64. Next journey
The water was a pleasant relief after the extreme fight and the harshness of more than three months of winter. Mei Lin was enjoying it, because after washing up,
After finishing her bath, Mei Lin washed her robe and went back to the fire to dry it. In the meantime, she sat on the cultivation mat next to the fire and took out the storage bags she had taken from the bandits.
It took nearly half a day for Mei Lin to open all the bags from the bandits in the first fight. She focused on opening only the storage bags from the first-stage bandits, as her current cultivation stage wasn't advanced enough to bypass the spirit senses imprinted on the other bags, which served as a seal against unauthorized access.
Inside the bags she could open, Mei Lin found only items for fighting and regular food. Disappointed and frustrated, she angrily threw all the opened storage bags into the fire. After they were consumed by the flames, Mei Lin poured herself a cup of tea, added more wood to the fire pit, and attempted to open one of the storage bags from the bandits she had killed the day before.
It wasn't until the evening that Mei Lin finally grasped how to bypass the spirit sense and open the storage bag. Inside, she discovered five thousand low-grade spirit stones, a bottle of cultivation pills, a bottle of healing pills, and various other necessities for survival in the wilderness. Mei Lin felt a surge of happiness at her findings and, after discarding the empty storage bag, she started to work on opening the second one.
Unlike the first bag, this one contained only ten thousand low-grade spirit stones, a lot of weapons, and no pills. "How the hell does he have nothing useful?" Mei Lin fumed with anger and tossed the storage bag into the fire.
After drinking the last cup of blood tea, Mei Lin felt immediately better and then adding more wood to the fire, she went up into her room.
****
Early next morning.
As Mei Lin woke up and prepared herself for the journey. This time she put the mattress from the bed into her storage ring, gathered some wood for a fire, and left the teahouse. Outside, it was slowly snowing, so Mei Lin put on her bamboo hat and began her journey toward Peng City.
Peng City was a month away inside the slug house. By foot, time will be shorted especially for first stage cultivator. Mei Lin went outside of the crater and for the last time looked at the house. The slug was hibernating and the house was very damaged from outside.
Before entertaining any thoughts of staying, Mei Lin decided to leave. Her objective was straightforward. Travel to the battlefield and collect blood or find blood flowers. If unsuccessful, she would think about it as a survival journey to the city. Mei Lin meticulously prepared for the long journey.
From their first experience with Li Wei, Mei Lin prepared some survival tools. A tent from one of the storage bags, items for starting a fire, a pot for cooking, and more. As the sun slowly rose, Mei Lin navigated through the fresh snow toward the last battlefield where the caravan had been before the fight ended.
Mei Lin discovered that she was not as fast as she had anticipated. Even after reaching the first stage of BT, her physical strength wasn't as impressive as she had hoped. Her pace was similar to that of an ordinary non-cultivator, and none of her power-ups compensated for the lack of physical strength. She was still weak, and her injuries didn't help at all. Only her fighting power and beauty had increased significantly. It could be said she was nearly an immortal enemy against others in the BT realm, thanks to the blood path. Without it, she would have been as strong as a non-cultivator.