35: Chapter 35 Expanding Production

Zhou An couldn't be bothered to deal with the guild members and turned to walk toward the gym. Just as Zhou An was comfortably engaging in strength training inside the fortress, that system notification sound rang out coldly once again.

[System-wide Important Announcement: Celestial Anomaly Notification!]

[The Greenhouse Period is a thing of the past. From today on, Area 997 will enter a month-long — "polar night Winter"!]

[Duration: 30 days.]

[Environmental Impact: The sun will be completely obscured. The external ambient temperature will plummet to -50°C or even lower within three days. All survivors are advised to stockpile sufficient energy and cold-weather supplies.]

[The black fog is still closing in. In the darkness, please do not stop your engines from moving forward.]

As this announcement ended, the sky outside the window, which had been reasonably bright, was suddenly covered by a thick black curtain, as if pulled by an invisible giant hand.

The sunlight vanished instantly, replaced by endless darkness. Fierce winds began to rage outside the fortress; the howling wind sounded like the shrill shrieks of evil spirits, and the rolling sea of clouds was swallowed by the boundless darkness.

The surrounding world instantly fell into a deathly, gloomy, and oppressive silence, with only the fortress's external searchlights barely cutting through the thick night with a few dim, yellowish halos of light.

Immediately afterward, the temperature sensors on the fortress shell began to emit faint alarm sounds, and the numbers were dropping at a speed visible to the naked eye.

A few hours later, the temperature dropped to minus fifty degrees.

"Minus 50 degrees... No sunlight for a month..."

Li Muzi looked at the darkness outside the window and couldn't help but shiver.

If she were still piloting that unarmored LV2 private plane, this plummeting temperature alone would have frozen her into an ice sculpture within a few hours.

"It's a good thing I managed to latch onto the boss's thigh; otherwise, I definitely wouldn't have survived tonight." Li Muzi pushed up her glasses with extreme relief and turned to look at the fortress hall, which remained at a comfortable, constant temperature.

"Stop sighing with emotion."

Accompanied by steady footsteps, Zhou An walked over after just finishing a shower. He was wearing loose tactical trousers on his lower body, his upper body was bare, and he was holding a black short-sleeved shirt, pulling it over his head.

After this period of high-intensity strength training, his physique had undergone a transformative change. His already well-proportioned muscles were now even more defined; his broad shoulders, full pectoral muscles, and the eight-pack abs on his abdomen—which looked as if they had been carved by a knife and axe—still had a few undried water droplets clinging to them, making him exude an aura of oppression and overflowing hormones.

Li Muzi looked over subconsciously. When her gaze touched that body full of power and beauty, her breath involuntarily hitched slightly, and two blushes instantly flew across her fair face. She hurriedly and flusteredly shifted her gaze away, feeling ill at ease.

Zhou An deftly finished putting on his clothes, not noticing her little thoughts, and shook his damp hair as he said, "Let's go, take me to see your results from this past month."

Li Muzi nodded excitedly immediately, suppressing the palpitations in her heart, and led Zhou An through the light green portal into the [spatial cultivation chamber].

As soon as they entered the door, Zhou An felt an extremely rich aura of life.

The 500-square-meter greenhouse, which had originally only grown a few sparse plants, was now teeming with vitality. What shocked him most was the sea of purple-red wheat in the very center!

"blood crystal spirit wheat! How is there so much?!"

Zhou An exclaimed.

"Hehe, this is all thanks to that legendary [Tears of Poseidon] you gave me, Boss!" Li Muzi pointed proudly to the irrigation system on the side, which was constantly spraying a light blue mist.

"That blue [Spirit Energy Sweet Spring] has an absolutely heaven-defying growth-boosting effect! Plus, after my plane upgraded to LV3, my [Shennong] talent evolved; now I can extract seeds from up to fifty plants at once!"

Li Muzi reported as if counting her family treasures: "Over this past month, I used the spirit spring to forcibly shorten the extraction cycle. Besides the ten epic-grade parent plants you previously synthesized from ordinary wheat, I later extracted, planted, and extracted again on my own... and managed to forcefully expand the number of [blood crystal spirit wheat] to over sixty plants!"

As she spoke, Li Muzi walked forward, her slender fingers gently stroking the purple-red wheat ears swaying in the breeze as if they were treasures. The wheat awns were soft and didn't prick, and crystalline spiritual light rippled in faint circles from her fingertips, while the air was filled with a mouth-watering, rich wheat fragrance.

Zhou An looked at the heavy ears of wheat and gasped.

Sixty epic-grade spirit wheat plants could produce dozens of catties of spirit rice every single day! This was practically a high-grade tonic that could be eaten as a meal!

"That's not all." Li Muzi turned around and picked up a small metal box from the constant-temperature console nearby. "Those [wind spirit berries] we dug up from the giant sky island have also completely stabilized their roots under the nourishment of the spirit spring, and all of them have grown to the peak of the rare grade. I put in a lot of effort to finally extract seeds from them."

She opened the metal box, and inside lay thirteen seeds emitting a faint blue light.

"But this thing has too high a grade, and in this past month, I've only managed to extract these thirteen." Li Muzi sighed with some regret.

"Thirteen... that's enough."

A smile curled the corners of Zhou An's mouth as he took ten of them.

Seven-colored prismatic light shone in Zhou An's hands once again! The colorful Hextech [Level Up!] activated instantly!

The ten blue rare-grade seeds rapidly dissolved and fused within the light.

When the light faded, a seed emitting an extremely bewitching purple-red glow, the size of a walnut, lay quietly in Zhou An's palm.

[Name: wind spirit berry (Purple)]

Effect Leap: The effects of the berries produced are significantly enhanced! After consumption, speed and stamina increase by 10%! Duration extended to 10 minutes!

Growth Cycle: Under spirit spring irrigation, it matures in half a month. After maturity, it enters a perpetual production state, capable of producing about 500 grams of epic-grade berries daily!

"A 10% boost! For ten minutes!!"

Zhou An was ecstatic and carefully handed the epic-grade seed back to Li Muzi.

"Treat it like an ancestor and worship it for me!"

"Don't worry, Boss!" Li Muzi received the heavy seed with both hands as if holding a holy relic, her eyes flashing with a fanatical professional gleam as she vowed.

"I guarantee I'll make it smoothly produce the highest quality fruit!"

Besides these, various strange-looking plants were also planted in the corners of the cultivation chamber. There was glowing firefly grass, "iron-wire vines" with leaves as hard as steel, and several types of low-grade medicinal herbs that emitted a fresh fragrance.

"Those medicinal herbs are byproducts I collected from the sky islands; I'm currently still researching how to refine them." Li Muzi said, pointing to that area.

"Medicinal plants are the next priority."

Zhou An's expression became serious. "There are no doctors in this sky. Although our bodies are tough, no one can guarantee they will never be injured."

He patted Li Muzi on the shoulder and said earnestly:

"Muzi, go ahead and do it. No matter how much energy or spirit spring water you need, I will provide an unlimited supply. As long as you can develop a systematic, mass-producible restorative potion, then in this sky, we will truly be invincible."