Desperate Measures

When Li Yao woke up the next day, his head felt a little foggy.

Lin Xiaowei's reckless urging last night had damaged his sleep. As a state-certified middle-aged man born in the '90s, Li Yao felt his heart fluttering a little. He definitely could not stay up late anymore. He was even considering whether he should buy a thermos like Dad and steep something in it. He connected his phone to the internet and opened QQ Account, but last night's chat log had not updated.

It seemed Lin Xiaowei had gone to rest too.

Good.

Li Yao smiled. That girl had probably been utterly exhausted lately.

After eating the breakfast his parents had left for him, he meditated and cultivated for a while, then collapsed onto the couch in a Ge You sprawl and continued enjoying his comfortable summer vacation. It was not until nightfall that Lin Xiaowei sent another message: "I'm awake."

Li Yao: "Feeling rested?"

Lin Xiaowei: "My head still feels a little heavy, but that isn't important. Alchemy Potions from another world can cure ALS. Detailed tests showed that my mother's ALS was caused by her having worked in an environment with heavy metals. Heavy-metal toxins damaged her motor neurons, which counts as a form of poisoning. So, if we expel the toxins from her body with a basic Cleansing Potion, then use restorative medicine to stabilize her body, there shouldn't be any problem."

Li Yao: "Are you sure?"

Who knew what differences existed between creatures from another world and creatures from Earth?

What if the miracle medicine of that world turned into poison in this one? Lin Xiaowei replied, "You don't need to worry about that. The world I'm in began exploring Multiverse Planes long ago. The characteristics of creatures from different planes do indeed vary greatly, but that is reflected in their categories of life—for example, carbon-based lifeforms differ from sulfur-based and hydrogen-based lifeforms. Beyond that, Elemental Lifeforms and energy lifeforms also differ greatly. But even in the vast multiverse, those special lifeforms are rare. Earth's organisms overlap heavily in characteristics with those from our plane, so it shouldn't be a problem."

Li Yao: "But what if something goes wrong..."

Lin Xiaowei: "Nothing will go wrong!"

Her tone was utterly resolute.

What else could Li Yao do? It was a terminal illness, after all. This was already their only option.

Lin Xiaowei: "Prepare to receive some files. These are Alchemy Potion formulas I had my Senior Brothers improve. They basically won't have side effects. If anything comes up, we'll stay in touch. Oh, and some of the materials don't exist on Earth, but you said Earth has spiritual energy too, so I'll send you some medicinal herbs and seeds as well."

Li Yao asked in surprise, "Didn't you say you couldn't anchor the coordinates of another world and that we had to wait until I officially advanced to Formal Mage before we could establish a connection?"

Lin Xiaowei: "It's an emergency... There's another way. I'll send it along with the files!"

As soon as she finished speaking, Li Yao's phone began vibrating rapidly.

"Cleansing Potion Recipe and Precautions," "How to Brew Vitality Potion," "Healing Spirit Liquid Brewing Notes," "Complete Basics of Potionology," "Methods for Processing Alchemical Materials"... The final document was titled "Plane Altar."

Looking at the endless row of downloaded documents, Li Yao's head started aching.

This was going to be one hell of a rush!

Li Yao: "You bastard, remember that you owe me!"

After angrily sending that message, Li Yao tapped the first document with his finger. "Aaaaahhhhh~"

Damn, that was exhilarating! By the time he had tapped through the final document, Li Yao felt as though his brain had gone numb. He lay sprawled on the bed, looking utterly drained, staring lifelessly at the ceiling—what sin had he committed to deserve this?

Countless alchemy formulas and medicinal properties swirled through his mind. If his meditation had not reached a certain level, that flood of complicated information might have turned him into an idiot.

He had been too overconfident.

He should have absorbed all that stuff in batches. Taking in so much at once had made his head ache.

But there was no helping it. Lin Xiaowei had to be terribly anxious.

Rubbing his head, Li Yao rested for quite a while before replying to the impatient Lin Xiaowei: "Got them. I'll start working on it tomorrow."

Lin Xiaowei: "Thank you. I owe you for this."

Li Yao casually sent a meme: "Who else would help you when I'm your dad.jpg."

Lin Xiaowei: "..."

He would set Potionology aside for now. The urgent matter was constructing the Plane Altar. It was a magical item that created specific fluctuations by building an altar and activating the array upon it. It could be understood as "a magic version of a signal transmitter." Once those specific fluctuations spread outward, Lin Xiaowei would use her teacher's authority to activate the Legendary Mage's Magic Tower, using it like an oversized Multiverse Signal Searcher to search for those fluctuations, anchor the plane coordinates, and establish a connection channel...

It was a very high-end operation.

Li Yao did not really understand it anyway. Lin Xiaowei would handle the main operations, while all he had to do was construct and activate this signal transmitter on Earth.

For some reason, after understanding the principles behind it, Li Yao felt that something about it was strange...

It was not until he glimpsed The Three-Body Problem on his bookshelf that realization suddenly struck him!

"Does that make me Ye Wenjie?"

In The Three-Body Problem, Ye Wenjie used the sun as a signal transmitter during that special era to send Earth's coordinates to the Trisolaran civilization in the universe. She established the Earth Three-Body Organization, intending to reform and save humanity through the Trisolarans. But under the distortions of people with ulterior motives such as Evans, the Earth Three-Body Organization's goal eventually became: eliminate human tyranny; Earth belongs to Trisolaris.

Li Yao shook his head.

Probably not.

At most, he was cooperating with his best friend on an inter-server operation to save her family! It had absolutely nothing to do with eliminating Earth's tyranny or anything like that! Big-hearted Li Yao immediately cast aside the possibility and began studying the manufacturing principles of the Plane Altar.

In another world, within the Legendary Mage's Magic Tower.

Lin Xiaowei put down her phone, her expression grim... On one hand, she had consumed too much soul energy. On the other hand—

There were some things she had not told Li Yao.

Exchanging summoned objects through the homologous runes of a Summoning Array was completely different from using a Plane Altar to anchor plane coordinates! The plane information produced by the former was encrypted. It merely allowed the Summoning Array to carry out an exchange under the coordination of the source of rules, and the caster could not learn the detailed data. But the special fluctuations emitted by a Plane Altar would be fully recorded in the Mage Tower's control center!

That meant—

Earth risked being exposed!

This world had begun exploring and colonizing other planes a thousand years ago. Many ambitious mages desperately wanted to obtain a complete world-domain, because that meant greater wealth and more unique laws.

Even Legendary Mages capable of obliterating gods could not refuse such temptation!

But she had no other choice now.

Relying on Li Yao to advance to Formal Mage was not something that could happen in a short time. To save her mother... she could only do this! Fortunately, she was her teacher's only Closed-Door Disciple. Her authority was high enough to block the Magic Association from reading the operational records of the Mage Tower's control center.

So nothing would happen!

—After all, people with authority could do whatever they wanted!

I really was a very ordinary person. When I looked at mountains, I saw mountains; when I looked at water, I saw water... But today, I was very unhappy, and everything I saw had become a mire. So today, I won't be saying any cheesy sweet nothings. I'm going to be a quiet little mushroom for a while.