From Under One Person: Sincere Journey Through the Heavens

"Do you know what it means for you to accept this bag of money?" Jiang Liu suddenly asked.

"what?"

Mark paused for a moment, then blurted out.

"That means you can no longer have your expenses in Dragon Bone Village charged to Grandma Bai's account," Jiang Liu chuckled. "You'll earn it yourself and pay for it yourself. You can't live off her anymore."

"???"

Mark opened his mouth, but Bai Yuekui suddenly winked at him. He took a breath and said in a deep voice, "I have awakened my potential. Can I go on a mission?"

"Row."

Bai Yuekui glanced at Jiang Liu without showing any emotion and agreed to Mark's request, "Your expenses really can't always be on my tab. After dinner, I'll help you find a task to practice on."

"Boss Bai!"

Just then, the shop door was pushed open, and the petite Xia Dou ran in, pulled a chair from an empty table, and whispered, "We've found the cause of the malfunction in the shielding tower of Northeast C3 District. It's a short circuit caused by mana bio-corrosion of the transformer."

The shielding tower in Longgu Village was built based on Bai Yuekui's design, so she was very familiar with it. She immediately thought of a possibility and said, "It might be an overload of the filtering equipment. We need to replace the plasma ring and myelin crystal as soon as possible and call for reinforcements."

"Maido".

Xia Dou spotted Mai Duo on the second floor immediately and called her over. She added, "Go and call Shan Shihui and Jiang Ya from the school. The process of replacing the myelin crystals on the shielding tower and cleaning the mana organisms that corroded the transformer can be a good opportunity for them to have a practical lesson."

"okay."

Maiduo wiped her mouth and said to Haisang across from her, "Brother, I'm full, I'm leaving now."

"Ah."

Hai Sang nodded slightly, picked up a mealworm from the plate, put it in his mouth, and said to Mark, "Hey, big guy, aren't you going to earn your own money in the future? Perfect timing, go practice at the shielding tower in Northeast District 3."

Upon hearing this, Mark's face darkened, and he was about to retort to Hai Sang when Jiang Liu said, "As the saying goes, a tall building rises from the ground. The task of replacing the plasma ring and myelin crystal is simple, but it concerns the safety of Dragonbone Village."

Although Hai Sang disliked Mark, he wasn't a bad person at heart. Compared to the past, after seeing Mark take the initiative to help the village weed and successfully awaken his source potential, his attitude had changed somewhat.

"understood."

Mark nodded, stood up and asked Bai Yuekui, "Can I come along? Just to familiarize myself with my potential."

"bring it on."

Bai Yuekui's lips curled up.

"Just a heads up."

Before Bai Yuekui, Xia Dou, Mai Duo, and Mark could leave, Jiang Liu added, "Eye tumor, a product of the early stage of this Mana Flower."

According to the records of Dragon Bone Village, after a plant dies, the eye-like part of its body closes up without exception.

But with my keen eye, I saw an entity with its eye open appear on the other side of the shielding tower.

"An eye tumor that opens up like an eyeball after the plant dies? That's definitely worth studying."

Bai Yuekui glanced at Mark, lost in thought, suspecting that the dried-up, eye-shaped tumor was the key, and even possibly the crucial factor in Mana's ecological interference with Mark's emotions...

···

The shielding tower in Northeast C3 District is located in an abandoned amusement park, which is quite a distance from Longgu Village. Even by car, it takes nearly four hours to get there.

Along the way, everyone recorded videos. These were messages from the field crew, last words left by those on the mission, and words of encouragement for the rest of Longgu Village after the accident.

Mark, however, observed the grasslands and forests along the way. Although he saw tall, withered vines reaching for the sky, he still exclaimed, "This land shows absolutely no signs of being eroded by the mana ecosystem."

"This is the result of generations of hard work from the people of our Dragon Bone Village!"

Maido was quite proud, and seeing that Mark was in a good mood, she continued, "I believe that one day, we will definitely be able to completely eradicate all the Mana ecosystems on this continent."

"I believe it too."

Since learning that Ran Bing had a way to be resurrected, Mark had never been so determined—not for himself, but also for Ran Bing.

The mana ecosystem of this world must be eradicated!

By the time the vehicle arrived at the amusement park, it was nearly dusk. Besides Bai Yuekui and his group, there was also the Guiyuan Warrior Fang Yuan and the Awakened Tasia.

"Star Explorer is about to depart!"

The shielding tower was built on top of a drop tower. Fang Yuan, the warrior of Guiyuan, shouted happily and pulled the handle in the control room. Mark, Tasia, Xia Dou and others who had already climbed outside the drop tower circle were slowly raised together to the top of the drop tower.

Shan Shihui and Jiang Ya, under Xu Tong's guidance, learned about the process of removing eye tumors and gained experience so that they could cope with it when they carried out missions alone in the future.

Maido climbed up the drop tower's pillars to the short circuit, disassembled the outer shell, and saw dozens of dead eye tumors. She muttered to herself, "When will we finally be able to completely eradicate the mana ecosystem on land?"

She tore off the dried-out eye tumors and threw them into the trash can, but then she saw a grayish-black eye tumor that looked like it had a layer of fine fuzz on it. Its "eyes" were open, resembling glass, and the pupils had a faint dark golden sheen. It seemed to be staring right at her. Startled, Mai Duo remembered Jiang Liu's warning and immediately spoke through her earpiece to Bai Yuekui on top of the drop tower: "Boss Bai, I've found the eye tumor that Boss Jiang mentioned—the one that's withered but has open eyes. It seems the short circuit in the shielding tower is also due to this eye tumor… What should we do?"

"Put it in a special airtight container, and I'll have Mark go down and get it."

Bai Yuekui replied with a message, then contacted Mark, "Mark, are you there?"

"what's up?"

Mark, however, had already arrived at the top with Tasia and Xia Dou. "You can speak directly to me."

"Go down there and bring back the special eye tumor that Maido found."

"I just got here..."

Mark was speechless, but remembering Jiang Liu's reminder, he could only quickly climb down the main section of the drop tower, find Maido, and ask, "Maido, where's the eye tumor?"

"Give."

Maido put on gloves, picked out the special eye tumor embedded in the circuit, put it into a jar made of high-strength transparent material, and handed it to Mark, saying, "This is the first time that an eye tumor has been found in Dragon Bone Village where the 'eyeball' is still open after the body has withered. It must have great research value."

"This thing looks like a surveillance device." Mark felt an indescribable unease the moment he made eye contact with the tumor.

"Don't scare yourself. No matter what, this thing is already dead. No matter how bizarre the Mana ecosystem is, it is still bound by the laws of Earth," Maido comforted her. "Take it to Boss Bai."

Chapter 1183 Maido Wants to Go Home (Part 1)

"for you."

Mark climbed up the lighthouse and handed the special eye tumor to Bai Yuekui.

"It really is open."

Bai Yuekui carefully examined the eye tumor, which had already withered but whose eye-like part was not closed. He glanced at Mark and then tossed it to Tasia, who was checking her guns, saying, "Just in case, take it to the control room where Fang Yuan is currently located."

"clear."

Tasia took out a disc from her waist and, in conjunction with her own potential, opened the top, emitting a blue halo.

whoosh-

Tasia vanished along with the jar in her hand.

"Is this Tasia's potential? Spatial teleportation?" Mark asked curiously.

"Her potential is to put her body into a quantum superposition state, but she cannot do it on her own and needs the assistance of appropriate equipment."

Bai Yuekui explained Tasia's potential, "However, even so, she will experience mild vomiting and dizziness every time she teleports, and in severe cases, she may even experience auditory hallucinations and personality splits. Therefore, she cannot be used for a long time, and we have also stipulated the teleportation distance for her combat to avoid accidents."

Of course, this was the case in the past.

After I mastered the cultivation method of the Nine Apertures and Eight Meridians, I immediately helped her open up the Ren and Du meridians... Unexpectedly, just opening up the Ren and Du meridians greatly reduced the side effects when she unleashed her potential, allowed her to withstand longer teleportation distances, and significantly improved teleportation efficiency.

Refining Qi.

This technique is not difficult to describe, but it requires some effort to circulate the vital essence within the body using one's mind during practice. In other words, it is a process that requires some effort to make the vital essence circulate repeatedly within the body at a certain speed and frequency.

But if Jiang Liu hadn't brought it up, Dragon Bone Village probably would have needed another hundred years of development before it could even think of this!

But in today's world, where mana is rampant—

time does not wait!

Therefore.

Regardless of whether Jiang Liu concealed some inside information about the Mana ecosystem, or whether he himself had other ideas, the fact that he was willing to teach Qi Refining made him a benefactor of the entire Dragon Bone Village.

"You value Tasia highly?" Mark understood the implication.

"The first step of the plan to conquer the filth, entering the filth vortex, is not simply a matter of jumping directly into it. We need to go to the gravitational equilibrium point—the Lagrange point. Tasia's potential makes up for the key difficulties in spatial teleportation." Bai Yuekui did not hide this fact.

Mark seemed thoughtful and asked, "The technological equipment in the village is all developed specifically based on potential, and most of it is used to assist potential, right?"

"After all, the potential of source matter is the most effective means of managing the mana ecosystem, isn't it?"

Bai Yuekui responded with a rhetorical question, typing commands on the keyboard while inquiring about Mark's situation, "How are you doing in the village? Are you settling in?"

“Living in Dragonbone Village, during my time at the Lighthouse, was like a nightmare.” Mark sighed, gazing into the distance. “I will never go back to that place.”

These words, though clearly a genuine expression of emotion, sounded more like a declaration of loyalty. However, Bai Yuekui's fingers paused for a moment before continuing to type the final instruction—

Without him.

She bears some responsibility for Mark's current beast-like state, but she had no choice in order to carry out the "Attacking Blood Plan".

Even though Jiang Liu brought new opportunities, the other party was on Mana Ecology's "blacklist," requiring the "Operation Bloodstained" to re-enter Mana Ecology's core...

After pressing the "Enter" key, Bai Yuekui walked to Mark's side, casually leaned against the railing, and gazed at the slowly setting, golden sun with him. He smiled and asked, "I didn't expect the Scavenger Commander to be so sentimental."

"It's the Hunter Commander!"

Mark hummed in response, correcting Bai Yuekui's teasing, but gazing at the face he remembered, he couldn't help but ask, "During the awakening of my Source Potential, I seemed to see scenes from the old world, living and fighting with a woman, only to have her ultimately turn her gun on me..."

She looks a lot like you, but she has black hair and wears it in a ponytail...

Is that you when you were younger?

"We've actually known each other for a long time?"

“The moment I brought you back to Dragonbone Village and restored your consciousness was also the first time I truly met you,” Bai Yuekui said very seriously. “However, if we’re talking about the first time we met, it should be when you were still the Scavenger Commander.”

Mark was aware that his thoughts might be being monitored by Mana Ecosystem, and Jiang Liu had also said that Bai Yuekui wouldn't tell him everything, and might even mislead him, but he had a feeling that Bai Yuekui wasn't lying at this moment.

and so--

Bai Yuekui didn't deny that she knew the "self" from his memories, but their first meeting was indeed on his return journey after completing the R-49 resource gathering mission...

Thinking of this, Mark gave up thinking, because his only goal now was to revive Ran Bing, so he corrected again: "I already said, I am the commander of the Hunters."

"Oh."

Bai Yuekui laughed, a laugh that sounded both mocking and gratified.