“Xiang Ge! Why are you here?”
Shen Cheng spotted her first.
“Obviously I came to collect my fruits. Why didn’t you call me when you came?” Xiang Ge asked knowingly.
“This giant lizard was too dangerous, we were afraid…” Shen Cheng scratched his head. Looking at the shattered corpse of the giant lizard, he suddenly found it hard to explain the situation.
“Xiang Ge-jie, if I said a super beautiful giant phoenix suddenly appeared, killed the lizard for us, and then silently flew away—would you believe me?”
San Wan took the initiative to explain.
The others stood silently. Honestly, even if they had seen it themselves, it still sounded unbelievable.
“Mm, I believe it. Keep moving the fruits,” Xiang Ge said expressionlessly, not continuing the topic.
The other four were suddenly at a loss for words. Something so absurd—and she just accepted it without question? Not even probing further? How could there be someone so considerate?
Unable to stand their intense gazes, Xiang Ge turned away and went to drive the pickup truck over to load the fruit.
With five people working together, the fruits were loaded within an hour.
Ye Zheng was injured, so Xiang Ge took over the driver’s seat, and they quickly returned to the underground city.
On the way back, Xiang Ge couldn’t help asking, “If you came here yourselves, fine—but if you really killed that giant lizard, how were you planning to transport all these fruits back without a vehicle?”
“We didn’t walk here. The team leader’s mechanical birds brought us here. The fruits can be airlifted too,” San Wan replied.
Their team had long been used to using mechanical birds for transport.
“I see… so you’ve worked together for a long time,” Xiang Ge said.
“Mm. Ye Zheng and I met San Wan and San Ya when we first arrived at Morning Star Base. They helped us a lot,” Shen Cheng said.
“That’s not true. If the captain hadn’t been giving me simplified purification agents, I’d have died long ago,” San Wan immediately objected.
To her, the captain’s help mattered even more.
Over the past two years, the four of them had supported each other through everything. They were far beyond ordinary teammates—closer to true friends.
Xiang Ge nodded. Though their personalities were very different, their thinking aligned on important matters. It wasn’t surprising they got along so well.
“By the way… that phoenix just now was incredible. Was it some kind of mutated beast?”
San Wan still couldn’t forget it.
“Doesn’t seem like a mutated beast. It looked like it was fading when it flew away,” San Ya said sharply.
“It’s a method of an ability user,” Ye Zheng said calmly, despite his injuries.
“Psychic ability,” Shen Cheng concluded.
Xiang Ge kept her eyes on the road, raising a brow slightly.
As expected of people from a major base—well-informed indeed.
But there were no other witnesses around… would they suspect her?
She glanced at the rearview mirror. No one seemed to notice anything unusual.
“It must’ve been the orchard owner’s doing. They probably knew there was a giant beast here. What a scam! They didn’t even tell us—we almost died!” Shen Cheng complained.
The others nodded in agreement.
Xiang Ge looked back at the road.
Fine. Well-informed, knowledgeable… but a bit naive.
By noon, they arrived at the underground city entrance with a full truck of fruits.
This time they did not enter through the Morning Star Base passage, but a hidden wilderness entrance known only to mercenary teams who frequently took missions.
From here, it led directly to the end of the underground city—right where mission-givers usually operated.
The entrance was empty except for them.
Shen Cheng had Ye Zheng, San Ya, and Xiang Ge stay to guard the truck while he and San Wan went to meet Boss Wu.
Soon, Wu Mei personally brought six strong men to unload the cargo.
Her personal appearance showed how seriously she took this mission.
After counting and repacking the fruits, they moved them to her vehicle.
What happened next between her and her employer was not the team’s concern.
Wu Mei brought them into her room to settle payment.
Because the mission had exceeded expectations, her smile was genuinely warm.
In addition to the base requirement—300 jin of medium-radiation fruit and 200 low-radiation fruits—they had an extra 60 jin of medium-radiation fruit and 48 low-radiation fruits.
Medium-radiation fruit: 50 points per jin.Low-radiation fruit: 200 points each.
Total reward: 12,600 points.
Wu Mei transferred the full amount to Shen Cheng, and no one objected.
Xiang Ge hadn’t mentioned the purification fruit in advance, and the others also tacitly avoided the topic.
“Little sister, your item has arrived. Remember to come find me later,” Wu Mei said to Xiang Ge before they left.
“Alright.”
The five of them stood in a corner to split the money.
Since everyone had already recorded how many fruits they picked, distribution was simple.
Shen Cheng calculated quickly and transferred the amounts.
Xiang Ge received 2,100 points.
Because she spent much of her time killing mutated beasts, she collected fewer fruits than the others.
She was satisfied.
Shen Cheng agreed to work together again in the future, then left with Ye Zheng.
San Ya and San Wan dragged Xiang Ge aside to a more secluded spot.
“Xiang Ge, we want to ask—you’re planning to keep that purification fruit, or sell it?”
Here it came.
Xiang Ge had already expected this conversation.
“I don’t plan to eat it,” she said.
Now that she was already a purifier, her body had developed resistance to radiation. There was no need for the fruit anymore.