Chapter 412: Chapter 350 Cheng Tianpu: A Tiny Country!
"Sakura, put in some effort. Once we kill this giant grub, we can have dinner!"
Suspended in mid-air, Li Zheng looked down at Sakura and the pink Poli wrestling with a bug as big as a train carriage, and loudly cheered them on.
The giant grub was a Diamond Level creature, plain and simple, with no features other than a burrowing ability.
Since advancing to Diamond Leader, Sakura’s close combat skills might be a bit inferior to Li Zheng’s when he goes all out, but they’re almost on par.
Whenever the grub couldn’t handle Sakura and burrowed, she used the Earth-Shaking Platform technique, hitting the ground to force the grub out.
The grub was also tough: although Sakura pierced several penetrating holes in it with an Obsidian Spike, it managed to break free, its foul-smelling internal fluids splattering everywhere.
"Huh!?" Sakura perked up at the mention of dinner.
She spat out more than ten invisible Wind Blades, slicing the grub into pieces.
To prevent the grub from burrowing and escaping, the little fellow stomped hard, preemptively unleashing an Earth-Shaking Platform to cut off its retreat.
Over thirty Obsidian Blocks fell from the sky, and several Obsidian Cones erupted from the ground.
With multiple layers of attacks completely surrounding it, the grub had nowhere to hide and died on the spot.
"Gross," Li Zheng descended, looked at the mangled grub carcass, pinched his nose in disgust, and had no idea where to start.
After finally making contact and breaking it down, he didn’t get anything useful from it.
"Grub meat... one hundred and fifty pieces?!" Li Zheng was extremely disdainful. Although this grub meat was a Diamond Tier ingredient, the attribute panel highlighted in bold red letters that it’s mildly toxic!
The disgusting part was the word "mild."
If the grand Diamond Level ingredient’s toxicity also reached Diamond Level, Li Zheng could think of using it as bait or selling it to someone who could use it.
Instead, it was only "mildly" toxic, not even lethal to an ordinary, unenhanced person, at most causing diarrhea for half a day. What’s it good for?
If taken out for a prank, others could still see the "mild toxin" in the attribute panel!
"It’s even more useless than chicken ribs; not even dogs would eat it!" Li Zheng couldn’t be bothered to sell this thing and directly dumped all the grub meat into the compost, waiting to turn it into fertilizer.
Hopefully, Diamond Level grub meat can produce Diamond Level fertilizer...
Finding a clean spot, he set up camp, and after spending an hour and a half on dinner, Li Zheng raised his hand, and a USB drive flew into it.
This was the most valuable item Li Zheng acquired with his remaining three exploration chances—a blueprint with No Tier.
The blueprint was strange; what it made was not a weapon or any particularly practical tool, but rather a "walkie-talkie."
[Spring Rain Walkie-talkie Production Diagram
Tier: None
Type: Disposable Blueprint
Description: Can produce a walkie-talkie for internal "Spring Rain" use.
Required Materials: Superdimensional Signal Expansion Chip*1, Super-solid Fiberglass*20, Quantum Signal Receiver*1, Advanced Module*15, Advanced Components*10, Intermediate Module*10, Spring Rain Identity Authenticator*1.]
Li Zheng had most of the materials, but the most critical ones were something he’d never even heard of.
On the other hand, the name "Spring Rain" felt familiar to Li Zheng, but he couldn’t recall where he had seen or heard it before.
"Strange, where have I seen this name before?" Li Zheng pondered for a long time without any clues and had to give up.
After finally getting a blueprint, but unable to make it, he had no choice but to grab his Sheathed Sword, go out to continue practicing swordsmanship, and try to figure out the mastery techniques for Long Staff and Nunchaku.
The time quickly flew by to half-past eleven at night, and Li Zheng returned to reality from his practice, reassembling the Sheathed Sword as it was.
"Let’s use the remaining exploration opportunity from the Mysterious Declaration."
He woke up the sleepy Sakura, picked up a lamp, and walked through the darkness.
Squeak, squeak.
He hadn’t noticed before, but when carrying the Mysterious Declaration around, it emitted a faint metallic scraping noise, which sounded slightly grating in an extremely quiet setting.
As was customary, he checked in on Yuanfei Yuluo to confirm she was still alive, then turned and chose a safe materials room, from which he harvested a Diamond Level Active Core.
Thus ended the entire day’s exploration; aside from some increase in strength, his activity kill points reached "16."
The No. 29 Mutation provided a whopping 6 points, and it was unclear whether this was because it naturally offered so many points or if the No. 29 Mutation was special, giving two sets of "3" points.
The second place team, "Ma Long Squad," had only 8 kill points, and since Li Zheng rejoined the activity in the afternoon, Kunlun hadn’t secured a single point.
Releasing his residence again, Li Zheng went into the bathroom for a soak, laying comfortably in the tub, while placing something even more menacing on the edge, quietly waiting for the Treasure Chest to refresh.
Extraordinary Level Treasure Chest, it’d be best not to give another blueprint, but rather finished equipment.
Otherwise, it wouldn’t have been as good as yesterday’s Diamond Tier chest!
Li Zheng quietly anticipated, browsing through the global channel, when he stumbled upon an interesting shout.
This shout came from Banquan Longma: "Cheng Tianpu, I’ve returned everything you wanted to you, don’t push me too far!"
Seeing this message, Li Zheng became intrigued.
He had met Banquan Longma before—a moderately powerful fellow with some scheming capabilities, quite full of himself.
How did it happen that after not seeing him for a few days, he was now shouting on the world channel, and moreover, his words indicated an attitude of admitting fault?
"Who is this Cheng Tianpu that can force Banquan Longma to this extent?" Li Zheng wondered, noticing this name; its style suggested it was someone from Stealing Country.
Sure enough, the next moment, a name in Korean appeared on the world channel, translating to "Cheng Tianpu."
Cheng Tianpu: "Heh, would Young Master Banquan really think that causing trouble on my territory at N District doesn’t come at a cost?"
For someone of Banquan Longma’s status, items to increase world channel shout times were easier to come by.
Banquan Longma replied anxiously: "We were framed! Someone raided one of my subordinate’s warehouses overnight, and the evidence left behind pointed to players from your country."
Cheng Tianpu remained unfazed, not easily convinced by Banquan Longma’s explanations: "Even with so many players in my country, why would they specifically come to my N District’s territory to cause trouble? Are you fooling a three-year-old?"
Banquan Longma: "Believe it or not. Anyway, I’ve returned everything taken from your side to its rightful owner, and if you keep pestering us, our Nihong Country won’t just let it slide!"
Cheng Tianpu scoffed: "A tiny country, what is there to fear?"
Those four words didn’t amuse anyone else, but they got a laugh out of Li Zheng first.
A person from Stealing Country mocking Nihong as a "tiny country" was utterly absurd!
However, Li Zheng now understood what had transpired.
The root of the problem seemed to be that Banquan Longma had a player in charge of storing resources who got robbed during the night.
The thief somehow manipulated the situation, leading Banquan Longma to suspect the Stealing Country organization and launch a retaliation, mistakenly targeting the wrong group.
"Robbery at night?" Li Zheng mused aloud. Doesn’t this sound familiar from somewhere?
It was then that the system notification showed he had a new private message.
Opening it, it was from Chu Xiao: "Old Li, um... can you get me a standard model of the Technology Cup, please?"