Chapter 32

The next day, everyone continued their search for the Energy Stone with Wandi. However, compared to their first great fortune, their recent luck hadn't been as good, and no matter where they went, they were unsuccessful.

"Oh, it's so hard to find. Could it be that our planet only has this one energy stone?" Yao Si sighed. The work where the effort and reward were not proportional at all was too exhausting.

Ji Wenxue sighed, "Who can say for sure? Do you want me to fall into the water again?"

Yao Si clapped his hands excitedly, his eyes lighting up. "Hey! You know what? Maybe it really works. Why don't we give it a try?" Since they'd been coming to this same place for the past few days, once they were familiar with the surroundings, they split up. Yao Si and Ji Wenxue formed a team, Ying Zhao and Wan Di formed a team, and Jiang Zouwei formed a solo team.

Ji Wenxue stopped, her tone still hesitant. "But is this okay?" She twirled her fingers around. "How about we ask Sister Wandi when we gather later?"

"Oh, we will gather and go back soon, so how can we have time to conduct experiments?" Yao Si took a big step forward, "Besides, isn't our mission to find the energy stone? We should be careful. There is a river a few hundred meters away. If we find it, wouldn't everyone be happy?" Yao Si said as he put his hands around Ji Wenxue's hands and raised them up a little more.

Ji Wenxue still looked hesitant, "But..." She always felt uneasy about doing things without telling Wan Di, "I... I can't do such a thing as acting first and asking for permission later!"

Yao Si thought for a moment, "So, you mean, if Wan Di agrees, you will go, right?"

Ji Wenxue nodded without hesitation, "Of course!"

"Okay, then you can wait here for me, I'll run over and ask." Yao Si said as he jumped five meters away, then ran through the forest like a monkey.

It happened so fast that Ji Wenxue didn't even have time to utter a single word. She could only start spinning in circles. "Really? I haven't even agreed yet, and he's already gone. What's the point of asking me that?"

Yao Si jumped back quickly like a spring, and a strong shout of "Go!" came from afar.

Ji Wenxue took a deep breath and jumped up, following Yao Si into the forest. The stream was not far away, and they soon arrived.

Yao Si: "Do you remember how you fell in last time?"

Ji Wenxue: "It happened suddenly, without any warning. By the time I realized what was happening, I was already in the water. But the surface of the water was frozen."

After saying this, the two of them squatted down and looked at each other, speechless for a moment. It was impossible to replicate these conditions. The sun was shining brightly, and the surface of the river was warm.

"Since we can't control the variables, then—" Yao Si stood up and said firmly, "Let's just go for it!"

Ji Wenxue didn't quite agree with Yao Si's method, but she had no other choice, so she simply nodded and said, "Okay, then I'll just drop down and see if I can find anything."

Yao Si raised her arms, "Come on!" She wanted to give her full support, but she didn't dare go in the water. She'd be embarrassed and have to trouble Wen Xue to rescue her. So she decided to just observe from the shore.

Ji Wenxue walked quickly to the shore, still hesitant about how she would fall into the water. She lost her concentration and stepped on empty air, tumbling into the water. Then there was a very violent movement in the water, with splashes everywhere.

Yao Si wiped the river water that splashed on his face and shouted, "Is there something?!"

"I sprained my ankle!" A louder shout came with a hint of anger. Yao Si quickly grabbed a nearby vine and threw it over, "Hold on! I'll pull you up."

After working for a long time, both of them sat on the grass by the river, sweating profusely.

"The agreed time is almost here. We need to hurry to the meeting place!" Ji Wenxue looked up at the sky and said anxiously. The uneasy feeling she had felt all the way to the meeting point was now completely gone.

Yao Si also sat up and said, "Let's go, but can you walk?" Then he squatted down and held Ji Wenxue's arm to give her leverage.

Ji Wenxue finally tried to stand up, but she couldn't take a single step, let alone run back.

"Let me carry you." Yao Si said as he squatted down.

Time was of the essence, and Ji Wenxue could not think of anything else. She quickly went up and said, "Thank you for your help." She glanced at the sky and said, "But if Sister Wandi agreed before, it's okay for us to be a little late."

"Agree to what?" Yao Si asked as he ran quickly, his mind as blurry as the shadow of the tree passing by quickly.

"You agreed to let us do the experiment by the river. Didn't you go over and ask?" Ji Wenxue said, then felt something was wrong. "You didn't ask, did you?"

Yao Si shrank his neck. "I was going to go over and ask, but I couldn't find anyone, so I came back. But when I saw you running over there, I thought you wanted to go."

Ji Wenxue was horrified. "Why didn't you tell me you couldn't find the person? Instead, you told me to leave. I thought Sister Wandi agreed!"

"I always like to say something about encouragement!"

Things have come to this point, there is no point in saying more. The two men knew they had caused trouble, and when they saw Wan Di, they almost knelt down to apologize.

"You two are quite brave. You didn't even know the situation on the river bank, yet you rushed over alone." Jiang Zouwei sneered.

"You two are truly heroic young women!" Wandi sarcastically said. Then, with a look of dismay, she said, "You could have gone, but why did you come back injured?" She had just checked Ji Wenxue's ankle and luckily, the bone was fine.

Upon hearing this, Ji Wenxue and Yao Si tacitly hugged Wan Di's arms and swayed them around, acting coquettishly. "We were wrong! Please forgive us, okay?"

Of course, the two of them finally did self-criticism. After finishing the self-criticism, Yao Si and Ji Wenxue sat in the pillar and talked quietly.

"Huh - I was scared to death. Fortunately, it was just a self-criticism." Ji Wenxue sighed and let out a long breath.

"Don't mention it, I'd be scared to death too!" Yao Si nodded in agreement. After enjoying a moment of silence, his mind became active again, and he asked excitedly, "Oh, yeah, I saw an interesting question the other day. If you failed an exam and had to take it home for your parents to sign, which of your sisters would you ask to sign?"

Ji Wenxue thought about it seriously, "Sister Ying Zhao is my first choice!" She looks very gentle, and she will definitely not curse or hit anyone even if she fails.

Yao Si reached out and high-fived Ji Wenxue with a smile, "Heroes, we think alike!" He adjusted his posture and continued to ask, "If Sister Ying Zhao wasn't here, who would you choose?"

"Well... let's go, Sister Wei." Ji Wenxue said as she looked up to see Yao Si's reaction. "Anyway, I'll only go to Sister Wan Di if I get a perfect score."

Yao Si's eyes widened in surprise, and the two of them once again clapped their hands in agreement and smiled knowingly.

When a person's words carry weight, whether it is praise or criticism, they will have a multiplied effect in the heart.

The late-night meeting ended and everyone went home to sleep. The next morning was still the same routine work.

However, Ji Wenxue sprained her ankle and couldn't go out, so she stayed at home to recuperate, while the others continued to go out to look for energy stones.

Ji Wenxue couldn't sit still in the house, so she simply went out and basked in the sun for a while. She felt warm and comfortable.

When they opened their eyes, they saw vast expanses of land. They had finally discovered the cause of the problem after cultivating and planting it for the past few days. The seeds were fine, and the land was fine too.

However, because the land here grows at a different rate, the crops that grow there synthesize a substance that the human body cannot digest, which is why everyone is poisoned.

Ji Wenxue squatted down and grabbed a handful of soil, watching the fine earth slip through her fingers. The soft surface was dry and still warm from the sun, while the lower layer was damp with a chill. Such good land, yet it couldn't grow anything. What a shame. But then she thought again, it was their fault. Why hadn't their bodies evolved organs capable of digesting this kind of material? Otherwise, with the land's current rate of production, they wouldn't have to worry about food and drink.

Alas, Ji Wenxue sighed, wondering how things were going with Sister Wanti and the others, and whether there was any good news.

Because of her mobility issues, Ji Wenxue helped the sisters in the construction room take out the trash. She held a large pile of trash and asked, "Where should we throw this away? Is it the kind that contains hazardous materials?"

"Just throw it anywhere in that pile of grass over there. It's just water and stuff, there's no harmful substances in it, don't worry!"

"Okay." Ji Wenxue agreed, carrying her things and going out, heading towards the green meadow over there. This place was initially flooded and bare, but in just a few days, so much grass had grown.

Ji Wenxue put the things down one by one, and after arranging them, she stood up and went back to the laboratory to see if anyone needed help.

"Help? Not yet. Wenxue, you can sit down and wait for a while." Ji Wenxue sat down as she was told, then stretched out her left hand to take a round glass plate with a little bit of soil in it.

"This sample, Wen Xue, just wait until the number on the machine next to you reaches zero and put it in."

"Okay." Ji Wenxue held the glass plate and watched the numbers on the instrument next to her gradually decrease. After a moment of random thought, the instrument returned to zero. Ji Wenxue put the glass plate in. After putting it in, she realized that her fingers had accidentally gotten dirty while throwing away the garbage. She wondered if this would affect the test results.

I quickly ran over and told them what happened. After everyone comforted me and I knew everything was fine, I just waited for the result.

"It's okay. We have seven backups of each sample. We can just treat yours as a new sample. It won't be a problem."

"Yes, they say that people are shaped by the local climate and soil. We haven't tested the soil there yet, so testing it in advance would be helpful to us."

Everyone's comfort made Ji Wenxue relax a little, but her eyes were still fixed on the instrument, the number on it was about to return to zero.

The results finally came out, and a lot of data immediately popped up on the big screen in front of him. As he looked at it, the man suddenly stood up and said, "No!"

"What's wrong?" A familiar voice came from outside the door.