Yin Huo didn’t argue with them, he cast the fishing hook into the water again, and Bai Shan and Manbao couldn’t help but turn their heads to look, they couldn’t help it, it was quite a commotion.

The previously quiet water surface became lively with splashes, a lot of fish were splashing where Yin Huo cast his hook, with such excitement you almost don’t need a floating wood, right?

As a result, Yin Huo remained motionless and waited for a long time, until the fish had jumped enough, the water slowly returned to calm, and still, below the lake surface, many fish could be seen swimming back and forth.

Yin Huo continued talking to the two of them, "Will you be fishing here later?"

Bai Shan and Manbao saw that he had no intention of pulling up the hook, so they didn’t ask more questions, and shook their heads, "We are going to the Gobi to have a look, will you come?"

Yin Huo glanced at the brilliant sunshine outside the woods, shaking his head, "You go ahead."

Riding in such a big sun, just imagining it feels hot, better not.

Yin Huo leisurely raised the fishing rod, as expected, the bait was gone again, so he continued to replenish it with Changshou.

Changshou sighed, diligently rebaiting the hook, actually he wanted to tell the young master that he could just throw the remaining bait into the lake to feed the fish, which would save a lot of effort.

Yet, what Yin Huo evidently wanted to enjoy was the process of feeding the fish rather than merely the outcome.

By the mat, the guards were watching the fire, with a pot hanging over it, a guard explained, "Our young master didn’t want snacks or cakes, so he had the small one slice fish fillets to make porridge."

Manbao asked curiously, "Can he catch fish?"

The guard replied, "It was left behind by Mr. Zhuang before he left."

Manbao couldn’t help but admire the thoughtful Mr. Zhuang.

The guards’ cooking skills were average, they just marinated the filleted fish slightly, then added it to the porridge when it was half cooked. Afraid of fishy smell, they added several pieces of dried ginger.

Now the porridge and fish had been cooking for a while, the aroma was wafting out, the guards opened it to take a look, thinking it was ready to eat, so they measured out some salt to sprinkle in it.

Manbao looked and said, "Isn’t that too little?"

A guard then used a spoon to take some more and added it, then looked towards her.

Manbao wasn’t too certain either, "It should be enough."

So the guard stirred it, then took out bowls to serve them porridge.

Manbao tasted a bite, the fish had already disintegrated, completely lacking the smooth and tender feel her sister-in-law’s cooking had.

Bai Shan and Yin Huo also had a taste but didn’t say anything, the texture was indeed ordinary, but still edible.

So the three of them finished a pot of porridge.

Bai Shan said, "We are going to the Gobi."

Yin Huo lazily said, "Not taking a break?"

Bai Shan glanced at the sky outside and shook his head, "No, we want to go out for a walk."

He turned back to Yin Huo, "I’ll leave this place to you, we may not come back here this afternoon, but go directly back to the Small Town."

Yin Huo nodded carelessly, "I’ll go back myself after I’m done playing."

Manbao donned her veiled hat and left the lakeside together with Bai Shan, this time Daji didn’t follow them alone, instead, he brought along two more guards, leaving the rest of the guards to protect Yin Huo.

The two ran for about half an hour before reaching the Gobi which seemed quite close at first glance.

Midway, Manbao even stopped her horse, carrying a medicinal hoe to dig up two types of plants.

Upon reaching the Gobi, Keke started to ring, chiming away then saying, "Chime again so the host doesn’t forget."

Manbao didn’t really listen to it, just exclaimed while looking at the things in the Gobi.

A type of tree grew taller than her, but it was entirely covered in thorns, yet completely green, Manbao was amazed, "Never seen it before."

Bai Shan hadn’t seen it either, he rode his horse closer but didn’t dare get too near, thinking being pricked by the thorns would hurt.

The two got off their horses, handed Chiji and Daoli to the guards, and went close to inspect it, cautiously extending their hands to touch the gleaming thorns, saying, "If you get pricked, it must hurt a lot."

Manbao had briefly understood from Keke about this plant’s information, saying, "Not only will it hurt, but it might kill you."

Bai Shan tilted his head, "Kill?"

"If the wound deteriorates, you die." Manbao took two steps back, looked down at its surroundings, and became worried, "Too big." It’s hard to dig up.

Daji beside her was quite scared, "Miss Man, you want to dig this up?"

Digging isn’t difficult, what’s hard is how to bring it back.

Keke: "... Just cut off a piece, it’s easy to keep alive, actually, we have cultivated species from that world, but now its genes are quite ancient, so it needs to be recorded."

Manbao cleared her throat and said to Daji, "Cut a piece and see how it goes, we’ll take a look around, you don’t need to follow too closely."

Daji, however, didn’t leave, feeling this place isn’t like the lakeside, not far ahead is the desert, under the Gobi there are many never-before-seen insects, especially scorpions, who knows if there are poisonous ones.

Manbao wasn’t strong in attitude either, she withdrew her small dagger, looked at it but hesitated to use it, mainly because she used this knife for cutting food, and now cutting these messy things made her feel she’d be reluctant to use it for cutting meat next time, so she borrowed a knife from a guard.

She carried the knife around the tree, then cautiously chopped it twice, it didn’t fall off, so Manbao wrapped her hand in burlap, carefully lifted it, then used the knife to cut off the final connection, and placed it in a medicine basket, stood on her tiptoes to check the cut surface condition.

Bai Shan looked at it and said, "It’s watery, so if extremely thirsty in the desert, can this thing be eaten?"

Manbao was uncertain, so she asked Keke, Keke checked the encyclopedia for information, saying, "According to information, existing cacti can be edible, they contain high potassium, high calcium, low sodium, no oxalic acid, sugar, flavonoids, polysaccharides, among other substances. The nutritional elements contained not only surpass common plants and fruits, also higher than some meats, eggs, and fish, considered very healthy food."

Manbao nodded and said, "But?"

"But currently scanned cacti all belong to primitive species, some contain toxic flavonoids, some have mescaline and anarrilin among harmful components, having hallucinogenic anesthetic effects on human neural systems."

Manbao’s eyes lit up, "Anesthetic effect?"

Her gaze fixated on these prickly things, gently touching them, regretting, "Too bad there’s no usage or dosage on it, is it well preserved, can it be stored to research later?"

Keke said, "Further research is needed in laboratories; after recording, relevant entries should reveal findings."

But also depends on luck, if labs studying this area will include it in entries, if not focusing on this, then no way.

Manbao thought inwardly, "Then I’ll send some to Teacher Mo and Doctor D, perhaps they’ll be interested? Since toxins vary, evidently many seemingly similar cactus species are different too, and that might be another type, right? Will it be classified when recorded?"

Keke happily responded, "It will!"