Chapter 349 – Zhizhi’s Abilities

Zhizhi drank several bottles in a row, then let out a wine-flavored burp: “Zhiii~”

Seeing Zhizhi rubbing her belly with a look of utter satisfaction, Mo Lan was somewhat skeptical: “You’re full already?”

Zhizhi nodded: “Zhi zhi!” Full!

This time her heart and mouth were in agreement — she really was full.

Mo Lan had thought she’d be terribly difficult to feed! But one meal was just a few bottles of wine, far below her expectations.

“Zhi!” The tiny Zhizhi waved her fists, showing off her sturdy little body, once again declaring she wanted to help fight.

What was she? A Pokémon? “I don’t have any fights to fight,” Mo Lan said. “Zhizhi, besides the companion space, what other abilities have you evolved?”

Zhizhi thought for a moment, then clenched her little fist. A layer of silver energy appeared over it.

“Spatial power?” Mo Lan exclaimed in surprise.

Zhizhi didn’t understand what spatial power meant, but she knew to agree with her Mistress, nodding while squeaking “zhi zhi.”

Then she performed a vanishing act, disappearing into thin air.

“Zhizhi~” The voice came from behind Mo Lan.

Mo Lan turned around to find Zhizhi perched on the back of the sofa, waving at her. “That’s spatial teleportation?”

Zhizhi nodded, then pulled out a bottle of wine and mimed drinking it. She put the bottle away, bounced up and down a few times, then clenched her fists and beat her chest with a fierce, imposing air.

Mo Lan understood instantly: “So after drinking, your body grows bigger and your combat power increases? Hmm… gigantification and berserk mode?”

Zhizhi nodded again.

“Anything else?” Mo Lan asked.

Zhizhi: “┓(´∀`)┏”

Mo Lan got the picture — that was all of them. “Our Zhizhi is so amazing! Not only do you have so many abilities, each one is incredibly useful!”

Zhizhi: “(⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄)”

“Zhizhi, now that you’re awake, it’s time for us to go explore other places,” Mo Lan said. “Go say goodbye to your family and friends! Once you’ve said your farewells, we’ll leave this peach grove.”

Zhizhi nodded and bounced off happily.

After Zhizhi left, Mo Lan found a piece of soft leather from her spatial ring and used Sewing Magic to stitch together a leather satchel.

The main opening had a zipper, and there was also a small zippered window on the side.

Ever since she’d gotten the spatial ring, she no longer needed a bag to carry things. All her personal belongings, even her Wand when not in use, were stored in the spatial ring.

But Zhizhi certainly couldn’t go inside the spatial ring, so this satchel was prepared specifically for her.

When she got tired of walking, or when Mo Lan was riding the broomstick, she could stay inside it.

Mo Lan had originally thought the farewells would take at least two or three days, but Zhizhi came back after just half a day.

She was holding a leaf in her hands, licking it as she walked.

The leaf was wrapped around a glob of sticky substance that gave off a rich wine fragrance.

“Is that wine sediment from the wine cave?” Mo Lan asked in surprise. “Did the old monkey king give it to you?”

Zhizhi nodded and patted her belly.

“There’s more in your space? The old monkey king was really generous!” Mo Lan said.

Zhizhi shook her head vigorously and chattered on for quite a while before Mo Lan finally understood:

“The old monkey king said that now that they have Cat Carry Wine, nobody would be eating this fruit wine and fruit pulp over the winter, so he gave it to you? Silly Zhizhi, this is premium monkey wine — it doesn’t even go bad!”

Zhizhi looked utterly clueless: “(╥_╥)?”

“Never mind, it’s enough that I know.” Mo Lan patted the freshly sewn satchel at her side. “Come try it out!”

She hadn’t even unzipped it yet when the bag suddenly grew heavy.

When she pulled the zipper open, Zhizhi’s little head was already poking out from inside.

“I forgot — you can teleport right into the bag.” Mo Lan laughed and tapped Zhizhi on the forehead. “But you still need to learn how to work the zippers. When we’re out in the wild, we need to be ready to fight at any moment. Don’t waste your abilities on little things like opening and closing zippers, or when you actually need to fight, you might not be able to use them. Understand?”

At the mention of fighting, Zhizhi immediately turned serious, thumping her chest to guarantee she would be ready at all times.

Her little hands grabbed the zipper, and she practiced opening and closing it with tremendous enthusiasm.

Before long she’d mastered it, able to operate both the main zipper and the small zipper on the side window by herself.

“Then let’s pack up and get going!”

“Zhi!”

Mo Lan stood up with the satchel on her back, took Zhizhi out of the tent, then reverted the tent back to its card form and stored it in the Book of Cards.

Outside the tent, the old monkey king, the golden-armed apes, the white-haired giant ape, and the long-armed gibbons had all come to see them off.

Mo Lan took out two large-portion wine cards and gave one each to the old monkey king and the white-haired giant ape: “Consider these a farewell gift from Zhizhi. Thank you all for taking care of her.”

The wine in these two cards was even more than what the golden-armed ape clan had received over the past half month through trading various magical materials.

For the entire clan, it was a very generous gift.

The old monkey king took one look and almost wanted to go be a witch’s familiar himself.

The little golden-furred monkeys didn’t care about any of that — they immediately started shrieking “Mistress!” and rushed toward Mo Lan, trying to climb onto her.

Zhizhi let out an angry screech, popped out of the satchel, and swatted every single one of the little monkeys away.

She tugged on Mo Lan’s trouser leg and scolded the little monkeys: “Zhi zhi zhi zhi!” Mistress is mine!

The old monkey king smiled sheepishly: “Witch, the little ones really like you. How about picking a few companions for Zhizhi…”

“Don’t even think about it!” Mo Lan said, exasperated.

Afraid that lingering any longer would get her saddled with more monkeys, Mo Lan hurriedly pulled out the broomstick: “Zhizhi, let’s go!”

Zhizhi deftly slipped into her bag.

Mo Lan took off into the sky with her, watched by the monkey tribe below.

She had already gathered detailed intelligence from the monkeys about the area surrounding the golden-armed ape territory. There were no flying magical beasts active in the vicinity.

As long as she was careful not to fly too low and get hit by ground-based magical beasts’ ranged attacks, flying would be perfectly safe.

Since the monkey tribe had already gathered every magical plant material they could find from their territory and the surrounding areas to trade with Mo Lan for wine, there shouldn’t be anything left to find. She decided to fly straight to the outermost edge of the area the monkeys could reach and begin exploring from there.

Before, when riding the broomstick, the journey was accompanied by nothing but the sound of wind and rain, and her own breathing.

Now…

“Zhi zhi zhi zhi!” I can beat that big tiger, Mistress! Do you want it?

“Zhizhi, that’s an Intermediate magical beast — a double-pupil tiger. Its eyes can launch psychic attacks. The old monkey king already brought me a whole double-pupil tiger to trade. I’ve already collected all its materials.”

“Zhi zhi zhi zhi!” Mistress, what about that big bear? There’s definitely honey in its den! Do you want it? I’ll go steal the honey for you!

“Zhizhi, that’s an Infernal Explosion Demon Bear — also an Intermediate magical beast. The honey in its den is from white-spot bees. Not only do I already have the honey, its mate was also brought to me by the monkeys from your clan.”