Two days later.
Zhang Chulan sat cross-legged on the ground cultivating his martial arts technique. He didn't know if it was because of the difference in worlds, but he felt that cultivating in this so-called Requiem Street was much faster than in his own world.
However, cultivating via side incomes did not increase his strength as fast as the 'dividends' given by Yang Tao.
"Brother Chulan, has the Lord not returned yet?"
Zhang Chulan opened his eyes and looked at Cao Xuanliang, who was dressed completely in white garments and looked just like a banished immortal living in the mortal world. If it were anyone else, he would have definitely complained in his heart about them trying to act cool.
But Cao Xuanliang was different; spending time together over the past two days truly made it impossible for anyone to harbor even the slightest ill will toward him.
Hearing his inquiry, he immediately said: "Xiao Liang, Big Brother only left half an hour ago. Oh right, how is your brother, Cao Yanbing?"
"He's fine, he's just feeling a bit depressed."
Cao Xuanliang said with a smile. Ever since he was resurrected, Cao Yanbing's emotions could be described as a series of twists and turns: excited, angry, depressed…
The depression stemmed from the fact that he currently couldn't beat his younger brother, Xiao Liang, nor could he beat Zhang Chulan.
Especially Zhang Chulan, this guy was practically like… no, he wasn't like he was cheating, he was straight-up cheating. From being a bit tricky at the beginning, to now where Cao Yanbing couldn't even probe the guy's true strength without draining every single asset and method he had.
However, he wasn't completely without gains either; this kind of high-intensity sparring caused his own strength to shoot upward screamingly as well.
Hearing this, Zhang Chulan laughed with schadenfreude: "Haha, that guy didn't hide under his blanket and secretly cry, did he?"
"That, he didn't do."
Cao Xuanliang recalled the way his older brother sat under the eaves with a stiff face, and he couldn't help but laugh along too.
Right at this moment, the wooden door opened.
Yang Tao walked through from behind the door carrying a genuine monster. After seeing Zhang Chulan and Cao Xuanliang, he said: "What are you two chatting about?"
"Nothing much, just Xiao Liang asking when you'd be back."
Seeing the monster Yang Tao dragged over, Zhang Chulan's face turned a bit green. Over these past two days, he had finally learned one thing, and that was that the food his good Big Brother ate wasn't necessarily a delicacy.
The food Big Brother pulled out was divided into several tiers: Peerless and Rare Delicacies, Delicacies, Food, Things to Fill the Belly, Medicinal Ingredients, Poisons, and How the Fck Can This Even Be Eaten?* These few tiers.
"Big Brother, what is this thing this time?"
"This is a local specialty of the Warhammer world, an Ambull!" Yang Tao introduced enthusiastically: "I've always wanted to taste what this thing tastes like. This time, it just so happened to coincide with an Ambull outbreak in one of the worlds, so I caught one and brought it back."
An Ambull is a bipedal apex predator about 4 to 5 meters tall. It has a hunched back and a posture just like an ape, with arms long enough to reach the ground, and its beast-like face is mostly taken up by a pair of mandibles that can swing wide open.
In order to escape the extreme heat of their homeworld, they evolved an unbelievable amount of upper-limb strength, thereby enabling the Ambull to dig out tunnels to traverse rock and soil, moving at an incredibly mind-boggling speed.
"Chulan, this thing eats absolutely anything, it can even eat plasma. The Stormhawk Interceptor I originally planned to give you would just be a slightly tougher tin can to it."
"Didn't you want to know who the enemies of the Warhammer world are?"
Zhang Chulan asked in astonishment: "Could it be these Ambulls? Then again, with this kind of size and capability, it truly is a headache inducing…"
"What are you wildly imagining? This thing is nothing more than a source of canned meat for the Astra Militarum."
"Wait… Big Brother, are you saying this powerful monster is just food?"
"Yeah, it counts as a pretty decent food source; its texture is very rich."
Yang Tao threw the carcass of the Ambull onto the platform dedicated to processing ingredients. This place was his open-air kitchen, and all meals over the past two days had been settled right here.
Holding a blue Cobalt Knife in his hand, Yang Tao hesitated for a brief moment before directly switching to the Sword of the Cosmos. There was no helping it; the Ambull's body was simply too massive.
Easily dissecting the Ambull, he explained while keeping himself busy: "It's just that there are many Ambull larvae inside the Ambull's body. Their vitality is extremely tenacious, and their attack power is exceptionally strong. Before consuming the canned food, it's best to bake it at a high temperature for 4 hours."
"When opening the can, it's best to carry an energy gun, otherwise the identities of the ingredient and the diner might undergo a reversal."
Zhang Chulan: "..."
"Big Brother, do you want to listen to what you're saying? If this thing counts as a good item, then what do people usually eat?"
Yang Tao raised his head, looked at Zhang Chulan, and smiled: "Corpse starch. Of course, the human corpse content in corpse starch isn't high, generally only 10% to 20%…"
Seeing Zhang Chulan's look of completely questioning his life choices, he smiled and said: "Just messing with you. The rations of the Astra Militarum depend on the circumstances of the world they are in. Under normal circumstances, they don't need to consider what to eat."
From his backpack, he took out ginger, scallions, garlic, onions, cooking wine, oyster sauce, pepper powder, cumin powder, white sugar, chili powder, thirteen-spice powder, and soy sauce, marinating the meat cut from the Ambull's body. He planned to roast this portion to eat.
Those larvae inside the Ambull had all been annihilated by the rules when passing through the overworld, so this was an exceptionally healthy portion of Ambull meat.
Zhang Chulan let out a sigh of relief. Eating corpse starch… it was very difficult for him to imagine turning human corpses into starch and then eating it down.
"Then who is the real enemy?"
"The God of Life and Mercy, the God of Love and Joy, the God of Wisdom and Strategy, the God of Courage and Strength, and so on. Wait a second, let me go handle the people from the Spirit Realm first."
The wooden door opened once again, and a Mutant Iron Golem walked out from within the wooden door.
In the next moment, a surging force of faith poured and infused into the body of the Mutant Iron Golem.
5 meters… 10 meters… 30 meters… 50 meters. The aura radiating from the Mutant Iron Golem's body grew stronger and stronger, to the point where Zhang Chulan and Cao Xuanliang even developed a feeling that it was difficult to look directly at it.
Right as it reached a certain critical point, the body of the Mutant Iron Golem, which was already at the Bishop tier, suddenly shrunk, shrinking from a 50-meter colossus back down to its original 3-meter form.
Paladin · Mutant Iron Golem Health Points 500/500
This Paladin-tier Mutant Iron Golem was even more of an expert, actually displaying its health points as 500.
Yang Tao was already powerless to complain.
He asked directly: "Can you sense the barrier that is sealing off this world?"
"Lord Creator, I can sense the existence of the barrier, and furthermore, there are some people using certain methods to watch us."
The Iron Golem's mouth didn't move at all, but its voice echoed directly within Yang Tao's heart.
He waved his hand at Cao Xuanliang, signaling for him to come over.
"Xiao Liang, the two days' time is up. I've arranged for you to take Brother Iron and head to the Spirit Realm together. He can distinguish who the enemies are. You just need to ask if anyone is willing to surrender, and leave the rest to him."
"Yes, Lord."
"Brother Iron, take a trip with him!"
"Yes!"
The Iron Golem walked over to Xiao Liang's side, and subsequently, the person and the Iron Golem vanished altogether.
Seeing Cao Xuanliang leave with the Iron Golem, Zhang Chulan asked with some worry: "Big Brother, is it a bit dangerous for just the two of them to go to the so-called Spirit Realm?"
"Dangerous? To the people of this world, Brother Iron is a god."
Zhang Chulan nodded lightly. The aura radiating from the Iron Golem just now had given him a feeling that it was difficult to breathe.
"Oh right, Big Brother, what exactly was the deal with what you said earlier about the enemies of the Warhammer world being four deities?"
"Then I'll have to break it down for you in detail… The God of Life and Mercy is aliased as Nurgle, exactly the Nurgle that harbors filth and contains containment. He views all life equally and never harms any form of life."
Completely bewildered, Zhang Chulan asked: "This… isn't this an orthodox benevolent god?"
"That includes bacteria, viruses… If you believe in this deity, then you are a walking petri dish of bacteria and viruses. Your physical flesh will never die—of course, whether it rots to pieces or not is another matter. Also, the God of Love and Joy is also known as Slaanesh, and His divine authority is even more extraordinary…"
While cooking, Yang Tao explained the tales of the Four Little Peddlers of the Warp, the human Imperium of Warhammer, the Tyranids, and the Orks to Zhang Chulan.