Don't provoke mentally ill people in the infinite flow genre!

[Faith in the God of Life: 55]

[Follower [Ling Ye]'s Spirit Value: 20]

With his mental energy greatly depleted, coupled with the aftereffects of forcibly summoning his weapon, Ling Ye was in a semi-conscious state where the pain from his wounds multiplied, and the hallucinations in his mind were intensely intertwined, making it almost impossible for him to distinguish between dreams and reality.

He was already unable to stand up, so Yi Zanglan had to drag him back the way he came. Based on the marks he had made earlier, they found the tree where the suitcase and blanket were stored.

She quickly took out a medicated bandage to stop his bleeding and gave him some honey water to replenish his strength.

Just as she was about to wrap him in a blanket, Ling Ye suddenly struggled to get up and unexpectedly placed his hand on the arrow wound on her shoulder.

Yi Zanglan gasped, her anger rising, and slapped him hard on the head, warning him in a low voice.

"Idiot, pull yourself together! Your teammates are watching in the live stream, do you even want your reputation as a jungle king anymore?"

Upon hearing her voice, Ling Ye instinctively snapped back to his senses for a moment.

Knowing that he must not anger her was a principle ingrained in his bones. He barely opened his eyes and weakly grasped her hand.

"Sorry," he admitted in a low voice, then mumbled in response, "What... 'wild king' or not, you're the captain, what they think of me... doesn't matter."

Yi Zanglan sighed, unable to bring herself to actually get angry with him, and could only pat him on the back in a comforting manner.

"Does it still hurt?"

"Much better."

Ling Ye leaned against the tree trunk to catch his breath for a moment, then subconsciously moved closer to her.

He couldn't describe how he felt at that moment. His soul was in turmoil, and the last thread of reason he had left was almost snapped. Only when he was by her side could he maintain a semblance of calm.

He took a new piece of bandage from his suitcase, tore it open forcefully, and tried to bandage Yi Zanglan's injured shoulder and left hand.

When the bandaging was finished, Yi Zanglan couldn't bear to watch anymore, so she used her teeth to bite the bandage and tighten it around the wound.

"Your task now is to rest. I'll call you later; we have important business to attend to."

Ling Ye nodded, closed his eyes, and remained silent for a long time, but then couldn't help but ask her softly.

"Lanlan, don't you think this is a hassle?"

Yi Zanglan had already opened the bag of dried meat and was about to eat it when she took a bite and turned her head in confusion, as if she was thinking about his words.

"What's the trouble?"

"It's me..."

"Did you get stuck with an unlucky skill that allowed you to enter the game alone while under debuff conditions, forcing me to chase after you and experience the hassle of a high-level dungeon?"

Ling Ye remained silent, which was taken as tacit agreement.

Yi Zanglan smiled and shook her head, as if answering him, or as if talking to herself.

"I've said it before, protecting you is a responsibility I feel I must take on—or not just you, but also Zhao Zhao, Yun happy, Lao Shen, and all the team members I've approved to recruit. They will all be held to this responsibility from now on."

"This is not a troublesome matter. On the contrary, I like to pursue some lively and happy feelings. Life always needs some meaning, otherwise life will not have any significance."

"And you are the ones who can give me that meaning."

Ling Ye's heart, which had been in extreme pain, finally resumed its steady and powerful beating after hearing these words.

He sighed tremulously, and after a long while, said gently, "I swear, I will try my best to live, and I will stay with you for as long as I can."

"Fine, but you'd better have some credibility."

……

At this moment, the team's live stream room outside the game was completely silent, and no team members spoke in the public chat.

But off-screen, in a room unknown to anyone, Yan Zhao, Tang Yunxi, and Shen Yubai were each munching on a spicy snack, silently wiping away tears.

"Waaaah, did you hear that? Lanlan specifically mentioned the three of us. I won't go into the depth of our feelings, but I'll always love her!"

"Speechless. It's like you're saying no one likes it."

"Hey, I love them all! Who dares not to love them? I will lead the charge!"

* * * * * *

Yi Zanglan gave Ling Ye some time to rest, and only woke him up when the pain subsided. The two packed their things and continued their journey deeper into the dense forest.

Unfortunately, high-level dungeons don't allow players to slack off. If too much time is wasted, players may miss important clues and items, or others may get there first.

Normal matches are fine, but Ling Ye is currently under a kill order, so he needs to be even more careful.

The dense forest was quiet, and the two could only move forward with the help of the faint light. Fortunately, they had the map they had found from Gragas earlier. Although it was a simplified version, it at least ensured that they were going in the right direction and would not get lost.

"We're very close to here." Yi Zanglan pointed to a place circled in red on the map. "Logically, there should be a strange tree here, otherwise Gragas wouldn't have marked it."

No sooner had she finished speaking than Ling Ye lightly patted her shoulder and whispered, "I think I saw it."

Yi Zanglan looked in the direction he indicated and saw that the interlaced shadows of trees in the distance were as if seen through a layer of mist, with a towering giant tree clustered in the center.

The trunk was as thick as three people could hug, and the branches were intertwined in a strange way. The leaves were withered and yellow but did not fall, rustling in the wind.

The two approached and circled around the base of the tree before discovering a hollow embedded in the trunk.

The surface of the tree hole resembles an archway, but it's unclear how to open it.

Suddenly, Yi Zanglan had a flash of inspiration. She repeatedly tested the green stone she had just obtained from the bone vine on the intricate patterns and depressions of the tree trunk until she heard a very faint sound—sure enough, there was a pattern that perfectly matched the shape of the stone.

As if burned by some invisible force, the green stone slowly dissolved along its edges, turning into a luminous liquid flowing between the tree trunk's veins.

The light seemed to form a word, and Yi Zanglan leaned closer to examine it carefully.

w…a…t…e…r…

Oh, it's a very simple vocabulary.

Water, of course, also means irrigation.

She looked up at the dry, yellowing branches at the top of the tree, lost in thought.

"It seems that stones alone are not enough. We need to revitalize this tree before we can open this door."

Ling Ye held the map, carefully comparing it: "Should we irrigate it with lake water?"

"That's the only way."

The map shows that at the end of the secret jungle is a lake, which is probably the Holy Spring Lake that Gragas mentioned.

...The deeper you go, the muddier and more difficult the forest path becomes, with sharp shrubs growing everywhere, and you'll get scratched if you're not careful.

It took the two some more time to finally reach the lake. The surface of the Holy Spring Lake was deathly still in the dead of night, the water as dark as black glass, reflecting no moonlight at all.

Dark shadows darted swiftly underwater, making soft, rustling sounds. Judging from their outlines, they appeared to be a group of ferocious-looking piranhas.