LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 53 - Purpose
Mai Dongzi did not want the mutated poria to fall into Adventurer 088’s hands, so she decided to use indirect methods to deter him.
The name of Prince Arthur was undoubtedly the most effective tool.
Her voice was low to avoid being heard by the live-stream audience, but it was audible enough for Adventurer 088.
Mai Dongzi turned her face away and no longer faced Adventurer 088 directly, but her spiritual power kept a close watch on his face.
Hearing her, Adventurer 088’s expression didn’t change much, but Mai Dongzi noticed a slight flicker in his eyes.
So, Adventurer 088 was clearly wary of Prince Arthur.
Before turning to leave, Mai Dongzi added softly, “I have already marked the items I discovered. The garrison on Water Blue Star will send someone to excavate them soon. I hope you can avoid them when that happens.”
Having said that, Mai Dongzi continued on her way, no longer paying attention to Adventurer 088.
According to the original host’s memories and Mai Dongzi’s online searches, Prince Arthur’s reputation in the Blue-Black Empire was even stronger in reality.
Seeing Mai Dongzi about to leave, Adventurer 088 hesitated, wanting to say something but ultimately remained silent.
He stood still for a while, watching Mai Dongzi’s receding figure and then glancing at the withered pine tree roots. Finally, feeling somewhat dejected, he turned and walked back to the cave where he had been staying.
Of course, Mai Dongzi wouldn’t just leave things like that. She kept a close watch on Adventurer 088 with her spiritual power. If this adventurer truly ignored her warning, she had no qualms about eliminating him from the game.
Although he was a Level 6 warrior, her spiritual abilities were already at the late Level 5 stage. Subduing Adventurer 088 and helping him activate a distress signal would be no problem for her.
Fortunately, Adventurer 088 did not act recklessly. After discovering his intention, Mai Dongzi sent an interference signal to Lieutenant Fu, who was responsible for sending people to retrieve the energy plants.
Lieutenant Fu was the young officer who had been standing behind Lieutenant Colonel Chen when Mai Dongzi met him. Though he appeared to be in his late thirties, he was already a Level 8 warrior, a top-tier expert in the Blue-Black Empire.
When Mai Dongzi mentioned Prince Arthur, Lieutenant Fu had actually already brought people to the vicinity. However, since Mai Dongzi was still live-streaming and was not in immediate danger, he did not make an appearance.
It’s easy to imagine that if Adventurer 088 ignored her “advice” and tried to dig for the mutated poria after she left, Lieutenant Fu would certainly teach him a lesson.
Mai Dongzi had already informed Lieutenant Colonel Chen about the environment where the mutated poria was found. This way, she didn’t need to individually investigate all the withered pine trees she hadn’t examined.
Mai Dongzi continued to climb the mountain while using her spiritual power to search for energy plants.
The small mountain range wasn’t very high, only about five to six hundred meters above sea level. The slope she was climbing was gentle, and although it was covered with mutated pine trees, it wasn’t as dense as the forest below. Additionally, the terrain was uneven, allowing her to see the blue sky from time to time.
Apart from the mutated pines, there were also many other plants growing beneath the trees.
Mai Dongzi felt that the likelihood of discovering energy plants in this environment was higher than in the dark forest, so she wasn’t in a hurry. Whenever she came across unexplored plants, she would approach and sense them.
Because she was moving slowly and repeatedly searching for new plant species on the hillside, Mai Dongzi “saw” Lieutenant Fu and several others emerge from the Cloud Piercer ship parked at the foot of the mountain after she had gone further away.
While others were digging for the mutated poria based on the markers left by Mai Dongzi, Lieutenant Fu specifically went to find Adventurer 088.
Mai Dongzi didn’t care what Lieutenant Fu said to Adventurer 088; as long as Adventurer 088 stopped bothering her, it was none of her concern.
Mai Dongzi’s guess was correct. By the afternoon, she discovered another energy plant on the hillside.
This plant seemed to contain a high amount of energy, which Mai Dongzi could sense from four to five meters away.
Although the plant seemed somewhat familiar to Mai Dongzi, she couldn’t recall exactly what it was.
She was unsure why, but the previous night, Prince Arthur personally contacted her and sent her a botanical guide of the ancient Shui Lanxing plants.
At first, Mai Dongzi was skeptical when she saw that the person contacting her was Prince Arthur, and she wondered if it was a scam.
Later, she remembered that in the interstellar era, everyone’s communication devices were gene-bound and had fixed communication codes, so no one would dare to impersonate Prince Arthur.
Moreover, since she is currently in a controlled information state if the contact was fake, she wouldn’t have been able to connect with it. It was only because the communication was permitted that she received it.
Prince Arthur didn’t communicate any specific information with her but directly sent her a botanical guide.
The guide was richly illustrated and detailed, clearly a product from the ancient Shui Lanxing era.
Previously, it was always Lieutenant Colonel Chen who contacted her, and Prince Arthur had never appeared.
Mai Dongzi wondered why it was Prince Arthur himself delivering this botanical guide instead of Lieutenant Colonel Chen. She speculated that the ancient Shui Lanxing botanical guide might be a royal collection.
Regardless of its origin, since Prince Arthur had sent it to her, she took the opportunity to study it thoroughly, as she really needed this information.
After receiving the botanical guide last night, Mai Dongzi reviewed it and found an image of the unknown energy plant she had discovered. It turned out the plant was called Bai Zhi.
She had heard of Bai Zhi in her previous life.
Now, having discovered a new energy plant she didn’t recognize, Mai Dongzi didn’t need to guess; she directly opened her communication device and compared the images. She found that it was likely a mutated variant of Huang Jing.
She had certainly heard of Huang Jing in her previous life. After digging it out and examining it, she found that it was rich in wood-type energy, which explained why she could sense the faint energy fluctuations from afar with her wood-type abilities.
After using her mental power to search the surrounding area, Mai Dongzi found that there were quite a few mutated Huang Jing plants on the nearby slope. She collected all the Huang Jing in the area, not even missing the soil.
Today, she had discovered two new types of energy plants at once, one of which was rich in wood-type energy.
Her frustration with the 088 adventurer vanished completely. Seeing that it was getting late, she chose a large rock to rest on and took out the dry firewood she had collected from her spatial backpack.
In recent days, due to her busy schedule and the poor environment, Mai Dongzi had been eating only the prepared food from her spatial storage.