I Am Cultivating in the Apocalypse

Chapter 669: The Most Awesome Function After Upgrading

"Sister Jing, there were so many skeletons this time! I’ve cleaned them all up and brought them over. Dr. Zhang finished the headcount; no one was bitten by the monsters, so there was no need for the Bone Powder. I know you like this stuff, so I brought it all to you," Li Chenglong said, his voice conveying a sense of accomplishment. Those who had been bitten by the monsters had died. So this time, apart from the deaths and injuries from being trampled, there were surprisingly no other casualties.

Li Chenglong spoke as if seeking praise. After all, during that life-and-death battle, he had only seen Jing Shu collecting these skeletons, doing nothing else.

Jing Shu: "..."

It didn’t take long for the skeletons to fill up the old hot pot restaurant. When the rotten mermaids died, nothing was left except for these useless skeletons.

"Then I’m off. We still have to clean up layer by layer, and then filter the water. We need to figure out how to make more clay pots and bowls since all of those are gone now," Li Chenglong said before hurriedly leaving.

Dawn was breaking; the day had arrived. Although it was still gloomy, there was at least some visibility now.

But no one could sleep; everyone had to work. They had to clean the building’s waste, filter water, boil water—there was plenty to do. Everyone was busy.

Not just the ordinary people; even the managers were overwhelmed with work. Wang Miao had to take care of the post-battle headcount and also consider where everyone would sleep at night. With so many people, and all the private rooms, bedding, and private food supplies gone, what were they to do on such cold nights?

Jun Jia still had to direct the sorting of food inside the iron chunks. It was the last resort for survival; how could it be distributed to maximize its use?

In the blink of an eye, only Jing Shu, Liu, and Gold Dominator—who was clutching a pig and staring with wide-eyed innocence—were left in the hot pot restaurant. This time, Gold Dominator was determined to stick close to Jing Shu. His brother-in-law had told him: to survive the apocalypse, you must stick close to Jing Shu.

Jing Shu, however, was momentarily stunned, gazing at the mountainous pile of bones before her. Not only can these bones quickly heal wounds inflicted by the rotten mermaids and cause petrification, but they’re also edible! Yes, bones are too hard to chew without meat, but once ground into powder, they can be cooked into mush. What is most abundant in the Mudstone Flow Sea? Naturally, it’s the endless rotten mermaids!

Jing Shu became excited. Following this line of thought, as long as there are rotten mermaids, there will be food; people won’t starve in the apocalypse! With only one or two thousand people now, won’t there be even more rotten mermaids in the future, which could then support even more people? Thinking about it this way, every part of the rotten mermaids is a treasure!

Speaking of this, Jing Shu recalled experiments she had conducted before. Animals that ate too much White Energy would petrify, but people who ate rotten mermaid bones showed no abnormalities. The chickens and fish tested inside the Magic Cube Space were the best proof, though there were no other effects.

Right, there are still a few rotten mermaids left in the Magic Cube Space; they’re perfect for some experiments, Jing Shu thought, sharpening her knife with great zeal. She first made a cut on the pig’s rear, then let the mermaid saliva from the rotten mermaids she had captured into the Space drip into the wound to observe the reaction.

There’s no choice; the only creatures in the Space with abundant blood flow are these Domestic Poultry, and besides, I have many pigs to spare, she mused.

The blood wouldn’t stop flowing, gushing out. Jing Shu made sure to collect some pig blood, not letting it go to waste. It can be used to feed the chickens; the chickens in the Space aren’t picky eaters.

She then sprinkled the ground Bone Powder little by little onto the wound. The pig’s rear petrified and healed. The pig was lively again—a truly good outcome.

It seems this Bone Powder is really effective, just as I thought! From now on, if someone gets a wound, they won’t need medicine. They can just apply mermaid saliva, then dust it with the powder, and it will quickly stop the bleeding, petrify, and scab over. Who would have thought that in this apocalypse, 99% of people can’t afford medicine? It’s basically like an AB glue; both components need to interact to be effective.

Jing Shu was very satisfied, truly satisfied. Rotten mermaid saliva is easy to collect—a big bucket can be gathered just like that—and there’s an abundance of Bone Powder. If I ever package and sell this stuff... tsk tsk, it would be a blessing for many.

So how do rotten mermaids reproduce? Jing Shu quickly figured it out: rotten mermaids are hermaphrodites, mating with themselves to produce as many offspring as they desire. But there is a prerequisite: they can spawn only when they are well-fed and have access to White Energy.

Jing Shu wandered around the Magic Cube Space with a strange expression. The space, which was supposed to have expanded significantly, hadn’t grown much. Instead, an additional, smaller, different space had appeared.

Immediately, Jing Shu called Liu to have people grind all the bones into powder. Then, she quietly found a spot to sit down, closed her eyes, and decided to investigate the peculiarity of the space.

After the upgrade, the space was supposed to be 10x10x10, totaling 1,000 cubic meters. Aside from the 1 cubic meter Spiritual Spring and 60 cubic meters of land, there should have been 939 cubic meters of blank space left. In short, besides the 6 cubic meters of land gained with each level increase, I should have obtained an additional 265 cubic meters of blank space. But now, there’s an extra 4x4x4, so 64 cubic meters, of milky-white space below the Spiritual Spring. The remaining 261 cubic meters must be what I actually gained from this upgrade.

In the center of this new space, there’s a milky-white liquid bubbling just like the Spiritual Spring. However, the Space Spiritual Spring is... well, spring-sized, while this milky-white liquid is only the size of a fist. The milky-white space, like the Magic Cube Space, can also be pieced together at will. But its use... when eggs and other materials are put into it, they slowly dissolve into something like white water. When living things are placed inside, the result is similar. Chickens scream and then perish, dissolving as if being digested.

Jing Shu’s eyebrows raised. Then, she placed one of the captured rotten mermaids into it. The rotten mermaid cheered joyfully, emitting sounds of pleasure...

Jing Shu’s eyes reddened.

While others were busy, Jing Shu began her frantic experiments. After the new upgrade to her space, she hadn’t gained any additional passive abilities, but she did get this extra little space. After several experiments, Jing Shu named it the Cultivation Space.

True to its name, its primary function was to rapidly and crazily propagate rotten mermaids, preserving their eggs within the space and making them available when needed.

At first, Jing Shu didn’t realize it, but after feeding just a tiny drop of the milky liquid to a rotten mermaid, it spat out eggs like bullets. With a CRACKLING sound, it laid hundreds of thumb-sized eggs, which were perfectly preserved in the milky-white space.

Like the Spiritual Spring, the milky liquid increased by only one drop automatically each day, making it very precious. As for whether it can stimulate other beings... my attempts have been unsuccessful so far. Perhaps it only works on Dark Creatures. That will have to be tested later.

It also had a huge advantage: within a one-kilometer diameter of the activated Second Order Rubik’s Cube space, it could directly absorb the surrounding White Energy, saving Jing Shu the trouble of fishing for and collecting energy.

Of course, it had one more incredible feature that made Jing Shu kneel in awe.