Immediately, Lin Jiusan felt that this young Li Cunxu was unreliable.
"The dragon's curse, you can investigate it yourselves. Oh, and don't let anyone else know about her being cursed by the dragon, or else the Human Crisis Response Bureau will lock her up, and it would be a kind of eternal imprisonment."
Having said this, Li Cunxu left.
On his way home, Li Cunxu kept recalling the young girl's face, feeling as if he had seen it somewhere before.
"They call their daughter Qingwei. The ranch owner is Lin Xiaoxuan's third uncle, so she must have the surname Lin. That girl should be 'Lin Qingwei'."
Lin Qingwei? Lin Qingwei!
Hmm?
Suddenly, Li Cunxu's mind exploded.
He remembered.
Lin Qingwei was a classmate of his original self.
They were classmates from kindergarten, elementary school, and middle school.
No wonder Li Cunxu was so familiar with that black car, seeing it every time after school at the school gate. How could he not be familiar?
Instead of growing up together as childhood friends, the original self and Lin Qingwei were childhood enemies.
The original self hated Lin Qingwei deeply because from kindergarten to middle school, Lin Qingwei bullied him and drove away all his friends, leaving him with no good friends growing up.
"She's lost weight because of the dragon's curse, no wonder I didn't recognize her."
When she was young, Lin Qingwei was chubby, a plump little girl with great strength, and the original self could not beat her.
"No wonder she avoided eye contact and didn't dare to look at me."
Li Cunxu sneered coldly.
The thought of helping her lift the dragon's curse faded significantly.
Even if she promised a substantial reward.
Li Cunxu pedaled his bike with determination, while a young man on a ghostly skeletal horse blazing with blue flames raced by, the gust almost knocking him over.
Li Cunxu looked at the ghostly horse with a hint of envy in his eyes.
He also wanted a mount, which would be much more convenient, much faster than a broken bicycle.
"Why don't I choose a mount for my next contract beast?"
After thinking it over, Li Cunxu dismissed the idea.
Contract slots were limited and shouldn't be wasted on a mount.
Besides, a mount doesn't necessarily have to be a contract beast; ordinary beasts can also serve as mounts.
"Should I buy a ghostly skeletal horse? Although it's uncomfortable to ride and not very fast, it looks really cool with those blue flames!"
"Lately, it seems to be trendy to use ghostly skeletal horses as mounts."
Remembering the troubles of managing non-contract beasts, Li Cunxu again dismissed the thought.
Non-contract beasts can't be stored in the Beast Taming Space and must be carried in a beast pouch, which are quite expensive, especially the ones specialized for mounts.
Additionally, riding a non-contract beast requires a license, which is particularly hard to get.
Though riding a contract beast also requires a license, it's much easier to obtain than for non-contract beasts.
With a contract beast, the Beast Master and beast are in sync, eliminating most issues in riding, unlike non-contract beasts that lack this connection, making them prone to issues unless ridden by an experienced hand.
Thus, the alliance strictly regulates riding non-contract beasts on the road.
Li Cunxu often saw on videos people breaking down in tears or angrily lashing out at the examiners after failing the non-contract beast riding test multiple times.
Stopping at the fork between the ranch and Tongdu, Li Cunxu remembered something important.
He turned back towards Tongdu.
Heading to a store, he bought a five-cubic-meter beast pouch.
It cost 1,800 because the pouch had only a one-year lifespan; after that, the space collapses, ejecting any beast it holds.
He also bought an Eight-Color Garlic.
Costing 200,000, Eight-Color Garlic can temporarily destabilize a beast's genes, commonly used as an auxiliary in beast evolution potions.
Eight-Color Garlic mustn't be misused, or it could lead to beast deformities.
Li Cunxu intended to make a Slime Mutation Needle out of the Eight-Color Garlic.
Using the Slime Mutation Needle on a Slime may cause mutations.
It was invented by a player in a previous life's game, from whom Li Cunxu had purchased it.
Li Cunxu wanted to use the Slime Mutation Needle to mutate into a Cursed Slime.
The curse type was niche within a niche in "Divine Beast Mastery," even less popular than poison types. It had its strength, but its cost was great.
The curse type had the flaw of its cost, the stronger the curse, the greater the cost, and the cost accumulates in the body until one day it suddenly erupts.
This was also why curse-type beasts and Curse Masters were often weak and sickly.
In the game, the cost manifested as permanent negative buffs.
In the game, Li Cunxu had a beast with a god-level curse-type talent [Cost Sharing (Blue)], allowing the beast to share the curse cost.
But this talent had a limitation: the target sharing the cost had to be a curse-type beast.
Another reason the curse type was a niche within a niche was because curse-type beasts were rare, even rarer than pureblood Dragon Race.
To make full use of the [Cost Sharing] talent, Li Cunxu came up with the idea of evolving a Cursed Slime.
In fact, Li Cunxu's idea proved correct; he successfully evolved a Cursed Slime and promoted the curse type to heights beyond normal.
Back in the ranch's cottage, Li Cunxu took one clove of the Eight-Color Garlic, extracted its juice, mixed it with gray stone powder, old tree roots… stirred… let it stand for half an hour… drew the clear solution from the top… and divided it into ten doses.
The Slime Mutation Needle was ready and must be used immediately, or its potency would dissipate within half a day.
He injected ten Slimes with the Slime Mutation Needle, six of which were Slimes with the digestion talent.
Li Cunxu didn't inject Xiaoruan; it had no use for that concoction as no mutation would be more useful than its [Slime Soul Kingdom] talent.
After placing the six digestion-talent Slimes in the beast pouch, Li Cunxu biked to the environmental organization next to the Environmental Protection Agency and joined the organization.
After completing the joining procedures, Li Cunxu asked the receptionist for an environmental mission.
"Sister, show me some simple environmental missions."
The receptionist filtered out some simple environmental missions, and Li Cunxu took a glance, feeling they were quite simple.
Select all?
Forget it, yet unsure of the digestion ability of the digestion-talent Slimes, he decided to be cautious and complete one first.
He chose the simplest mission [Clear the Garbage from the Clogged River].
"Are you starting the mission now?"
"Yes."
The receptionist turned to a line of record-keeping parrots reading books beside a bookshelf and said:
"Send a parrot to accompany him."
A record-keeping parrot flew from the bookline and perched on Li Cunxu's shoulder, but he felt no weight at all.
Li Cunxu speculated in his heart: "This record-keeping parrot's talent must be light as a feather."
Following the instructions on his phone, Li Cunxu arrived at the mission location.
The river section wasn't long, with bridges on both sides, about fifteen meters in length.
The river was clogged with all sorts of garbage, cans, plastic bottles, white plastic meal boxes, shopping bags, milk cartons...
"Time to eat, Slimes."
Li Cunxu released the six digestion-talent Slimes, which, under Xiaoruan's command, jumped into the river and began cleaning up the garbage.
One by one, the garbage was swallowed by the Slimes, and in no time, the waste was digested and decomposed.
"A bit slow."
The Slimes' digestion speed wasn't impressive, but Li Cunxu didn't mind; the digestion talent required practice, the more they consumed, the more stomach acids they produced, and the faster their digestion speed grew.
Indeed, an hour later, the Slimes' digestion speed increased and the river's garbage disappeared at a visible rate.
With the garbage cleared, night had fallen.
"All done, time for the record-keeping parrot to check!"
The record-keeping parrot stopped reading and tucked the book into its feathered abdomen.