Chapter 42

The stir-fried meat slices, quickly cooked over intense heat, filled the air with a savory aroma mixed with the subtle spiciness of Jueyun Chilis. It was an excellent choice whether as an appetizer or with rice.

Xiangling had a sudden inspiration to use Slime Condensate instead of egg white when marinating the meat, resulting in exceptionally tender slices. Even Zhu Zi, who wasn't particularly fond of spicy food, couldn't help but have an extra bowl of rice because of it.

Xia Zhi also found the dish delicious and said, "That's truly a brilliant idea."

Xiangling smiled happily and asked, "Does Mr. Xia have any suggestions for improvement?"

After some thought, Xia Zhi replied, "The knife work and cooking temperature are fine, but regarding the seasonings, I think we could..."

Xiangling carefully noted down his words and invited him to come back in the evening to try the improved version of the dish.

Xia Zhi gladly accepted, not because he couldn't afford meals, but because food always tasted better when someone else treated you to it.

After lunch, Xia Zhi and Zhu Zi returned to the shop.

Zhu Zi took out the rice paste they had brought back and pasted the red paper they had written in the morning on the wall.

Though the poster looked somewhat simple, it served its purpose well enough.

After cleaning up the scattered rice grains and paper scraps, and wiping the table, Zhu Zi prepared a pot of tea for the boss before sitting down to continue reading the book from the morning.

Xia Zhi sipped his tea while browsing the [Shop].

This time, he mainly looked at items related to jiangshi (Chinese vampires).

[Corpse Immobilization Talisman]

Quality: Iron

Type: Consumable

Properties: None

Effect: When attached to a jiangshi, it can immobilize them. Duration varies based on the jiangshi's strength.

Hidden Effect: None

Price: 2 points

This was a relatively cheap item specifically for use against jiangshi, with a simple but practical effect.

It looked somewhat similar to the talisman on Qiqi's forehead, but the patterns written on it were ethereal blue, giving it a more mystical appearance.

He wondered how long it could immobilize Qiqi...

Before today, Xia Zhi might have considered buying this item, but judging from this morning's events, Qiqi would clearly be visiting the shop frequently for the incense. Her progress bar could be easily filled, making this item unnecessary.

Xia Zhi glanced at it before moving his gaze downward.

[Corpse Pearl]

Quality: Iron

Type: Accessory

Properties: None

Effect: When worn by a jiangshi, it maintains their body temperature at a cold state.

Hidden Effect: None

Price: 3 points

This was a beautiful ethereal blue crystal sphere.

Jiangshi prefer cold environments, and wearing this pearl would be like carrying a portable refrigerator—they wouldn't feel uncomfortable even standing in sunlight.

If Qiqi had this Corpse Pearl, she wouldn't need to gather herbs only at night.

It was certainly an essential item for any jiangshi's daily life and travels.

Xia Zhi continued looking down to find another item with the same name.

[Corpse Pearl]

Quality: Silver

Type: Accessory

Properties: None

Effect: When worn by a jiangshi, it maintains their body temperature at a cold state and preserves their complete consciousness.

Hidden Effect: None

Price: 30 points

Compared to the Iron Corpse Pearl, the Silver version had an additional effect of helping jiangshi maintain their consciousness.

Reflecting on Qiqi's behavior this morning, Xia Zhi realized she indeed severely lacked emotions and common sense, to the point where she couldn't even complete her sentences in one go, indicating serious deterioration of her consciousness.

If this continued, she might eventually forget who she was.

Xia Zhi couldn't help but sigh softly at this thought.

He actually had quite a fondness for Qiqi, not because of her small, cute, and adorable appearance, but because of their similar experiences.

Qiqi had died once, and so had Xia Zhi.

Qiqi had lost her sense of taste, and Xia Zhi had lost his sight.

Qiqi was from hundreds of years ago, alone in present-day Liyue, while Xia Zhi was from another world, equally lonely here.

These factors combined gave Xia Zhi a sense of kinship with Qiqi.

If possible, he wanted to help this pitiful jiangshi girl, at least to help her continue living like a normal person.

The Silver Corpse Pearl would be an excellent choice for Qiqi.

However, its price of 30 points was quite steep for Xia Zhi's current situation.

If he were to craft the remaining [Calming Pills] into [Calming Incense] for recycling, he could gather enough points, but he had his own uses for the [Calming Incense]...

Xia Zhi shook his head.

Never mind, he would put this matter aside for now and wait until he obtained the golden chest from Qiqi.

Xia Zhi closed the [Shop] and opened his [Personal] panel.

It displayed his various stats: Life, Mana, Stamina, Equipment, Skills...

Xia Zhi skipped past the normal green stats, focusing only on one particularly conspicuous grey stat.

That was the data for his two eyes.

Left Eye: Blind [Unknown Divine Nature Erosion]

Right Eye: Blind [Unknown Divine Nature Erosion]

Strangely, his blindness should have been classified as an injury abnormal state and shown in red, but the system displayed it as a grey sealed state instead.

This wasn't the first time Xia Zhi had opened his [Personal] panel to look at this grey stat for his eyes.

He had thought about this for a long time.

If his eyes were in a red abnormal state, he could purchase the [Complete Vitality Recovery Potion] from the [Shop] and use its instant recovery property to cure his blindness.

But if his eyes were in a grey sealed state, then neither high-level light magic nor healing potions would work, because his eyes weren't actually injured—he could only regain his sight by breaking the seal.

This made things quite complicated.

Because in the [Shop], any items that could deal with divine nature or break divine seals—things like the God-Devouring Art, the All-Magic Breaking Blade, or the World Dagger Projection—were all extremely expensive.

This meant Xia Zhi couldn't restore his vision anytime soon and would have to continue using his limited detection range as his eyes.

Though this caused some inconvenience, it didn't significantly affect his daily life.

Xia Zhi suddenly thought of the external magical organ unique to people of this world—the Vision.

When faced with circumstances beyond their control, people often sigh at their own powerlessness.

But at life's steepest turning points, if a mortal's "desire" reaches its peak, the gods' gaze will descend upon them.

This was the "Vision," an external magical organ granted to those acknowledged by the gods, used to channel elemental power. The realm above belongs to the gods. Vision holders walk the earth, and when they pass on, the chosen ones will ascend to the sky.

However, Xia Zhi couldn't obtain a "Vision" because he was from another world.

Outsiders don't belong to this world's living beings, so they can only watch from the sidelines.

Looking at the grey stats on his system panel, Xia Zhi thought with some amusement that, from a certain perspective, he could be considered to have two Visions of his own?