Chapter 21: Level 2 Flowers Almost Wiped Out
"This can't go on."
As Suanni spoke, it slapped the red mist beside it with its paw: "System, think of a way."
System: [That's because there's no other way.]
At that moment, a stream of water poured straight down from mid-air, filling the small depression in the white sand.
These sands are extremely absorbent. Even though water is being poured into them continuously, they will be completely absorbed if the flow of water slows down even slightly.
The palm-sized red fish at the bottom of the pit could only lie sideways, but fortunately, the small puddle of water was enough for it to barely breathe and prevent it from suffocating.
Suanni: "I should have brought back a basin, or even a pot would have been fine."
Upon hearing the word "pot," the red fish, which had been on the verge of death, immediately jumped up, and its eyes stared intently at the Suanni.
The Henggong fish transforms into a fish at sunrise and a human at sunset. Suanni knew this habit, but he never expected that this rule would still apply even after arriving at such a strange spatial rift.
There wasn't even a sun in the crack; the thing overhead was just an illusion!
The Suanni found the fish's habits really troublesome, while the system watched its points balance dwindle, its heart bleeding.
Save your breath. Don't you know that cross-dimensional items are automatically destroyed? Otherwise, why would our system go to so much trouble developing the marketplace feature?
Things cannot travel freely between different planes, otherwise creatures from higher planes would have been rampaging everywhere long ago.
Even a creature like the Suanni would have to seal itself with several layers of seals before it could enter this spatial rift, otherwise it could easily cause spatial disorder and injure itself.
Suanni: "I know, I was just saying it casually, did you really believe me?"
One sentence almost caused the system to crash again.
Before they could even start arguing, Xiao Jiu exited the online store and shook his head: "No, no."
The system immediately let out a wail.
It is now stuck in place and unable to "smuggle" anything out, so Xiao Jiu's mall has become the only possible channel to exchange for water containers.
However, while Xiao Jiu Mall has a wide variety of items, they are ridiculously expensive!
Their points are limited, and the items they can exchange for are too small to hold a fish, while those that can hold a fish are too expensive. They can't afford to exchange for them, so they can only keep exchanging for water to replenish the pit.
Water is cheap, but they only have a little over three thousand points in total, which is not enough to withstand such guzzling.
Suanni asked, "What about that strange bead? Wasn't it supposed to be able to produce some kind of spring water? Can't we use it?"
The system sighed: [It needs to be in a "suitable environment," and it also says the spring is "sacred spring water," so it's impossible for it to be activated under these blood-mist-filled conditions.]
Everyone was suddenly stumped.
Thankfully, a few minutes later, the sunflowers they had been longing for bloomed.
The crop has been detected as ripe; please proceed to harvest it.
The system instantly sprang to life, as if it could see the points beckoning to it.
Previously, to make Henggongyu more comfortable, the small pit for pouring water was dug on the hill covered by cold light. This location is quite a distance from the farmland, so the system cannot speak in Xiao Jiu's mind.
It was in a hurry to get over, but it also needed to stay here to add water for the flounder. In its haste, it didn't notice the commotion around it at all.
"Moon Spring" is a white pearl-colored bead that floats a bit high. After Xiao Jiu and the others realized that none of them could reach it, they let it continue to float like that.
At this moment, it hangs in the sky like a miniature moon.
For the demonic beasts, the cold light felt particularly comfortable on their bodies, but at this moment, both the Henggongyu and the Suanni gradually became restless.
The horizontal fish was lying on its side, barely managing to breathe. This position was uncomfortable for the fish, but it was tolerable for him.
His old injuries were severe and would take time to heal. His scales were uneven, missing pieces here and there. So after becoming a fish, he tried to stay still to avoid his tender, scaleless flesh scraping against the sand.
But at this moment, he seemed not to feel any pain, and just kept twisting his body desperately at the bottom of the pit, not even noticing that sand was embedded in his flesh.
The scales of the flounder are hard, and the sound it makes when it rubs against the sand is not pleasant at all; it sounds like scraping rough ice with a hard object.
The Suanni, crouching three meters away, was so annoyed by the sound that it kept twitching its ears and said irritably, "Can you please stop moving? It's so noisy."
Henggongyu was unreasonable.
The squeaking continued, growing louder and louder, making the Suanni's fur stand on end.
Finally, in a split second, he turned sharply and charged at the flounder: "I told you to shut up!"
The Suanni was incredibly fast; in the blink of an eye, its scimitar-like claws were already only centimeters away from its target.
"Bang!"
The sharp claws sent a sharp pain through the Suanni, bringing it to its senses for a moment.
Only then did he realize that his claws were pressed against a bluish-gray arm, and because he was still unconsciously exerting force, the tips of his claws had just pierced the other person's skin.
The Suanni immediately pulled its front paws back as if it had been electrocuted, dragging Xiao Jiu forward with it.
Fortunately, Xiao Jiu kept her back straight and didn't collapse completely, otherwise Heng Gongyu might have suffered further injuries.
The commotion startled the flounder awake, and the pain that had been blocked out returned, causing it to straighten its tail in agony.
System: [Got it!]
The system explained in Xiao Jiu's mind while writing with the red mist.
The problem turned out to be with that mutated sunflower.
The once vibrant sunflower has been transformed, its petals now tightly joined together, resembling a giant semi-circular dome facing directly at the sun.
These flowers are different from the previous morning glories and pansies. The system identified them as level 2 crops, which is probably why these mutated sunflowers have developed special abilities.
In the center of the flower, the orange-yellow stamen, resembling that of a sea anemone, pulsates slowly in the sunlight. This pulsation generates an invisible energy wave that can have a negative impact on living organisms.
It's somewhat similar to prolonged exposure to low-frequency noise.
The system had heard Suanni talk about human games before, and knew that Suanni would probably understand this description. Sure enough, even though Suanni was still swishing its tail rapidly, it didn't make a sound to interrupt despite being so frustrated.
The system then continued: "The host has already removed the flower. This effect will disappear in a little while. Just bear with it a little longer."
Just as the system said, a dozen seconds later, the Suanni's tail, which had been slamming against the ground with thuds, slowed down in both force and speed.
Seeing this, Xiao Jiu said, "Doggy, woof sleep, grow."
The system provided the following translation: [The host said: After digging for flowers for a while, the gluttonous beast suddenly fell asleep. Sleeping makes you grow.]
It added: "[Host, this is to prevent you from worrying. The gluttonous beast wasn't affected by the flower at all; it's perfectly safe for it to sleep within the farmland. Don't worry.]"
The Suanni simply hummed in response.
His muscles were tense, his cat-like face was wrinkled, and his whiskers were bristling, clearly showing that he was trying hard to suppress the anger aroused by the aftershocks of that energy.
By the time the Suanni finally calmed down, the red fish in the sandpit was already unconscious. The fish was only able to open its mouth and move its gills, barely managing to keep breathing.
After all, the Henggongyu has already been recognized as a pet. It's just that it can't be upgraded and trained yet because it hasn't been named. Checking the pet's status is still a piece of cake.
[Name: Horizontal Gourami, Health: 5%]
Normal pets do not display health status, but rather mood, hunger, and level-up potential. Only when a pet is severely injured and near death will it display only health status.
The system looked at the bright red 5% and felt utterly exhausted.
It was still at 10% before!
A pet's health can be replenished by external means if it is above 60%, but if it is below 60%, it can only recover on its own. However, the biggest advantage is that it will not be reset to zero. If it drops to 1%, it will be locked immediately, and the pet with a sliver of health will be returned to the pet space.
As for self-recovery, each pet has different potential and aptitude, and the upper and lower limits of recovery speed can differ by more than ten times.
Unfortunately, the flounder happens to be the type that recovers the slowest.
The system originally planned to have the Horizontal Fish buff the farmland and increase its efficiency to earn points, but now it seems that the key is to avoid growing things like the Mutant Sunflower that provide debuffs.
The flounder can't withstand another wave of damage.
The system sighed: Never mind, let's take it slow.
The system named the debuff on the mutated sunflower "Disruption," and its influence was so strong that even after the flower was gone, the effect lasted for a full ten minutes before it completely disappeared.
Strangely, half an hour passed and the Suanni still hadn't moved.
Xiao Jiu was earnestly discussing planting flowers with the system when she suddenly noticed a brown object brushing past her hand.
That's the tail of the Suanni.
The tuft of hair at the end of the tail, like the tip of a soft brush, gently swept across Xiao Jiu's forearm, right where the small hole had been poked.
Xiao Jiu turned around in the direction the tail had gone and saw Suanni lying on the sand like a giant sea cucumber.
The Suanni's fluffy tail stretched straight back, its tip touching Xiao Jiu's fingers: "If you want to play, that's not impossible..."
Suanni has a loud voice; it never usually lowers its voice like this.
Xiao Jiu tilted her head and looked at it, then tentatively reached out and gently grabbed the tip of the tail.
The Suanni immediately trembled and its whole body stiffened, but it still couldn't retract its tail.
When Suanni first ran into this spatial rift, Xiao Jiu was toyed with by its tail all night. At that time, Xiao Jiu's joints were very stiff and its movements were slow. It was so toyed with that it could pounce around but never touched the other's tail again.
This time, the Suanni stopped dodging, and Xiao Jiu grabbed it and stroked it repeatedly, using the same technique as when petting the Taotie.
But a tail can't compare to the fur on the body, and the Suanni couldn't resist for long before it yanked its tail away.
The Suanni twitched its ears uncomfortably: "Alright."
When he turned his head, he saw Xiao Jiu squatting on the ground with her eyes downcast.
Zombies are supposed to be emotionless, but Suanni managed to detect a sense of loss in Xiao Jiu.
The Suanni snorted and turned its head back.
The brown, fluffy tail quietly peeked out, swayed lightly in the air twice, and then awkwardly slipped into Xiao Jiu's hand.
The system was making sarcastic remarks from the sidelines, the Suanni was throwing cat punches at the lines of text, and Xiao Jiu was playing with its cat tail...
None of them noticed that deep within the bottomless crack, the red mist suddenly churned.
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