Chapter 79

"Lan Nuo, try this, the intoxicating juice, a specialty of the East Continent."

Jiang Zhulang took the shallow cup filled with light pink intoxicating juice from Luo Xia's hand and drank it all in one gulp.

The appearance of the intoxicated fruit is somewhat like a fig. The thin, easily torn skin contains a pool of sweet but not greasy juice with a rich rose scent. It is naturally the most suitable fruit to be eaten.

Because it is difficult to store, it can only be seen near its origin on the east side of the continent of Nidos.

Luo Xiya was eager to get some feedback. Jiang Zhulang smiled and nodded: "Yeah, it tastes good."

Jiang Zhulang returned to the real world and tried to escape, trying his best to delay the time of entering the Nidos continent, but time is fair and never stops for anyone, even if the person who prayed secretly has the head of creation.

Since the final chapter of the comic was published, it seems that the stories of "Lano", Roshia, Martin, Cross and others have come to a perfect end. During this period of time, the atmosphere in the forum was very good and harmonious, and many readers left messages asking for information about the new pit.

At the same time, due to Jiang Zhulang's continuous donations to charity organizations and the impact of the sensational reverse live broadcast, he was unprecedentedly named the "most influential cartoonist" in the official list of the most influential people on the Internet in the year.

Thanks to this, many companies also negotiated with the Manga Cat website about the animation and film adaptation of his works. In the end, Jiang Zhulang chose the one with the best reputation based on the advice of the new editor.

Combined with the subscriptions and rewards from the previous comic book serialization period, as well as the copyright fees received now, the money in Jiang Zhulang's bank card is enough for him to eat, drink and have fun for the rest of his life, which is eerily similar to "Lan Nuo".

In the last second before the time freeze on the continent of Nidos ended, Jiang Zhulang closed his eyes and entered the world that he was extremely familiar with but also extremely reluctant to leave.

He traveled around the mainland with the harassed Roshia, purely for fun and without any purpose.

Oh no, maybe they did bring some - their destination is rich in a kind of precious magic mineral, and is also a food capital famous in mainland China.

After leaving the Holy Spirit Potion Society, Martin devoted all his energy to improving the situation of homeless beggars. With his influence as a potion master and the (few) connections he had accumulated over the years, he persuaded some new nobles who were in urgent need of fame to jointly establish schools and shelters, teach homeless children basic work skills, and provide them with a place to stay.

The outstanding students in the school will receive letters of recommendation and work in the shops or homes of wealthy businessmen and gentlemen, while the rest will also be able to find jobs that can support their livings thanks to the skills and experience acquired in the school.

Of course, this kind of help is not free. After they get a job, they must pay half of their monthly salary to the school until all expenses incurred during the period are paid off.

This fee is neither too much nor too little, and it can be paid off in about a year.

As for Cross, after the All Souls Celebration ended, he returned to the Tiad family castle.

The news from the celebration reached the ears of the former owner and his wife, and they finally believed that their child - their most beloved child, Leir, had died alone in the dark underground.

Even though the two cried, made a fuss, shouted and cursed, whether they cursed Cross for not dying in place of his brother or begged him to bring back his brother's body, Cross ignored them all and only fed them medicine to suppress their blood talent every day, and sent servants who were loyal to him to take care of their daily lives.

"You unfilial son! How dare you do this!!"

Cross sneered and brushed away the weak hand of the slovenly man with a dark beard in front of him. He suddenly realized that he was so old and had lost his arcane powers. He was no different from the ordinary people he hated the most - irritable, weak and powerless, and couldn't even hold a piece of clothing.

He said calmly, "At least you still have food and drink, which is much better than what I experienced back then, isn't it?"

Jiang Zhulang smiled and told Luo Xia about the recent situation of Martin and Cross mentioned in the letter.

The letters between the two men are just like their personalities.

Martin wrote five pages of eloquent description, even writing about the taste, shape and ingredients of the cake he ate, for fear of missing anything.

Just by looking at the thin and dense handwriting on the letter, Jiang Zhulang could imagine his nagging tone.

The letter from Cross was completely different from Martin's. His handwriting was sharp, but the font was elegant and lingering, the most popular cursive font among the nobility. His tone was neither hurried nor slow, like his deep cello. He briefly recounted what happened in the old house. Although his tone was very nonchalant, his handwriting was still heavier when he talked about his parents.

Jiang Zhulang thought that he would probably never be able to reconcile with his biased parents. But at least, the people who deliberately wanted to hurt him were no longer around.

Although the Tiard family has declined, it is still alive and well. With the pile of business management secrets he left him, I believe Cross can restore the family's glory.

"Look, Lanno," Roshia moved his stool a little closer to him. He pointed to the end of the letter between Martin and Cross, and they both said the same thing: "Wait for me, I'll come to play/chat with you in a few days."

Jiang Zhulang's heart sank, a heavy and sour emotion surged like a tide, almost drowning him. He looked at the countdown on the translucent light screen reflexively, calculating silently.

Luo Xiya: "They have a good understanding of each other. There are only five days left before the end of this month. Can they make it here in time?"

"Yes." He stayed on the mainland of Nidos for only five days. He didn't want Roshia to notice anything unusual and add to his worries, so he smiled softly and said, "If they can't catch up, I won't wait for them."

Luoshia also smiled, his eyes were as bright as stars. The haze of the past had disappeared without a trace. Apart from the hideous scars and artificial eyes on his face, there was no trace of the darkness of the past.

He said, "Okay, after five days, if we don't see anyone, we'll set off to the next place."

He took out a map with many marks on it and asked, "Lan Nuo, where do you want to go next?"

Jiang Zhulang opened his mouth and suddenly felt as if his throat was stuck with the stickiest candy. It was dry and blocked, and he couldn't make a sound.

Luo Xiya lowered his head in thought, not noticing his awkwardness, and said, "How is Jingeli County? The lilacs are in full bloom, and you can taste lilac honey and a hundred-flower beef and mutton stew."

"Hmm... or Lacewood City. If you go there, you can join the Beast Hunters' Meeting. Maybe you can become the leader, Lanno."

"Or else..."

Jiang Zhulang's eyes turned from his whorls of hair to the map - the edges were a little curled and burred, probably because the owner opened it frequently to check. All the interesting towns, villages and counties were densely annotated by Luo Xiya:

What are the characteristics, what festivals and celebrations are there, whether there are precious alchemy and potion materials, and when is the best time to go and play.

They are densely packed all over the map, but they don't look messy. Instead, they are well-organized and orderly.

Roshia is seriously planning a trip with her friends.

Unlike him, Luo Xiya just nodded in agreement to everything he said. Even though he knew he had no chance to accompany him to the next destination, Jiang Zhulang suddenly became serious and joined him to plan a destination that would never be reached.

He pointed his white fingertips at the pale yellow leather paper. "Here, how about it?"

That village, marked with a star by Roshia, is rich in beautiful star minerals. This dark purple mineral with fine sparkles of varying sizes can be polished into jewelry and is also an excellent alchemy adhesive material.

Roshia's eyes fell on his fingertips, a little confused: "Hmm? Here? But it's boring here. There are no delicious food or beautiful scenery except for ore. Lannuo, you don't like it."

His tone was normal, as if he was stating what he liked and didn't like to eat, as if it was natural and normal.

"But you like it. You want to go." Jiang Zhulang said firmly. "Luo Xiya, didn't you notice that the few one-star places here all produce alchemy materials, and they are what you like."

Luo Xiya wanted to say something, but was interrupted by Jiang Zhulang: "Luo Xiya, think more about yourself. There is no need to accommodate me in everything. Why can't our next destination be the place you want to go? Do you think I am unwilling to accompany you?"

Luo Xiya shook his head hurriedly: "Of course not! I'll go wherever you say, I'll listen to you."

Jiang Zhulang touched his head, sighed, and clicked on several places in succession, all of which were places where materials were produced. "Okay, then let's go to these places one by one."

After deciding on the next destination, Jiang Zhulang and Luo Xia spent the remaining five days wandering around restaurants of all sizes.

As a renowned food capital, there are thousands of restaurants and hotels of all sizes here, ranging from exquisite and luxurious expensive dishes to simple prefabricated houses on the street, all of which have their own characteristics and are full of color, aroma and taste.

Even though Jiang Zhulang and Luo Xia ate out three meals a day and a midnight snack, there were still most of the restaurants they had not tried.

Wiping his mouth, Roshia said, "Five days have passed so quickly. There are still many things I haven't eaten. However, Martin and Cross are really slow. They haven't arrived in five days. It seems that we really don't need to wait for them."

"Pfft," Jiang Zhulang chuckled, facing Luo Xiya's blank eyes, and said with a smile: "These five days have been really fast and slow."

Luo Xiya coughed lightly in embarrassment, and obviously realized his own double standard. He paused and said righteously: "Lan Nuo, how can you compare with them? Waiting for them, tsk, one day is too much, let alone five days."

Jiang Zhulang took out a few gold coins from his storage ring and placed them on the table. He walked slowly on the street with him and sighed, "Tell me, can I wait for them before twelve o'clock tonight?"

"You want to stay up late again? You've been going to bed later and later recently. Don't stay up tonight. I'll supervise you." Luo Xia shook his head in disapproval, brushed his fingertips over the dark circles under his eyes, and tapped on his apple cheeks.

He said: "If you stay up late again, be careful of getting dark circles under your eyes."

Jiang Zhulang looked up at the setting sun in the sky and said, "Not tonight."

His voice was light, ethereal and vague. The setting sun melted gold and covered his entire body with a layer of golden gauze. It was so bright and bright that it seemed as if his entire body was about to melt into the golden light and float away.

Looking at Lanno like this, Luo Xia felt an inexplicable panic, as if if he didn't say or do something, he would lose him forever.

The senseless panic drove Roshia to take a step forward and grab Lanno's hand, which was hanging naturally at his side. His robe seemed a little too big, and the hem fluttered in the wind, like a fluttering butterfly or a fluttering bird.

"Lan Nuo, when we leave tomorrow morning, can we buy a bowl of meat and bean soup? I remember you said it was delicious."

Jiang Zhulang's eyelashes trembled slightly, hiding the reluctance that was about to overflow from his eyes, and he did not give a definite answer.

Not receiving a reply, Luo Txia shook his hand and said in a hoarse voice: "Don't you want to drink meat bean soup? Well, it's a bit greasy to eat in the morning, so..."

Jiang Zhulang pulled his hand away and sighed silently. He did not look back.

"I don't know, when did you become such a foodie? You've just eaten your fill, and you're already planning what to eat tomorrow?"

His voice was full of laughter, and everything seemed normal. Luo Xiya breathed a sigh of relief and shook his head to drive away the groundless speculation that had just occurred to him.

——He was really out of his mind. How could he think that Lannuo would disappear?

He didn't care about his friend's teasing and simply accepted it, "Didn't I learn this from a certain little greedy cat? Who has already planned lunch, dinner and the next day's meals while eating in the morning?"

"Well, you, Roshia, actually laughed at me!"

The road from the restaurant to the hotel was neither long nor short, taking about half an hour. The last rays of the setting sun faded away, and the last ray of light was swallowed by the night.

Jiang Zhulang returned to his room with a normal look, and took out a few more storage rings from his storage ring, and laid them out on the table. Inside were placed gold coins, gems, prepared delicacies, magic potions, and rare minerals in different categories.

He removed the restrictions one by one, preparing to leave them for Luoshia.

Then he took the little spider out of his arms and stroked it gently. He had remixed the poison inside to make it more powerful and more effective.

Unfortunately, he didn't know how to resolve the master contract.

He raised his eyes and stared into the void. The bright red countdown kept decreasing. Then he looked out the window, quietly watching the street with fewer and fewer pedestrians.

"What are you looking at?"

Luo Xia, who had changed into home clothes, pushed the door open, stood beside the bed and looked out with him.

Jiang Zhulang replied: "Wait for the carriage."

Luo Xiya raised his eyebrows and ruffled his hair fiercely. "Waiting for Martin and the others? Given his laziness, they might have already gone to bed. As for Cross... humph, he's even farther away than Martin."

"Yeah, it's still far away." Jiang Zhulang raised his head, his dark eyes were complex and incomprehensible to Luo Xiya, "Tell me, can I wait for them tonight?"

Luo Xiya's voice was exceptionally gentle. "Do you really want to wait that long? Must it be today?"

"Well, it has to be today."

"Okay, I'll accompany you."

Although she didn't know why Lannuo was so persistent tonight, Luoxia still moved a chair and sat with him, enjoying the night breeze and waiting.

The room was silent for a long time, and Jiang Zhulang called out softly, "Luo Xiya."

"Um?"

"Nothing, I just suddenly wanted to call you."

"Okay, I'm here."

"Luo Xiya...you," he paused, facing his friend's puzzled eyes, and continued: "You have to eat on time, you know? Don't rush to deny it, don't I know you, once you start doing experiments, you want to stick to the alchemy table, you can't remember anything, and you like to stay up late to do experiments."

"You teach me a lot, but what about you? You stay up from dawn to dawn... Sometimes you forget to close the windows of the alchemy room, and you wear so little that the cold wind chills you to the bone, and you don't even remember to put on more clothes..."

Luo Xiya laughed: "Why are you scolding me all of a sudden... Aren't you here?"

Jiang Zhulang: "..." He opened his mouth and the words gradually faded away.

He quietly watched the countdown with only one minute left, and finally said: "Remember what I said."

"These? Okay, I'll remember them all."

"No, all... never mind. I'd better not remember them."

Luoshia was a little confused and tilted his head.

Jiang Zhulang turned around, looked at the door with regret, and said, "It seems that they were unable to make it today..."

"Ding——The world is about to reject the host's consciousness, please be prepared"

"five"

"When I see them, I will definitely teach them a lesson for keeping you waiting for so long."

"Four"

Outside the quiet street, the sound of horse hooves came from far away and was particularly clear on the bluestone road.

"Look, Lanno, it's the Tiard family's carriage!"

Jiang Zhulang turned around suddenly, and the family crest that he had personally drawn and designed was emitting a bright light in the darkness.

"three"

“Bang, bang, bang—”

"Lano, Cross and I are here, open the door~" It was Martin's cheerful voice.

"two"

"one"

Before Jiang Zhulang could get up, a huge suction force spread throughout his body. The whole world quickly faded, and the space collapsed and squeezed, expressing its rejection of him.

Wait a little longer, wait a little longer!

He wanted to struggle, but he couldn't move. Due to the influence of conscious detachment, Roshia opened the door so slowly that he didn't see the thin door open until the last glance.

"System disconnected, I wish the host a wonderful life in the big world..."

…

When he opened his eyes again, Jiang Zhulang had returned to reality. He could feel that the link deep in his soul had been broken. No matter how much alcohol he drank or how much sleep he got, he could not set foot on the land of Nidos continent.

*

The breeze blew, blowing Martin's clothes and Cross's hair. He murmured, "Lan... eh? What was I just about to say? Oh, Roshia, you finally opened the door!"

Martin squeezed in through the door, followed by Cross. He looked around the room and pouted in disdain: "Are you alone?"

Martin looked at him strangely: "Isn't Roshia one person or two people?"

Cross frowned, raised his hand to touch his chest, and murmured to himself: "No, I always feel that there should be another person..."

"Who said I was alone? Obviously there is..." Luo Xia turned around with a sense of something, only to see two chairs placed side by side next to the wide open window.

He frowned, feeling lost.

It seems that he forgot something.

Martin's loud shouting interrupted Roshia's meditation. He didn't notice the unusual silence between the two and shouted, "Roshia, you are so rich?! I feel richer than... Hey, I just wanted to say who is richer than?"

"Oh, never mind. You actually put a storage ring filled with gold coins, gems, potions, minerals, etc. on the table so carelessly? And there's no restriction on it!"

"If I didn't have strong self-control, Martin, I would have taken them away from you long ago. Why don't you put them away quickly?"

Luo Xia shook his head, trying his best to ignore the sense of loss that welled up in his heart, and picked up the gorgeous storage rings one by one.

I always felt that they shouldn't be his.

But, if it’s not his, then whose could it be?