A Recipe Book

Tu Ran's gaze swept across their faces in turn. "Got it? No matter who makes it back to the First World, you must do everything you can to pass this information up the chain so that the people there are prepared."

"We will." The three of them nodded with determined looks.

"Okay, let's keep moving." Tu Ran turned and continued down the path.

The four of them walked until dark without encountering any more aberrants.

Tu Ran surveyed the surroundings, confirmed it was safe, and decided to rest here.

"Up the tree." Tu Ran slung the laser gun onto her back and prepared to climb.

"Huh?" Li Rui was the first to voice her shock. "Climb a tree? We don't know how."

Song Bai nodded in agreement. She was just a weak college girl, after all.

Xiang Sheng raised her hand. "I can jump up." With her current leaping ability, getting onto a branch wasn't a problem.

"What about me and Xiao Bai?" Li Rui pouted. "Sheng Sheng, you're not going to abandon us, are you?"

"How about I try jumping up while carrying you two?" Xiang Sheng offered an idea.

"Sleeping under the tree is fine too. No need to go through the trouble," Tu Ran said. "I'll hear if anything happens. I'll come down soon."

"True," Xiang Sheng agreed, slinging an arm around her two friends' shoulders. "I'll keep them company down here. Tu Ran, you can keep watch from above."

"Alright." Song Bai nodded.

Tu Ran climbed onto a fork in the tree, pulled out her pillow. There was a bit of wind in the forest today, and the temperature wasn't high. Thinking of the three people down below, she jumped up and plucked two giant leaves, tossing them down.

"Windbreak." Tu Ran's voice drifted down from the tree, distant.

The three of them hugged the two leaves, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

"To think that I, the young miss of the Li family, have been reduced to covering myself with tree leaves to keep warm." Li Rui huddled in the very middle, only her head poking out, silently weeping in the cold wind.

"Go to sleep." Xiang Sheng was a bit weary. "Being alive is already good enough."

"Right." Song Bai nodded, shuffling closer to Li Rui. The three curled up together.

Tu Ran, lying on the tree fork, thought to herself: Next time I need to put a blanket in the storage space.

The night passed peacefully.

The next day, when it got light, the four resumed their journey.

The only thing to replenish their strength was still nutrient fluid.

Li Rui was already getting sick of it.

She looked up at the fruit hanging from the trees overhead—bright red and looking incredibly sweet. She unconsciously swallowed a mouthful of saliva and looked at Tu Ran, who was walking in front. "Tu Ran, can we eat that fruit?"

Tu Ran followed the direction of her pointed finger.

It was the kind of fruit that, once eaten, kept you from feeling hungry for a whole day.

So awful-tasting that even Fatty turned his nose up at it.

Seeing Tu Ran's expression suddenly turn odd, Li Rui shrank back a little. "Is it poisonous?"

Tu Ran shook her head and answered honestly. "Not poisonous. In fact, it's very filling—one piece and you won't be hungry for a day. But it tastes pretty bad."

As long as it wasn't poisonous, Li Rui was relieved. She wanted to see for herself just how bad it tasted. She looked at Xiang Sheng, clasped her hands together in front of her chest in a pleading gesture. "Sorry to trouble you, Sheng Sheng."

Xiang Sheng sighed helplessly, bent her knees, and jumped up. She grabbed one fruit with each hand, twisted twice to snap them off, handed them to Li Rui, then jumped up again to pick two more, even preparing one for Tu Ran.

Tu Ran took it, said thanks, and bit straight into it.

Li Rui, who had been trembling and daring not to try, saw how casually Tu Ran ate it and immediately grew bold. She took a big bite, chewing twice as she went.

"Pfft... pfft, pfft, pfft..." Li Rui's face instantly scrunched up in disgust. She spat out all the fruit pulp in her mouth, her complexion turning green. She still felt the astringency lingering, so she gulped down several mouthfuls of nutrient fluid to wash the taste away.

"Is it really that bad?" Song Bai was curious. She held the fruit up and took a small bite—it was like eating an unripe persimmon, except not crisp. Instead, it was mealy, like raw flour dough, and once in her mouth it stuck to the roof. She couldn't spit it out and couldn't swallow it.

Seeing the expressions on both their faces, Xiang Sheng decisively gave up on the idea. She'd just stick with nutrient fluid. Nutrient fluid was pretty tasty anyway.

...

By afternoon, the group ran head-on into an aberrant.

It looked like a rabbit: snow-white fur, long ears—one standing straight up, one drooping down—both eyes slanting inward toward each other, giving it a not-very-bright look. Its build wasn't large, about the size of a person. It came hopping over.

Seeing them, it froze in place.

The four of them stopped too when they saw it.

One rabbit, four humans, all staring at each other. Three seconds later, the rabbit let out an ear-piercing shriek.

"Ahhh—"

It was like an invisible sword trying to pierce everyone's eardrums.

Li Rui hastily covered her ears. Her skull throbbed with pain, but that didn't stop her from talking. "Damn, I never knew rabbits screamed like that!"

Tu Ran, who had her helmet and didn't need to cover her ears, heard her comment and was at a loss for words.

The rabbit's shriek continued without any sign of stopping.

And it was truly stupid—it just stood there screaming, not even running away.

Tu Ran pulled the dagger from Li Rui's hand and tossed it casually. It hit the rabbit square in the center of its forehead.

The shrieking stopped.

The rabbit fell stiffly backward onto the ground.

"Finally some peace and quiet." Li Rui rubbed her surviving ears, walked up to the rabbit, and looked down at the big fluffy creature.

It was actually pretty cute.

"Tu Ran, should we dig out its inner core?"

"It doesn't have one. Not every aberrant has an inner core. Only one or two out of a hundred abarrants might have one."

"Oh." Li Rui felt regretful. She bent down and pulled her dagger out of the rabbit's head. Seeing the red blood on the tip, a thought suddenly struck her. "Tu Ran, can we eat its meat? A spicy rabbit head this big would definitely be delicious."

Tu Ran was speechless. How was she supposed to answer that?

"...I've never eaten one, so I don't know."

"Isn't the Classic of Mountains and Seas basically a recipe book? It's got to be edible. Let's try it—maybe the rabbit meat has some other effect."

Tu Ran hadn't even recovered from the shock of the spicy rabbit head when Li Rui brought up the recipe book idea again. Tu Ran's feelings were beyond description.

"We don't have any seasonings. Even if the meat is edible, it'll taste too gamey." Xiang Sheng spoke up.

"That's true." Li Rui deflated. "Then forget it."

Tu Ran was silent for a moment, then spoke. "I have some."

...

In the end, the four of them successfully ate the rabbit meat. Between the four of them, they gnawed on one hind leg and couldn't eat any more.

Looking at the leftover rabbit meat, Li Rui was reluctant to part with it. "Goodbye, my beloved rabbit."

The four set off again, planning to cover a bit more ground while it was still light out.

Tu Ran strained with all her might to sense Fatty's location, but unfortunately, besides his direction, she couldn't feel the distance.

They had already been walking through this monotonous dense forest for three days.

During that time, they found five more inner cores.

Four beginner-level, one intermediate-level.

All of them were useless abilities, like the power to change your hair color at will, control the growth rate of your body hair, or have night vision.