76: A post-apocalyptic bargain hunter! He traded luncheon meat for spirit fruit, leaving his teammates dumbfounded!

Stepping into the trading zone, a denser, suffocating stench of decay and despair assaulted them.

It was even more crowded and chaotic than the dock.

Makeshift stalls made of tattered cloth and wooden planks were everywhere, and most of the vendors had numb eyes and emaciated bodies, like living corpses.

Rusty machetes, expired canned goods, and even a few pieces of clothing stained with dark red blood were displayed on the stalls.

This was the gray area of Zijin Mountain Camp, a place where Survivors exchanged their last shred of dignity for a glimmer of hope.

Qin Yue's delicate brows furrowed, and she subconsciously held her breath.

A hint of discomfort, hard to discern, also flickered across Lin Hu's resolute face.

They were soldiers, accustomed to steel and order, and instinctively repulsed by such chaos and filth.

Only Lu Sheng remained calm, as if he were just strolling through an ordinary vegetable market.

He ignored the mainstream weapon and food stalls, his gaze lingering instead on the corners where items were treated as scrap.

Dragon Eyes had already been quietly activated in the dark.

Countless Miscellaneous information streams flashed across his vision, then were quickly filtered out.

Soon, he paused, fixing his gaze on a small stall covered with a tattered tarpaulin.

On the stall, several dark red fruits covered in mud and emitting a strange odor were casually tossed in a corner, seemingly used to weigh down the tarpaulin.

The vendor was a man so thin he was just skin and bones, slumped weakly on the ground.

In Lu Sheng's vision, a golden information panel clearly appeared.

[Target: earth-rank spiritual plant — constitution spirit fruit]

[Effect: A small increase in physical fitness after consumption.]

earth-rank spiritual plant!

Although not comparable to the enlightenment tree, it was still a rare good item!

Lu Sheng walked over calmly, saying nothing, merely taking out a can of luncheon meat from his storage space and tossing it in front of the vendor, then pointing at the dark red fruits used to weigh down the cloth.

The vendor was stunned at first, then, looking at the perfectly packaged can of luncheon meat, his cloudy eyes burst with a light of ecstasy.

He could hardly believe his eyes, thinking he had met a confused idiot.

He had picked those fruits from a bush on Purple Gold Mountain; they didn't resemble any known fruit, and who knew if they were edible? He himself didn't dare to touch them.

"You... you want this?" the vendor asked, his voice trembling as he confirmed.

Lu Sheng nodded.

"Here you go! All yours!" The vendor, afraid he would change his mind, used both hands and feet to gather all the muddy fruits and hand them to Lu Sheng, then clutched the can of luncheon meat tightly, as if holding the entire world.

Under the increasingly bewildered gazes of Qin Yue and Lin Hu, Lu Sheng took the fruits, and with a flip of his palm, the fruits vanished into thin air.

"This..." Lin Hu's eye twitched, and he finally couldn't help but ask in a muffled voice, "Brother Lu, can this stuff be eaten?"

"I don't know, it looks quite rare, bought it for fun," Lu Sheng replied casually.

What a waste, such a waste!

This thought simultaneously popped into the minds of Lin Hu and Qin Yue.

However, Lu Sheng's wasteful behavior had only just begun.

He repeated the process, and soon, in another corner, he exchanged a pack of precious compressed biscuits for a strange, entirely black fruit that was also treated as trash.

[Target: earth-rank spiritual plant — bone strengthening spirit fruit]

[Effect: A small increase in bone strength after consumption.]

Qin Yue's gaze at Lu Sheng had changed from confusion to utter incomprehension.

She felt that Lu Sheng's actions were imbued with a strange artistic sense.

He seemed to have no interest in truly valuable food and weapons, but was instead keen on exchanging precious supplies for peculiar items.

What exactly... does this person want to do?

Finally, in the most remote corner, Lu Sheng found one of his main objectives for this trip.

A weak-looking middle-aged man wearing glasses had dozens of small bags, neatly sealed in plastic, displayed in front of him.

Inside the bags were various plump plant seeds.

He was a researcher from the Jinling Academy of Agricultural Sciences before the Apocalypse, and at this moment, he was trying to exchange these seeds, which were more precious than life in his eyes, for antipyretics to save his daughter's life.

His daughter was dying in a nearby shack from a high fever.

However, in this Apocalypse where human lives were cheaper than dogs, who would exchange precious medicine for a pile of seeds that might not sprout until who-knows-when?

The man's eyes were filled with deep despair.

Lu Sheng walked up, his Dragon Eyes scanning, confirming that these were ordinary but highly viable quality seeds.

Potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, rice... everything was available.

He looked at the man's face, etched with despair, and neither haggled nor wasted words.

He simply said calmly, "I'll take all of these."

With that, as the man watched in shock, he waved his hand.

A whole box of unopened Amoxicillin.

A whole box of brand new 666 Cold Medicine.

Plus two packs of compressed biscuits and two bottles of mineral water.

They appeared neatly in front of the man.

The middle-aged man looked at the life-saving medicine and food, which were comparable to gold in the Apocalypse, and could no longer hold back. A man in his forties, he instantly burst into tears, about to kneel before Lu Sheng, but Lu Sheng stopped him with a hand.

"Take these things and save your daughter," Lu Sheng's voice remained calm.

He put all dozens of bags of seeds into his storage space, and a great weight in his heart finally lifted.

Apocalypse Farming Plan, initiated!

With the seeds in hand, a thought turned in Lu Sheng's mind: it was time to inquire about the clues to that divine tree.

He said to Qin Yue and Lin Hu, who were thoroughly in self-doubt beside him, "Let's go back and find that old gentleman."

"Still looking for him?" Lin Hu asked, utterly puzzled, "Do you really believe his nonsense about the divine tree?"

"Perhaps," Lu Sheng smiled, offering no explanation.

Although Qin Yue was equally confused, she still followed, assuming he was merely having a moment of kindness and wanted to see how the old man was doing.

However, when they followed the directions of passersby and found the old man's dilapidated shack, the sight before them instantly made all three of their faces sink.

The shack's door curtain had been violently torn, and the surroundings were a mess.

The old man and his scrawny grandson were being cornered by seven or eight thuggish hooligans, armed with steel pipes and machetes, clinging to each other and trembling.

The box of braised beef noodles and mineral water was long gone.

The bald hooligan leader, with a ferocious scar on his face, was stepping on the bag of rice that Lu Sheng had given the old man, which the old man was desperately protecting, with a sinister grin.

"Old man, be smart! Hand over the rice!"

"Here in Purple Gold Mountain, those who don't follow the rules don't live long!"

The bald hooligan spat, tapped the old man's face with a steel pipe, his voice full of cruelty and brutality.

"Remember, here, our Blood Wolf Gang, is the rule!"

PS: First update today!