The morning sunlight spilled over the lake's surface, creating a sparkling expanse of ripples.
Hainowei's figure leaped from the water, kicking up splashes of water. She spread her arms as the sunlight fell upon her, revealing fine, delicate scales on her body that reflected the light in a seven-colored glow.
The scene was breathtakingly beautiful.
Leaning against a standing stone pillar, Zhang Ye watched this scene and sighed softly.
“So beautiful...”
Hearing this, Hainowei slipped back into the water, swam over to the edge of the altar, and asked, “What is so beautiful?”
Zhang Ye smiled and said, “All of this. It's all beautiful.”
Hainowei looked around and nodded slightly. “Indeed, it is all very beautiful, but you humans always want to make it disappear.”
Zhang Ye shook his head. “Perhaps some people choose to sacrifice this beauty for profit, but there are also those who will do everything in their power to protect her.”
Hearing this, Hainowei smiled. “Will you protect it?”
Zhang Ye nodded and said, “I will protect her.”
“Why?”
“Because I feel like it.”
Zhang Ye stood up and looked back at the fruits of his hard work over the night.
With the materials from the hunted magical beasts and the ores provided by Hainowei, the altar's magic circle was already two-thirds complete. With a little more effort today, it would be finished.
“I'm still missing a few materials. I'll go look for them in the forest,” Zhang Ye said.
“Alright,” Hainowei nodded.
“By the way, are there any Saint-tier magical beasts around here?” Zhang Ye asked.
“Yes,” Hainowei nodded.
Because her presence nourished this land, the dense water elements here had allowed many magical beasts to advance, and several Tier Ten magical beasts had even broken through to the Saint-tier as a result.
“Can you tell them not to attack me? I can't beat them,” Zhang Ye said.
Hearing this, Hainowei also remembered this issue and nodded. “I will have the water currents inform them.”
Only then did Zhang Ye confidently step into the forest.
There were many rare treasures in the canyon. For example, the Waterflow Fruits nourished by the dense water elements could even reach the level of a Tier Ten item!
Zhang Ye collected things all along the way, occasionally encountering a few magical beasts. If he needed their materials, he would hunt them; otherwise, he simply ignored them.
After walking dozens of li, Zhang Ye suddenly came upon an open area that looked like a basin.
In the center of the basin was a small lake, and in the middle of the lake was a small island. A cluster of small trees grew on the island, laden with small blue fruits about the size of blueberries.
Curious, Zhang Ye analyzed them.
【Purity Fruit: Tier Five Spirit Material. Grows in areas dense with water elements. It has a sweet and refreshing taste and is edible. It has the effect of cleansing the mouth and washing away bodily impurities. Its rarity is no less than that of a Tier Ten Spirit Material.】
Seeing this, Zhang Ye couldn't help but exclaim.
A Tier Five Spirit Material as rare as a Tier Ten one? This was definitely good stuff!
He had to gather them first.
However, just as he stepped onto the island, a massive blue ape suddenly emerged from the lakeside. Zhang Ye analyzed it and immediately thought, Oh no.
【Clearwater Magic Ape: One-star Saint-tier water-attribute magical beast.】
It was actually a Saint-tier magical beast. With Zhang Ye's current combat strength, he had no way of dealing with it.
Just as Zhang Ye was planning to slip away, the magic ape lightly leaped and landed on the island.
It merely glanced at Zhang Ye before ignoring him, grabbing a handful of Purity Fruits and tossing them into its mouth to chew. After chewing, it grinned at Zhang Ye, showing off a row of clean, white teeth, and then pointed at them.
Seeing this, Zhang Ye gave it a thumbs-up.
“Very white!”
The magic ape blinked, then actually burst into laughter. It pointed at the Purity Fruit tree, using a finger the size of a human head to pinch off a single Purity Fruit without harming the tree in the slightest.
Then, it gestured toward Zhang Ye with its chin.
Zhang Ye understood and nodded. “Don't worry, I'll only pick the fruits, I won't cut down the trees.”
The Clearwater Magic Ape nodded in satisfaction, then turned and left.
Watching the departing magic ape, Zhang Ye wiped the sweat from his forehead.
Clearly, the magic ape hadn't attacked him because Hainowei had already informed these Saint-tier magical beasts through the water currents not to harm him.
Such moments of peaceful coexistence with magical beasts made Zhang Ye feel exceptionally good.
Still, he wouldn't forget that the law of the jungle was the fundamental rule of this world.
Meanwhile, the magic ape scratched its head, looking utterly bewildered.
Strange, how did I understand what that two-legged beast was saying...
After picking some Purity Fruits, Zhang Ye pinched a few, tossed them into his mouth, and chewed.
The taste was quite good. Although the sweetness wasn't very prominent, it was extremely refreshing. After eating them, even his breath carried a clean fragrance.
Zhang Ye's eyes lit up.
It really was good stuff. Perhaps he could process it to make the mouth-cleansing effect even stronger?
No sooner said than done. Zhang Ye found a quiet spot and performed a deep analysis on the Purity Fruits, discovering that the substances they contained were beneficial to the human body and could indeed be processed.
Zhang Ye crushed the Purity Fruits, added a bit of honey and some sugar from his spatial ring for flavoring, boiled it into a paste, filtered it, and let it cool. Soon, a piece of candy that looked like a gummy bear appeared.
Zhang Ye cut it into suitable small pieces and popped one into his mouth to chew. He found that the texture was very similar to chewing gum. The perfect balance of sweetness and chewiness stimulated saliva secretion, making the mouth-cleansing effect even stronger.
Most importantly, it was purely natural, pollution-free, had no food additives, and could even be swallowed!
He had discovered an otherworld version of chewing gum!
Zhang Ye decided to give this little snack a name.
“Hmm... let's call it Broad-Minded. Broad-Minded—smile with strength!” Zhang Ye chuckled and ran off to pick more Purity Fruits.
These Purity Fruits were enough for him to make a year's supply of Broad-Minded chewing gum.
Then, Zhang Ye happily returned to the Water Spirit's lake and made a sumptuous breakfast for himself and Hainowei.
After breakfast, Zhang Ye took out the Broad-Minded chewing gum, handed it to Hainowei, and said, “Try this. Chew on it for a bit.”
Hainowei curiously took it, popped it into her small mouth, and chewed. She immediately found it to be quite wonderful.
“I made it with Purity Fruits and added some refreshing mint to make the flavor even crisper.” Saying this, Zhang Ye snapped his fingers. “Broad-Minded chewing gum! Broad-Minded—smile with strength!”
“How is it? Not bad, right?”
“It's great!” Hainowei nodded as she tossed another piece of gum into her mouth. “It's delicious!”
Afterward, Zhang Ye once again threw himself into the work of constructing the altar's magic circle.
Finally, around noon, the altar's magic circle was complete!
“As long as you inject mana, the altar's magic circle will guide the surrounding water elements and mana to assist in cultivation, and it can also accelerate your recovery. Give it a try.”
Hainowei looked at the completely transformed altar, momentarily dazed.
Suddenly, she remembered something and said in a hurry, “Those runes...”
Zhang Ye chuckled and pointed at the center of the altar. “I saved them for you.”
Hainowei walked over to take a look and let out a sigh of relief.
Although the ancient characters she had left behind had no magical effect, they were the traces she had left, existing like a diary to constantly remind and warn her.
She didn't want what had happened in the past to ever repeat itself.
However, she soon noticed that an extra line had appeared beneath the ancient characters she had left.
It was also written in ancient characters, but it clearly wasn't written by her.
Leaning in closer with confusion, she suddenly froze on the spot.
“Some people bring you pain, but you must believe that there will always be those who can bring you warmth.”
She slowly looked toward Zhang Ye, only to find him flashing a brilliant smile at her.
His row of white teeth gleamed under the sunlight.
So brilliant, so warm.
“You don't have to believe in anyone, but I think...”
“...you can try believing in me.”
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