After Apocalypse, I Got Rich With Superpower
Chapter 162 - 160: Secret Realm

Chapter 162: Chapter 160: Secret Realm

After five days in the forest, Li Pan and the Wang Family had been fighting every day, from which she had learned a great deal of battle experience. This forest was a spontaneously emerging Secret Realm, extremely dangerous, but indeed replete with valuable items.

Currently, it was for public use; entering alone would require a significant fee, and 40% of the medicinal materials and Crystal Cores gathered had to be surrendered.

The generosity was due to the extreme danger inside; the high rate of casualties made it necessary to charge entry fees to alleviate the public finance crisis and to ensure that more people could eat their fill. Having money was essential to buy food and medicinal materials.

Additionally, they needed better Spiritual Medicine for refining potions. Noble families controlled potion making but were also required to contribute a portion of their potions to the public, a share intended for ordinary soldiers. After all, one cannot cook without rice.

Allowing powerful families to enter by themselves, firstly, collected money, and secondly, secured some Spiritual Medicine for potion making—a win-win situation.

The Wang Family had made a significant sacrifice for Li Pan, collaborating with other families to learn potion making and offering some of their resources for exchange, though Grandpa Wang never mentioned it, not even to the Base Commander, who also kept silent about his suspicions to Li Pan and Xue Dong.

Xue Dong had his guesses, but he didn’t know what resources were involved.

This excursion to the Secret Realm nearly exhausted the Wang Family’s liquid assets; if they failed to acquire better Spiritual Medicine, they would suffer a huge loss.

The spiritual medicines previously accumulated at home had all been used by Li Pan for refining high-level potions. Fortunately, she did not disappoint, successfully producing high-level potions for preservation, offering some security for the family’s disciples.

Li Pan sat exhausted on the ground, unable to lift her arms, yet she uttered not a single complaint.

She took out the food prepared in advance and distributed it among everyone, first filling their stomachs. Then she moved from one to another, providing purification treatments to ensure everyone was in peak condition.

In the Secret Realm, danger loomed every minute, and it was vital to keep everyone in their best state.

The Wang Family’s members were wholeheartedly willing to support her in entering the Secret Realm.

"It’s the first time someone receives such good treatment in the Secret Realm. Getting minor wounds treated right away, it feels fantastic."

A high-level superpower user from the Wang Family said, praising Li Pan with a smile.

"All I can do is so much. I lack battle experience, holding everyone back," responded Li Pan with self-awareness, as she knew that the others were wounded while protecting her.

"You’re too modest. We’re family. There’s no need for formalities. You worked hard refining potions for us, and without your medicine, we wouldn’t have been able to advance to high-level."

"This time, we have to gather more Spiritual Medicine to take back. These processing fees are too costly."

"It’s really dangerous here, that’s why they let us in. Actually, they want us to be the vanguard to bring back more medicinal materials. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have the qualifications to come."

A Wang Family’s son laughed as he explained.

"Does every piece of Spiritual Medicine require a 40% fee?"

"Yes, the idea is to prevent noble families from completely controlling the Spiritual Medicine and medicine production; otherwise, ordinary soldiers would have nothing but the fate of cannon fodder. Everyone is born of parents. Why should we lose our lives for nothing?"

"There are a lot of good things here. I’ll try to find as many as possible. This trip can’t be for nothing. I know coming to Beijing has cost Grandpa Wang and Uncle Wang a considerable amount in both effort and resources. There’s not much I can do but to try my hardest."

"You’re being too humble. My grandpa’s over the moon, okay? You have a high talent. Just the other day, my grandpa was lecturing us, saying, ’Look at Pan’er and Xue Dong. Gao Wenbin is a hundred times better than you guys. Even with so few resources, he still made a name for himself. Look at yourselves, raised with plenty of resources yet none as good as the next. Truly a bunch of good-for-nothings.’

The Wang Family’s son imitated Old Master Wang’s scolding with hands on his hips, doing a spot-on impression.

It made everyone from the Wang Family burst into laughter.

Seeing that everyone sincerely accepted her and Xue Dong, Li Pan felt grateful to the Wang Family. Regardless of their reasons, they behaved in a way that gave people peace of mind.

Indeed, the Secret Realm was abundant with Spiritual Medicine, some even found on mutant animals, which could also be used for medicinal purposes.

After nearly a month inside, they had almost turned into wild people, but their harvest was plentiful. The Wang Family Disciples walked with their heads held high, knowing they would likely receive praise upon returning home rather than a scolding.

Although Li Pan lacked combat experience, her affinity with the Wood Element was exceedingly high, and she almost always found excellent Spiritual Medicine and Spirit Plants.

She would take away those that could be transplanted, having brought many pots specifically for that purpose. For those that didn’t fit, she planted them directly in the Star Tree space, planning to move them into pots when she got home.

As for the Spiritual Medicine that could be taken away, she only left the seedlings to continue growing, taking all the mature ones with her.

This time they struck it rich, and even found three Longevity Fruits. These things were incredibly valuable; even if you had the capability to cultivate them, it wasn’t a matter of just a year or two. They needed many years to grow and were only useful if they had ample energy.

The Longevity Fruit seedling that Li Pan was cultivating herself was going to take quite a wait.

When they emerged, Old Master Wang, Base Commander Wang Yi, his uncle, Mr. Wang’s own brother, and others were waiting at the exit.

To settle and deduct the cost of the Spiritual Medicine, they feared that the youngsters might encounter issues again, so heavyweight parents and elders were all present, personally supervising the settlement.

"They’re out."

As everyone watched the Wang Family’s sons leap out of the white circle, there was a slight release of breath.

Counting heads, there were no losses, and by the looks of it, no one had suffered serious injuries, which was quite a relief.

Li Pan came out too, shaking her head to regain balance before approaching Grandpa Wang.

"Grandpa, we made a fortune this time," she said.

"Really?"

"Definitely, I found three Longevity Fruits. You’ll have to fight hard for them."

"I got it."

Grandpa Wang glanced at his brother whose eyes were shining with excitement, this time it’s your turn.

The two old men exchanged a look, and they knew what was up. The kids had done their part impressively; now it was their turn, the old folks, to step up and do the talking.

Li Pan followed everyone to an adjacent private office, where the settlement of Spiritual Medicine would take place. It was also necessary to immediately package them, as the Spiritual Medicine exposed outside for too long would lose spiritual energy. They needed to be packaged and preserved for freshness immediately after being taken out.

The office staff had been waiting, with all the materials prepared in advance. This process was nothing new, and they were all familiar with it.

Li Pan glanced at the various vehicle refrigerators, wooden boxes, and Jade Boxes they had brought, frowning slightly.

"We don’t have enough boxes or refrigerators. We’ve got more stuff this time, and we need twice as many of these boxes," she said.

"That much?"

"We’ve had a huge harvest this time. We also need two Jade Boxes, as I found three Longevity Fruits that need to be preserved separately. Some Spirit Fruits have especially thin skins that lose spiritual energy very quickly if broken and need to be individually packaged."

"I’ll prepare it right away."

Heeding her advice, the office staff immediately took action.

After waiting for more than ten minutes, everything was brought over, and the number of people doubled to begin packaging.

Only then did Li Pan begin to take out items one by one, recording the names and quantities, packaging, registering, and other tasks.

During packaging, the settlement was directly finalized, and then everyone went their separate ways. The Wang Family also brought items, which were promptly packed and taken away, and the office staff, similarly, packaged everything and proceeded with armed escort.

It took a good four to five hours to finish everything. The main issue was that some Spiritual Medicine had fragile skins that were prone to damage. Such loss would have been too severe, so they needed to handle everything with utmost care, gingerly and meticulously, not daring to damage even the slightest bit.

The whole process was recorded on video, with signatures and fingerprints taken from all parties involved.