Mixed Blessing System

One day later...

After going through almost every field where Tooth Grass grew in that forest region, the blonde woman searching for Lothur finally gave up her plan.

She had not understood what had happened, but strangely, she could not find the tracks of that young man after coming across the previous corpses.

On the other hand, every place she had passed after collecting the items of those corpses had not yet been searched by anyone. It was as if her target had simply given up on his mission to collect the Tooth Grass!

But this woman had nothing to do with that situation.

She had tried to chase a person behind her tracks, who had been careful in his steps, slow compared to her.

In the end, she did not find Lothur anywhere and just returned angrily to Peters City, lamenting her failure.

However, while that woman had been frustrated in her attempt to deal with Lothur, this individual had gone about his mission without further problems.

He had encountered other animals and insects in that forested area during the night. But none of them could compare to the human danger he had faced earlier. Moreover, with his advancement to the 4th Transformation, Lothur had become quite powerful, able to ensure his safety with a certain margin of advantage in this place.

That was a place typically visited by cultivators at the beginning of their cultivation journey or mortals in search of sustenance. Thus, there were not many dangers there for someone at his current level.

Thus he had managed to gather the amount of Tooth Grass without further problems, but also without further opportunities for advancement.

With that, after dawn in this region, Lothur was preparing to return to Peters City, following the way he had come, looking forward to getting home.

...

'Oh?'

'A fire? Are there people further ahead?' Lothur came across a column of smoke rising into the sky from a place only 20 meters away from him.

Noticing the movement around that relatively clear area due to the low plant density, he soon snuck between the trees to check for people in the vicinity.

In the cultivation world, meeting people far from cities always had its dangers. Even more so considering an isolated place, where people had less reason not to kill competitors or enemies.

You could never know for sure if a stranger encountered in the middle of a trip was just an ordinary person traveling, a criminal on the run, someone who had just obtained a valuable item, or even an enemy.

There were many possibilities, which is why people from this world used to avoid encountering strangers while traveling through forest regions like that.

But even knowing this, Lothur did not want just to turn around and take a detour. No, since he had spotted people on his way, he at least wanted to confirm the strength of these people.

If they were stronger than him, he could take double or triple care to avoid them. If they were weaker than him, he could continue on his way without worrying about being attacked for simply passing through the vicinity of that area.

And considering his advantage of not emitting spiritual fluctuations, he could easily sneak around there.

'Let's see if these people are strong...' He looked between the leaves of a plant in front of him.

With that, Lothur finally saw a group of three people camping in that place, where there was a small tent and, a few meters from it, a campfire with food on skewers.

But something there caught Lothur's attention.

'What the fuck...' He felt terrible, with a sudden urge to vomit. 'That... That looks like parts of the corpse of a spider as that being!'

'Those people are eating that?' His eyes opened wide, feeling disgusted at the beautiful woman who at the moment was sitting by the fire with a skewer of purple meat in her hands, eating the thing with gusto.

And her two companions were making no different expressions than that woman while also eating parts of the spider corpse not far from them.

[Name: ****]

[Cultivation: level 2]

[STR: 2.1] [COM: 3] [DEX: 2.8] [AGI: 3.1]

Lothur then saw the statuses of those three people, first of that woman eating what looked like 'spider loin' and then of the two men who were on the same level as her.

He felt somewhat relieved that these people were not a danger to him, but his disgust at watching that wild meal scene prevented him from simply leaving that area.

Instead of continuing walking, he stood still, with his hands on his knee as he tried not to vomit up everything in his stomach.

But he could not do that for long when he suddenly saw that woman eating one of the spider eyes.

'Fuck!'

"Cough! Cough! Cough!"

Hearing coughing sounds from one of the plants in the surrounding area, those three individuals dressed as adventurers put their meals aside and promptly drew their weapons.

With their experience, they soon noticed where that sound was coming from, where at the moment, a silver-haired young man was vomiting like a person riddled with disease.

And noticing his weakness, they soon lowered their guards.

"Kid, are you okay?" The woman asked with a smile on her face, finding it curious that such a handsome young man had come across them in such a manner.

"What's wrong with you, brat?" The man, who appeared to be the oldest of the three, with a goatee full of black hair, said this in a somewhat irritated tone. "Were you by any chance spying on us?"

"Tsk!"

"Don't be such an idiot, Dachs. What would an ordinary mortal want with us?"

"Humph!"

"No mortal would know how to differentiate us from other mortals!" Dachs said in an authoritative tone.

But the woman in that group ignored her two companions and approached Lothur. "Come on, let big sister take a look at you..." She smiled as she tried to take his body in her arms.

However, upon sensing the smell of roasted meat coming from that woman, Lothur immediately turned away from her, disgusted. "No, I'm fine."

"I was just passing by when I saw you devouring that thing..." He swallowed his saliva, trying not to cough and ignore the smell in the air. "Is it normal for adventurers to eat that kind of insect?"

"Isn't it disgusting?"

"Disgusting?" The three people said before waves of laughter left their lips.

"Hahaha, kid, you don't know the truth about the world!"

"It seems this poor mortal doesn't know the world's gifts..."

"Hehe, we were eating some of the best meat in the world, and he threw up in disgust?"

"Hilarious!"

That woman then explained to Lothur. "Giant Tropical Spider meat is a delicacy served at the imperial court!"

"We were lucky to find the remains of that one nearby, so we were tasting it."

"Otherwise, we would have had to spend thousands of coins just for the chance to taste a few ounces of this wonderful meat!"

"What? Are you kidding me?" Lothur finally got over his nausea and looked doubtfully at those people. 'How can that be good?'

"Hehe, do you want to taste it?" She asked this as she winked at him and then took the last skewer from that fire. "But to do that, you'll have to give this big sister here a kiss..."

"Tsk!"

"I have no interest!"

"I don't have the stomach to taste exotic meats." He moved his shoulders back in a defensive stance.

"Hahaha, good. More left for us!" The younger man commented in satisfaction since he did not like that woman's crazy idea of sharing food with this stranger.

Seeing the reaction of those people who had already returned to eating that delicacy, Lothur watched them for a moment longer, controlling his disgust. He then remembered what was on his spatial ring and asked. "If this is as good as you say, do other parts of this spider have any value?"

"For example, the venom. Does that have any value?"

The man who appeared to be the oldest nodded and said. "Of course!"

"That spider's venom can knock out a 4th Transformation cultivator for hours and even kill someone at the 2nd Transformation!"

"Then it is valuable to 1st stage people."

"Oh?" Lothur put his disgust aside, liking this information.

"Why do you ask? Do you know where we can find one of those?" The woman asked, looking warily at Lothur.

"No."

"I just thought that if its flesh is as valuable as you said, then the poison must be even more..." He smiled as he walked away from those people. "I wish I had the strength to defeat and the luck to find one of those, hahaha."

After that, those people ignored the strange 'mortal' who had passed in their way, someone insignificant in their eyes who was not worth causing trouble.

As for Lothur, he quickly returned to Peters City with a smile on his lips.