Chapter 22: What Kind Of Weird Thing Have You Been Researching These Years?
Jinggang Spiritual Value Research Institute, Researcher Lu Nan was slouched on the sofa in the office, slacking off.
It couldn’t all be blamed on him; after all, from yesterday until now, he had barely slept for almost 24 hours.
Starting from when the readings on the research institute’s instruments showed anomalies, Professor Luo Wan had rushed straight to the Blue Star Botanical Garden with Lu Nan and a few other researchers.
Pinpointing the spiritual power anomaly location, conducting long-term spiritual power fluctuation detection, collecting plant specimens around the anomaly location, setting up spiritual power detection devices, deploying cameras for long-term monitoring of the area, analyzing water vein geological conditions…
Half an hour ago, they had just barely finished the first stage of work.
Leaving two researchers to wrap up, Professor Luo Wan returned to the research institute first.
Lu Nan, this slacker fish, hurriedly followed, and only now could he slump down and catch his breath.
Too exhausted to sleep instead, Lu Nan, slouched on the sofa, pulled out his mobile terminal and scrolled casually.
As soon as he opened the Huaguo Spirit Plant Forum, a viral video post caught his eye.
“Quick watch! A Weeping Ancient Willow you’ve definitely never seen! The kind that whooshes out wind blades!”
Heh.
Lu Nan felt a wave of disdain; he himself was a spirit planter, and a rare all-auxiliary spirit plant contractor at that.
He had also studied spirit plants with Professor Luo for many years, making him a well-known young scholar in the spirit plant world.
How had he never heard of a Weeping Ancient Willow being able to fling wind blades? AI-generated, probably.
Subconsciously, he still clicked on the post.
One second, two seconds, three seconds…
Lagging???
Lu Nan sat up straight; it had been a long time since he’d seen a post on the Huaguo Spirit Plant Forum that could crash the site.
Wait.
Why was it another Weeping Ancient Willow?
Continuous work had made Lu Nan’s brain a bit sluggish.
He remembered: the protagonist that had forced him into this nonstop overtime was exactly a wild Weeping Ancient Willow that had been contracted away.
“No way it’s this coincidental, right?”
Lu Nan muttered softly, persistently clicking on the post.
It unlaggged after just a moment, and he squeezed in.
It was a video of Ge Bai and Jiang Yan battling, filmed by some quick-handed student on the teaching building with a mobile terminal.
The handheld footage wasn’t too steady, but the video clearly showed Big Willow flinging out wind blades multiple times.
Even the scene of the wind blade shattering the Porcupine Beast’s spikes was recorded crystal clear.
Impossible! It’s a joke, right!
The entire Interstellar Alliance had only discovered a dozen or so offensive spirit plants so far, and none with high attack power, which was why they were classified as auxiliary spirit plants.
The most powerful spirit plant skill was just the Devil Vine’s strangulation.
What the hell was this wind blade?
What the hell had he been researching all these years?
A blurry video had violently shaken Lu Nan’s worldview.
At this moment, he noticed the “Real” marker in the upper right corner of the video on the forum.
This meant that after official verification, the video was confirmed to have no AI involvement and was genuine footage.
There would be no issue with this; the Huaguo Spirit Plant Forum wouldn’t stake its reputation to endorse a fake video.
Lu Nan rewound the video to the very beginning and watched it carefully again, but still couldn’t spot any flaws or fabricated elements.
The video poster was very thoughtful, providing a detailed explanation below the video about the filming time, location, and the two protagonists involved.
Huaguo, Jinggang City, Chongming District Public Junior High School, Weeping Ancient Willow, Student Ge, Porcupine Beast, Student Jiang…
Lu Nan keenly extracted the key points from the long, rambling string of information.
Local? Weeping Ancient Willow? Student Ge?!
Yesterday, Lu Nan had also seen the information from the Spirit Plant Garden and Contract Registration Center.
He swallowed hard.
At this point, he could basically conclude that this Weeping Ancient Willow flinging wind blades, and the girl standing beside the willow tree, were definitely the subjects of their 24-hour research!
“Professor Luo! Come look quick! Something huge has happened!”
Lu Nan yelped strangely as he sprang up from the sofa, holding the mobile terminal and rushing out the door toward Professor Luo’s office.
It seemed 24 hours of nonstop work wasn’t his limit after all.
——
Professor Luo Wan held the mobile terminal up to eye level, frowning tightly as he finished watching the video.
It wasn’t any emotional reaction; it was just that, to him, this phone screen was a bit too small.
But soon, he too was deeply shocked by the video’s content.
Having researched spirit plants for so many years, he knew better than anyone what this meant: the emergence of a brand-new offensive method for contracted spirit plants.
It was extremely important for both spirit planters and spirit plant research.
Setting down the mobile terminal, Professor Luo Wan took a deep breath.
He looked seriously at Lu Nan.
“Immediately find a way to contact Ge Bai and invite her to the research institute; we can go to her in person too.”
“Go handle it now; this matter takes priority over everything.”
“Ask Little Li if he’s pulled up this girl Ge Bai’s information and records yet.”
“Tell him to hurry; if there’s any issue at any step, come find me anytime, and I’ll sort it out.”
Actually, yesterday when the Spirit Plant Contract Center notified Professor Luo about the wild spirit plant contract, he had already arranged for someone to pull Ge Bai’s information, but it was still in process.
At this moment, he couldn’t wait any longer.
Lu Nan also understood the importance of the matter and hurriedly ran off.
Leaving Professor Luo alone in the office, deep in thought.
Less than two minutes later, the office door was flung open again—it was still Lu Nan.
Professor Luo Wan looked at him in some surprise: “Contacted her already? That fast?”
Lu Nan didn’t even enter, half his body hiding behind the door, grinning sheepishly: “Um, Professor Luo, my mobile terminal is still in your hand.”
Professor Luo Wan was speechless and tossed the mobile terminal he was holding to Lu Nan.
Lu Nan cheekily caught the phone, then finally closed the door and left.
He shook his head.
Professor Luo Wan really couldn’t figure out what he had seen in this kid back then.
Besides his research talent being passable, he had flaws everywhere else.
He reached up and rubbed his brow.
Ge Bai, Ge Bai!
The name felt oddly familiar; it wasn’t the first time he’d seen it yesterday.
He suddenly remembered, pulled open the drawer, and opened an envelope—it was one sent from the Blue Star Welfare Institute.
Now Professor Luo Wan finally remembered; it really was fate.
His old friend’s daughter had even written a letter specifically asking him to look after this girl.
Luo Wan looked at the envelope with a wry smile; this time, both professionally and personally, he really had to take good care of her with all his effort.
This old friend of his really had some luck; how had they raised such a miraculous little girl.
Luo Wan was now even more curious about Ge Bai and that Weeping Ancient Willow.
He had a feeling their surprises went far beyond this.
——
Back in his own office, Lu Nan directly pulled up the form sent over from the contract center and easily found Ge Bai’s mobile terminal number.
Taking a deep breath, he dialed it directly with his own mobile terminal.
Beep. Beep. Beep…
“The number you have dialed is currently unanswered; please try again later.”
No matter how many years or worlds passed, the unanswered call tone was still just as dull.
Lu Nan wasn’t discouraged and dialed again.
Beep. Beep…
He didn’t know that at the other end of the mobile terminal, Ge Bai really, really wanted to curse out the person calling her right now.
