Chapter 34: A Feast

The Water Rat King had killed two of Ding Longyun’s companions, but Ding Longyun managed to kill it in turn. “Soul Devour” must be the special skill he acquired by killing the Water Rat King.

The two men quickly moved all the items from the raft onto the balcony. When Ding Longyun saw the LPG tank, his eyes lit up. He exclaimed, “My god, is this LPG tank usable?”

“Of course,” Su Li nodded.

“Haha!” Ding Longyun laughed. “The residents in this building use piped gas, and it’s all shut off now. I haven’t had a single hot meal in days! With this, we can finally eat something warm! Come on, follow me upstairs quickly! The floor here is submerged, so we can’t stay.”

Ding Longyun grew anxious, rushing them to go upstairs immediately.

“We can move the rest of the stuff later. Let’s go.”

Su Li nodded. He and Xu Xuehui followed him out of the apartment. Directly ahead was the stairwell.

Ding Longyun led the way, carrying the LPG tank. Su Li carried the storage box filled with cooled boiled water, and Xu Xuehui walked in the middle, holding the large bag of snacks.

Ding Longyun had enhanced his stomach and wasn’t afraid to drink the outside water, but Su Li and Xu Xuehui couldn’t. At least for now, Su Li wouldn’t dare try it, so the water was extremely important to him.

The place reeked of blood. They constantly saw the corpses of Corpse Beasts and signs of destruction everywhere. Clearly, a very intense and brutal battle had taken place here. Recalling Ding Longyun’s words that there had been four of them and now three were dead, leaving only him alive, one could imagine how tragic the fighting must have been.

Su Li was curious about Ding Longyun’s current Spiritual Source Wielder level. He held back several times when tempted to ask, realizing that they had just met, and asking too many personal questions might seem impolite.

He already felt he had been a bit rude asking about “Soul Devour,” but fortunately, Ding Longyun hadn’t minded and had explained it in detail. This made Su Li feel that Ding Longyun had a straightforward, frank personality, which made him someone worth befriending.

After ascending to the highest floor, Ding Longyun used a key to open the security door of one of the units. When he pushed the door open, Su Li noticed that all the furniture had been moved out. The windows had also been sealed, turning the unit into a warehouse-like room filled with important supplies.

Su Li saw a wide variety of goods piled inside: rice, flour, oil, salt, pots, stove equipment, rope, instant noodles, bread, alcohol, and drinks. The next room was stacked with clothes, shoes, socks, and quilts. Essentially, they had everything—food, utilities, and clothing. Although the quantity of each item wasn’t huge, the variety was exceptionally rich.

“All the useful items from the 24 units on these three floors have been collected and concentrated right here,” Ding Longyun explained, a hint of pride on his face. “As long as these things don’t spoil, they’ll be enough to keep us going for a long time. It’s a shame, though…”

He paused here, a look of regret crossing his face. “We can’t stay here long.”

Su Li’s heart stirred. “Why? Even if the water level is still slowly rising, at the current rate, it should take a long time to flood this highest floor.”

Ding Longyun shook his head. “It’s not the water level. It’s the monsters.”

“Monsters?”

Ding Longyun sighed. “Yes. I’ve figured out a few patterns these past few days. The monsters that appear seem to be getting progressively more terrifying. If I were alone, I wouldn’t be able to hold out for long. But fortunately, now I have you two.”

He brightened up as he spoke. “That’s right, what levels are you two? I’m Level 3. I only need eight more Spiritual Sources before I can advance again.”

Su Li had been meaning to ask his level for a while, and was surprised that he volunteered the information. Su Li smiled slightly and said, “I’m only Level 2. I’m far behind you.”

Ding Longyun was not only a Level 3 Spiritual Source Wielder, but he was only eight Spiritual Sources away from another breakthrough. In contrast, Su Li was only a Level 2 Spiritual Source Wielder and still needed 14 more Spiritual Sources to break through.

“As for Xuehui, she’s just a normal person.”

“Oh,” Ding Longyun nodded. “That’s no problem. We can just capture a few ‘zombies’ for her to kill later. That’s easy enough.”

Su Li knew he was referring to the Corpse Beasts when he said “zombies.”

“There are plenty of clothes, shoes, and socks here—all kinds. Feel free to pick out whatever you want.”

Su Li and Ding Longyun were both soaked. After changing into a clean set of clothes and dry socks, Ding Longyun went into the kitchen. He connected the portable LPG tank to the stove. Lighting the burner, he looked as excited as a child. He then found a pressure cooker and smiled, saying, “We’ll have fragrant white rice soon!”

Su Li opened the storage box filled with cooled boiled water.

Ding Longyun, knowing Xu Xuehui was a normal person who couldn’t drink the outside water, took some water from the storage box to wash the rice and started the cooking process. Su Li, meanwhile, began moving all the supplies they had brought over from the raft upstairs to be stored here.

Su Li occasionally looked outside and could vaguely see dark shadows floating in the water surrounding the building. He even saw Corpse Beasts surface, but they didn’t approach to attack him; they just emerged and sank again.

Clearly, this place was far from safe. He was beginning to understand the meaning behind Ding Longyun’s earlier words.

This situation hadn’t occurred around the building he had previously lived in. He hadn’t seen Corpse Beasts surfacing repeatedly like this.

Soon, the aroma of cooked rice wafted out. Su Li took a deep breath. It had been days since he had eaten a hot meal. The smell of the rice was more tempting to him than any delicacy in the world.

Once the rice was cooked, Su Li moved a table from the next room. Xu Xuehui wiped the table clean with a rag. Ding Longyun, as if performing magic, pulled out fermented bean curd, beef jerky, chili sauce, sausage, salted duck eggs, vacuum-packed chicken feet, and braised duck legs from the pile of supplies. He laid everything out on the table, making for a truly lavish spread.

Xu Xuehui was already trying to secretly swallow her saliva.

“Haha! Does this feel a little like home? This is the first time in days that it feels like we’re having a proper meal.”

Ding Longyun laughed, found three bowls and sets of chopsticks, and then filled three large bowls with rice.

Su Li remembered the beer he had brought. He quickly retrieved one and handed a can to Ding Longyun.

When he was working, he had drunk so much alcohol during business dinners and contract negotiations that he reached a point where the mere sight of alcohol scared him. Yet, he hadn’t drunk in a few days, and now he felt a sudden sense of nostalgia.

(End of Chapter)