Chapter 32 Removing Magic: The First Time I Gave You Really Was Magic Beast Meat

“You can really trade for meat without Magic Elements in it?”

“I have no need to lie to you,” Nancy stood there looking at the few thin, frail figures. “As long as you can bring out enough things, you can trade for enough meat, for example, something like this.”

She tossed over the small piece of meat in her hand that was wrapped in leaves.

Someone quickly reached out to catch it, opened it to look at the meat inside, and when he saw the color of the meat, his eyes filled with delight.

“Are you really willing to give this to us?”

“Not give, trade,” Nancy nodded. “If you want to stay alive, I don’t think you’ll turn down these terms.”

“Of course we are willing.”

…

“Salting down a small portion is enough for us to eat. If we do more, we do not have enough salt,” Bai Xi pointed at one portion of the meat, then at another piece. “Try air-drying this one, then we can give all the rest to her.”

“All right,” Bai Yu nodded. When she turned her head she saw Miao Miao studying the piece of hide with writing on it, and asked with a smile, “Miao Miao, can you understand it?”

Bai Miao raised both hands, staring seriously at the characters on the hide, and said solemnly, “I know them, I don’t understand them¹.”

“What do you mean?” Bai Xi was puzzled.

“She means she can remember these characters but does not understand what they mean,” Bai Yu explained. “If she had a teacher, she might be able to understand them all, but as it is, she can only look at them on her own.”

Realization dawned on Bai Xi. “That just means Miao Miao is clever, she can remember them all.”

Bai Yu nodded, a sigh rising in her heart. “If only we could still go ashore.”

“Eldest Sister, you mean sending Miao Miao to learn to read?” Bai Xi glanced at her, then looked at Bai Miao. “But what use is it even if Miao Miao learns to read? Fisherfolk like us spend our whole lives by the shore. Even if we learn our letters, we are just literate fishermen living off the water, nothing more.”

Bai Yu fell silent for a moment.

When she first saw how quickly Bai Miao was recognizing characters, she had thought the same as Bai Xi. But now her thoughts had shifted. After all, they could travel to different Planes, so maybe things could change.

At the same time, they were still stuck on the island now, and going to other Planes was only temporary.

Bai Miao had no idea what the two of them were thinking. She did not even feel there was anything special about how fast she was learning. Everything in front of her was just a pile of toys she could play with.

The characters were like that, and so were those materials.

Playing with those was not enough. She also opened the transparent panel and took out all the “room fees” from the White Mist Inn one by one.

This was a new way to play that she had discovered. Those “room fees” existed inside the panel. She could take them out, then put them back in. In her eyes, they were all fun things to play with.

When she flipped out a piece with a picture on it, she got even more excited and started imitating the movements shown in the picture.

Bai Yu and Bai Xi did not interfere with her playing. They were still focused on hacking up the wild boar meat with their axes.

…

“You handed over a Cultivation Manual² as your room fee?”

“It was only the most basic Cultivation Manual in the sect. So what if I handed it over?”

“I mean, a Cultivation Manual can also be used as room fee? The inn will not refuse it?”

“So it turns out it does not have to be something gained inside the dense fog?”

“The inn really never did say our room fee had to be something from inside the dense fog. Since that is the case, I still have quite a few things in my storage pouch that I am not using for the time being. Perhaps they can be used as room fees too.”

“What if the inn does not accept them?”

“We can try. If it does not accept them, then we can take out something else. From what I can see, this White Mist Inn has no intention of harming people. Even if we give too little, the worst that happens is it will not let us in, it will not anger the master behind the inn.”

“If the White Mist Inn is a Spiritual Tool, it should already have an entry method set into it. Our testing may not even attract the attention of the inn’s master.”

“Then let us try it.”

…

“Lift this leg a bit higher,” Bai Yu went over to adjust Bai Miao’s posture. “Look, in the picture it is like this.”

Bai Miao darted a quick glance, immediately raised her leg higher, and looked proudly at Bai Yu. “Is that right?”

“Right,” Bai Yu nodded with a smile. “Miao Miao is amazing.”

Bai Miao raised her chin again, chest out, proudly holding the pose.

Bai Yu took another look, then turned to walk away. When she met up with Bai Xi, she was met with a question. “We do not even know what that picture is for, and you are letting her learn from it?”

“It is only a few movements. It cannot do any harm,” Bai Yu glanced at Bai Miao and lowered her voice. “If she moves around more in the daytime, she will fall asleep faster at night. Otherwise she tosses and turns and will not sleep, and she keeps us awake too.”

Bai Xi let out a chuckle, glanced at Bai Miao who was moving about in all seriousness, then shot Bai Yu a knowing look. “Makes sense.”

The two of them did not idle around. While the wild boar meat was still fresh, they hurried to process it, otherwise if it spoiled later, that would be the real waste.

Because they were busy with this, they did not have time to continue gathering the materials needed to upgrade the kitchen.

Evening came quickly. After eating, they had class in the classroom, using the time to wait for the tenants to enter the inn.

For some reason, those people lingered at the door for a long time today, but at least everyone showed up. After they came into the inn, they still stayed in the main hall, which made Bai Xi once again sigh with relief that there was “no need to do any cleaning.”

After class, the three of them went back to the boat to sleep.

Early the next morning, after they got up, [Shell] gave a Check-in reward of a Cabin Upgrade Card.

“One more Upgrade Card and our boat will change in a big way again.”

“As long as we draw cards and do not need to collect materials, things will go much faster,” Bai Yu said, looking at the cabin, which had grown larger again. “Once we deliver the meat today, we will go to the Forest Plane to gather materials and upgrade the kitchen. Maybe then we can start stir-frying dishes.”

“I heard stir-fried food tastes amazing. I have hardly ever tried it.”

“I remember when I was little, Mom and Dad took me to eat at a restaurant. It really did taste great.”

“That is so nice. Eldest Sister, you know so much.”

Bai Yu smiled.

Although she had to take care of two younger sisters at such a young age, compared to them she really did know a lot. Mainly, when she was very small, their parents only had her, and always wanted her to see the best and eat the best. Life on the boat was limited, so every time they went ashore, they would take her around to eat, shop, and look at things.

The three of them busied themselves together, packing the pieces of meat wrapped in leaves into wicker baskets.

Once everything was packed, they activated the Transit Pass and went to the Magic Plane.

This time, when they arrived in the Magic Plane, the surroundings were very clean, without dust flying everywhere.

“This kind of counts as our home too. Could we sleep here?” Bai Xi suddenly had a thought.

“We could, but sleeping here would be wasting the transit time, wouldn’t it?” Bai Yu said. “But we can go gather more things that can increase our time. Maybe then we could sleep here for a night.”

Only then did Bai Xi think of that. She shook her head. “Forget it then. Sleeping on the boat is the same. Sleeping here really would waste the transit time.”

“When our transit time increases later, it will not be impossible to sleep here,” Bai Yu went on. “After we upgrade the kitchen, we can build a house on the island. We could sleep on the island too.”

“That works!” Bai Xi said excitedly. “But if we build a house to sleep in on the island, we have to find a sheltered spot. Otherwise, if the wind is strong at night and whooshing around, it will be really noisy.”

“Then we will find a good place and upgrade the house a few more times.”

Talking as they walked, the two of them picked up a basket of meat and went out the door.

They closed the door behind them and once again admired the entrance that was almost impossible to find from the outside.

“If we lived here, it would actually be pretty safe.”

“It is just that we do not have enough time.”

“When we build a house on the island, it will definitely be better than here.”

“Of course.”

As they talked, the three of them all left carrying baskets. Even the youngest, Bai Miao, had a piece of meat in her hands, puffing and panting as she trotted along with them.

Today, Nancy knew they were coming back and had been waiting at the cave entrance since early morning. When she saw the three of them appear, she quickly hurried over, going first to look at what was in the big basket in Bai Yu’s hand.

“So much meat?”

Bai Yu set the basket down. “You can look through it all. Once you are sure there is no problem, we can trade.”

“Your meat is very special,” Nancy said, picking up one piece wrapped in leaves. “This does not seem like Magic Beast meat. It is like there have never been any Magic Elements inside it.”

Bai Yu did not fully understand what she was saying, and simply replied calmly, “Do you want it?”

“I do,” Nancy nodded. “But I have a question. The first batch of meat you brought over really was Magic Beast meat, right? There used to be Magic Elements in that.”

Bai Yu tilted her head, then turned to pick up Bai Miao, speaking to her in a low voice.

Just as they could not understand the language of the Magic Plane, Nancy could not understand theirs, so she was frankly whispering to Bai Miao, explaining what Nancy had said and trying to find a solution.

Bai Miao could understand Nancy’s words, but she did not know what to do.

So in the end it was still Bai Yu who spoke. She simply said, “Yes, the first meat we gave you was indeed Magic Beast meat.”

Nancy’s face immediately lit up with joy. She quickly said something, then turned and went into the cave. When she came back out, she was holding a piece of blue meat, which she placed in front of them with clear anticipation in her eyes.

“What is she doing?” Bai Xi asked curiously.

“Maybe she wants us to remove the magic inside?”

“They can’t remove it themselves?”

“Maybe. Like with Flammable Grass. Adults can’t touch Flammable Grass. As soon as they do, it makes the Flammable Grass burst into flames.”

“So that’s how it is. Then they’re pretty pitiful, not being able to eat this meat with magic in it.” As Bai Xi spoke, she did not really understand what removing the magic meant, so she just turned to ask Bai Yu’s opinion.

Bai Yu did not understand either, but she figured that if it was only removing the magic, it should not be a big deal.

So, under the other’s expectant gaze, she talked with Bai Miao about collecting the magic.

Bai Miao nodded at once, took an Upgrade Card from her bag, tapped to activate it, then set the card on the piece of blue meat in the other woman’s hand. Before long, the green on the meat faded. There was still a faint hint of pale green, but it no longer looked as strange as before.

Meat like this, even in Bai Yu and Bai Xi’s hands, was the kind they could eat.

They did not miss the excitement in Nancy’s eyes, but only thought she was happy because she had gotten a piece of meat she could eat.

Nancy went back into the cave again. When she came out this time, she was carrying a huge bundle. She set the whole bundle down in front of Bai Yu, then pointed at the meat in front of the three of them. “I want all of this meat. Will you be coming back in the future? We’re willing to trade things for you to remove the Magic Elements from the meat.”

“In a few days,” Bai Yu said. “We come by once every five days. Is that alright?”

“Yes, thank you for being willing to come!”

Translator’s Notes