Chapter 102
The monitor wasn’t very large, even smaller than Zheng Xing’s metal sphere. Its outer casing had been removed, exposing the intricate mechanical structure and complex circuitry inside.
Holding the monitor in his arms, Zheng Xing carefully scanned it with his spiritual power. His pale blue, unfocused eyes seemed to glimmer faintly with starlight.
His immense spiritual power enveloped the monitor, delving deeper and deeper into its components.
Unlike Luo Shengfei, who would need to disassemble each part to locate the issue, Zheng Xing’s spiritual power allowed him to instantly grasp all the details about the monitor. In mere moments, he identified exactly where the problem lay.
And unlike an ordinary technician who would need to replace damaged components to restore functionality, Zheng Xing had another method.
The palms of his hands, cradling the monitor, began to glow faintly.
His expression turned deeply focused.
If someone could see inside the monitor at that moment, they would notice the damaged component wrapped in a ghostly blue light.
As the glow gradually dimmed, the damaged part returned to its original state, fully restored.
His spiritual power provided immediate feedback.
With the repair complete, Zheng Xing retracted his energy and let out a small breath. The intense concentration on his small face gave way to a faint look of delight.
He held the now-repaired monitor lovingly, unwilling to let go.
At the Nursery Center, the machines he had access to were limited. In the past, he hadn’t been interested in the things around him and was content with just his metal sphere.
But now, if he wanted to control a fighter jet someday, he needed to grow stronger.
Understanding and repairing machines seemed to be an excellent way to hone his abilities.
Although a little tired, Zheng Xing felt quite happy. He enjoyed the feeling of repairing machinery.
After playing with the monitor for a while, he gently set it back on the ground. Picking up his metal sphere again, he released the same ghostly blue light. The monitor floated slowly back to the workbench, settling exactly in its original spot, down to the precise angle.
Then, another untouched monitor slowly floated down from the bench, making its way unnoticed to Zheng Xing under the table—unnoticed by everyone except A-Yan.
When Zheng Xing first slipped under the workbench, A-Yan had noticed. Intrigued by his actions, A-Yan crouched nearby, quietly observing.
So this is how Xing Xing’s mechanical manipulation ability works?
Zheng Xing remained unaware of A-Yan’s gaze. He picked up the new monitor and began another round of repairs.
At that moment, Su Ci glanced briefly at the workbench before turning his attention back to his conversation with Luo Shengfei.
“So, as long as the cultivation garden agrees, there’s no issue, right?” Su Ci asked.
“Agree to what? To dismantle their greenhouse for you?” Luo Shengfei’s eyes widened in disbelief. “I was just joking! You actually took it seriously?”
Clearly, Su Ci wasn’t the only one who took it seriously.
Lang Ze and Lu Jiao had stopped exploring Luo Shengfei’s workspace and were now huddled together, whispering to each other.
“Su Su said the sprouts need something called a greenhouse to grow,” Lang Ze whispered.
Although he didn’t know what a “greenhouse” looked like, he had overheard earlier that Little Camel said there was one at the cultivation garden.
“I know where the cultivation garden is. When we head back, let’s go dismantle it!” Lang Ze suggested in a hushed voice.
On the way to the Logistics Department, they had passed the cultivation garden. Lang Ze had caught the station announcement and remembered the name immediately.
“We can’t destroy things,” Lu Jiao said, clearly disapproving.
He was holding a sunflower seed, examining it closely, trying to figure out what it was. Finally, unable to make sense of it, he quietly called out to the base AI.
“This is a snack made from plant seeds. Peel off the shell, and it’s edible,” the AI explained.
Wow! It’s food! And it’s a snack!
In Lang Ze’s mind, “snack” meant something like potato chips—delicious beyond measure. His thoughts about dismantling greenhouses were immediately forgotten as he eagerly followed the AI’s instructions, picked up a sunflower seed, and cracked it open.
Although the seed kernel was tiny…
“It’s so good!” After successfully eating one, Lang Ze’s eyes squinted with delight.
It was a five-spice-flavored sunflower seed, and the taste was incredibly fragrant.
Meanwhile, Lu Jiao had already cracked open a second seed.
This snack, called sunflower seeds, was so delicious! The pieces were so small that eating one only made you want to eat another, and then another—it was impossible to stop.
Seeing this, Lang Ze quickly started cracking more seeds as well.
In the otherwise quiet workspace, the sound of sunflower seeds being cracked open began to echo. Luo Shengfei, who had been talking to Su Ci, was distracted by the noise and turned to look at the two children.
He saw them huddled together, cracking sunflower seeds one after another, looking harmonious and friendly. The sight was so unexpectedly warm that he couldn’t help but feel a bit dazed.
“These young ones… are actually quite well-behaved,” he remarked to Su Ci, unable to hide his surprise.
These recent interactions had completely overturned his previous perceptions of the young ones. He realized just how wrong he had been about them.
Hearing this, Su Ci also glanced over at Lang Ze and Lu Jiao.
Well-behaved?
Su Ci thought for a moment and nodded. When their bloodline powers were stable, the young ones were indeed quite well-behaved.
At that moment, Lang Ze stood up, holding a handful of neatly shelled sunflower seeds in his palm. His eyes scanned the room as if searching for something.
Luo Shengfei was about to ask what he was looking for or if he needed help when he saw the boy run straight to the nearby workbench and crawl underneath it.
Huh?
Luo Shengfei leaned over to take a look and realized that the “little shadow” who had been hiding behind Su Ci was now hiding under the workbench.
Fortunately, the cleaning robots swept the area daily, so it wasn’t dirty under there.
Now, the two kids were huddled together.
He soon heard Lang Ze’s cheerful voice, “Xing Xing, these sunflower seeds are so good! Try some!”
Luo Shengfei froze for a moment.
He never would have imagined that Number Eight had gone to find Number Three just to share his snack! This was such a drastic change from the old Number Eight he remembered.
Lang Ze used to be unruly, mischievous, and hot-tempered, always giving the caretakers headaches. On more than one occasion, Luo Shengfei had seen him in vicious brawls at the Nursery Center—fighting to the point of causing serious harm, showing no mercy.
But today… his personality seemed so much calmer and friendlier!
This transformation…
Luo Shengfei couldn’t help but glance at Su Ci.
The young man still had the same laid-back, unbothered demeanor as when they first met. With his slender and frail appearance, he hardly looked reliable, making people doubt whether he could handle the job of a caretaker.
Yet, the changes he had brought to the young ones were undeniable.
Luo Shengfei couldn’t help but marvel: So you really can’t judge someone’s parenting skills by their looks…
“These kids have such a good relationship,” he remarked with a smile. Just as he was finishing the thought, Lu Jiao ran over to him.
The child held a few shelled sunflower seeds in his small hand. Under Luo Shengfei’s stunned gaze, the boy stretched out his hand toward Su Ci.
This silver-haired child, with his delicate and charming features, had a faint, sweet smile on his face that was utterly adorable. But what made him even more endearing was—
“Su Su, have some sunflower seeds,” he said in his soft, babyish voice.
Su Ci glanced at him, patted his head, then took the sunflower seeds and said, “Thank you.”
Lu Jiao’s smile turned slightly shy after Su Ci patted his head. When he saw Su Ci eat the sunflower seeds, he joyfully ran off again.
Luo Shengfei looked at the child running off, then at Su Ci, who had just been fed sunflower seeds, and suddenly felt a pang of jealousy.
He couldn’t deny it—he was really jealous.
How could this happen? Those sunflower seeds were his, given to the kids to eat! The snack points were ridiculously expensive! Why did they only offer them to Su Ci and completely ignore him? Luo Shengfei felt a strong sense of injustice.
I want to be fed sunflower seeds by a cute kid too, QAQ!
Perhaps his wistful gaze was too intense because, after a while, Lu Jiao ran back to him with a few more shelled sunflower seeds in his palm.
“Little Camel Uncle, have some sunflower seeds.”
Luo Shengfei was utterly moved. Although the amount he received was clearly less than what Su Ci had gotten, he didn’t mind at all.
He stared in disbelief for a moment, then nodded repeatedly, grinning ear to ear.
“Thank you! You’re such a good boy, Lu Jiao!”
“You can call me Youyou—that’s my nickname,” Lu Jiao said.
“Alright, thank you, Youyou!”
The more Luo Shengfei looked at Lu Jiao, the more adorable he found him. Who wouldn’t love such a polite and thoughtful child?
Even though Lu Jiao dodged when he tried to pat his head like Su Ci had done, leaving him feeling slightly regretful, he still thought Lu Jiao was impossibly cute.
He’s basically a little angel!
Overwhelmed by their cuteness, Luo Shengfei went to his cabinet, took out another handful of sunflower seeds, and placed them in a dish. “If you like them, eat as much as you want!” he said cheerfully.
Lu Jiao, sensitive to emotions, hesitated briefly but then gave him a soft smile.
Once again, Luo Shengfei was utterly charmed.
How did I never realize before how adorable Number Seven is? Just looking at him was so heartwarming!
It wasn’t until Su Ci finally left with the kids that Luo Shengfei realized something.
The giant bag of sunflower seeds he had spent a fortune in points to acquire—something he hadn’t even indulged in himself—was now… completely gone.
All gone!
Luo Shengfei looked at the empty sunflower seed bag, then at the two piles of shells on the table. After a brief moment of dumbfounded silence, he smacked his lips in resignation.
Oh, well. At least I got to eat a few, and they were even shelled by the young ones for me! That alone was something he could boast about for years!
Thinking about how even Lang Ze had shelled a few seeds for him, Luo Shengfei couldn’t help but grin again.
Humming a cheerful tune, he called over a cleaning robot to tidy up the mess and then returned to his work.
Since Su Ci had said there was no rush, Luo Shengfei decided to postpone the modifications to 4583 and instead focused on repairing the monitors. The monitors were essentially the base AI’s “eyes” and also served as the action team’s “eyes.”
Without the monitors providing real-time information, the action team’s battles against monsters would become much more difficult due to the lack of timely intelligence.
Before the next extreme weather event, the repair team had to restore all damaged monitors. This was the last batch he was responsible for, and once he worked overtime to finish these repairs today, he could finally take a breather.
Luo Shengfei threw himself into his work. However, it wasn’t long before he noticed something strange.
Picking up a monitor he had been working on earlier, he instinctively flipped the switch—and discovered… wait, this monitor was already working?
Blinking in confusion, he wondered if he had remembered wrong.
Shrugging it off, he reassembled the monitor’s casing, set it aside, and grabbed the next one. But when he installed the power source and flipped the switch, he found that this one was also functioning normally.
Scratching his head, he set the second monitor down and picked up a third. That one worked perfectly too. Then the fourth…
Finally, Luo Shengfei stared blankly at the monitors, utterly bewildered.
What the heck?! All the monitors on the workbench are in perfect working condition?!
Had he somehow mistakenly brought back undamaged monitors? That couldn’t be possible!
As Luo Shengfei puzzled over the mystery, Su Ci had already taken A-Yan and the three young ones to the bus stop.
Having eaten so many delicious sunflower seeds, Lang Ze and Lu Jiao were still craving more.
Unable to hold back, they asked Su Ci, “Su Su, Xiao Zhi said sunflower seeds are from plants—they’re plant seeds. Can we plant sunflower seeds?”
A-Yan, listening nearby, couldn’t help but nod.
He had been eavesdropping during the base AI’s explanation to the children, so he also knew that sunflower seeds could not only be turned into snacks but also pressed for oil!
Oil could be used for cooking and was an essential ingredient in many recipes.
I wonder… could Star-chain Fruit seeds be used to make oil or even sunflower seed snacks? A-Yan pondered. He had just tasted a few sunflower seeds and found them delicious—Su Su would definitely like them too.
Moreover, they didn’t lack Star-chain Fruit seeds right now. There were still one or two hundred seeds in his spatial button, and once all the Star-chain Fruits in the fields matured, there would be even more.
A-Yan decided that once this batch of Star-chain Fruits ripened and the seeds were collected, he would ask Su Su for his opinion. If Su Su agreed, they could give it a try.
As for the sunflower seeds the children were talking about…
Su Ci shook his head and said, “We’ll talk about that later.”
Sunflowers had a short life cycle—only one year—and their root systems couldn’t enrich the soil. They weren’t the type of plants Su Ci needed most at the moment.
Of course, once the land became fertile in the future, planting such crops wouldn’t be out of the question.
Hearing Su Ci’s decision, Lang Ze and Lu Jiao reluctantly nodded and dropped the subject. After all…
Sunflower seeds were tasty, but potato chips were even better!
When the golden taros matured, they would have plenty of taro chips—just like potato chips—to eat!
The two were brimming with excitement, but little Zheng Xing, who had been full of energy earlier, seemed noticeably fatigued after leaving Luo Shengfei’s workspace.
At the moment, he was leaning slightly to one side, his eyes half-closed, resting against Lang Ze as if he might fall asleep at any moment.
“Xing Xing, are you sleepy?”
The boy’s lowered voice reached his ear, and Zheng Xing gave a small nod.
“Then go ahead and sleep.”
As soon as those words were spoken, Zheng Xing felt the metal sphere in his hand being taken away, and his body tilted forward as his feet left the ground. By now, he was so accustomed to this feeling that he didn’t feel alarmed at all.
Once again, Lang Ze had picked him up and was carrying him on his back.
Lying against the boy’s sturdy, broad back, with his small head resting on his shoulder, Zheng Xing peacefully closed his eyes.
“Xing Xing, did you have fun today?” Lang Ze asked.
Half-asleep, Zheng Xing murmured a soft “mm-hmm” before drifting fully into a deep sleep.
Despite being outdoors and exposed to the sunlight, he was surrounded by an overwhelming sense of security, allowing him to fall asleep even in such an unfamiliar environment.
Carrying Zheng Xing, Lang Ze glanced at the hover bus approaching in the distance, then looked back at the caretaker and couldn’t help but ask, “Su Su, are we going to the cultivation garden?”
Su Ci lowered his gaze. “What for?”
“To dismantle the greenhouse, of course,” Lang Ze said matter-of-factly.
Su Ci paused, looking at Lang Ze’s serious expression before turning to Lu Jiao. “Youyou, what do you think?”
Lu Jiao hesitated for a moment before saying, “I don’t think the cultivation garden would agree.”
His implication was clear—if the cultivation garden did agree, then, of course, they should dismantle it!
Lu Jiao had overheard Luo Shengfei’s remarks earlier and found them logical. If extreme weather struck, the plants they were growing now would undoubtedly perish.
The thought of all those plants dying made Lu Jiao want to rush to the cultivation garden and bring the greenhouse back as soon as possible.
Su Ci gently patted his head to calm him. The greenhouse… would indeed require some thought.
His spiritual shield could block most weather-related hazards, but it couldn’t regulate temperature. If all else failed, he might have to rely on formations for now.
However, formations ultimately couldn’t match the precision of modern human machinery. This might also be a good opportunity for Su Ci to explore potential collaboration with the cultivation garden…
As for what kind of collaboration, that would require further consideration.
The hover bus pulled up in front of them.
Su Ci boarded the bus with the children, and they found it empty—no one else was aboard.
Lang Ze carefully set Zheng Xing onto a seat and then sat down himself. Unable to hold back, he asked Su Ci, “Are we going back already?”
Although they had spent slightly more time outside this time compared to before, it still felt too short for Lang Ze.
The sun hadn’t even set yet! He wasn’t ready to head back…
He gazed longingly at Su Ci, and even Lu Jiao looked at him with pleading eyes.
Though neither of them said a word, their expressions conveyed their wishes perfectly.
Su Ci’s resolve softened slightly.
He turned to A-Yan, who was sitting beside him. “Do you want to head back?”
A-Yan thought for a moment and then used his communicator to reply, “I want to take a look by the river.”
Hearing A-Yan’s voice, Lang Ze and Lu Jiao suddenly realized—What?! A-Yan came out with us too?
But… the river? Was it the “river” they had just learned about this morning?
Their eyes sparkled with excitement, and Su Ci, hearing A-Yan’s suggestion, nodded thoughtfully.
Indeed, he had set up some arrangements by the riverbed yesterday, and it was time to check on them. He also needed to confirm whether there were still plants growing along the riverbed.
If he could find some wild grass, that would be ideal. And today…
Su Ci glanced at the two eager young ones. Having them help search might actually be a good idea.
“Alright, let’s head to the river.”
Hearing Su Ci agree, the two children almost cheered out loud but stopped themselves out of consideration for the sleeping Zheng Xing.
They exchanged delighted looks, their joy mirrored in each other’s eyes. Then they turned their grateful gazes toward A-Yan.
A-Yan is the best! No wonder he’s Su Su’s favorite and most trusted child!
A-Yan, noticing their unabashed admiration, felt a little embarrassed. Fortunately, they couldn’t actually see him.
Just as Lang Ze and Lu Jiao thought they’d be taking the hover bus to the “river,” Su Ci stood up, motioned for Lang Ze to move aside, and picked up Zheng Xing in his arms.
Suddenly being picked up, the child opened his eyes briefly. Upon seeing that it was Su Ci, he closed them again.
Lang Ze and Lu Jiao looked completely puzzled.
Holding Zheng Xing, Su Ci said to them, “Stay close to me and don’t resist.”
Though they didn’t understand, they did as they were told.
Then, they heard Su Ci say, “Xiao Zhi, take care of the visuals.”
Just as confusion began to rise in their minds, they were hit with a sudden dizziness. A force enveloped them, and their first instinct was to resist. But then they remembered Su Ci’s earlier words.
Relinquishing their resistance, they allowed the force to wrap around them.
In the hover bus, the group’s figures suddenly vanished into thin air.
A moment later, an operations team member riding a flying disc approached from the distance, flying alongside the hover bus and peering through its windows.
He spoke into his communicator, “Report: No sign of Caretaker Su or the young ones on Hover Bus Number 3.”
How strange! The system had shown that they boarded at the Logistics Department—so where had they gone? Did they get off midway?
This caretaker was taking the young ones all over the place! What if one of them suddenly went berserk?
Lang Ze keenly noticed that the force surrounding him had disappeared, as had the dizziness.
He opened his eyes again and was instantly stunned by the scene before him.
“Wow, where is this?”
Lang Ze looked around, his head swiveling. Lu Jiao, also startled, said after a moment of shock, “This is a spaceship.”
He had ridden on one before, on his way to the Prison Star.
Although the ship he had taken back then wasn’t this old and worn out, he looked ahead and could see the outside world through a transparent glass panel.
He stared for a while but could only make out a corner of a docking station. He still couldn’t tell where they were.
Su Ci nodded. They were currently in the cockpit of spaceship 244H. Holding Zheng Xing, he gently placed the boy on a soft chair.
Zheng Xing’s small frame curled up on the chair, with space to spare.
As he was set down, the child stirred awake from his slumber, glancing around uneasily. Seeing this, Lang Ze quickly placed the metal sphere back into his arms.
Although Lang Ze thought the sphere was hard and uncomfortable to hold, it was clear that Zheng Xing didn’t feel the same way. As soon as the sphere was back in his embrace, his breathing noticeably steadied.
A hand gently rested on his head, softly ruffling his hair.
“Sleep,” the voice said.
The voice was calm and soothing, carrying a reassuring strength. Hearing it, all of Zheng Xing’s unease melted away, and sleepiness washed over him once more.
Obediently, he closed his eyes again, his small head leaning against the soft backrest. He soon fell into a deeper sleep.
Seeing this, Su Ci retrieved a blanket from his spatial button. After draping it over the child, he ruffled his hair one more time before leaving the cockpit with Lang Ze and Lu Jiao, giving the room to Zheng Xing.
Repairing those monitors had clearly drained Zheng Xing’s abilities. He needed sleep to recover.
Meanwhile, the 244H spaceship, which Su Ci had initially planned to use as a temporary base, had now served its purpose for the first time. Going forward, it would likely be used even more frequently.
Due to the unusual activity detected directly east of the base and the discovery of monster traces in the outer metal wall tunnels, Base 24 had already relocated personnel from the periphery to the central areas, making this location less likely to be discovered.
After settling Zheng Xing, Su Ci didn’t immediately leave with Lang Ze and Lu Jiao. Instead, he guided them into the ship’s interior, allowing them to explore and broaden their horizons.
“Su Su, weren’t we going to see the river? What’s with this spaceship? Are we going to fly it?” Lang Ze’s eyes sparkled with excitement.
However, Su Ci shook his head.
“This is a place for resting.”
In the future, it was inevitable that the young ones would leave the base to expand into surrounding lands and plant more crops. For now, this was just a preview of their “transfer base.”
Though they didn’t fully understand, this didn’t dampen Lang Ze and Youyou’s growing fascination with the spaceship.
A ship that can fly into the sky! They couldn’t help but wonder if Su Su might one day take them up into the skies for an adventure…
The two kids explored every corner, their curiosity boundless. To them, this old and worn spaceship was full of charm and excitement, and they couldn’t get enough of it.
Meanwhile, Su Ci examined the spaceship himself, planning out its functions.
Since it was intended as a resting place, food and water were essential. Although food supplies were currently limited, water could be stored in advance.
The spaceship originally had a water storage system, but since the 244H had been abandoned for years, its storage tanks were empty.
Su Ci placed his hand on the water system and, using his mechanical manipulation ability, restored it to full functionality. He even made some improvements, enhancing its condensation feature to make it more efficient.
Although the condensation efficiency was still quite low, over time, it would add up and prove useful.
Next, Su Ci drew from an underground water source, filling the two storage tanks to capacity. He didn’t forget to inscribe purification and spirit-gathering formations on them.
When Lang Ze grabbed a cup to drink, he couldn’t help but let out a contented sigh. “The water here tastes just as good as the water at the Nursery Center!”
It was nothing like the water at Little Camel’s place, which not only had a strange taste but also left you feeling irritated and upset after drinking it.
“Exactly!” Lu Jiao nodded in agreement.
Su Ci glanced at the two picky kids but didn’t bother explaining. However, it reminded him that when he had more time, he might consider installing purification formations for other buildings’ water systems.
While ordinary humans weren’t as affected by pollutants as the young ones, a pleasant environment and mood could significantly improve productivity.
Su Ci never underestimated the ingenuity of the human race.
Having temporarily resolved the water supply issue for the “transfer base,” Su Ci then took the two young ones and A-Yan and teleported out of the spaceship, arriving outside the base.
For the first time, standing on such barren land, Lang Ze and Lu Jiao froze, just like curious little monkeys.
“Su Su, is this…” Lu Jiao looked at the dense fog in the distance and then turned to glance at the towering walls behind him. He already had a guess in his heart.
But he found it hard to believe.
“This is outside the base,” Su Ci said, answering the question in Lu Jiao’s heart.
“Outside the base? Why is it so…”
Lu Jiao struggled to find the right words. Inside the base, metal structures dominated the landscape, and apart from the newly cultivated land behind the Nursery Center, there was hardly any soil in sight.
But here, the ground seemed to be nothing but barren dirt, stretching endlessly in every direction. Staring at it for too long made him feel a sense of suffocating oppression.
“I think it’s pretty great,” said Lang Ze, his feelings starkly different. After his initial awe, he instantly fell in love with the boundless, open expanse.
In fact, this place had improved significantly compared to when Su Ci and A-Yan first came. At least now, there was no pervasive blood mist, nor were there monsters lurking nearby.
Lang Ze, unaware of these changes, simply spread his arms wide, letting the wind blow against him, and felt his spirits lift along with it.
“Su Su, the land here is huge! We can plant tons and tons of sprouts and cover this entire area with crops!” Lang Ze said joyfully.
That way, they would have so much delicious food to enjoy!
To plant this barren land full of greenery? Lu Jiao gazed at the desolate soil before him, imagining such a transformation. The thought filled him with a sense of exhilaration.
Yes! They could turn this place into a lush, green paradise. Such a world would undoubtedly be beautiful!
“Su Su, let’s start farming here!” Lu Jiao chimed in. “That way, we won’t have to worry about running out of space to plant!”
He knew that A-Yan had been fretting over the excess Star-chain Fruits. With so much land available, they wouldn’t need to worry about lacking space anymore.
The two children, still new to planting, had no idea how difficult it would be to cultivate this land without the help of the two small spirit seedlings. Given the normal growth rate of plants, farming would be a tremendous challenge.
Still, Su Ci appreciated their enthusiasm. Smiling, he nodded and said in a lighthearted tone, “Of course.”
He hoped they could maintain this enthusiasm. After all, the area they would eventually need to cultivate would far exceed this single patch of land.
Then, Su Ci teleported again, taking them to the riverbed.
As soon as they arrived, Lang Ze squinted his eyes against the breeze. Sensitive to the wind, he noticed that the air here felt different—it was far more refreshing and soothing against his face than anywhere else.
The sensation was akin to drinking spirit water, leaving him feeling completely revitalized, as if all his fatigue had melted away.
A-Yan also noticed this change.
His gaze turned to the opposite riverbank, where Su Ci had recently set up a new formation. The specific function of that formation…
A-Yan froze slightly in surprise.
The far side of the riverbank was shrouded in dense blood mist, so thick it looked like blood. Yet that oppressive mist was completely blocked by an invisible barrier, unable to cross.
Each time the surging blood mist crashed into the barrier, what eventually passed through was nothing more than a fine, spirit-infused mist carrying traces of moisture.
That’s right—Lang Ze’s sense of peace and rejuvenation came from these spirit-laden water droplets.
As previously mentioned, blood mist is essentially spiritual energy tainted with various negative forces. Its essence remains spiritual energy, and once those negative forces are purified and filtered out, what remains is pure spiritual energy.
The formation Su Ci had set along the riverbank was derived from purification techniques—a purifying array. As the blood mist passed through, these purification arrays were triggered and interconnected to form a continuous purification barrier.
As long as the blood mist continued to surge, the barrier would keep purifying the malice within it. Any impurities that couldn’t be purified in time were blocked outside the barrier, creating a stark and distinct boundary.
Over time, this would significantly reduce the pollution levels throughout Base 24. This river might even become a spiritually rich and prosperous site in the future.
However, achieving such a result would require considerable time.
Moreover, the blood mist’s intensity had already noticeably decreased, suggesting that the malice within it would not continuously bombard the purification barrier indefinitely.
Regardless, the protection offered by this purification barrier added an extra layer of safety for Base 24.
Additionally…
Su Ci looked up at the sky. With the red mist diluted, the frequency of extreme weather events should also diminish.
A-Yan noticed this as well. He gazed at Su Ci with admiration, thinking how incredible Su Su was! He needed to master these formations as soon as possible!
Lang Ze and Lu Jiao, unable to see the distant riverbank clearly, only knew that it felt comfortable here, though they couldn’t help but feel curious.
“Su Su, didn’t you say we were going to see a river?”
From the images and videos the base AI had shown them, a river should at least have water, right?
Su Ci ignored their questions and released his powerful spiritual awareness, meticulously scanning every inch and crevice of the dry riverbed.
The discovery of that lone wild grass had given him an idea.
Although the riverbed was dry, after every rainfall, the mud monsters would retain some of the rainwater. And where there’s water, there’s life.
So, aside from that lone wild grass, could it really be that no other form of life had managed to survive along this thousand-meter-long river?
Although the chances were slim, Su Ci decided to search carefully.
His spiritual awareness swept through the area again and again.
The monsters that had reappeared after his previous departure with A-Yan quickly scattered and fled upon sensing his overwhelming spiritual presence. They didn’t even dare to entertain thoughts of resistance.
Su Ci, however, wasn’t focused on them this time and ignored their retreat.
He combed through the riverbed repeatedly with meticulous precision until—finally—he found another trace of life.
