Braised Dragon with Soy Sauce

"Xinlan, do you have any thick cattail leaves?"

"No."

Xinlan's straightforward answer instantly filled Mo Yuming's face with disappointment.

He sighed heavily and said helplessly, "Alas, just a few thick cattail leaves are needed, but it's really troublesome! I have to make another trip to the Rimu Forest."

If only I had a usable interdimensional storage bag, it could hold hundreds of thick cattail leaves at once, enough to build several houses.

Mo Yuming sat dejectedly on the roof of his newly built garden house, gazing into the distance, his thoughts drifting away.

His right hand involuntarily squeezed the high-level interdimensional storage bag hanging at his waist, his eyes filled with resentment.

"It's been almost a hundred days, and this damn stinky bag still won't open! My little sister and I have made countless trips to the Reimu Forest!"

In the blink of an eye, Mo Yuming has been in this world for more than three months.

When he first arrived, he was filled with unfamiliarity and fear of this world. For the first month, because his left hand was in the recovery period after a fracture, he could only stay at home to recuperate and could not go anywhere.

During that time, he anxiously hoped that his injuries would heal quickly, and his heart was filled with curiosity and longing for the outside world.

Finally, his injuries gradually healed, and Mo Yuming could no longer suppress his inner desire. In the days after his recovery, accompanied by Xinlan, he embarked on a journey to explore this mysterious world.

They ran through almost every corner of the entire Yishi Valley, except for those restricted areas that even adults dared not trespass into.

In this unknown world, Mo Yuming truly experienced life firsthand. He witnessed the beauty and cruelty of nature, and felt the warmth and indifference between people.

First-hand experience is quite different from hearsay. After living and experiencing this world for a period of time, he truly integrated into it and became a part of it, and he also truly experienced the cruelty of reality.

However, despite the numerous difficulties, the flame of hope in Mo Yuming's heart never went out. He believed that as long as he persevered, he would definitely be able to overcome all difficulties and find his own place in this world.

This secluded canyon appears picturesque with a pleasant climate. The people within live a peaceful and tranquil life, seemingly carefree like immortals.

Perhaps the native inhabitants did not feel anything was wrong and continued to live their lives in an orderly manner, simply because they had never compared themselves to others and could not perceive the differences. In their minds, life was just like this, and this was the life they were used to.

However, those outsiders had a different feeling.

Especially someone who has traveled from another world and is used to a life with advanced technology and abundant material possessions.

Arriving in a place where even the most basic necessities like oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar are hard to come by, how can life continue? No one can say for sure unless they experience it firsthand. Mo Yuming is now experiencing this kind of life all too well.

Within just a few months, he began to find it boring and grew tired of life in the canyon.

Life here is worse than house arrest or exile, and even more despairing.

In this corner that seemed to have been forgotten by time, Mo Yuming's confusion and helplessness followed him like a shadow.

He often reminisces about the world that once existed, filled with advanced technology and abundant resources, where convenience and comfort stand in stark contrast to his current predicament.

He began to ponder how he could find direction in this unfamiliar place and how to escape the suffocating boredom and despair.

During these days of interaction, Mo Yuming got to know many elderly people living in Yishi Valley.

Seeing their lifeless and idle appearance, Mo Yuming was deeply moved.

Unable to leave the valley, aside from basic needs like eating, drinking, relieving themselves, and sleeping, there was almost nothing that could bring them any joy in life. Most of them even gave up on cultivating their profound martial arts, living like the living dead.

Life here is very peaceful. There is no fraud, no hatred, no distinction between rich and poor, noble and lowly. Doors are truly left unlocked at night, and everyone is like one big family.

Everyone is the same, earning their own living. What's more, even the all-powerful money loses its magic here, becoming worthless and completely superfluous.

Ten thousand taels of gold are not worth more than a head of cabbage or a radish.

If you want to eat radishes, you have to grow them; if you want to eat cabbage, you have to plant them. Because here, no one will sell them to you as commodities in exchange for a pile of useless gold and jewels.

You can only obtain the material things you want through labor.

Indeed, the land here is fertile and rich in biodiversity, making it easy to obtain vegetables and fruits. Looking at this seemingly peaceful scene, Mo Yuming felt a complex mix of emotions.

He longed for that vibrant and ever-changing world, a world filled with challenges, struggles, and the joy of success.

Here, everything seems so bland and monotonous.

He couldn't help but wonder whether this kind of life was a peaceful happiness or a helpless constraint. He longed for change, but didn't know where to begin.

However, obtaining things like oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and other condiments and daily necessities that require processing was extremely difficult.

Take salt, the most common and indispensable commodity, for example. Although there are salt mines here, you can mine them yourself if you want salt, and no one will stop you from getting as much as you want.

The problem is that the salt mined is salt rock mixed with many impurities, which is what the locals call "earth salt," and it tastes bitter.

Unless it's a necessity for their bodies, no one here would want to get close to it, let alone use it as a seasoning to make food taste better.

The best food here is wild fruit. Although there are many wild fruits, not all of them are sweet. There are very few that are both fragrant and sweet. They are okay for an occasional treat, but not enough for a large meal.

Besides, eating fruit every day as a meal would get boring after a while. Moreover, fruit production is seasonal; it's not available year-round.

At this point, most intelligent people can probably imagine what kind of life the people in this deep ditch are living.

Therefore, apart from feeling somewhat pleasantly surprised during the first few days after arriving here, Mo Yuming was not very satisfied with the days that followed.

Everything else is fine, except the food is terrible. We eat wild fruit and grilled meat without any seasoning every day, and it's making us nauseous.

This primitive lifestyle left Mo Yuming extremely depressed. He often missed the world he once knew, a world with a wealth of culinary options, where various delicious seasonings could make food rich and varied.

Here, everything seemed so simple and monotonous. He longed for some change, for his life to no longer be so dull.

But in this isolated canyon, he didn't know how to make these changes and could only helplessly continue to endure this unsatisfactory life.

Mo Yuming had also been quite puzzled: Why were the people of Yishi Valley so aloof and preferred to be alone? They all liked to hide in their rooms and wouldn't meet with anyone for ten days or half a month to chat or have a heart-to-heart talk.

This question had troubled him for a long time, but he hesitated to ask it due to his current status, fearing others would see him as a freak. After all, for a little kid whose total age is only in the single digits, worrying about such a question was indeed a bit too early.

Later, as time went by, he gradually came to understand the truth.

It turns out that Mo Wen and the seventy-odd people living in Ruimu Valley and Yishi Valley were mostly people who fell from the world above.

Only a small portion are second- or third-generation residents who were born and raised in the canyon.

Although people in this world generally have a long lifespan, theoretically, people with some profound cultivation can live to be one or two hundred years old without any problems, and even ordinary people without spiritual power can live to be nearly a hundred years old.

But within this enclosed canyon, their numbers continue to dwindle.

The reason is simple: those who fall from there are usually people with stories to tell, and their relatives are unlikely to fall with them. Moreover, the vast majority of outsiders are men.

Because of this special reason, the chances of forming a family here are very small.

Without the warmth and care of family, people gradually become accustomed to being alone, immersing themselves in their own world, and communicating less and less with the outside world.

Mo Yuming understood their loneliness, but also felt helpless about their closed-off lifestyle.

He longed to bring about some change to this place and help people rediscover their passion and vitality for life, but he also knew that this was no easy task and would require time and effort.

Moreover, not all those who fall are highly skilled in martial arts. Even those who survive are often severely injured and die within a few years.

Therefore, for thousands of years, this canyon has never been able to prosper. Up to Mo Yuming, the total population of the canyon was only seventy-eight people, and 99% of them were single-person households.

Xinlan is the only fourth-generation member among this group. Her mother died at the age of 43 when she gave birth to her, due to complications during childbirth, which also marked the passing of the youngest third-generation woman.

It turns out there was another first-generation person who was younger than Xinlan's mother.

That man was Xinlan's father. He fell into the pit twenty years ago when he was in his early twenties.

It's important to clarify here that the "first generation" refers to all those who fell from above, regardless of age. The "second and third generations" refer to those born within this canyon.

It is said that he was originally a wealthy young man, generous by nature, and enjoyed making friends from all walks of life.

As long as I find someone agreeable, I don't care about their background, origins, or motives; I treat them all with sincerity and regard them as close friends.

Because of his so-called generous personality, he ultimately suffered the loss of his family, his wife, and his children.

He himself was driven to the brink of death by his enemies and had nowhere to turn, only to get the answer from his group of friends who had conspired to send him to his death.

The reason is simple: because they didn't want to live that dependent life anymore, but they didn't want to lose that privileged life, they had no choice but to take over his place and ask him to leave.

He even had a close confidant who said she had fallen in love with his one-year-old child and wanted to take his place as the child's father, so she had no choice but to ask him to "take over".

After being blasted off the cliff, he thought he was going to die, but miraculously he survived, only suffering serious injuries.

Fortunately, he was rescued by Xinlan's mother, who happened to be passing by. Under Xinlan's mother's careful care, he survived. Influenced by this group of people who also had their own stories, it took him nearly ten years to slowly let go of that hatred.

He developed feelings for his older sister, Xinlan, who had always taken care of him, and with everyone's encouragement, they got married.

After marriage, the two lived a relatively happy life.

However, the good times didn't last long. In the third year after their marriage, Xinlan's mother died in childbirth.

Experiencing this kind of life-and-death separation again pushed Xinlan's father to the brink of life and death.

He sat beside his wife's cold body, his eyes fixed on his daughter who was crying incessantly beside him, his eyes filled with a deathly pallor.

The neighbors who rushed to help were all people who had faced life and death. Seeing the situation, they knew that at this moment, even the most comforting words would be superfluous and would not have much effect.