Chapter 158

The moment Su Jing's boots touched the pebbles of the mountain stream, a chill ran up her spine.

The stream in the mountain valley meanders along the cracks in the rocks. The water flow is not large, but it is clear. At a high temperature of 58℃, the water vapor evaporates into a fine mist, making the surrounding temperature 10℃ lower than that in the forest.

The temperature sensor on Robot No. 1 showed "Current ambient temperature 48℃, humidity 45%, which meets the growth conditions of the spiritual herb." She breathed a sigh of relief and said to Little Gold at her feet, "The snake's nest should be nearby. The mountain stream is cool and there is water, so they won't be too far away."

"I can smell it!" Little Jin suddenly darted away from Su Jing's feet, its tiny paws landing smoothly on the wet pebbles. It quickly stopped beside a large blue stone half-submerged in water, its little nose close to the crevice. It immediately wrinkled its nose, its inner voice filled with certainty: "It's in here! The smell is so strong and concentrated, not the 'cold and slippery smell' of a single snake, but the 'smell of the whole family'! There must be many snakes inside, and even little snakes!"

Su Jing immediately signaled robots No. 1 and No. 2 to surround them—robot No. 1's mechanical arm popped out a searchlight and was adjusted to "diffuse light" mode to avoid direct strong light stimulating the snake swarm to riot prematurely;

Robot No. 2 then switched its laser gun to the "spot fire" setting, aiming the muzzle at the various crevices in the bluestone to prevent the snake from darting out through the gaps.

Su Jing gripped the mining blade and went around to the other side of the bluestone. There was a half-meter-wide main crevice there, and the faint hissing sound of snakes spitting out their tongues could be heard from the dark crevice, which was obviously the entrance to the snake's nest.

"Number 1, use a diffused light to shine on the main crack in the rock to make the snakes react and prevent them from gathering together;

Number 2, keep an eye on the side seam. If a snake comes out, fire short shots at the midsection, being careful not to destroy its demon core.

Su Jing gave a low command, and the searchlight of Robot No. 1 immediately turned on, the pale white diffused light evenly shining into the main stone crevice. The hissing sound inside the crevice instantly became denser, and one after another, green-striped snakes began to dart out—there were adult snakes and half-meter-long juvenile snakes, densely intertwined together, fleeing in the opposite direction of the light source.

"Number 2, fire!" Su Jing shouted, and the laser gun of Robot Number 2 immediately sizzled. The pale red beam accurately hit the middle of each of the green-striped snakes that darted out. The snakes instantly lost their strength and fell onto the pebbles, twitching. The pale green demon core in their abdomens was clearly visible.

Two adult snakes darted around the side gap and pounced on Xiao Jin, who was observing. Su Jing immediately drew her mining blade, and with a flash of pale blue energy, the two snakes were cut in two. Their demon cores rolled into the water, and Xiao Jin quickly scooped them up with her little paws and put them into her mini cloth bag: "Su Jing! Don't let the demon cores fall into the water! They'll get ruined!"

The snake nest was cleared faster than expected—about 20 blue-striped snakes were in the blue stone, most of which were killed by laser sniping. Only a few young snakes burrowed deep into the crevices of the stone, and Su Jing did not pursue them: "The young snakes' demon cores are not mature, so there is no use in keeping them. Don't waste time. Focus on collecting the demon cores of the adult snakes."

Robot No. 1's robotic arm popped out a specially designed small clamp, which picked out the demon core from the abdomen of each dead snake and put it into the collection box. Soon, the box was half full, and the communicator popped up: [Obtained Tier 1 Azure-Striped Snake Demon Core ×15, containing toxin resistance energy, which can be used in batches for superpower enhancement].

"Su Jing! Look at this!" Xiao Jin suddenly ran over, holding up a small grass with roots still attached. The grass leaves were pale red with serrated edges; it was a wild, low-grade hemostatic herb. "There are so many growing in the cracks over there! They're even bigger than the ones in our planting area!"

Su Jing walked over and saw that there was indeed a patch of wild hemostatic grass growing in the moist soil next to the bluestone, about 30 plants with full leaves, some of which had already produced seeds. "These can be harvested, which is just right for the planting area to replant seedlings and seeds, saving us from using our own reserves."

She instructed Robot No. 2 to retrieve a small shovel and seedling pots from its spatial storage, saying, "When digging, keep a 10-centimeter soil ball and don't damage the roots. It can be directly transplanted to the planting area."

Leave 5 mature plants for seed collection, and dig up the rest. Prioritize digging up seedlings with buds.

Little Jin also helped, gently clearing away the pebbles around the hemostatic grass with her little paws. When she encountered a plant with seeds, she carefully picked the seeds and put them into the seed bag: "I counted, this plant has 150 seeds! Enough to plant three rows!"

While collecting grass, Robot No. 1 suddenly issued an alarm: "Snakes detected 3 meters away, number 2, approaching!"

Su Jing immediately looked up and saw two blue-striped snakes darting out from the cracks in the rocks upstream, clearly attracted by the commotion.

She didn't let the robot do anything; instead, she gripped the mining blade and went to meet it herself—the energy blade condensed, and with a single, clean cut, she sliced ​​the snake in two, storing the demon core in the collection box. "It seems that the Green-Striped Snakes in this mountain stream have more than one nest. I'll have to come and clean them up more often, otherwise they'll migrate towards the villa."

As the sun set, Su Jing returned to the villa with the robot and Xiao Jin—the collection box contained 17 Green-Striped Snake Demon Pills, the seedling pot contained 25 wild Hemostatic Grass seedlings, and the seed bag contained nearly a thousand Hemostatic Grass seeds.

As soon as they entered the villa, Su Jing instructed Robot No. 3 to transplant the seedlings to the reserve area of ​​the planting zone, while Robot No. 5 dried the seeds in preparation for the next sowing.

Holding a mini cloth bag, Xiao Jin poured out the demon cores like a treasure: "Su Jing, can these demon cores make your superpowers stronger? If they're stronger, can you make even more powerful weapons?"

Su Jing picked up a demon core, and a faint blue supernatural power emanated from her fingertips—the demon core instantly transformed into a stream of energy that entered her palm, and the communicator popped up: [Ore control supernatural power increased by 3%, toxin resistance increased by 5%].

She nodded and looked at the manganese crystal ore in the control room: "Yes, these demon cores can help me strengthen my superpowers. Tomorrow we will use the strengthened superpowers to forge armor-piercing bullets."