"Gu Mian, you step back. Leave this to me and Lao Xu."

Jiang Bai took out his bow and arrows to assist him. His arrows were different from the previous ones, emitting a soft white light that seemed to be particularly effective against the earthworm.

With just two arrows, the earthworm's health bar was reduced by more than half.

Xu Kun pressed his advantage, slashing three times in quick succession, instantly emptying the earthworm's health bar.

[Defeat the Tier 2 pollutant to earn 100 points.]

"Good heavens, this earthworm's skin is really tough!" Xu Kun sheathed his Tang sword, raised his torch, and peered forward. "I wonder if there's anything good in this cave?"

"Go and see for yourself." Jiang Bai took out two torches and handed one to Gu Mian.

With each person carrying a torch, the cave became much brighter.

As usual, Xu Kun took the lead, but after only a few steps inside, he exclaimed "Damn it!" and retreated.

Gu Mian was about to ask what was wrong when she saw a large group of earthworms rush out, and her scalp tingled.

Xu Kun threw away the torch, drew his Tang sword, and charged forward.

Jiang Bai remembered to hand the torch to Gu Mian, and then took out his bow and arrows to assist.

The two worked together seamlessly, one attacking from a distance and the other in close combat, and quickly wiped out the entire group of earthworms.

As for Gu Mian?

She was holding two torches, keeping a safe distance to provide light.

It's just a few earthworms; they don't need her help at all.

It's not that she found it disgusting and didn't want to go...

Xu Kun looked at the empty cave with some disappointment: "I killed so many earthworms, and not a single treasure chest dropped?"

Gu Mian ignored him and took a torch to approach the stone wall of the cave to observe it carefully.

She had just noticed that the color of the stone walls here seemed a bit strange; under the firelight, they appeared to have a faint blue glow.

[High-grade kyanite ore discovered. Should it be mined?]

Is there even a question?

Gu Mian immediately took out a pickaxe and started digging.

Xu Kun: "Hey sis, what are you doing?"

Gu Mian succinctly stated: "Mining! High-grade blue crystal ore!"

Xu Kun got excited, and Jiang Bai came over too. The three of them each found a spot and started digging.

High-grade ores require high-grade pickaxes to mine, and Gu Mian had already opened the box, but hadn't found a high-grade ore vein yet.

Today it finally came in handy.

With less than an hour left before the team card expired, Gu Mian was racing against time, practically spitting sparks from her pickaxe.

Gu Mian was mining with great enthusiasm when a female voice suddenly came from outside: "This is the place shown on the map, brother, let's go down and take a look."

The three men immediately put away their pickaxes and were about to leave when they bumped into two people.

They met unexpectedly, and the girl was taken aback when she saw Gu Mian: "It's you?"

Seeing Gu Mian's confused expression, the girl reminded her, "Have you forgotten? We've met before. My brother even traded berries from you using bandages."

I remember now!

Gu Mian's eyes lit up. It was that sucker!

However, they had only made one transaction and were not close enough to reminisce, so after exchanging a few words, Nie Yu decided to continue walking inside.

Xu Kun quickly blocked her way: "We're already mining in this mine, you should go somewhere else."

Nie Yu stopped and glared at them with displeasure: "What, does this mine belong to you? Why should we have to move just because you're mining here?"

After saying that, he gave Xu Kun's shoulder a hard shove: "Don't block the way!"

Xu Kun didn't move an inch. He looked at Nie Yun and asked, "Brother, what do you say?"

Nie Yun looked into the cave, and his excellent eyesight allowed him to spot the blue crystal mine that was half-mined at a glance.

He pondered for a moment: "We also used a treasure map to locate this place. We can't just find the mine, waste a treasure map, and return empty-handed."

"How about this, we each dig our own holes and don't interfere with each other."

“You’re right.” Jiang Bai stepped out of the shadows of the mine. “However, we cleaned out the pollutants in this mine, so we can’t share this ore with you.”

Nie Yu: "Don't go too far!"

Xu Kun silently took out his Tang sword, planted it on the ground, and coldly looked over: "How about a fight?"

Gu Mian didn't waste any words with them. She directly took out the Entangling Moon Sword, moved her feet slightly, and instantly blocked their retreat.

The atmosphere became somewhat tense for a moment.

Nie Yun's expression kept changing, and Nie Yu also looked around nervously. She just wanted to mine some minerals and never thought she would have to fight!

Moreover, she's utterly useless and completely ineffective!

Even if her brother is good at fighting, he doesn't have the confidence to take on three people at once!

Especially since both of them had pulled out weapons, they didn't look like empty shells at all!

After a while, Nie Yun's expression slowly returned to normal. He took a deep breath and said, "Xiao Yu, let's go."

After Nie Yun and Nie Yu left, Gu Mian and the others returned to the mine and continued digging.

Before long, the blue crystal ore was all mined out.

After leaving the mine and returning to the maple forest, Xu Kun was excited to continue taking photos. He turned around to call Gu Mian, only to find that she had disappeared.

He was immediately dumbfounded and turned to look at Jiang Bai: "Where is my beautiful little sister?"

Jiang Bai: "Let's teleport back to the raft."

Xu Kun immediately sighed in disappointment.

...

[Current main quest progress: 2%]

Gu Mian returned to the raft and had just taken out the ice shaver to make mango smoothies when she heard the system notification sound.

Another player has successfully purified the island?

That's fast!

Putting down the ice shaver, Gu Mian simply sat on the sofa, opened the chat channel, and saw if there was any useful information.

"Wow! Which big shot pushed the mission progress?!"

"I'm totally confused. I want to know how to complete the main quest. Can someone explain it to me?"

Zhou Ye: "It's very simple. First, bind an island, then use purification stones to purify the island. Once the entire island is purified, you can advance the quest."

"Wait...purify the entire island's land? How many purification stones would that require???"

Zhou Ye: "At least several thousand."

"...Upon opening the backpack, I was immediately amused by the three purification stones inside."

"Hahaha, that's hilarious! Me too, I never imagined I'd be this poor!"

[Current main quest progress: 3%]

"It moved! It moved! The mission progress has moved again!"

"I'm curious, which bigwig is pushing this project forward this time?"

"I know! The Great Bear Kingdom is driving the progress of this mission! I just got back from the world channel!"

"There are so many people on the world channel, I get dizzy from the speed at which the messages are refreshed every time I go there."

"Who says otherwise! I don't like hanging out there either."

"We've gone off-topic, guys!"

Seeing no useful information, Gu Mian reached out and closed the chat window.