Chapter 6: It Is Alive

“Mom, Mom, this space is so much fun!” Yun Duo’er dashed excitedly into Yu Yan’s arms as she was busy organizing supplies, her little cheeks flushed red with excitement. As a child, she didn’t understand the value or size of space; to her, ten square meters was already magical enough, more than sufficient to hold all her little treasures.

Yu Yan extended her sleeve, carefully wiping away the smudge that had somehow appeared on her daughter’s nose, and abandoned the idea of giving her a few more pieces of Illusory Lotus.

Heaven-grade spiritual materials were precious. Even if she couldn’t use them in the future, they could be traded for many other essential spirit items.

Earth-grade, eighth-tier Seven-Stream Treasure Silkworms, Profound-grade, sixth-tier Xun Fish Bones, Meishan Purple Antelope Meat, Firebird Flight Feathers… One by one, these familiar names of rare materials flashed through Yu Yan’s mind, making her eyes burn with desire. In her previous life, she could only salivate silently over them.

In this life, she was determined to arm herself and her daughter to the teeth!

Rice, flour, all kinds of noodles, dried fish, dried loach, dried string beans, kelp—Yu Yan cleared out all the dried goods from the kitchen pantry. Before the arrival of the dungeon world, she had been a devoted homebody. To minimize trips outside, she’d always kept enough food stocked to last two or three months, except for easily perishable fresh produce.

Especially condiments—she had an entire storage bin crammed full! Two large ten-kilogram barrels of cooking oil, ten bags of salt, a variety of cooking wines, light and dark soy sauces, vinegar, and even a considerable stash of pickled vegetables.

If the kitchen cabinets hadn’t been fixed to the walls, she would have chosen to move the entire cabinet into her portable space. As for the refrigerator, vegetable rack, and snack box outside the kitchen, she did exactly that—this would save her the trouble of searching for food later.

Once the food was stowed away, Yu Yan headed to the storage room.

Tissues, sanitary pads, liners, disposable cups, steam eye masks—anything she thought might be useful, she packed into her space.

After all—

Her space was big enough to hold it all.

If it ever got too full, she’d just eat another piece of Illusory Lotus and expand it. The life of a true tycoon was just that simple!

The wardrobe? She packed the whole thing!

The desk? The entire desk went in!

Pots and pans, cups and plates, chopsticks and spoons, souvenirs, her two-meter-wide bed complete with bedding—packed, packed, everything went in! In the end, even the full-length mirror hanging on the wall was stuffed into her space.

After this grand sweep, the house looked as if it had been thoroughly looted, empty and echoing.

Yun Duo’er stared with wide eyes. “Mom, your space can hold so much!”

Yu Yan burst out laughing. For the first time since her rebirth, she felt such unrestrained delight. “Let’s go, darling. We’re off to brave the dungeon together.”

She was going to gather a whole arsenal of protective treasures for her daughter!

…

“Mom, Mom, run! The vine is alive!”

Yun Duo’er’s panicked shout reached her ears. Yu Yan gripped the kitchen knife in her hand and, without hesitation, sliced through the vine at her feet in one swift motion. Then she rushed forward, chopping down several bloodthirsty vines, as thick as a finger, that were chasing her daughter to suck her blood.

Her movements were quick and agile!

Three years in the dungeon world had not been wasted. Though she no longer had her handy fire ability, nor Xiao Qing—her bloodthirsty vine companion of three years and two evolutions—her fundamental combat instincts had come with her memory.

At this moment, she and Yun Duo’er had entered the B-rank dungeon “Bloodthirsty Vine” right at their doorstep.

In her past life, when the dungeon world descended, Yu Yan was utterly clueless. Yun Duo’er wanted to go outside to play with friends from the neighborhood; Yu Yan agreed without much thought.

Tragedy struck without warning. By the time she heard the screams outside, she hadn’t even realized what had happened to her daughter—she simply chased out instinctively, and the moment the elevator doors opened, she fell right into the dungeon behind her.

The memory ended abruptly.

“This time, I will never allow tragedy to repeat itself!”

Yun Duo’er’s terrified face overlapped with the image of her blood-soaked, dying daughter from the past.

Yu Yan’s eyes blazed with fury.

One after another, the bloodthirsty vines were hacked in half and fell to the ground, but more surged out from the forest. When her kitchen knife grew dull, Yu Yan swapped it for another, and another, until every last knife in her space was notched and bent.

The Bloodthirsty Vine Forest seemed to groan: You think you’re so great!

Stuck in the dungeon’s adaptation period, the vines could only exert ten percent of their power. Aggrieved, they retreated into the depths of the woods.

Can’t beat her—at least we can hide from her!

Just wait until the adaptation period ends—see if we don’t drain every drop of your blood!

Yu Yan was intentionally taking advantage of the dungeon’s adaptation period. Once it ended, she’d be the one running for her life. With her current abilities, she couldn’t withstand even thirty percent of a B-rank dungeon’s power.

That’s right—after the adaptation period, the dungeon would enter its first phase.

At that point, the dungeon’s power would be released to thirty percent of its capacity, and that phase would last three full months. After three months, the power would increase again… It was as if these dungeons, which had suddenly appeared on Blue Star, had been deliberately thrown here by some immensely powerful being.

Perhaps this entity feared that humanity on Blue Star was too weak and would be wiped out instantly.

So, they intentionally sealed away most of the dungeon’s power, only gradually unsealing it as time passed.

Yu Yan found her own imagination amusing.

If such a being truly existed, how powerful would they have to be to create so many terrifying sub-dimensional spaces? And what possible reason would they have for doing this? Surely it couldn’t be just for fun.

By the eve of her rebirth, the dungeon world’s full power had already been unleashed.

Not only that, the expanding dungeon world had swallowed up more than half of the real world. Some factions had abandoned the idea of establishing bases in reality altogether, instead clearing out large sections of low-level dungeons and building fortress-like cities within them.

As Yu Yan recalled the events of her past life, her hands never stopped moving.

All the bloodthirsty vines she’d chopped down were piled together and tossed into the Plant Spirit Microcosm. Once these dungeon plants died, aside from being rich in spiritual energy, they were no different from plants in the real world.

They could be decomposed by soil, then turned into nutrients and returned to the dungeon world.

Yu Yan wondered if this might speed up the growth of the Plant Spirit Microcosm.

Even if it was only a guess, Yu Yan didn’t mind experimenting—it would cost her nothing to try. To help the microcosm decompose the vine corpses faster, she even brought out a trowel and moved a good amount of soil from the dungeon into her space as well.

“Mom, let me help you.”

From initial terror and confusion, Yun Duo’er gradually regained her composure.

Watching her mother chop down those frightening, grasping vines one by one—since she hadn’t been pricked by the vine’s needle this time, she didn’t yet know it was a bloodsucker—she found her fear giving way to curiosity.

Though still a little nervous, she was brave enough to join her mother, helping pick up the scattered remains of the bloodthirsty vines.