Chapter 8
The blood-red rice field was a square rice field with a length and width of about 50 meters. Although the area was large, the crop yield was not high. There were not many ears of rice gathered.
After all, this was not some hybrid rice, and a stalk of blood-red rice might only have a few dozen grains of rice.
In addition, their school uniforms were all loose sportswear. The teenagers used their four school uniforms to wrap the rice up and filled their pockets, plundering all the ears of rice in the field.
There was no waste at all.
“Let’s go and eat,” Ji Ruo uttered happily.
Ji Ruo finally realized that the [Absolute Directional Sense] he had obtained before was a godly skill.
It might not be a coincidence that he had encountered the blood-red rice field. Ji Ruo’s strong desire to eat caused [Absolute Directional Sense] to subconsciously correct their direction.
After all, Ji Ruo had been leading the way, so he could basically overshadow other people’s luck. However, Ji Ruo’s luck was not any good. To be honest, he had not even won ‘another bottle’ a few times in his previous life in drinks lucky draws.
A moment later, the group arrived at a small hill eight hundred meters away. The terrain here was open, and there was little vegetation covering it. However, there was a depression on the top of the mountain, and a part of the mountain wall extended out to block it.
In the middle of the depression, there was a small spring, which was a natural campsite.
Liang Shixian said, “Without speaking about other matters, I’m impressed by your ability to lead the way.”
Ji Ruo grinned. “I’m a gold-class tour guide. This is nothing.”
Liang Shixian was amused. “You’re taking what I said as courtesy for real?”
The few of them squatted by the spring and washed the blood-red rice, performing a simple process of removing the shell.
Due to the lack of tools, the few of them directly rubbed it with their hands. Fortunately, the blood-red rice grains were larger than ordinary rice grains. Although it was a little troublesome, it was still acceptable.
Furthermore, this blood-red rice was also very beneficial to martial arts cultivation. Everyone was thrilled.
As night fell, the few of them rubbed from evening to late at night. They were so hungry that they saw stars. Finally, they rubbed enough for a meal. The young men’s fingers were stained with blood that would take a long time to wash off.
Then, they encountered a new problem.
“How do I cook this? Do we directly eat it raw?” Liu Neng asked, feeling a little embarrassed.
Liang Shixian was also in a dilemma.
They did not have a wok.
Moreover, this was the top of the mountain, which was unsuitable for starting a fire.
In the conventional sense, it was necessary to light a bonfire to set up camp in the wild, which could effectively avoid the invasion of wild beasts.
However, it was different in the secret realm. There were all kinds of demonic beasts and demons here, and many of them were actually not afraid of fire. If they lit a fire at night, it might drive them away, but it could also attract danger.
Ji Ruo thought for a while and gathered the prepared blood-red rice in front of him. He put his hand into the rice, barely enough to cover his palm.
“Don’t worry. I have a plan. ”
“What is it?”
“I know how to cook fried rice.” Ji Ruo said in a mysterious tone.
The group was at a loss for words, and everyone mused, “What are you going to cook without a pot or fire?”
Then, they saw Ji Ruo put his hands into the prepared blood-red rice and began to stir-fried.
Once again, they were taken aback.
When Liang Shixian and the others saw the red glow on Ji Ruo’s palms, they were dumbfounded.
“Is this how Iron Sand Palm is used?” they wondered.
“Young people like you are usually pampered and spoiled. You can’t survive in the wild and can’t even cook,” Ji Ruo said as he started to stir-fry the blood-red rice in front of him.
At first glance, Ji Ruo seemed to be using Iron Sand Palm to stir-fry rice, but in fact, he was practicing the skill.
Maybe it was because the quality of the blood-red rice was higher than that of the ordinary rice, but Ji Ruo was surprised to find that he could gain a proficiency point every time he stir-fried it.
This was much faster than the previous ten times of stir-frying to increase one point of proficiency.
Liang Shixian and the others watched as Ji Ruo’s palms turned redder and redder, and the surrounding temperature rose slowly.
They were all confused. “It is fine that he uses Iron Palm to stir-fry rice, but why did it feel like he is controlling the heat? Don’t tell me he really wants to use Iron Sand Palm to cook the blood rice?
They didn’t know that Ji Ruo was not controlling the fire, but he had indeed improved.
Iron Sand Palm, originally at the advanced level, had gained a large amount of proficiency points after Ji Ruo’s high-speed stir-frying. It had already broken through to the exemplary mastery level.
Ji Ruo also realized that the Iron Sand Palm that he had cultivated through the system seemed to be different from the ordinary Iron Sand Palm. His skill seemed to have a setting of “cooking rice.”
Under their dazed gazes, a faint sweet smell slowly entered everyone’s nostrils. The blood rice that was originally slightly hard was gradually softening, and the grains became fuller and crystal clear.
“How can it really be cooked? Iron Sand Palm can be used in this way?” they thought.
“When the martial arts examination is over, I want to learn Iron Sand Palm,” Zhang Quan muttered in a low voice.
“I also want to learn.” Liu Neng agreed.
Liang Shixian held the blood-red rice cooked by Ji Ruo and fell into deep thought.
He kept feeling that something was wrong. Whether it was in the textbooks, the teachers’ guidance, or the descriptions of Iron Sand Palm on the internet, there did not seem to be any effect of using it to fry rice.
“Ji Ruo, this…” he said.
“Don’t ask. It’s just a starting if you ask,” Ji Ruo said with a smile.
He knew what Liang Shixian wanted to ask. This was a tacit understanding between two top students.
“All right,” Liang Shixian said.
Liang Shixian sighed. Although he was very confused, it was not good to ask about other people’s secrets.
“Eat it while it’s hot. It won’t taste good when it’s cold.”
Ji Ruo grabbed a handful of blood-red rice and stuffed it into his mouth.
The other three followed suit, not caring about their image or the dust on the blood-red rice.
On the one hand, they were really hungry. On the other hand, although they were only high school students, they were all martial artist reserve players after all, so they could still withstand some pressure.
Those who practiced martial arts were not pretentious people.
“Burp! How comfortable!”
The blood-red rice was divided among them. Ji Ruo rubbed his stomach and leaned against the mountain wall, feeling the warmth in his stomach slowly flowing into his limbs and bones.
Even though he did not eat any meat, his vitality was already full, even more than before. Ji Ruo was satisfied.
After a short rest, Ji Ruo got up and started to practice basic body fist and leg movements. He practiced them one by one.
Although these basic martial arts techniques taught in high schools did not have any special effects, they could relax the muscles, toughen the bones, and assist in digestion.
As he practiced, the blood-red rice in Ji Ruo’s stomach was digested. The warm current turned into a warm current, causing a faint mist to rise from Ji Ruo’s head.
The ‘Martial Apprentice experience pill’ was indeed worthy of its name. After taking it, Ji Ruo felt that his strength as a level six Martial Apprentice was slowly increasing.
The remaining blood-red rice was enough for one or two days.
It was just that the area of this mountain valley was not very large, and Ji Ruo could not fully display his martial arts.
Night gradually fell.
After stretching, the few of them arranged the night watch order and planned to rest.
However, at this moment, a shrill cry suddenly echoed from the distance, frightening them.
“God damn it! Who did this!”
Ji Ruo looked in the direction of the sound. It seemed to be coming from the blood-red rice field.
It was already 800 meters away and he could still hear it. “How loud did it have to shout? Was it an imported voice?” he mused.
“Where’s my blood-red rice? Where’s my big piece of blood-red rice field? Wah…”
The owner of the shrill cry could not take the blow and started crying loudly.
Ji Ruo even suspected that this guy had mastered some kind of sound-type martial technique, which was extremely powerful.
Ji Ryo said, “See, I was right, wasn’t I? If we leave the rice stalks for them, they’ll definitely be moved to tears if they know. ”
The rest of the group was at a loss for words and thought, “How is it freaking moved?”
Liang Shixian held back his strong desire to retort back and called for the few of them to hide under the protruding mountain wall. They hid in the shadows of the mountain wall.
The miserable shrieks that spread far and wide startled a large number of birds in the forest. People who disturbed people’s dreams were not welcomed anywhere. Some of the more hot-tempered demonic beasts and demons were directly angered, and they cried out and gathered toward the source of the sound.
No one knew what the wailing goblin was thinking when it saw numerous demonic beasts and devils approaching it. It cried and roared, “It’s you guys, isn’t it? It was definitely you guys! You must have stolen the blood-red rice that our tribe painstakingly planted! Little ones, grab your weapons and kill them!”
Then, the screams became more complicated. Ji Ruo and the others did not know what was happening because they were quite far away, but they guessed that the situation was not very harmonious.
The loud-voiced goblin cried, “God damn it! Our tribe was so frugal that we weren’t even willing to take a bite of the prey we hunted. We used them all to nourish the blood-red rice, and you guys actually stole them all! If you cut off our tribe’s path to advancement, we’ll suffer, but you won’t have an easy time either. Today, I’m going to take you down with me.”
Ji Ruo’s expression turned strange.
“Is this loud voice the goblin leader? I suddenly have a feeling that if we go there again tomorrow, everyone will be able to get into a good university.”
The three of them were speechless.
“Didn’t the teacher say that the combat examination was very dangerous?” they thought.
Ji Ruo looked at their expressions and was a little unhappy. “What’s with the look in your eyes? You’ve all heard how fierce the battle is over there. There must be a lot of casualties tonight… Those were all martial arts examination scores! And it’s ownerless, it’s such a pity to just leave it!”
The three of them were speechless.
Although they were devils and demonic beasts, they had taken the blood-red rice that they had painstakingly cultivated, and now they had to use their corpses to get their exam marks. “Isn’t this a little unkind,” they pondered.