Chapter 106: Chapter 106

“They’re worth that much?” Muying was surprised. Even a small petrified lizard was the size of a calf—just the blood alone would fetch several silver coins.

Copper Coin 559 nodded. “Petrified lizards aren’t easy to deal with. One wrong look and you’re petrified. If you’ve smeared the blood in advance, you’re fine, but otherwise, running into one is a disaster. They’re one of the toughest monsters to encounter in the wild!

“And their blood is unique—useful in all sorts of ways, with no real substitutes. The eyes are great crafting materials, and even the stone spikes are valuable. They’re basically treasure from head to tail.

“If some genius hadn’t figured out how to farm petrified lizards, the price of their blood would be even higher.”

“Farm them?” Muying’s scalp tingled at the thought. How could anyone possibly raise such violent, dangerous creatures?

But thinking it over, maybe it wasn’t impossible. Muying’s eyes lit up as an idea came to her.

Unfortunately, Copper Coin 559 said that genius’s farming method hadn’t been made public, so she couldn’t verify if her own idea would work. If it did, she could start planning her third sub-camp.

“Remember to sell me any petrified lizards you get!” Copper Coin 559 called out reluctantly.

“Got it,” Muying waved goodbye.

That night, Muying teleported to the plantation as usual, then flew north on her broom.

After reaching the northern edge of the old Qingshan Town, she looked for the old highway.

Amid the lush, wooded hills, a flat, grass-covered strip of land stood out—it was easy to spot.

She followed this flat land all the way to the site of the old Binhai City.

All the former skyscrapers were gone, leaving only some plants from the city’s greenbelts.

Following the street trees and greenbelts, Muying continued north.

After passing through the old city area and another stretch of highway ruins, she finally saw Linglong Gorge in the distance.

Linglong Gorge was a mountain that jutted sharply upward—one side was gentle, the other a sheer cliff. It looked like a dragon’s head raised high, hence the name.

Looking down at the “dragon’s head” of Linglong Gorge, Muying saw the camp below.

It was about half the size of Qingshan Territory.

The architectural style was exactly the same as one of the templates she’d seen in the blueprint design menu.

After entering the camp, there was a large fan-shaped plaza, taking up almost a third of the camp’s area, with many tents pitched on it.

Beyond the plaza were houses.

The row of buildings closest to the plaza was slightly elevated, mostly three stories tall. Behind them were two-story buildings—she counted roughly a hundred in total, though she wasn’t sure how many were occupied.

But judging by the messy tents on the plaza and outside the camp gates, there were quite a few people here, though they didn’t seem very well-off.

Months into the apocalypse, anyone still living outside the camp must be truly broke. At this point, no one is rich, and trying to guilt-trip or beg for handouts like before the apocalypse is pretty much useless—everyone’s poor.

Even Muying couldn’t call herself wealthy. Thanks to her territory, she earned more than most, but there were plenty of expenses too.

After surveying the area from the air, Muying landed a bit farther away and walked toward the camp.

Nighttime in the wild is always far more dangerous than the day. Anyone with money would be inside the camp, and those without would stay as close to the camp as possible, so they could rush in for protection at the first sign of trouble. No matter how poor, everyone tried to keep at least ten copper coins as life-saving money.

So, at this hour, if someone suddenly emerged from the dark woods, it was enough to put everyone on high alert."

"""Something's coming this way!""

""Looks like... a person?""

Some people let out a sigh of relief, while others stayed on guard. ""Who—who are you? Where are you from? What are you doing here?""

Mu Ying looked up at the burly man who'd just fired off the three classic questions. He was huge—his arms were thicker than her thighs, and his face was covered in a dense beard, making it hard to read his expression. His imposing presence was certainly intimidating, though if you listened closely, you could catch a slight tremble in his booming voice.

Finding him rather amusing, Mu Ying smiled and replied, ""I'm Mu Ying, from the Qingshan Territory. I heard there's a territory here at Linglong Gorge, so I came to check it out.""

Her emerald-green eyes sparkled under the moonlight, radiating a kindness that made people instinctively lower their guard.

Niu Shun looked into those eyes, and his voice softened as he scratched his head awkwardly. ""Oh, oh.""

It wasn't until everyone had passed him and walked quite a distance away that he finally processed what the girl had said. Any embarrassment he'd felt at seeing a pretty girl vanished in an instant.

""Niu Shun, why didn't you keep asking? Mu Ying—could she be the one at the top of the rankings? And Qingshan Territory, isn't that south of Binhai City? That's dozens of kilometers away! How did she get here? And what's so special about our Linglong Gorge that she'd bother coming all this way?"" his companion Guan Hai said, exasperated.

""If you're so curious, why didn't you ask yourself? Am I the kind of guy who bullies little girls?"" Niu Shun retorted, though only he knew how much he regretted it inside. ""But is she a foreigner? Her eyes are green. It's hard to say anything harsh when you look at them.""

""If her eyes are green, then she's probably that Mu Ying. I read on the forums that they turned green overnight—not just her eyes, but her hair too. Some people think she got some kind of bloodline power. Didn't someone over in Bear Country turn into a minotaur?""

Niu Shun thought about the guy with the bull's head and shook his own. ""No way, she's still human—just odd-colored eyes. I didn't get a good look at her hair...""

Mu Ying, of course, had no idea there was so much gossip about her. After paying the 10-copper entry fee, she entered the Linglong Gorge camp.

She'd revealed her identity earlier to avoid unnecessary trouble.

After all, being ranked number one was a pretty good deterrent—at the very least, people wouldn't try anything rash if they weren't sure they could take her.

Sure enough, quite a few people had overheard her conversation at the camp entrance. As she walked in, she could feel eyes on her, both openly and from the shadows, but no one came up to interrogate her further.

The row of buildings next to the square were all shops—by the looks of it, there were even more than in her own camp.

But it was already late, and all the shops were closed except for one, which still glowed with the dim light of candles—a small inn.

The inn's sign bore a large, familiar copper coin symbol. Sure enough, the name was ""Copper Coin Inn."" Just like the Copper Coin Pawnshop, it was run by the Copper Coin Trading Company.

Mu Ying stepped over the threshold, and the bell on the door jingled.

A thin, short man emerged from behind the counter, rubbing his eyes and muttering, ""Strange, someone coming this late?""

If it weren't for company policy requiring the inn to stay open all night, he would've closed up as soon as it got dark, just like the other shops, given how slow business was.

Mu Ying stared at his messy hair for a few seconds, marveling that the shrewd Copper Coin 559 could have such a slovenly colleague. ""Do you have any rooms left?""

""Yes, yes, yes,"" the man replied, picking up a candlestick. Now that he could see his guest clearly, a flurry of thoughts raced through his mind. A big customer! His attitude became even more attentive. ""We have small singles for 5 copper a night, standard singles for 8, small suites for 10, and large suites for 20. What would you like...?""

""I'll take a small suite,"" Mu Ying said, fishing 10 copper coins from her pocket.

""Alright, right this way. Oh, by the way, you can call me 93—that's my employee number,"" the man said.

""Isn't it supposed to be Copper Coin 93?"" Mu Ying asked, puzzled.

""Since you know about our Copper Coin Trading Company's rules, you must be from outside,"" 93 said with an awkward laugh, pointing to his head. ""You see, someone like me, sent to a newly opened primitive world, could never have such a low employee number. 93 is just for convenience—my full number is actually Copper Coin 15993. Too long, hard to remember, so I just say 93.""

Mu Ying: ???

What? Did he misunderstand something?