When they stepped into the open area, Chrome had glanced at them expressionlessly before closing his eyes again.

“30 minutes.”

“Hehe, that…uh, Boss…er, washing the dishes took longer than we thought it would.” The gears in Yilan’s mind spun as she tried to think of a plausible reason for their tardiness.

Dylan and Yilan stared at their Boss relaxing on the hammock for a couple seconds. Seeing that he was not going to take any action, they let out a sigh of relief.

Because they were in a hurry trying to get here on time, they did not observe their surroundings carefully. Since their Boss did not give any orders, it meant that they had time to do their own thing.

Yilan looked around this open space in the bamboo forest. The sunlight shone brightly in the middle of the open area. There were dark shady areas as well in this open space. This bright and shady contrast in this part of the bamboo forest gave off a mysterious atmosphere. There was a little hill on the other side of the open area, where it was the sunlight shined the brightest. Little plants and flowers grew around the edges of the open space.

Yilan walked towards one of the plants on the ground and got down on one knee to inspect it.

“Hey, isn’t this…” Yilan looked at it carefully. Suddenly, she uprooted the entire plant and stood up excitedly. “This is a Kiscus!”

Dylan heard Yilan yelling in excitement and walked over. “What are you yelling so loudly for? Boss might punish you with overtime work if you wake up Sister.”

Yilan suppressed her voice, “Look what I found! It’s a Kiscus! These are one of the best herbs used to make hemostasis. The effect is so much stronger compared to other herbs.”

Dylan took the herb from her hand and looked at it. Then, he looked around the area and saw that there were more Kiscus scattered around in clumps.

“I guess we’ll be spending out time picking herbs.” Dylan headed towards a different area to start picking the herbs.

Yilan saw that her brother was going to help her and smiled. She turned to Chrome and asked, “Boss, how long are we going to stay here?”

Chrome, who was gently petting Altyria’s fur, heard this question and answered, “Until the sun rises to the highest point.”

“Oh, then we have about 3 hours to gather all these Kiscus!” Yilan smiled brightly at the thought of having so many Kiscus in stock and quickly started gathering them.

Time slowly passed, and the sun was almost at its highest point. Altyria woke up and stretched her legs. Her little paws poking his chest while she was stretching cause his heart to itch.

“Rest well?” Chrome’s eyes grew soft. He gently rubbed her ears.

[En. Too bad I can’t absorb world essence here. I feel like I’m wasting time.] Altyria narrowed her eyes as Chrome continued rubbing her ears.

“You don’t have to rush. This world isn’t suitable for cultivation. The next world might have better resources or environment that will help in cultivating.” Chrome said as he got up from the hammock.

It was at this time that Altyria noticed Dylan and Yilan crouching on the ground.

[What are they doing?] Altyria saw that their action of plucking those plants on the ground was extremely fast.

“Yilan found some medicinal herbs that are really good for making hemostasis. They should be about done now. It’s about time.” Chrome walked slowly, while holding Altyria in his arms, towards the other side of the open space where the little hill was.

Altyria called out to the people still picking herbs, [Dylan, Lan Lan! It’s about time!]

The two people heard their names being called and stopped what they were doing. Seeing that the sun was about to reach the highest point, they quickly put the herbs that they picked to a safe spot and ran to where Chrome was standing.

Right when the sun reached the highest point, the sky suddenly turned dark with traces of purple. The sunlight that was shining on the open area became a light purple-colored light. Everything turned black and purple.

On the little hill in the open area, a large silver will-o-wisp appeared and seemed to be pulsating. As it pulsated, the fluctuations in the air increased. Dylan and Yilan got their weapons out. Chrome still stood there without any movement, besides gently rubbing her bristling fur.

Altyria could not stop her fur from bristling. She got an uneasy feeling from the will-o-wisp that suddenly appeared. If it wasn’t for Chrome blocking off the pressure from the will-o-wisp, Altyria probably would have coughed out blood and have major internal injuries.

This will-o-wisp was originally a B ranked spirit, but it slowly changed its shape into a silver wolf with purple eyes and became an A ranked spirit. This spirit had a bloodthirsty gaze as it stared at Chrome’s team.

*Ding*

*Ding*

“Alright! This should be our final task.” Dylan said while pumping his fists.

“We haven’t finished our branch task yet.” Yilan frowned. She wanted to complete the branch task to earn some extra solstice coins. She was tight on money for research.

The Zizhu Wolf roared loudly causing them to cover their ears. A second later, sounds of wolves came from all directions.

[About 50 wolf spirits are heading this way!] Altyria did a quick scan using her soul power, causing her body to have minor internal injuries. Apparently, she had been using soul power too frequently, so her body was unable to bear the pressure.

Chrome’s brows knit tightly together when Altyria had used her soul power. He had forgotten to tell Altyria not to use her soul power. She had used it several times already and using it any more would damage her body. Unfortunately, this had already happened.

Chrome swiftly took out a jade bottle of pills and stuffed one into Altyria’s mouth. The medicinal pill entered her stomach and a cool refreshing feeling spread throughout her body. The pain from the minor internal injuries eased.

At this time, the Zizhu Wolf was now surrounded by gray wolves that it had called. These other wolf spirits were purple and were smaller than the Zizhu Wolf.

“I call dibs for the minions!” Dylan called out.

“I’ll leave the final boss to the Boss.” Yilan said as she held several long needles in her hands.

“Ah.” Chrome gave his approval.

Altyria had wanted to help out in the fight as well, but Chrome patted her bottom and held her tightly in his arms.

His action caused Altyria to blush. This guy! How dare he ‘spank’ me! He is getting more and more shameless. I give him an inch, he takes a mile! I should… (A thousand words omitted.)

“Your body is not well. You need to rest.” Chrome felt that Altyria was complaining about him through the soul bond.

Although Altyria complained, she knew that she would just drag them down with her current strength, so she jumped out of his arms. She swiftly climbed up a bamboo tree.

Chrome stared at the Zizhu Wolf, his eyes slowly turned gold.