Chapter 57 The Big Guy’s Treasure (Part 1)
By evening, they had returned with a full load. Yun Xiang and Xie Yu had little use for the medicinal plants, so they gave them all to Jin Jiaren. Chu Xu kept some to see if they could be used as an ingredient. The spiritual plants were useful to all four of them, so they divided some among themselves, giving the rest to Chu Xu.
The lumber was left to Yun Xiang, as an investment in the finished product. Everyone divided it up briefly and went back to rest. The next day, the four of them set out a little after five o'clock. They unexpectedly ran into Xie Yuxin, Bai Yan, and the others. They were chatting and laughing as if nothing had happened. It seemed they had made quite a haul.
The two sides tacitly pretended that the other did not exist and lived in peace for a while.
"The map points to this area. The vegetation is very lush and blocks out the sun. It's right here, there's no doubt about it." Jin Jiamin carefully compared the map and finalized the location.
"Wow, who would have thought there was a treasure hidden here."
"It is a recognized fact in the interstellar world that Maozhi has no collectible materials." Yun Xiang also looked emotional.
The more prosperous the plants, the longer their growth and flowering periods, and they basically cannot bear fruit. This is simply because their growth period is long and they consume more nutrients. Other plants, such as nutritious food ingredients and spiritual plants, cannot compete and rarely grow here.
"Go in and take a look!" Xie Yu led the way, and Chu Xu followed behind.
Although the lush forest was a bit difficult to navigate, most of the mutant plants were not aggressive, so they were able to travel relatively smoothly and expected to reach their destination soon. Clearly, it was a bit premature to say this.
"Hiss--" Yun Xiang felt a sharp pain in her calf. She lifted up her trouser leg and saw a ten-centimeter cut. The cut was caused by a very common saw-toothed grass.
"This leaf is sucking blood!" Ever since Xie Yu told them that the mutant animals were evolving at full speed, she started to pay attention as soon as she entered the forest, but she didn't expect to get into trouble again.
"The leaves have become greener and the plant has grown taller." Jin Jiamin also squatted down to study.
"Let's go ahead and take a look." After walking forward for a while, they discovered several times that some of the originally ordinary mutated plants began to attack directly, some deliberately teased them with branches and leaves, threw fruits at them, and some even made tiny noises.
"It seems the mutant plants are also evolving, and they're evolving towards attack. They seem to be playing with us now, but they're probably still in their ignorant stages. Maybe they'll evolve into intelligent ones in the future."
"This is not a good outcome."
"Time is running out, and we need to prepare well for the next few years."
"Yeah." While chatting, they finally arrived at the place provided by Tiger. It was supposed to be a journey of more than an hour, but it took more than three hours. Their plans were completely disrupted.
"Let's split up and look around. Maolin is still safe now anyway." Yun Xiang's proposal was unanimously approved by the three people, and the four of them immediately dispersed.
"I smell a fragrance! A very strong fragrance, come here quickly." Yun Xiang always seemed to be luckier than others when it came to finding supplies.
"This fragrance... Oh my god, there are so many Tianxiang fruits." There must be at least twenty of them. Chu Xu jumped excitedly and punched Xie Yu's shoulder. "Brother, this is reliable."
"That's right!" Xie Yu was not modest and accepted it with pleasure.
The osmanthus tree is about three meters tall, with lush, crisscrossing branches, laden with heavy fruit. The unripe fruit is green, while the ripe ones turn white. They pick the ripe ones first and leave the raw ones for the next visit, so they should be able to harvest again.
The saplings of the Tianxiang tree have no fragrance, but mature plants develop, becoming increasingly fragrant as they age, with the fragrance becoming even stronger when they bloom. However, the fruit they produce has no fragrance at all and tastes bland. If it weren't for its ability to restore energy, few would buy it, hence its persistently high market price.
Tianxiang Fruit is the primary ingredient in making Dali Pills. Jin Jiamin happened to have the supplementary ingredients, so the others gave most of the Tianxiang Fruit to Jin Jiamin, asking him to refine the medicine, leaving a small portion for emergencies. Dali Pills are more effective at restoring stamina than Tianxiang Fruit, and don't require any consuming. Having an alchemist around is truly a blessing.
Chu Xu rubbed his sore arms and neck and shoulders, then looked at Yun Xiang, who was moving very fast, easily and nimbly, and was far ahead of the others. He couldn't help but sigh again that they couldn't beat him, no matter how many times they tried.
That shameless Xie Yu was actually leisurely holding a basket under the tree to help. What a lucky guy! The more Chu Xu thought about it, the more sad he felt. He also wanted to have a fiancée. Hey, let's find a woman first.
"Where's the next place?" Yun Xiang wiped the sweat from her forehead and sat down to rest. Alas, she hadn't expected these three to be so useless. They couldn't even win the picking competition three to one. They were so useless.
Yun Xiang felt disgusted yet strangely relieved. She felt like she was somewhat useful. Honestly, she was the weakest of the four of them, and her knowledge was inferior to theirs. She had a talisman-making skill, but it was still developing, so whether it would be strong or weak in the future was unknown. In short, she was a drag, and this feeling was terrible.
"Youyou, drink some water! You've worked hard!" The most attentive person was Xie Yu, and Chu Xu and Jin Jiamin couldn't stand looking at him.
"There's a path ahead. Let's go and take a look. The map shows it's right ahead." The path was blocked by lush vegetation, and it took them a while to find it. When they followed the path to the end, they saw a towering rocky mountain.
In the center of the mountain lay a narrow tunnel, about two meters high and 90 centimeters wide, suitable for only one person at a time. The four of them entered one after another, Chu Xu leading the way again, Xie Yu covering the rear. The tunnel was pitch black, and the shadows cast by the energy lamps they held were reflected on the rocks on either side, creating a playful atmosphere that piqued Yun Xiang's interest.
Huh? Yun Xiang stopped and brought the energy lamp close to the rock wall. "Look, is this a water-condensing stone?" Yun Xiang had only seen water-condensing stones in books. Water-condensing stones have a rocky outer shell, and a soft, elastic protective membrane inside, encasing a viscous liquid.
The liquid ranged from white to light blue to dark blue, with the bluer the better. Water-condensing stones came in various sizes, with the largest known to hold 60 milliliters of liquid. The one here seemed even larger than the one mentioned in the book, and all four of them were delighted.
"With this treasure, I can practice making water-attributed magic weapons." Chu Xu touched it and couldn't let it go.
Refining materials like water-condensing stone, fire-attributed flame stone, wood-attributed bluestone wood, earth-attributed red flame sand, and gold-attributed golden marrow bone are all very expensive and often out of stock. Once they are on the market, they are immediately monopolized by large families or mercenary groups.
Most importantly, if one wanted to refine weapons with special properties, they had to add new materials to these, so these materials were extremely valuable. The water-condensing stone was not only useful as a refining material, but the liquid inside could also be extracted as energy fluid. Yun Xiang even planned to use it to create talismans.
Xie Yu and Jin Jiamin also have their own ideas, but everyone likes it very much.
(End of this chapter)
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