Universe Infinite Canteen

"Flip through it quickly, I want to know where those exotic fruits came from too," Lu Yingying urged.

"They were brought here by the Cosmic Ocean Current," Ma Lu replied.

He had asked Old Wang about this early on, and Old Wang had given him a clear answer: those exotic fruits, or drifting fruits, moved between planes along the Cosmic Ocean Current.

Seeing Ye Wangshu exerting so much effort to research something he already knew, Ma Lu felt somewhat disappointed.

"What?" Lu Yingying exclaimed in surprise. "How do you know that? Wait, what is the Cosmic Ocean Current?"

"The Cosmic Ocean Current is the ocean current between Cosmic Planes," Ma Lu said. "It transports those exotic fruits from one universe to another. Most of the currents are quite stable, but some of them change, and this universe probably caught one of the changing currents, so the exotic fruits came along with it."

"Really?"

"That's how it is."

As Ma Lu spoke, he continued flipping through the diary, only to see Ye Wangshu constantly investigating and trying to uncover the truth behind it, but he kept hitting walls for decades.

Mainly because he started in the wrong direction, leaning towards gods and spirits, it would be strange if he did find anything.

However, at the age of sixty-eight, Ye Wangshu accidentally found an odd metallic piece in an ancient tomb. He discovered that this metallic piece could actually damage those exotic fruits, which were otherwise immune to blades and spears.

Later, to further verify the function of the metallic piece, Ye Wangshu even entered the catastrophe belt to cut and retrieve an exotic fruit using the metallic piece.

Ye Wangshu then transplanted that exotic fruit to a hidden spot behind the mountains, attempting to plant and nurture it, but two months later, the exotic fruit died.

Undeterred, Ye Wangshu secretly dug up another plant shortly after, and nursed it carefully, but just one month later, the exotic fruit visibly wilted, and despite his every effort, it died within a half month.

Ye Wangshu tried three times, and after all three attempts failed, he finally gave up on the idea. Plus, he had heard a rumor that these exotic fruits were auspicious objects, and forcibly taking them would lead to incurring sins, making it difficult to transcend after death. Thus, Ye Wangshu never dug up any more exotic fruits, and he also worried that others, upon obtaining the metallic piece, might become greedy. He originally thought about destroying it.

He considered burying the thing in a deep mountain or forest, or throwing it directly into the sea, but in the end, he felt it was a pity to do so and kept it in an iron box along with his diary, then placed it in a secret chamber under the library.

This secret was only known by the descendants of the Ye Family, and Ye Wangshu, in the last entry of his diary, warned the future generations who opened the iron box to protect the metallic piece well, and never let it fall into the hands of those with ulterior motives.

After finishing the diary, Lu Yingying was greatly shocked.

"That means, with this metallic piece, one could dig out those exotic fruits from the catastrophe belt, and even though they can't be planted, just selling these materials could make a fortune. No wonder Luo Xiangshi was so determined to obtain it!"

After saying this, Lu Yingying looked around at the others in the room, only to find that only Li Zhengwei was as shocked as her.

Cao Youyi appeared slightly moved, but both Ma Lu and Qiutong were quite calm, with even a strange expression appearing on Qiutong's face.

"Hey, why aren't you shocked? This is a treasure that can dig out exotic fruits. Once the news spreads, it will shake the entire educational world!"

On hearing this, Qiutong looked at Ma Lu, who nodded, "Everyone here is one of us, no worries."

"Then I've said it."

"Speak," he said.

"Principal Ma has something similar in hand."

The girl took a deep breath. She had once seen Ma Lu pack up exotic fruit with the Chef's Knife and had been shocked then; so now, she could remain calm.

As for Cao Youyi, although Ma Lu didn't tell her, in order to gather the advanced materials needed to create talismans, Ma Lu had caught those drifting fruits over the past two weeks, leaving quite a few for Hou De, allowing Cao Youyi to go out and trade them.

Cao Youyi guessed something from the abnormal quantity of the harvest.

Lu Yingying was shocked again, looking toward Ma Lu. "Ah, Principal Ma, can you also dig out exotic fruits? But why haven't I seen you bring them back?"

"Because I mostly take them directly home," Ma Lu said truthfully.

The item in the iron box, surprisingly, had a similar effect to the Chef's Knife, which Ma Lu found unexpected.

He definitely wouldn't use it himself, since the metal piece was less than a quarter the size of the Chef's Knife, and it probably would be laborious to use it shovel those drifting fruits.

However, that didn't mean it was worthless.

Since Ma Lu could come at most once a week, stay for 17 hours, and the catastrophe belt was generally distributed quite far, even with airplanes, he could only make it to two or three locations.

With the metal piece, even when he was not there, the students from Hou De cleaning up the catastrophe belt could incidentally bring back the drifting fruits, so that Ma Lu only needed to come periodically to pick them up.

He then handed the metal piece to Cao Youyi, instructing him to distribute it to the teams going out in the future. Ma Lu also planned to initiate several projects to enhance the survival abilities of Hou De Virtue Teachers and Students in the catastrophe belt.

That way, he could open the rights for Hou De Virtue Teachers and Students to go out next week.

After hearing this, Lu Yingying couldn't help but worry. "But Principal Ye warned in his diary that exotic fruits are items of auspicious omens, and digging them up roots and all would bring sins and punishments."

"It's okay, if there really are sins, I, as the Principal, will bear them. Everyone else can just dig confidently."

Ma Lu waved his hand grandly, his job being to collect food ingredients everywhere; he naturally scoffed at this feudal superstition.

After checking the spoils of this time, Ma Lu asked the others to leave the office, only keeping Cao Youyi behind, ready to make arrangements for the aftermath.

The grudge between Hou De and the Hero Group was temporarily settled. Luo Xiangshi was definitely upset about this outcome, but now Hero couldn't defeat Hou De, and in East Mountain Province, with Chairman Li protecting them, Luo Xiangshi had no way to deal with Hou De.

Coincidentally, Bug Egg was also about to finish its next upgrade, and Ma Lu was about to leave this plane.

He said to Cao Youyi, "I plan to take a long journey, and I might not be here for a very long time. I want you to become the principal of Hou De."

"Are you going on a trip, going abroad?" Cao Youyi asked, surprised.

"Something like that."

"Why," Cao Youyi asked perplexed. "I don't want to interfere with your decision, but I am unsure whether you realize what all you have established here.

"Now, Ping City, the whole East Mountain Province, even the entire country, are talking about you and the miracles you've created under your leadership at Hou De. You transformed a bottom-ranked, near-bankrupt talisman master school all the way to the top. Don't you want to see just how far it can go?"