58: Chapter 58 Rest and Recuperation

Zhou An came to the console and pressed the hatch open button, ready to welcome Muzi and the others back.

The huge alloy armor slid open to both sides, and the high-altitude wind howled outside.

But under the protection of the fortress's gravitational field, the airflow did not rush into the room.

In the distance, a light private plane cut through the clouds and landed steadily on the spacious runway.

The hatch opened, Li Muzi jumped down first, followed by Zhang Ming and Lin Qing.

"Boss, we just received the signal and... holy crap!"

Zhang Ming's originally excited face froze completely the moment he saw Zhou An.

At this moment, Zhou An was wrapped in bandages, and there were even two pieces of gauze stuck to his face.

His posture, with muscles bulging so much that they were almost bursting the bandages, looked exactly like a battle mummy that had just crawled out of an ancient tomb.

"Boss, what happened to you...?"

Li Muzi widened her eyes, circled him twice, her voice full of shock.

"Dived below 9,500 meters."

Zhou An waved his hand, signaling them not to be nervous, his voice steady but tinged with a trace of fatigue.

"Met a nasty thing with a somewhat high status, had a fight; although I got hurt, I kept my life and brought back some research materials."

Zhang Ming gasped.

Lin Qing looked distressed: "Quick, I'm going to the kitchen to boil some high-level nourishing soup for you. Old Zhang, stop staring, go to the warehouse and get that Tier 3 beast meat!"

"Okay, you guys go ahead and get the food ready."

"Muzi, you stay, has there been any progress in the planting room recently? I urgently need high-dose body recovery supplies."

Li Muzi patted her forehead, quickly took out two sealed wooden boxes from her backpack, and handed them to Zhou An like a treasure: "Boss, I was going to tell you even if you didn't ask. With the blessing of my Shennong talent, I successfully cultivated a rare blue medicinal herb from the batch of seeds we scavenged earlier. It's just that my current profession level can't process them into finished medicine yet, so they can only be eaten raw or boiled in water."

Zhou An took the wooden boxes, and a blue light screen from the system appeared before his eyes:

[Item Name]: Spirit Marrow Pain Relief Grass

[Quality]: Blue

[Growth Cycle]: 7 days/time

[Expected Yield]: About 2 jin per plant

[Efficacy]: Moderately increases cellular self-healing speed, slowly calms SAN value fluctuations. Direct consumption has a 40% efficacy utilization rate.

"Only two plants each time?"

Zhou An raised his eyebrows.

"Oh my boss, this is a blue-quality medicinal herb!"

Li Muzi explained with a wry smile.

"There are only twenty second-generation seeds produced so far. Although my 'Shennong' talent is strong, the current soil level and spiritual energy concentration are already at their limit for raising these two plants."

Zhou An looked at the twenty seeds in the box emitting a faint blue light, his eyes narrowing slightly.

"Twenty seeds... enough."

With a thought, he activated the colorful Hextech [Level Up!].

In an instant, a divine seven-colored rainbow light burst from Zhou An's palm, completely wrapping the twenty blue seeds.

"Ten into one."

With Zhou An's low voice, those blue seeds rotated and collided crazily in the rainbow light, finally condensing into two crystal clear seed cores flashing with deep purple ghostly light. In the center of each seed core, green energy thunder seemed to be flowing, emitting a rich, almost tangible life aura.

Zhou An clicked the panel again, the purple light stinging his eyes:

[Item Name]: Emerald Vitality Vine (Seed)

[Quality]: Purple (Epic)

[Growth Characteristics]: Growth cycle shortened to 5 days, and single harvest volume increased to 5 jin/plant.

[Core Efficacy]: Efficacy concentration increased by 130%. Not only can it instantly seal medium-depth wounds, but it also comes with a "Vitality Rhythm" effect, which can continuously repair internal organ damage and mental fatigue for the next 24 hours.

"Take this, go plant these two." Zhou An threw the purple seeds to Li Muzi.

"Don't waste the remaining two mature blue ones, let Zhang Ming chop them up and put them in the soup."

"Got it!"

Li Muzi excitedly held the seeds and rushed to the seedling area.

After settling the logistics, Zhou An turned and went upstairs to Luo Ning's room.

The door wasn't locked. As soon as he pushed it open, he saw Luo Ning, wrapped like a mummy, slumped on her exclusive chair without any image. She had a lollipop in her mouth and was intently scrolling through research data on a virtual screen.

Everything looked perfectly normal. She was still that quirky, slightly flighty Mad Scientist.

"Boss, don't you know to knock before entering a female employee's room? Careful, I'll report you for workplace harassment."

Luo Ning didn't even lift her eyelids and mumbled vaguely.

Zhou An pulled up a chair and sat down, too lazy to bicker with her, and got straight to the point: "Muzi just got something good, purple epic-grade recovery herbs. Does your 'Mad Scientist' talent have any interest in expanding the business and researching pharmacology?"

Hearing this, Luo Ning pulled the lollipop out of her mouth with a "pop," widened her eyes at Zhou An, and looked heartbroken: "Boss! Open your eyes and look at what I look like now! I'm almost falling apart, okay! And you're still thinking about squeezing the remaining value out of a seriously injured employee? The streetlights on the side of the road have already saved a spot for you!"

"Just mentioning it, not forcing you to do it now." Zhou An was amused by her and waved his hand, "If you're interested, you can go to Muzi and get some when the materials are mature. Your primary task these next few days is to recuperate properly, everything else comes later."

Luo Ning nodded, then her big eyes rolled around, and the topic shifted.

"Since I need to recuperate, Boss, shouldn't we do some shopping? You're holding hundreds of millions in supplies, are you saving them to breed? After our Cloud Top Fortress expanded to a three-story structure, there's too much empty space upstairs. Since we have high-level medicinal herbs, why don't we take this opportunity to sweep up a few high-precision 'recuperation chambers' from the Trading House? Used in conjunction with medicinal liquids, the efficiency will definitely double!"

Zhou An's eyes lit up, and he nodded in agreement.

Previously, he had only focused on piling up the fortress's firepower and defenses; the internal basic living and medical facilities were indeed not fully perfected yet. Now, the three-dimensional space of the fortress could afford to be luxurious.

"Okay, leave the recuperation chambers to me, I'll bid for them in the Trading House."

Zhou An stood up.

"Make a list for me of any other equipment or instruments your laboratory needs."

"Boss is generous! Give me five minutes, I'll make you a luxury package worth tens of millions!" Luo Ning was immediately energized, not even feeling the pain from her injuries anymore, and started typing on the system screen excitedly.

Zhou An smiled and turned to leave the room.

As he walked to the upper level, he summoned the team's internal communication group and entered a message:

"@All members, the fortress's internal facility modules are preparing for a comprehensive major upgrade. Except for the recuperation chambers in the medical room which I've already reserved, list whatever high-end equipment and instruments you need for Muzi's plantation, Old Zhang's kitchen, and your personal rooms. I'm clearing my shopping cart today, buying everything at once."