Chapter Sixty-Four: The New Currency

“Ee… (Master.)”

“Hm?” Li Yunfei turned his head to look at the little fox walking beside him, her eyes shining as she gazed at him.

Seeing this, the little fox called out joyfully, “Ee ee… (Master can really understand what Honghong says now, Honghong is so happy.)”

Li Yunfei smiled, rubbing her head, and said, “I’m happy too. From now on, I’ll know what Honghong is saying, what she’s thinking, and what she needs. I’ll be able to take even better care of Honghong.”

Delighted by Li Yunfei’s words, the little fox’s charming eyes curved into crescents.

She moved closer to Li Yunfei, resting her head in the hollow of his shoulder, pressing her face tightly against his, and affectionately rubbing against him.

At this moment, her actions, if translated into human form, would be akin to embracing Li Yunfei from behind, placing her chin on his shoulder.

The fur on the little fox’s face was remarkably soft, not prickly at all—fluffy and comfortable. Li Yunfei greatly enjoyed this closeness from her.

At this time, Li Yunfei and the little fox were following the Donkey-headed Wolf King toward its clan’s dwelling, so Li Yunfei would know where to find them in the future.

The Donkey-headed Wolf King had sent out most of its clan members to bring back the corpses of wild boar beasts and wild boar monsters; these would be their provisions for some time.

By eating beast meat, their cultivation could advance rapidly.

Seeing the little fox and Li Yunfei so close, the Donkey-headed Wolf King smiled and called out, “Aung aung… (Master, the Fire Fox girl has her own name. Why not give me a name too?)”

Li Yunfei thought for a moment and laughed, “You’re a donkey-headed wolf. The word ‘donkey’ sounds similar to the surname ‘Lü’ in the human clan. So, you’ll bear the surname Lü! I’ll call you… Lü Dalang, how about that?”

The Donkey-headed Wolf King called out excitedly, “Aung aung aung… (Thank you, Master, for giving me a name. I am Lü Dalang.)”

Li Yunfei grinned and patted its head.

“Ee… (Master, what’s my surname then? Is it Hu?)”

Li Yunfei laughed heartily. “No, your surname is Tushan.”

“Ee ee… (Tushan Honghong, it sounds wonderful.)”

“Of course.”

…

Following the Donkey-headed Wolf King for about half an hour, they arrived at a foothill where the spiritual energy was denser than elsewhere.

On the mountain wall were several huge cave entrances; even the smallest was three meters tall and over four meters wide, while the largest was five or six meters high and seven or eight meters wide.

Upon entering the cave, they found the interior vast, with many passages, and remarkably dry.

What surprised Li Yunfei was the presence of bowl-shaped, pot-shaped, and basin-shaped stones inside—in other words, stone bowls, stone pots, and stone basins.

He curiously asked the Donkey-headed Wolf King, “Dalang, did humans ever come here?”

The Donkey-headed Wolf King called out, “Aung aung aung… (Yes! Long, long ago, a human once lived here for a while. He saved the ancestors of the Donkey-headed Wolf clan and taught them to use herbs and flowers to heal wounds.)”

Li Yunfei’s heart stirred, recalling the origin of this forest’s name.

Could the Donkey-headed Wolf King be referring to the Divine Farmer, the Flame Emperor himself?

Most likely so. No wonder the Donkey-headed wolves were so friendly to humans—there was such a deep connection.

He looked at those stone bowls, pots, and basins, a strange expression on his face. If so, these utensils were used by one of the ancestors of Da Xia, the Divine Farmer Flame Emperor?

If he could prove it, those stone implements would be national treasures!

But it was just a passing thought. If he really carried a bunch of stone implements around claiming they belonged to the Flame Emperor, he’d surely be taken for a lunatic.

He went up to examine them, discovering they were ordinary stone utensils, not treasures imbued with spiritual energy, so he paid them no further attention.

By dusk, the Donkey-headed wolves had brought all the wild boar beast and wild boar monster corpses back.

The Donkey-headed Wolf King selected the largest and most cultivated wild boar beasts as offerings to Li Yunfei.

He accepted them gladly, cleaned them on the spot, yielding over three thousand kilograms of beast meat, which he sliced into strips and stored in his system pack.

The meat of wild boar monsters was useless to him—good only for boosting blood energy, which might help martial artists in early cultivation.

But with his current attributes, his vitality was far beyond what wild boar monster meat could enhance.

The little fox and Donkey-headed wolves ate raw meat, but Li Yunfei took out cooking utensils and condiments, preparing a beast meat hot pot.

As expected, eating beast meat did boost his cultivation, and the blood energy was much stronger than that from wild boar monsters, though the increase was rather disappointing.

At this rate, he’d need to eat forty or fifty whole wild boar beasts to level up, which was clearly impractical.

One wild boar beast could yield eight or nine hundred to a thousand kilograms of meat; forty or fifty would be several tens of thousands of kilograms. How many meals would that take?

It seemed he needed other ways to reach level 30 quickly.

Once he reached level 30 and broke through to the Spirit Moving Realm, he’d dare to tackle supernatural dungeons and challenge fierce spirits and vengeful ghosts.

Still, this could serve as daily provisions; even a mosquito is meat, after all—any boost to his cultivation was worthwhile.

If he had the chance, he’d send some to Zhang Ziying as well.

The cultivation gained from beast meat was negligible to Li Yunfei, who was used to leveling up quickly through dungeons.

But for Zhang Ziying, just beginning her cultivation, it would make a huge difference.

With beast meat at the start of her cultivation, she could quickly outpace others of similar talent and lead the way among cultivators, which was crucial for future development.

Li Yunfei tried selling wild boar beast meat to the system shop and was pleasantly surprised—it really could be sold.

However, the shop didn’t pay in money, but in “spirit stones.”

He also found that dungeon-produced items and equipment were now priced in spirit stones.

Things like packaged food, daily necessities, and ordinary fruits he bought at supermarkets and sold to the system for convenience still used money.

He’d never noticed before; apparently, this change had only happened in the past couple of days.

The system shop bought beast meat starting at one kilogram; one kilogram of wild boar beast meat could be sold for one gram of spirit stone, but to buy it back required four grams.

Li Yunfei sold one kilogram and received a small, milky-white stone the size of a soybean.

Sensing the spiritual energy within, Li Yunfei realized he’d suffered a loss.

Comparing the energy in one gram of spirit stone to wild boar beast meat, it was equivalent to about 300 grams of meat.

So, three grams of spirit stone equaled one kilogram of wild boar beast meat; four grams equaled 1.2 kilograms.

Selling to the shop, he lost 700 grams per kilogram; buying, he lost 200 grams.

Money and spirit stones could be exchanged. Judging by item prices, the normal rate was one gram of spirit stone to ten thousand yuan.

What made Li Yunfei grit his teeth was that the system shop's exchange ratio was a swindler’s nine-for-thirteen.

That is, one gram of spirit stone could be exchanged for 9,000 yuan, while 13,000 yuan was needed to buy one gram of spirit stone.

Truly a rip-off merchant system.