CHAPTER 197: CHAPTER 196: HOW CAN YOU STILL BE SO IMMATURE AT YOUR AGE?

After cutting open and gutting the Little Silver Fish, Qian Qi placed them into a stone bowl and set it on the fire. Once they were steamed and roasted adequately, she reached into another pocket, took out a small bag of new salt, and sprinkled it on.

The aromatic smell made Xu Yingtai and the others salivate. As soon as the Little Silver Fish were completely cooked, they eagerly took out their chopsticks, ready to eat.

"Hey? What are you doing?" Qian Qi raised her hand to block his chopsticks, her eyes full of reproach as if dealing with a disobedient child. "How can you be so thoughtless as a grown-up? Where’s my IOU?"

Xu Yingtai reluctantly wrote an IOU for 2000 bucks and handed it to Qian Qi, then took the stone bowl from her hands.

Everyone ate happily, consuming nearly three bowls of Little Silver Fish, and then they patted their bellies and contentedly burped near the fire.

Sheng Qing, sitting next to Qian Qi, chewed her grilled fish slowly, discreetly observing Xu Yingtai and the others. Logically, even for low-level individuals, eating so much should make them feel the invigorating effect of the grilled fish, but all these people mentioned was how tasty and delicious it was, without a hint of anything else.

Strange...

Clearly, the skewer of grilled fish in her hands is also Essence Demon Meat...

She glanced at Han Li and the others and noticed that the three of them were staring strangely at the remaining Little Silver Fish on the burlap sack, not sure if they discovered something or just wanted to eat more but held back due to outsiders’ presence.

After observing for a while, Sheng Qing couldn’t resist her curiosity any longer, and after some mental preparation, she gently tugged at Qian Qi’s clothes.

Qian Qi turned around, "What’s up, sweetheart? You want some too?"

Sheng Qing hesitated; whether it was from the fire roasting her or embarrassment, her model-like beautiful face slightly blushing, she shyly brushed aside her dark hair by her ear and nodded lightly, "Yes."

Qian Qi turned and grilled some more fish for Sheng Qing, who noticed this time that Qian Qi didn’t use the new salt that was left on the ground but instead took a pack of salt from an earlier pocket and sprinkled some on.

Why change the salt?

Could it be that Xu Yingtai and others couldn’t sense the Essence Demon Meat because of the different salt?

Sheng Qing dared not confirm, as she had never heard that salt could affect Essence Demon Meat.

Seeing Qian Qi grilling fish for Sheng Qing, Zhang Yun immediately raised his hand and said, "Qi, I want some too!"

"Grill it yourself." Qian Qi directly rolled her eyes, tossing over the old salt pack, "You’ve watched so many times; can’t you grill it yet?"

Zhang Yun shrank his burly body: whimper~

He wasn’t this fierce to Sheng just now! Qi is biased!

Seeing Zhang Yun start to work, Han Li and Xu Jinghong exchanged glances and also began to gut fish. Without stone bowls, they tore off foil from the supply station, wrapped the fish in it, and tossed them into the fire.

Sheng Qing noticed Zhang Yun, either preferring bland taste or forgetting, didn’t add salt to his fish, and puzzledly scratched his head after eating. He even glanced at Han Li and Xu Jinghong.

Han Li and Xu Jinghong appeared increasingly spirited, busy stuffing Little Silver Fish into their mouths.

Now, Sheng Qing could confirm that the issue lies in the salt.

This salt is definitely not ordinary; it’s likely the kind that can preserve the energy of Essence Demon Meat.

Being able to preserve the energy of Essence Demon Meat... Sheng Qing’s heart pounded, recalling the item scientists dreamt of creating during the turbulent instance period!

[Sheng Qing must have realized something.] The system snuggled on Sheng Qing’s head, quickly displayed the text panel for her when Qian Qi handed over the grilled fish, [This kid’s got a clever mind.]

Qian Qi glanced over, seeing Sheng Qing’s icy clear eyes staring intensely at the salt pack in Xu Jinghong’s hand, she raised an eyebrow, "You like it?"

Sheng Qing snapped back to reality, realizing she was caught staring at the salt pack, her eyes barely revealing a hint of embarrassment, "Just curious."

Qian Qi pulled out a small bag of Magic Salt from her pocket and generously tossed it to Sheng Qing, "If you like it, take it. I have plenty. But, it might not necessarily work."

When making magic potions, she discovered that there were formulas using Magic Plants to suppress energy dissipation, or rather suppressing potion efficacy loss, and the suppression formulas for Blood Stopping Magic Potion and Frenzy Potion are the same, but the one for the Treatment Potion for spiritual power collapse is entirely different.

During the summer vacation in the Vegetable Garden Dungeon, she accidentally found Magic Beasts frequently battling over food, and started learning about "Essence Demon Meat."

Initially, she wanted to taste lion heart’s flavor but found after slicing and cooking in hot pot, it had no effect; the system said the energy dissipated after prolonged cooking unless consumed raw.

No matter how much of a delinquent she is, she won’t eat raw meat!

Remembering the magic potion formula for suppressing energy dissipation, she tried them one by one.

She then found the Blood Stopping Magic Potion’s suppression formula could indeed suppress the energy dissipation of the Demon Electric Lion’s heart, but when she tried the spiritual power Treatment Potion suppression formula, it failed to suppress energy dissipation.

Spending money on the system revealed that different suppression formulas target different Essence Demon Meat, but how precisely it targets, the system had a "You can’t afford this" annoying face.

Later, to conceal this technology, she blended the suppression formula into saltwater, re-extracted it, and made Magic Salt.

Sheng Qing looked at the small medicine bag in her palm, raised her eyes to Qian Qi, and softly asked, "How much does it cost?"

"No charge." Qian Qi waved her hand, adding, "If you feel embarrassed, you can teach me shooting."

She never played with guns in this lifetime or the last; she’s quite curious.

Sheng Qing nodded, "Okay."

After eating and drinking, Xu Yingtai’s group and Han Li discussed together staying up to guard overnight; Xu Yingtai’s group had no sleeping gear, so they could only lay on the ground with tin foil to sleep, while Han Li’s side took turns with Han Li, Xu Jinghong, Zhang Yun, and Sheng Qing staying up, as Qian Qi was exempted from guarding due to grilling fish, allowed to sleep soundly till dawn.

Qian Qi would sleep the longest; if sleeping in a tent, constantly changing bedmates could disturb her rest. Being small-framed, she suited sleeping in a sleeping bag. As for Sheng Qing, being a girl, it was inconvenient to bunk with boys, so they both got sleeping bags.

Xu Jinghong and Zhang Yun were hefty, so sleeping in tents was more appropriate.

After assigning roles, everyone began sleeping to adjust their biological clocks, while Han Li and a Strength Type student in Xu Yingtai’s team commenced the first watch.

...

The night grew quiet, a gentle breeze blowing.

The staff in the monitoring room and the teachers guarding the exam site had been rotated for nighttime duty. Occasionally, a distant signal firework could be heard from the sky far away, heralding someone’s elimination from the instance the first night.

At some moment, Qian Qi suddenly opened her eyes in the sleeping bag, her pitch-black starry eyes flickering briefly with an oddly chilling light in the deep night.

She woke up from the urge to pee.