Chapter 558 - 263: Fruit Factory’s First Offline Meetup (Part 2)

At this point, Lin paused slightly, gripping the steering wheel tighter: "It’s just pretty dangerous."

"Dangerous?" Jiang Wenning’s eyes flashed with a thoughtful glow, tapping her chin, she voiced her guess, "Do we have to fight these Pet Beasts?"

"Sort of." Li Junyue nodded in agreement with her guess, his tone steady, as he explained in detail, "Fungal Pet Beasts usually live in groups, with a fixed range of activity, so if you want to find the fallen mushrooms, you must go to their habitat."

"Which inevitably leads to conflict with them."

"Fungal Pet Beasts are usually of the wood or poison attribute, their actual strength is alright, but they have a bunch of tricky skills, like Sweet Fragrance, Decaying Poison Burst, and so on."

"Once you get hit by these in the wild, it’ll be very dangerous."

"Hmm?"

Something must have piqued the interest of the Twin Flower Concubine, peeking its little head out of Chen Yuan’s chest pocket, its eyes glowing brightly.

Chen Yuan smiled slightly, pressing the little one’s head, only to be hugged back.

The tricky skills Li Junyue mentioned are precisely the specialty of the Twin Flower Concubine.

"So these mushrooms are really expensive, normal people basically can’t afford them." As Li Junyue finished speaking, Lin chimed in, the two of them like a comedy duo, one setting up the punchline and the other delivering it, "and so the profession of Mushroom Gatherer was born."

"Mushroom Gatherer..." Chen Yuan mumbled the three words, forming a guess inwardly.

Li Junyue didn’t keep them guessing, he directly explained: "Simply put, it’s Beastmasters who specialize in mountain expeditions to pick mushrooms. With the help of their Pet Beasts’ abilities, they can more easily locate the nests of Fungal Pet Beasts and secretly pick the mushrooms, then sell them to the outside world."

"A single ordinary mushroom can be worth thousands."

On hearing this price, Chen Yuan raised an eyebrow, while Chang Yuhuan gasped, but Jiang Wenning, resting her chin in one hand, murmured: "That’s not expensive."

Chen Yuan silently glanced at Jiang Wenning.

Oh right, Jiang Wenning is from Shanghai, where the currency is a bit different from other places.

There, an ordinary plate of fried rice could easily sell for hundreds.

It’s quite nice, anyway, it doesn’t rip off the poor.

Jiang Wenning looked left and right, her face gradually showing a look of excitement, her voice rising: "How about we go into the mountains to pick mushrooms tomorrow?"

The other three hadn’t answered yet, but the Twin Flower Concubine nodded, looking very interested.

Chen Yuan pressed its head again, speaking earnestly: "We’re here for a vacation this time, let’s not get sidetracked by all sorts of things."

Upon hearing this, the Twin Flower Concubine, usually obedient to Chen Yuan, shook its head resolutely: "Hmm hmm."

That’s learning, not just random stuff.

Only by mastering more skills can it better protect "Mama"!

Chen Yuan was momentarily speechless, so he nodded in agreement.

Well, okay, since the kid likes it, let her do it. After all, learning a few more Poison Skills wouldn’t hurt; at most, their future opponents would be more miserable.

Chen Yuan agreed, Chang Yuhuan didn’t mind, but Li Junyue hesitated slightly.

He was very familiar with the surroundings of Deqing County, indeed several large Fungal Pet Beast groups lived nearby, hence picking mushrooms was fraught with danger; if careless, one could face continuous poison gas attacks.

Even those Mushroom Gatherers usually only operated in the fringe areas, tracking solitary Fungal Pet Beasts or small groups, rarely barging directly into large groups’ territory.

But thinking it over, there was no need to go looking for large groups, and with Chen Yuan accompanying them, they could handle unexpected dangers smoothly, so he nodded: "Okay."

The group engaged in an in-depth discussion on this topic and, before realizing it, arrived at Lishui Ancient City.

"Captain, I’m heading off now." Lin parked the car and spoke to Li Junyue, "If any special situation arises..."

Before finishing his words, he shook his head swiftly: "No, let’s not encounter any special situations, I want to rest for a few days."

Li Junyue nodded seriously: "Mm, okay."

After they bid farewell, Lin waved and took a taxi, quickly departing.

Once Lin left, the four no longer had the awkwardness of concealing their identities, returning to the relaxed ease of online chatting.

Jiang Wenning even joked directly: "Nice watermelon, you’re full of leadership aura now."

Facing Jiang Wenning’s teasing, Li Junyue remained earnest, his tone sincere: "I owe it to you guys; if it weren’t for your initial help, I wouldn’t have..."

Before he could finish his words, Jiang Wenning interrupted with a wave of her hand: "Watermelon, save the emotional part for later. Let’s feast first!"

Li Junyue smiled slightly, nodding heavily: "Alright."

He led the three into the bustling ancient city, sitting down in a pre-reserved restaurant, and the waiter quickly brought plates of local specialties.

As they enjoyed their meal, they chatted and discussed.

Chen Yuan summoned the diminutive Spark and Cola, Chang Yuhuan called out the Water Spirit Turtle, Jiang Wenning also brought out the Ice Crystal Illusion Cat, then all three looked at Li Junyue in unison, only to tacitly withdraw their gazes.

Li Junyue’s Ink Tree Spirit stood three to four meters tall, making it difficult to move in this small private room.

"Aww aww~"

Cola, naturally sociable, took big strides to greet the Water Spirit Turtle and Ice Crystal Illusion Cat with a wave of its paw.

Hi there~

"Oooh~"

The Water Spirit Turtle, a bit shy, gently nodded, then quietly huddled next to Chang Yuhuan.

"Meow."

The Ice Crystal Illusion Cat’s eyes were cool, it nodded slightly, but suddenly remembered something, its poised gaze flicked around, only retracting it once that figure was nowhere to be seen.