"Mommy, the peach trees have decreased!" Cui Cui quickly discovered the dire situation and exclaimed.
"Mmm," Lu Wanqing nodded.
Lu Wanqing then climbed the tree and began picking peaches.
She hadn't been in a hurry before because the peach trees were here, and the peaches weren't favored by mutated animals, so they wouldn't be eaten by others. But now, it was clearly different. The purified fruits had evidently become the most favored food of the forest animals. In just a few days, birds had devoured more than half of the peaches on this tree.
If she and Cui Cui didn't pick more, they might not find a single peach tomorrow.
Lu Wanqing picked many peaches, but it was only enough for her and Cui Cui to eat for a few days. Any more would be useless.
The peaches on the trees were very ripe and soft. They wouldn't keep well after picking, and most of what couldn't be eaten within a few days would likely rot. In that case, it would be better to leave the fruits on the trees for the forest animals to eat.
Lu Wanqing remembered the color of the rabbit that had been eating the green grass earlier. It was a completely black rabbit, with a very faint white at the root of its fur.
Earth was mostly filled with mutated plants and animals. The whiteness in the rabbit's fur was likely due to eating the purified green grass. Therefore, she could boldly guess that plants purified by her water, when eaten by other animals, could also purify those animals, allowing them to gradually return to their unmutated appearance from ancient Earth, at least no longer being completely black and toxic-looking.
Earth was the homeland for everyone and the planet Lu Wanqing was most attached to. If possible, she also hoped this planet would regain its vitality and that the creatures on it would return to their pre-mutation state. At the very least, they shouldn't be so black and unappealing.
"Mommy, aren't we picking the rest?" Cui Cui asked Lu Wanqing.
Lu Wanqing smiled and said, "No need. We can't eat that much, and they'll rot if we pick them. Let's leave them on the trees for the other animals on Earth."
Cui Cui, as if understanding yet not fully comprehending, agreed, "Mmm."
Lu Wanqing looked down at Cui Cui and added, "There are many other things on Earth. Without peaches, we can find other food. We won't starve."
"Mmm, mmm!" Cui Cui nodded emphatically.
Mother and daughter brought the peaches back to the cave together. On the high branches of the peach tree, the little black snake watched Lu Wanqing and Cui Cui's retreating figures without moving. After a long while, the little black snake also looked at the peach tree behind it.
Leave them for other animals on Earth?
Lu Wanqing... just like Lu Yang, they were different from most greedy humans. They actually had space in their hearts for other animals.
No one, not even the insectoid race, knew that at this moment, in the heart of the Insectoid Empress, Lu Wanqing, like Lu Yang, held a sliver of difference from other humans.
After returning to the cave, Lu Wanqing put down the picked peaches and then took Cui Cui out again.
Hunting was secondary; her main goal was to search for the location of the symbols Wei Xingzhou had drawn.
Wei Xingzhou had risked danger to send them a signal, so that place shouldn't be too far, it should be somewhere not far from their cave. If they searched carefully, they should be able to find it.
Lu Wanqing took Cui Cui back into the forest. They pretended to be hunting, searching in the forest. No one discovered their true objective.
After an unknown amount of time, when Cui Cui stepped on the fallen leaves, her foot suddenly landed on something hard, like a basin. She froze and looked down at her feet.
"Mommy, there's a basin here!" Cui Cui immediately exclaimed with surprise, shouting for her mommy.
Hearing this, Lu Wanqing also turned her head to look at where Cui Cui was standing. It was a basin, looking very dirty and old, and rusted. It was clear it had been eroded by wind and rain for a long time.
However, Lu Wanqing still walked over. She and Cui Cui had no tools at the moment. These seemingly dirty basins might be useful to them.
Lu Wanqing squatted down and picked up the basin.
On the StarNet plaza, many people were watching this scene. They were all stunned, then delighted.
Finding a basin on Earth, did that mean it was left by humans?
Soon, a student from the Archaeology Department recognized it and immediately sent a barrage of comments.
"I recognize this basin. This is a basin from our Archaeology Department. It must have been accidentally dropped on Earth by an archaeology professor during an expedition!"
Soon, the news of Lu Wanqing discovering a basin left by an archaeologist on Earth surged to the top of the Federation's trending topics.
Meanwhile, on Earth, after Lu Wanqing picked up the basin, she quickly found other items: chopsticks and a spoon, all severely eroded by wind and rain, clearly unusable.
Lu Wanqing thought of the signal Wei Xingzhou had left and searched the vicinity carefully. Indeed, she found something useful: a space artifact!
The outer surface of the space artifact was rusted, looking as severely corroded as the food basin just found.
"It looks very old. It must have been dropped here by someone in the past," Lu Wanqing said, pretending to be casual, thinking that her and Cui Cui's every move was being monitored by live cameras, and perhaps the Insectoid Empress was also watching.
They couldn't let everyone discover that these items were intentionally left here. They had to make everyone, or rather, the insectoids, believe that these items were lost by humans who had come to Earth before, and that she had just been lucky enough to find them by chance.
Cui Cui was also clever. Hearing this, she immediately chimed in, "Mmm, mmm. The Federal Academy of Sciences dispatches archaeologists to Earth for expeditions every year. Mommy was discovered and brought back by archaeologists years ago."
With Cui Cui's words, many people became even more convinced that these items were left behind by the Federation's archaeologists.
"Ahhh, the goddess actually found a space artifact!"
"Could there be anything inside this space artifact? Goddess, hurry and open it!"
"Are you guys crazy upstairs? Space artifacts are bound to their owners. Outsiders can't open them at all."
On the human StarNet, people were also arguing. While they were happy that Lu Wanqing had found items left by archaeologists, it was a pity that space artifacts couldn't be opened by outsiders.
However, as everyone was discussing, in the live broadcast, Lu Wanqing had already opened the space artifact and taken out the items inside.
Everyone: "???"
They were all stunned, completely dumbfounded, and watched this scene in disbelief.
Mu Sijie had contact with Wei Xingzhou and knew that the items were sent by Wei Xingzhou and his group, and that they needed to conceal their identities.
When the items were sent out, Wei Xingzhou and Zhong Li Feiyu had already messaged him, asking him to pay more attention to Lu Wanqing's dynamics in the live broadcast these days. If Lu Wanqing opened the space artifact, he must help guide public opinion, letting people know that with extremely powerful mental energy, it was possible to open someone else's space artifact.
Seeing this, Wei Xingzhou immediately used his own identity to publicly post a message, explaining that super powerful mental energy could override the ownership binding program of a space artifact and forcibly open it to retrieve the contents.