Chapter 076: Getting Rich (Please Vote for Recommendations!)

Poison mist!

Above the sea of flowers, wisps of blue, green, and purple poison mist writhed like tiny serpents, drifting and playing among the blossoms at will. Even without the enhanced vision from the “Poison Control” ability, one could still see faint, milky-white fog lingering over the flower field.

“Something’s not right here.”

Before Tang Mubai could speak, Lin Huafeng’s voice rang out in a low, grave tone. “There’s something wrong with this flower field. I suspect it’s poisonous!”

He couldn’t see the color of the poison mist, but his experience told him enough to be wary.

Tang Mubai admired this, and as he withdrew his special vision, he asked, “Uncle Lin, if the flower field is really poisonous, how do we get across?”

“Just hold your breath,” Lin Huafeng replied with a smile. “A professional martial artist can easily hold their breath for three minutes. As long as we move quickly, we’ll get through without much trouble.”

“That… makes sense,” Tang Mubai replied with a sheepish chuckle.

He hadn’t thought of that. For most people, such a concentration of poisonous mist would be deadly. But to Tang Mubai, these mists were gifts from nature itself!

Compared to the “Pressure Control” ability, “Poison Control” was even more sinister—capable of killing without a trace.

Taking advantage of the moment when Lin Huafeng turned to instruct the others to hold their breath and cross the field, Tang Mubai secretly activated his “Poison Control” ability, gathering the poison mist from the surrounding flowers into a single, condensed mass.

The primary range of “Pressure Control” was ten meters in radius. “Poison Control” was about the same. Centered on Tang Mubai, all the poisonous gases within ten meters were pulled by an invisible force, swirling together and condensing into a pellet, which dropped to the ground.

The entire process took less than five seconds.

By the time Lin Huafeng finished his instructions and turned back, he hadn’t noticed a thing.

At his signal, everyone took a deep breath, sped up their pace, and plunged into the flower sea.

As they moved, Tang Mubai deliberately guided the remaining poison gases to the sides, preventing anyone who might run out of breath from inhaling them.

With this double protection, the group quickly reached the center of the flower field.

Just then—

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

A sudden flurry of sharp winds tore through the air. From both sides of the line they walked in, huge insects erupted from the ground—each a meter and a half long, with alternating bands of black and red, their bodies round and covered in dense, jointed limbs on either side, their skin deeply wrinkled. These monstrous centipedes launched themselves at the group.

“Hundred-legged medicinal bugs! Everyone, be careful!” Lin Huafeng shouted in alarm, his spirits rallying his men.

Swish! Squelch! Boom!

The moment Lin Huafeng’s warning rang out, the seasoned mercenaries were already brandishing their weapons, hacking at the grotesque attackers.

Though the giant insects—dubbed “hundred-legged medicinal bugs”—had ambushed the group, they were of only average strength, merely ordinary-level threats.

Neither Lin Huafeng nor his men needed firearms; their cold steel alone was enough to slice the bugs in half, shatter them to pieces, or chop them to bits.

[Vitality +25]

[Vitality +31]

[Vitality +40]

[Vitality +28]

[Vitality +36]

…

A stream of recovery prompts flashed swiftly through Tang Mubai’s mind as he wielded his blade.

At first, he barely noticed, but once the last bug had been slain, he was struck by a realization: this time, the system had recovered his vitality without asking “Confirm recovery?”

Previously, every time the system detected lost vitality, it would display a prompt: “Vitality detected. Recover?” Only when he responded with “yes” would the recovery begin.

But now, there was no prompt—the system recovered vitality automatically!

“So, auto-recovery of vitality is the new function after the system upgrade?” Tang Mubai understood at last.

No other explanation made sense. The system had just upgraded, and now vitality was being recovered automatically—no mere coincidence.

“Auto-recovery of lost vitality is a decent new feature,” he mused. “But I wonder if the range has increased as well?”

Tang Mubai thought back. If he remembered correctly, when he shot the long-armed monkey yesterday afternoon—about two hundred meters away—there was no recovery prompt. The monkey died, but he received no notice, indicating that the recovery range was either unchanged or just under two hundred meters—outside his radius.

Which was more likely? Tang Mubai was eager to find out.

He would test the recovery range at the first opportunity, but now wasn’t the right time—the others were all around. So for now, he matched their excitement, beaming with joy.

“So, Uncle Lin, how many of those hundred-legged bugs did we get?” he asked quickly.

“Hahaha!” Lin Huafeng, shielded by a protective energy field against the poison, finished counting and grinned widely. “We hit the jackpot—fifty-four of them!”

“That many?” Tang Mubai was thrilled. “That’s quite a haul.”

Hundred-legged medicinal bugs were poisonous creatures that survived by absorbing toxic gases. Though their mouths contained venom glands, their flesh, blood, and limbs were rare medicinal ingredients, valuable for making all kinds of elixirs suitable for both the ordinary and martial artists.

Hence their name—hundred-legged medicinal bugs.

Because their bodies were valuable, each one fetched a market price of thirty to fifty thousand federal coins!

In just a few minutes, the group had slain fifty-four of them—worth nearly two million coins.

Making money had never been easier.

Elated, Lin Huafeng stood up and shouted, “This flower field is vast, and there must be more bugs living underground. Pair up and search! Kill every last one you find!”

Swish! Swish! Swish!

The others, still holding their breath, wasted no words. They brandished their weapons and split into pairs, fanning out in all directions.

Tang Mubai took the opportunity to gather the poison mist and gases into pellets, tucking them into his pocket.

No one noticed—everyone was too busy hunting the bugs. Even Yang Kai was locked in fierce combat with a bug that had emerged from the earth, his warblade flashing.

Tang Mubai surveyed the scene, content, and continued collecting poison pellets, his lifespan steadily increasing.

Until—

A bestial roar suddenly split the air.

Tang Mubai turned to look and saw a three-meter-long hundred-legged bug burst from the ground, ambushing two of the paired men. Although they dodged in time, this ferocious, wild creature was much faster than its smaller kin. As it shot past, its razor-sharp limbs neatly severed an arm from each of the two men!