"Why is it pitch black inside this Big-Mouth Flower’s mouth? I don’t see any flowers or plants," Su Ze asked, puzzled.

He had lost a small clone, and a sharp pain pricked his mind—a consequence of the loss of Spiritual Power. His Liquid Clone had been directly devoured and digested by the Big-Mouth Flower.

The Mother Tree explained, "The Big-Mouth Flower’s mouth connects to two places: an internal space and its digestive system. To enter the internal space, you must either input the correct password or feed it high-grade flames to please it."

"We’ve already entered the wrong password three times. Can we keep trying?"

"You can, but the Big-Mouth Flower will attack externally each time you enter the wrong password."

"Let’s just forget it for now. We’ll go to the warehouse first and deal with this later."

Su Ze didn’t have that many Liquid Clones to spare, so he decisively gave up for the time being.

As long as he could hand the ship over to the Mother Tree, he could explore it slowly later. Besides, judging by the Mother Tree’s attitude, it didn’t seem to care much about what was in the cultivation room anyway.

’This Mother Tree doesn’t seem to be very favored, though. Three tries and it still couldn’t figure out the right password...’ Su Ze complained internally.

They gave up on opening the door to the cultivation room and continued toward the warehouse.

...

Meanwhile, Jasim, Gu Chengguang, and the other three continued their exploration. They passed a conference room, a dining hall, and a food storage room.

The food storage room was locked. The five lords joined forces, but they couldn’t open it no matter what they tried, much to their disappointment.

Of course, they couldn’t read the alien script, so they had no idea the locked door led to a food storage room. They assumed it was some important treasure vault.

The doors to the conference room and dining hall were wide open. However, the conference room contained nothing but oddly shaped tables and chairs, while the dining hall only had some rotten, stinking food. The stench was so potent, so far beyond their comprehension, that it nearly made the lords vomit.

The five lords didn’t dare to linger. Who knew if the decaying alien food would breed some kind of alien bacteria or virus? It might even pose a threat to Saint-level lords like themselves.

Jasim closed the dining hall door behind them. "A high-tech ship like this doesn’t have an automatic cleaning function?"

Gu Chengguang speculated, "We probably haven’t supplied enough energy. We’ve only managed a preliminary awakening of the ship’s basic functions. This ship isn’t high-tech in the way we imagined. It uses plants to replace various electronic and mechanical devices. Most of the Spiritual Plants we’ve seen on our way here are still dormant. They likely need more energy to be awakened."

The group moved on quickly and soon arrived before the door to the "Training Room."

They didn’t know it was a training room. Even though they could see a corner of it through the transparent, cicada-wing-like door, it didn’t spark any ideas, because the entire room was completely empty.

"What is this place? It’s totally empty. Are all aliens this poor?" Li Fayi grumbled.

They had been exploring for so long without finding a single valuable item.

As they approached, the training room door opened automatically.

"Let’s go. We’ll check it out." Jasim was the first to walk in.

The training room was enormous. Beyond the entrance, which was several meters wide, a space half the size of a soccer field unfolded before them, with a ceiling hundreds of meters high.

"How did they do this? Spatial Compression? From the outside, the entire ship isn’t this tall," Jasim said.

"It must be. But how did they connect the compressed space to normal space?"

They were no strangers to Spatial Compression. The storage items they all carried used it. However, the space inside a storage item existed independently, whereas this vast area before them was seamlessly connected to the rest of the ship.

"Well, they’re aliens, aren’t they? Of course their tech is better than ours," Li Fayi said casually, not finding it particularly surprising.

Gu Chengguang and Jasim stepped into the compressed space together. Suddenly, both their expressions changed, and they exchanged a look.

"Mr. Gu, did you feel that too?" Jasim asked.

Gu Chengguang nodded. For a brief moment, they had both felt their bodies’ metabolism accelerate by an unknown factor.

But it only lasted for an instant before stopping.

"Feel what?" Li Fayi asked curiously, striding over to them. He didn’t feel a thing.

"It’s nothing," Gu Chengguang said, shaking his head. "It’s probably because the ship hasn’t been fully activated. Its functions can’t be completely displayed here."

Even so, he and Jasim had already guessed the area’s likely purpose—it was a place to help Evolved beings digest extracts!

This training room alone was of immeasurable value. If they could get their hands on it, their countries’ power would see a meteoric rise.

However, both Gu Chengguang and Jasim knew that with the strength of their two nations, they had no hope of keeping this ship.

The best outcome would be to hand the ship over to the Sovereign Country. Once the Sovereign Country had studied it thoroughly, their two nations might be able to get an extra training slot or two in this room from them.

"Let’s go," Gu Chengguang said with a sigh. This place was great, but they couldn’t take it with them.

They needed to find benefits they *could* take, things they could stuff right into their pockets.

...

Su Ze and Mr. Ya finally arrived at the next door. This was the "Lighting Room."

’What’s a Lighting Room for? It can’t be a place for Sunbathing, can it?’ Su Ze wondered.

"The Lighting Room is where Spiritual Plants undergo photosynthesis," the Mother Tree replied. "However, the light is collected from a Super Star in the cosmos. It’s far more powerful than the sunlight on Blue Star and can greatly accelerate the growth of Spiritual Plants."

Su Ze examined the door. Compared to the one for the cultivation room, the entrance to the Lighting Room was much more normal—just a pair of black, double doors. He couldn’t tell what material they were made of, but it completely blocked Spiritual Power and all light.

"How do I open this door?" Su Ze asked the Mother Tree.

"There’s a button on the side. Just press it."

’So simple? What a huge difference from the Big-Mouth Flower’s door. That must mean there’s nothing good inside...’ Su Ze muttered to himself as he pressed an inconspicuous black button beside the door.

The black doors opened silently and automatically.

Su Ze and Mr. Ya walked in together.

The entire Lighting Room was empty, except for a circular stone platform in the very center of the floor, paved with black stone tiles.

Directly above the platform was a small skylight that let in some light.

The Mother Tree: "Just place the Spiritual Plant that needs light on the platform, and the skylight will automatically project a beam."

’A Spiritual Plant? But I don’t have one.’

Su Ze glanced around, but seeing no treasures he could take, he immediately lost interest.

But then he had an idea and took a potted plant out of his Storage Pendant.

In the pot was a succulent, vibrant touch-me-not.

The Desperate Flower was a peculiar item, but it was also a living flower. He didn’t know if it counted as a Spiritual Plant.

"Can this flower receive the light?" Su Ze asked.

He quickly received an affirmative answer from the Mother Tree.

Su Ze thought for a moment, then infused a trace of evolutionary power into the Desperate Flower. The petals instantly withered, revealing a "Self-Destructive Seed."

Su Ze plucked the Self-Destructive Seed and placed the bare stalk, along with the entire small flowerpot, in the very center of the black stone platform.

Then, Su Ze took a few steps back and waited quietly with Mr. Ya for the Desperate Flower to change.

Suddenly, the light from the skylight above intensified. A beam as thick as a fist shot through it, landing precisely on the Desperate Flower’s stalk.

The beam was a milky white, looking holy and pure. Even from a distance, Su Ze could feel the dense life energy within it.

Bathed in the pure white beam, the Desperate Flower began to grow new shoots at a visible rate, forming a new bud.

The ceramic flowerpot the Desperate Flower stood in seemed to disintegrate from the terrifying heat, melting continuously. Even the soil in the pot evaporated, until only the bare flower was left standing in the light.

But despite losing all support, the Desperate Flower didn’t fall. It remained standing perfectly straight. From the end of its stalk, fine tendrils began to emerge...

The Desperate Flower was growing roots!

The new roots were like legs, supporting it. After taking root, the Desperate Flower grew even faster, shooting up until it was nearly half a meter tall in the blink of an eye.

Lush green leaves sprouted from the stalk, and the pink bud quietly blossomed. A brilliant, fiery red touch-me-not swayed gently in the light, releasing an intoxicating fragrance.

Finally, the light from the skylight ceased, leaving only the bloomed touch-me-not standing silently on the stone platform.

Su Ze walked over and carefully cupped the touch-me-not in his hands. He breathed a sigh of relief when he met no resistance.

He had been genuinely afraid the Desperate Flower would gain consciousness and rebel. It seemed that while it was a living Spiritual Plant, it was still a peculiar item and probably wouldn’t turn on him.

’It’s bloomed again, which means I can harvest another ’Self-Destructive Seed.’ And this version of the Desperate Flower is clearly an upgraded one, so the seed’s power should be greater...’ Su Ze calculated that he now had three Self-Destructive Seeds, meaning he could self-destruct three times.

You could never have too many Self-Destructive Seeds. Although Su Ze didn’t have three lives to blow up in a row, he could create three clones and have them self-destruct instead.

Having three Self-Destructive Seeds at once was a stroke of luck. Normally, if the previous seed hadn’t been used, the Desperate Flower would bloom at an incredibly slow pace.

He had used external forces to make the Desperate Flower bloom and bear fruit.

"Not bad. After all this time on the ship, I’ve finally gotten something out of it!"

His spirits lifted. Su Ze turned, opened the door, and headed straight for the warehouse at the end of the fork in the path.