Chapter 13: Blood Thistle Grass

Xu Feng walked to the shelf and started picking and choosing. Soon, he selected six or seven common medicinal herbs, filled five or six plastic bags, and handed them to Wang Ying.

“Keep these safe. To prepare the medicine against the Green Poison Insect, we still need one type of plant. It’s not here, so let’s go look outside.” Xu Feng passed the plastic bags to Wang Ying.

“So many,” Wang Ying said as she took the heavy plastic bags and stored them in her Virtual Backpack.

“I took a bit extra. These can make over a dozen doses of medicine. The Poison Sac of the Green Poison Insect is a great ingredient for alchemy and worth a lot,” Xu Feng explained.

“Hey, hey! You there! How dare you just come in and take things? Are you trying to rob us?” A woman with slightly thin lips stood up from behind the counter, pointing at Xu Feng and shouting loudly.

“Yeah, yeah! We were here first! Everything here belongs to us! You can’t take it!”

“Young man, I advise you to put those things down. This is robbery, it’s a crime…”

Wang Zhipeng stood behind the group, his eyes flickering as he stared at Xu Feng from the back of the crowd.

“Xu Feng, you can have those herbs, but you need to trade something for them,” Wang Zhipeng suddenly spoke up loudly.

“Right, right! Trade something for them!”

“Exactly, you can’t just take them for free. You have to trade something.”

“Those herbs are worth at least seven or eight hundred. You need to give us something of equal value.” The others quickly changed their tune.

Xu Feng shook his head. He hadn’t expected Wang Zhipeng to be so persuasive, swaying these people in such a short time to stand against him.

“Is he your friend?” Wang Ying asked from behind, gesturing with her chin toward Wang Zhipeng and speaking quietly.

“Haha, you could say that,” Xu Feng replied with a bitter smile.

“Hmph!”

“Xu Feng, that girl just put away so many herbs somewhere. Just give us that item storage thing, and we’ll trade with you for it,” Wang Zhipeng said loudly.

To be fair, Wang Zhipeng had some insight. Wang Ying’s Virtual Backpack was currently the most valuable thing Xu Feng and she had, but it couldn’t be traded.

A cold smile spread across Xu Feng’s face. He tightened his grip on the Bone-Cleaver, took Wang Ying’s hand, and headed for the door.

Seeing that Xu Feng was trying to leave, Wang Zhipeng grew anxious. He only had a Discount Card on him, and the guy with two thousand Fate Points clearly didn’t trust him—after all, they had just met, so there was no way he’d hand over the Fate Points.

Wang Zhipeng shot a glance at a burly man nearby. The man hesitated for a moment, then stepped out from behind the counter and blocked the doorway. “Either trade something for the herbs, or leave them here.”

As soon as he finished speaking, there was a loud “thud.” The tall man was sent flying, crashing through the pharmacy’s glass door and landing on the street outside.

The man struggled to stand up but quickly fell to his knees again, clutching his stomach and vomiting.

“Don’t mess with me. You can’t handle it.” Xu Feng’s murderous gaze swept over the people behind the counter. He stared at Wang Zhipeng for a few seconds, then led Wang Ying out of the pharmacy.

The people behind the counter stood frozen, staring at Xu Feng as if he were an alien.

“How is this possible?” Wang Zhipeng watched Xu Feng’s retreating figure, feeling regret for the first time. “How did Xu Feng become so strong? If I hadn’t tried to be clever, maybe he would have protected me…”

…

“Xu Feng, what plant do we still need?”

“A red mutated plant, very common. There’s a flowerbed over there. Let’s go look; it should be easy to find.”

When the alien creatures invaded Earth, those spatial rifts appeared. It seemed a substance called spiritual energy also entered Earth through the rifts, causing life on Earth to undergo strange evolution. Especially some plants—originally very ordinary, but after being affected by the spiritual energy, they turned into something like herbs from a game.

After leaving the pharmacy, they came to a main road. The street was filled with crashed cars. Many corpses had been devoured by Black Armored Beetles, leaving only bloody, mangled remains. Thick smoke billowed everywhere, painting a scene of apocalypse.

Spotting two living people, the Black Armored Beetles on the road flapped their wings and charged at them.

“You go kill them. Finish the task first,” Xu Feng said.

To Xu Feng, these Black Armored Beetles were no different from ordinary insects on Earth. Unless surrounded by thousands of them, they posed no threat to him.

“Okay.” Having followed Xu Feng all this way, Wang Ying’s courage had gradually grown.

Wang Ying fixed her eyes on one Black Armored Beetle, then waved her hand. A faint green orb materialized out of nowhere and shot toward the beetle.

Thump~

The Black Armored Beetle was knocked over. A thin red health bar appeared above its head, now more than half empty.

As it struggled to flip back over, another green energy ball hit it, instantly turning it into a pulpy mess.

Each time she hit a Black Armored Beetle, a wisp of faint green light floated out from its body, flew into Wang Ying, and vanished.

Xu Feng glanced at Wang Ying with a touch of envy. Her skill was really good—powerful and even restored health. If they encountered a boss later, they could wear it down.

“Use your skill more often. Level it up as soon as possible. I’ll try to get you a few energy potions when I have the chance,” Xu Feng said.

Wang Ying’s skill was indeed strong, but her energy recovery was too slow to keep up with the consumption. Once her energy ran out, her combat ability was almost zero.

After clearing the street, the two walked toward a crossroads at the end of the road.

A large flowerbed was built in the center of the crossroads, planted with colorful flowers and plants.

“Be careful. There might be bugs in the soil too,” Xu Feng warned as he searched through the plants in the flowerbed.

“Got it. Hey, Xu Feng, look! Is this the Blood Thistle Grass you mentioned?”

“Truly the favored daughter of Earth’s Will. Her luck is just too good,” Xu Feng thought to himself, then turned to look.

Wang Ying had pushed aside the ordinary plants nearby and pointed at a small plant that looked like it was made of congealed blood, her face full of excitement.

“Yes, that’s it. Blood Thistle Grass. In the future, this grass will be everywhere, but right now, with Earth’s changes just starting, it’s still rare and hard to find.” Xu Feng carefully pulled out the surrounding ordinary plants, then dug out the soil around the Blood Thistle Grass.

He shook off the soil, revealing the roots of the Blood Thistle Grass. The entire plant was red, faintly glowing with a crimson luster, but its roots were milky white.