Chapter 849 – Light Liquid

The moment Zhizhi emerged from the circular crystal house, the white crystal trees immediately captured all of her attention.

In just a few nimble moves, she scaled a relatively tall white crystal tree, crouching among the branches. She plucked off a milky-white, semi-transparent leaf and held it up curiously against the sky’s light to examine it. When she lifted her gaze toward the light source, she was startled to see three “light-gathering stars” in the sky, each radiating a soft halo.

Zhizhi froze on the spot, clutching the leaf, head tilted back toward the sky, motionless for a long while.

Clack glanced at the White Crystal Person lying in the coffin—skin milky-white and semi-transparent, deep in slumber—then turned to look at the white crystal trees not far away, which had a strikingly similar texture. His soul fire flickered faintly: they looked pretty much the same?

He walked over to a white crystal tree, carefully selected a branch with a suitable shape, and gently snapped it off. Then he sat down on the ground, took out the small bone file he always carried, and began meticulously polishing it. He wanted to fashion this “white crystal branch” into a beautiful new “bone” to install on himself.

Sentai cautiously extended her thinnest exploratory root tendril from the spatial planting pot, slowly probing it into the soil below—soil that resembled crystalline sand—attempting to absorb nutrients from this unfamiliar world’s earth.

But mere seconds later, the tip of the root that had penetrated the soil began to stiffen at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Sentai immediately pulled the root tendril out of the ground in discomfort, shaking it somewhat aggrievedly in the air. Half of her root tendril had already crystallized, just like a white crystal tree.

The soil here tasted absolutely terrible!

“It seems the soil on White Crystal Star isn’t suitable for plants from other worlds to grow in,” Mo Lan mused as she helped Sentai cut off the crystallized half of her root tendril.

Leaving Zhizhi, Clack, and Sentai to familiarize themselves with the research base’s environment, Mo Lan stood on the platform outside the crystal house’s entrance and cast a Light spell.

A massive warm-white orb of light appeared in her hand. As it lifted away from her palm and slowly floated upward into the air, it gradually expanded in size and grew increasingly bright.

It finally hovered steadily directly above the farm, illuminating the entire area like a small sun.

Under the abundant light, the white crystal trees on the farm—previously dull and lusterless, like gray sculptures—began to undergo visible changes.

The first thing to change was their color. The grayish-white layer on their trunks and branches rapidly faded, gradually restoring their milky-white, semi-transparent texture. Starting from the leaves, a faint glow began to circulate, slowly converging toward the trunks before flowing back out to the branches and leaves.

These faint glimmers were initially like trickles of a gentle stream, then grew increasingly bright and lively.

On some of the more robust white crystal trees, luminous droplets—like dewdrops—even began to condense at the tips of their leaves. This was the light liquid.

Mo Lan took out a small white crystal bowl she had found earlier while tidying up the crystal house, and carefully collected a few drops.

The liquid flowed within the bowl, emanating a pure and gentle luminous halo.

In the memories of the few White Crystal People she had encountered, light liquid of this quality was something only the Radiant Nobles could afford to drink.

But now, gazing at the thin layer of light liquid in the bowl, Mo Lan felt a strange sense of familiarity. “Isn’t this just liquid light essence?”

Deep within Shadowless Mountain in the Sacred Mountains of Valen, there had once been a lake of liquid light essence. The Morningstar Dwarves had previously relied on the liquid light essence from that lake to sustain their lives.

Liquid light essence was essentially highly concentrated and liquefied elemental force of light—in other words, light elemental essence.

“These trees can convert light into light elemental essence?” Mo Lan’s gaze upon the white crystal trees before her instantly changed.

Light was the most basic and cheapest of resources, but light elemental essence was an extremely precious magical material.

For white crystal trees to possess such a conversion ability, they absolutely qualified as highly valuable magical plants.

Originally, she had only planned to put these white crystal trees to some use by having them produce light liquid to feed the White Crystal People participating in magical experiments at the base. But now, Mo Lan decided to carve out a dedicated small circular garden within the Witch’s home mirror space specifically for cultivating white crystal trees.

Who knew when these white crystal trees might prove useful in another world!

“But still… the White Crystal People actually subsist on light elemental essence?”

Mo Lan’s curiosity about the White Crystal People’s bodies surged intensely.

In her memory, only the Morningstar Dwarves treated light elemental essence as something akin to “food.”

But the Morningstar Dwarves’ situation was extremely unique.

They had been designed by Angels and infected by an otherworldly magical material called Star Marrow, which caused them to contract “light element disease.”

The light element disease forced them to remain in illuminated areas at all times, and they had to drink the light elemental essence from the Lake of Radiance daily to maintain their bodily functions.

Once interrupted, their bodies would rapidly crystallize and crumble into a pile of crystal sand.

This was somewhat similar to the White Crystal People.

If the White Crystal People did not regularly consume light liquid, their bodies would gradually become brittle. In severe cases, even a minor bump could cause them to shatter.

Localized damage could be repaired by bonding with light liquid. Only when the entire body was completely pulverized would life come to an end.

However, the Morningstar Dwarves could still enjoy other foods normally in addition to light elemental essence.

But light liquid was the sole item on the White Crystal People’s diet, differing only in quality.

Those uncultivated, wild-type white crystal trees, without supplemental lighting, required an entire week to condense just a single drop of low-quality light liquid.

And one drop of low-quality light liquid could keep a White Crystal Person’s body out of its highly fragile state for a full day—normal activity was fine, though they still needed to be careful about bumps and falls.

“Both the White Crystal People and the Morningstar Dwarves fundamentally depend on light elemental essence to survive. The only difference is that for one it’s an innate trait, while for the other it’s the unfortunate result of contracting a disease later in life.”

Mo Lan organized the similarities and differences between the two in her mind.

An acquired disease might still have a chance of being cured, but a trait deeply rooted in a race’s very nature would be extremely difficult to change.

“But the Morningstar Dwarves’ case can absolutely serve as a reference!” Her thoughts suddenly became clear.

Since the White Crystal People’s survival was so dependent on light elemental essence, their affinity for the light element might well be, like the Morningstar Dwarves’, at an extremely high level.

“Perhaps the light element is the magical energy they can master?”

This idea gave Mo Lan a surge of excitement.

The White Crystal People’s semi-transparent, crystalline bodies looked like natural vessels perfectly suited for storing light essence.

Mo Lan decided to start her verification from this angle.

With a flip of her hand, she produced a talent crystal ball—the kind commonly used by Valen mages to test magical aptitude—but then shook her head.

This type of crystal ball could only detect elemental affinity and initial psychic power strength. It could not probe whether light elemental force already existed within the subject’s body.