Chapter 125

Just as Su Jing returned the last hedgehog demon to its nest, Little Gold suddenly broke free from her embrace. Its short, golden fur shimmered in the sunlight. It hopped and skipped to a half-buried bluestone slab ahead, scratching furiously at the edge with its tiny paws.

Its black, grape-like eyes shone brightly. It turned its head and squeaked urgently at Su Jing, its tail wagging incessantly, clearly having discovered something important.

"Found something good again?" Su Jing smiled and followed. The five mining robots spread out in a fan shape in perfect unison, with robot number 3's powerful scanning beam landing first on the bluestone slab—

The stone slab was engraved with indistinct vine patterns, and tiny spiritual herbs grew in the gaps between the edges and the ground, clearly not a naturally formed obstruction.

Su Jing had Robot No. 1 gently lift the stone slab with its mechanical arm, and a gentle downward slope was immediately revealed beneath the slab. The slope was covered with lush, light green vines, and a rich, fresh fragrance of herbs wafted from among the vines, more mellow than any other herb area she had visited before.

"Is this a hidden valley of spiritual herbs?"

Su Jing followed Xiao Jin down the gentle slope, and the vines automatically parted to both sides—clearly, the spiritual herbs and vines here coexisted, and they did not obstruct her after sensing a friendly aura. At the bottom of the gentle slope was a small, sunken valley, not large in area, but densely covered with spiritual herbs: pale green Qi-gathering grass spread out like a "grass carpet," and its leaves were three times thicker than those she had seen before;

Pale red hemostatic herbs are interspersed among them, with flower buds at the top glowing with a faint red light; even more precious, under the stone wall on the inner side of the valley, next to several spiritual herbs with red fruits, there are more than a dozen thousand-year-old ginsengs scattered about—the roots and stems are thick and the fibrous roots are complete, the tender buds at the top glow with a pale yellow light, and you can smell a mellow medicinal fragrance when you get close.

Several dark brown Ganoderma lucidum mushrooms were still attached to the cracks in the stone wall, with golden edges on the caps. They were rare thousand-year-old Ganoderma lucidum seedlings.

"Be careful when harvesting, especially ginseng and lingzhi, don't damage the roots." Su Jing immediately assigned tasks: Robots No. 1 and No. 2 were responsible for collecting the Qi-gathering grass and hemostatic grass on the periphery. The mechanical arms were equipped with the softest sponge claws, and each herb was dug out along with a small amount of humus to avoid breaking the roots.

Robots No. 3 and No. 4 cleared the rubble and weeds along the edge of the valley to ensure the collection route was clear, while remaining vigilant against possible ferocious beasts (although the danger decreased after the mission was completed, we could not let our guard down).

Robot No. 5 remained at the valley entrance, responsible for sorting the collected spiritual herbs and packing them into specially made cultivation boxes. The boxes were lined with spiritual soil to maintain a constant temperature and humidity.

Su Jing squatted down beside the stone wall and took out a small silver shovel, about the size of a palm, from her spatial storage. The shovel head was thin and sharp, made of high-purity silver crystal, and was specially used to dig up precious medicinal plants.

She first drew a half-meter square circle around the base of a thousand-year-old ginseng, then carefully dug into the soil with a silver shovel, her movements so gentle it was as if she were afraid of disturbing something—

Ginseng's rootlets are as thin as hair and can break easily if not handled carefully. Intact rootlets are key to maintaining its vitality. Little Jin also came over and gently dug away the fine soil around the ginseng with its tiny claws. Its claws are small and agile, able to precisely avoid the rootlets. It even gently nudges away small stones that block its view with its nose, like a professional "assistant herb gatherer".

"Wait, there's a Ganoderma lucidum here." Little Jin suddenly touched Su Jing's wrist with its paw, then pointed to a narrow crevice in the stone wall—a dark brown Ganoderma lucidum was stuck in the crevice. The cap was only the size of a palm, but the golden edge was particularly obvious, which was a characteristic feature of a thousand-year-old Ganoderma lucidum.

Su Jing immediately adjusted her posture and had Robot No. 5 hand her a pair of miniature tweezers. She carefully used the tweezers to grasp the stem of the Ganoderma lucidum, gently rotated it half a turn, and only after the stem had completely separated from the stone wall did she place the Ganoderma lucidum into a transparent cultivation box. The box was lined with moist moss to prevent the Ganoderma lucidum from dehydrating, and the inside of the lid was labeled "Millennial Ganoderma lucidum Seedling (No. 1)".

The collection process went more smoothly than expected: the ordinary spiritual herbs on the periphery were quickly harvested by the robot and sent into the cultivation box in clusters and clumps. The spiritual herbs in the box were soon piled up to the brim, and the robot had to frequently travel back and forth between the valley and the space transmission point to send the spiritual herbs into the space.

Su Jing focused on the thousand-year-old ginseng and Ganoderma lucidum seedlings, each one with its own soil intact, placed in a separate cultivation box to ensure the root system was not damaged. Xiao Jin was always busy around her, sometimes sniffing out ginseng hidden under decaying leaves with its nose, sometimes using its paws to remind her to avoid poisonous weeds, and it could even distinguish the age of the ginseng—when it encountered an older one (with denser rootlets and fuller buds), it would make a small mark with its paw next to it so that Su Jing could collect it first.

After an unknown amount of time, all the spiritual herbs in the valley had been harvested, leaving only flat humus soil on the once lush "grass carpet," and the thousand-year-old ginseng and Ganoderma lucidum seedlings under the stone wall had all been collected into cultivation boxes.

Su Jing straightened up, rubbed her aching back, and watched as Robot No. 5 delivered the last box of spiritual herbs into her space. Although the communicator did not display the quantity, a notification popped up: [Personal space "Medicinal Plant Reserve Area" has been expanded to twice its original size. Spiritual herb reserve status: sufficient (including low-grade spiritual herbs, thousand-year-old ginseng, thousand-year-old Ganoderma lucidum seedlings, etc.), which can meet the long-term needs of pill refining/cultivation].

She immersed her consciousness into the space and saw that the original medicinal plant area had been expanded into a new area. Pale green Qi-gathering grass and pale red hemostatic grass were neatly stacked on the temperature-controlled shelves, with each pile separated by a light-colored light film to avoid mutual interference.

The thousand-year-old ginseng and Ganoderma lucidum seedlings were placed separately in the "Advanced Medicinal Plant Cultivation Area." Specially made cultivation boxes were neatly arranged, the spiritual soil inside gleaming with a moist sheen, and the seedling buds were still gently swaying, clearly full of vitality. The 300 chicks in the space seemed very curious about the newly added spiritual herbs. Several young chicks gathered around the shelf, but were stopped by Xiao Jin—

It stood in front of the shelf and chirped twice at the chicks, as if to say, "You can't eat this." The chicks obediently retreated, making for a very amusing scene.

Su Jing exited the spatial dimension and sat down on a rock at the valley entrance to rest. She casually picked up her communicator to check the remaining time in the instance. As soon as she opened the communicator, messages flooded the global channel—

The most eye-catching message was a red one from a US user named "Jack," filled with intense hostility: "Why can 'I am the God of Wealth' get the favor of 10 monsters so quickly? She must be cheating! We have a hard time even finding a friendly monster, and two of us were injured by a ferocious beast. She definitely used cheat items!"

Immediately afterward, a message popped up from an EU user named "Emily," her tone full of resentment: "We lost three people! There were too many ferocious beasts; low-level ability users simply couldn't withstand them. Yet 'I am the God of Wealth' was able to complete the mission with ease. There must be something wrong here; the system should investigate!"

Below, many users from other countries echoed the sentiment, with some saying "the dungeon difficulty is unfair" and others saying "'I am the God of Wealth' must have special privileges." Messages kept coming in, almost flooding the channel.

Su Jing glanced at them a few times, showing no emotional fluctuation—these complaints were merely an outlet for frustration with the mission.

She turned off the global channel, put the communicator back in her pocket, stood up, brushed the decaying leaves off her clothes, and said to Little Gold, "We should prepare to organize our supplies; the dungeon is almost over."

Xiao Jin rubbed against her palm, then happily jumped onto her shoulder. The five robots followed neatly behind them. The group walked up the gentle slope, sunlight filtering through the vines, warm and peaceful, a stark contrast to the noise on the channel—

For Su Jing, a full stock of spiritual herbs and reliable partners are the foundation for dealing with everything; as for the complaints of irrelevant people, there is no need to care.