Wizard: Starting with Dealing with Magical Plants

Chapter 290 Harvest

The cold, rigid fragments of thought, like rusty gears, were stuck at the edge of Rolin's consciousness.

The burning sensation in my wrist was sharp and piercing.

The pale blue mark had now completely turned dark gold, and it was flashing in sync with the light at the broken end of the metal arm.

The surrounding crowd was dead silent for a moment, then erupted into an even greater commotion.

"That thing is pointing at him!"

"A mark! He has a mark on his hand!"

"It's the target being tracked by the construct!"

Various horrified, greedy, and wary gazes pierced Rolin like tangible needles.

Several adventurers who had originally intended to capture the metal arm hesitated at this moment, subconsciously taking a few steps back, holding their weapons horizontally in front of them, their eyes shifting back and forth between Rolin and the metal arm.

The severed arm still hovered a few inches above the ground, its dark gold patterns flickering intermittently, and tiny sparks of electricity occasionally flashing from the broken end.

The buzzing sound coming from inside became intermittent, as if the energy supply was extremely unstable.

"Request—Command—" Another fragmented thought came, even weaker than before, and mixed with jarring noise.

Rowling stood there, his expression eerily calm.

The star power that had just recovered most of its strength flowed silently within its body. The power of [Quiet Dust Star] quickly suppressed the burning pain from the wrist mark and the cold intent that tried to invade in the opposite direction. At the same time, it restrained its own mental fluctuations to the extreme, like a stubborn rock sinking into the deep sea.

We must not act rashly.

This severed arm was clearly in an extremely unstable state, even on the verge of complete collapse, with pitifully weak activity.

It sensed the higher-level command carrier of the same origin, namely the recycling mark on its own wrist, and attempted to connect and request commands.

But the connection itself is unstable, and the energy and logic inside the arm seem to be on the verge of chaos.

opportunity.

A dangerous, but perhaps exploitable, opportunity.

Rowling took a deep breath and slowly raised his right hand, signaling Ellie to stay calm and not move.

The broken feathers and blue feathers on its shoulders trembled uneasily, making low gurgling sounds.

The surrounding noise seemed to be shut out, and all attention was focused on the metal arm pointing at him.

"Step back." Roland's voice was not loud, but it carried an undeniable calmness.

These words were spoken to those around them who were eyeing them covetously.

The adventurers looked at each other in bewilderment.

The calm aura that Luo Lin exuded even after he had restrained himself, along with the dark gold mark that flashed on his wrist, made them wary.

This guy is probably no ordinary character, and he seems to have some kind of connection with the remains of this ancient construct.

Finally, under the calm gaze of Rowling, the adventurers took a few steps back, but did not leave, still keeping their eyes fixed on the scene.

Rowling ignored them.

His entire focus was on the markings on the severed arm and wrist in front of him.

Connection — Request Command —

Since it wants instructions, perhaps we can try giving it an "instruction".

A simple command that is almost impossible to execute by mistake and that fits the current state of the wreckage.

Roland slowly extended his left hand, and the dark gold mark on his wrist shone even brighter.

Instead of trying to touch the arm, he focused his mind and, through the faint connection he had made, transmitted a very brief and clear thought to the metal arm: "Remain silent. Enter minimum power standby mode."

There is no complicated command structure, no permission verification requirement, it is just a simple "suggestion" based on the current state.

The moment the thought was transmitted, the burning sensation at the mark on the wrist suddenly intensified!

A cold, overwhelming feedback, accompanied by a strong sense of rejection and confusion, rushed back!

The metal arm shuddered violently!

The dark gold patterns flashed wildly, sparks crackled at the break, and an even more piercing "crunching" sound, as if metal was being forcibly twisted, came from inside!

It appears to be experiencing a fierce internal logical conflict.

On the one hand, it recognizes the signals of the higher-order instruction carriers of the same protocol and instinctively wants to obey the instructions.

On the other hand, the instruction is too simple, and the sender's permissions seem incomplete, conflicting with some kind of internal verification mechanism.

The air around him seemed to freeze.

Everyone held their breath, watching the severed arm tremble violently in the air, its light flickering, as if it would explode or go berserk at any moment.

Ellie's palms were sweaty with nervousness as she stared intently at Rowling's back.

Fine beads of cold sweat trickled down Luo Lin's forehead as he forcibly maintained the stability of his mental output and the purity of his intention.

No extraneous emotions or distractions should be mixed in; the instruction must appear as official and as self-evident as possible.

"Silence — Standby — Logic Conflict — Protocol Verification Missing —" Fragments of chaotic thoughts surged again, but were weaker than before.

The trembling of the metal arm gradually subsided.

The frantically flashing patterns of light began to shift towards a regular, slow alternation of light and dark.

The electrical sparks flying at the fracture point gradually decreased, and the harsh noise inside also subsided.

Finally, under everyone's tense gaze, the metal arm slowly descended back to the ground, the dark gold patterns completely fading, leaving only an extremely faint, almost imperceptible pulsating light.

The gesture pointing at Luo Lin relaxed, the five fingers spread out, and it lay quietly on the muddy ground, as if it had truly entered some kind of "lowest power consumption standby mode".

There was silence all around.

After a few breaths, some people tentatively began to whisper among themselves.

"Stop—stopped?"

"He—he controlled that thing?"

"How did you do that? You only glanced at it a few times?"

The old goblin stall owner poked his head out from behind his stall, looking at his arm with lingering fear, then at Rowling, his eyes darting around, seemingly lost in thought.

Luo Lin slowly lowered his left hand, and the light of the mark on his wrist gradually faded. The burning pain subsided, but the cold feeling of being watched did not completely disappear.

He knew that the severed arm was only temporarily "quiet," the internal chaos had not been truly resolved, and the faint connection was still there.

We must get rid of it as soon as possible, or — make use of it.

He stepped forward.

The adventurers instinctively wanted to step forward again, but when they saw Roland's calm gaze sweep over them, they stopped in their tracks.

Luo Lin walked to the metal arm, squatted down, and did not rashly touch it with his hand.

He took out the older, darker fragments he had obtained earlier from his pocket and carefully placed them beside his arm.

Sure enough, the extremely faint energy fluctuations remaining at the severed end of the arm had subtle similarities to the energy residue of these fragments, but were of a higher level.

He looked up at the old goblin stall owner: "How much is this?"

The goblin paused for a moment, then immediately a greedy and shrewd smile spread across his face as he jumped out from behind the stall: "Oh dear!"

My esteemed guest! You certainly have excellent taste!

"This is a treasure we went to great lengths to retrieve from an ancient battlefield on the edge of the Ash Belt!"

"Look, it can still move, it's still active! Its research value is immeasurable!"

"If you hadn't intervened just now, who knows what kind of chaos would have ensued—"

"Name your price," Rowling interrupted his rambling.

The goblin's eyes darted around, and he held up five filthy fingers: "Five hundred—no, six hundred standard energy crystals! That's a steal!"

A collective gasp of astonishment filled the air.

Six hundred standard energy crystals are a huge sum of money in the sunken town, enough to buy several decent enchanted items or enjoy top-notch service for a long time.

Luo Lin looked at him expressionlessly, then slowly stood up: "Three hundred. It's in an unstable state right now, and could be completely destroyed or even explode at any time."

"Besides me, I'm afraid no one else would dare to take it, and no one else could handle it."

The goblin's smile froze, and he rubbed his hands together. "Guest, what you're saying—four hundred and fifty! I can't go any lower!"

"Three hundred and fifty. Or I can just turn around and leave, and you can try to sell it to the next person." Luo Lin said calmly, making a move to leave.

"Hey, no, no, no!" the goblin cried out hastily, looking pained. "Four hundred! Four hundred coins! Just consider it making a friend!"

Luo Lin stopped and took out four pieces, each about half the size of a palm, from his dimensional bag. Their quality was significantly higher than standard crystals.

The internal energy flows like that of a pure, liquid crystal.

These are the supplies brought out from the Santa, each piece is worth nearly a hundred standard crystals.

The goblin's eyes widened instantly when he saw the four crystals, and he almost drooled.

He snatched the crystal, hugged it to his arms, and grinned from ear to ear: "Deal! Deal! This treasure is yours!"

Rolin stopped looking at him, squatted down again, and took out a small metal containment box that he had prepared beforehand with basic isolation and stabilization runes.

This is one of the supplies we replenished from the old mole.

Using two non-metallic bone tweezers he had taken from the workbench, he carefully picked up the metal arm, placed it in the box, and locked the lid.

The moment the lid closed, he could feel the last trace of movement on his wrist mark completely subside.

The runes on the metal containment box glowed faintly, isolating the energy connection between the inside and outside.

He stood up and put the box into his dimensional bag.

The whole process was swift and efficient, without any unnecessary delays.

The people around him looked at him with even more complicated expressions.

There was envy, awe, speculation, and also malicious scrutiny.

A guy who can casually produce four hundred high-quality crystals and "control" the remains of an ancient construct is definitely not an ordinary character.

Ignoring the stares, Rowling nodded to Ellie: "Let's go."

The two quickly left the free market and headed back towards the old mole's hideout.

Duan Yu and Lan Yu flew cautiously at low altitude, glancing back every now and then.