Chapter 406: The Encounter of Number Four Xiu Ye

Hearing Number Two Xiu Ye's description, Li Ban sighed.

"Sure enough. Common branches, common leaves, common colors, all mixed in with other plants in the most hidden places. Even if someone saw it, they would never imagine it was the prototype of a Mutated Element."

"Yes. Yun Province has many mountains and dense foliage, including exotic flowers and rare herbs. Such ordinary vines are easily overlooked."

They arrived at the place where Number One Xiu Ye remembered leaving a clone.

It was a small town.

Unfortunately, Li Ban circled the area inside and out twice without finding a single ice crystal.

"Either your clone already left, or someone destroyed the ice crystal here."

After all, the ice crystals in the Nihility State could be easily shattered with spells.

Li Ban thought to himself, 'Could it be Cat Girl and the others who destroyed the ice crystals?'

However, aside from Cat Girl, any of the other Priests who had entered the Nihility State over the years might have broken them.

Anyone who had never seen an ice crystal before would be at least somewhat curious about what they were.

"Thinking about it that way, even if you left many clones in the Nihility State, I'm afraid few are left by now."

Li Ban knew that once a Xiu Ye clone was freed from the ice crystal, she would quickly perish.

Other Priests lacked his Power of the Star River, making it highly unlikely they could preserve Xiu Ye's consciousness.

Even Li Ban could only prolong her time; he couldn't help her truly live on.

They spent the next few days visiting four other places.

Some of these places had no ice crystals at all, while others had ice crystals but no Xiu Ye inside.

In the end, they only recovered Number Three Xiu Ye.

Number Three Xiu Ye must have been one of the last clones to hold out. She was even more silent than Number One; after grasping the situation, she hardly spoke.

She had watched Yun Province fall. Even though she tried desperately to stop it, she had helplessly sunken into darkness.

Waking up again to learn that Yun Province had become the Nihility State, and that her own life was nearing its end, left her utterly disheartened.

Even the lively Number Two Xiu Ye was influenced by her mood and became somewhat subdued.

On the contrary, Number One Xiu Ye became increasingly proactive, constantly discussing the local situation with Li Ban.

When they arrived at yet another small town, Li Ban once again found dried ground dotted with tiny round holes in a corner at the edge of the settlement.

"Another spot."

This time, however, he made a new discovery.

Li Ban dug open this patch of ground and surprisingly found some residual withered roots at the very bottom.

He didn't put the roots into his Cubic Space.

This could be the prototype of a Mutated Element.

He didn't want to bring danger into his own small world.

Li Ban took out a small bowl and scooped some soil from his Cubic Space into it.

He buried the withered roots inside, watered them a bit, and buried a Spiritual Rhinoceros Fruit next to them.

"Soil, moisture, and nutrients—all set. Oh, right."

Li Ban cast a gleam of starlight above the soil.

"And here is the light."

Holding the small bowl and keeping it illuminated with starlight, he continued to travel through the Nihility State.

Walking out of the small town where he made this discovery, Li Ban suddenly noticed a large patch of mud on the ground.

When he stepped on it, the mud squirmed twice, as if there were living creatures inside.

"There's spiritual rhinoceros residue here. Did someone fight using spells in this area? At this depth, has the mud already started actively attacking people?"

Li Ban bent over to inspect the mud on the ground. He watched as a lump of mud slowly popped its head out, then, as if lacking strength, collapsed back down.

"Where exactly does this mud come from? Let's keep going deeper."

Li Ban didn't deliberately try to rendezvous with Cat Girl and the others; he continued advancing in the direction Xiu Ye had pointed out.

He arrived at the foot of a mountain. Following Xiu Ye's guidance, he climbed halfway up and discovered a cave.

The cave was extremely deep. After taking numerous twists and turns, he entered the belly of the mountain range.

Here, he found another ice crystal. Right at its base was a patch of dry land dotted with holes.

Li Ban first sliced open the ice crystal, revealing another Priest Xiu Ye inside.

When she opened her eyes and saw Li Ban, surprisingly, she wasn't as confused as the other three Priest Xiu Yes had been upon waking.

Staring at Li Ban, she shouted anxiously, "Its target is me!"

Right at that moment, the small bowl in Li Ban's hands exploded.

A slender, pale green vine lunged at the Xiu Ye before him as if it had gone mad.

Li Ban's starlight gave chase, freezing the vine just before it could touch Number Four Xiu Ye.

Then, with a sweep of his sleeve, he drew Number Four Xiu Ye into his Cubic Space.

Once Number Four Xiu Ye vanished, the restless vine lost its target and settled back down.

In the Nihility State's dry spiritual rhinoceros air, the tender green stem quickly turned yellow, withered rapidly, and reverted into its original dead root.

The meager nutrients Li Ban had given it earlier were completely consumed in that short instant.

However, he hadn't come up entirely empty-handed.

Li Ban uncurled his left hand; resting in his palm was a small, withering green flower bud.

He continuously fed spiritual rhinoceros into the flower bud to ensure it wouldn't wither. Then, he gently crushed open the outer layer with his fingers, revealing some tiny white fluff inside.

It was a type of fluff that didn't entirely match either the white fluff from the Recycling Station or the Fluffy Dandelion.

Li Ban took out a jade box and placed this not-yet-withered white fluff inside.

When he put the white fluff away, the rest of the flower bud, lacking a continuous flow of spiritual rhinoceros, crumbled into dry fragments.

Li Ban kept the jade box close to his body and continued infusing spiritual rhinoceros into it.

Sensing the spiritual rhinoceros, the bud's fluff tried fiercely to drill into Li Ban's body right through the jade box. But since it was sealed, all its struggles were in vain.

'Did it sense that Xiu Ye is inside my Cubic Space, so it wants to get in too? Sure enough, the remains of a Mutated Element are immensely powerful.'

Only then did Li Ban have the time to ask Number Four Xiu Ye about the situation.

He had already transmitted the information cluster to Number Four Xiu Ye just moments ago.

While Li Ban had been dealing with the flower bud and fluff, Number One Xiu Ye had also answered some of Number Four's questions.

"You're saying the true target of these Mutated Elements is you?"

Number Four Xiu Ye's gaze was sharp. "I am one of their targets. They overturned the rules within Yun Province and deliberately held back their speed to lure me over."

"Although these vines grew covertly, after finding traces of them in several abnormal locations, we realized they were special."

"But when the other Priests approached, they showed no extra reaction. They could guess that these vines had already elementized, but they had never seen anything like it. Because I used to be a herbal merchant and was very familiar with the plants in Yun Province, whenever they encountered abnormal plant elements, they would call me over to investigate."

"This vine suddenly sprang up just as I approached it. It sprayed out a massive amount of white fluff; I dodged most of it, but a small amount still stuck to me."

Li Ban listened intently. He knew that this time, they had finally found a Xiu Ye clone who held more information.