Karen's alchemy-trained employees, under the protection of the mercenaries, were already bustling around, collecting various biological samples they needed. Karen didn't participate herself, but stood at a distance, checking whether the samples her employees brought back met her requirements.
Hayden stood guard nearby. Although Karen's fighting prowess was certainly no less than his, being a bodyguard was, after all, just a job. The ancients said, "A subject dies for his lord's honor." While mercenaries might not be quite that extreme, if they were forced to fight their employers directly, how could they ever face the world again?
"What use do you have for these magical beast samples from the wasteland?"
While acting as a bodyguard, he casually asked,
"These magical beast materials, which have absorbed too much pollution and are even mutated beyond recognition, can't be used to make medicine even if we take them back, right?"
Karen was so focused on examining the large frog eggs Juliet had brought her back that she didn't even look up: "That's why I said samples, not medicinal materials."
“Indeed. But you’re not investigating the extent of mutations caused by the magical beasts absorbing pollution in the wasteland…” Hayden paused here, “At least I don’t think so. Can you just tell me what you really want to do?”
“No,” Karen said calmly. “Can you tell me when you started covering for me, and how you built such a large mercenary company?”
This... is a rather troublesome problem.
"No."
So, of course, that was the only answer Hayden could give.
"Besides, I didn't start this mercenary company. I said many times when I was in college that I would never start a company, right?"
However, his words did not dispel Karen's doubts. For some reason, her expression became even more serious: "That's exactly what I heard too."
what?
What did you hear?
Hayden was truly dumbfounded.
After that, Karen didn't say anything more, only directing the staff to seal all the highly contaminated biological samples into special containers. Hayden watched for a while, but the whole process was unremarkable and nothing particularly interesting. It was only after the battle that Juliet took a bottle of daisy essence to disinfect and apply medicine to Eric; the scene of the two bickering was much more amusing.
The entire team left New Jersey very early in the morning. Finally, around two or three in the afternoon, Karen had collected and packed all the biological samples she needed.
While chewing on a military-grade energy bar, Hayden asked, "Can we head back now? The dangers on the road will increase after dark."
Karen shook her head: "There's still one thing I haven't finished. Get the mercenaries out of the swamp first. I need to do some experiments."
These words immediately reminded Hayden of the horrific scene she had witnessed in her laboratory. She quickly greeted the students and called them back, and they moved several hundred meters away from the swamp.
Karen, however, was still not satisfied and directly ordered all the mercenaries and even her employees to move to a place where they could not see this side.
In the end, only Hayden and Karen remained at the edge of the swamp. This way, no one else could see what she was planning to do.
“You should move away too,” Karen said, glancing at Hayden.
"Stop joking around." Hayden immediately shook his head. "What if a giant swamp worm suddenly jumps out and swallows you whole?"
Karen snorted, surprisingly offering no criticism, and walked directly to the edge of the swamp, taking out a sealed box and opening it. She picked up a small bulb inside and tossed it into the bubbling muddy water.
Hayden blinked, realizing it must be a daffodil bulb. But daffodil bulbs usually take three years to bloom, and even with magic to speed it up, it couldn't be that fast—before Hayden could even finish the thought, something incredible happened.
Starting from where the narcissus bulb fell in, the originally murky, muddy water became clear at a visible speed. The turbidity dissipated, and the annoying bubbles gradually disappeared. Not only that, but even all kinds of dirt floating on the surface of the water were absorbed.
Light and clarity.
It was as if a god reached out from heaven, scooped up the pool water, and cleansed away the filth.
All the filth in the water within a radius of about 300 meters vanished in an instant. Although it was only a drop in the ocean compared to the entire vast swamp, Karen had merely tossed in a single daffodil bulb.
Hayden couldn't help but whistle softly. This was a genuine miracle.
However, what he didn't expect was that the miracle was not actually over yet.
The next instant, a beautiful daffodil sprouted from the spot where the bulb had been thrown in, its petals turning from mud into snow-white blossoms. However, unlike its common counterpart, known as "Golden Cup and Silver Stand," this daffodil did not produce golden stamens.
What emerged from the end of its six petals was a round, emerald-green bead the size of a pearl.
Hayden stared at it and felt a strong sense of terror creeping up the back of his neck like an ice slime.
Karen purified a large area of the swamp's pollution with just this one daffodil—impressive, very impressive—but magic often works in some way. Where did all the absorbed pollutants go?
Hayden didn't know, but his intuition told him the answer. Watching Karen pick up the emerald green bead and put it into the sealed box, Hayden understood completely.
"This isn't purification at all. You've just concentrated all the pollutants and toxins in the area together?"
He quickly leaned closer and asked in a low voice.
“This is also a kind of purification,” Karen replied calmly. “I have no way to solve the problem of toxins not being completely broken down, so I might as well do the opposite. ‘Purification’ is the foundation of alchemy. After purifying the pollution and toxins, what’s left will naturally be clean.”
Hayden recalled the scene she had seen in her laboratory last time and suddenly realized: Why did this "Dream Flower (Sabunikaf)" emit such poison after purification? It was simply because it purified the magical pollution and toxins of the wasteland, even transforming them into something even more deadly!
"As for the purified toxins, they are certainly not useless. There are so many places where toxins are needed or can be used. But I need to do another experiment first."
As Karen spoke, she packed away her things and took out a new box. However, when she opened the lid, what came out of the box was not flowers, but a tiny little girl, no bigger than the palm of her hand.
With the slender figure of a young girl, tiny white limbs, long pointed ears, and sparkling butterfly wings—goodness, this is actually a living little fairy, fast asleep in the box.
Hayden rarely saw fairies. The last time he saw these little fairies was at Adam's wedding banquet. At that time, Dhritarashtra, the King of the Netherworld, invited a thousand little fairies to serve as waitresses for his daughter's wedding. But in any case, everyone knows that fairies and spirits are closely related.
Karen woke the little fairy from the box, picked her up and showed her the surrounding swamp and lake, then asked her, "What do you think of this environment?"
The fairy nodded and mumbled something to Karen in a language even Hayden couldn't understand. Then Karen took out a tiny flower seed and placed it in the fairy's arms. The little fairy immediately flew out of the box with the seed in her arms, happily flitting around, looking around.
Hayden finally couldn't hold back any longer: "What are you doing now?"
Karen calmly replied, "In real estate."
what?
"Don't you own a flower shop? How come you're bringing up real estate?!"
For some reason, Karen laughed when she said that.
"Why can't selling flowers be considered real estate?"
she asked rhetorically.
But that makes no sense at all!
Before Hayden could finish speaking, the little fairy finally found a spot by the lake. Clutching the flower seed, she landed on the muddy ground—
Then, she actually buried herself and the flower seed alive in the ground!
076: The essence is a class issue!
Hayden was surprised but not frightened as he watched the little fairy throw herself into the muddy ground with the flower seeds in her arms.
—After all, what's there to be scared of?
Throughout history, there have been countless instances of magic involving burying people alive, primarily as sacrifices. Regardless of whether it's evil, Hayden has never actually seen a fairy burying herself alive with a seed. Fairies are usually the ones collecting sacrifices; who has ever seen them bury themselves?
So Hayden was just surprised, and then watched from the sidelines, waiting to see what surprise—or horror—Karen would bring him next.
Could it be that Kallen can plant one fairy today and harvest ten fairies tomorrow?
But to be honest, if that were the case, Hayden would really be scared.
So, as always, after the flower seed and the little fairy were planted in the soil, sure enough, within two seconds, just like Karen's previous products, it immediately grew into a large flower. This time, the flower that grew was an orange tulip. Before Hayden could figure out what was so special about this flower, he saw a small head peek out from the newly opened bud.
Upon closer inspection, wasn't that little fairy just popping out of the flower?
She flew out of the tulip and happily circled Karen several times, chattering away in a fairy language that Hayden couldn't understand, such as Tirnano. In short, the little fairy seemed quite pleased.
Hayden wasn't stupid; he'd figured things out by now, but he still found it unbelievable: "So, you planted a flower for this fairy, giving her a bud to sleep in, and that's considered selling it as a house?"
“You’ve seen those single-person beehive dwellings before,” Karen said calmly, a smile still on her face. “But of course, that’s not how it really is. You can go and see for yourself.”
Since she said so, there shouldn't be any more toxin problems.
Even if there were, Hayden happened to be immune to poison. So he leaned closer, peering intently into the flower, hoping to see a stamen—but there was no stamen. Hidden beneath the petals seemed to be a small house. Hayden was now looking into the house as if through a round skylight.
Hayden moved closer and looked more closely from a few different angles. Inside the small room, he could see an orange bed, a table, and a chair; it looked just like a single room in a small hotel.
Now he understood no matter what anyone said: "This flower actually has a hidden world inside. But creating such an alternate dimension must be very expensive, right?"
“It’s not that complicated.” Karen shook her head. “It’s just about shrinking the fairy a little when she goes in. The same magic would consume a lot of energy on a human. But for a fairy of natural nature, especially a flower fairy who is already this small, the magic consumption is negligible.”
These words truly astonished Hayden.
Is this some kind of real estate scheme using flowers for fairies?!
Of course, that's all well and good, but things weren't actually that easy. Karen spoke to the little flower fairy for a few more minutes, then left her there and pulled Hayden away.
Hayden couldn't help but turn his head to take a few more glances, but the little fairy lying among the flowers looked quite comfortable.
"The two most basic and most important experiments have been completed."
Halfway there, Karen suddenly spoke up,
"The experiment cannot be completed in one go, so I need to ask her to stay here for a while longer to observe how well the two types of flowers survive in their natural environment. But fairies like them and require clean water and soil. This technology can already help lower-level fairies solve their housing problems; at least, it can solve everything except the location issue."
Unless there's a way to teleport at will, completely disregarding spatial distance, a city's location inevitably possesses its own value and uniqueness. The city's infrastructure and environment alone have their own locational value—that being said, Hayden also knows that compared to the original troubles, Kallen's flower has already solved a whole host of problems for the fairies.
Besides, this flower house doesn't necessarily have to be planted in the wilderness. They're just here to conduct an experiment today. Maybe Karen can even plant the flowers in pots later, so the little fairies can live in them and carry the pots around everywhere!
The "purification" of flowers as a medium for alchemy, and flower magic to solve the fairy housing problem. While the latter may seem somewhat comical, there is no doubt that both techniques possess enormous potential.
Such an important experiment was a success. On the way back to New Jersey from the wilderness, Karen didn't say anything, but even Hayden could tell that she was obviously quite proud.
Hayden initially said nothing. He admired Karen's achievements, but at the same time, he couldn't help feeling a sense of dread.
Karen has achieved remarkable results.
It might even be too amazing.
Hayden never felt he truly understood Karen, but they were fairly familiar with each other. Back in college, he often watched her in the lab concoct various potions, and Hayden would even copy her ideas. But compared to what she had achieved today, those things were nothing.
These flower seeds can be called miracles.
If these miracles could be mass-produced industrially, Kallen would now truly possess the power to change the world.
It's like Hayden himself was always looking for a way to analyze and mass-produce miracles. He had a miracle thriving at home, so how come Karen managed to get things done first?
"How exactly did you manage to create something like this?"
So, sitting in the car driving through the wilderness, Hayden couldn't help but ask the question again.
He didn't actually expect Karen to answer his question.
However, Karen, who was sitting next to Hayden, glanced at him, raised her hand to cast a silencing spell, and then said, "Didn't I say before that I extracted some things from the sewers during the battle of the [Bo Xun] incident?"
Hayden nodded. He already knew about it. Karen had found the plants that Angela's power had conjured in the sewers and used them as a base to develop something.
"At first I thought those were new technologies from the smoke mirror company, and that's what the Mitra Group thought too."
But Karen then revealed something Hayden didn't know.
"But I later realized that something was wrong. It wasn't something wrong with the materials, but something wrong with the 'sympathy'—the source of those flowers seemed to have a special connection with me."
As she said this, she glanced at Hayden again.
Hayden, on the other hand, felt his heart sink.
He had completely forgotten about this.
The flowers that grew in the sewers and the purification of the industrial zone's ley lines were all due to Angela's aura and the alchemical circulation fluid from her body spilling onto the ground. So, putting aside Angela's aura, who created that circulation fluid?
It was Hayden who made it. But he did indeed copy the formula he designed at Karen University.
What's worse, Karen knew that Hayden had copied her formula—alchemy and potion experts have a keen sense of smell, and Karen had already discovered it when Hayden brought Angela to her house more than half a year ago.
“I didn’t think too much about it at first. But recently, my business has been growing, and I need to find a reliable mercenary company to cooperate with, so I found your company. And when I checked, I found out—wait, how come this company is under your name? Wait, how come the person in charge of the company’s business is that clockwork doll from last time? Wait, why does everyone say that doll is a fully cybernetically modified human?”
Karen frowned as she said this.
"What the hell are you doing, Hayden?"
Ah this
Hayden was covered in cold sweat.
“The most reasonable explanation, of course, is that you were lying to me last time. That girl named Angela really is just a fully cyborg.” Karen still frowned. “But I still feel something is off. You’re definitely hiding something from me, and it’s something big.”
"So you're asking me how I actually made all this stuff? — Okay, you go first."
How could Hayden possibly speak first!
He couldn't tell anyone about Angela's affair, even if it meant his death!
Karen may be a somewhat rebellious deity, but she is still a deity. Once she learns about Angela's situation, who can predict what will happen?
So it was only at this point that Hayden truly realized how little he actually knew about Karen.
If he truly understood Karen, he could certainly decide whether or not to tell her more... But then again, there are probably very few people in this world who can understand each other to that extent. Let alone ordinary classmates or friends, even among men and women living together, how many can truly understand each other to this degree?