Eat. Eat. Eat. Eat. Eat.
He had to eat every last Activity Pearl.
Shen Cong raged at himself internally, already fantasizing about growing to two meters tall. Or taller. If it meant more power, he had no objection to becoming a giant.
Though, he conceded, there were practical downsides to getting too large. Equipment sizing became a problem.
The sun crested the eastern hillside and spilled light across Great Vajra’s roof and across Shen Cong’s newly 180cm frame. He made a few quick adjustments to the Half-Activated Armor until it fit properly again, then suited up fully and set out to continue the work: turning the Huanglishu Mini-Oasis inside out.
Find the meteorite fragment.
“Looking at the ring distribution pattern, the lake sitting highest and most central in the Huanglishu reservoir cluster is almost certainly the Mini-Oasis’s core. That’s where any meteorite fragment is most likely buried.”
“I just need to drain four more of the barrier lakes in sequence before I can start on the central one.”
“Explosives are running a bit lean. To be safe, I’ll dig more and blast less — can’t afford to run short.”
Plan settled. He got moving.
To give himself a clean operating environment, he widened the village road connecting Machang Town to Fuxing Township, then drove Great Vajra up to Wolong Village in Fuxing. Good position — relatively safe, and from the hillside he could keep Great Vajra in sight at all times while he worked.
That gave him something to work with. A foundation.
Properly equipped, he made his way to the second barrier lake. Breaching it required cutting a channel at least fifty meters long and ten meters deep. Shen Cong didn’t consider this difficult. He started digging and didn’t stop. One hour later, he reached the lakeside.
Cracks at the base of the accumulated sand and stone began seeping water.
Time for explosives.
The detonator fired. Seconds later, a thunderclap of an explosion — and the second barrier lake gave way. Water roared downhill into the first drained lake bed, then continued into the valley below.
Countless fish and shrimp tumbled along with the flood.
Shen Cong watched the torrent carefully, scanning for large individual evolved beasts. None appeared. Twenty minutes later the lake had drained to nearly nothing — same as the first, with a small remaining pool that the flow couldn’t reach.
He noticed the lake bed was carpeted between the stones with a dense aquatic grass. No Activity fruit on it; he couldn’t say yet whether the leaves were edible.
In the leftover pool, one creature stood out: a tortoise, over a meter in length.
“If that shell is an Activity core, I’m taking it.”
He dug a drainage channel to finish draining the pool, then went and caught the tortoise.
Its Talent and Activity Value were nothing exceptional — barely clearing 0.5H — but the shell was indeed an Activity core.
Second barrier lake cleared. Brief rest, then on to the third.
The third lake was different.
The banks were covered in lotus flowers and water chestnuts. From the drone footage, Shen Cong had assumed it was just aquatic grass. He hadn’t expected this.
The lotus blossoms had already finished — the seed pods remained, each one the size of a washbasin, densely packed with lotus seeds. He pulled one up by the stalk; beneath the mud, the root was a long, fat lotus rhizome.
“Lotus seeds and lotus root — both Activity fruit!”
His perception confirmed it instantly. The seeds were Activity fruit. The root tubers were Activity fruit.
In the shallows beside the lotus patch grew water chestnuts. He pulled a plant free of the mud — two dozen water chestnuts of varying sizes clustered at the roots, some still greenish and unopened, others fully spread to a deep blue-black, as wide as a palm.
At full spread, they looked like tiny bull skulls.
“Just this one strip of bank has both lotus and water chestnuts. Not enormous quantities, but probably enough of each to eat to saturation.” He looked around, then up at the surrounding hillside. “And this absolutely confirms the Mini-Oasis. There’s no other explanation for two types of Activity fruit growing side by side. The entire New Hefei abundant zone spans tens of kilometers with only one type of Activity fruit per area. Two species in the same location has never been observed.”
“Activity Sweet Potatoes need Jin Ke La fertilizer — that tells you soil Activity is a finite resource. One type of Activity fruit drains it dry. Two thriving together means the soil Activity here is extraordinarily rich. This whole reservoir cluster must be saturated with it.”
Mini-Oasis. Confirmed.
His energy redoubled. He drove the Condor Spade hard into sand and stone.
This channel ran nearly eighty meters — harder digging than the second lake. Shen Cong ignored the difficulty and kept his head down. Every ten minutes he lifted his eyes for a perimeter scan; every thirty, he jogged to the hilltop and swept the area with binoculars.
The more rewarding the situation, the more carefully you had to watch your back.
The Mini-Oasis was sustaining rich resources and evolved beasts alike. But so far, nothing Near-Heavyweight or above had appeared — and that made him uneasy rather than relieved. This much resource density without a top predator felt wrong.
Vigilance. Don’t let it slip.
BOOM.
The familiar concussive roar sounded again. The third barrier lake began to drain. By the time the sun touched the western hills, the water was nearly gone — and this lake, unlike the others, had yielded something large.
Not one. Two.
They hadn’t been swept away by the current. They were clustered in the last remaining pool at the center, staring each other down.
“A giant crayfish. A giant hairy crab. Two armored evolved beasts, and they look about ready to fight.”
Shen Cong watched from the bank.
The crayfish was seven or eight meters long and radiated pure dominance. Its red carapace caught the last of the sunlight and threw it back in brilliant flashes. Two dark-silver claws, enormous, swept the air in broad arcs — pure intimidation.
The hairy crab was no less impressive. Shorter than the rearing crayfish, broad and round-headed, roughly five meters across. Blue-grey shell, equally reflective, two furry claws gleaming silver at the tips.
Both were scarred. The carapaces in particular were heavily scratched.
The crayfish was missing one leg. The crab was missing one and a half.
Evidently, sharing a single barrier lake at the top of the local food chain had not made them neighbors. They’d been fighting for territory for a long time, and neither had managed to finish the other.
A standoff in every sense.
Now the last of the water was almost gone. The conditions for another round were falling into place.
One minute passed. Then another.
Shen Cong realized both creatures had completely ignored him. He shrugged, walked to the drained bank, and started harvesting — water chestnuts, lotus pods, lotus rhizomes. Bag after bag after bag. Another enormous haul.
He finished packing up the Activity fruit. The two evolved beasts were still staring each other down, claws raised, neither committing.
The sky was darkening.
Shen Cong looked at them, impatient on their behalf.
“You’re Shrimp Soldier. You’re Crab General. Will you two please just fight already? It’s getting dark, I’m in a hurry — I want to finish collecting the water chestnuts and lotus root, deal with your corpses, and get back to rest at a reasonable hour.”
(End of Chapter 202)