Chapter 55: The Significance of the Desert Dungeon

Chapter 55: Chapter 55: The Significance of the Desert Dungeon

[Plant Growth Liquid: A top-quality Growth Liquid specialized for plant growth. It can accelerate a plant from the seedling stage to maturity.

Additionally, vegetation treated with the Plant Growth Liquid will not die unless destroyed by a natural disaster.

The Plant Growth Liquid expires in 12 hours. Please use promptly.]

Wang Peng drew closer. "The water from the Medicine Lake can be used to make Plant Growth Liquid, but what does that have to do with the instance? The Medicine Lake wants the alchemy table... surely it doesn’t want to sacrifice itself to save some plants, right?"

Shi Zhile’s eyes lit up. Just as she was about to speak, she saw the corners of Jiang Yuxing’s mouth curve upward.

"You’ve figured it out again, haven’t you?"

Jiang Yuxing raised an eyebrow. "Go on."

Shi Zhile didn’t hold back, asking directly, "What’s the one thing a desert lacks most?"

Wang Peng: "Water!"

Jiang Yu: "Water?"

Chuyi: "Water!"

Jiang Jing: "Water?"

Shi Zhile: "...And besides water, what else does it lack?"

Jiang Yu and Chuyi: "Animals?"

Wang Peng: "People?"

Stroking his chin, Jiang Jing had a sudden realization. "It’s plants!"

"That’s right, plants. Deserts lack water, so very few plants other than cacti can survive there. And yet, there are tons of plants growing around the Medicine Lake.

I don’t know if you noticed, but there’s a huge variety of plant species right next to the Medicine Lake. The vegetated area is small, though, which means the lake is the only reason those plants can survive.

The Medicine Lake keeps pushing players to find the alchemy table. The alchemy table can make Plant Growth Liquid, and plants grown with that liquid won’t die unless a natural disaster hits them."

It was a cycle—the Medicine Lake’s attempt to save itself.

The desert is arid. The area around the Medicine Lake, the only source of water, is covered in vegetation. As the plants absorb its water, the lake is bound to dry up one day.

As long as the desert’s condition doesn’t improve, the Medicine Lake will never be at peace.

Only when the desert is filled with plants—plants that can sustain themselves by drawing up groundwater with their roots—can the island’s environment gradually be transformed.

The hint about the water in the undercurrent, that it was drinkable, was telling her that there were abundant water resources beneath the desert.

Life and death. The "life" referred to the water in the undercurrent. If you only focused on the water in the Medicine Lake, then once it dried up, only "death" would remain in this instance.

’As for "meeting all day yet never seeing each other"... that probably means the Medicine Lake’s water is constantly draining away, touching the undercurrent in the process, but the undercurrent can’t flow upward to replenish the lake.’

Whether it was for the lake to save itself or for the good of the whole island, this was the ultimate purpose of the desert instance.

[Instance Hint: Player "Contentment Brings Happiness" has unlocked 80% of the instance progress. When the instance progress reaches 100%, the instance will officially end.]

The message appeared pinned to the top of their panels, confirming that all of Shi Zhile’s reasoning so far had been correct.

She had explained it all very clearly, but the problem remained: they had been tainted by the lake water and couldn’t leave the undercurrent.

The underground river was a one-way trip in; they had to figure out another way to get out.

Wang Peng reached out and swiped at the panel on the alchemy table, but the moment his hand made contact, the panel vanished.

He gave an awkward chuckle. "It was hot back at the volcano, so I don’t have a single plant on me, let alone any herbs.

The Medicine Lake doesn’t actually expect us to cover the entire island with plants, does it? Where would we even get that many seeds?"

At the mention of seeds, all eyes slowly turned toward Shi Zhile.

Shi Zhile’s expression was placid. "Instead of crop seeds, I think planting trees in the desert would be better. After all, crops have to be harvested once they’re ripe, but trees will just keep on growing."

She looked at Jiang Jing, who was the most interested in food. "What do you think?"

Jiang Jing agreed. "That’s true. It’s too wasteful to plant crops in an instance, and we wouldn’t be able to harvest them when they ripen anyway."

Jiang Yuxing was still reclining. He lifted his empty fishing rod and stored it in his pack. "We don’t have any saplings, so seeds are our only hope."

He tapped the arm of his deck chair. "Right now, we need to focus on making more Plant Growth Liquid and then, once we’re sure the sun is up, get out of this undercurrent."

Wang Peng scratched his head. "Uh... if the water with the unknown properties is on the surface, what was the point of you having us come down here, Brother Nan?"

Jiang Yuxing fell silent.

’He couldn’t just tell them he’d brought them down here specifically to get the alchemy table, could he!’

Chuyi clapped Wang Peng on the shoulder. "It was to hide from the other players, obviously. There were so many of them by the lake. How long would it have taken for just the five of us to fight our way through?

If we hadn’t come down to the lakebed, we’d never have known the undercurrent’s water was different from the Medicine Lake’s. And without that knowledge, we couldn’t have figured out the point of this instance."

Wang Peng snorted with laughter. He pushed Chuyi’s arm away and ducked behind Jiang Jing and his sister.

"See? I told you you have a thing for Brother Nan, but you wouldn’t admit it. I barely said two words and you’re already jumping to his defense. If that ain’t love, I don’t know what is."

Shi Zhile nodded to herself. "Ah, so that’s why~"

As Chuyi started chasing Wang Peng, Jiang Yuxing broke his silence.

He sat up and looked at Shi Zhile, his face impassive. "So that’s why what?"

"That explains why he..."

’So that’s why he was so hostile toward me! He must have thought I wasn’t keeping a proper distance from Jiang Yuxing!’

She folded up her deck chair and went to stand beside Jiang Yu.

"It’s nothing. Let’s get to making the Plant Growth Liquid."

Making the Growth Liquid required seeds. Shi Zhile had successfully made some before using chili seeds, which meant the recipe wasn’t too particular about the type of seed used.

All her seeds were stored in her basement; she had barely any left in her backpack.

She looked at the Growth Liquid in her hand, her thoughts turning to the corn and wheat in her Planting Space.

’Maybe I can use this to ripen the plants in the space, then use the resulting harvest as seeds to make more Growth Liquid.’

She voiced her idea.

Jiang Jing readily agreed. "It’s too late to get different seeds now. This is our only option."

Jiang Yuxing gave a silent nod of approval, and the others agreed as well.

Holding the two bottles of Growth Liquid, Shi Zhile brought everyone into her Planting Space.

[Planting Space Alert: Multiple life forms detected. Species: Human ×5. Commence devouring?]

"No!"

The thirteen-square-meter space instantly felt crowded. Shi Zhile crouched down and evenly poured one bottle of Growth Liquid over the patch of corn.

After a moment, the waist-high corn stalks shot up, growing taller and thicker as cobs began to form.

As the ears of corn swelled, the stalks turned from vibrant green to yellow, finally becoming dry husks that crumbled at the slightest touch.

The whole process was astonishingly fast, going from seedling to full maturity in just a few minutes.

Shi Zhile looked at the last bottle of Growth Liquid and, without a second thought, poured it onto the wheat patch.

In the blink of an eye, the wheat was ripe.

Looking at the small, golden fields, Shi Zhile felt it was a sweet burden.

"Let’s divide up the work. The corn needs to be picked and the kernels stripped, and the wheat needs to be reaped and threshed."

She pulled two sickles from a corner, keeping one for herself and handing the other to Jiang Yu. Then she pointed at the corn.

"There aren’t enough sickles to go around, so you all can go pick corn in the cornfield. Any objections?"

The corn stalks were tall, and the dried-out leaves were prickly and made you itch. Shi Zhile had no desire to endure that torment.

The four men said nothing. After covering themselves from head to toe, they got to work.