Shang Chuan was fast, and Li Huai wasn't slow either.
Their trade requests arrived almost back-to-back.
Lan Qingyou didn't waste any time. She placed Steel Wool on the magic desk, accepted Li Huai's stone slabs, and began laying them out across the floor one by one.
When the first floor was full, she moved to the second and third.
Once the layout was finished, she began drawing the alchemy circles. It took her an hour of intense work to complete all one hundred stone slabs.
Next, she placed the large iron pots Li Huai had sent onto the slabs.
This was where the advantage of flight truly shone.
Even though the house was packed to the brim, Lan Qingyou's movements remained swift and organized because she was floating through the air.
Weighing herbs, adding water, lighting fires, and stirring.
Lan Qingyou zipped between the floors, the Emerald Stirring Rod in hand.
This night was destined to be sleepless.
This was true for Lan Qingyou, and it was true for everyone else.
Gu Xiaobei sat idly in her level 3 shelter, which she had decorated with a distinct ethnic flair. She had nothing to do but wait it out.
Eventually, she couldn't sit still any longer.
After tossing a piece of wood that only added a single point of energy into the core, she opened her friend list and found Li Huai.
Gu Xiaobei: "Do you have any meat left? I need volcanic beast meat."
Li Huai: "What for?"
Gu Xiaobei: "To make a late-night snack for the big boss, Lan Qingyou."
Li Huai was well aware of the connection between them, given that Lan Qingyou had introduced Gu Xiaobei. Without a word, he began butchering the volcanic beast he had killed earlier that day.
He sent the carved meat, organs, and even the bones over to Gu Xiaobei.
Then, Gu Xiaobei began preparing the meal for Lan Qingyou.
As solo players, they were experiencing the meaning of teamwork for the first time that night.
It didn't feel half bad.
But if possible, they hoped they would never have to experience it like this again.
Doing this once was nerve-wracking enough; doing it multiple times would be unbearable.
Meanwhile, Lan Qingyou worked through the entire night.
Midway through, she rushed to the third floor to inject more mana into the core, ensuring the shield's energy wouldn't run dry.
As the sky outside began to brighten and pot after pot of potion emitted a golden glow, she finally stopped.
She was exhausted, drowsy, and desperate for sleep.
But she couldn't rest yet. Once the potions cooled and the sediment settled, she had to trade them away.
Slumped over her magic desk with her head buzzing and her vision blurring, a listless Lan Qingyou idly toyed with Steel Wool's fur.
In one night, she had produced 105 pots—forty-one thousand potions. She suddenly felt like a superhero.
It felt a lot like the frantic rush to finish a whole summer's worth of homework on the very last day of break.
Of course, the intensity here was much higher.
According to her previous calculations, one person needed 8,666 potions—just over twenty-one pots—to last three days. However, since over ten hours had already passed, that amount was no longer necessary.
Or rather, it wasn't necessary for those whose shelters hadn't been destroyed yet.
But what was with the intensity of this mana tide?
This was completely beyond what a group of newcomers who had been in this world for barely a month should have to endure.
Grumbling internally, Lan Qingyou glanced at the population count on the Regional Channel.
Twelve hours had passed. The channel, which previously held over nine thousand people, now had only three thousand left.
The casualties were severe.
She looked at the chat in the Regional Channel. As expected, it was filled with cursing.
Most of the vitriol was directed at one person.
Specifically, Xintianle.
"Xintianle, you damn bastard! I'll haunt you even as a ghost!"
"Damn it! He actually made off with all our materials! What happened to 'getting through this together'?!"
"Those Silla snakes really can't be trusted!"
"It's over, it's over. Without materials, we're dead for sure."
"Everyone, if you see that dog Xintianle, you must avenge the two hundred of us!"
"What?! Xintianle is from Silla?"
"What is there even to say to that?"
"Don't say anything, just enjoy the show."
"Hahaha! I told you Xintianle was trouble, but you wouldn't listen. You all practically begged to be scammed."
"I'm more curious about how he fit hundreds of people into a level 3 shelter."
"I know that one. I visited before. He used five level 3 shelters and linked them together."
"Terrifying. Xintianle invited me too. Thank god I didn't fall for his crap."
"Well, he's a Silla snake. We all know what their character is like, right?"
"Nice! I give Xintianle's performance a perfect ten."
"I thought Lan Qingyou the opportunist and Shang Chuan the schemer were already a pair of 'Crouching Dragon and Fledgling Phoenix,' but I never expected a 'Hidden Tiger' to be lurking in the shadows. This is a real eye-opener."
Lan Qingyou laughed when she saw this.
She knew about Xintianle. In the Villain's Valley that was District 666, he was so normal it was suspicious.
During the last magic turbulence, he had helped quite a few people, earning him the nickname 'Timely Rain' of District 666.
After the turbulence, many people began to group up, and he used that opportunity to constantly recruit those looking for safety in numbers.
Even though his followers were mostly small-time thugs and petty thieves, they were still a significant force when gathered.
Rumor had it that his shelter was the second one to reach level 3, thanks to the collective efforts of his group.
Looking back, that rumor was likely started by Xintianle himself.
How ruthless. He had wiped out over two hundred people single-handedly.
Truly, District 666 was full of talent.
But why call me an opportunist? My potion prices are based on equivalent exchange!
Lan Qingyou didn't understand. Lan Qingyou felt hurt. Lan Qingyou blocked the speaker.
She knew that even if she blocked them, they would still buy her potions through Shang Chuan.
But don't forget, Shang Chuan was a merchant—the blackest-hearted middleman who lived for profit margins.
His prices were always set according to the black market.
In fact, Shang Chuan might even be the one operating the black market behind the scenes.
When these people bought from him, they would be paying in blood.
And she was more than happy to see people like that bleed.
She waited about an hour until the pots had cooled and the sediment had settled. Then, Lan Qingyou squeezed the dregs dry, added a bit of the residue liquid to each pot, and sent them all to Shang Chuan.
Of course, this was only after she had set aside twenty-one pots for herself to survive the remaining days of the mana tide.
One hundred pots was her absolute limit. Even if she could make more, her shelter couldn't hold them.
As for how Shang Chuan distributed the potions, that was his business.
She had already notified Gu Xiaobei and Li Huai in advance; she assumed they had already coordinated with Shang Chuan.
Once finished, she looked at the broken stone scattered across the floor and shook her head helplessly.
She would have to wait until she woke up to clean up these disposable alchemy circle bases.
Rate on N.U.
