Chapter 172: Grabbing Good Stuff Like Crazy

[Ding dong—Congratulations to Hailang for obtaining 1 piece of snowfish meat!]

[Ding dong—Congratulations to Hailang for obtaining 1 pile of campfire wood!]

[Ding dong—Congratulations to Hailang for obtaining 1 apple!]

“Wow, an apple—”

No one knew who gulped first, but the rest quickly followed, swallowing hard as they stared eagerly at the big, fragrant apple in the box.

Ming Mu was stunned for a moment, then, with the rigor of a scientist, took out his dark matter detector.

“Beep beep beep—” After the scan, the apple showed a dark matter content of zero.

Now he completely believed what the city lord had said: there was no dark matter inside Earth Village. Even without the dark matter removal potion, as long as Ming Xiao stayed in Earth Village, his body would recover on its own.

As a light-type ability user, Ming Xiao was different from others infected with dark matter—he had an innate ability to expel dark matter.

“Brother, how are you feeling?” Ming Mu turned to look at the frail Ming Xiao beside him, his handsome face tense with worry.

Ming Xiao gave him a reassuring smile. “Much better. Ever since I entered Earth Village, I’ve felt the dark matter in my body being suppressed.”

He felt better than he had in years. Before, his body had been on the verge of collapse, but now, light had finally overcome darkness. Even his long-pale, gaunt cheeks had gained a hint of color.

“That’s great.” Ming Mu’s face broke into a radiant smile, and the burden of saving his brother, which had weighed on him for years, suddenly felt much lighter.

“Let’s go buy a bottle of Light Potion. Once you drink it, you’ll recover even faster.”

He had come well-prepared from Molan City this time, bringing all the wealth he’d saved over the years. As an alchemist, he spent most of his time in the lab making potions, which were then sold for a good profit. He actually earned more energy coins than Mo Xie, the city lord himself. Buying a Light Potion was no problem at all.

But as for the Holy Potion, he was still a bit short on energy coins. After all, he’d poured a fortune into his mad research to develop a dark matter removal potion, racing against time to save his brother.

Ming Xiao smiled faintly but shook his head. “No need. As long as I live here, I’ll recover on my own. You should save your energy coins for other things.”

But Ming Mu wouldn’t have it. “No way, I won’t be at ease until you drink the Light Potion.”

And so, the two brothers were at a stalemate.

Pei Yu, watching from the side, looked at them with puppy-dog eyes. “Hey, what about me? I’m the one who’ll die without a Light Potion! I’m in way more danger than Ming Xiao right now.”

Ming Mu frowned and shot him a glance. “What’s that got to do with me? You’re not my brother.”

Ming Xiao smiled, but his gaze was cool: Who are you, anyway?

Pei Yu: …

So what if I’m not your real brother? We’re still dear friends from the same city!

He was frustrated, but what he said was, “Since you two can’t agree, how about this: I haven’t scraped together enough energy coins for a Light Potion either. Why don’t we each pay half and split the bottle?”

Ming Xiao and Ming Mu thought about it and realized it made sense.

So they decided to compromise and agreed to Pei Yu’s suggestion.

“Heh, great! Let’s head to the apothecary now. After being outside for a few days, I can feel the dark elements in my body increasing again. I need to drink a Light Potion ASAP.”

Pei Yu cheerfully led the Ming brothers off to buy potions, asking the other Molan City folks if they wanted to come along.

But everyone else was drooling over the apple from the treasure chest, itching to go fight monsters themselves. Who had time to go to the apothecary?

They waved him off. “No, no, we’re busy right now. You guys go ahead. We’ll go ourselves when we have time.”

“Alright then.”

Earth Village wasn’t that big anyway, easy to find people. Pei Yu didn’t worry about them and left with the Ming brothers.

After checking out Hailang’s treasure chest, the Molan City group eagerly crowded around Yinghua, craning their necks to ask, “Yinghua-jie, what did you get from your chest?”

“I got an apple, a defensive jade pendant, and a strength ring,” Kui Hai answered for his wife, though he didn’t sound very happy.

Especially after reading the descriptions for the jade pendant and the strength ring, he looked even more troubled.

The apple was fine—they could just eat it in the village. But if they wanted to take the jade pendant and the strength ring out of the village, they’d have to buy them with energy coins. And judging by the descriptions, these items were definitely not cheap.

Even if he and his wife pooled all their energy coins, they probably couldn’t afford even one of them.

But just giving up was hard too.

Kui Hai glanced at Yun Qimu, who was holding the hand of a cool little boy, with a cold, sharp-looking man by her side. She looked calm and elegant, smiling as if she’d expected them to be in this dilemma all along!

The Molan City folks next to him were still sighing with envy. “Wow, Yinghua-jie’s loot is way more valuable than Hailang’s.”

“Can I see the defensive jade pendant?” Huan Linyuan, the Molan City team leader, was always reliable.

While others focused on food and drink, he paid attention to practical items—to make up for their unreliable city lord, who only knew how to grow flowers and never explained anything else.

“Of course.” Yinghua handed over the pendant.

Huan Linyuan examined it. “Reduces incoming damage by 50%. Usable 10 times.”

He was instantly excited. “This is great! We have to bring this back for our Molan City guard force.”

He grinned and asked, “Yinghua-jie, can I see your strength ring too?”

Yinghua: “Of course.”

“Hiss—Strength +10! This is great too. With more strength, it’ll be easier to fight. We should bring this back for the guards as well.”

Kun Sang chimed in, equally thrilled. “Yes, yes, bring them back! With these two items, we’ll lose far fewer people during the annual berserk beast tides.”

Every member of the Molan City guard was a comrade who’d faced life and death together. Losing even one was painful, so seeing these life-saving, power-boosting items made them all excited.

Seeing these Molan City guys so eager to snatch up good stuff for their city, Kui Hai was tempted too. He wanted to bring these items back to equip the people of Longteng, so the survival chances of the old and young at their base would improve.

He couldn’t help but turn to Yun Qimu and ask, “After joining Earth Village, are we really not in conflict with people from other factions?”"