Experts Gone Wild

Lin Mo's face darkened.

"Your Highness, when I said I was talking bull, I didn't mean an actual bull... It's an expression where I'm from. It means they suspected I was lying."

Understanding dawned on Fendona, and she couldn't help bursting into laughter.

Even the exhaustion from casting spells one after another seemed to ease a little.

"Oh, so that's what you meant. I thought..."

She shook her head, a smile lingering on her lips.

"Sorry. You said you wanted to take something unique to us back with you, right?"

"Since you helped us, that's no problem."

"And I really like that gift of yours... the thing called a lighter."

As she spoke, she looked up at the enormous canopy that blotted out the sky and extended her slender hand.

A leaf gently detached from high above. As though drawn by an invisible thread, it drifted slowly into her palm, glowing softly.

The leaf was only palm-sized, emerald green all over.

Fluorescent light seemed to flow through its veins, casting a faint glow of vitality over her pale cheeks.

"Here. The World Tree is both home and companion to us Elves. Its leaves contain pure natural power."

"I believe this will be enough to convince your people that everything you said is true."

Overjoyed, Lin Mo hurriedly accepted it with both hands.

"Thank you, Your Highness Fendona! Your kindness is as breathtaking as your beauty!"

Damn, that flattery just rolled right off my tongue. I'm a natural.

Fendona smiled, clearly pleased, then arranged a relatively quiet room inside a tree hollow for him to rest in.

The moment he entered the room, Lin Mo eagerly examined the leaf in his hand.

It felt warm and smooth, brimming with a vitality he couldn't quite describe.

He carefully rolled up the lush green World Tree leaf and tucked it into his mouth.

A faint fragrance mingled with a strange energy spread through his mouth, instantly refreshing his mind.

With the leaf that carried his hopes and the information he'd just coaxed out of her, Lin Mo lay down in satisfaction.

"Phew... After all that running around, I can finally go back and report!"

Inside the underground base's observation room.

The entire monitoring room was so quiet that a pin dropping would have been audible.

Zhao Gang and Bell City's top experts from every field involved in Project Ark all stared fixedly at the large screen before them.

On the screen, Lin Mo's vital signs remained stable, and his brain waves showed that he had entered deep sleep.

Time ticked by, second after second.

Every second felt like being fried in boiling oil.

Anxiety, anticipation, doubt, tension... All those emotions churned within them, making the tightly sealed room feel even more oppressive.

"It's almost dawn. How can this guy sleep so much? Is he part pig?" a microbiologist muttered, rubbing his aching eyes.

A biology professor beside him pushed up his glasses, looking deeply worried.

"Logically, he should have come back as soon as he got the item. Could something have happened to him over there?"

In the corner, the elderly physics professor who had remained skeptical throughout gave a cold snort.

"If you ask me, he probably talked himself into a corner and can't keep his lies straight anymore, so he's sleeping to stall for time. You're all old enough to know better, yet you still believe in traveling to another world. Utterly ridiculous!"

"Shut up! If you don't believe it, why are you here? For the free air-conditioning?" Professor Zhang, who had appraised the gemstones earlier, immediately glared at him.

"Can't I come to watch you make fools of yourselves? A bunch of top experts getting led around by some youngster-I'll be laughing about this for a year!"

"You old bastard..."

Just as the two were about to begin another round of academic exchange-or rather, personal attacks-

A young researcher monitoring Lin Mo's vital signs sprang to his feet and pointed at the screen, his voice breaking with excitement.

"He moved!"

"His mouth moved!"

Whoosh!

All arguing stopped abruptly.

More than a dozen gazes instantly turned toward the one-way glass, locking onto the young man lying beyond it!

In the next room, Lin Mo lay on the bed with his cheek slightly puffed out, as though he had a piece of candy in his mouth.

Then, as everyone watched with bated breath, his eyelids fluttered and slowly opened, his eyes still hazy with sleep.

Seeming to remember something, he raised a hand toward his mouth.

Then, slowly, bit by bit, he pulled something out of his mouth.

A leaf.

An emerald-green leaf whose edges gave off a soft glow, as though life itself flowed within it.

Its veins were clearly visible, and the light upon it pulsed as though breathing.

"Bzzzz-!"

At that instant, every mind in the monitoring room froze.

Matter conjured out of thin air!

Before he went to sleep, they had been absolutely certain there was nothing in Lin Mo's mouth. But now...

This completely defied the laws of physics they had spent their entire lives studying!

"My God..." White-haired Professor Zhang grabbed the console in front of him, a feverish light blazing in his cloudy old eyes.

"Dimensions... This is genuine interdimensional transport!"

"We... We've witnessed a miracle!"

Zhao Gang's breathing grew heavy. He clenched his fists, his knuckles cracking faintly.

He had spent half his life in the military, never flinching even amid a hail of bullets. His resolve was as solid as rock.

Yet now, his chest heaved violently!

It was real!

All of it was real!

A whole new world, filled with limitless possibilities!

Blue Star's crisis, Great Xia's future...

The shadow of doomsday weighed on every heart, suffocating their entire civilization.

At this moment, that tiny leaf seemed to have torn open a crack of hope within it!

"Lock down all information immediately!"

Zhao Gang spun around and ordered the adjutant behind him,

"From this moment on, this matter is classified at the highest level of secrecy. Not a single word is to be leaked!"

"Yes, sir!" everyone answered in unison.

"I'm reporting all of this to the higher-ups now."

Unable to contain himself any longer, Zhao Gang flung the door open and rushed toward the room next door.

Meanwhile, Lin Mo had no idea how much of a stir he had caused.

He sat on the bed, staring at the World Tree leaf in his palm, covered in his own saliva, with a look of disgust and embarrassment.

How am I supposed to hand this over?

This is way too unhygienic.

Instinctively, he lifted his T-shirt, about to wipe it on the fabric.

Bang!

The door was shoved open roughly.

Zhao Gang and a crowd of experts and scholars scrambled inside like hornets whose nest had been disturbed.

At the front, Professor Zhang saw what Lin Mo was doing and nearly had a heart attack.

"Don't! Stop!!"

Professor Zhang lunged forward, as nimble as a twenty-year-old monkey, without a trace of his usual frailty.

If Lin Mo's rough wiping damaged the leaf's fiber structure, its research value would be greatly diminished!

This was a priceless treasure from another dimension!

Lin Mo's hand froze in midair. Startled by the shout, he looked a little embarrassed.

"Um... It's covered in saliva."

"That's fine, that's fine!" Professor Zhang carefully took the leaf from his hand.

He handled it as gently as if he were cradling his own newborn grandson, terrified that the slightest pressure might crush it.

He brought the leaf close to his eyes, which shone with excitement.

"Never mind saliva-even urine would be fine!"