Chapter 773 – Three Thousand Mirror Ruins 40

Chapter 773 – Three Thousand Mirror Ruins 40

After finishing breakfast, everyone quickly packed up the tents and campsite equipment, extinguished the bonfire, and once they’d confirmed no obvious traces or safety hazards were left behind, set off toward the western stone forest region along the route they’d agreed upon the day before.

Along the way, whenever they encountered mirror beasts, they fought what they could and fled from what they couldn’t.

The mirror beasts in the Kaleidoscope Wilderness maxed out at two-star, and their magic skill effects were generally quite weak.

For the students of Mirror Explorer Class One, who had undergone physical conditioning and martial arts training, as long as they were careful, they could basically take them down through teamwork.

Even for the small number of pack-dwelling mirror beasts with exceptionally tough physical bodies that they couldn’t beat, they could still outrun them.

In the afternoon, they entered a relatively low-lying area dense with pools of water.

The soil here had turned moist, and the air was permeated with a faint water vapor and the scent of humus.

“Everyone watch your step—it’s muddy and slippery here,” Wang Jingnan called out in warning.

Ren Miao, walking in the middle of the formation, suddenly crouched down and carefully examined the damp soil at the edge of a fairly large pool. There were several clear footprint impressions with webbed toes, and beside them, some slick secretions.

“Water-tongue frog tracks!” Ren Miao’s voice carried a mix of excitement and regret. “These tracks are still very fresh—they must have been active here not long ago!”

The water-tongue frog was his target mirror beast!

Everyone gathered around.

At that moment, this area was blanketed by a winter cold front sweeping down from the north. A thin layer of ice crystals had formed on the surface of the pools, and the air carried a biting chill.

“What a shame,” Chen Xingye said, looking up at the sky. “It’s winter conditions right now. The water surface is frozen, and water-tongue frogs are extremely dependent on liquid water environments. In this weather, they’ve either retreated to deep water or entered a hibernation-like state. They won’t show themselves willingly.”

Disappointment showed on Ren Miao’s face.

While water-tongue frogs weren’t exactly rare and weren’t particularly difficult to hunt, finding such clear and fresh activity traces this quickly was no easy feat either.

Wang Jingnan thought for a moment and said, “We still have plenty of time. Since we’ve found tracks, why don’t we pause here for a bit and wait for the season to change? The Kaleidoscope Wilderness cycles through seasons very quickly—we might not have to wait long before conditions suitable for water-tongue frog activity come around.”

“Yes, yes, exactly! Water-tongue frogs are very active in both spring and autumn. If we wait a bit, there’s a good chance we’ll encounter them, and when they appear, they come in groups… If I can hunt a water-tongue frog and extract the ‘Lesser Water Arrow’ skill, it could help with our hunting operations going forward!” Ren Miao said eagerly.

Her martial arts proficiency ranked near the bottom of the class—she was counting on beast core skills to boost her combat capabilities.

“Let’s do that then!” Lin Yue said. “It’s already afternoon anyway, so we might as well just set up camp nearby.”

And so the group halted at a relatively dry elevated area on the edge of the pool zone, set up camp, and began waiting patiently.

However, the weather in the Kaleidoscope Wilderness seemed to love playing tricks. Although a seasonal shift occurred in less than half an hour, it didn’t change to the spring or autumn they’d hoped for—instead, a scorching summer descended upon them without warning!

The cloud cover overhead thinned out, sunlight baked the earth, and the temperature shot up dramatically.

The previously frozen pools melted rapidly, then evaporated at a visible pace. Water levels plummeted, and several smaller puddles quickly dried up entirely, exposing parched mud at the bottom.

“It’s over… a summer drought…” Ren Miao’s heart sank again. Under these conditions, water-tongue frogs were even less likely to appear.

But just then, Mo Lan, who had been observing their surroundings the whole time, suddenly spoke up: “Bai Wei, look over there in that flower patch—aren’t those the light-healing butterflies you’re looking for?”

Sure enough, not far away, a cluster of sunlight flowers that had withered during winter had stubbornly revived under the summer heat and burst into rapid bloom.

Three butterflies the size of volleyballs, their wings radiating a soft milky-white glow, danced gracefully through the air with slow, elegant movements. Faintly visible above their heads were warm white beast cores.

“Light-healing butterflies!” Bai Wei exclaimed in delight.

“This is a rare opportunity—go, quickly!” Wang Jingnan said at once.

Light-healing butterflies only appeared under specific weather conditions and could vanish at any moment.

Bai Wei immediately took a deep breath and produced a small, delicate butterfly net she’d prepared in advance, along with a specially made transparent crystal bottle whose inner walls were coated with a compound that attracted light-element creatures. Holding her breath and focusing intently, she crept cautiously toward the flower patch.

Her movements were very slow and light, afraid of startling these sensitive little creatures.

Perhaps the summer sunlight had made the light-healing butterflies somewhat languid, or perhaps Bai Wei’s preparations were simply that thorough—the process went surprisingly smoothly.

She seized the right moment and precisely netted a light-healing butterfly that had landed on a flower to drink nectar, then swiftly but gently transferred it into the crystal bottle and sealed it.

“Got it!” Bai Wei cradled the crystal bottle, her face flushed with joy.

Almost the very second after Bai Wei’s successful capture, the energy in the sky began shifting violently again.

Perhaps startled by their companion being caught, the other two light-healing butterflies in the flower patch took fright and frantically beat their wings, shooting upward—on the verge of transforming into two streaks of white light and vanishing into the rapidly changing sky!

Bai Wei had no time to react at all.

At that moment, Mo Lan, who had been ready and waiting, gave a slight flick of her wrist. Two ordinary-looking refined iron daggers left her hand, transforming into twin streaks of soul-chasing silver lightning. Launching after the butterflies yet arriving before them, the daggers pursued the two frantically fleeing light-healing butterflies with unerring precision.

Thwip! Thwip!

The light-healing butterflies jerked to a halt in midair, the glow on their wings instantly dimming. They fluttered down into the flower patch below, twitched faintly once, and went still.

The daggers had pierced their bodies perfectly without causing excessive damage, preserving the materials’ integrity to the greatest extent possible.

The entire sequence took less than a single breath—fast, precise, and ruthless to the extreme!

Bai Wei, who had just been basking in her joy, stood frozen, instinctively clutching the crystal bottle tighter to her chest.

The other students hadn’t processed what happened either, staring blankly at the two fallen butterfly carcasses.

Mo Lan walked over, deftly retrieved the two daggers, wiped the blood clean, then carefully picked up the two light-healing butterfly carcasses and stored them in her storage mirror accessory.

These were light-healing butterflies she had hunted solo—by rights, they belonged entirely to her.

“The beast cores and wing scales of light-healing butterflies are excellent magic materials. Since we ran into them, there’s no reason to let them get away,” Mo Lan said.

Su Yu, standing nearby, nodded in agreement. “Absolutely!”

Too bad she’d been a step too slow—she wouldn’t be getting a share of the light-healing butterflies.

Her gaze fell on the cluster of sunlight flowers where the light-healing butterflies had just been resting. “These sunlight flowers are also magical plants, and they’re in full bloom right now. If anyone wants some, come gather them—a single plant of decent quality can sell for ten mirror coins!”

Having said that, she paid no further attention to the others and pulled a small trowel from her pack, skillfully digging and harvesting the plants with quick, steady movements.