Chapter 213: Landing (2/2)

Ye Chong arrived at the landing spot used by Qin Zuo last time. His main goal was the teardrop mineralite, everything else was secondary, even though there were many other useful things around here. Ye Chong said nothing, unwilling to expose his true intentions to the team.

From high above in the air, one could see that the land was covered by dense forests, but the leaves were too thick to see through.

”You’re sure it’s here?” Ye Chong repeated his question. Ye Chong needed them to be exactly where they were last time. Unlike from outer space, Mu’s scanning perimeter here was only three kilometers. If they could not find their last landing spot, finding the teardrop mineralist on this massive planet would be like finding a needle in a haystack.

The five of them nodded in unison as Qin Zuo said, ”Yes, right here. You see those two rivers joining over here, making a fork, I’m sure it’s here. Last time, we walked along the wider of the two rivers towards that direction.” Qin Zuo pointed.

Seeing their unanimous agreement, Ye Chong decided to land there.

Zika class starships were not comparable to the small starship that Qin Zuo and his team used. The noise from their landing was staggering. The Zika class starship was five kilometers in length, and Coxcomb flattened all the trees that lay beneath it. Nearby, wild animals scattered in fear. The sight of those animals escaping in hordes was magnificent.

The five of them watched sadly. Those timber could be sold at a high price in the Five Galaxies, but they were now all destroyed. Many other plants were destroyed in their landing, and the one who was affected the most was Meng Fei’er.

Coxcomb landed on the forest, forcing a clearing out of the trees.

When the five of them disembarked from the Coxcomb, they felt refreshed by the moist air outside. Air produced by starships was still incomparable to natural, fresh air born out of the forests. No matter how much technology had advanced, some things were still irreplaceable with human effort.

The team left the starship cautiously. The forest terrain was complicated, holographic scanning was ineffective, and travelling with mechs was inadvisable. Hence, all of them could only wear their protective suits as they left the ship. Unfortunately, the starship was not equipped with weapons like heat ray guns, and this bothered all of them, aside from Ye Chong. While they did not meet any vicious wild animals the last time they were here, but it was still better to be prepared for the possibility. The five of them could only pray that their protective suits were solid enough to keep them safe. These protective suits came from Coxcomb; if it were up to Ye Chong, he would not have bought them.

Ye Chong noticed then that the scenery was completely different than what he saw from above.

Flowers bloomed in all colours, and the moist, warm climate nurtured the rich life on this planet. For a short moment, Ye Chong took in the view in a daze.

Light gold branches were traced with a network of gold colored lines, and crimson palm-shaped leaves also had gold colored veins on them. Many small, black-gray fruits hung from the trees. Ye Chong immediately recognized that those were golden tilia - he had seen them before in the chip given to him by Lunatic Guan. These plants were ornamental, their fruits edible, but these did not mean that the plants were suitable for planting indoors. Sap from the plants would turn poisonous upon contact with blood, and could kill a human within seven seconds. In the chip’s records, there was once an ancient tribe that liked to cover their weapons with this horrible tree sap. However, the tribe was eventually wiped out by the human race.

Ye Chong really wanted to pluck a few of those leaves for research, but he restrained himself. Now was not the time for this, he should focus on the teardrop mineralite instead. Based on Mu’s feedback, there were no teardrop mineralite deposits within a three-kilometer range.

Not many inhabited planets could offer this wonderful sight. While Qin Zuo and his team had came here before, they were still deeply entranced by the area in their second visit.

”Alright, let’s move.” Ye Chong’s plain but firm voice brought them back to reality.

”Do we follow our tracks from last time?” Qin Zuo asked.

”Yes.”

The team marched ahead in a line along the river. Leading the team was Qin Zuo, while Han Ben guarded the rear. Since the protective suits had propulsion systems, they could fly slowly along the way. This allowed Phal and Vicente to keep up despite their age. Ye Chong wondered how far both of them could go without those suits.

The forest flourished. Humongous trees reached for the skies, covering the ground with their dense canopies. Only an occasional break in the leaves allowed for some stellar light to pass through.

Vines sprawled out in a frenzy between the ground and the large trees, a hindrance to their way forward. Fortunately, it was much cooler beside the river. Ye Chong examined the plants as he passed by them, surprise growing beneath his calm expression. The plant life here was extensive, and it was not 20 minutes into their journey that Ye Chong had already recognized 22 of the rare plant species recorded in Lunatic Guan’s chip. Moreover, these plants seemed to be growing quite healthily.

This was undeniably heaven for all alchemists.

A plant with a massive flower in fiery red caught Meng Fei’er’s attention. The flower was vivid red, and its petals were oddly shaped, like two human face contours stuck together back-to-back. The stem was thick. This was probably the first time Meng Fei’er had ever seen this kind of plant, and as she wondered at why she had never seen it before, as her body was moving closer and closer towards the plant.

Ye Chong looked back unintentionally, and saw what was happening. His eyes widened immediately!