Of all the places we could have ended up, we had found what looked like a contaminated zone filled with every poisonous plant in existence. Perfect. Just fucking perfect.
I set the woman down carefully on a relatively clean patch of stone near the water's edge, making sure she was well away from any of the suspicious vegetation.
She was still unconscious, her breathing steady but shallow.
The desperation of our situation hit me like a truck.
I had no clothes, no money, no supplies, and we were trapped in a cave with a pond full of poison and plants that probably wanted to eat us.
That's when I remembered something.
"System," I called out, and the familiar blue interface materialized in front of me.
"System, can you open the gift that you gave me after the completion of the surgery?"
After I had finished stitching up this woman, there was some kind of notification about a reward that made me feel somewhat joyous.
However, in the next moment, I experienced rough treatment that left my body confused between arousal and a desire to murder.
But I had been too exhausted and too focused on not getting strangled to pay attention to it.
This system had taken everything from me.
My robe, my undergarments, every piece of fabric I'd owned, all in exchange for basic medical supplies.
I was so broke that I couldn't even afford a bandage at this point.
"S...syste...m?" A murmur came from the woman, though she seemed to be muttering it in her sleep, perhaps exhausted. I just ignored it.
Let's first try to focus on the reward system hack for me.
Maybe this credit bastard might have something worth considering a cheat, especially given how I still had to know exactly which hole I had fallen into.
The system interface flickered, showing my pathetically empty inventory and point balance.
[SURGERY COMPLETION REWARD AVAILABLE]
[Opening Gift Package...]
A small chest icon appeared on the screen, slowly opening with a golden light effect that was way too cheerful for our current situation.
[REWARD RECEIVED: ADVANCED APPRAISAL EYES]
[Skill: Eye of Truth - Level Max]
[Description: Allows user to see detailed information about objects, plants, people, creatures, and substances. Shows toxicity levels, favorability level (in people), medicinal properties, and hidden dangers... see more.]
I blinked as I felt a strange tingling sensation in my eyes, like someone had just dropped warm honey into them.
When it faded, the world looked... different.
Not visually different, but informationally different. When I looked at the purple plants around us, text appeared in the corner of my vision:
I blinked and focused my enhanced gaze on the twisted vegetation surrounding us.
Information flooded my vision like subtitles in a foreign film. Each plant had floating text that appeared as soon as I looked at it.
[Voidthorn Essence Creeper - Corrupted Spiritual Herb]
[Age: 27,000 years - Originally a healing vine, now mutated by dark qi exposure]
[Properties: Lethal neurotoxin, causes instant paralysis and spiritual energy drain]
[Corruption Level: Extreme]
I glanced at another cluster of purple flowers.
[Shadowbloom Nightmare Petals - Corrupted Spiritual Herb]
[Age: 89,000 years - Former ingredient in enlightenment elixirs]
[Properties: Psychotropic poison, induces madness and spiritual foundation collapse]
[Corruption Level: Catastrophic]
"Okay," I said flatly, like I was reading a grocery list.
My eyes moved to a twisted tree-like thing with bark that seemed to pulse.
[Deathwood Marrow Willow - Corrupted Spiritual Herb]
[Age: 203,000 years - Ancient tree spirit, corrupted beyond redemption]
[Properties: Absorbs life force on contact, spreads corruption through root system]
[Corruption Level: Apocalyptic]
"Hmm. Nice," I muttered with the same enthusiasm I would show for week-old leftovers.
It was like my brain had just shut down from information overload.
Here I was, surrounded by plants that could probably wipe out entire cities, and I was reacting like I was browsing through a boring textbook.
Then my gaze fell on the pond itself.
The water's surface rippled slightly, and through the murky depths, I could make out something massive. Something that definitely didn't belong in any normal body of water.
[Ancient Azure Dragon Corpse - Deceased]
[Name: Embriaon - Former Guardian of the Eastern Peaks]
[Status: Dead for approximately 1,250,000 years]
[Cause of Death: Upper realm battle injuries.]
[Current Effect: Primary source of regional corruption, dark qi emanation continues post-mortem]
[Corruption Radius: 10 kilometer spread]
I inhaled sharply, finally processing what I was seeing. This wasn't just some random toxic waste dump.
This was ground zero for a spiritual disaster that had been going on for hundreds of thousands of years.
I slowly knelt down and gently placed the woman, whose body was soft like a cloud and delicate, on the ground. Using my purification ability, I cleaned the stone surface she would be lying on.
The dark stains and grime vanished instantly under my touch.
Then, like a zombie operating on pure instinct, I stood up and walked toward one of the most lethal plants I'd identified.
[Deathkiss Thornvine - Corrupted Spiritual Herb]
[Age: 156,000 years]
[Properties: Contact death - kills within seconds of skin exposure]
[Warning: Absolutely fatal to all known life forms]
Without any hesitation whatsoever, I reached out and grabbed it.
The moment my fingers made contact, I felt my purification ability activate automatically.
It was like watching a time-lapse video in reverse - the sickly purple color drained away, the twisted thorns straightened and softened, the aura of menace just... disappeared.
In my hand was now a beautiful flowering vine with delicate white blossoms that smelled faintly of jasmine.
A new system window popped up.
[Heavenly Cleansing Vine - Pure Spiritual Herb]
[Properties: Legendary purification agent, can cleanse any poison or curse]
[Value: Priceless - Required ingredient for Saint-level antidotes]
[Rarity: Extinct in the wild for over 100,000 years]
I blinked at the screen. Then blinked again.
"Pftt" A small chuckle escaped my throat.
Then another.
And then I completely lost it.
"AHAHAHAHAHAHA!" I doubled over, laughing so hard my sides hurt. "Are you fucking kidding me?! WHERE IS FOOD! I AM HUNGRY DAMN IT!"
It was as if the irritation from doing surgery and then falling into this shithole while dragging that woman, whose body was so cursed it made my heart stop, led me here only to find fruits that I thought might fill my belly, turned out to be some kind of medicine.
It was as if it was some kind of joke.
Old trees with medical properties that were similar to those of cultivation novels, which I appreciated to be honest, but they were not food.
Literally, I wanted to eat something to let my mind think exactly where I was right now.
Given everything was screaming this was a cultivation world, I had read so many times that my ass even cringed at it.
But... but I needed food! Just so that I could digest this reality.
"DAMN ALL THIS!" I went on a marathon; I needed to. If one herb had a leaf and a flower in it, maybe I could make soup out of it, so I started to pluck it, plucking one after another like a dog.
Because if there was something in my life that I believed after my intelligence, positive nature was my food.
Without food, no intelligence; without intelligence, no brain to see everything positively. All three were my lifelines, so fuck it.
I sprinted. Plucking, throwing, plucking, throwing.
"Pull! Pull! Pull!"