Harvest Aplenty

She said she was investigating, but in reality, she was just going in to start digging.

Fortunately, she had a hoe now.

Though it was a small gardening hoe, it was still better than using her bare hands.

Especially when paired with Gathering Art—it was perfect.

Gathering Art was a wonderful thing.

Most of the collapsed area was covered in Vine. Aside from clearing away rubble and such, the most troublesome part of excavation was those Vines.

But when one use of Gathering Art left behind a pit, even tough Vines could not stop Lan Qingyou from digging.

Still, Lan Qingyou's excavation speed was actually quite slow.

She could only use it three times an hour. Once she had used them up, she had to stop and rest, recovering her Magic Power before continuing.

Of course, she did not waste her breaks. She took out her notebook and read it.

The notebook itself was only palm-sized, so it would not take long to finish reading.

But reviewing old lessons led to new insights.

A master alchemist's notebook was definitely not something she could fully understand after reading it once.

Since she wanted to try alchemy, naturally she had to give it her all and not waste her youth.

Rumble!

After who knew how long, a Wooden Plank snapped, and Lan Qingyou finally found a staircase leading downward beneath the collapsed section.

Lan Qingyou eagerly floated down, only for a musty smell to hit her in the face.

It was underground and had not seen daylight for years, so a moldy smell was perfectly normal.

Lan Qingyou only wanted to loot the place now and could not be bothered with that. Her bright eyes swept back and forth across the basement.

The basement covered roughly two hundred square meters and had been pierced through by three or four tree roots.

Thanks to those roots, the entire basement had been ruined beyond recognition, and much of its equipment had been destroyed.

Vines, moss, unknown wildflowers and weeds, and Luminous Mushrooms could be seen everywhere—on the floor, walls, and ceiling.

That was right. Lan Qingyou could only make out the basement's appearance thanks to those Luminous Mushrooms.

"There must be something here."

Lan Qingyou encouraged herself and began searching.

Though the basement had been wrecked beyond recognition, it did not cause Lan Qingyou much trouble.

Using the faint blue glow of the Luminous Mushrooms, she immediately spotted a bag hanging from a tree root.

The bag was around half a palm in size and appeared to be made of linen.

Lan Qingyou floated over, took it down, and examined it from side to side, but found nothing special about it.

Still, if it had remained intact in a place like this, it had to be something decent. She would keep it for now.

Afterward, Lan Qingyou found a large-bellied crucible about thirty centimeters tall and thirty centimeters in diameter in a corner of the room, along with a mortar and pestle.

Though all three items were covered in rust, the color of the crucible's upper and lower portions was distinctly different, as though divided by a boundary.

Still, rusted or not, they were rare treasures to the current Lan Qingyou.

At the very least, after washing them, she would have something to cook Instant Noodles in.

Then Lan Qingyou found a Dagger amid a pile of rotten wood that had probably once been a Bookshelf.

The Dagger's blade was translucent, seemingly made of some sort of Crystal. Judging from its uneven surface, however, it was probably not polished but chipped into shape.

Lan Qingyou had once watched a video about making an Obsidian Dagger. It had roughly the same feel.

Holding the Dagger, Lan Qingyou gave it two light swings. It was not very heavy, and it felt quite handy in her grip.

She then used the Dagger to poke through the pile of rotten Bookshelf wood, seeing whether there was anything else valuable inside.

When she put in a little force, she directly sent a piece of rotten wood flying into the wall.

Lan Qingyou stared in shock.

She had a decent idea of her own strength. There was no way she could do something like that.

Could this Dagger amplify her strength?

Or was it actually a legendary Dagger with +999 Strength?

Well, no matter what, she definitely had to take such a beautiful Dagger home.

Hah—

Lan Qingyou breathed on the Dagger's surface, then carefully wiped it with her sleeve, brushing away some wood chips before contentedly tucking it into the elastic waistband of her pants.

She then took out her gardening hoe and prepared to dig, dig, dig through the pile of rotten wood.

However, when she lowered her head, she saw a book lying where the Wooden Plank had flown from earlier.

Lan Qingyou immediately pounced on it and picked it up.

It was a copy of Basic Herbalism.

She was delighted, but also confused.

The other books nearby had already been eroded by time until only their outlines remained, yet this book was completely intact. She could even smell the scent of ink on it...

How could she not find that strange?

But it did not matter. She had nothing better to do, and an extra book—especially one she wanted to read—was definitely worth keeping.

The delighted Lan Qingyou continued searching.

But after making two rounds and rummaging through three piles of rotten wood and four small dirt mounds, she gave up.

Today's haul was already excellent, far beyond her expectations. Why ask for more? A person could not be too greedy. At least, Lan Qingyou did not think she was the greedy type.

She put the linen bag, book, Dagger, and mortar into the treasure chest, then put the treasure chest into the crucible. She plucked several Luminous Mushrooms from the wall and tossed them into the crucible, then tore off several Vines to tie the crucible to her back before preparing to leave.

They were things she had never seen before, and the alchemy notebook had not recorded them either. Once she got back, she would use the Small Screen to identify them.

What if they were useful?

However, when Lan Qingyou floated up, she discovered that the crucible seemed rather heavy now. Her tiny body would have some difficulty flying home while carrying it on her back.

With no other choice, Lan Qingyou could only carry it by hand instead.

Getting out of the basement was a little troublesome, though.

After all, she had dug her way in, and the opening was not large to begin with. Fortunately, the crucible was not very large either. After much tugging and pulling, she finally dragged it out through the passage she had dug.

"It's dark outside."

Standing in the uncollapsed room, Lan Qingyou looked at the pitch-black night sky outside.

It had already been afternoon when she left home. After gathering nearly a whole chest of herbs and then digging here for several hours, it would have been strange if it were not dark.

"It's fine. Big sis can fly!"

Lan Qingyou muttered as if encouraging herself, then cautiously poked her head out to check the surroundings. After confirming there did not seem to be any wolf packs nearby, she carefully climbed out through the Vines.

After dragging out the crucible, she pushed off with one hand and flew toward the branches.

After all, the sky was her true battlefield.

And in fact, it really was.

Moving from tree to tree while carrying the crucible, Lan Qingyou encountered no obstacles whatsoever.

She returned home with ease.

What she did not know was that someone had seen her moving through the air and posted it in the Regional Channel, causing a massive stir.