Hearing Jian Xingyi say this, Bai Jie exclaimed in surprise, “What’s the plan?”

Jian Xingyi briefly explained the situation with the lava to everyone.

“So… even if you plan to ask the people from Snow Mountain or Flag-Raising Mountain for help with the search, you and Shanhai will still have to go down to the riverbed yourselves? You’ll have to deliver this mission in person, right? Whether it’s the temple statue or the tallest tree on Flag-Raising Mountain, they’re both at the summit. By the time they find them, it’ll probably be night. If you have to go deliver the items yourselves, that means you won’t make it in time for the fourth day’s zombie tide.” Bai Jie furrowed her brow slightly. While it wasn’t as if they couldn’t fight without one person, Shanhai’s absence would indeed be a massive loss in combat strength.

Jian Xingyi said, “I’m the one who unlocked the quest, so I’ll handle the delivery. Shanhai doesn’t need to go. I can teleport to the Snow Mountain or to the Flag-Raising Mountain guild as a nominal Guild Administrator, pick up the item, and head straight down to the riverbed. I should be back at our guild by the afternoon of the fourth day… Even if I miss the fourth day’s zombie tide, my combat strength isn’t that great anyway—it should be fine without me, right?”

It was rare for Shanhai to speak up during a meeting. He frowned at Jian Xingyi. “You’re going alone?”

Jian Xingyi blinked. “Apart from that monster at the riverbed, there doesn’t seem to be much danger underground at Flag-Raising Mountain. As for that monster, it looks pretty friendly toward us, doesn’t it?”

Shanhai said, “But it’s an unknown creature. You don’t know how it’ll react once you hand over the item, and there might be dangers underground that we haven’t unlocked yet.”

“But…”

Heiye suggested, “Why don’t we send a few of our stronger members to accompany Xinghe? It’s better for us to be short-handed here than to lose Shanhai.”

Bai Jie nodded, “I agree.”

Lone Wolf suggested, “Then should Akita and I go with Xinghe? We’ve been to the riverbed before; we know the way.”

Jian Xingyi shook his head. “I don’t think that’s necessary…”

Lone Wolf and Akita were high-powered fighters, too! And two at once—these days, they can’t afford to lose even a single person during the zombie tide.

Bai Jie furrowed her brows. “Xinghe, the underground isn’t exactly Peace Mountain—there are real dangers there. Having two people accompany you isn’t a bad idea. After all, let’s be honest, you’re a precious asset to our guild. If anything were to happen to you, it wouldn’t just be a matter of the guild losing a few fighters.”

Heiye nodded vigorously. “Exactly! Xinghe, you have no idea how valuable you are!”

Jian Xingyi froze.

Shanhai also whispered to him, “Let them accompany you.”

“Right, right,” Cola said with a smile. “You have to understand that if no one goes with you, Shanhai won’t be able to fight with peace of mind. What if he ends up crying his eyes out, worrying himself sick, or gets injured…”

Jian Xingyi gave in. “No problem, no problem! I’ll go with Akita and Lone Wolf!”

Although Jian Xingyi still felt it wasn’t necessary—after all, his backpack was full of survival gear—but since that was the case… he shouldn’t let everyone’s kindness go to waste.

Everyone continued discussing their next steps. Since Jian Xingyi had a chance to obtain magma and had extra shovels, they decided to dig trenches.

They hadn’t dug them earlier because they’d been busy farming Bond Points, but now that the Bond Points issue was resolved and their location confirmed after the merger, they could dig with peace of mind.

Jian Xingyi timidly raised his hand to mention he had ten extra shovels—and even an excavator.

“Huh?”

“Huh??”

As expected of a farming expert, he has everything…

In any case, the trenches must be dug, the artificial fences built, and the Plants vs. Zombies series planted!

After assigning personnel and shifts, Shanhai and Jian Xingyi headed back together following the meeting.

Jian Xingyi had already informed both guilds of what was needed, and both agreed quickly, saying they’d send people to look for it immediately—though whether they’d actually find anything was another matter.

Jian Xingyi still trusted their promises and sincerity, especially those from the Snow Mountain side.

So Jian Xingyi planned to go back and sleep first; once he woke up, if they’d found what they needed, he could teleport away.

Shanhai took Jian Xingyi’s hand and whispered, “You have to take care of yourself.”

Since he wasn’t going with him, Shanhai still felt uneasy.

And…

Shanhai stared intently at Jian Xingyi.

Letting him go out alone, unable to stay by his side, and having to part ways…

Jian Xingyi chuckled softly and squeezed Shanhai’s palm. “Oh, it’ll only be for a little while. Don’t worry too much!”

Shanhai nodded obediently.

Finding him adorable, Jian Xingyi stood on tiptoe and patted Shanhai on the head.

Shanhai paused; the tall, imposing man actually lowered his head to let Jian Xingyi pat him.

Jian Xingyi was utterly satisfied. “I’ll take good care of myself. Akita and Lone Wolf are so capable—you don’t need to worry. Besides, if there really is any problem we can’t solve, don’t we still have the Unity Anchor?”

“Mm.”

Jian Xingyi slept soundly and deeply. The first thing he did upon waking up was… pull cards.

Shanhai had left early, so Jian Xingyi made his way to the courtyard all by himself, with a sense of ritual, and began logging into the backend to click through his fields one by one.

【Congratulations to player 【Xinghe】 on obtaining Jet Mushrooms x2】

【Congratulations to player 【Xinghe】 for obtaining Pea Shooter x3】

【Congratulations to player 【Xinghe】 for getting a lucky draw—something even better is sure to appear next time!】

After finishing a round, the results were no different from the previous times.

All 165 pulls were SRs and Rs—not a single SSR.

But whereas Jian Xingyi used to get frustrated before, now he’s completely resigned to his fate—he’s even too lazy to ask Shanhai to pull for him.

He doesn’t even believe his account could pull an SSR; honestly, if it did, he’d suspect it was a scam.

Farmers have everything—except luck!!

Waaah…

It’s okay—farmers have the Synthesis Station.

The Synthesis Station will never betray him.

Now he has 9 types of mushrooms and pea shooters, 8 types of flowers, 7 types of melons, and 5 types of vegetables—he’s getting closer to the goal of 10!

As long as he reaches 10 varieties of any one type, he can synthesize an SSR!

Although there’s still a chance of failure, at least there’s a chance, right?

Progress was going fairly well. After harvesting, Jian Xingyi replanted everything and set a shorter growth time. After all, while waiting for news about 【I Can’t Hear】 and 【It’s Really Cold】, he’d be in the guild hall crafting items with everyone else, so he could tend to the plants and collect them all at once.

Jian Xingyi wanted to reach 10 as soon as possible.

After finishing all this, Jian Xingyi planned to go outside to look around, only to find everyone in the guild working together on their assigned tasks.

The walls have now been repaired, and outside the walls is a massive trench. Everyone is digging away with a flurry of activity, while Cola, operating the excavator, is excitedly howling with delight. The excavator’s work instantly saved countless man-hours.

The trenches were lined with sharp spikes, which everyone had carved from logs they’d chopped down.

Not only that, but an artificial fence had been erected inside the wall to prevent zombies from the cracks from breaching it from within.

With the trenches serving as a buffer on the outer perimeter and the fence providing protection on the inner side, plus the growing number of plants everyone had placed on the bricks, the sight was somewhat reassuring.

Let’s just hope we can preserve as much of the wall as possible by the fourth day of the zombie tide.

Jian Xingyi found Shanhai, who was making fences nearby, and sat down beside him to help.

“By the way.” Jian Xingyi nudged Shanhai’s arm. “Have you unlocked any SRs that I don’t have?”

Although Shanhai mostly unlocked SRs, he didn’t have as many plots as Jian Xingyi—who had a full 165—so there were bound to be more duplicates.

“Hey… wait a minute!”

After comparing their collections for a moment, they discovered that Shanhai had a Pea Shooter that Jian Xingyi didn’t have.

Jian Xingyi had finally collected all 10 varieties of Pea Shooters!

Jian Xingyi immediately opened the Synthesis Station.

【Guaranteed Synthesis: Players have a 75% chance of obtaining an SSR seed when synthesizing 10 SR-level plants of the same variety but different types!】

Jian Xingyi reverently placed the ten SR Pea Shooters into the Synthesis Station. With one hand clasped tightly around Shanhai’s fingers and the other holding the koi necklace Shanhai had given her, she said to Shanhai, “Look at me! We have to lock eyes so the good luck can flow from you to me!”

Shanhai, torn between laughter and exasperation, did as she asked.

Click… Synthesize!

【【Guaranteed Synthesis】 in progress, 10%, 20%…】

Watching the progress bar, Jian Xingyi swallowed hard.

By the Fire God, by the Snow Mountain Spirit, by Shanhai the Luck God, by the Dawn…

Give me an SSR!

【70%, 80%, 90%……】

【【Guaranteed Synthesis】 Loading Complete】

【【Guaranteed Synthesis】 Successful! Player 【Xinghe】 has obtained a Super Rare SSR-tier plant!】

Yay!!!!

Jian Xingyi was so happy he almost jumped for joy.

Heaven knows he was on the verge of developing PTSD from failed syntheses!

Thank goodness it worked!

Jian Xingyi happily opened it and discovered it was a Pea Shooter with incredible firepower, comparable to a cannon.

Great, great, great!

Just then, a system notification sounded.

【Ding! Plants vs. Zombies Series 【SSR Guaranteed Synthesis】 feature upgraded!】

【Players can now choose to synthesize 【Special Items】!】

Huh?

Jian Xingyi opened his mailbox to check the details and found that it stated players could use three SSRs to synthesize a special item from the Plants vs. Zombies series.

But… what on earth is this item?

Jian Xingyi was a bit puzzled.

One SSR was already incredibly powerful—the last time, the Enchantress Mushroom directly helped him turn the tide of battle—so what on earth is this thing that requires 3 SSRs to obtain?!

Jian Xingyi opened the details of the special item.

【Special Item: 【???】】

【Description: Turns the tide of battle】

Hmm…?