"What?"
Lin Baici's steps halted.
[I'm serving as your servant, taking orders from you, and I can't even have a little mood? Occasionally punching you isn't too much, right?]
The tone of the Eater God was a matter of fact.
"The key point is that punch could kill me!"
Lin Baici felt helpless, realizing he would need to be more careful in the future.
Everyone rushed back to the dock.
The lake surface was calm, with only lotus leaves rustling.
"Captain, hurry up!"
Jiang Hong was thick-skinned, not close with Lin Baici, but still called out affectionately.
He beckoned while running onto the awning boat, and other tourists were shoving and josteling, trying to grab a spot.
Splash!
Someone was pushed into the water.
"All of you, get the hell off!"
Jiang Hong jumped onto the awning boat, and roared at those squeezing on with him, "Without the Captain's word, no one is allowed aboard!"
"Who do you think you are?"
Some were indignant, but many others went to grab one of the two sampans, avoiding Jiang Hong; after all, he was Guangqing's richest man, wealthy.
Lin Baici, that outstanding student, merely had to lend him a hand to earn ten million yuan; there was no reason not to make that money.
Lin Baici stepped onto the dock, looking at the yelling Jiang Hong, his eyebrows furrowing: "Get off!"
"Huh?"
Jiang Hong was dumbfounded.
"Get off!"
Lin Baici could not stand people like Jiang Hong: "Don't make me say it a second time!"
"..."
Jiang Hong was embarrassed, his expression as pained as if he had been constipated for ten years.
"Get lost!"
Sima Mu jumped onto the awning boat, waving his sickle at him.
Jiang Hong looked at Lin Baici, understanding; that person didn't want to team up with him.
Alas!
Better to disembark gracefully, to avoid being beaten up.
"Handsome, let me on the boat too, okay?"
The woman with red-dyed hair wasn't dead, she pleaded with Lin Baici with a flattering smile.
"You guys take the sampan!"
Lin Baici picked up the oar and began rowing.
On his boat were Kim Myungjin, Hua Yue Yu, Sister Xiao Li, the old lady, Sima Mu, and the Zhang Ju mother and daughter.
"Give me a spot!"
Jiang Hong tried to exert his monetary power: "I'll pay!"
But unfortunately, everyone wanted to live, and with the more capable men like the Hawk-nosed man gone, the remaining people were all pretty evenly matched, so for a time, it was chaos as everyone wanted to be the first to go.
The awning boat reached the shore, Lake Heart Island had arrived.
A vast field of golden wild chrysanthemums swayed in the wind, scattering a fresh floral fragrance.
"Disembark, pick the flowers!"
Sima Mu jumped ashore.
"So beautiful!"
The little girl exclaimed.
It was only this flower field that did not display the somber and daunting palette of God's ruins.
Bees could even be seen fluttering among the flowers.
"How big a bunch of flowers do we need to pick?"
Hua Yue Yu and her group disembarked and were about to enter the flower field, ready to pick some pretty wild chrysanthemums.
"Wait!"
Lin Baici stopped them.
Whoosh!
Everyone stood still.
"What's wrong?"
The old lady was frightened: "Is there danger?"
"I don't know!"
When Lin Baici had obtained the Bodhi Messenger's Cassock earlier, his hunger had subsided, but it had not completely disappeared. The moment he set foot on Lake Heart Island, the hunger surged forth again.
And it was so intense that saliva secreted from Lin Baici's mouth.
[A field of wild chrysanthemums excessively nourished by Divine Power has mutated; their root system will drag any life that enters the flower field into the soil, turning it into nutrients!]
[Burn it, it has to go; otherwise, picking some chrysanthemums to make tea can quench fire's potency.]
Eater God commented.
"Burn it? Then what about our task?"
Lin Baici questioned inwardly.
Eater God didn't respond; it was only interested in good food.
"Should we pick the flowers?"
Hua Yue Yu was now listening only to Lin Baici, confident it couldn't be wrong.
"Don't pick!"
Lin Baici lit the torch by striking it against the side of the boat, then jumped off and approached the flower field: "You guys stand back!"
"What are you doing?"
Sima Mu got anxious: "By the looks of it, are you going to burn them?"
"Right!"
Lin Baici looked at Sima Mu: "Do you have a problem with that?"
"No! No!"
Sima Mu laughed: "Do whatever you want to do!"
Lin Baici lowered the torch, waving it through the clusters of flowers a few times.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
The flames immediately caught and began to devour the entire flower field.
On the shore, the tourists suddenly noticed a fire on the island, and panicked.
"What's going on?"
Thick smoke billowed up with the wind.
Travelers on the two sampans rushed to row over. Before reaching the shore, they heard the squeaking screams from within the flower field, as if monsters were being burned to death.
They looked at each other in confusion.
Those with Hua Yue Yu felt a sense of relief.
If Lin Baici hadn't stopped them from picking flowers, they would likely have already been killed by the creatures within the field.
Ten minutes later, Lake Heart Island had turned into a charred wasteland, all the chrysanthemums burned away.
Some tourists were displeased, but they dared not speak out.
The old lady intended to ask Lin Baici what to do next, but seeing his stern face, she decisively kept her mouth shut.
After waiting a bit longer, some wild chrysanthemum sprouts broke through the soil.
They've sprouted!
They grew visibly insane, towering, blooming, and standing firm against the wind.
"Bai Ci, you really are divine!"
Hua Yue Yu exclaimed in admiration.
Was Lin Baici just a student?
Who would believe that!
He must be a God Hunter, and an incredibly formidable one at that!
Lin Baici turned around and looked at the people on the sampan, as well as some tourists who had bravely swum over: "We'll take some first, no objections, right?"
"No objections! No objections!"
"Please, you first!"
"If anyone dares to say a word against it, I'll beat them to death!"
The wild chrysanthemums that had just grown were not plentiful, hardly enough to bunch together in several bouquets, but these people were very tactful and didn't dare to compete with Lin Baici.
Consequently, Hua Yue Yu and her group also benefited.
After picking a bunch of wildflowers, Lin Baici strolled on Lake Heart Island.
What could be so amazing here?
Enough to make one's mouth water?
As Lin Baici didn't leave, Hua Yue Yu and the others had no choice but to wait.
A little girl squatted on the ground, picking up stones to play with, and inadvertently, saw a crystal stone the size of a walnut in the soil.
It was a pale blue color, spherical in shape, adorned with strange patterns, and shrouded in a faint glow.
"So pretty ah!"
The little girl immediately ran over to Lin Baici on her short little legs, holding out the crystal stone with both hands as if offering a treasure: "Eater God big brother, this is for you!"
It was this thing!
The moment Lin Baici saw it, he wanted to eat it right away.
[Using your human terms, it's called a Meteorite, filled with God's Ability inside. After consuming it, it can activate and nourish cells, allowing your bodies to evolve to the next level of life!]
"Could this be a Meteorite?"
Kim Myungjin exclaimed in amazement.
"You recognize it?"
Lin Baici needed enlightenment.
"Never seen it."
Kim Myungjin shook her head: "Meteorites are among the most precious resources in God's ruins. God Hunters risk their lives to break into God's ruins, and they do it for God's bones and this!"
"Meteorites contain a mysterious energy that, once refined through a special process, can be absorbed by God Hunters to strengthen their bodies and replenish Divine Power."
"Didn't I tell you before that the more Divine Grace a God Hunter has, the more powerful they are? But if the hunter's body is too weak, they can easily die abruptly when absorbing Divine Grace. Moreover, using Divine Grace consumes Divine Power, so the value of a Meteorite that can strengthen the body and replenish Divine Power is self-evident!"
These pieces of knowledge came from Kim Myungjin's brother.
"Can't eat it directly?"
Lin Baici frowned.
"Not just an ordinary person, even a God Hunter who eats it would become disfigured by the radiation of the mysterious energy contained within it if not operated on to get it out within a few minutes!"
Kim Myungjin looked at the Meteorite with envy: "In hunter circles, this is the highest currency."
"How much is it worth?"
Lin Baici's eyes lit up.
"If converted into money, you'd be financially free on the spot!"
Kim Myungjin finished speaking and then hurriedly reminded: "But no hunter would trade it for money, they all use it to increase their strength!"
One simply wouldn't know how precious a Meteorite is unless they were a God Hunter.
"Hmm!"
Lin Baici tucked away the meteorite: "Let's go!"
Once he got the money, he decided to give the little girl a sum as a token of gratitude for finding the meteorite.
In fact, he didn't have to, since he had saved the lives of the mother and daughter.
The awning boat sailed, heading back to the dock.
Once Lin Baici left, hostility immediately erupted among the tourists on the island, after all, only thirty people could live.
"Eat it quickly, what are you waiting for?"
The Eater God urged.
"Eating it will kill me!"
Lin Baici explained in his mind.
The Eater God didn't care about that at all: "If you won't eat, I'll stuff it into your mouth!"
"Kim Myungjin said this thing needs to undergo special processing before it can be used."
Lin Baici hesitated.
He had survived up to now by relying on the Eater God's food critiques, but to eat something like this raw was really asking too much, wasn't it?
"With your current state, you absolutely cannot kill the deity's bones in the Daxiong Treasure Hall. Going there would be like delivering takeout."
The Eater God mocked: "You don't think those few worthless companions of yours could be any help, do you?"
"How am I supposed to eat this? I can't even bite it."
Lin Baici looked at the walnut-sized meteorite and sighed.
In fact, there was no choice.
Moreover, the hunger was stimulating him to take a bite.
"Just put it in your mouth!"
Lin Baici wiped the meteorite with his jersey and, while no one was paying attention, stuffed it into his mouth.
The temperature inside his mouth immediately rose, the meteorite softened, turning into a liquid state.
Gurgle! Gurgle!
Lin Baici swallowed twice in succession and ate it.
A surge of heat exploded instantaneously in his stomach, spreading throughout his body. White steam emerged from Lin Baici, his skin slightly reddened.
Everyone noticed this wave of heat, turned their heads, and seeing Lin Baici's abnormal state, were shocked.
"Baici, what's wrong with you?"
Sister Xiao Li was terrified, you are the hope of our village, nothing can go wrong with you.
Lin Baici didn't speak. After about a minute, the steam on his body dissipated, his skin color returned to normal, and became more delicate and tighter than before, good enough to make women who use high-end cosmetics everyday envious.
"I'm fine!"
Lin Baici exhaled a breath of turbid air.
The awning boat reached the dock. He looked back at Lake Heart Island, clearly seeing the tourists fighting over the wild chrysanthemums. Jiang Hong's hideous facial expression, he could see it all as clear as day.
His vision had improved.
Though Lin Baici wasn't nearsighted, his vision had still deteriorated over the years from studying, but now it was definitely 5.3. If he were to undergo a pilot's vision test, he would surely pass.
Lin Baici recalled the Eater God's critique of the meteorite.
This stone was full of God's Ability, which could evolve humans toward the next ladder of life.
"God's Ability?"
Lin Baici clenched his right hand, now able to clearly feel something flowing inside his body.
"This thing is Divine Power, and to use Divine Grace, you must have Divine Power!"
Lin Baici understood that Divine Power was like the mana bar for characters in online games.
"Let's go!"
Lin Baici jumped off the awning boat and headed for the Daxiong Treasure Hall.
That dark Buddha probably wouldn't expect me to eat a meteorite and come back wearing the Bodhi Messenger's Kasaya, would he?