Starting with Crimson

Not long after, Li Qingyu looked at the gerbil magic core in his hand, which was smaller than a sesame seed, and couldn't help but laugh and cry.

[Gerberus Magic Core]

[Rank: F-]

[A magic core containing a trace of earth-elemental magic.]

This was arguably the lowest-level item Li Qingyu had ever seen, completely redefining his understanding of the minimum level of items.

It's bad enough that it's rated F, but it even has a minus sign.

Li Qingyu rubbed the freshly baked gerbil core in his hand, and without any hesitation, threw it directly into his mouth.

He smacked his lips twice.

Li Qingyu closed his eyes and sensed the progress bar of the crimson evolution in his mind. It seemed... it had increased by a tiny bit?

Pshaw, pshaw, pshaw...

Li Qingyu spat out a few mouthfuls of non-existent saliva. Eating it without washing it was indeed disgusting.

And it's all for nothing. With such a tiny increase, how many gerbil cores would you have to eat to get even a single evolution point?

This is the kind of thing you do when you pick up corpses...

The labor and the reward are completely disproportionate...

That won't do.

So, Li Qingyu dropped the gerbil corpse in his hand and turned his gaze back to the battlefield ahead, silently searching for the gerbil leader and gerbil general.

......................

China's official live broadcast room.

Jinghai City Live Broadcast Room.

"That's the confidence we have as the number one ranking on the Oasis leaderboard."

Miss Orange excitedly waved the dog-head cola bottle, watching Li Qingyu walk for more than half an hour in the rice paddy before finally reaching the end of the paddy field.

"Such a vast oasis, such vibrant rice paddies—who can surpass it?"

"All of this was achieved by Li Qingyu through his own hard work and sweat."

"Thanks to Li Qingyu's hard work, he has unknowingly laid the foundation for Blue Star's undefeated record in this match."

"really...."

"Effort and sweat are the best ladder to success."

"Let's support Li Qingyu's perseverance."

"Applause!"

With that, Miss Orange slammed the dog-head cola bottle in her hand onto the ground.

With a loud clang.

Miss Orange, her face flushed, took the lead and started slapping her hands.

Meanwhile, the assistant next to her took out another bottle of orange juice with a Chinese rural dog logo and quietly placed it on Miss Orange's desk.

"Huh!? There's even a swarm of alien rats attacking our contestant Li Qingyu's rice paddy."

"However, our Li Qingyu showed no fear and was already standing near the battlefield, directing his rice to fight back."

"That posture... has the air of a great general!"

"Li Qingyu seems to have discovered something on the battlefield, and he is trying to approach it."

"Braving the hail of bullets, leading from the front!"

"That takes a lot of courage."

"Truly worthy of being called...a fine young man of our China!"

"Contestant Li Qingyu successfully retrieved two rat carcasses from the battlefield."

"He is reviewing the results of the battle."

"I think I probably already know what he's going to do."

Miss Orange had a confident and composed expression, as if she had already seen through everything.

"According to the polls conducted by netizens over the past few days, 80% of netizens believe that Li Qingyu's awakened talent is the talent of a licking king."

"Based on the existing information, the prerequisite for activating the Licking King talent is to first lick yellow crystal-like objects. After accumulating enough Licking King energy, you can use the Licking King talent to randomly modify an item or a creature."

"For example, Li Qingyu's pineapple house, the little princess Qiqi on his head, and this exploding rice were all randomly modified in this way."

"This kind of yellow crystal has only been found in treasure chests and on monsters on Saha Star so far."

"Sure enough, our contestant Li Qingyu skillfully pried out two yellow crystals from the two rat corpses."

"He's accumulating energy to activate the modified effects of the 'Lick King' talent."

"Unfortunately, these two crystals are too small and probably won't provide much energy, so Li Qingyu chose to just throw them into his mouth."

"It seems that viewers in the live stream will not be able to witness the awe-inspiring visual effects of the King of Licking's talent being fully activated this time."

"Missed it...missed it..."

"Thank you to the director of the Women's Federation for the airplane."

"Thanks for the rocket she sent, love her or lick her."

"The boss is so generous!"

Meanwhile, the live stream chat was flooded with comments.

"Bring on a big one!~"

"Bring on a big one!!~"

"Bring on a big one!!!"

...

Such neatness and uniformity fully expressed the viewers' determination to have something big; it seemed that small things were simply not enough.

......................

The sky above Saha Star had completely darkened.

Dragging his weary body, Li Qingyu, guided by the green light emanating from Qiqi, led Erha back to Pineapple Castle.

He threw several relatively intact gerbil carcasses into the kitchen sink.

He then found a plate in the kitchen cabinet, took everything out of his pockets, and put it on the plate.

Splash! ~

In an instant, the plate was filled with yellow crystals of varying sizes, some smaller than sesame seeds and others the size of marbles.

Li Qingyu gave it a quick rinse, then carried the cleaned yellow crystal to the living room and placed it on the coffee table.

Whew... I'm exhausted...

After a busy day, Mr. Li finally returned to the embrace of the sofa.

Li Qingyu checked the time on the task panel; it was already past ten o'clock, and there were less than two hours left before the leaderboard rewards were distributed.

Incidentally, Li Qingyu also glanced at the Oasis rankings.

[Oasis Ranking List]

【1. Li Qingyu, the Pet Civilization】

【2. Abyss Civilization Padis】

【3. The Magical Pet Civilization of Chu Xuan】

【4. Florus, the Giant Tree Civilization】

5. The Witch Civilization of Muxi

...

Yes, very good, still in the lead.

But what's wrong with Colonel Chu? He's fallen from grace, Colonel Chu. It's been a whole day and he still hasn't caught up.

It seems Earth still needs me.

Hahaha....

After feeling smug for a while, Li Qingyu reached out and brought the plate full of magic cores to his face, grabbing a handful of magic cores to examine them.

Brilliant and sparkling.

[Gerbil Leader's Magic Core]

[Rank: F]

[A magic core containing a trace of earth-elemental magic.]

[Germain General's Magic Core]

[Rank: E]

[A magic core containing a trace of earth-elemental magic.]

Fortunately, General Sand Rat's magic core reached level E, which is equivalent to that of an ordinary Sand Scorpion. Otherwise, Li Qingyu would not have had the motivation to keep picking up corpses.

If the gerbils hadn't retreated at the end, Li Qingyu would have been reluctant to come back. It was hard work, but enjoyable, after all... they were all evolution points!

Ten minutes later.

Looking at the six extra evolution points on the crimson panel, Li Qingyu closed his eyes contentedly.

Hmm... Don't overthink it, she's just asleep...

I didn't even have time to eat.

I'm really exhausted.