His luck value was abnormally low — not just below the starting attribute, but an entire tier beneath it.
Because of that, the probability-based skills granted by the system were practically useless to him.
However, the current Bai Qiu possessed superhuman amounts of magic power.
With the aid of his spiritual strength and his mastery over mana manipulation, he didn’t even need to move his hands anymore.
He could instead use his self-invented Gathering Technique to collect special plants.
The only drawback was the mana cost — quite significant.
If the system’s normal Gathering Technique consumed 1 unit of mana, then his Gathering Technique required at least 150 units.
Still, it was entirely feasible!
His self-created technique guaranteed a 100% success rate — though it consumed more mana and took longer to perform.
With enough practice, he was confident that one day it could completely replace both manual gathering and the genuine Gathering Technique.
Bai Qiu turned his gaze toward the Purplebell Water Lily growing in the middle of the pond.
He wasn’t sure if, with his current level of mental strength, he could use his Gathering Technique across several meters of distance.
“Wait a second!”
A sudden inspiration flashed through his mind.
The Thorn Staff could both convert his own magic into plant-type elemental mana and absorb plant-elemental magic particles from the environment to cast spells.
Didn’t that mean it might also enhance his perception of surrounding plants?
With that thought, Bai Qiu immediately drew out the Thorn Staff and began channeling mana into it…
Ten minutes later, Bai Qiu smiled.
He had been right — properly using the Thorn Staff did indeed provide an auxiliary effect for gathering.
It allowed his Gathering Technique to harvest more materials, over a wider range, and at a faster speed!
He emptied his backpack of weeds, letting the Thorn Staff absorb the plant-element magic particles within them.
Then, Bai Qiu decided to use an Enhanced Version of his Gathering Technique on the Purplebell Water Lily!
“Ding! Acquired Purplebell Water Lily ×50!”
Bai Qiu glanced at the system notification on his main page — there was no indication of a successful gathering, nor any message that he had learned a new skill.
Clearly, the system did not recognize this method of collection.
But that didn’t matter.
As long as it worked, who cared whether the system acknowledged it?
The effectiveness wasn’t affected at all — just like how, even though he had completed tasks using both the Frost Staff and Thorn Staff, the system hadn’t granted him any new skills.
Bai Qiu continued harvesting Purplebell Water Lilys.
Worried that collecting too many at once might damage them, he limited each attempt to fifty plants.
Each gathering process took about three minutes.
Of course, the Gathering Technique came with both strengths and weaknesses.
The advantage was that repeated use gradually increased the number of plants gathered per attempt and reduced the time required.
The downside?
Those improvements only applied to the same type of plant.
If he finished collecting all the Purplebell Water Lilys and switched to gathering Sunflowers or Purplethorn Fruit, the progress would reset entirely.
This technique was most efficient when gathering tens of thousands of the same plant — that was when its cost-effectiveness truly shone.
Unfortunately, all the Purplebell Water Lilys across the ponds in this map combined totaled only 863 plants, which Bai Qiu soon collected in full.
After finishing that, Bai Qiu decided to check on the progress of Ning Xingxue and the others.
First, he looked toward Ning Xingxue, who was the closest to him.
She wore the same armor as he did, and the thorns of the Purplethorn Fruit couldn’t pierce its defense, allowing her to pick freely.
Each plant bore about twenty fruits, so her progress was rapid.
According to her, she had already gathered nearly ninety plants and would soon acquire the Gathering Technique skill.
Huang Qi and Zhao Daqiang were both harvesting Sunflowers, and their progress wasn’t bad either — around seventy plants each.
Sunflower (E-Rank)
Description: A special plant native to the Fertile Plains. Its seeds, when dried and roasted, are edible and enhance resistance to sunlight.
Bai Qiu picked ten sunflowers himself for good measure.
Each sunflower head contained over two thousand seeds — ten of them made twenty thousand seeds, more than enough.
When Zhao Daqiang and Huang Qi saw Bai Qiu gather ten plants in one go, their faces went pale with shock.
It’s over, they thought.
At this rate, we might not even have a chance to learn the Gathering Technique before he takes everything!
But to their surprise, Bai Qiu didn’t linger.
After collecting ten of each — Sunflower and Purplethorn Fruit — just enough to fill the empty slots in his storage card, he turned and walked away.
He made his way alone to the pond, drew out the Tidal Staff, and began to practice.
Seeing this, Zhao Daqiang and Huang Qi both let out a heavy sigh of relief.
Neither dared to look too closely at what Bai Qiu was doing.
As long as he was off “fishing” and not interfering, that was good enough.
If he suddenly unleashed a large-area gathering spell and stripped the field bare, they would have to go cry in a corner.
Splash!
A burst of water exploded in the pond as a Water Elemental Blast, conjured by the Tidal Staff, detonated and sent a wave several meters high.
But Bai Qiu only shook his head. “Still not enough.”
He had tried transforming the water into various forms of attack, but no matter how he shaped it, the destructive power remained unchanged.
Unlike fire, water couldn’t be compressed to increase its potency.
He had also experimented with the other five staves, applying their methods one by one — but none of them worked.
If this continued, he might be completely stuck at this stage with the Tidal Staff.
Another hour passed.
Ning Xingxue and the others eventually approached.
They watched from behind for several minutes, only to see him casually swinging a staff inlaid with a pale-blue gem, churning the pond into chaos.
He frowned, deep in thought.
The pond water responded to his emotions — at times crashing like violent waves against unseen reefs, at times twisting into whirlpools and small tornadoes that muddied the water and dragged floating debris beneath the surface.
After a long while, Bai Qiu sighed and gave up, storing the Tidal Staff back into his storage card.
He turned around and said, “Looks like you’ve all finished gathering. Did you check the locations I marked as possible treasure chest spots?”
“We did,” Ning Xingxue replied. “We found three wooden chests in total.”
She stepped aside, revealing three thorn-wrapped chests stacked a short distance away.
“What? You didn’t open them?” Bai Qiu asked, puzzled.
“Since you found them, why bring them all the way here?”
Huang Qi grinned. “Well, we were hoping to borrow some of your luck, big bro. We all agreed — you should be the one to open them!”
Zhao Daqiang nodded. “Yeah, plus opening them here keeps things fair, just like we agreed. See? The vines and thorns on them are still intact.”
Behind his mask, Bai Qiu’s expression was unreadable.
He stood silently for a long moment before speaking in a low voice:
“I’ll pass. If you don’t want the final step of this expedition to end in disaster, you’d better pick the one among you with the highest luck value to open them.”
The three looked at one another in confusion.
Ning Xingxue was the first to ask, her tone skeptical:
“Wait… are you saying your luck value is really low?”
— The end of the Chapter–
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