Chapter 42: Seed of Spirit

This was Lin Ye's first time dancing.

As Little Ye had said, in the carnival atmosphere, whether one could dance or not wasn't particularly important.

The world gradually collapsed amidst the revelry, surviving creatures left the city through system teleportation, and other seats disintegrated after their owners departed.

Finally, only the theater remained in the entire world.

Large amounts of free-floating spiritual energy merged into the theater, and Lin Ye could feel his own spiritual energy continuously growing.

"So this is the spiritual world?"

Lin Ye curiously perceived the changes around him, deepening his understanding of collapse runes.

"This is the boundary between fantasy and reality. Of course, spirit and matter aren't actually so clearly divided."

Little Ye spun with Lin Ye on stage as the theater began collapsing, until only the illuminated stage remained in the darkness.

Little Ye studied Lin Ye carefully for a moment, then broke off a small piece from the crystal and handed it to him.

When Lin Ye tried to take it, the crystal melted into his hand.

Simultaneously, a speck of light flashed within Lin Ye's consciousness. As spiritual energy merged with the light particle, Lin Ye felt his mind clear significantly, and using spiritual energy became smoother.

"What is this?"

Lin Ye asked.

"A Seed of Spirit - the foundation of individual consciousness. It can grow on its own to enhance your spiritual strength and purify your spiritual energy. You're currently too weak to handle more than this small piece. It's only because of the system event that we could obtain this so easily. The original form of what we robbed is quite terrifying - be careful when you visit the spiritual world in the future."

Little Ye said with a mischievous smile.

"Will you appear when I visit the spiritual world later?"

Lin Ye wasn't particularly concerned. Since the other party wanted to eat him anyway, robbing them was justified - better than surrendering to death.

"Hard to say. This time was special because of the Carnival Feast's nature - anyone meeting the conditions could join. There's a certain spiritual connection between us, which is why I could enter here."

Little Ye stored the transparent crystal as she spoke.

The lights went out, and the stage began collapsing. Lin Ye took one last look at Little Ye and said:

"Goodbye then."

"See you~"

Little Ye waved farewell.

Lin Ye climbed out of bed in the shelter. The Crimson Nun had already left, and now there was a new door on the shelter wall leading to the loot space.

"My turn! Draw!"

Temporarily setting aside thoughts about the corpses in the loot space, Lin Ye decided to do his daily card draw first.

This time, the card showed a blood-red owl.

As the card dissipated, a crimson-feathered owl materialized at the shelter's center.

It rotated its head, its yellow-ringed, black-centered eyes staring directly at Lin Ye.

Lin Ye could see his own reflection in those eyes.

'Not edible... but kinda cute.'

Lin Ye tentatively stroked its head. Instead of resisting, the owl leaned into the touch.

"Hoot."

"Huh? You say you can help me process the loot?"

"Hoot."

"That's great! I'll leave the loot space to you then."

"Hoot."

"You need my help? You can't handle things that are too heavy? Of course I'll help."

After some communication, Lin Ye realized the owl seemed constrained - it could only discuss matters related to assisting him.

Man and owl began processing the loot. Under the owl's guidance, Lin Ye's shelter became much more organized, with items properly categorized.

They extracted mutation organs from corpses and the impure crystals within them.

Lin Ye casually submitted two blueprint quests regarding first-tier mutation organs.

One quest - for the first-tier spiritual energy crystal maker blueprint - completed immediately.

The system embedded the first-tier spiritual energy crystal maker into the shelter wall - a square metal box. It required no materials and could automatically produce 2 first-tier spiritual energy crystals daily.

Besides mutation organs, Lin Ye obtained many low-quality spiritual energy items like black robes and spiritual greatswords. These couldn't replace his current equipment, serving only as materials.

Following the owl's instructions, Lin Ye also harvested many usable material components from the corpses for crafting spiritual items.

The remaining corpses weren't wasted either. After replenishing ammunition for his CL0 Pistol, Lin Ye chopped most corpses into chunks and listed them in the trading area at 10 red coins per chunk.

The leftover corpses would serve as practice material for splice runes.

After clearing the loot space, Lin Ye checked system notifications:

Storing the invitation, Lin Ye had no immediate plans to participate. Without Little Ye this time, he might not have survived. The Carnival Day would certainly be more dangerous - he wasn't ready yet.

"Do you eat?"

"Hoot."

"Never mind then."

Lin Ye prepared breakfast for himself, then poured some hot water over the Abyssal Egg and the alien egg.

"Hoot."

"Why water? Water is the source of life. I'm trying to hatch them, and hot water simulates a warm environment. Can you incubate eggs?"

"Hoot."

"You say they need mutation creature flesh? Fine, I've got plenty from this haul. Does it need heating?"

"Hoot."

"Alright, I'll try."

Lin Ye took some flesh from the loot space and placed it on the eggs... then added more hot water for good measure.

"This should work, right? Hope they hatch something cute - not an actual alien."

After finishing breakfast, Lin Ye opened the group chat while eating.

"So terrifying - so many died. Glad I didn't go."

"Actually, if you didn't drink that Carnival Potion, you'd be fine just hiding somewhere remote. Nobody would specifically hunt you."

"With their minds gone mad, of course they wouldn't search systematically."

"Didn't the system warn you? Who'd dare drink that stuff?"

"Huh? You got system warnings about the Carnival Potion? I didn't!"

"Confirmed - the guy above is a pro."

"A pro who drank the potion and survived? Impressive."

"Nah, I never dared touch that mystery bottle."