Chapter 133: Chapter 133
Brother had been pestering Owen Bertram for days, insisting that he find a way to locate the missing Baby.
While others might lose sleep over their loved ones, Little Loach could not sleep when the thought of the escaped delicacy crossed his mind, always causing a ruckus in the wooden bottle at night.
Owen Bertram had no choice but to possess Little Loach today and swim downstream of the Hunshui River to take a look at the cave.
Upon arriving at Yukou Town, Owen heard the bustling sounds of construction work coming from the riverside. Sticking his head out, he saw that the dock was a busy construction site, while the entire dock area was deserted as all workers had gone to work.
"What are they building?" Owen curiously asked, diving back down to head for the cave.
Little Loach had been surveilling the cave entrance for quite some time and was familiar with its surroundings, but had never ventured inside.
The cave entrance was small, requiring Little Loach to compress himself to squeeze through. The interior was only about half the size of a room, and Owen couldn’t find anything noteworthy after looking around.
However, there were many fist-sized cobblestones laid on the floor, resembling a bed.
"What exactly is it? You said it was like a plant, but do plants need a bed?"
Little Loach could not provide a coherent explanation.
Owen searched again but found nothing. He then focused on the cobblestones and smashed them with a flick of his tail.
He felt around the rubble but still found nothing.
"Strange," Owen shook his head. "Nothing seems special about this place. Guess we’ll have to continue guarding and wait a bit longer. It’ll come back eventually."
He turned to leave, brushing away the cobblestone shards with his tail, only to stop abruptly.
Turning around again, he moved his whiskers to push the shards away, revealing half of a stone plaque hidden underneath!
Owen picked it up with his whiskers and saw that it matched the other half of the stone plaque he had found earlier.
A chill ran down Owen’s spine: Was it truly a coincidence that he had found the two halves of the stone plaque, which were a hundred miles apart from Hunshui River to the Hunshui River? Or was there some force behind it all?
However, since he found them, even if there was a powerful force behind the scenes, he wouldn’t be able to escape. Owen thought for a moment, kept the stone plaque, and left.
Back at the outpost, he told Brother, "I have a plan. Don’t worry now."
Owen got the other half of the stone plaque from his sister, and the two pieces fit together seamlessly, without a single fragment missing.
Deep in the Burning Hillock, the tower suddenly lit up with bright thunder lights, and the power of the Thunderbolt surged. In the depths of the well, the ancient demons became silent and frightened, all diving down, not daring to cause trouble.
Damn, this time the Thunderbolt’s power was even more terrifying than before! If they weren’t careful, they’d be annihilated!
Owen divided the two stone plaques, kept the back part, and gave the front part to Little Loach with some instructions. Little Loach held the half stone plaque and swam back into the river, setting up a trap at the boundary between Jaafar County and Asa County.
After placing the half stone plaque, Little Loach shrank his body and burrowed into the mud nearby, continuing his wait-and-see approach.
It wouldn’t dare return to the original cave easily, but it should be unable to resist approaching if it found this half of the stone plaque.
Since the stone plaque was of great importance, Owen instructed Little Loach to stay there for a few days without leaving.
Meanwhile, at the place where Matthew - Owen’s "superior" - was staying, Owen was hardly ever disturbed. Instead, he brought various fresh and delicious ingredients every day, which made Verna extremely happy.
Stubbornly refusing help from others, Verna cooked the ingredients herself and only shared the meals with her brother, never hypocritically inviting others to "join for a bite."
However, Verna’s cooking talent seemed slightly skewed; no matter the cooking method - frying, sautéing, or boiling - she always ended up boiling everything.
No matter what ingredients Verna used, she had just one method: throw everything into the pot and cook it together.
Strangely enough, no matter how many things she threw into the pot, the dishes always turned out to be very delicious.
It’s usually the case that eating the same type of food would quickly become tiresome, but Verna’s cooking approach was quite the contrary, always creating a different taste and a unique flavor with each meal.
So when Matthew originally tried to please Owen Bertram by hiring a professional chef using the Horizon Bureau’s budget, Verna simply dispatched the chef to cook large pots of food for the ordinary military officers.
The chef was very dissatisfied, but he did not dare to complain openly in front of a government office like the Horizon Bureau. Instead, he whispered sarcastic comments to make sure Verna could hear them.
Verna earnestly told him, "It’s because your cooking doesn’t taste good."
The chef was furious and insisted on having a "cook-off" with Verna.
After demonstrating her cooking method, the chef scoffed at Verna’s rough handling of the ingredients and criticized her one-pot-cooking method harshly, saying it was disrespectful to the ingredients. "Heaven and earth have endowed us with such delicious ingredients, and your cooking methods are simply blasphemous!"
Verna ignored him. Once the food was cooked, she carefully scooped a spoonful, thought for a moment, shook her wrist, and let half of the spoonful fall back into the pot before handing the rest to the chef.
The chef tasted it with contempt, and his facial expression froze.
This absolutely overturned his understanding of culinary arts. He yelled "This is not logical!" several times in a row, and Verna felt a pang of loss for having given him half a spoonful for free.
Still unconvinced, the chef showed up for every meal.
Verna turned him away, and he brought more and more ingredients. "Just let me taste a mouthful of each meal. I just want to see if you can really be this ’illogical’ every time."
Verna gladly accepted, but the chef found, much to his chagrin, that the portion she shared with him kept getting smaller. It started with half a spoonful, then gradually decreased to less than that.
What frustrated him even more was that it really was illogical every time...
The chef went to resign from Matthew’s service: "I don’t have time to cook for these buffoons. I think I’ve discovered another shortcut to the Heavenly Kingdom of culinary delights!"
He didn’t understand at all.
More than ten days later, the outpost was finally built, located on a towering cliff beside the Riverside. The river here had a wide surface and gentle flow. The outpost, sitting high above, could oversee the entire river surface.
The next step was to chisel a stairway from the cliff directly to the Riverside, which was a difficult task. The laborers couldn’t do it, so the military officers had to do it themselves.
The laborers were then dismissed.
Owen Bertram and Verna had a small, separate courtyard next to the outpost. Though not large, it was new and solid, much better than the house they had lived in before in the village.
However, Verna insisted on digging a hole in the bedroom...
Owen Bertram buried half a stone plaque in the courtyard and planted a Fern Seed in it.
There was no movement from Little Loach, but it was very patient, making do with the demon beasts that swam past it every day and keeping a fixed gaze on the bottom of the river where it had set up!
Owen Bertram felt pity: "Little brother can only devour two or three Tier-2 Demon Beasts a day. That’s not enough nutrition."
If it didn’t eat well, how could it provide for me?
However, on the day the outpost was built, Little Loach felt something strange about its body and became afraid, calling for its elder brother in its mind.
Owen Bertram attached his soul to check and found no problems. However, he did find a scale under Little Loach’s neck that had suddenly grown larger and was turning golden.