Cave Refuge

Dong Tianyu had not expected that, after just a few days of not cultivating in the Cave, the Spiritual Spring within it would actually condense into a Spiritual Stone.

Although the System interface indicated that the Spiritual Spring had the function of condensing Spiritual Stones, from the time the Spiritual Spring was constructed until his trip to Kyoto, not a single Spiritual Stone had formed in it.

Dong Tianyu had thought that the Spiritual Spring would not condense Spiritual Stones at all, but now he realized that it was because his cultivation consumed Spirit Energy, which prevented the Spiritual Spring from condensing Spiritual Stones.

The emergence of the Spiritual Stone made Dong Tianyu very happy, after all, whether it was for upgrading the Cave or for alchemy and Artifact Refining, Spiritual Stones were needed.

Although the Cave had a Spirit Vein, the number of Spiritual Stones it could produce each year was limited, and in order to upgrade the level of the Spirit Vein more quickly, Dong Tianyu had never considered mining the Spirit Vein.

The appearance of the Spiritual Stone now provided Dong Tianyu with another method to obtain Spiritual Stones.

Upon understanding how the Spiritual Stones appeared, Dong Tianyu casually threw the stone in his hand back into the Spiritual Spring, knowing that now was not the time to concern himself with the stones, but rather to relax a bit.

Since his parents might return home that evening, with limited time and much to do, Dong Tianyu could only quickly tend to each Canary in turn.

When Mrs. Thompson opened the door, Dong Tianyu immediately exited the Cave and used the Cleansing Technique to dispel the filth from his body. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

After Mrs. Thompson entered the house and saw Dong Tianyu sitting in the living room, a look of surprise appeared on her face.

"Tianyu, you’re back from Kyoto, how did things go?"

Hearing Mrs. Thompson’s question, Dong Tianyu stood up, pulled Mrs. Thompson to the sofa, and after they sat down, he began to recount his experiences from the trip.

As the two were chatting, the front door opened again, and Mr. Thompson had also returned home.

"I heard that Ye Liuyun from the Taylors had returned, so I figured you must be back as well," he said.

Though it was his way of showing concern, Mr. Thompson’s expression was still somewhat stiff.

"You talk to your dad about your trip to Kyoto, I’ll go and start cooking," Mrs. Thompson said.

While Mrs. Thompson was eager to hear about her son’s trip to Kyoto, considering it was getting late and he had just returned from the trip, likely tired, she decided to prepare a meal first, so they could talk while eating.

Even though there is an old saying, "eat in silence and sleep without speech," in most China families, it is only during meals that the whole family has the chance to sit together and talk about various matters.

Just like most deals are actually struck over the dining table at restaurants, the adage of eating in silence is usually reserved for those we dislike.

After Dong Tianyu described how monsters also attacked Kyoto, even though he was now safely back in Pengcheng, his parents were still concerned about his safety at that time.

When they heard that Dong Tianyu had spent the monster siege hidden in an underground bunker, the tense mood of Father Dong and Mother Dong relaxed slightly.

Through Dong Tianyu’s vivid storytelling, Father Dong and Mother Dong gained a preliminary understanding of the current situation in Kyoto.

Speaking honestly, even if the disaster had not struck, Mr. and Mrs. Thompson had only visited Kyoto twice, and though both trips were for sightseeing, together they had only stayed there for three to four days.

This included one day for climbing the Great Wall and another for visiting the Forbidden City, with the remaining time spent hurriedly touring various sites with a travel group, never truly experiencing the bygone Kyoto.

After Dong Tianyu finished talking about his experiences in Kyoto, Mrs. Thompson also brought the dinner for three to the table.

Although it was a welcome-back meal for Dong Tianyu having just returned from Kyoto, Mrs. Thompson did not indulge in extravagance, preparing four hot dishes, two meat and two vegetarian, along with two cold dishes, one meat and one vegetarian.

Initially, when there were no military troops stationed there, it was Robinson William, leading the former special forces members, who would clear the area around the camp, hunting down small ancient creatures that approached.

Due to the relationship between the two families, Robinson William would often send meat to the Thompsons, so the house not only had an abundance of meat but, in comparison to the average family, Father Dong and Mother Dong rarely ate much of it at each meal.

Under normal circumstances, Martial Artists in the Body Tempering Realm and the Inner Breath Realm need to supplement a large amount of nutrients from the exterior, so even now, with specialized hunting teams going out to hunt ancient creatures daily, bringing back many ancient creature corpses, the price of meat in the camp had not plummeted but remained at a relatively high level.

The reason was straightforward; early-stage Martial Artists needed to consume a lot of meat to supplement nutrients externally.

Father Dong and Mother Dong were also cultivators, practicing the Health-Preserving Decree which Dong Tianyu had provided them. Although their combat capabilities were not strong, this cultivation technique used the Spirit Energy from the air to nurture the body during practice.

Therefore, even with prolonged cultivation, they did not need to supplement from the external environment like Martial Artists.

Nowadays, Father Dong and Mother Dong’s meals consisted of simple vegetarian food three times a day, a standard of living that surpassed ninety percent of the families in the camp.

The current order of food prices in the camp from high to low was as follows:

Fruits - domesticated meat - vegetables - ancient creature meat - fine grains - coarse grains - substitute grains.

Other items could be easily understood by name, the only unfamiliar term might be "substitute grains."