328: The Saint's sky-high reward is actually for purchasing a first-level corpse?

The Holy Land's mission hall was bustling with people and vibrant activity.

Countless Lords were driven to madness by the surging prize pool.

However, this revelry did not belong to everyone in the Holy Land.

On the outskirts of H City's Holy Land, in an area officially designated as a D-grade Lord resettlement zone.

Most of the territories here were only a few hundred square meters, and their city walls were made of wood, offering little to no defense.

In one corner, within a small territory, the atmosphere was somewhat oppressive.

A burly man with an honest face was silently wiping a giant metal shield, taller than himself, covered in various scratches.

His name was Wu Rongkang, a D-grade talented Qi Lord, and the pillar of this family.

Inside the wooden house, the suppressed sobs of a woman and the weak cries of a baby could be heard.

“Wah… wah ah…”

“Don’t cry, don’t cry, little darling…” A haggard woman held the baby in her swaddling clothes, gently swaying it, but her tears fell uncontrollably.

She looked at her child, whose small face was pale from hunger, and finally couldn't help but shout towards outside the house: “Wu Rongkang!”

“Little darling’s formula is down to the last bit! You better think of something!”

Wu Rongkang paused his actions of wiping the shield, clenching the tattered cloth tightly, but did not turn his head.

What could he do?

“Cough… cough cough…”

In one of the rooms of the wooden house, an old man with white hair lay on a wooden bed, coughing violently. Each cough aggravated the injuries on his chest, and his face was devoid of color.

The old man was Wu Rongkang’s grandfather.

When the apocalypse descended, he was caught in the crossfire of battles between Lords and Professionals during the chaos.

To protect his newborn great-grandson, the old man’s shoulder was pierced by magic, and the wound was still bleeding.

The wound had long since festered and turned black, unable to heal at all, and the old-world anti-inflammatory drugs and bandages were useless.

And they couldn’t afford expensive healing potions.

Looking at his heavily injured grandfather and hearing his hungry child cry, the woman’s emotions completely broke down.

“Wu Rongkang!”

She rushed to the doorway, pointing at his back and crying out: “When those people came to provoke, I told you not to stick your neck out, but you wouldn’t listen!”

“Now look, Dad is so badly injured, and the child is almost starving to death!”

“Look at our home! This territory doesn’t even have a decent wall!”

Her finger then pointed despairingly towards the other end of the yard, where a small mound was covered by a large tarpaulin, emitting a faint, fishy smell.

“What’s the use of you picking up those useless, broken corpses every day?”

“They’re piled up there, almost stinking! Can they be exchanged for formula? Can they heal Dad’s injuries?!”

That pile consisted of over a thousand first-order exotic beast corpses that Wu Rongkang had risked his life to hunt in the Lord World.

In the eyes of others, these low-level exotic beast Materials were of extremely low value, tasteless to eat, and a pity to discard.

But for him, this was his only asset.

Every word from the woman was like a knife, deeply piercing his heart.

He was a man, a husband, a father, a grandson.

He wanted to support this family, but the burden of the apocalypse was suffocating him.

He suddenly stood up, his burly figure exuding a sense of oppression.

The woman was startled and took a step back, thinking he was about to lose his temper.

However, Wu Rongkang merely walked to the pile of corpses and lifted the tarpaulin.

A strong smell of blood instantly assailed them.

Looking at these scraps he had exchanged for his life.

He remained silent, his fists tightly clenched, his fingernails digging deep into his palms.

“I don’t care anymore! I don’t care anymore!” The woman squatted on the ground, her sobs gradually weakening.

She held the child and murmured to herself: “Today… I heard someone say… Lord Holy One has set up some kind of Contribution Points… even the S-grade big shots are going crazy trying to get them…”

She stared at Wu Rongkang with bloodshot eyes: “Go and see! Go and look at that bounty board! Please!”

“Even if we can’t afford those Heaven And Earth Treasures, what if… what if there’s work for people like us?!”

Her words carried a hint of longing that she herself didn’t quite believe.

Wu Rongkang’s body trembled slightly.

Contribution Points?

Spirit fruits?

Those things belonged to Geniuses, what did they have to do with someone like him who wallowed in the mud?

But, when he turned to see his wife’s tear-stained face.

Seeing his grandfather’s painful groans in the house, and hearing the child’s weak cries.

His hardened heart, in the end, softened.

He silently pulled out the communicator issued by the authorities.

He clumsily tapped open the official channel.

Pinned at the top was the exchange list that had ignited the entire city.

“Epic Spirit Fruit · crimson glazed fruit”, “Rare Spirit Fruit”, “Uncommon Weapon”… one glittering entry after another, making it hard for him to keep his eyes open.

It seemed like something from another world, completely unrelated to him.

He laughed self-deprecatingly, ready to close it.

Just as his finger was about to swipe across the screen, he saw a separate page at the very bottom of the list.

“Special Bounty Board”

He clicked into it as if possessed.

Rows of bounty missions refreshed.

Most of them were for finding some Heaven And Earth Treasures he had never even heard of.

He scrolled down in disappointment.

Suddenly, his finger stopped.

He froze in place, as if struck by lightning.

On the screen, two lines of small text radiated a fatal allure.

“Special Bounty: First-Order · Complete Bird Corpses x500, Bounty Contribution Points: Fifty Thousand.”

“Special Bounty: First-Order · Complete Pig Corpses x500, Bounty Contribution Points: Fifty Thousand.”

“Additional Reward: For each order completed, reward Epic Spirit Fruit [crimson glazed fruit] x1!”

Wu Rongkang’s breathing instantly stopped.

He widened his eyes, staring intently at those two lines of text.

Slowly, he turned his head and looked at the small mountain of over a thousand corpses piled up in the yard.

Those things his wife called scraps… his rough hands began to tremble uncontrollably.

“Xiu… Xiuer, come quickly! Come and see!”

Wu Rongkang’s voice became hoarse and even cracked with excitement.

Li Yixiu wiped her tears and walked over, puzzled. When her gaze fell on the two lines of text on the communicator screen, she too was stunned.

“This… this… fifty thousand Contribution Points? And… and a Spirit Fruit as a gift?”

She couldn’t believe her eyes, rubbing them vigorously, but the words on the screen remained unchanged.

Even his grandfather, on his sickbed in the house, struggled to poke his head out. When he saw the bounty content clearly, an astonishing light burst forth from his cloudy eyes.

“It’s real! It’s real!” Li Yixiu shrieked, tears streaming down her face again.

“Quick! Rongkang! Quickly count! Do we have enough!”

She didn't even need to remind him.

Wu Rongkang had already rushed towards the small mountain of corpses like a madman, tearing off the waterproof tarpaulin!

A strong, fishy smell instantly permeated the air.

But at this moment, to the family, this smell was sweeter than any delicacy!