Claire Chapman, Sean Raines, and Zephyr Mercer were also roused by the commotion.

Seeing this, Paige Summers quickly sent everyone else back to their tents. She had Zane Archer wait for her off to the side while she walked over to Claire Chapman and the others.

Then again, you couldn’t blame the team for being so wary of night raids.

About half a month after leaving Central City, they had been ambushed one night while making camp.

A swarm of small, black birds had practically covered the tops of all the tents.

Although these Mutant Birds were small, they were fast, vicious, and numerous. In less than five minutes, they had pecked and torn at the sturdy leather tents until they were unrecognizable, and several team members were injured.

It was difficult for Paige Summers and the others to attack the airborne enemies. Fortunately, Ben’s Earth Element Power was incredibly effective. He formed thick blocks of earth into a small cave, shielding them from the Mutant Birds outside. But with no way to attack effectively in the limited time they had, the crisis was far from over.

The situation, to put it mildly, had been extremely perilous.

Fortunately, that night happened to be just after Claire Chapman had Promoted his superpower, and he unleashed a massive attack with all his might.

He single-handedly manipulated countless earth-blocks of all sizes, launching them at the Mutant Birds. This wide-area assault killed or injured a great number of them, finally giving the others room to fight back.

However, although the Mutant Birds were eventually wiped out, Claire Chapman suffered internal injuries from overusing his superpower.

Even after taking the Healing Medicine Paige Summers had brought, the effect wasn’t great. While his life wasn’t in danger, his superpower started having issues. This was also related to the fact that he had just Promoted, and the energy in his body had not yet stabilized.

Everyone was deeply worried when they learned of this outcome.

In the end, it was Sean Raines who stepped in to help. He first used a talisman to stabilize Claire’s physical condition, then spent a long time treating him with a special technique.

The Taoist Order excels at nurturing one’s health, and Sean Raines had some expertise in this area.

This two-pronged approach kept Claire Chapman’s superpower from regressing. Nevertheless, he still hasn’t fully recovered.

Sean Raines’s advice was for him to stop using his superpower altogether and focus on recuperating.

This was why the team members were particularly sensitive to night raids, and why Paige Summers felt bad for having disturbed him. She hurriedly explained, "It’s nothing, it’s nothing! You guys go back and rest. I just wanted to ask this kid about plant seeds, but who knew he’d get the wrong idea!"

Zephyr Mercer looked puzzled. "Since when are you interested in plant seeds?"

’Just now!’

Paige Summers shrugged without answering.

Claire Chapman was also quite curious, but seeing that she didn’t intend to explain, he smoothed things over. "As long as everything’s okay. I haven’t had enough sleep yet, so I’m going to try and catch some more." With that, he turned and went into his tent. Sean Raines, who shared the tent with him, smiled at Paige Summers and followed him inside.

Only Zephyr Mercer remained, looking like he wanted to say something but couldn’t.

Paige Summers was in no mood to talk to him right now. "Go get some rest," she said bluntly. "I’m leaving."

Before Zephyr Mercer could stop her, she called over the crestfallen Zane Archer and led him into her tent to talk.

Unfortunately, after all that late-night trouble, she went through almost all of Zane Archer’s seeds and couldn’t find a single one she could experiment with. There was a simple reason for this: all the seeds Zane carried were for combat. Every single one had decent attack power and had nothing to do with agricultural crops.

From that day on, Paige Summers had a new mission: find grain seeds in the outposts they passed through!

This proved to be harder than she had imagined.

The land couldn’t even grow crops anymore, so who would have kept any seeds? They would have been boiled and eaten long ago!

Some people, however, had managed to cultivate edible mutant plants within the outposts. After much deliberation, Paige Summers took one to experiment with. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

The result finally set her mind at ease. Those "memories" were real!

In just two hours, the shrub-like mutant plant had covered one-sixth of the space.

This experiment also led her to discover a wonderful feature.

Items from the Evo-Space could be transferred directly to the Stillspace without needing to be taken out and put back in, greatly reducing the risk of being discovered during the process. Of course, once transferred, the item would no longer be alive; it would remain preserved in its freshest state from the moment it was picked. However, this process consumed some spiritual power.

The reverse, however, was not possible.

Now, all she needed were the seeds.

Paige Summers thought for a long while. Relying on luck wasn’t a solution. The most reliable plan was to send Sweetie back to Central City and have Marcus Monroe send some seeds over.

No sooner said than done. The very next day, Sweetie flew off toward Central City with her message.

Given Sweetie’s massive size, its departure was naturally conspicuous. That, combined with Paige’s recently developed and, in everyone else’s opinion, rather strange hobby, meant that Claire Chapman eventually came looking for her.

Paige Summers considered whether she should just tell him the truth.

But in the end, she felt the matter was too incredible, too heaven-defying. Besides, without having grown a real crop, she still felt uncertain.

After thinking it over and over, she decided to wait until she had something tangible before trying to explain.

"I just saw how hard life was for the people in those outposts and wanted to see if the soil around here had changed at all, so I started looking for grain seeds. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any, so I had to send Sweetie back to bring some over," she answered.

Claire Chapman was stunned for a moment, then shook his head with a wry smile. He was surprised she could have such a naive idea. How could contaminated land possibly recover so easily on its own!

"I’m afraid you’ll only be disappointed with the results."

Paige Summers lowered her gaze. "How will I know if I don’t try?"

Claire Chapman knew how stubborn she was and didn’t try to persuade her. It wasn’t a big deal, anyway, and holding on to hope was always a good thing. He thought for a moment, then suddenly said, "Tomorrow, we’ll be passing by an outpost called ’Stoneridge.’ I heard there’s a master planter over there who gets huge yields from his mutant plants. If possible, you could try to learn a thing or two from this person, and we could also help spread the knowledge. At least it could help more people get enough to eat. As for grain... that’s too difficult. I’d say the chances are slim!"