Сhарtеr 15: Тhе Spirit Sрring Sрасe Aсknowledges Its Mаstеr, Thе Wоndrоus Usе оf Cоrрsе Grass
From nоw оn, she hаd no intention оf follоwing the plot.
Тhosе who hаrm оthers will ultimatеly harm themsеlvеs.
Sinсе Sun Mingxuе, Не Sоng, and Li Dong wаnted tо set her uр, she would lеt them eхperienсе thе feеling оf being relentlеssly bittеn tо death bу a third-stagе cоrрsе-transfоrmed mutant dоg.
Mo Qiаnqiаn glаnced back. As she had antiсiрated, the cоrрse-transformеd mutаnt dog was violently ramming the concrete slab she had smeared with blood.
She estimated that slab wouldn’t hold for much longer.
Let Sun Mingxue and the other two have fun with that corpse-transformed mutant dog. She wasn’t sticking around.
Mo Qianqian turned and quickly walked away.
She had to move fast. According to the plot, Ji Yunting would soon shake off the two zombified mutated beasts and come looking for them.
In the original story, when Ji Yunting, Liu Yu, and Yang Yong found them, they were all injured.
It was only after finding the female lead that they used her blood to heal their wounds.
Now, since she hadn’t revealed her identity as a Healing-Type Awakened, Ji Yunting and the others naturally had no access to a Healing-Type Awakened’s blood for rapid recovery.
She wondered how they would handle the situation then.
But that had nothing to do with her anymore. To avoid further complications, she needed to put some distance between them and first get the Spirit Spring Space to acknowledge her as its master.
Besides the Spirit Spring Space, she had another plan in mind.
A plan to completely sever ties with Ji Yunting and ensure that he and his people wouldn’t dare to bother her again.
A slight smile touched Mo Qianqian’s lips as she thought of the Grim Reaper Mercenary Corps’ leader, Mu Shengzhou, who died young in the original story.
She wondered how that Captain Mu was doing now.
Her time in this Wasteland had been too short; she had no accumulated resources or foundation.
However, she could borrow influence.
With the Mechanical Arts in her possession, she had the bargaining chips to negotiate with any faction.
Originally, she hadn’t planned to take this step.
Borrowed influence is, after all, borrowed—not something of her own.
Her initial plan was to lay low, develop slowly and discreetly, build up her own forces, and then emerge to operate independently.
But Ji Yunting and the people in his team were increasingly irritating.
Now, they had their eyes on her hand crossbow, and she had even shot clean through He Song’s shoulder.
If she didn’t find a faction to back her up, she’d likely face plenty of trouble once they returned to the Safe Zone.
It wasn’t that she couldn’t handle these troubles herself, but when there was a simpler, more convenient method, why would she choose to make things difficult for herself?
She had only arrived in this Wasteland world yesterday and hadn’t had the chance to learn about the personalities and characters of the various faction leaders.
The only faction she could say she’d had any contact with was the Grim Reaper Mercenary Corps.
Remembering the scene where the Grim Reaper Mercenary Corps members left Ji Yunting speechless still made her want to laugh.
Her impression of the Grim Reaper Mercenary Corps wasn’t bad.
In the original novel, the descriptions of the Grim Reaper Mercenary Corps weren’t extensive.
Their leader, Mu Shengzhou, who died young, met his end during this very incident.
After Mu Shengzhou’s death, the Grim Reaper Mercenary Corps was gradually consumed by other factions, lingering on for a short while before completely disappearing from the novel’s narrative.
She didn’t know whether Mu Shengzhou would be dead or alive by the time she got the Spirit Spring Space to acknowledge her and went looking for them.
But it didn’t really matter. Mu Shengzhou’s fate wouldn’t affect her plan.
In fact, if Mu Shengzhou were dead, she might even be able to recruit some of his people for her own use.As her thoughts churned, Mo Qianqian’s pace did not slow.
The zombies she encountered along the way were all sniped down with her crossbow.
The roads in the urban ruins were filthy and chaotic.
Human remains and zombie limbs were scattered everywhere.
The ground, which should have been flat, had suffered some unknown disaster, with shattered and upturned concrete and asphalt fragments littered all around.
In the cracks between the debris, a pitch-black wild grass grew from the soil mixed with rotting corpses and zombie flesh.
This wild grass was called Corpse Grass, and it was highly toxic. Ingesting it would cause intestinal rupture and stomach decay, while applying it externally would lead to skin and flesh rotting.
However, Corpse Grass also had a significant use: when mashed and applied all over the body, it could mask the scent of a living person.
A person covered in Corpse Grass juice could stand among a horde of zombies without being attacked.
Many Wasteland adventurers knew of this use for Corpse Grass.
But few ever used it.
Because the corrosive nature of Corpse Grass was too strong. Although applying it all over the body could prevent zombie attacks, the infection caused by full-body ulceration was equally fatal.
Mo Qianqian crouched down and carefully dug up some Corpse Grass, placing it in the small cloth bag she carried on her back.
This stuff would be of great use to her later.
Twenty minutes later, she found a relatively intact apartment building. After clearing out the zombies on the second floor, she finally had the chance to deal with the matter of binding the Spirit Spring Space.
She took out the zodiac pendant she kept close to her body, steeled herself, bit her fingertip, and let her blood drip onto the pendant.
The emerald green jade was dotted with a speck of crimson, and against the backdrop of the dilapidated building, it appeared somewhat eerie.
The blood, which should have flowed along the jade’s texture to the ground, was slowly absorbed by the jade instead.
Once the blood was completely absorbed, Mo Qianqian immediately felt a faint connection between herself and the pendant in her hand.
With a thought, the pendant disappeared, and at the same time, she could sense a space in the void that was intimately linked to her.
At this moment, the excitement in Mo Qianqian’s heart soared to its peak!
The legendary Spirit Spring Space—now she possessed it too!
Her consciousness entered the Spirit Spring Space.
Just as described in the novel’s plot, the newly opened Spirit Spring Space was not large.
It was roughly the size of one cubic meter, with a small spring about the size of a porcelain bowl at its edge.
The space was small, and the spirit spring was tiny, but Mo Qianqian’s excitement was beyond words.
According to the plot, this was a space that could be upgraded.
The space could expand by absorbing zombie crystal cores.
Mo Qianqian counted the zombie crystal cores in her small cloth bag.
They were all the lowest-tier First-tier Crystal Cores, totaling 27.
With a thought, she stored twenty of the crystal cores into the space.
The moment the zombie crystal cores entered the space, they vanished without a trace, followed by a faint tremor in the space.
The originally one-cubic-meter space expanded outward in all directions.
When the expansion stopped, the entire space had grown larger.
Mo Qianqian had no measuring tools on hand, but by her estimate, the space had expanded to about three cubic meters.
This meant that twenty First-tier Zombie Crystal Cores had expanded the space by two cubic meters.
However, the size of the spirit spring remained unchanged, still only as large as a small porcelain bowl.
This situation was also mentioned in the novel’s plot.
The spirit spring needed to absorb the crystal cores of mutant beasts to expand—specifically, the crystal cores of living mutant beasts, not those of zombified mutated beasts.
The urban ruins were the territory of zombies and zombified mutated beasts.To hunt living mutant beasts, one must venture into the wilderness.
Mo Qianqian’s gaze swept over the space that had grown larger, finally settling on the spirit spring.
What was the taste of Spirit Spring Water like in legends?
With a thought, a small Spirit Spring Water Ball floated above her palm.
She brought the spirit spring to her mouth, and a refreshing, sweet taste immediately blossomed on her tongue.
Mo Qianqian half-closed her eyes, savoring it carefully. It was delicious…
At the very least, from now on, she wouldn’t have to endure drinking water that tasted like industrial wastewater.
A faint glimmer of joy flashed in her eyes.
After tasting the Spirit Spring Water, Mo Qianqian wasted no time.
She took out the Corpse Grass she had gathered earlier from the small cloth bag behind her, crushed and mashed it on a piece of plastic film, then added a few drops of Spirit Spring Water.
This was also recorded in the original novel—the female supporting character discovered that Spirit Spring Water could neutralize the corrosive toxicity of Corpse Grass.
The corpse grass mud mixed with Spirit Spring Water, when applied to the body, could effectively block human scent, avoid zombies, and cause no skin damage.
The deeper one went into the Urban Ruins, the denser the zombies became.
With her current combat ability, even with the aid of a Hand Crossbow, rushing in recklessly would be certain death.
However, with this corpse grass mud mixed with Spirit Spring Water, everything was different.