Chapter 91: The Diviner

With a click, Yeda opened the room door.

A fierce blast of wind nearly drove his eyes shut.

Snowflakes slapped against his face and body with sharp, stinging patter.

At that moment, Yeda felt as if he were a banner snapping wildly in the gale.

"So this is the summit?"

He pressed a hand against the hood of his down jacket to keep it from being blown away.

After a moment of adjusting, he finally managed to open his eyes and see clearly. Beyond the door lay the edge of a cliff, where wind and snow raged in earnest.

And yet...

The view from the cliff was truly splendid.

The snow did not drift down gently as one might imagine; instead, it fell slanted under the force of the wind.

Much of it struck the cliff face, then tumbled toward the abyss below, quickly building into a thick white carpet.

But amid that snow-built blanket of white, gray-green things were moving, and there were also red blossoms, or grasses, or something like that, dotting the snowfield with bright pinpricks of crimson, brilliant as winter plum blossoms in frost.

Because of the distance, and the storm...

Even with his excellent eyesight, Yeda could not make out what they were.

Fortunately...

The analytical power of his appraisal glasses ignored distance entirely.

As long as he could see it, they could analyze it.

Blood Flower: an important ingredient used in making life potions.

Corpse Wolf, Tier Two: a cursed monster that feels no pain, possesses strong attack power, and even has a deadly poison skill. Being bitten by one would be extremely troublesome.

PS: the rotting heart of a Corpse Wolf is an important ingredient used in making restorative potions. Surprised?

At the bottom of the cliff were not only two kinds of medicinal materials, but also a pack of Tier Two monsters.

Putting aside the fact that both herbs were urgently needed...

Just the Corpse Wolves alone were enough to excite Yeda.

Because if he killed two more kinds of monsters, he would complete the Monster Codex quest to collect ten monster entries!

Then Yeda would obtain the beast tamer profession as a secondary class.

Whoosh!

Yeda immediately drew out his spirit bow and condensed a stone arrow.

After ranking up, his mental strength and control had indeed improved quite a bit.

This time, it took him...

only three seconds to form the bow and arrow.

One must know that before reaching Tier Three, it had taken Yeda nearly half a minute just to manifest the spirit bow, not to mention the time needed to condense a stone arrow.

Whoosh!

Yeda took aim at one of the Corpse Wolves and released the bowstring.

The stone arrow shot out at terrifying speed!

But...

What Yeda had not expected was that the arrow was absurdly afraid of wind.

A savage gale roared in.

Not only the arrow, even Yeda himself was blown askew and nearly lost his footing.

When he steadied himself again and looked down from the cliff, the stone arrow had already been blown who knew where. It had not struck the Corpse Wolf, nor even brushed a single hair.

No good. Still too far.

It seemed...

He would have to wait until the storm passed before coming out to try again.

The wind was so unbearable that Yeda could not stand it any longer. He simply returned to the stone house.

Once he shut the door, the temperature inside rose at once.

He hurriedly took off his down jacket and hung it up.

Since he could not go out for the time being...

He might as well deal with lunch first.

Yeda carried over the pile of bamboo shoots he had dug up earlier and placed them beside the stove, peeling off the outer skins while tossing the peelings into the fire as fuel.

While working on the bamboo shoots, Yeda also opened the communication channel to check the players' situation.

Communication Channel

"This weather changed in an instant. It's so cold it came without any warning at all! My fingers are frostbitten, sob sob!"

"My ears and fingers have turned a bit purple too. Does anyone have a good way to recover?"

"What do you mean without warning? Yesterday's announcement already forecast the cold wave, and the temperature this morning was already much lower than yesterday. At a time like this, you still ran around everywhere. Serves you right for freezing to death!"

"What's wrong with the person above? We're all victims here. Do you really need to be so sarcastic?"

"Stop arguing. Does anyone have anything to keep warm with? A bowl of hot soup would be great too!"

"I'm about to freeze to death!"

"Hot soup... I want some too. I remember that the Bear Slayer expert used to sell soup. Why hasn't he come out to sell it these past two days? Sob, I miss the Bear Slayer expert so much!"

"I want soup too."

"On a ghostly day like this, if I could have a bowl of steaming hot soup, my happiness would definitely go up by a hundred percent!"

"My mom used to make soup for me every day, and I thought she was a nuisance. Now I'm the one in tears. I miss my mom so much..."

Bear Slayer Expert, one bowl of hot soup please! I have wood.

Same here. I've gathered quite a bit of wood these past few days. Expert, could you sell us a bowl of soup?

Watching all the messages tagging him in the communication channel, most of them asking to buy soup, Yeda's lips curved slightly.

Looks like another good chance to fleece the fat sheep had come.

He glanced at his drinking water and bamboo. Neither was enough in quantity.

Yeda first bought some bamboo from the Trade Market. The other side was even considerate enough to ask whether he wanted it cut into sections, charging only one unit of inferior wood extra per bamboo stalk.

With prices and service like that, Yeda naturally added to the order without hesitation.

What he lacked most right now was time.

As for the fee of a few units of inferior wood, he could make that back with a single bowl of soup, earning fifty units of inferior wood.

If he used it purely to buy bamboo, it would not even be a dent.

Then...

Yeda bought a crate of water as well, but the seller had raised the price.

Before, a crate of water cost twenty-five units of inferior wood, but now it had gone up to fifty.

Yeda asked a few questions, and the other party's explanation was...

The river outside had frozen over, and obtaining water required a great deal of effort, so the price had had to rise.

Even though the price per crate had doubled, the profit was still lower than before; in fact, the seller said he was operating at a loss.

If he had not feared that raising it any further would drive away all buyers, he would have increased the price even more.

Hearing that, Yeda gave up on bargaining.

He simply completed the trade for a crate of water.

After all, he would earn it back. This bit of cost was something he had to bear.

Trade successful!

Inferior Wood -25, Wooden Crate +1

...

In another stone house,

Long Yi's younger brother, Long Er, looked grim to the extreme as he demanded, "Fortune-teller Aji, what exactly happened to my brother? Why has his name gone black?"

A man with long hair, gentle features, and a set of cotton-linen clothes stood by the fireplace and made a small gesture with his finger.

The next second,

a whirling mass of mist appeared before him.

This was Aji's ability: Painted Mirror into Sight.

Although his power was not suited to combat, his divination ability was extraordinarily popular in this world.

Not only could he use it to locate treasure chests, but he could also divine fortune and misfortune for players, and even help them find clues to certain problems.