Chapter 3 Refining the Plant Spirit

Quan stood silent.

Li Erqiang was equally speechless.

“They just… left?” Erqiang could hardly believe it. Once he recovered, he puffed out his chest and declared, “See? I told you she wouldn’t dare. Quan, you were almost scared witless just now. Good thing you’d been drinking, running your mouth about all those supposedly grand scenes you’ve seen.”

Typical—wounds barely healed, and already he’s forgotten the pain!

Quan shot him a look of exasperation. “Save it. That woman’s a real menace. We’re lucky to walk away with our lives.”

“Seriously?” Erqiang was half-convinced. He’d been hanging around Quan and Wang Dazhu long enough to know Wang’s words weren’t worth a damn, but Quan wasn’t the type to talk big for no reason. If Quan said he’d seen real trouble before, it was probably true.

Erqiang trusted Quan’s judgment more than his own. A chill of dread crept through him and he waved his hand dismissively. “Forget it. Doesn’t matter if she’s for real or not, she’s gone anyway. But did you see what she ate just now? Looked just like a lotus root, and since there’s this huge lotus pond right here… Do you think it could be?”

The two exchanged glances. It was entirely possible.

Glancing at the lotus pond, both suddenly felt tempted. Whatever that woman had swallowed was clearly something valuable!

A minute later, the fragrant bank of the pond was missing two drunken fools.

Meanwhile, inside the shimmering, watery dungeon, two hapless souls had just wandered in.

A bloodcurdling scream echoed out, shaking the very heavens—then another shriek followed, perfectly in tune.

Riding her little electric scooter, Yu Yan couldn’t help but shudder. She looked back and, as expected, saw two fewer idiots on the riverbank. The last lucky thug was sneaking away, but after hearing those screams, he bolted even faster.

Yu Yan couldn’t decide whether to praise the guts of the two who’d entered the dungeon or mourn their misfortune. Once inside the “Silvered Waters” instance, making it out in one piece—no, even just alive—was no simple feat! Besides, she figured the new player grace period was nearly over; next would come the three-day adaptation phase.

A 3S-level dungeon running at ten percent power—just the thought was chilling.

All the illusory lotuses in the lake would soon grow roots, stems, and tender leaves, multiplying the dungeon’s power exponentially. Put simply, what once could only confuse your mind would soon be able to deal real harm.

Once the adaptation phase began, any creatures conjured by the illusion would be able to inflict genuine injuries.

For example, swords conjured by the lotus lake could now cut you, make you bleed. The electric fish in the mirage could shoot water jets that might pierce your body. Of course, at ten percent power, the 3S-level dungeon wasn’t yet hellish.

At worst, the blades might give you a minor cut.

Even a wound from the electric fish—if a person’s health were quantifiable—would only shave off maybe one percent, or even less.

But for someone inside the illusion, unable to distinguish fantasy from reality, the sensation of real bleeding would be terrifying. In their panic, the mere lake water could be their undoing.

This thought turned Yu Yan’s face pale. She twisted the throttle of her scooter, which was already at its maximum.

Sadly, the scooter was oblivious to its rider’s fear and crawled forward at its usual, leisurely pace.

Yu Yan sighed inwardly. Fine, during the grace period and first adaptation phase, the dungeon wouldn’t actively expand. Unless you were unlucky enough to fall in or stepped inside on your own, the dungeon was like a sleeping beast—no threat at all. If she had to move slowly, so be it. She was safe for now.

But then—

A quarter of an hour later, Yu Yan lay hidden among the reeds, wracked with pain as if her bones were breaking and her skin being flayed—she could have wept. She hadn’t expected that refining the plant spirit would be a thousand times more agonizing than she’d ever imagined.

In her previous life, she’d never had such luck—she’d never obtained anything as precious as a plant spirit, let alone a twelfth-grade celestial illusion lotus. She hadn’t even had a chance at the lowest fourth-grade plant spirit. She’d survived in the dungeon world by relying on a bloodthirsty vine.

It was only by chance, after acquiring a large piece of fifth-grade red-tailed stork meat and refining it, that she’d gained fire abilities.

With her hard-won sixth-grade bloodthirsty vine and fire powers, Yu Yan barely scraped her way into the intermediate ranks of enhanced fighters—a mediocre position at best. She hadn’t even managed to protect her own daughter, Yun Duo’er, who died early in the dungeon world.

As for herself, after three years of desperate struggle, she perished in the A-level dungeon “Golden Ravine Forest.”

Recalling all this, Yu Yan felt her current pain was nothing.

This time, with a twelfth-grade celestial plant spirit, she would protect her daughter with her own strength! Perhaps she’d even get a chance to see her parents, her brother and sister, and that man who had cared for her so tenderly before the dungeon world had come.

Thinking of that gentle figure, hope welled up in Yu Yan’s heart, soothing her pain.

Fortunately, the plant spirit didn’t begin refining the moment she’d swallowed it. It only started acting up midway, as her scooter passed a dense stand of reeds by the riverbank.

The tall, thick reeds completely concealed her. Even if someone passed by, they’d have no idea there was anyone hidden within, much less harbor any ill intent.

Yu Yan could focus entirely on absorbing the plant spirit’s energy.

She had no idea how much time passed before the pain finally eased, leaving her feeling as if she’d just been pulled from the water. She caught her breath and tried to sit up, but was hit by a wave of agony even more intense than before.

Unable to withstand it, Yu Yan’s vision went black and she fainted.

The sun was setting.

A few egrets, oblivious to the coming disaster, stood poised in the water, watching for fish, darting their heads down from time to time. In three days, when the dungeon expanded, even this tranquil reedbed would be lost.

One egret, clutching a finger-length fish in its beak, flew away toward its remembered nest. The others, having caught nothing, either took off or stubbornly stayed to try their luck.

Yu Yan, just regaining consciousness, watched this scene in a daze—until the egret with the fish suddenly vanished into thin air, having flown straight into a wind-element dungeon.

After the arrival of the dungeon world, these instances appeared with no pattern. They could show up anywhere: elevators, treetops, rooftops, lotus ponds, bathrooms—anywhere imaginable.

If Yu Yan hadn’t spent three years navigating this area, knowing every inch, she wouldn’t have dared to be so bold—riding her little scooter with nothing but a lifeline rope to explore a devilish instance like “Silvered Waters.”

Luckily, the operation was a success. Her luck had soared—she’d become a plant spirit enhancer!

Yu Yan glanced at the spot where the egret disappeared, her eyes narrowing thoughtfully.