Universe Infinite Canteen

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Soon, a vast expanse of dark clouds appeared overhead.

Ma Lu quickly took out a tent from his travel bag and set it up on the large rocks.

Yun Que was so stunned, "Sir Knight, why do you… have everything in your bag?"

"Are you a fool? Because I'm the one who came up with this combat strategy."

Ma Lu confidently replied, which caused the Ouroboros Serpent to tighten its expression once again; it turned out that this guy really hadn't lied — he'd known her secrets when they were still in town.

The Ouroboros Serpent had watched with her own eyes as Ma Lu bought each item for the travel bag, and at the time, she was curious why the Knight needed climbing and camping gear for his mission.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

It never occurred to her that Ma Lu was buying these items in preparation for dealing with her, and by the time she realized, it was already too late.

When raindrops began to fall from the sky, everyone had already crawled into the tent; Ma Lu had purchased the tent in a hurry and didn't inspect it closely, only to discover upon setting it up that it was a two-person tent.

Squeezing five people in was a bit of a squeeze, especially since Ma Lu was like a suit of armor, taking up nearly half the space by himself, leaving the remaining four witches to crowd into the other half.

Yun Que's buttocks were almost pressed against the Hellhound's face, which drew continuous complaints from the latter.

Even so, she didn't go out.

The Acid Rain Spell that the Ouroboros Serpent had conjured was no ordinary acid rain — it would continuously drain the health of plants, and any person hit by it would be injured as well.

Fortunately, it didn't last long; after 10 minutes, the sky cleared up again.

Ma Lu, feeling no more raindrops on the tent, poked his head out and saw that many of the Energized Plants below had already fallen, the remaining ones looking somewhat listless, with HP mostly below half, and some were just on the brink, though some three-star ingredients were still relatively robust.

This time, without being ordered by Ma Lu, the Ouroboros Serpent conscientiously released another round of Acid Rain Spell.

After the second round of the Acid Rain Spell ended, of the more than seventy Energized Plants below, fewer than 5 remained alive, and the Knight experience gained directly took Ma Lu up another level, to Level 8.

He acquired another Virtual Item — the Ironwall Banner.

Once the Ironwall Banner was placed, it could add 2 points of defense to the members within the grid; however, defense as an attribute was somewhat lackluster, not as useful as attack and recovery during the initial phase of expansion.

It might come in handy against stronger opponents later on, though.

Ma Lu secured the Ironwall Banner, then with a wave of his hand, commanded Yun Que and the others to focus fire on the higher star ingredients below.

A quarter of an hour later, the Energized Plants that had survived the two rounds of acid rain also fell one after another.

It was then that Ma Lu found out... he had leveled up again.

Yes, after finding out the correct way to use the [Stone], leveling up became that easy.

Upon reaching Level 9, Ma Lu acquired a new Knight Technique — Hand of Reason.

Effect: Designate one Witch, remove 15 points of Sin Value from the target, cooldown time 4 hours.

Seeing this skill, Ma Lu couldn't help but let out a soft gasp; as stingy as always, the Hand of Reason could only remove 15 points of Sin Value per use, and it had a lengthy 4-hour cooldown time.

But this skill could be life-saving at critical moments, especially when a Witch's Sin Value overloaded, sending them into a Lost State. A Hand of Reason could restore their sanity, even allowing them to continue the fight.

Its strategic value was quite high; plus, it could be used to cast more skills in normal times.

Good, Ma Lu climbed down from the rock, took some photos and collected a bunch of ingredients on the ground, then climbed back up, took out the Gas Cartridge Stove, and started all over again, continuing to attract nearby Energized Plants.

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This time he was roasting potatoes, and surprisingly, they smelled pretty good. Just then, Hellhound and the others were getting hungry too, so Yun Que went to get the canned meat from her backpack, planning to share it with the others.

But instead, Ma Lu threw a package her way.

Yun Que opened it to find the piece of zucchini Ma Lu had roasted earlier inside.

"Sprinkle some salt on it, and it should be pretty tasty."

"No, no, no, momma warned us never to eat anything from the outside."

However, before she could finish speaking, the purple-haired girl snatched the zucchini from her hands, "You don't eat, I will. Only a fool would take the Church's ghost stories as the truth..."

"Ah, A'Quan!" Yun Que exclaimed in surprise, only to see Hellhound take a bite, close her eyes, and not move an inch.

"How are you, are you okay?" Yun Que asked with concern.

The purple-haired girl suddenly rolled her eyes back and fell to the ground, twitching uncontrollably, scaring Yun Que half to death. She hastily went to find the Bliss Bird nearby to help.

Yet the latter was still acting nonchalant, flipping through an old book, "She's perfectly fine. What is there to save?"

Yun Que turned around and, sure enough, saw Hellhound had "come back to life" and was clutching her stomach, laughing heartily.

"Idiot, you were so easily fooled by me."

"Momma said that deceiving people is wrong, A'Quan."

"Momma deceives people herself. Look at me, I ate these Energized Plants, and I'm still alive and well."

"Ah?"

While Hellhound and Yun Que were messing around, the Ouroboros Serpent approached Ma Lu again.

"The potatoes aren't done yet."

"I... didn't come to eat." the Ouroboros Serpent said, seeming to have made up her mind, "I came to ask, what do you plan to do with me?"

"Oh, you mean the part about you deceiving the Church and deliberately hiding your strength? Don't worry, as long as you follow my commands and fight earnestly, I won't blow your cover," Ma Lu said, while turning the potatoes over, "after all, I have my own job to do and would prefer to avoid trouble whenever possible."

Upon hearing this, the Ouroboros Serpent slightly relaxed, then added, "What's your view on the relationship between the Church and witches?"

Ma Lu shook his head, "You don't need to probe me, I do feel for the witches' plight, but as I've said, I just want to do my work in peace at this stage and don't want to get involved in trouble. The people from your side who slid a card under my door, I didn't even look at it."

"A card, what card?" the Ouroboros Serpent was stunned.

"Hmm?" Ma Lu looked carefully at the Ouroboros Serpent, unsure if the girl was just extremely good at acting or genuinely unaware, but either way, the surprise on her face didn't seem feigned to him.

So he added, "Besides the witch that was burned last week, you must have other companions in the city."

The Ouroboros Serpent did not answer directly but vaguely said, "Even under the rule of the Church, there are still some who empathize with witches. But they probably wouldn't be bold enough to actively contact a knight. What was written on the piece of paper?"

"Don't know, like I said, I didn't look at it."

The Ouroboros Serpent thought for a moment but couldn't come up with any ideas, and at that moment, more Energized Plants were attracted over by the smell of the grilled vegetables.

So the Ouroboros Serpent also went back to prepare for battle.