Chapter 40: New Food: Carbohydrate Nutritional Porridge

“Planning to settle down nearby?”

Liu Hen was surprised. “They only want to settle down? No other requests?”

“Yes, sir,” Wu Yuanming nodded.

At first, Liu Hen wasn’t keen on getting involved, as long as they didn’t disturb him.

But considering that their desire to settle here likely stemmed from his presence—seeking his protection or trying to establish connections—he decided to respond.

He said, “Tell them that settling here is possible, but each person must cut down a tree weighing at least one hundred jin and bring it back.”

Once this order was issued, surely some would object, but he didn’t mind. For now, he only entertained the idea of building a base but had no immediate plans since he lacked a solid foundation.

“Cut down a tree and bring it back?” Wu Yuanming was stunned.

“Those trees are useful to me,” Liu Hen said calmly. “Just pass the order along. One tree per person, size doesn’t matter, but no chopping off branches… Of course, if a tree weighs about two hundred jin, it counts as two people; two trees totaling three hundred jin count as three. Weigh it by weight.”

After a pause, he added, “Children under ten years old don’t need to pay anything; they qualify for free residence nearby.”

He looked at Wu Yuanming. “The four of you personally oversee this. If it’s done well, I’ll give each of you a bow for free.”

A bow?

“Yes, sir!”

Wu Yuanming's spirits lifted. Although a bow wasn’t very useful in the dark, he believed a bow from a supernaturally gifted lord would be extraordinary. Even if the four couldn’t use them, they could sell them to those in need.

“By the way…”

Liu Hen suddenly asked, “You siblings of the Wu family, are you biological siblings?”

“Of course not,” Wu Yuanming answered. “My name is real, but the others originally had no names. I gave them their names. We were just an ordinary scavenger group that came together.”

So that was it. Liu Hen thought, how could anyone in this world be willing to have so many children? It made sense they weren’t blood-related.

“Get to your tasks,” he said. “Also, order them that anyone who brings flint stones can exchange one jin of flint for food worth at least as much as tree cakes.”

“Flint? Sir, but this area seems to have none,” Wu Yuanming said.

“Just give the order,” Liu Hen said.

“Yes, sir,” Wu Yuanming nodded respectfully.

After sending Wu Yuanming away, Liu Hen returned to the room and approached a small pile of wood shavings in the corner.

He had recently harvested an entire large log, leaving behind a considerable amount of fine sawdust.

He gathered the wood shavings, wondering if they could be placed into the fuel compartment.

But just as he was about to open the bonfire’s fuel compartment, a thought struck him, and he instead opened the bonfire’s cooking interface.

In the next moment, he was astonished to see the wood shavings he had just stored appearing in the cooking interface.

‘Can wood shavings really be used as ingredients?’ Liu Hen was amazed. ‘Let’s try.’

He put a small portion of wood shavings into the cooking frame and selected cook.

The countdown showed one minute.

One minute quickly passed, and a special recipe appeared. Simultaneously, a strange food item was produced:

[Organic Carbon: During cooking, toxins in the wood shavings are burned away, leaving organic carbon that is easy to digest and absorb, usable as sustenance.]

‘Organic carbon?’

Liu Hen took out this piece, which looked just like a piece of charcoal.

But remarkably, this charcoal had none of the usual harsh smell; instead, it carried a faint woody fragrance.

After hesitating, he bit into it.

“At first, there was no particular taste, but as he chewed gently, his expression gradually became somewhat dazed.

He felt as if he were eating starch, and after swallowing, a faint sweetness lingered in his mouth.

That wasn’t all—once swallowed, the organic carbon was absorbed by his digestive system at a perceptible speed, leaving no residue.

‘…!’

At that moment, Liu Hen suddenly felt he might have the foundation to build a faction.

Because this substance seemed abundant in this world.

Though not overly plentiful, it was far more so than normal food.

This was a rocky mountainous region with little soil, yet trees could be found every few hundred to a thousand meters; imagine other places.

Though the Night Mist World lacked sunlight and photosynthesis, and vegetation was sparse, some plants had adapted to the darkness, mutating and growing rapidly.

Some even became sentient.

Clearly, mysterious substances invisible to ordinary people drifted in the world’s air.

Mutated plants absorbed this mysterious matter, growing as fast as normal plants from his previous life.

‘But eating it this way seems wasteful; after all, plants are limited and slow-growing. Once cut down, it would take many years to regrow.’

Trees weren’t crops; they couldn’t be harvested yearly.

Liu Hen suddenly recalled how to make tree cake porridge, and he immediately put the organic carbon back into his spatial pouch.

As he expected, the organic carbon could be used as an ingredient for further cooking.

So he placed one piece of organic carbon and three ice cubes into four cooking slots.

Cooking began; the countdown remained one minute.

‘Hopefully it won’t turn into some dark cuisine,’ he silently prayed.

Finally, one minute passed.

He hurriedly looked at the cooking interface again and saw a new recipe appeared:

[Carbohydrate Nutritional Porridge: A nutritious porridge cooked using organic carbon as an ingredient, perfectly absorbed by the human body with no residue.]

Eagerly, Liu Hen took out the so-called Carbohydrate Nutritional Porridge, which was a bowl of pitch-black porridge weighing about three jin.

At first glance, it looked no different from tree cake porridge.

But the taste was completely different.

Tree cake porridge was nearly tasteless; only extremely hungry survivors could detect a faint, barely pleasant scent.

However, this Carbohydrate Nutritional Porridge emitted a subtle sweetness that made one’s appetite immediately stir.

‘Somehow familiar… it tastes a bit like sesame paste from my previous life?’ Liu Hen was dazed.

He tried a sip, and his eyes lit up.

This porridge really was sweet, though far less so than the sesame paste he’d known before, but it bore a faint resemblance.

To compare, it was like sesame paste diluted tenfold, barely tasting like sesame paste.

That was just the flavor. As for nutrition…

Perhaps because the trees in this world were mutated, or a special transformation occurred during cooking.

Thus, this bowl of carbohydrate nutritional porridge had at least three times the nutritional value of the same amount of tree cake porridge.

Three times… what did that mean?

It meant that even by the standard three meals a day from his previous life, one meal would only require one jin to feel full.

For the survivors of this world, using it purely for survival, this bowl could sustain them for half a month or even longer.

‘This is a breakthrough!’

Liu Hen was thrilled, for the appearance of Carbohydrate Nutritional Porridge meant he would never lack food again.

Moreover, he now had the foundation to build a faction.

This was his exclusive recipe; no one else could replicate it even if they wanted to.