Chapter 55: Busy with Nothing in Particular

Fairly speaking, if she had known that Yu Xunhuan possessed a seemingly unremarkable treasure capable of bringing her immense benefits, she might also have figured out a way to get her hands on it, with the only difference being that she would have found a way to offer Yu Xunhuan some compensation afterward.

However, Yu Xunhuan was different. Not only did he refuse to offer compensation, but he also shifted the blame entirely.

When that pair of boots was sold, the Liang family's strength skyrocketed because of that instance dungeon, while the Su and Han families came to resent her on that account. Yu Xunhuan had stood before her, offering all sorts of benefits to the Su and Han families to protect her and keep her safe.

When she heard Yu Xunhuan explain that the reason the Su and Han families targeted her was because the original owner of those boots from the Liang family was none other than herself, she was left utterly speechless. While she had the urge to point out that she had traded those boots to Yu Xunhuan in the first place, the harassment from the Han and Su families was real, and the various sacrifices Yu Xunhuan made for her were also real...

Yu Xunhuan had even claimed that he had already tried explaining, but Su Yitong couldn't bear to touch him, and the Han family wouldn't touch him out of respect for the Su family, so they both came after her instead, though he promised he would do his utmost to protect her. Yu Xunhuan had been deeply touched by this at the time.

Looking back now, she just wanted to curse out loud: *If you hadn't gone and told them those boots were mine, would they have ever come looking for me?!*

Thinking of Yu Xunhuan and those people, her previously wonderful mood soured once again.

With a blank expression, Yu Xunhuan walked over to the weapon shop and purchased a specialized quiver. It offered no attribute bonuses, but it could hold 999 arrows. After replenishing her ammunition, she immediately headed out of the city.

Upon returning to the territory of the living corpses, Yu Xunhuan was completely clad in black, with a faint greenish glow emanating from the dark fabric.

A headband with +5 Constitution, an exquisite leather armor with +7 Constitution, fur riding breeches with +7 Constitution, bone shoulder guards with +5 Constitution, a fallen knight's waist cincher with +3 Constitution, wolf-skin gloves with +6 Constitution, and wolf-skin boots with +5 Constitution.

This time, Yu Xunhuan was truly, terrifyingly powerful.

[Character] Yu Xunhuan (Level 0, 1.583%)
[Health Points]: 2150/2150
[Mana Points]: 350/350
[Strength]: 10
[Constitution]: 13 (+38)
[Intelligence]: 15
[Agility]: 21
[Luck]: 10
[Charm]: 10

She could toss herself into the thick of things to her heart's content. As long as it wasn't a boss exceeding Level 10, nothing could instantly kill her. And as long as she wasn't one-shotted, she could always escape.

Instead of summoning her shadow, Yu Xunhuan gripped her crossbow and provoked five living corpses, dodging their joint onslaught while simultaneously launching counterattacks at their vital points.

In less than five minutes, Yu Xunhuan was drenched in sweat.

The attack speed of a single living corpse was slow, but when five of them were combined, that problem ceased to exist. Furthermore, though their reactions were sluggish, they still retained the combat instincts from their lifetimes. Three of them attacked her head, throat, and heart simultaneously, while the other two aimed at her lower body. Dodging was easy enough; Yu Xunhuan simply bent her waist and lifted her leg.

Yet, trying to shoot while dodging was an entirely different matter...

A crossbow bolt pierced the air, piercing nothing at all.

A monster brought its weapon down in a downward chop; Yu Xunhuan parried with one hand, braced herself with the other against the ground, and spun simultaneously.

For a brief second, Yu Xunhuan suspected that if anyone happened to pass by, they would definitely shout out: *Stop fighting already! If you want to fight, go take it to the dance studio!*

In short, everyone on the field was extremely busy, though it was unclear what exactly they were busy doing.

Yu Xunhuan could see the red dots on the monsters' bodies—the glabella, the throat, the heart. Sometimes, these red dots would shift to the side or other locations due to the monsters' swinging arms.

Yet even though she could see them and even react in time, she never had the chance to strike. Every time she raised her crossbow and prepared to aim, another attack would arrive, forcing her to scramble out of the way.

In less than half an hour, Yu Xunhuan had already been clawed more than twenty times.

In truth, if she had focused entirely on dodging, she was confident she could emerge without a single scratch. But she refused to do so. She forced herself to recall the days when she was hunted down like a stray dog, forced herself to remember her past life when she was led around in circles and played for a fool.

She had to compel herself to maintain perpetual vigilance, to retain the sense of urgency and crisis as if a blade were suspended right above her head, just like the moment she had first been reborn.

Was revenge achieved the moment she seized the [God of Cookery]?

No, it had only just begun.

One week later.

A nimble and agile figure shifted and dodged amidst the pursuit and encirclement of seven monsters, then suddenly surged toward a tree trunk, ran a few steps upward by treading against the bark, and pushed off forcefully, using the momentum to fly right over the monsters' heads. Twisting in mid-air, she drew her bow and loosed a rapid volley. Before her feet even touched the ground, three arrows had already flown out, striking the throats, hearts, or eyes of three separate monsters respectively. The hits to their vital points directly triggered critical strikes.

Upon landing, she quickly dropped to one knee, and three more crossbow bolts flew out in succession. Before the monsters could turn around, she already had her back pressed against a tree trunk to protect her spine, switching back to her bow to land several more critical shots.

The monsters, which had suffered an unknown number of critical hits, collapsed almost simultaneously.

Yu Xunhuan glanced at her experience bar, and upon confirming that it had increased by 0.7%, she stepped forward to search the corpses. The scattered piles of copper coins on the ground merged together, and the vast majority of them rapidly fused and transformed into a single silver coin. She picked up that silver coin along with a dozen or so remaining copper coins.

This was already her tenth day in this different world, and her experience had now reached 47.21%. From initially being completely unable to fight back, to occasionally launching counterattacks with her lightning-fast crossbow, and now, to finally being able to wield a bow.

When she first transitioned from the crossbow to the bow, she had hit a bottleneck for several days. It wasn't until she ran into the short-haired woman while eating at the treehouse stronghold that things changed. Seeing the bow already covered in scratches, the woman had sat down and chatted with her for a bit.

Even with her four divine-gifted talents, Yu Xunhuan never assumed others were inferior to her. Upon realizing that the woman was exceptionally skilled with the bow, she shared the frustrations she encountered in combat. To her surprise, the short-haired woman merely said: "Why do you insist on drawing it to its maximum limit every single time?"

Yu Xunhuan had wanted to say that she could draw it to its full limit effortlessly, but the next second, she froze in place.

She bought the short-haired woman a glass of wine.

Ever since that day, it was as if she had experienced an epiphany. It wasn't just the bow; the same logic applied to her dodging. She no longer chased after maximum damage with every single strike, nor did she rely on exaggerated movements to evade attacks. While those methods were one hundred percent safe, they actually consumed far too much stamina.

She couldn't help but laugh at herself. Clearly, when learning magic, she never pursued maximum destructive power, opting instead for spells with fast casting speeds on the grounds that hitting the target was all that mattered—so why had she forgotten all of that the moment she picked up a bow?

She had no intention of seeking out tougher monsters; she was thoroughly satisfied with her current leveling speed and training ground, and she planned to increase the number to eight tomorrow.

Lately, she had returned to a state of extreme busyness.

Training and leveling during the day, rushing back to the treehouse stronghold before nightfall, eating dinner, and lying in her tent to watch alchemy tutorials.

Players frequently set up a small trading market in the corner of the treehouse stronghold, where most transactions were conducted through barter. While the official stronghold sold items at exorbitant prices, they did not forbid private transactions among players.

Using a translator crafted through Intermediate Engineering, Yu Xunhuan had traded with a [Jewelcrafting] player for a pair of earrings granting +3 Agility.

Although such items could be crafted even with Beginner Jewelcrafting, the materials were expensive, and the expenses incurred during the leveling-up process of Jewelcrafting were far greater than those of Alchemy, requiring all sorts of precious gemstones. The jewelcrafter certainly wouldn't be willing to sell a pair of +3 Agility earrings cheaply, but if the price were too high, no one would buy them either—after all, why spend that kind of money when you could buy other equipment instead? People who had all seven equipment slots completely filled were, after all, a rare minority these days.