My Apocalypse System Arrives 10 Years Early

Chapter 168: Chapter 135: Five Spirit Ointment, Thunderstruck Wood

The Black Mountain Profound Armor could insulate his body heat, blocking infrared and radar detection. Its Invisibility technology far surpassed modern high-tech coatings. After all, it was a High Tier Extraordinary Item. Even in the Extraordinary World of his past life, many Extraordinary Beings coveted it but could never obtain one.

”ROAR~”

Li Xiang had just entered when he ran into a bear. The bear had probably just woken from hibernation and was famished. It was chewing on the tender shoots of a tree when Li Xiang, like a ghost, appeared behind it. He was wearing the Black Mountain Profound Armor and had used his ”Bright Pearl Darkens” skill, completely concealing his presence. He gave the bear a pat.

The bear turned, saw him, and immediately jumped in fright. It let out a terrified roar and scrambled away in a panic. It was scared out of its wits!

Although it couldn’t sense Li Xiang’s presence, it could tell that this two-legged monster was incredibly dangerous!

’Just a regular bear. And it’s too skinny.’

It wasn’t a potential Extraordinary Creature, so there would be no reward for killing it. Li Xiang let it go.

Bear paws were a famous delicacy, but this bear had just hibernated for an entire winter. It had burned through a lot of its fat, so its paws probably didn’t have much meat on them.

The most succulent bear paws came from bears in autumn, early winter, or right before hibernation.

Besides, bear paws weren’t actually that tasty and didn’t have much nutritional value. The dish was famous purely because of its rarity and the extremely high level of culinary skill required to prepare it.

A poorly skilled chef would make it taste worse than pig’s trotters.

”Tier Four Flying Flying Squirrel Spirit Rat detected.” A glint appeared in Li Xiang’s eyes as he locked onto a small creature hiding on a tree branch eight meters away. He threw the White Fang Dagger. With a flash of white light, the Flying Flying Squirrel Spirit Rat fell to the ground.

System: ”Congratulations, Host, for killing a Tier Four Mutated Flying Flying Squirrel Spirit Rat. Reward: 80 Achievement Points and three pellets of the Tier Three Mutated Spiritual Medicine, Five Spirit Ointment.”

”Rewards have been delivered to the System Warehouse. Please check and confirm.”

”Achievement Points balance: 720.”

...

Li Xiang took a look. The three pellets of mutated Five Spirit Ointment were indeed quite impressive. They were a uniform orange-yellow, looking a bit like topaz. Regular Five Spirit Ointment, on the other hand, was typically black.

Five Spirit Ointment was a type of traditional Chinese medicine. It could be harvested year-round, but it was most abundant in spring and autumn, with the spring harvest being of higher quality. It had many uses.

The mutated Tier Three Spiritual Medicine version, Five Spirit Ointment, not only had stronger medicinal effects but was also rich in Spiritual Power. It was just... damn disgusting.

’How am I supposed to eat this? Infuse it in wine? Eat it raw? Brew it into a soup?’ Li Xiang considered many methods, but none seemed suitable.

That was because, despite its pleasant-sounding name, Five Spirit Ointment was actually the dried feces of creatures like flying squirrels.

Other animals dropped loot, but this one dropped poop.

It was too disgusting to eat, but he couldn’t bear to throw it away. Li Xiang stored it in the System Warehouse, figuring he would just give it to someone else later. After all, something this good was bound to be needed by someone.

Or he could sell it. Sell it for a sky-high price and use the money for construction. That would be good too.

’Maybe I should contact Xu Xuan another day and see if there’s a good channel to get this auctioned off. Its medicinal effects are astonishing.’

He took out the Five Spirit Ointment, removed his Face Armor, and held it under his nose for a faint sniff. Incredibly, it was fragrant. Just smelling it made his entire body feel comfortable. This was definitely good stuff.

’Hmm, its appearance is quite good. An auction should be possible.’

Some people might like eating shit, or special foods found in shit, like cat poop coffee.

Cat poop coffee comes from civet cats eating coffee cherries. The coffee beans aren’t digested and are passed out whole in their feces.

These coffee beans, having been fermented inside the civet’s digestive tract, acquire a unique flavor that is highly sought after, making it one of the most expensive coffees in the world.

The story goes that back in the day, coffee plantations were worked by slaves. The plantation owners would naturally never let the slaves consume the coffee. Then, the slaves accidentally discovered coffee beans in cat droppings. They tried them and, hey—they were actually pretty good! And so the practice was passed down. Later, when the ”masters” found out, the slaves couldn’t even have the coffee from the cat droppings anymore.

When this coffee was first introduced to the United States, people laughed at it. But its flavor was genuinely good, its texture was top-notch, and because of its low production and rarity, it soared in status to become a premium coffee.

And the civets, originally considered mortal enemies by plantation owners for their habit of stealing ripe coffee cherries, had their status greatly elevated by becoming part of the ”process.” People even began to farm them specifically to produce cat poop coffee.

Although Five Spirit Ointment was entirely feces, it was a medicinal ingredient. The mutated version was even more precious.

’I won’t sell a single pellet for less than twenty million. That’s at least sixty million for all three. We’ll see which lucky bastard gets this opportunity.’

’If no one recognizes its value, whatever. I’ll just hold onto it for now.’

Li Xiang didn’t dwell on the matter. He continued his ”treasure hunt.”

Before long, a beautiful splash of pink entered his vision. He had a Night Vision Superpower, so the darkness didn’t affect him at all.

’Are those peach blossoms?’

Li Xiang was a bit surprised. It was only early March, and spring came relatively late in Sichuan Province. Peach blossoms there usually bloomed in mid-to-late March.

The peach tree, so vibrant; its blossoms, so brilliant. These peach blossoms had bloomed quite early. In the thin mist, they were splendid and gorgeous, like a Peach Blossom Fairy.

When Li Xiang got to within about ten meters, the system prompted him: ”Tier Six Mutated Peach Tree detected.”

’It’s a great find, but it’d be a pity to chop it down now. It’ll be nice to eat its fruit in the future.’ He believed that once this peach tree truly reached Tier Six, the Spirit Fruits it bore would be quite extraordinary.

’Maybe I should dig it up and transplant it to my backyard?’

His System Warehouse was quite large now. Although the peach tree was about five meters tall with a sizable canopy, the warehouse could still fit it.

Li Xiang sized it up, took a shovel out of his System Warehouse, and was about to start digging when he noticed that one of the tree’s thicker branches was scorched black and dead.

’Holy crap, is this Thunderstruck Wood? It was just struck by lightning? It survived a lightning strike and can still produce such brilliant flowers. No wonder it could mutate after the Apocalypse!’

Li Xiang grew even more delighted. He put down the shovel, took out his High-Density Blade, and climbed the tree. First, he chopped off the branch that was largely scorched black on the surface and stored it in his warehouse.

Thunderstruck Wood was good stuff. It could be carved into Peach Wood Swords and other small trinkets for warding off evil, like ornaments or hand-held carvings. Even if he didn’t sell them, they would make nice accessories or gifts.

He chopped off many large branches. Some hadn’t been struck by lightning, but peach wood itself was a fine material. Peach wood was also known as ”Dragon-Subduing Wood” or ”Ghostly Wood.” Legend has it that as the giant Kuafu, who chased the sun, lay dying, he threw his Divine Wood staff, which transformed into a peach grove.

The earliest Spring Festival couplets were made from peach wood planks, also known as ”Peach Talismans.” For thousands of years, peach wood has been said to suppress disasters and ward off evil, earning it the names Divine Wood and Celestial Wood.

Thunderstruck peach wood was even rarer and was hailed as the ”King of Dharma Artifacts.” Because of the burn marks from the lightning, which left traces of charring, its internal grain was even more beautiful than that of ordinary peach wood.

The tree was very large. Li Xiang chopped down most of the main branches, leaving only a few smaller ones. He also made sure to keep the few branches that had peach blossoms on them.

Then, using the shovel, he carefully dug it up with a large root ball of soil and placed it in his warehouse.

It was unavoidable that some of the root system would be severed, but the root ball he took was a sphere about one meter in diameter. With careful tending after being transplanted, it should be able to survive.

He had cut off the branches for two reasons. First, peach wood was a good material. Second, transplanting a tree requires pruning many of its branches anyway. Otherwise, the newly transplanted root system wouldn’t be able to absorb enough nutrients to support them all, and the tree wouldn’t survive.

Having dug up the large peach tree, Li Xiang was in a fantastic mood. He continued onward, reaping one reward after another.

”Congratulations, Host, for killing a Tier Three Mutated Purple-Scaled White-headed Viper. Reward: 60 Achievement Points and three stalks of the Tier Two Mutated Spiritual Medicine, Nine-leaf Chonglou.”

That Spicy Strip was unlucky. It had only just crawled out of its hole, and with the night being cold, it was coiled up under a large rock. That was where Li Xiang found it. It had to be said, this White-headed Viper was a fine specimen. The back of its torso and tail was purplish-brown, adorned with narrow, vermilion horizontal stripes finely edged in black.