Chapter 1530: Chapter 1528: Lv Xi
Green.
After a considerable period, Richard’s vision returned to normal, and he saw a lush greenery—a thick, dense green expanse.
The pale blue "Round Mirror" shaped portal vanished behind him, leaving him amidst a dense forest.
Surveying his surroundings, he saw towering Arborvitae spread across his view, each measuring dozens or nearly a hundred meters high, racing towards the sky to capture sunlight. They vigorously extended their branches outward, vying for survival space against other trees.
Looking down, a carpet-like grassland lay not far ahead, a bit further was an area of connected shrubs, moss flourished in corners, and some vines tangled around the trunks of Arborvitae, striving to climb upwards.
This gave an impression of vibrancy, yet for some reason, Richard sensed a thread of aging amid this vitality.
The air was filled with a faint, damp, decaying smell from the pile of dead branches and leaves, thickly carpeting the ground, providing a soft, cotton-like feeling underfoot.
"Rustle, rustle..."
Richard walked among the trees, closely observing everything, striving to gather as much information as possible to understand this unfamiliar plane.
Was this the center of a vast forest in an unknown plane, or perhaps... the forest had overtaken the entire plane?
Logically speaking, if a plane had high productivity, the forest area would be relatively small, as the wise beings of the plane require more space for production and development, prompting them to develop the forest. Conversely, if a plane’s productivity was low, or had been high but suffered damage, then the forest area would continuously expand, gradually swallowing the habitat of wise beings.
In an extreme case, if there were no more wise beings on the entire plane, having the forest occupy the entire plane or most of it wasn’t impossible.
So... what is the situation on this plane?
Richard squinted his eyes, chose a direction, and swiftly flew forward.
...
Several days later.
During his flight, Richard had explored most of the plane, he descended from the sky, his brow furrowed.
He was still in the forest and there was no sign of reaching its edge. It was hard to believe that there could be such an immense forest in a normal world, supporting his earlier suspicion that his second hypothesis was increasingly plausible.
Remarkably, after traversing such a long distance, he noticed the surrounding trees beginning to wither.
It seemed like they were lacking water or some nutrient, cracks wide as fingers appeared on their surfaces, and fine wood shavings continually fell from the fissures. Surrounding plants were similarly affected, the grassland became grey and white, shrubs drooped, and vines on the trunks grew slack.
The imperceptible sense of aging in the air intensified, causing some discomfort.
Despite the vibrant appearance of the forest, for reasons unknown, it felt lifeless.
As Richard pondered the plane’s condition and his next steps, he suddenly heard a distant rustling sound.
Turning his head, it didn’t take long before a small, emerald figure entered his field of vision.
It was a little girl of about seven or eight, riding a brown deer, holding onto the antlers with both hands, moving continuously through the forest. Her hair was a tender green, tied into two ponytails at the back of her head, swaying rhythmically as the deer leapt over fallen branches and shrubbery.
After traveling for a while, the deer carried the little girl to a dry tree, the girl grasped the deer’s antlers tightly, slid down from the remarkably tall deer, and approached the tree roots, placing her hands upon them.
Strangely enough, as her hands touched the tree, the dry tree visibly rejuvenated—the cracked exterior healed, yellowing leaves turned green, branches became upright—and surrounding grass, shrubs, and vines returned to normal.
In less than a minute, a small area was restored to its former state.
The aging air abruptly lessened, as Richard watched the little girl stepping towards another tree.
"Yo yo~"
The deer called out.
The little girl looked puzzled, first turning to the deer, then sensing something, she suddenly turned her head towards Richard.
The moment she saw Richard, the little girl was clearly startled, then her eyes lit up, showing a bit of delight, she intended to run over without any hesitation.
After running a few steps, she realized something was amiss, slowly stopped, looked over at Richard and greeted him, somewhat awkwardly: "You... hello?"
She spoke in ’Baluku’ tongue, a language commonly used in the Ancient Wizard Civilization... hearing the little girl’s voice, a thought crossed Richard’s mind, swiftly switching to ’Baluku’ language, he nodded, responding to the little girl: "Hello."
"Are you someone from another world?" The little girl asked directly, without any detour or concealment.
"Yes." Richard nodded, appreciating such direct communication, he said to the little girl, "Since I’m from another world, I’m unfamiliar with yours, would you mind telling me about your world?"
"Introduce?" The little girl pondered the meaning of the word, after several seconds she said, "I can introduce... but there is not much to introduce—what you see is the appearance of this world, the other places are the same, and I am the only person you see in this world."
So the world is like this? You are the only person in this world... Richard’s eyebrows raised at her words, then his heart sank... some of his suspicions were confirmed, the current plane was indeed a declining one, and it had fallen to an extreme... traces of Ancient Wizard Civilization had been completely eradicated, becoming a primitive plane.
Unaware of Richard’s thoughts, the little girl continued: "Actually, I wasn’t alone at first; there was also my mom. But she passed away shortly after I was born, and since then, I have taken care of the forest as she instructed. She once told me not to be afraid after losing her, because one day people from other worlds would come to help me take care of the forest."
"So..." At the end, the little girl looked over with her big eyes and seriously asked Richard, "Excuse me... are you the one here to help me take care of the forest?"
"Take care of the forest?" Richard smiled wryly upon hearing that, "I’m afraid I can’t, at least not now—I have other important things to do."
"Other important things?" The little girl seemed puzzled, thinking for a long time without understanding, "Could there be... something more important than taking care of the forest?"
"Of course, there is."
"Alright then... so... after you finish your other matters, can you come back and help me take care of the forest?"
"If I have the time, of course, I can. For now, I’d like you to tell me, in this world, are there any special, unique, or dangerous places?" Richard asked aloud.
According to his thought, since this world had no traces of the Ancient Wizard Civilization, staying longer wouldn’t make sense. His goal was to go to the homeland plane of the Ancient Wizard Civilization and the plane swallowed by white light, which required finding the space jump point to the next moment plane, continuing the leap forward.
How many more jumps would be needed to reach the destination, he couldn’t be certain, but he had to try.
The little girl stared at Richard with her big eyes for quite a while. Ultimately, she didn’t refuse Richard’s request. She raised her hand and pointed in a direction, saying, "If you are looking for a special place... keep going straight from here, you’ll find more and more withering trees until you reach a place where all the trees are withered, and you’ll see a small black mountain. My mother warned me not to go near there. I don’t know if it’s the place you’re looking for, but you can go see."
By the way, this is for you, it’s the blessing my mother left for me, and now I give it to you as a blessing, so when you see it, you’ll remember me and remember to come back to take care of the forest with me."
Saying that, the little girl handed Richard a pointed silver leaf, the texture of which was somewhat hard, like it was made of metal.
Richard pressed his lips together, ultimately didn’t refuse the girl’s goodwill, took the silver leaf and said, "Well, thank you for that. By the way, what’s your name?"
"Lv Xi." The girl said.
"Lv Xi, huh... Lv Xi, then we’ll meet again if there’s a chance," Richard said, waving his hand, turned around, and without further hesitation, swiftly flew toward the direction the girl pointed, disappearing from her sight.
The little girl stared blankly for a while before withdrawing her gaze. Her spirits weren’t high, but she didn’t know why, because no one had ever taught her what disappointment was.
She didn’t lie, since her mother died when she was very young, she’s been living alone. This made her have no clear concept of many things, such as time, distance, or even tell right from wrong.
If there’s no accident, she would live ignorantly like this until people from other worlds intrude, change her, or she dies alone as the last person of this world.
Today, she was fortunate to meet someone from another world but also unfortunate to part with them quickly after meeting.
She wasn’t sure if she could really meet him again, but she had no other choice, as she couldn’t leave here; she had to take care of this world’s forest as her mother said... forever.
The little girl pressed her lips, no longer watching the direction where Richard disappeared, and walked toward some withered trees, starting to use her innate special ability to heal the "injured" trees.
...
A little later.
Richard appeared on the black hilltop Lv Xi mentioned, not far ahead was a nearly two-meter-high pale red "Round Mirror" he had just activated, indeed one of the space jump points of this plane.
In this aspect, Lv Xi didn’t deceive him.
This made Richard somewhat emotional: It must be acknowledged that Lv Xi is an incredibly pure little girl. Due to lack of sufficient communication with outsiders, her intelligence might be more immature than her appearance, causing her to speak and act entirely without guile.
And some of Lv Xi’s experiences, her ability to heal trees, also piqued his interest. If possible, he would be willing to stay and interact more with her.
But he also knew what was most important at the moment, so he could only do as he told her—come back after finishing important matters.
Hope there will be such a day...
Thinking about these, Richard looked towards the activated pale red space jump point.
Compared to previous space jump points, this one was evidently smaller.
In theory, a plane can possibly have more than one jump point, so if he’s willing to spend the time, perhaps he could find a second larger space jump point outside the small hill.
However, due to lack of sufficient information, he wasn’t clear about which plane the jump points would lead to, even if he did know, he couldn’t ensure the development of the destination plane over the long term and avoid extreme decay like the current plane.
In that case, randomly choosing a space jump point and carefully choosing one doesn’t make much difference.
So why not just choose a space jump point randomly.
Let everything depend on probability then.
Let’s see what the probability will make the next plane he goes to be like.
Come on!
Richard straightened his expression and stepped into the space jump point.
The space point fluctuated slightly, Richard disappeared, and the world became quiet again.
...
