Chapter 6: Encounter

Ever since Corrosive Energy appeared on Earth, humanity had been continuously researching it.

Ying Li himself also possessed a certain understanding of Corrosive Energy.

It was a very unique form of energy. If one had to draw a comparison using the cultivation worlds in novels, it was the equivalent of spiritual energy.

It was just that ordinary human bodies couldn’t adapt to “spiritual energy.” Being in an environment saturated with “spiritual energy” would actually damage the body.

The reason humans died from eating mutated flora and fauna was, on one hand, because the “spiritual energy” within these organisms was far too abundant, exceeding the limits of what a human body could contain. On the other hand, this “spiritual energy” was far too volatile.

Or perhaps, it was also a matter of incompatible attributes.

Just like how, in cultivation worlds, besides spiritual energy, there’s also demonic energy, and spiritual energy itself is further divided into metal, wood, water, fire, and earth attributes… Of course, these were all metaphors. Corrosive Energy could not simply be equated with spiritual energy.

Ying Li’s thoughts involuntarily drifted away, but he pulled them back.

Mental Power flowed through his body. Ying Li began to sense every part of his being.

Forehead, eyes, ears, nose, mouth…

From head to toe, then from toe back up to head.

As he sensed, a stream of gentle energy, following his Mental Power, also circulated within his body.

Over the past four years, he’d suffered many injuries, and his body had lacked nutrition, leading to some deficits. But under the nourishing warmth of this energy, those deficits vanished.

However… the already sparse fat in his body was also completely consumed.

The entire process lasted about six hours. Whereas in his previous life, he had awoken after only two hours.

Upon waking, Ying Li felt as if he had shrunk a full size. He was also ravenously, unbearably hungry, as if he could devour an entire cow.

Such hunger was impossible to endure. Without a second thought, Ying Li crawled out of the crevice, took out his food, and began eating.

On this trip, he had brought enough food to last him five days. If he were frugal, it could even last longer.

In the end, he ate three days’ worth of food in a single meal.

If his stomach hadn’t been physically unable to hold more, he would have kept eating.

His body was desperately craving energy.

Ying Li found a relatively flat area, lay down, and continued using his Mental Power to scan every part of his body, gradually guiding himself into sleep.

He slept very well. Upon waking, he discovered he was hungry again and couldn’t help but eat another full day’s worth of food.

This meant the remaining food and water he had on hand was now dangerously low.

The energy within him was now stable. Eating just one or two bites of Mutant Beast meat or a Mutated Plant wouldn’t kill him, but eating too much would still cause his body to explode and die.

He now had two choices: return to the city, or go to a Supply Point to buy food and water.

Ying Li exited the cave and headed for the very same Supply Point he’d introduced to that Dark Guide in his previous life.

The area within a hundred-kilometer radius around Starlight City was considered the “Safe Zone.”

This didn’t mean that staying there guaranteed absolute safety. It primarily meant that the Starlight City Defense Force patrolled the area and had also installed some wired surveillance, so people generally didn’t cause trouble here.

The Defense Force also cleared out high-rank Mutant Beasts within this zone. Therefore, the Mutant Beasts in this area wouldn’t exceed D-Rank.

Many of the beasts living here were even unranked and wouldn’t actively attack humans. So even low-rank Sentinels moving within the Safe Zone didn’t need to worry much about their lives.

The Supply Point Ying Li was heading to wasn’t exactly official. It was privately run by some Sentinels, so it was located outside the Safe Zone. It was only a few dozen kilometers from the mountain he was currently on.

There were actually several such Supply Points. However, some were mobile. In Ying Li’s memory, only this particular one remained standing, still existing ten years later.

On his way here, whenever Ying Li encountered Mutant Beasts, he didn’t stop. He used his Mental Power to drive them away or simply detoured around them.

But on the road to the Supply Point, he stopped multiple times.

He didn’t hunt B-Rank Mutant Beasts. His equipment was too poor; fighting a B-Rank Mutant Beast, though he wouldn’t lose, would certainly take a long time and might result in injury.

Along this route, he specifically targeted and killed Mutant Beasts below C-Rank, slaying a total of four D-Rank Mutant Beasts and one C-Rank Mutant Beast.

The Supply Point was set up inside a cave. A vehicle was parked outside. As soon as Ying Li drew near, he smelled a foul, unpleasant odor.

Sentinels disliked this smell, and Mutant Beasts disliked it even more.

He put on a gas mask and approached the Supply Point. Then, he traded two D-Rank Mutant Beasts for enough food and water to last him twenty days.

Inside the city, those two D-Rank Mutant Beasts could be exchanged for at least five times this amount of supplies. But this was outside the city. There was no other way.

The supplies he bartered for were quite a lot. Moreover, at this point in time, he’d never traded for supplies at a Supply Point before—he was a new face. So the Sentinel running the Supply Point was very guarded against him, even refusing to let him come closer.

Ying Li didn’t want to get close, either. Taking the supplies, he immediately left that stench-ridden place. Only after getting some distance away did he stop and begin to feast.

In his previous life, after eating a third of the mushroom, he’d also felt hungry, but nowhere near as severely as this time.

But feeling hungry was a good thing. His body was definitely recovering, and that was why it was demanding food.

The food Sentinels ate in the wild was generally Nutrient Paste. However, it was of a higher Rank than the cheapest Nutrient Paste sold in the underground city. Besides fungi, meat was also added to provide Sentinels with sufficient energy.

Biting into the feeding nozzle of a pouch of this Nutrient Paste, Ying Li quickly finished one pouch. He immediately grabbed a second, then a third…

He’d bartered for twenty days’ worth of food and water. But by the fifth day, the food and water were almost gone.

Fortunately, by this time, he no longer craved food as desperately as he had in the beginning.

Organizing the Mutant Beasts he had hunted, Ying Li began his journey back.

In his previous life, it was today that he returned to Starlight City.

Riding his newly purchased off-road motorcycle to the Surface Exchange situated above Starlight City, Ying Li began to spend.

Or rather, not so much spend as trade.

A few days ago, after bartering for enough food at the Supply Point, he had started hunting B-Rank Mutant Beasts, simultaneously adapting to his body.

Over five days, he killed a total of two B-Rank Mutant Beasts, five C-Rank Mutant Beasts, plus twelve D-Rank Mutant Beasts.

This could be considered a bumper harvest!

When Sentinels entered the city, they had to undergo a scan. All Energy Crystal Cores they carried could be detected, and then two-tenths had to be handed over as tax.

Paying tax was fine. But returning to the city carrying so many Crystal Cores would be far too conspicuous; it would easily attract unwanted attention.

So, it was better to spend some of them first at the Surface Exchange.

The outdoor combat suit Ying Li wore was the cheapest, most basic type, and thus quite ineffective.

The weather in the wild was highly variable. Good combat suits could regulate temperature, protecting against both cold and heat. But his combat suit protected against neither.

Combat suits made from the hides of Mutant Beasts also offered excellent defensive properties, capable of withstanding attacks from Mutant Beasts. His current combat suit? Even an unranked Mutant Beast could easily shred his clothes.

Ying Li traded two C-Rank Mutant Beasts for a cost-effective combat suit made from Mutant Beast hide. Then, he traded for some other things.

Like a helmet, weapons, boots, and so on.

Even his heavy-duty field backpack, he traded for a good one.

His original gear had truly been atrocious.

The equipment Ying Li traded for was all basic, practical, and affordable models. It didn’t attract any attention. But to him, it was already quite decent.

By the time he finished trading, he only had one B-Rank Energy Crystal Core left, along with two C-Rank Energy Crystal Cores, plus some D-Rank Energy Crystal Cores.

Trading items with Crystal Cores and valuable beast parts was more expensive than buying them with Credit Points, but not by much.

Because one had to pay taxes upon entering the city anyway, the final cost worked out to be about the same. After all, others who accepted his Crystal Cores also had to pay tax when they entered the city.

Ying Li carried the remaining Crystal Cores and entered the city. After handing over a portion as tax, he was left with only one B-Rank Crystal Core and ten D-Rank Crystal Cores.

But this was already quite a lot. It was enough for him to rest comfortably in the underground city for a good few days.

Ying Li sold the Crystal Cores he had on hand and walked towards his residence, feeling very pleased.

As he walked, something suddenly occurred to him, and he stopped in his tracks.

He didn’t want Wu Nian to know that he had also been reborn. He feared that if Wu Nian realized this, it would stir up trouble and affect him.

Therefore, both the time he left the city and the time he returned were exactly the same as in his previous life.

And because of this, he remembered something that happened on this day, upon his return, in his previous life.

At this point in his previous life, he had spent most of his savings on Wu Nian. When going outside the city, he still had to rent a vehicle and weapons. Plus, after leaving, he spent five days in that cave and didn’t hunt much. He returned to the city not only ravenously hungry but also practically broke.

Thus, he couldn’t even bear to pay for transportation and ran all the way home.

On the way, he stopped by a vending machine to buy the cheapest Nutrient Paste to eat.

Then, he encountered a child on the road who was on the verge of starving to death.

That child was so emaciated he was practically skin and bones, reminding Ying Li of his own childhood, when he had no food to eat. So he gave the child a box of Nutrient Paste.

Although the underground city had many welfare programs—the elderly, weak, sick, and disabled could all receive free relief food—there were still many people who couldn’t eat their fill. And every year, people still starved to death.

Ying Li had seen so much death that he no longer treated death with much gravity. But whenever it was within his capacity, he was still willing to offer help to others.

Especially since his mood had been consistently good ever since his rebirth.

As he did in his previous life, Ying Li used his own two legs to head back. Just as he did in his previous life, he bought several boxes of the cheapest Nutrient Paste. Only this time, he didn’t eat it.

The cheapest Nutrient Paste was rather lacking in nutrition for him. He might as well save his stomach and eat something better.

The alleyways between the buildings were exceedingly narrow. Because the underground city had existed for a very long time and was in disrepair, some places even leaked water, giving rise to various fungi.

The smell here was also awful, making things uncomfortable for Ying Li’s sharp senses.

Soon, he arrived at the exact spot where he’d encountered that child in his previous life.

His timing returning to the city was about the same as in his past life, just a tiny bit earlier. Precisely because of this, he happened to witness a group of children snatching a box of Nutrient Paste from the hands of that gaunt child.

So, the child had been starving and on the verge of death because he’d been robbed.

Such things weren’t uncommon in the underground city. If the robber were an adult, they’d face punishment. But if the robbers were children, and the thing stolen was the cheapest Nutrient Paste… the police simply wouldn’t bother.

By the time Ying Li arrived, those thieving children had already scattered.

The underground city had strict regulations governing Sentinels. They were especially forbidden from laying hands on the elderly, weak, sick, young, or disabled. If he had acted, he would have been taken away and detained, and would have been required to undergo Mental Power testing.

After all, Sentinels who resorted to violence within the underground city were mostly those whose Mental Seas had malfunctioned. These Sentinels needed to be arrested and dealt with to prevent greater harm.

Ying Li couldn’t stop those children. He could only walk up to the child who had been robbed and offer the several boxes of Nutrient Paste he’d just bought.

In his previous life, Ying Li had simply tossed down a box of Nutrient Paste and left. But this life, he planned to stay nearby for a moment, waiting until the child had eaten the paste before leaving.

The child’s condition was dire. If he didn’t keep an eye out, the child might get robbed a second time.

“You need to eat your Nutrient Paste immediately after you receive it in the future. That way, you won’t get robbed,” Ying Li spoke. The underground city provided relief food to those without the ability to work.

This child should be one of those receiving relief.

The areas where relief was distributed had guaranteed safety. If the child had eaten the food immediately upon receiving it, others wouldn’t have been able to steal it.

The child whose food had been stolen was so thin his exposed arms had practically no flesh on them. He was as emaciated as that Dark Guide Ying Li had seen in his previous life—one of the skinniest people Ying Li had ever laid eyes on.

He was curled up in a corner. When Ying Li held the Nutrient Paste out towards him, he didn’t even dare to take it.

Upon hearing Ying Li’s words, he finally lifted his head. His dark eyes were filled with gratitude towards Ying Li and a desperate craving for the food.

Ying Li had helped this child because he was so unnervingly thin, leaving such a deep impression that even after ten years, Ying Li hadn’t forgotten.

He was worried the child would starve to death.

He had even thought that even with the few boxes of Nutrient Paste he’d given, this child might not survive to adulthood.

In the underground city, people dying was truly a common occurrence.

But at this moment, seeing the child’s face, Ying Li suddenly realized his worries were unnecessary.

This person was very thin, but starving to death wouldn’t be so easy. After all, ten years from now, this person would still be very much alive, and would have even killed many Sentinels.

The person before his eyes was none other than the Dark Guide who had nearly wiped out the entire Shen Family!