Day 6.

  The day started like any other.

  Routines don’t change, but that didn’t mean the environment didn’t.

  The rocky mountains got even closer today, enough to ram into the ruins in its way!

  But what happened was quite unexpected!

  Interestingly, Yu Zhiye actually saw the tilted desert temple embedded in a ledge high up on the rocky mountains!

  Good news? The temple still exists. Bad news? It’s now at a place that’s almost impossible for mortals to reach.

  Yu Zhiye can only hope it’ll move back down someday or… he can only give up on those inventory chests.

  Plop. The bobber landed in the fishing zone and Yu Zhiye pulled up the world chat to check on the daily activity.

  Like Piscord, there was persistent tracking and the chat stayed on his last viewed message.

  Yu Zhiye scrolled down to see the new chat records.

  [Hero of Mount Liang] Don’t trust these fake churches! The priests are just corrupted politicians using the old school holy water gimmicks to fool the masses and baptize whichever women they want. No actual mysterious power involved! Just demonstrating my game inventory wowed them enough to label me a heretic. Now, I got a bounty on my back!

  [Heavenly Sage] Wow, Brother Liang is very brave! 666! Mind sharing what you borrowed?

  [Please Suck Me] Hey brave hero! The world is pretty big! So what if you have a bounty on your back? You’ve got plenty of places to go. Why not come to Paysuc? Here, as long as you can pay the price, you can baptize whichever women you want and no church will care!

  [Piss Off] Upstairs, it’s too early for most of us to change maps. Even if we could, I would rather stay in Inpis. Here, there are the best public toilets!

  [Little Dragon Maiden] Why does this world sound and feel so wrong?

  [Assmonsilver] Miss upstairs, get rid of the “feel”. I’ve only been here for less than a week, but by studying the laws and ethics, I’ve learned most countries have quite the degenerate culture. For men, this is heaven. For others… need I say more?

  He didn’t. Those reading the chat all owned a decent brain and even Yu Zhiye got the gist.

  Stolen story; please report.

  But the more he understands, the more he envies them.

  Sweet stars above, just what kind of life are those men out there living?!

  Then, there’s them—stuck here in this god forsaken desert where even birds don’t shit.

  The disparity was real.

  But how long will this disparity last? How long will morals hold before degenerating into hell?

  In fact, there were already signs appearing, but…

  Yu Zhiye was no saint. Why should he stop the general trend? Well... not that a little guy like him could.

  Ploom~ There was a bite on the hook.

  Yu Zhiye casually reeled it in, just to find a grotesque organ-like sac on the hook.

  “Ew. What in heaven’s name is this?”

  A touch sent that sac into his inventory hotbar. The tooltip showed: [Ink Sac (Green)]

  “???” Yu Zhiye was dumbfounded!

  “The fudge? Are there squids down there?”

  But how is that possible! And why would an ink sac be an uncommon green-grade loot?

  “Seriously, there’s obviously some very erroneous plot holes in this world.”

  But the system shouldn’t lie. There must be another unsolved mystery here.

  There was plenty of time for Yu Zhiye to slowly think over these mysteries while fishing and scooping up whatever he could get his hands on.

  The day flew by just like that.

  Nothing particularly special happened. The explorers went to the ruins. The classy fox went back to observer mode.

  Soon, the explorers returned and somebody came to deliver the dividends to the fisherman.

  Jack: “Yo Steve! Catch anything good today?”

  Yu Zhiye shrugged. “If a dirty ink sac counts, then yea.”

  “Yeah? Bwahahaha! Hey, ya never know when somebody needs dye or a quill!”

  Seeing Jack was in the mood to joke around, Yu Zhiye knew there’s something to look forward to. “Looks like everything went well for you two.”

  “Right you are! That method in the diary worked! Definitely a lot more heavy-lifting, but the risk was reduced to the minimum! We walked in and out that temple like it was our own home! Bwahahaha!”

  “Did you leave some for grinding XP?”

  “Sure did. Got both me and the little missy a few levels. Level ten will just be around the corner once we double-back to the other ruins.”

  “Cool, cool.”

  Jack grinned then unceremoniously took out his treasure casket. The lid flipped open and the inside was almost packed full.

  “Look here. We found 2 emeralds, a gold ingot, an enchanted book with Silk Touch I, and even a diamond! Take your pick, Steve!”

  Steve scanned the box and then looked at Jack. “What about the chests?”

  “Oh right!” Jack took out the blocks stacked in his inventory hotbar. “Dunno what ya gonna do with so many, but here ya go. All three. But Steve, fair warning. The bigger the target, the easier it’s to find!”

  “Don’t worry. I know.” Yu Zhiye happily pocketed the inventory chest cubes.

  “Aight. Anything else you fancy, Steve? Just saying—those chests don’t count! At least have some bread or something!”

  “Then I won’t be polite.” Yu Zhiye nodded gratefully and fished out an emerald from the box. “I’ll just take this.”

  “Yeah?” Jack perked up. “Sure you don’t want anything else? If you want the diamond, don’t be shy!”

  “No, I’m good. I feel like it’ll be more useful in your hands, Jack.”

  “Aight, if you say so! Still, have some bread! There’s lots of them in the temple!”

  Jack stuffed a few loafs of bread into Yu Zhiye’s arms and didn’t give him a chance to refuse.

  “Don’t be shy! I still got over a dozen!”

  Yu Zhiye blinked. “So much? But I don’t remember these being in the desert temple’s loot table?”

  Jack shrugged. “Ya got that right. I wager these might be the food offerings for worshiping whoever is buried in that temple’s coffin.”

  Naniii?! These are food for the dead?! Yu Zhiye nearly dropped the breads in fright.

  Bruuh! Why does that sound… so ominous?!