Chapter 39: The Fall

Yun Qing walked over, intending to pick up what had fallen when the chicken died. She hadn't expected that as soon as she entered the area near the coins, a system prompt appeared.

Obtained: 1 tael of silver.

After purifying fifty portions of ingredients, her system's finances had dropped to zero. Now, she checked again and found her wealth was at 1 tael of silver.

After repeated confirmation, the system had indeed added 1 tael of silver; in other words, this tael was just picked up.

Yun Qing was delighted. She hadn't expected that defeating the monsters assaulting the cavern would not only provide combat experience, but also drop silver coins.

Clutching her stone, Yun Qing danced with joy. "Liuliu, did you see that? The silver really dropped, actual silver!"

"Money can truly drive people mad," Liuliu said, not particularly interested, sprawled out on the homestead waiting for the monster siege to end. It wasn't meat, after all; silver coins couldn't be extracted to sell for meat.

The hate value triggered the monsters' siege, it seemed they were here to deliver experience and silver coins. Such a good thing, she mused—she’d have to stir up some hate value more often.

After half a minute, another level-five chicken emerged from the misty air wall and entered the combat zone.

Having already readied her stone, she threw it. The second chicken turned into experience, and after its corpse disappeared, it left a pile of money. Yun Qing excitedly ran to pick up the coins where the chicken had died.

The interval before the third monster appeared shortened; Yun Qing waited only twenty seconds before it came to deliver experience and silver.

As time went on, monsters appeared faster and faster—barely had she finished with one before another emerged.

Their spawning points became trickier: one came out from the southwest corner of the cavern, another from the northeast. Yun Qing dashed about the cavern, gleefully solving the monsters and picking up their dropped silver.

The tensest moment came when she had run too far, letting a level-five chicken fly into the farmland. Luckily, she managed to eliminate it just before it reached the saplings.

The monsters' appearance grew so rapid that Yun Qing barely had the energy to touch the coins on the ground.

This sense of worrying both about monsters ruining the farmland and missing out on coins was agonizing—as if failing to grab either meant losing a fortune.

Thankfully, after she had defeated more than ten chickens at a high frequency, the monsters finally slowed. The red dots in the misty perimeter grew less dense. Yun Qing at last had time to collect all the coins scattered on the ground, not losing a single pile.

About a minute later, the red dots in the hazy zone began to slowly move toward the combat area.

Stone in hand, fully readied, she waited for the next chicken to charge.

Closer.

Inside.

The red dot entered the combat zone, revealing sharp horns and a white body—not a chicken, but a goat.

Goat, level 10.

One stone certainly wouldn’t kill a goat, but Yun Qing threw it anyway, since it was already ready.

The stone flew toward the goat’s eyes, but as the goat entered the cavern, it lowered its head and rushed toward the homestead. The stone missed its eyes, striking its head.

-16;
Combat experience +1;

A single stone couldn’t be said to be entirely useless, but it barely scratched a tenth of the goat’s health.

This weapon wouldn’t suffice; she needed a better one. With a thought, she took out her refined iron bow from her pack—a new one would fetch over forty taels of silver at the smithy, and hers, after some maintenance, was just as effective.

She hesitated between metal-tipped arrows and bamboo arrows, ultimately choosing bamboo. When hunting wild beasts outside, metal arrows could usually be recovered, but in the cavern, thrown stones vanished—and arrows likely would too.

She drew the bow to full, aimed at the goat’s neck.

"Whoosh!" The arrow flew out, striking the goat’s neck.

-80;
Combat experience +6;

The goat’s neck was hit; it had a little less than half its health left. Seeing it enter the homestead range, Yun Qing drew and fired again.

-64;
Combat experience +33;

Just before the goat entered the homestead, Yun Qing brought it down.

The dead goat vanished along with her arrows, leaving behind a stack of coins and an unknown item.

The other monsters hadn’t yet entered the combat zone. Yun Qing walked over to where the goat had died and touched its dropped loot.

Obtained: 3 taels of silver, 1 portion of goat meat.

Goat meat: Good quality, firm texture, filling and nutritious after cooking, increases attributes, tradable.

Just as Yun Qing picked up the goat meat, Liuliu appeared beside her out of nowhere, a stark contrast to its earlier indifference. Standing on its hind legs, forepaws pawing the air, tongue lolling, it said, "So hungry, I want to eat meat."

Yun Qing raised an eyebrow. "Who was it just now that said money really drives people mad?"

Liuliu replied, "Meat makes me mad."

She couldn’t feed meat inside the cavern, but Yun Qing knew Liuliu meant the goat meat she had just picked up. She teased, "When we get out, I’ll give you some pork belly."

Pork belly—Master Liu at the slaughterhouse had saved some for her, though none had been set aside for two days now. She still had a bit left from before.

"Compared to pork belly, Liuliu likes goat meat more."

"Goat meat looks delicious, but there’s only one piece—will you eat it or shall I?"

Seeing Liuliu look thoughtful, Yun Qing said quietly, "You’re not thinking of eating it all yourself and not sharing with me, are you?"

Liuliu swallowed, lowered its forepaws, and said, "How about when we get another piece, we eat it together after we get out?"

"We’ll eat together after we successfully defend against the monster siege."

Agreed.

Inside the cavern, one person and one dog watched the red dots in the mist, hoping they’d hurry up and come with more meat and silver.

As Yun Qing waited, and Liuliu hoped, another goat entered the combat zone.

With two arrows, Yun Qing dispatched the goat, which dropped a pile of coins and a heap of unknown items.

Liuliu was first to reach the dropped items, but immediately wore a disappointed look.

Yun Qing followed, and when she saw the items clearly, she too was a bit disappointed. Wasn’t that… wasn’t that a pile of dung? The goat died and left her a pile of dung?

Anything that could remain in the cavern must be useful. Swallowing her discomfort, Yun Qing approached the silver coins and dung.

Obtained: 3 taels of silver, 1 dung fertilizer.

Dung fertilizer: Can be used to fertilize farmland, increases crop yield, non-tradable.

A good thing! If used, the tree that normally produced only six pieces of wood might yield seven or even eight.

Yun Qing laughed, "Liuliu, you eat dung, don’t you?"

Liuliu: …

Liuliu retorted, "Yun Qing, you ugly girl, you’re so wicked."

"Hehe! Liuliu, keep your eyes peeled—maybe the next goat will drop some meat."

"Hmph!"

The next goat appeared soon after. This time, it only left a pile of coins upon death.

Human and dog ran excitedly from one end of the cavern to the other, eagerly awaiting the loot dropped by each monster’s demise.