"Finding someone is your job. Besides, in history, there's only ever been one person with plant-based abilities—and that person died 500 years ago," Su paused slightly before continuing, "So instead of chasing a hopeless fantasy, it's better to find an alternative solution."
The other end of the line fell silent.
"Then tell me," came the voice, "what alternative?"
"Force activation of abilities through spiritual power. Go all in," Su lowered his gaze and replied calmly, as if he were merely talking about what to have for lunch.
But the voice on the other side firmly rejected the idea. "No way. If you go all in like that, you'll die!"
"So be it." Su chuckled lightly, indifferent. "Some lives are as light as a feather, others as heavy as Mount Tai."
"Are you trying to piss me off?" the man on the other side snapped, no longer gentle. His voice turned cold and harsh, like iron striking the spine.
"I've already found a successor. That's all," Su ended the call without waiting for a reply, clearly unconcerned with the other person's anger.
Turning his livestream device back on, he returned to the image of a frail, delicate teenager. Slowly, he walked back into the cave and curled up in a quiet corner to rest.
By the afternoon, Mu Qingyun had finally recovered. She opened her eyes and looked out at the dimming sky beyond the cave.
"You're awake?"
Su, who had been keeping an eye on her, immediately approached when he saw her awaken.
"Mm," she answered softly.
"We're in trouble," came a voice from the other end of the cave. Xiong Ruoyou appeared to be speaking to the livestream audience. "We're almost out of water. Anyone got ideas on how to find some?"
Out of water?
Mu Qingyun raised an eyebrow and looked at Su. "Aren't you a water-ability user? Can't you purify it?"
"My purification ability isn't pure enough," Su said with a pout, lowering his head in guilt. "I can only turn lightly contaminated seawater into normal seawater. It's still not drinkable."
Mu Qingyun went silent for a moment, then tilted her chin and asked, "Do you have a pot?"
The sudden question made Su blink and genuinely think about it. "No pot, but I do have a kind of clay-metal."
Clay-metal?
She recognized the words separately, but not together. What on earth was that?
"What?" she asked, brows furrowed, eyes fixed on the object Su pulled from his storage pouch.
It was a gray, oval-shaped metal. Knowing she wouldn't know how to use it, Su demonstrated, molding it into the shape of a pot.
"It can be shaped into anything, not just pots," he explained, turning the pot into another object. "It's heat-resistant—no matter how high the temperature, it won't melt."
Interesting.
She took the clay-metal in her hand and examined it.
"Let's go boil some water."
"But... even boiled water that hasn't been purified is still undrinkable, right?" Su tilted his head in confusion.
On their planet, even boiling water wasn't enough—it had to be purified by a strong water-ability user or advanced tech before it was safe to drink.
"You said you can turn contaminated water into seawater?" Mu Qingyun asked, brushing dust off her pants as she stood.
"Yes, but it's pointless. Seawater still isn't drinkable." Su looked serious.
"That's good enough."
She didn't say more and started walking toward the shoreline. Su hesitated but followed closely behind.
[Is this person dumb or what? Su already explained it and he's still boiling seawater.][Seriously, unless it's purified with tech, what's the point of boiling it?][Stupid. Absolutely stupid. Is she trying to kill herself by drinking seawater?][Strong but dumb—what a waste.][By the way, isn't Su a bit too weak? Water ability isn't strong for offense, but it's supposed to be good for purification. Yet he can't even do that.][Our princess can purify 20 square meters of water in one go!][Hold on—who said water abilities aren't strong in offense? Our First Commander is a water-user and absolutely legendary with it.][Don't compare anyone to the First Commander. He's practically a god. He once soloed 10 top-tier earth-users and crushed them.][Yeah, stop dragging our First Commander into this.]
"Are you really going to boil seawater?" Su asked again as they approached the shoreline.
Even if it wasn't polluted, boiled seawater still contained toxins—it wasn't drinkable by any means.
Mu Qingyun didn't reply. Arguing wouldn't convince him anyway. Better to let results speak for themselves.
But just as she was about to start, a familiar voice came from behind.
"Your Highness, I'm so glad I got placed on your team. Now I can drink purified water!" It was Bai Feifei.
"That mermaid guy was so ungrateful. We offered to let him join us, and he turned us down," said an unfamiliar male voice—likely one of Mu Xueyao's teammates.
"Forget him. That spoiled princeling? Who wants to babysit someone like that?" Bai Feifei snorted, clearly annoyed.
Mu Qingyun and Su turned around at the same time—and came face to face with Mu Xueyao's group.
[Oh my god, again? How do they keep running into each other?!][It's not luck. The princess sleeps in the treetops nearby, and Mu Qingyun's cave is also close. If anyone's looking for water, they'd all come to the shore.][Wait, treetops? I haven't watched the princess's stream—why's she sleeping up there?][Because there's nowhere else!][What if it rains?][She's got a huge energy umbrella for rain.][Honestly, she's kind of living rough for a princess...][Stop, I'm starting to feel bad for her. She could live like royalty, yet she chose to suffer through this military school trial.][Well, she really admires the First Commander and hopes to fight alongside him one day.][Aww, I ship it. Perfect match!][Don't ship them! First Commander is my husband. They don't even know each other.][Yeah! Both of them are amazing, but let them shine alone—don't start some random ship wars.]