Chapter 13: The Gathering Water Spell

Although the newly reclaimed land rarely yielded food, it was not completely barren. Though five years had passed since the apocalypse, and survivors had entered the wasteland, the world before the cataclysm was one of abundant resources and advanced technology. Some well-packaged foodstuffs had managed to endure until now. Those survivors venturing into the new frontier could, to some extent, find something to eat.

Only the three weak and sickly members of the Shi family returned laden with a pile of worthless junk. It seemed utterly unreasonable that these three should survive. The rest of the group braced themselves, expecting the second sister-in-law Shi to soon come to their tent, begging for food. In the wasteland, it was far too easy to exploit a helpless woman.

Yet, upon returning to the tent, the three Shi women showed no sign of going out to beg. The second sister-in-law began sorting through the bottles and jars they had scavenged, pulling them out of a filthy plastic bag. Shi Yuebai gently stroked the youngest, Yao Yao’s head.

“Take out all the little stones you found and count them,” she instructed.

Yao Yao immediately emptied a handful of similarly sized stones from her pocket. “One, two, three, four, five...” she trailed off, unable to recall what came after five.

Patiently, Shi Yuebai guided her, “Six.”

Yao Yao concentrated hard, nodding her big head, then dragged out the sound clearly, “Six.”

“Very good, Yao Yao, you’re amazing. Even if your auntie went looking, she might not find so many stones of the same size.”

Yao Yao’s eyes sparkled with joy, as if two tiny moons shone within them.

Shi Yuebai pointed out several directions, instructing Yao Yao to place the collected stones accordingly. The dizziness array’s radius gradually expanded. Shi Yuebai pressed her hand to the ground, palm down over a talisman. She converted her own fat energy through the talisman into spiritual energy, infusing it into the dizziness array.

It was like charging a battery; every so often, Shi Yuebai had to replenish the array with spiritual energy. The more energy she infused, the longer the array’s effect would last. However, Shi Yuebai’s current condition was inadequate. Her obese body suffered from blocked meridians everywhere. To convert even ten to twenty jin (about five to ten kilograms) of fat energy at once was impossible.

Even the few ounces of fat energy flowing through her clogged meridians caused her intense pain. Moreover, she hadn’t eaten or drunk anything and had spent the entire day under the harsh wasteland sun, causing her weight to balloon by another two jin.

Shi Yuebai wanted to weep silently—now she weighed 740 jin.

Others might gain weight just from drinking water, but Shi Yuebai’s case was extreme: even basking in the sun added pounds. If this had happened to the original body, she would have undoubtedly broken down.

Yet, Shi Yuebai possessed a rare strength of spirit. Though the fat energy coursing through her meridians felt like tiny steel wires scraping everywhere, she persisted in infusing the dizziness array with spiritual energy.

She then summoned Yao Yao, placing one hand atop the little girl’s head, pouring a jin (half a kilogram) of her own body energy into her. Yao Yao felt no hunger at all and was puzzled by her auntie’s actions. Seeing the sweat beading on her auntie’s forehead, she reached out to wipe it away.

“Auntie, tired? So tired...” The toddler, with only a two-year-old’s intelligence, couldn’t form a complete sentence.

Shi Yuebai patted Yao Yao’s head, forcing a smile—the puffiness in her cheeks making her resemble a laughing Buddha.

“Auntie’s not tired. Yao Yao, go find more small stones. Auntie has some work to do alone.”

Watching the obedient child crawl away, Shi Yuebai’s gaze fell upon the large basin they had just brought back. Her short, plump fingers struggled to form a seal as she focused her mind.

She was using a water-gathering spell.

Energy flowed through her body, each converted bit of energy making her grimace in pain. Yet Shi Yuebai endured until tiny droplets of water condensed in the air, following the direction of her hand seals, converging toward the basin.

By the time the second sister-in-law had neatly stacked all the bottles and jars, she turned around, searching for an explanation.

“Yuebai, why did we bring back so many bottles?”

“If any men break into our tent, we can use these bottles to smash their heads,” Shi Yuebai replied casually, still concentrating, her words half-hearted.

The second sister-in-law thought it over and found the reasoning not entirely unreasonable.

Night was falling; she carried Yao Yao back, and they curled up together beside Shi Yuebai.

“It’s late. Let’s rest early. Tomorrow morning, we’ll head into the city to sell potatoes.”

The next morning, the second sister-in-law was awoken by the sound of running water. She sprang to her feet, hands waving in the air.

“Water? Where is there water?”

Though the wasteland had water sources, all were contaminated. Anyone who drank the foul, blackened water died instantly. No life could thrive in such foul liquid.

The authorities, desperate to keep survivors alive, had devised a way to filter water with 100% radiation contamination. Though harmful to the body, it was drinkable without immediate fatality.

Thus, every survivor group periodically traveled to the big city to purchase water. Ordinary individuals had no access to water; the resource was tightly controlled by the ruling class and sold only to survivor teams.

No one dared to wander alone; everyone banded into groups solely to secure water.

The scarcity of resources caused water prices to soar. Years ago, teams had to surrender half their food to buy water. Now, even half their food could no longer buy enough water.

Most of the food survivors found was used primarily to purchase water.

So it was no wonder the second sister-in-law was surprised today.

“Yuebai, did the team distribute water?”

Shi Yuebai calmly washed three of the bottles the second sister-in-law had sorted the day before, rinsing them in the basin.

“No. The basin was left by the bridge pier overnight, and somehow it collected a small basin of water.”

She spoke with a hint of frustration, teeth clenched. She had labored all night, nearly to collapse, only to gather half a basin of water.

That morning, she planned to take three clean bottles into the city, to fill them with water for Yao Yao’s backpack so she could drink whenever thirsty.

But the bottles they scavenged yesterday were filthy beyond repair.

Shi Yuebai could only use a third of the water to clean three glass bottles, small ones that once held slices of oranges before the apocalypse.

What angered her more was that despite all her exertion, she had only shed two jin of fat overnight.

As Shi Yuebai drained her body’s fat energy, her body continued to swell with fat, and the rate of expansion was even accelerating.