Douluo Continent: Gourmet Prisoner

On the very day the Sea God Pavilion meeting concluded, Shrek Academy acted with astonishing speed.

The academy first dispatched several Soul Douluo elders to inform the three great empires of Tianhun, Xingluo, and Douling of the news of the cooperation with Xingdou Great Forest in the form of urgent documents.

Immediately afterwards, gold-embossed notices were posted all over the academy—on bulletin boards, at the entrance of the cafeteria, downstairs in the dormitory buildings, and even on the training ground of the Martial Soul Department, the eye-catching words could be seen.

Shrek Academy has reached a deep cooperation agreement with the Soul Beast Clan of Star Dou Great Forest, and starting today, exploration access to the outer areas and mixed areas of Star Dou Great Forest will be opened!

Students of this college have priority access to explore the forest and are free of charge!

The ingredients you find can be cooked and eaten by yourself, or you can hand them over to the academy for sale, with the academy taking a 10% commission!

Anyone who discovers an unrecorded new area or new ingredient will receive a generous reward after the academy verifies the information!

The announcement caused an uproar throughout Shrek Academy.

The students who remained in the academy spread the news, and even the most composed inner court disciples couldn't help but crowd around the bulletin board, repeatedly checking the contents with excited gleam in their eyes.

At that moment, Jiang Nannan stood blankly by the bulletin board at the entrance of the college, her gaze fixed on the notice, her fingertips trembling slightly.

Sunlight shone on her slightly pale face, making her eyes, which always carried a hint of stubbornness, appear slightly moist.

She desperately needs money.

Her mother's congenital incurable disease had always been a huge burden on her heart.

Thanks to the food she occasionally gathered from the outer edge of the Star Dou Great Forest, her mother's health did improve somewhat. However, the effects of those ordinary ingredients were ultimately limited. In addition, the expenses for medical treatment and medicine almost emptied all of her savings.

She still remembers the days when the Starry Sky Forest was uncontrolled.

Back then, the outer area was lush with vegetation, and whole roasted pigs roamed freely in the woods. The branches of the bone-in-meat trees were laden with heavy roasted meat. She only needed to spend half a day to gather enough ingredients to nourish her mother and occasionally exchange them for some pocket money to make ends meet.

Later, a group of greedy nobles, along with a mercenary group, plundered the outer edge of the Star Dou Great Forest like scraping the ground, wantonly hunting soul beasts and gathering food, turning a vibrant forest into a scene of devastation.

With the ecosystem completely destroyed, the spirit beasts became wary and irritable, so the Star Dou Great Forest simply sealed off its entrance.

After that, the Star Luo Empire sent people to take over the outer perimeter of the forest. Want to get in? Sure, but first you have to pay an exorbitant entry fee.

That sum of money was an amount that Jiang Nannan couldn't raise even if she saved for more than half a year without eating or drinking.

From then on, she fell into extreme distress, looking for odd jobs everywhere, willing to do any dirty or tiring work, but the meager income was barely enough to cover her mother's medical expenses.

Not long ago, a group of mysterious people approached her, saying they could give her a Xuanwu Divine Pill that could cure her mother's incurable disease, but on the condition that she give her virginity to their young master.

During that time, Jiang Nannan couldn't sleep for nights on end.

On one hand, there was her mother's increasingly frail health, and on the other hand, there was her bottom line that she was holding firm to. She was almost crushed. If it weren't for this notice, she would probably have had to make a choice in despair this month.

And now, a ray of hope has unexpectedly shone into her gloomy life.

Free entry, priority exploration, and ingredients available for sale... all of these things warmed her heart, but what excited her most was the notice about reaching a cooperation agreement with the Star Dou Great Forest's soul beast clan. This meant that after years of recuperation, the ecology of the outer ring of the Star Dou Great Forest had finally recovered.

The outer circle of the Starry Sky Forest with ingredients and the outer circle without ingredients are two different things.

Jiang Nannan clenched her fists, her fighting spirit rekindled in her eyes. She turned and ran back to her dormitory, rummaged through the bottom of her trunk for a short blade and a storage bag, quickly packed them up, and then sped off towards the Star Dou Great Forest.

The moment Jiang Nannan stepped into the outer circle of the Star Dou Great Forest, she almost burst into tears.

The familiar fragrance of grass and trees wafted over, no longer the desolate and bleak place of the past. The trees in the forest sprouted new branches, and unknown wildflowers swayed among the grass. Several plump whole roasted pigs were rooting in the soil, making grunting noises. Not far away, on the trunks of trees with bones and flesh, strings of glistening meat fruits were hanging.

This is the Starry Sky Forest she remembers.

In the past, a whole roasted pig and some bone-in fruit would have been enough to sustain her for a while.

But now, she still needs to raise money for her mother's medicine. Although the allure of the Xuanwu Divine Pill has diminished, she is more eager to find high-quality ingredients that can both nourish her mother and fetch a good price.

Gritting her teeth, Jiang Nannan made a bold decision—to try her luck on the outskirts of the mixed zone.

The atmosphere outside the mixed zone was noticeably more oppressive than the outer ring. The trees were thicker, and vines coiled around the trunks like pythons. Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the branches and leaves, casting dappled shadows.

Jiang Nannan gripped the short blade at her waist, moved with utmost care, and cautiously observed the movements around her.

After walking for about half an hour, a patch of black grass that I had never seen before suddenly appeared before my eyes.

The grass blades on this meadow are a deep, inky black, with narrow, elongated leaves that exude a strange vitality, swaying gently in the breeze.

"This is..." Jiang Nannan's eyes lit up, "A completely new ingredient? Then this black meadow, isn't it a new, unrecorded area?"

Suppressing her overwhelming joy, she squatted down and carefully picked up a handful of black grass. The grass felt slightly cool to the touch and had a faint dampness.

She hesitated for a moment, but still put a small piece of grass into her mouth.

With a gentle bite, a burst of refreshing juice explodes in your mouth, offering a crisp and delightful texture.

"Great, perfect for a salad." Jiang Nannan's eyes lit up. She immediately took out her storage soul tool, memorized the location of the black grass, and stuffed a handful of black grass into the soul tool. "I'll report this to the academy when I get back. Maybe I can get a reward."

Just as she stood up, preparing to continue exploring, her gaze was suddenly drawn to a tree not far away.

It was a strange tree I had never seen before, with a grayish-brown trunk and fist-sized fruits hanging from its branches.

The fruit has a very thin skin, through which you can vaguely see that it contains a thick juice, like some kind of natural sauce.

Jiang Nannan's curiosity was piqued. She slowly walked forward, picked up a fruit, and gently squeezed it.

Thick, dark brown juice immediately seeped from the fruit, dripping onto the back of her hand, carrying a peculiar fragrance.

Jiang Nannan hesitated for a moment, then stuck out her tongue and gently licked the back of her hand.

A slight bitterness and sourness instantly spread across the tip of the tongue, the bitterness just right, the sourness refreshing and appetizing, creating a unique flavor that is hard to describe.

"It tastes pretty good." Her eyes lit up as she looked at the black grass in her hand and then at the fruit on the tree. A bold idea popped into her head.

She picked a fruit, squeezed all the sauce inside onto the black grass, then pinched a small amount and put it in her mouth.

The crisp and sweet taste of the black grass perfectly balances the slight bitterness and sourness of the sauce. The two flavors intertwine and blend in the mouth, creating a wonderful taste sensation.

"A perfect match!" Jiang Nannan was overjoyed and immediately reached out to pick more than a dozen fruits, carefully putting them into her storage bag.

This sum of money was enough for her to buy a lot more medicine for her mother.

Just as she turned around with joy, ready to leave this new area, a deafening roar suddenly exploded behind her.

The earth trembled violently, and dust filled the air.

Jiang Nannan turned around abruptly and saw a huge soul beast slowly emerging from the other end of the black grass.

The soul beast was covered with a shell as hard as rock, covered with ferocious patterns. Its head was round and round, like a giant war drum, and its limbs were as thick as pillars. With each step it took, it could leave a deep pit in the ground.

If Shi Yu were here, he would certainly know that this is a rock drum.

This is a ferocious creature that originally lived on the coast, but migrated inland in search of more food. Jiang Nannan had already become its prey.

The rock drum stared intently at Jiang Nannan, like a predator spotting its prey, and let out a low growl that made Jiang Nannan's eardrums ache.

The next second, it suddenly raised its thick forelimbs and slammed them down hard towards Jiang Nannan!