Naming Technique of the Night

Chapter 111: 111, Wilderness

Before setting off this time, Qing Chen was no longer alone in packing up the campsite.

Qin Yiyi didn’t even bother to help with her own campsite; instead, she quickly helped him fold up the tent and the small stool.

She even found the six “Thor” fire-starting Divine Artifacts from the extinguished campfire for Qing Chen.

The young girl approached Qing Chen, handed him the cleaned ‘Thor,’ and said, “If you start riding in the car, you won’t aggravate the wound on your foot.”

After speaking, the girl returned to Qin Cheng’s side and whispered, “Dad, how much is the penalty for a Servant breaking a contract?”

Old man Qin Cheng glared at her annoyedly and said, “You just sit in the car and behave, stop talking to that young man.”

“I won’t,” Qin Yiyi declared and then climbed into the back of the truck, utterly uncontrollable.

Girls from the wilderness are wild by nature, like little wildcats, and beyond parental control once they reach a certain age.

Though they were city folk, Qin Yiyi had spent years following her parents in the wilderness, and had more or less gone savage herself.

Qin Cheng sighed at the sight of his rebellious daughter, then said to Qin Tong, “Go sit in the back of the truck later, and keep an eye on your sister so no one takes advantage of her. She might listen to you a bit, she certainly won’t listen to me anymore.”

“Alright,” Qin Cheng sighed as well.

Sitting in the car, Qing Chen noticed that the pickup truck behind them had a green tarp covering a cage, which was completely empty.

And in the car he was in, there were tools for trapping animals, repairing cars, scattered all about.

The roar of the pickup’s engine was like a wild horse galloping, full of power.

He took out the stool from his backpack for Uncle Li Dong, who sat down naturally on it.

No matter how much the pickup truck jostled on the dirt road, Uncle Li Dong sat perfectly steady.

At that moment, Qin Yiyi, hugging her knees, asked, “Uncle, what class are you to dare to venture into the wilderness with just the two of you, and even head south?”

Currently, they were still considered to be on the outskirts of the city.

There were many production bases around, and the Federal Second Grouped Army was stationed nearby, with troops occasionally patrolling the area, so it was not very dangerous.

However, further south it was different, even if not approaching the Taboo Land, it was dangerous for Ordinary People.

Just last night, Qing Chen had asked Uncle Li Dong: Are the people in the neighboring camp a family?

Uncle Li Dong answered that they were.

Qing Chen was puzzled: Why would a family travel together in such a dangerous place as the wilderness? What if they all fell into danger, especially considering that there were women not skilled in combat in the neighboring camp?

Uncle Li Dong replied: They had been driven out of the city to earn a living because they couldn’t find any other work.

The reason for the whole family sticking together was that in such a dangerous place as the wilderness, one couldn’t trust anyone other than those related by blood.

If a team were to camp in a desolate place and someone stealthily drove the car away in the middle of the night, it would be no different than waiting for death for the ones left behind.

The abandoned would immediately go from being the Hunter to the hunted.

In this era, even family members might not always be trustworthy, let alone strangers.

According to Uncle Li Dong’s judgment, old man Qin Cheng was the leader of this group, with the remaining strong and young men either his sons or his nephews.

At this moment.

Uncle Li Dong looked at Qin Yiyi with a smile and asked, “What class do you think I am?”

Qin Yiyi thought about it and said, “C-Class.”

Uncle Li Dong shook his head, “I am S-Class.”

Qin Yiyi pouted, “If you don’t want to talk about it, fine, stingy.”

In the girl’s eyes, Uncle Li Dong had just made up a lie to placate her.

Qin Cheng sat on the side, silent all this time. He watched his sister chatting with Uncle Li Dong, truly sweating bullets inside.

However, his sister had always been smarter than her peers and was better at reading people. She probably talked to this middle-aged man because she could tell that he had a rather pleasant temperament.

While everyone was chatting, Qing Chen sat in the vehicle, turning the pages of a reader.

Qin Yiyi glanced at it and saw that the reader displayed photos of plants, each accompanied by brief descriptions.

It was something Lin Xiaoxiao had obtained for Qing Chen, to help him memorize all the known plants of the Inner World.

There were edible ones, ones that could be used to extract fresh water, ones for treating external wounds, medicinal herbs that could be used as remedies, and antidotes for poison, among others—quite a variety.

Qing Chen was making a note of this to handle any emergencies he might encounter in the wilderness later on.

As he looked down at the reader, a slender hand entered his field of vision, holding a bright red apple.

Qing Chen observed silently. The hand had many small wounds and calloused knuckles, clearly the hand of someone who engaged in manual labor year-round.

Qin Yiyi spoke up, “Here, this is for you.”

Without waiting for Qing Chen to refuse, she stuffed it directly into his embrace.

Qin Yiyi continued, “Earlier, about 30 kilometers west of the camp, there’s an apple orchard that doesn’t belong to any production base. Wild apples are usually very sour, but the apples from that orchard are both large and sweet. Our family has been picking apples there for three years in a row, they’re very delicious, you should try one.”

Usually, for fruit trees to bear fruit, they must be fertilized and pruned, like sugar tangerines that also require girdling the trunk to sweeten the fruits.

So normally, wild jujubes and wild apples tend to be small and sour, as they aren’t cared for by fruit farmers.

But Qin Yiyi said that was a wild apple orchard.

It didn’t make sense for it to yield sweet fruits.

Uncle Li Dong turned to Qin Tong and said, “Tell your father to be more careful the next time he goes to that apple orchard.”

“Why?” Qin Tong was somewhat surprised.

“There are already signs of it becoming a Taboo Land. Perhaps decades ago, a Transcendent died there. Even though it isn’t fully formed yet, it already covers more than thirty square kilometers. The Transcendent who died must have been at least B-Class,” Uncle Li Dong thought for a moment and then said, “Right now the fruits are still fine, but maybe in a few more years, the fruits might have hallucinogenic effects. After eating them, you might see dragons flying in the sky, insects crawling on your body… Mild hallucinations are nothing major, but if they’re severe, you won’t have time to get help.”

The most critical issue is that the insects and wild animals within the Taboo Land could also mutate into unpredictable evolutionary paths.

These years, the number of Taboo Lands had been steadily increasing.

“So are these apples still safe to eat now?” Qin Yiyi asked.

“Yes,” Uncle Li Dong nodded, “The Taboo Land hasn’t formed yet.”

Qin Yiyi then offered an apple to Uncle Li Dong, “Here, this one’s for you, too.”

Uncle Li Dong laughed, “You didn’t give me one just now, how come you are giving me one now?”

Qin Yiyi sneakily glanced at Qing Chen, “I’m giving it to him, not you. I was worried that you would secretly trip him up.”

Uncle Li Dong burst into hearty laughter, suddenly feeling that this journey would be very enjoyable.

Meanwhile, Qing Chen thought about Nan Gengchen, that guy who was brought into the dangerous wilderness. He hoped nothing untoward happened to him.

But then he reconsidered—what he should really be worried about was whether that kid could withstand Li Yinuo’s robust physique…