Chương 35: Healing and Exchange

Inside the tree hollow, the firelight flickered. Rowan looked at the silver-grey wolf ears twitching slightly in front of him. A sense of absurdity welled up in his heart, but his mind was already actively analyzing. She is virtually indistinguishable from Terra's Beastmen. There were quite a few lower-class Beastmen in the Seventh Abyssal Hive. Most of the exceptionally beautiful ones like her ended up as livestreamers; Beastmen possessed an innate, genetic advantage in that industry.

The wolf-woman stared at the sizzling crocodile meat on the stone slab, her pale gold pupils brimming with raw craving. The moment a slice of roasted crocodile leg steak was partially cooked, she couldn't wait. She grabbed the slice by a protruding scale—a holding point specifically left intact by Rowan's superb knife skills—and shoved the steaming, spice-coated meat directly into her mouth. Her cheeks began to chew rapidly. Visibly, the wolf-woman's eyes lit up, and her tail began to sway happily.

Looks like she hasn't had the chance to eat any decent food while on the run, Rowan guessed. After grilling continuously for over ten minutes, Rowan looked at her bottomless stomach, then glanced at the remaining pile of meat by his feet. His heart bled a little. Although the texture of the crocodile meat was sub-par, it was ultimately a rare, premium cultivation ingredient. Now that he had run into this glutton, it was all being sacrificed to her stomach.

But as much as it hurt, Rowan still did his absolute best as a chef. After all, if she ate poorly and decided to vent her frustration by swatting him to death, he really would have nowhere to cry for justice. The wolf-woman shoved the last steak into her mouth, her tongue licking the final trace of seasoning from the corner of her lips. She looked at Rowan, who was waving his hands helplessly—not a single chunk of meat remained. Letting out a long sigh, she looked as though she still hadn't had enough.

She twitched the ears atop her head, then suddenly extended her right hand, spreading her five fingers wide.

"#@%..." she chanted softly. The next second, Rowan felt a stream of incredibly cool, exceptionally gentle light cascade down from the top of the tree hollow. It wasn't sunlight, nor was it firelight. It was a silver energy that flowed exactly like liquefied moonlight. Rowan had absolutely no time to dodge. He was instantly bathed in the lunar radiance.

To his absolute astonishment, his left arm—the elbow bone sawed halfway through and jaggedly misaligned—began to transmit waves of refreshing, tingling numbness under the baptism of the moonlight. The dislocated bone fragments seemed to possess a life of their own, precisely realigning themselves under a gentle pulling force, while the damaged muscle tissues regenerated at a frantic pace.

Not only that, but bathed in the moonlight, the lingering, throbbing ache in his mental sea—caused by forcefully cultivating the Mind-Splitting Art earlier—was largely alleviated. His previously exhausted mental sea felt as if living water had been introduced into a dried-up pond, becoming full and buoyant once more.

"Is... is this payment?" Rowan rotated his left hand in profound shock. Although it still felt slightly weak, the bone was completely set. This speed of healing was on par with those exorbitantly expensive medical stims advertised by Terra's top hospitals! The wolf-woman rolled her eyes. Raising her hand, she traced a few strokes in the air at the entrance of the tree hollow. Several faint silver runes melted into the void.

"Wait here for me," the wolf-woman transmitted, withdrawing the finger she had pressed against Rowan's forehead at some unknown point. Immediately after, her figure blurred. Kicking up a cloud of ash from the fire pit, she vanished into the pitch-black forest. Rowan walked to the entrance of the hollow and observed for a moment. To his naked eye, there were absolutely no visible changes. It was still the deep, dark forest of midnight; leaves trembled slowly, rustling in the wind.

Probably some kind of concealment array. Rowan tested the barrier slightly. Although he could forcefully push his way out, it would undoubtedly alert the caster.

"What did she go out to do?" Rowan looked at the peril-filled night outside, then looked down at his completely healed arm. Acting with extreme rationality, he didn't attempt to flee. Instead, he sat right back down by the fire pit and pulled out the data crystal disc once more. Riding the lingering mental resonance left by that lunar spell, this was the absolute perfect time to cultivate. Rowan forged his mental power into a precision scalpel, frantically chiseling away at the edges of his sea of consciousness.

One hour, two hours... Sweat dripped into the dirt. When the mana in his crystal core was finally depleted once more, Rowan opened his eyes, an exhausted but ecstatic smile curling his lips. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. [Secondary Core] Progress: Two-fifths! Just then, a violent tremor in the ground interrupted his thoughts. THUMP! Half the corpse of a massive mana-beast, sporting crystalline, branched antlers, was brutally thrown into the center of the tree hollow.

"What a powerful mana-beast..." Rowan sensed a mana fluctuation far exceeding his own. It caused the mana circulation in his Source Core to stall for a fraction of a second, instantly extinguishing any overestimating, arrogant thoughts he might have harbored. The wolf-woman dusted off her hands. Her wolf eyes stared dead at Rowan, her meaning absolutely clear: Keep grilling. Rowan sighed helplessly.

Accepting his fate, he drew his high-frequency straight sword and began expertly butchering the deer-like mana-beast, which radiated a dense aura of energy. He masterfully sliced along the grain of the beast's muscles, avoiding the impurity-laden mana glands, and carved out the most succulent piece of hind leg meat. Placing it onto the scalding stone slab, he watched the grease sizzle out, then expertly dusted it with the last half-bottle of his BBQ flavor powder.

The wolf-woman watched as Rowan casually set the exquisite data crystal disc aside, an expression of intense curiosity surfacing in her eyes. She reached out, pressing her finger against Rowan's forehead once more. The cool sensation was something Rowan was beginning to get used to. Their mental worlds converged once again.

"That spell from earlier... it was miraculous." Rowan attempted to seize the initiative in the conversation.

"That is a secret legacy of our Lunar Wolf Clan. Ordinary humans have no right to covet it," the wolf-woman's voice echoed in his mind, carrying a trace of disdain.

"Why were those two hunting you?" Rowan maintained his disguise.

"Hunting you? Don't flatter yourself, frail human." The wolf-woman sneered through the mental link, seemingly recalling something incredibly satisfying.

"Those two tin cans from the Holy Radiance Church were utterly miserable chasing me. Not only did they step into a venomous thorn trap I set, but I deliberately lured a pack of Crimson-Eyed Fiend Apes to whittle them down. They're probably jumping at shadows right now. Seeing a living person hiding in a tree, they definitely assumed you were an accomplice I left behind, or some hidden trap. Casually taking a swing at you was simply the safest, most reliable course of action for them." Rowan was utterly speechless.

He had literally taken the fall for this troublemaker. His curiosity regarding this "Holy Radiance Church" deepened a fraction. The wolf-woman's attention shifted back to the data crystal disc. She picked it up with her slender hands.

"This thing... is very strange." She rubbed her thumb over the surface, which had been precision-polished by Terra's industrial machinery.

"The arrays contained within it are incredibly microscopic, and there is almost zero mana leakage... Is your mentor a Grand Forgemaster?"

"You could say he's half of one," Rowan answered.

"It's used for storing cultivation techniques."

"I want to buy it from you. I want to take it back and study this forging structure." The wolf-woman stated bluntly through the mental link. Just as I thought. Seeing how intensely curious she was about it, Rowan knew she would make this request sooner or later. A surge of joy followed. He had already completely memorized the theoretical portion of the Mind-Splitting Art stored within the disc. To him, this disc was now essentially a useless piece of junk.

Besides, knowledge from Terra wasn't that inherently valuable. If he could trade it for something tangible...

"It is very precious," Rowan deliberately feigned hesitation. The wolf-woman curled her lip. She could sense the young man's cunning. Her right hand brushed over a seemingly unremarkable gemstone at her waist—a spatial storage artifact. A heavy, ancient tome bound in dark cyan leather was tossed into Rowan's lap. The pages were yellowed and frail. It looked completely unremarkable, like an antique text collected by an old scholar.

But Rowan could tell at a glance that the material of the paper was exceptionally extraordinary.

"I noticed you're of the water element too," the wolf-woman transmitted.

"This is a spoil of war I snatched from the hands of your treacherous human mages. It's a mobility secret art called [Wellspring Step]. Perfectly suited for a coward like you." A water-element mobility spell! This was exactly the skill Rowan had been suffering a headache over lacking!

"Deal." Rowan agreed without a sliver of hesitation. Not only did he hand the crystal disc over, but he also very honestly pressed his finger against the back of her hand. Through the mental link, he taught her how to use specific mental frequencies to trigger the "exquisite" array index. The wolf-woman tried it once, brilliant light flashing in her eyes. This Terra-world "mental encryption" was practically unheard of to her; it interested her far more than the actual technique stored inside.

However, her curiosity was quickly derailed by the ultimate aroma of roasting meat wafting from the stone slab. She casually stowed the disc and the book away and began to gorge herself. Just as her mouth was slick with grease, her wolf ears twitched. Her gaze flicked toward the Crystal-Scaled Pangolin playing dead in the corner of the tree hollow.

She pressed her finger against Rowan's forehead again, transmitting indistinctly while chewing on a mouthful of meat:"Hey, when do you plan on butchering this Phase-Array Pangolin?" Rowan froze.

"Phase-Array Pangolin?"

"You don't know its name?" The wolf-woman looked rather surprised.

"It's considered a relatively rare mutated beast born with innate spatial attributes. An adult Phase-Array Pangolin's spine is the absolute best primary material for forging high-tier spatial storage necklaces or teleportation arrays. Even though this one is only Tier 1, it's still worth quite a few gold coins." Rowan turned his head, glancing at the violently trembling little ball.

"I'm raising it." Rowan shook his head.

"Not killing it."

"Raising it?" The wolf-woman looked at Rowan as if he were a monster.

"This type of mana-beast is inherently solitary and extremely cowardly. Aside from its own kind, it practically refuses to get close to any other race, let alone acknowledge a master. You... you've got incredible luck." The wolf-woman was just asking casually. Tier 1 materials were merely incidental loot at her level. Besides, her spatial artifact was a collaborative work by five Grand Forgemasters; it was infinitely superior to this raw material, which would be bulky and inconvenient to process anyway.

As the final piece of spice-coated deer leg slid down her throat, the wolf-woman let out a satisfied burp. She stood up, her silver-grey wolf tail swaying briskly. The moonlight illuminated her face, highlighting an extreme, feral beauty. She stepped close again, pressing her finger lightly between Rowan's brows. Her pale gold eyes stared directly into his.

"Country mage from the south." The mockery in the wolf-woman's mental ripples was gone, replaced by a profound seriousness.

"Your roasted meat is very good. And since your mentor has already run off..."

"Do you want to come with me?"