Star Lotus
Before the morning light had fully penetrated the Shelter's Planting Room, Lu Heng had already pushed open the door and gone inside.
The Purifying Water Lotus was placed in a cultivation tank against the wall. After a whole night of dormancy and advancement, according to his calculations, he should be able to see initial signs of transformation today.
He bent down and leaned closer; the moment his gaze swept over the lotus plant, his brows furrowed sharply.
wrong.
The edges of the leaves of the Purifying Water Lotus are grayish-white, as if covered with a thin layer of ash. The once full and upright veins are now drooping limply. Some leaves are even withered and curled, crumbling into powder at the slightest touch of a fingertip.
The entire plant is decaying at a rate visible to the naked eye.
Lu Heng didn't rush to take action. Instead, he squatted down, placed his palm on the outer wall of the culture tank, and closed his eyes to feel the energy fluctuations inside the plant.
A few seconds later, he opened his eyes.
At the core of the rootstock, an extremely faint, alien energy was wriggling, like a thin thread, wrapped around the evolutionary veins of the Purifying Water Lotus, constantly seeping and twisting inward.
He understood immediately.
The Plant Heart.
The Plant Heart used to advance the Purifying Water Lotus was taken from the mutated Blood Banyan Tree. Last night, all the large mutated materials were purified at the Stellar Altar and replaced with other things, but the Plant Heart was taken out and used separately beforehand, and it didn't have time to go through the purification process.
In other words, the residual abnormalities hidden inside the Plant Heart and the unique aura of the Blood Banyan Tree were never completely removed from the plant.
The Purifying Water Lotus has Gold Tier foundation and extremely high evolutionary potential. However, precisely because of its high potential, it absorbs energy very quickly—including that trace of residual aberration.
The mutated energy has infiltrated the evolutionary process, completely distorting the originally normal path of advancement.
It's not that the advancement failed; it's that the direction of evolution was forcibly distorted.
Lu Heng straightened up, his gaze darkening.
If this continues, the entire Purifying Water Lotus will completely collapse, and even the roots and stems will be lost.
Lu Heng took out the Starlight Seed directly.
The top-tier resource produced by the Stellar Altar is translucent silver-white in color, with tiny, needle-like points of light slowly rotating inside, like a miniature star sealed within its seed shell.
Lu Heng held the Starlight Seed in his hand and rubbed the surface of the seed shell with his fingertips.
This is currently the only thing that can save the Purifying Water Lotus.
He glanced down at the Purifying Water Lotus in the culture tank, which was still withering—the grayish-white color of the leaves had spread to the stem, and in a few more minutes, the core of the root would be completely eroded by the distorted energy.
There was no room for hesitation.
Lu Heng carefully placed the Starlight Seed directly above the rootstock of the Purifying Water Lotus, gently pressing it with his fingers to connect the seed coat with the plant's energy pathways.
The moment they made contact, the points of light inside the Starlight Seed suddenly accelerated their rotation.
An invisible wave spread out from the seed shell, seeping downwards along the rootstock, reaching the Energy Core of the Purifying Water Lotus.
Lu Heng took a step back and held his breath.
Three seconds.
Five seconds.
Above the culture tank, the air suddenly trembled slightly.
A thin ray of silvery-white light pierced through the dome of the Shelter and landed precisely on the Purifying Water Lotus.
It's not ordinary light.
It's starlight.
The Stellar Altar sensed the activation of the Starlight Seed and resonated with it in the darkness, directly drawing upon the power of the stars above the Shelter.
The moment that ray of starlight fell on the lotus plant, Lu Heng clearly saw that the grayish-white covering on the leaves of the Purifying Water Lotus, like frost melted by hot water, began to fade away one by one.
The starlight washes over you with an extremely gentle force, yet it carries an irresistible domineering power.
The mutated energy that had been entangled at the core of the root was peeled away, disintegrated, and purified inch by inch under the penetration of starlight. Lu Heng could even feel a faint, sweet-smelling smell spreading in the air—the last trace left after the mutated aura of the Blood Banyan Tree had been completely eliminated.
The withering stopped.
The withered and curled leaves did not recover, but the vitality at the core of the rootstock became stable and strong again.
The Starlight Seed completed its mission. Fine cracks appeared on the surface of its seed shell, and all the light spots inside were injected into the Purifying Water Lotus, turning into dust that fell softly to the bottom of the cultivation tank.
But the transformation of the Purifying Water Lotus has only just begun.
The power of the stars did not dissipate with the elimination of the distortion; instead, it continued to flow into the plant.
The rhizomes of the Purifying Water Lotus began to swell and elongate, and the originally grayish-green skin gradually became translucent and lustrous, like a piece of jade that had been carefully polished. The lotus leaves sprouted anew from the nodes of the rhizomes. The new leaves were clean and clear, with a very faint silver sheen on the surface. Tiny starlight flowed slowly in the veins of the leaves, like star trails in the night sky being compressed into the veins of the leaves.
Under the starlight, the entire plant reshaped itself with a slow but steady rhythm.
The old Purifying Water Lotus has completely disappeared.
Instead, a brand new lotus flower, its entire body enveloped in a faint starlight, has emerged.
The lotus stem is straight and translucent, with star-like patterns flowing endlessly in its veins; the lotus leaves are spread out like fans, with edges gleaming with a cool, silvery-white luster; the flower buds have not yet fully opened, but one can already vaguely see the fine star-like patterns on the inside of the petals, as if someone had carved them stroke by stroke with a silver needle.
The scent emanating from the entire plant was completely different from before.
It was no longer the dull and oppressive life fluctuations of ordinary mutated plants, but a clear, pure energy field carrying the chill of the starry sky.
Lu Heng raised his wrist, Wristband screen automatically lit up, displaying new authentication information.
[Star Lotus | Silver Tier]
It was formed from Purifying Water Lotus with Gold Tier base, through a breakthrough transformation by starlight and evolution bathed in the power of the starry sky, completely breaking the original growth level limitation.
Plant characteristics:
1. A small amount of Star Dew condenses daily, which has the effect of warding off evil spirits and can subtly repair hidden injuries and hidden health problems in the human body.
Second, it can produce Star Lotus Seed, which can strengthen the physical body's foundation with long-term consumption. It is also a rare and top-grade medicinal material, specifically used to treat various types of mental depletion, mental disorders, and psychological trauma.
Third, fallen Star Lotus petals can be preserved and used, possessing powerful effects in exorcising evil spirits, purifying yin and distorted auras.
Lu Heng stared at the screen, reading through each line one by one.
Star Dew can heal hidden injuries, Star Lotus Seed can cure mental depletion, and flower petals can ward off evil and purify—each of these three properties is a valuable asset on its own.
He reached out and gently touched the edge of the lotus leaf, feeling a cool sensation on his fingertips, like touching a piece of warm jade. The Star Lotus seemed to react to his touch; the leaf trembled slightly, and the starlight flowed faster for a moment before returning to calm.
Lu Heng withdrew his hand, a slight smile playing on his lips.
What was originally just a routine advancement operation went wrong and almost ruined the entire plant. However, with the intervention of the Starlight Seed, not only was the potential for mutation completely eradicated, but it also completed a groundbreaking super-evolution with the help of the power of the stars.
The Gold Tier Purifying Water Lotus has been upgraded to Silver Tier Star Lotus, and it has gained three more useful characteristics.
The results far exceeded expectations.
He stood in front of the cultivation tank, quietly examining the brand-new Star Lotus, calculating the condensation cycle of the Star Dew and the maturation time of the Star Lotus Seed.
Just then, a piercing warning sound suddenly rang out from the watchtower surrounding the Shelter.
The smile on Lu Heng's face vanished instantly.
He raised his Wristband to bring up the surrounding surveillance footage.
On the screen, a red marker lit up in the infrared sensing area of the watchtower, concentrated in the southeast direction of the Shelter, less than 200 meters from the outer wall.
The marker is moving slowly.
More than one.
Lu Heng zoomed in on the image.
The night had not yet completely faded, and the surveillance footage was hazy, only vaguely showing several low-lying figures wandering at the edge of the bushes. Their outlines were indistinct, but their size was clearly beyond the range of ordinary mutated beasts.
One of the figures suddenly stopped, slowly raised his head, and looked towards the Shelter.
The screen flickered.
Then the figure disappeared.
It didn't walk away—it's just that the speed is too fast for the monitoring frame rate to capture.
Lu Heng's finger stopped on the screen, his pupils contracted slightly.
Anything that's fast enough to make Scrying Bug drop frames can't be anything good.
He turned off the Wristband screen and turned to walk towards the equipment area.
Behind them, the petals of the Star Lotus, untouched, shifted slightly to face southeast.
It was as if it had sensed something.