Chapter 48: Transplanting the Spring Water

In the blink of an eye, they arrived at the middle section of the forest.

Dagan's cave was located somewhere relatively deep inside.

There was still some distance to go.

Qin Yuan decided to head to the subterranean rainforest first to replenish the Spring of Mana.

By the way, he would transplant it to his floating island before heading to Dagan's cave.

"There's a situation!"

Feather, who was scouting from the sky, suddenly dropped down.

"Qin Yuan, a few people up ahead are fighting a giant centipede monster!"

A giant centipede?

Qin Yuan perked up and immediately quickened his pace.

When he reached the scene, he found that the situation was at a white-hot stage.

In the center of the clearing, a centipede several meters long, with a body radiating a metallic sheen, was being swarmed by a team of players.

......

[Steel-Toothed Centipede (LV5): A common creature found in the wild with an extremely hard body surface. Grants experience points upon being slain.]

......

On the left and right sides of the monster, two warrior players were pinning down its movements.

A female mage player hid in the rear, waving the staff in her hand as bursts of multicolored light surged toward the centipede, producing popping explosions. However, due to the monster's remarkable defense, apart from leaving a few small charred patches, the effect was not very noticeable.

Qin Yuan recognized at a glance that this was precisely Zhang Wenbin's small group.

Given their numbers, the player group clearly held the advantage in the current situation.

Yet, this monster seemingly lacked any fatal weaknesses; its entire body was as hard as iron, with its head being the only slightly vulnerable spot.

Even so, it was evident this was not Zhang Wenbin's first encounter with such a beast, and their coordination was remarkably seamless.

The teammate named Zhang Tieshan was primarily responsible for drawing the monster's attention while absorbing damage with the large shield in his hand.

Zhang Wenbin wielded a lighter, small round shield, hovering at the edges and waiting for opportunities to deal damage.

The distant mage player, Xia Lin, stood in a safe zone casting spells.

As time passed, the Steel-Toothed Centipede was covered in wounds, and crimson blood poured continuously, staining the ground red.

Qin Yuan chose not to make a move, instead watching their hunt with keen interest.

After all, the situation was fairly clear-cut; if he intervened directly and accidentally killed the monster, it would look like kill-stealing.

Such behavior was despised among the player community.

Seizing the right moment, Zhang Wenbin leaped gracefully, landing squarely on the monster's back, and then began frantically thrusting with the Flame-Weaving Sword in his hand.

Blood gushed forth.

The monster's struggling strength grew progressively weaker.

Sensing that the outcome of the battle had been decided, Qin Yuan prepared to quietly slip away.

Right at that moment, the situation abruptly changed.

From the woods on the side, another completely unharmed Steel-Toothed Centipede suddenly lunged out with clear intent, charging straight at the female mage hiding in the rear.

This monster had also reached level five.

The sudden development caught the female player named Xia Lin off guard, leaving her frozen in place.

Seeing the distance between them rapidly close, the sharp fangs of the Steel-Toothed Centipede reflected the sunlight, even mirroring her face.

The two warrior players were too far away; even though they noticed the situation in the rear instantly, they were powerless to rush back and provide support in time.

A ball of searing fire suddenly hurtled from the woods on the side.

It crashed squarely into the Steel-Toothed Centipede.

The sudden attack caught the monster completely off guard, and the massive impact sent its body flying backward.

Immediately afterward, a large swarm of fiery red butterflies followed closely, slamming into its head one after another with a flurry of sounds.

Combined with Feather's two soul-blade strikes, delivered with telepathic precision,

the head of this Steel-Toothed Centipede was blasted into pieces by the chain of attacks.

It was on its last breath.

Qin Yuan finished it off with a final Minor Fireball spell.

[Notice: You have slain a Steel-Toothed Centipede (LV5)...]

As the notification echoed in his mind, the monster's body slowly dissipated, dropping no items.

All of this happened extremely fast. From the explosion of the first fireball to the final sequence of spells that successfully killed it, less than ten seconds had passed.

The battle was over!

Since he had merely lent a hand in passing, Qin Yuan did not reveal his identity. Waving from a distance to signal his lack of hostility, he turned and strode off in another direction.

Having survived the ordeal, the female player named Xia Lin reunited with the others and began chatting excitedly.

"So strong! I wonder who that was. That Steel-Toothed Centipede didn't even last a few seconds in their hands... Do you think it was another player?"

"Probably a local. I haven't seen any player that powerful yet."

Only Zhang Wenbin looked off in that direction, a thoughtful expression on his face.

He had once seen Qin Yuan use the Minor Fireball skill.

Back then, to avoid startling the villagers, Qin Yuan had only let Dagan escort them to the edge of the forest, leaving them to walk the remaining distance.

Along the way, they encountered one or two level-one monsters, and he had witnessed Qin Yuan deal with them using this very skill.

Back then, however, neither its power nor its size could compare to what he had just witnessed.

"It must have been that senior..."

he muttered inwardly.

"Many thanks."

......

"Phew, we're finally here."

After a long journey accompanied by Feather, Qin Yuan finally arrived at the subterranean rainforest.

Last time, he had scooped up the majority of the Spring of Mana in the small pool in one go.

Over this period, however, the magical array underground had been continuously producing more.

Currently, it was about half full.

A hazy mist rose from the surface of the spring water, drifting into the air.

With his increased level, his perception of the minute mana molecules lingering in the air had grown much sharper.

Qin Yuan could clearly sense that the density of mana in the surrounding air far exceeded ordinary places.

"If my mana runs out, recovering around the Spring of Mana will be twenty to thirty percent faster..."

he thought with a touch of emotion.

First, he took out the prepared empty bottles and filled them with all the remaining Spring of Mana.

Then, he summoned the Babbling Grimoire.

Under its guidance, he began the transplantation process.

The method was simple and crude: purely digging out this small patch of terrain and storing it in his player inventory.

Afterward, he would find a spot on the floating island to rebury it.

Naturally, a shovel had already been prepared in advance.

Yet, bending over to work continuously for several hours left his lower back sore and aching.

"Finally done..."

Wiping the sweat from his brow, Qin Yuan let out a long breath.

On his way back, he took one last look at this beautiful subterranean rainforest.

The environment here was truly wonderful; although the Spring of Mana was gone, coming over to take a look when he had time would still be a great way to relax.