Chapter 67: A Wilderness Hotpot and an Extraordinary Escape

Mu Wanqing pondered briefly, her gaze falling upon Su Liyue, who was nestled comfortably in Ye Xingchen’s embrace. “Dinner… Moon, you wouldn’t be planning to fish, would you?”

Sensing her best friend’s teasing glance, Su Liyue quickly extricated herself from Ye Xingchen’s arms and hurried to the stream.

Fortunately, this was a world of magic, offering a myriad of fishing methods: ice spells, elemental lures, or even direct telekinetic retrieval—the possibilities were endless.

Yet, the most crucial concern wasn’t how to catch fish, but which fish were edible.

Accidentally consuming a poisonous fish could lead to an untimely end for their academy challenge.

For this very reason, most other teams opted to simply subsist on the combat rations provided by the academy, never even considering cooking for themselves.

After all, they were magic apprentices, not wilderness survival experts; merely mastering magic was enough of a headache, leaving them no energy to delve into anything else.

Su Liyue, however, was different.

As a transmigrator, she possessed not only memories and knowledge from her past life but also simultaneously controlled two bodies: Ye Xingchen’s and her own, both under her command.

For her, learning magic while simultaneously researching other knowledge posed no difficulty at all.

Wild fish were far from the sluggish creatures found in farmed ponds; they were remarkably cunning.

The stream’s water was crystal clear, and at the slightest disturbance, the wild crucian carp would vanish in an instant.

Fishing? That would be too time-consuming.

They were here for practical training, not a paid wilderness vacation like Bear Grylls (TL Note: A British adventurer, writer, and television presenter, famous for his wilderness survival series.).

To enjoy fragrant grilled fish, they needed to employ “magical means” for a swift resolution.

“‘Got it!'”

Ye Xingchen first used his perception to pinpoint the fish’s location, while Su Liyue swiftly cast wind magic, manipulating the air currents to gradually thin the oxygen around the school of fish.

Sensing the difficulty in breathing underwater, the wild crucian carp instinctively swam towards the surface to gasp for air.

The moment they broke the surface—

Whoosh!

With a light tap of Su Liyue’s fingertip, water magic instantly condensed, freezing the fish into shimmering ice sculptures.

Immediately after, a swirl of wind magic swept the ice-encased fish into the air, where they settled securely into her storage ring.

“‘Wow, Moon, you’re absolutely incredible!’ Mu Wanqing exclaimed, watching Su Liyue catch a good number of fish in such a short time, though a hint of worry soon clouded her expression.

“‘But… are these fish really safe to eat? What if they’re poisonous…'”

“‘Don’t worry, Wanqing,’ Su Liyue said, shaking the fish within her storage ring with a smile.

‘Even though the magic concentration here is incredibly high, these fish are perfectly edible. The water quality is pristine, the flesh is tender, and there’s hardly any fishy smell. They’ll taste absolutely delicious grilled!'”

Before even attempting to catch them, she had already instructed Ye Xingchen to use his perception magic to scout out the fish’s condition.

Despite the unusually dense magical energy in this area, strangely enough, the fish remained unaffected, retaining all the characteristics of ordinary aquatic life.

This phenomenon sparked a flicker of doubt in Su Liyue’s mind.

‘How exactly did the magic and natural ecosystem of this world coexist?’

‘And what secrets might this particular area conceal?’

“With the main course secured, it’s time to prepare the side dishes!”

Su Liyue declared, her eyes gleaming with anticipation. Ever since arriving in this otherworld, she hadn’t had a single hotpot meal. Tonight’s goal, then, was the very first hotpot in this new world!

And when one spoke of hotpot, how could they possibly omit mushrooms and wild vegetables for flavor enhancement?

Ye Xingchen had prepared the seasonings last night, making it the perfect opportunity to try them with the fresh ingredients.

The taste was bound to be excellent.

Using his magical perception, Ye Xingchen quickly discovered a vibrant array of colorful mushrooms throughout the forest.

The sheer variety of mushrooms here surpassed even what he had seen in Yunnan during his previous life.

If Yunnan was a mushroom paradise, then this place was nothing short of a mushroom cradle; the largest specimens were two stories tall, their caps wide enough to serve as roofs.

“The more vibrant the mushroom, the more likely it is to be poisonous…” Ye Xingchen muttered, cautiously selecting the oyster mushrooms he recognized.

While not as precious as some gourmet mushrooms, they were more than sufficient for enhancing flavor.

Concurrently, Su Liyue gathered a variety of edible wild vegetables nearby.

She knelt by the stream, meticulously washing the freshly picked greens, water droplets glistening on their leaves under the sunlight.

“A good haul,” Su Liyue mused, tallying the ingredients within her storage ring: tender wild vegetables, plump wild crucian carp, fresh oyster mushrooms, and the moonlight plums she had picked earlier.

With a main course, side dishes, and fruit all accounted for, there was more than enough for three people’s dinner.

Gazng at the fresh ingredients in her storage ring, Su Liyue couldn’t help but recall the survival show Man vs. Wild she had watched in her previous life.

Compared to Bear Grylls’s “crunchy, tastes like chicken” “delicacies,” her own preparations seemed utterly conventional.

“Just chop off the head and you can eat it; five times the protein of beef…” she murmured, quoting a classic line, a shiver involuntarily running down her spine.

That man, standing at the apex of Earth’s food chain, had single-handedly established a bizarre standard of deliciousness for terrifying ingredients, a standard she utterly refused to endorse.

“My hotpot is still better…” Su Liyue thought with satisfaction, caressing her storage ring. “At least these fish and mushrooms were normal food that genuinely needed to be cooked before consumption.”

‘If Bear Grylls and Ed Stafford were to undertake wilderness survival here, perhaps this place would be a paradise for them?’

“Let’s go, Qingqing,” Su Liyue said, rising to her feet and dusting grass clippings from her skirt. “We still need to set up our shelter before dark.”

Mu Wanqing nodded. “Today is the first day of training; other teams are likely still adapting to the environment. Besides, not many teams have magic cores yet, so it’s unlikely anyone will try to ambush us tonight.”

“Don’t get complacent, Qingqing,” Su Liyue cautioned verbally, though inwardly, she was already weighing her advantages.

With the natural shelter Ye Xingchen had located using a Qimen Dunjia formation (TL Note: An ancient Chinese metaphysical art of divination and strategy, often used in military tactics.), other teams would find it impossible to discover.

Moreover, this spot was right next to a forbidden zone.

Even if someone did manage to find them and tried to snatch their belongings, they would first have to contend with her!

Suddenly, Ye Xingchen bent down and effortlessly swept Su Liyue into his arms, carrying her bridal style.

Beside them, Mu Wanqing had already mounted her magic broom.

“Let’s go!”

Su Liyue chirped, comfortably adjusting her position in Ye Xingchen’s arms, not forgetting to wink at her best friend.

Compared to the magic broom that left one’s backside aching, she naturally preferred the feeling of being carried “princess style” by “herself.”

After all, this male body was essentially her own convenient boyfriend; it would be a waste not to use him, and once used, she only wanted to use him more.

Warm, sturdy arms, a smooth and comfortable ride, and absolutely no magic power consumed… The feeling was simply sublime!

“Ugh…” Mu Wanqing muttered under her breath, watching her best friend’s utterly blissful expression.

“There they go again…”

She lightly pushed off with her broom, quickly catching up to the two figures ahead.

It had to be said, Ye Xingchen was truly extraordinary; even while carrying someone, he could run astonishingly fast.

The magic broom’s speed could barely keep up with him, a fact that genuinely surprised Mu Wanqing.

Yet, on second thought…

‘Had this “couple” ever really been normal?’