In the end, Li Ban naturally chose to stitch them up with thread.
He only had ten days of temporary residency in this camp and had no intention of wasting nearly half that time soaking in a bath.
He took the needle and thread and, feeling a bit awkward, stitched on his new legs.
During his time in the Death Prison, he had done his share of chores and mended clothes. His manual dexterity was much better now than in his past life.
Sitting across from him and wiping his own legs, Ed saw Li Ban's neat stitches, looked down at his own, and let out a loud sigh.
Rayleigh's expression instantly turned a bit awkward.
After wiping them with water for half an hour, Li Ban began to feel his legs.
It was miraculous. He genuinely had a sense of touch and could even wiggle his toes.
Another half hour passed. Li Ban stood up and slowly took a few steps.
As he kept moving, however, the legs grew increasingly responsive.
Meanwhile, Ed had long since started throwing a series of combination punches in place.
The legs he had bought were thick and sturdy, though not very long.
He still wasn't as tall as Li Ban, but he stood at around 1.6 meters now. At the very least, he had reached the height of an average person, ensuring he wouldn't be at too much of a disadvantage in movement and combat.
Once Li Ban adjusted to his new legs as well, the two of them left the booth together.
Zhu Yao had been waiting outside for a long time, sitting on a large rock in a daze.
Hearing them approach, she turned around. Looking at the two men, she gave a thumbs-up.
"Not bad. You're both excellent warriors."
Before they left the limb shop, Rayleigh whispered to Li Ban, "Honored guest, if you ever wish to sell spiritual rhinoceros in the future, please come to me. I promise to give you the most favorable price."
Li Ban nodded but made no promises.
Leaving the corridor of the limb shop, Li Ban followed Zhu Yao back to the main passage. They continued deeper inside, arriving at what appeared to be the residential district.
Along the way, a wide variety of doors began to appear.
There were wooden ones, stone ones, and even security doors that looked highly high-tech.
But regardless of their type, they were all crudely jammed into the rock walls, the edges smeared with something that looked like cement or some kind of solid glue.
Zhu Yao's home wasn't very deep into the district. After walking about twenty meters, she stopped and opened her door.
The exterior was an iron grating locked with chains.
Behind it was a wooden door.
Zhu Yao struggled slightly to open both doors. After Li Ban and Ed went inside, she painstakingly locked them again from the inside.
"Are you really this comfortable bringing me to your home?" Li Ban took a look around the cramped living room.
"There's nothing valuable here," Zhu Yao said. She picked up some clutter from the floor and spread a blanket out for Li Ban.
Ed had already rushed into his own little room, completely ignoring their conversation.
Soon, the sound of splashing water echoed from inside. He was likely continuing to wipe the surgical seams on his legs.
"People are the cheapest commodity here anyway," Zhu Yao added, handing Li Ban a chipped wooden basin. "I'll go fetch you a basin of water. But after today, you should go out and find your own place. You have money now, anyway. The lodging and water fees here aren't cheap."
"Alright."
Li Ban paced around the room. The cave had been hollowed out into a three-bedroom, one-living-room layout.
He didn't enter the bedrooms, but the living room was incredibly small.
The entrances to the side rooms had no doors, only long curtains trailing down to the floor.
The middle room didn't even have a curtain. He could clearly see a massive pile of chaotic clutter inside that looked barely different from garbage.
It was piled so high it was nearly spilling out of the room.
Zhu Yao looked a bit embarrassed by how messy the house was.
"That's Ed's collection. He's always dragging back weird, useless things. He thinks his missing brain might be hiding inside them."
"You take good care of him."
"His brain got split open trying to save me. Besides, he just lacks a bit of judgment sometimes. He doesn't really need me to take care of him."
Li Ban thought about how Zhu Yao had brought him back here immediately upon his arrival, and he recalled what the fat woman at the mission desk had called her.
Mama Zhu Yao.
He smiled. "I didn't expect to meet someone as kindhearted as you in a world like the Recycling Station. You didn't even know who I was or if I had any malicious intent, yet you brought me to the camp, took me to buy legs, and even helped me haggle."
Zhu Yao didn't think much of it. "You obviously possess spiritual rhinoceros and hold tremendous combat power—at least for the short term. But when you saw us, you weren't arrogant, nor did you use forceful methods to coerce us. I figured you were someone worth investing in."
She paused. "Besides, you already promised to work for me for a while."
Li Ban realized that his perception of Zhu Yao's kindness largely stemmed from his good impression of Priest Zhu Yao from the Wizard World.
Thinking it over carefully, although the two Zhu Yaos faced different circumstances, their personalities were very similar.
They were both very welcoming when meeting him for the first time, and—they both liked to make little jokes.
"Of course. Since I promised, I won't go back on my word."
After saying this, Li Ban rubbed his nose, trying to remember if he had ever broken a promise before.
Uh, well, even if he had, it was only because circumstances had forced him to play along.
Zhu Yao stopped tidying the room and stood up, smiling at him. "You're a good person too."
Hearing himself called a "good person" left Li Ban slightly dazed.
Zhu Yao clapped the dust off her hands. "Alright. It's inevitable for these cave rooms to be dusty. But it's more hidden and secure this way. Once you get your own place, you just have to clean it every day. I'm going to go fetch water."
Just as she was about to turn away, she suddenly remembered something. "Oh, right. You only need to eat a maximum of three wheat flatbreads a day. If you don't have to fight or go out, eating two is enough to sustain a low-energy lifestyle. If your supplies are running completely dry, you still have to eat at least one a day.
"If you eat less than one, you run the risk of becoming a cannibal. Sometimes, you might swallow someone before you even realize what you're doing. If that happens, you'll be truly beyond saving."
"Alright, got it."
Night fell, and the main passages within the cliff began restricting movement outside.
After Zhu Yao returned with the water, she retreated into her room and didn't come back out.
Li Ban pitched a simple tent for himself and wiped his surgical seams inside.
As he wiped, he pondered.
'The wheat flatbread and water in this world are clearly precious resources. Yet no one uses the water from the mud pits; Zhu Yao and Ed won't even touch it. Do the Deleted Entities here require a special water source?'
Li Ban took a pouch of water from his Cubic Space and tried pouring it onto a cotton cloth to wipe his legs.
Then, his eyes widened in surprise.
The partially fused seams were rapidly melding together. Aside from the stitches themselves, the skin and flesh appeared to have completely connected.
Rayleigh had told him that if he stitched them up and wiped them with water, he'd be able to perform simple movements after an hour.
But he had also warned Li Ban not to engage in strenuous exercise for three days, or there would still be a risk of the wounds tearing open.
But now, just by wiping them a few times with the clean water he had brought from the Wizard World, Li Ban felt his legs fuse even tighter, and his control over them became much sharper.
'Water from the Wizard World can also heal the limbs here. And much faster.'
'Either the water from the Wizard World holds more energy, or—'
He looked at the water Zhu Yao had brought back.
A layer of dust floated on the surface, and a layer of sediment had already settled at the bottom.
'Or it's a matter of cleanliness.'
Li Ban continued using his pouch of clean water to wipe the seams, while using the water from the Recycling Station to wash his body.
He had been soaking in the mud pit for a long time, and by now, the mud had completely dried into crusty clods. He simply hadn't had a chance to clean himself.
Furthermore, looking at the others, it was obvious they didn't really care.
Clearly, bathing with water was a luxury in this world.
Once his body was finally clean, Li Ban changed into fresh clothes. He stepped out of his simple tent, opened the wooden door to the room, and looked left and right through the iron grating.
More than two hours had passed since they entered the cliff.
Li Ban remembered the guards in the watchtower saying that it was getting dark when they entered the camp.
Two hours later, it should be pitch black outside.
The sound of steady footsteps echoed down the passage; it was likely a patrol.
The curfew after dark was meant to prevent malicious incidents.
'A monster appeared right as we were coming in. Yet inside the cliff, it's incredibly quiet. The people here are accustomed to living with the constant threat of monster attacks. Non-combatants act as if nothing even happened.'
Before the footsteps drew close, Li Ban shut the wooden door and returned to his tent.
'My mind is a bit fatigued, but not enough to need sleep. However, if I try to cultivate, I don't have enough spiritual rhinoceros.'
He still had three Spiritual Rhinoceros Fruits on him.
But until he found a way to leave this place, he didn't plan to use them for cultivation.
'I have nothing else to do anyway. I might as well practice the mental shifts for my spells. As long as I don't release them, it won't consume spiritual rhinoceros.'
Li Ban sat cross-legged in his simple tent and slowly closed his eyes.
Nine hours later, Li Ban heard movement outside. Poking his head out to look, he saw Zhu Yao was already up and tidying something in the living room.
Without even turning her head, she noticed Li Ban coming out. "Are you awake?"
Li Ban hadn't actually slept, but he had fallen into a groggy trance for several dozen minutes during his mental practice, which counted as sleeping.
"Are you going out?"
"I'm going to see if there's any work today."
"Do you need to go out and work every day? The female guard captain said when I entered the camp that I either had to join a fight or find a job. Does following you count as working?"
Zhu Yao straightened up and turned to look at him. "You're only following me temporarily. If you officially joined my squad—it wouldn't be suitable for you."
Zhu Yao knew very well that to a Priest who still possessed spiritual rhinoceros, she and Ed were completely devoid of practical value.
All she could do right now was introduce this world to Li Ban and act as a beginner's guide.
Just like how she had guided other new Priests before she entered the Recycling Station.
Only here, the help she could provide was minimal, so naturally, the returns she received were also small.
Following them, Li Ban wouldn't be able to accept high-paying missions, and low-paying ones—would just be a sheer waste of his time and spiritual rhinoceros.
"Actually, you don't need to worry about the job issue. Since you bought limbs from Rayleigh yesterday, there will definitely be official combat squads coming to recruit you today. Even if you don't want to go out and fight, you can join a farming squad."
"We can talk about that later." Li Ban wasn't actually here to live out the rest of his days. "Do you know how to leave the Recycling Station?"
Zhu Yao immediately stopped preparing to leave. She looked at Li Ban, tucking a strand of hair that had fallen when she bent over behind her ear.
"It's impossible to leave."