I Start with a Mysterious Island

Chapter 544: Chapter 355: No Comparison, No Harm

He stopped eating, his guard up as he stared in the direction of the noise.

Soon, three men dressed in linen clothes with weapons slung over their backs strode out from the dense thicket.

After emerging from the dense thicket, the trio, led by a steady-looking middle-aged man, scanned their surroundings. They quickly spotted Lin Li having lunch under a large, leafy tree on the shore of Bibo Lake.

’Not a Mutant Beast, so I’m good...’ His stomach rumbling with hunger, Lin Li relaxed his guard slightly upon seeing the three men and went back to eating the grilled meat skewer in his hand.

The three men had originally thought a Treasure Hunting Squad was eating here. They didn’t expect to find that it wasn’t a team at all, but just a single person.

In the Spirit Realm, it wasn’t uncommon for people to travel alone in the wilderness.

This was unlike on Blue Star, where the only people who ventured into the wilds alone were either ordinary folks with a screw loose and a death wish, or greenhorn Exotic Beast Hunters who were full of themselves and overestimated their abilities.

Under normal circumstances, it was very rare to see someone go into the wilds alone.

This was likely related to the government’s major publicity campaigns. The social consensus was that while earning money was important, personal safety was even more so.

And while you could earn more money by acting alone, you were also more likely to lose your life. When hunting Mutant Beasts in the wild, it was best to form a team.

The Spirit Realm didn’t have the same level of propaganda as Blue Star in this regard.

However, in the Spirit Realm, most people who traveled alone in the wilderness were Cultivators over the age of forty.

This was because Cultivators of that age had rich wilderness survival experience and possessed a certain level of strength to protect themselves.

Now, the steady middle-aged man and his two companions saw that Lin Li was young, only in his twenties. They had never encountered a "lone wolf" like him before.

Moreover, the three of them noticed the young man had smooth, fair skin, a stark contrast to their own rough appearance from making a living in the wild.

At the same time, the three also noticed that the cooking utensils the young man was using were of a style they had never seen on the market.

"Why would this young man bring a table and chair all the way out here into the wilderness!" the tall man muttered to his companions, watching Lin Li heartily digging into his lunch.

"Exactly! Bringing a small pot and some grain to cook a meal is one thing, but a table and a chair? That’s just ridiculous!" the short man whispered back. In all his years of scraping by in the wilderness, he had never met anyone like this.

"..." The steady middle-aged man listened to his two companions, his eyes fixed on Lin Li, who was eating his lunch as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

He saw how calm and composed the other person was. If Lin Li had been a middle-aged man in his forties or fifties, the steady man would have been certain that he was a Cultivator of no small accomplishment.

But Lin Li was so young, about the same age as his own daughter who was a First Rank Initial Stage Cultivator. This left him puzzled.

After all, the three of them had never seen a young person in their early twenties who had already reached Tier Two Peak cultivation. It was only natural for them to be confused.

Of course, they were just strangers who had met by chance. If someone wanted to travel alone in the wild and lug around a cumbersome table and chair, that was their own business. It was no one else’s place to interfere.

As for their doubts, it was polite enough to just whisper about them privately; there was no need to say anything aloud in front of the person.

"Alright, that’s enough. It would be rude if he overheard. Let’s get our own lunch ready," the steady middle-aged man said to his two companions.

Hearing their leader say this, the short man and the tall man stopped discussing Lin Li.

The three of them found their own leafy tree a short distance from Lin Li to set up camp and began to prepare their lunch.

Nearby, Lin Li had a table, a chair, pots, bowls, basins, and a full set of cutlery.

In this wilderness teeming with Mutant Beasts, the complete set of dining ware Lin Li was using could be considered extravagant. In contrast, the cooking gear of the middle-aged man and his companions was much more rudimentary.

They took a small-mouthed pot out of their packs, followed by three small metal bowls. Other than these four items, they had no other utensils.

They gathered some tinder-dry firewood that had been baked by the sun, lit a fire, and placed the small-mouthed pot on top of it.

They opened a waterskin, poured water into the pot, then took out a piece of dried, cured meat and sliced it with a dagger... They were preparing to make a sliced meat soup!

While the meat slices were still simmering in the pot, the three men took out some flatbreads from their packs, skewered them on whittled branches, and began toasting them over the fire.

As the three men crouched by the fire toasting their flatbreads, their gazes couldn’t help but drift back to Lin Li in the distance, who was devouring his sumptuous lunch.

A large platter of fragrant grilled meat skewers, plus a big bowl of savory seafood soup—the lavishness of Lin Li’s lunch was leagues beyond theirs.

"That young man can really eat!" the tall man said quietly, watching Lin Li down five hefty, aromatic meat skewers in a row.

"There’s still a lot left! He probably can’t finish it all," the short man said, eyeing the remaining skewers on Lin Li’s plate.

"What? If he can’t finish those skewers, are you thinking of going over to buy some from him later?" the steady middle-aged man asked with a laugh.

The short man nodded frankly. "Yeah, I was thinking about it. There’s no shame in it.

His skewers look delicious. If he can’t finish them, I’ll go over later and spend some money to buy a few to try."

For people who made their living in the wilderness, it was quite common to run into other Hunters who had just killed a Mutant Beast. If they wanted to add something extra to their meal, they would spend some money to buy a few pieces of fresh Exotic Beast Meat from them.

The three men had clearly underestimated Lin Li’s appetite.

They thought there was no way Lin Li could finish that huge platter of skewers—enough to feed five grown men.

With this in mind, they were all stunned when they saw Lin Li finish every last skewer on the massive plate. They stared in shock at Lin Li, whose build wasn’t particularly sturdy but whose appetite was abnormally large.

The short man couldn’t help but exclaim when he saw Lin Li wipe the plate of grilled meat clean, finish the large bowl of seafood soup in front of him, and then get up to ladle another bowl from the pot.

"Holy crap, this kid can really fucking eat!!!"

The tall man couldn’t help but sigh. "You really can’t judge a book by its cover!"

Lin Li placed his second bowl of seafood soup on the table. As he sat down to continue eating, he suddenly heard the exclamation from nearby and glanced over at them.

"Keep it down, the young man is looking over here..." The steady middle-aged man glanced at what was cooking on their own fire and said, "The meat slice soup is ready. We can eat lunch now."

Lin Li saw the three men take the small-mouthed pot off the fire, pour three bowls of meat broth, and begin eating their flatbreads with the broth, savoring every bite.

He looked down at his empty skewer platter and his own delicious seafood soup, rich with ingredients, and couldn’t help but sigh internally.

’If it weren’t for the Mysterious Small Island letting me take out and put away so many things at will, I’d probably be eating as simply as those three right now...’

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