Shanhai was completely frozen in place.

Jian Xingyi’s lips were soft, still warm to the touch.

Once Jian Xingyi realized what he had done, even his neck flushed red.

Shanhai, however, grabbed his wrist with his other hand and asked, his eyes bloodshot, “Can I hold you?”

Actually, it wasn’t just about holding him.

He wanted more, so much more.

Breathing heavily, Shanhai gazed at Jian Xingyi’s lips, his delicate neck, his collarbone… He dared not look any lower.

“…?” Jian Xingyi’s eyes widened.

The surroundings were silent.

Shanhai’s deep voice echoed through the cave.

Jian Xingyi turned his head away. “No, you don’t need to ask.”

Seriously, does he really have to ask that? Shanhai had asked before, too—at the time, Jian Xingyi had thought it was because the AI couldn’t process emotions.

So… this is just how Shanhai really is.

Shanhai then pulled Jian Xingyi into his arms.

Now they were truly pressed against each other, their hearts touching through their skin.

Shanhai closed his eyes.

His heart was beating even more fiercely.

It’s so good—Jian Xingyi has truly… accepted his past.

Only now did Shanhai feel truly validated.

“Xingxing, once the zombie tide subsides, there’s something I want to talk to you about…”

“Shh-shh-shh!!!” Jian Xingyi covered Shanhai’s mouth in shock, “What are you doing! With your high-powered frontline persona, you shouldn’t be setting up that kind of plot flag!”

“……?”

“Anyway, whatever it is, we’ll talk about it later!”

After resting for a while, Jian Xingyi suddenly asked, “So, how did Le Ke and Bai Jie’s IDs… come about?”

Shanhai chuckled softly, “It’s a long story.”

“We registered our IDs together back then. We didn’t know what to name them, so a young colleague suggested those names to prank us.”

Jian Xingyi was at a loss for words, “And you actually took them at face value and used them?”

“No. Bai Jie looked up their origins, and Le Ke suggested we have a fighting tournament—whoever came in last would have to use that name. Le Ke lost, but he secretly stole Bai Jie’s phone and changed her name too.”

What a sneaky person…! Jian Xingyi chuckled, “Then why didn’t they change yours?”

“They did, but the first player in the entire server to reach max combat power gets the right to change their name.”

Jian Xingyi: “……!”

“So what was your name before?”

“Jiang Ke.”

“……”

Wow.

“When I reached max combat power, I was standing on a mountaintop with a sea of clouds before me, so I named myself ‘Shanhai.’”

“Back then, we didn’t expect Grapevine Peak to develop into what it is now, nor did we expect to shoulder such responsibilities, so we didn’t put much thought into our names.”

Grapevine Peak was also just a random name derived from the acronym PTSD.

Jian Xingyi sighed, “I never thought I’d end up having to be a merchant now, either.”

After chatting for a while, the wooden boat reached the middle of the river. The water was deeper here, and it might hide even more things… So the two of them stopped lying down and climbed to their feet, watching their surroundings warily.

They’d encountered that unknown creature on their way here before; who knew if it would appear again this time…

“Gulp—”

Well, here we go again.

Jian Xingyi and Shanhai stared speechlessly at the tentacle slowly approaching them from a short distance away.

The slimy, wet tentacle was covered in dense rows of breathing holes and had three eyes.

Previously, the tentacle had merely observed them from a distance, but this time, for some reason, it suddenly became agitated, slapping the water’s surface incessantly as all three eyes fixed intently on Shanhai.

Jian Xingyi paused for a moment and said, “Is it because you’re carrying its eyeball?”

Shanhai took the eyeball out of his backpack, and the tentacle grew even more agitated.

Shanhai stood up and tossed the eyeball, along with its box, toward the tentacle.

“Splash!”

The wooden box sent water flying, and in the next instant, it was swept away by the tentacle.

A moment later, an even larger splash erupted before them—the water monster… had actually raised its massive body out of the water!

“Shuixi…!”

Shanhai stepped in front of Jian Xingyi and said, “Don’t worry, it means no harm.”

Those who have fought for years can easily sense an opponent’s intentions; their intuition and perception of the outside world are incredibly sharp.

Shanhai thought to himself, perhaps this was why he always felt at ease and at peace when he was with Jian Xingyi—because Jian Xingyi was completely non-aggressive.

Only after the water monster surfaced did the two realize… just how terrifying and repulsive it actually was.

It was a massive, slimy sphere, covered in moss and encrusted with seaweed and filth, yet its surface was dotted with constantly blinking eyes—eyes far larger and rounder than human ones, just like the one they had found.

Numerous tentacles grew from the sphere’s surface, and at that moment, every single one was pointing toward a single spot—a hollow at the bottom of the sphere. That spot should have been an eye, but now it was completely empty.

Jian Xingyi blinked. “Does it mean… it wants us to find another eyeball for it?”

Shanhai nodded.

Jian Xingyi gave the sphere a nervous laugh. “Um… we’ll do our best?”

It’s not like you can just go out and find something like that!

After showing the two of them its empty eye socket, the sphere sank back into the water and swam away.

Jian Xingyi was at a loss for words, “What a strange water monster. Well, next time we come across an eyeball, we’ll bring it to it. It doesn’t seem like it would attack us—could it be a non-aggressive creature?”

“No, it’s just because we gave it an eyeball,” Shanhai said. “This is a very dangerous S-class creature.”

The moment it surfaced, Shanhai could tell it was a terrifying creature—more terrifying than any creature on land.

It usually stayed underground year-round and wouldn’t attack people easily, but if provoked… the consequences would be unimaginable.

Apart from the water monster, the two didn’t encounter any other creatures. According to Shanhai, this was because the sphere had devoured all the surrounding life.

After half a day, the boat finally docked, and the two returned to the center of Fire God’s Belly.

On the fourth day before the zombie tide, while Jian Xingyi waited for the results of the green vine, he and Shanhai continued gathering resources and chopping down trees in Fire God’s Belly. Jian Xingyi had already drained the essence of the Earth’s core, but the Fire God’s Belly remained untouched.

However, gathering in the Fire God’s Belly definitely required Shanhai’s guidance; whenever Jian Xingyi started chopping down trees, wild beasts, or Dodo beasts would suddenly appear, and after walking just a few steps, zombies would show up.

A day later, Jian Xingyi had successfully accumulated 7,055 essence points.

After dark, the two rested and ate under a tree. While munching on grilled lamb, Jian Xingyi opened the backend interface. Having accumulated so much essence, he naturally had to put it to use, so he decided to invest it in the breeding area.

Currently, he has one cow shed, a loach pond, a pig pen, two sheep pens, and a cow shed—all Grade B facilities capable of holding 20 animals each.

Expanding a single farming zone costs 500,000 Essence Points. Jian Xingyi spent 2 million to expand the number of sheep pens, cow sheds, and pig pens to three each.

Upgrading a livestock area from D to C requires 500 essence points, while upgrading to B requires 1,000—it’s practically robbery. Jian Xingyi generously spent 6,000 essence points to upgrade all these additional livestock areas to Grade B.

This gave him even more meat, and he also needed to upgrade his home’s livestock zones to the highest level before he could purchase additional livestock zones and fish farms elsewhere.

Unlike these ordinary meats, fish is a Grade A ingredient—who knows what kind of benefits it might bring?

Plus, fish tastes great!

Just thinking about it made Jian Xingyi feel excited.

Meanwhile, the green vines he had planted were ready for harvest.

Jian Xingyi took a deep breath, strengthened his heart, and switched his backend permissions to the 100 plots of Grade B farmland in the Volcano Town behind the Air Wall.

It’s okay, it’s okay…

Even if it’s useless, it doesn’t matter… Everything will work out in the end; money can always be earned again… A measly few dawn coins…

“Click.”

Shanhai looked up and saw Jian Xingyi staring at the terminal in utter disbelief, his chopsticks having fallen from his hand.

Shanhai: “What’s wrong?”

Jian Xingyi’s eyes sparkled like stars. “It worked…!!”

It worked!!!

Money, money, money coming from all directions!!

From the monitoring view in his backend, he saw that the Blue Vines had grown and then rotted, becoming nutrients for the soil; now, all the fields were marked as ready for planting.

The Blue Vines really work…!

Now he could plant Snow Lotus in the fields!

Time was of the essence, so Jian Xingyi had to use his existing resources to maximize the potential of these fields.

First up was the Magic Acceleration Potion from the VIP Store’s initial tier. Each one cost 30,000 dawn coins and could only be purchased once every seven days, but Jian Xingyi had already stockpiled quite a few in his backpack.

Then there were the unlimited-use fertilizers from the store and the advanced fertilizers he’d gathered while exploring the map. After emptying his backpack, he was able to harvest once.

The 100 plots yielded Jian Xingyi nearly 3,500+ snow lotus flowers. Two days later, the snow lotus in his remaining fields had also ripened. The 5 plots on his own land, the 10 Grade A plots on Snow Mountain, and the 65 Grade B plots in front of the Air Wall on Peace Mountain brought Jian Xingyi a total harvest of over 1,500 flowers.

After setting aside some for personal use, Jian Xingyi listed 5,000 bottles of Hardening Potions, netting him 30 million.

In addition to snow lotus, Jian Xingyi continued to list food items and fulfill guild orders as usual. With animals in the breeding zone constantly maturing and ready for harvest, meat supplies steadily increasing, and a small harvest of vines, the total revenue amounted to nearly 30 million.

In total, Jian Xingyi contributed another 60 million to the guild.

With three days remaining until the zombie tide, Jian Xingyi announced that he would restock food and Hard-as-Nails Potions again in two days, asking everyone for their continued support.

That would be everyone’s last chance to obtain Hard-as-Nails Potions.

After listing the items, Jian Xingyi checked the guild’s statistics.

Long Live for A Hundred Years

670 million / 750 million dawn coins

701,000 / 750,000 Wood

93,000 / 150,000 Zombies Killed

Jian Xingyi breathed a sigh of relief. With the other guild’s help, he would receive another 60 million in two days, which should bring the total close to 750 million…

On the other hand, he’d have to work harder on the zombie kill count. After all, they were a low-power guild; no matter how often they went out to farm at Grapevine Peak, their kill count was limited.

Just three short days.

No, not even three days…

Jian Xingyi was lost in thought.

The second zombie wave was about to hit, and one of the guild’s walls had already been completed.

Now, the rear walls of both the Grapevine Peak and Long Live for A Hundred Years guilds were finished, while work on the side walls was still underway.

Shanhai glanced at the data on both sides and mused, “Or… should we just start a guild vs. guild battle?”

“Hm?”

Five minutes later, in the guild channels of Long Life and Grapevine Peak:

Bai Jie: 【Is anyone interested in starting a guild group battle? If our two guilds mobilize all members to farm kills, we can also boost our Bond Level. We only have three days left, and our Bond Level is still at Level 5—we’re quite a ways from Level 8.】

Heiye: 【Agreed. A group battle not only lets us rack up zombie kills but also offers the guild a hefty reward of dawn coins. So please, everyone, hurry back. We have one day—we’ll start the battle tomorrow night!】

Jian Xingyi turned to look at Shanhai, “Should I join the battle too…?”

Won’t I be a liability?

Shanhai raised an eyebrow, “I’m in.”

Jian Xingyi gave a nervous laugh. “Doesn’t that mean we’ll be in front of everyone…”

Shanhai looked puzzled. “In front of everyone?”

“N-nothing.”

Jian Xingyi thought to himself—he was overthinking it. He and Shanhai had nothing to hide; what was there to be afraid of?