 1. 000 rabbits! It's a thousand, you know? A thousand rabbits are enough to feed a small city once! While I spend time thinking of useless things, Ren Qingquan has been messaging me for the last few seconds.

'Hey, system. How much point has I gathered?' After Ren Qingquan failed to get any response from me, he began spamming his thoughts.

'Hey! Hey! Hey! System! System!!!! How much point did I get?' [Please be patient. System is currently calculating.] I sent some nonsense while planning how I should respond. Should I show every increase in points? But, calculating four-digit past coma is quite troublesome. So, should I just display one digit past the comma? Suddenly, an idea struck me. I followed that idea and sent a notification to Ren Qingquan [Ding! Successfully devoured 0 points! Points below 1 will be accumulated before being displayed.] That's it! I am such a genius. With such a screen, I just need to spam that same message until Ren Qingquan collects enough points. I don't need to use my brain to calculate the exact decimals of his points and waste my precious time!

After killing that rabbit and collecting its corpse. Ren Qingquan's group pressed forward, hunting every animal that came into view. Occasionally, they will collect some animals to be roasted later. Soon, the afternoon arrived, and they had walked quite deep inside the forest. Since the last few minutes, Fatty Zhang's stomach has been grumbling. The sound from his stomach grows stronger with each passing second. As the sounds are starting to get on everyone's nerves.

The moment they spotted a slightly open area, the group stopped and built a campfire. Some of the guards collected dried wood, while others dug into the ground, prepared equipment for grilling, or prepared the animals they'd hunted. At last, a simple campfire suitable for cooking has been created. Fatty helped prepare the meat they'd hunted while picking condiments from his inner clothes. With those condiments in hand, he began masterfully applying them to the meat and roasted it over the campfires.

Looking at his technique, those not in the know might think Fatty Zhang is a chef. Well, that's actually true. One of Fatty Zhang's identities is indeed a renowned chef in Burning Sky City. Every dish cooked by Fatty Zhang could fetch quite a lot of money. While Fatty Zhang is busy cooking. From Ren Qingquan's [Scan], I saw the surrounding guards begin to tense up. They're staring in a direction while gripping the sword at their waist.

Ren Qingquan also sensed the odd situation and turned his head toward the spot where the guards were staring. With a rustling sound of leaves, a massive boar can be seen charging toward their location from behind dense foliage. The moment that the boar entered the range of Ren Qingquan's [Scan]. I found the energy inside that boar is pretty considerable! It's actually as strong as a third stage Martial Master in terms of level.

Upon seeing the boar, the Martial Grandmaster level guard immediately moved and dashed toward it. With several swings of his sword, he split the boar into two pieces. I could feel Ren Qingquan being awed by such a strength. Meanwhile, Fatty Zhang, who's been busy barbecuing, has just raised his head upon noticing something amiss. When he saw the boar that had been split into two, he shrugged.

"Let's add some pork on the menu." Fatty Zhang calmly told a few guards to prepare the boar while he roasted some meat. After half an hour, the food is ready. As there is an extra boar that they have just killed. The group of ten people could eat to their fill.