Chapter 115: Chapter 115: The Thunderstorm Arrives!

Just when he wanted to say something, Li Wenxi suddenly spoke up in the group chat.

“Everyone, I found nitrate! We can make ice now!”

It had been over two hours since Xu Xin traded with her. It seemed she should have already contracted a mutant beast and returned to the treehouse.

Li Wenxi’s words immediately shifted the focus of the group.

Wen Guixin: “Nitrate? That nitrate for making ice?! Wenxi, I want some, sell it to me, sell it to me, I’ll trade you with blue-level resources!”

Ji Chaoyang: “Did you find a lot? If not, we can take turns using it. Nitrate used for making ice can be reused repeatedly, and a small amount can meet the needs of many people.”

Qin Yunlong: “Is it the same nitrate that’s a raw material for gunpowder?”

Wang Lei: “It should be, but without sulfur, you can’t make gunpowder, right?”

Qi Xuefei: “Do I have a share too? Many medicines need to be stored at low temperatures.”

Li Wenxi: “Everyone gets a share, but even after I mined all the nitrate, there’s only less than a hundred kilograms. If you want some, I can only sell you ten kilos each, as I need to keep some for myself.”

It seems she knew how to keep some secrets, not mentioning the “it’s just enough” she said to him. But since the nitrate is measured by the kilo, it seems she’s offering green-level nitrate.

The group chat was lively, with everyone asking Li Wenxi about the nitrate, but Xu Xin wasn’t interested. He had blue-level nitrate, which was more than enough for refrigeration.

However, he was curious about whether Li Wenxi had successfully contracted a mutant beast, so he privately asked, “What animal did you contract?”

Li Wenxi was busy negotiating prices with others and didn’t reply to him, but after a while, she suddenly video-called Xu Xin.

In the video, behind her was a mutant bison several times larger than the mutated Silver King Mimi. The bison’s fur was now covered in blood-red patterns.

Being big is quite normal; large herbivores are generally bigger than carnivores.

The largest bison species on Earth, the Ganges Country bison, can easily weigh over a thousand kilograms, with the largest ones reaching a ton and a half. Moreover, the bison has very low body fat content, composed mostly of muscle, which gives it immense strength–its charge is devastatingly powerful.

The downside is its clumsiness; a matador can play with the bull using just a piece of red cloth, causing it to charge blindly. Therefore, if contracting bodyguards, Xu Xin would still prefer feline or bear species, which are born hunters. Cattle are more suited for carrying loads or plowing fields.

“Look, I took your advice and contracted a cow! It can be ridden and carry backpacks, and it’s much faster than walking by myself–absolutely fantastic!” Li Wenxi looked very excited and was quite satisfied with her cow.

“Congratulations! Hmm? This is a cow, why didn’t you contract a bull? It might have been stronger,” Xu Xin observed the cow.

He’d only given Li Wenxi one dose of the potion, which meant the cow mutated with just one dose. Clearly, entities like Silver King that require large quantities of potion are rare.

“I definitely couldn’t handle a bull–that horn is really scary.” Li Wenxi patted the cow’s back and spread her hands. “I ambushed this one when it was alone. A cow is pretty good too; maybe we can even get milk in the future. By the way, have you finished your freezer?”

Xu Xin explained to Li Wenxi how he used blue-level nitrate to make an ice cellar and advised her to store some mutant beast meat after finishing hers, because in three days they might run out.

“An ice cellar, huh? Okay, I’ll give it a try now!” Li Wenxi was eager to test.

After hanging up the video call, Xu Xin looked at the [Explorers] group. Everyone had already bought nitrate from Li Wenxi and were discussing how to make a fridge.

Xu Xin decided to clearly explain the mutant beast meat subject to them.

He plainly told them that mutant beast meat indeed enhances strength but it’s quite mild, requiring long-term consumption to be effective. Thus, he advised them to stock more mutant meat as well.

He didn’t disclose how he knew this, which might be related to his abilities.

Whether they listened or not was up to them.

After finishing everything, the day was already nearing its end.

During the time since leaving the dungeon, he renovated the treehouse, installed a lightning rod, dealt with the piranha issue, obtained a full set of purple-level equipment, explored the giant cavern in the lake’s center, and established a rooftop garden and a basement ice cellar.

This day and night had been extraordinarily productive, significantly boosting his survival capabilities.

Tomorrow would usher in the new event, the stormy season. He hoped all his efforts were worth it.

After freshening up, Xu Xin hugged Keke and headed to his bedroom, setting up a pot of ice inside for cooling. He laid out his cotton mattress, made a quilt, and comfortably settled into bed.

After all, using an air conditioner while covered is much more comfortable than sleeping uncovered in the scorching summer.

He hoped the activity tomorrow would be simpler.

As he stroked the little companion by his pillow, he gradually drifted off to sleep.

…

Xu Xin was jolted awake by a clap of thunder.

Never in his life had he heard such loud thunder. It was as if the thunder exploded right above his head, making him spring off his bed in bewilderment.

“Eeek!” Keke also got scared, jumping up and flipping over before crawling onto Xu Xin’s shoulder, vigilantly watching the window outside.

Xu Xin also looked out the window.

It was just past six in the morning. Normally by this time, sunlight should have already penetrated the room, but it was incredibly gloomy outside, giving off a completely overcast feeling.

Getting out of bed, Xu Xin craned his neck to look outside, where the sky was shrouded in dense, dark clouds. These gray-black clouds were patchily joined together, stretching all the way to the horizon, massively thick and vast, engulfing the entire sky.

Each cloud seemed like a mountain peak looming in the air, suspended as if by Buddha’s Five Finger Mountain, creating a sense of oppression that made Xu Xin even struggle to breathe.

These thunderclouds hung so low that he felt they were within reach!

Despite the gloom outside and the sky being thickly clouded, there was no rain yet. The air was extremely humid, making breathing uncomfortable, and the surrounding air seemed to thicken.

Xu Xin noticed that the cotton quilt he changed just yesterday felt damp now.

“This feels uncomfortable,” Xu Xin thought, feeling damp all over and just wanting a shower.

Opening the bedroom door, Silver King and Mimi were already awake, likely stirred by the deafening thunder.

Suddenly, a bright flash streaked across the window, a thick bolt of lightning tearing through the sky just as Xu Xin’s expression changed and he reached to cover his ears. The thunderous roar burst forth again, instantly clearing any lingering fog from his newly awakened mind.

“Is the lightning this close?” Xu Xin was startled.

The lightning struck very close outside, practically down in front of his eyes. The massive bolt was spectacular, though brief, it etched itself into Xu Xin’s mind.

Visual senses might deceive him, but auditory senses won’t.

From seeing the flash to hearing the thunder was barely a second, if that, calculating by the speed of sound, the lightning was only about three hundred meters away!

The thunder emanated from the clouds, meaning the layer of clouds overhead was no more than three hundred meters from the treehouse! Such low clouds!

Ordinarily, cumulonimbus clouds are low, around six hundred meters, but three hundred meters are decidedly excessive. At this height, the oppressive feeling was overwhelming, almost as if they could fall directly down!

And the thunder was so loud, his head buzzed with the noise.

Another bolt of lightning streaked across, with Xu Xin instinctively covering his ears.

This time, Xu Xin consciously counted the seconds, and about a second later, the deafening thunderclap resonated, startling the whole jungle into a frenzy, countless animals fleeing in panic.

“Thunder without rain?”

Indeed, despite the heavy gray-black thunderclouds overhead and the especially humid surrounding air and despite two thunderclaps, not a droplet of rain fell.

Another bolt flashed, and before Xu Xin could react, a massive sound erupted from above his treehouse, followed by the rolling thunder.

What’s happening?!

Xu Xin rushed to the top floor, and through the glass on the ceiling, he could see arcs of electricity writhing around a lightning rod he had set up on the top floor. A few seconds later, the arcs gradually disappeared.

The lightning rod absorbed the lightning!

His treehouse was actually struck by lightning!

In the next two minutes, five more bolts struck, three of them hitting the lightning rod.

The black lightning rod made of black gold was now surrounded by electrical arcs, the black rod glowing faintly white after absorbing the lightning, growing brighter with each strike.

“Is it charging?” Xu Xin understood. The lightning rod could provide power to the treehouse, and the light on it likely indicated the power level.

As for why most of the lightning struck his treehouse, it was easy to explain; his treehouse was the tallest tree around, with a lightning-attracting rod that was hard for the lightning to miss.

Xu Xin suddenly remembered that the last event reward for returnees was to add a floor to the treehouse.

Even a short treehouse, once elevated by a floor, would become one of the tallest trees in the jungle, surely drawing lightning!

Goodness, even the event rewards are hidden traps!

Moreover, almost everyone in “Explorers” has a more advanced treehouse, even without an added floor, they could still attract lightning!