The atmosphere throughout Kashida seemed to grow tense.
Previously, when Beastfiends appeared at the borders, the Beastmen didn't panic.
But this time, Beastfiends had appeared within the country, monsters that could spawn near anyone at any time. Every Beastman was a bit nervous, fearing they might fall victim to a Beastfiend's claws one day.
Amidst this increasingly anxious atmosphere, the Kashida Research Institute was also working full-out to investigate what was causing the increased probability of Beastmen turning dark.
But because they hadn't discovered the reason, they had been called out by His Majesty the Giant Panda many times.
Today, Yun Manman sat in a dessert shop, teaching Sisi and Uncle Lin how to make sweets.
After initially having to spend all day in the training room, now she only needed to train for half a day.
Moreover, Yun Manman's training progress was very fast, and she was gradually approaching the threshold of B-level Spirit Power Strength.
This utterly astonished Yan Shuang and Yun Rong.
But when they learned that Yun Manman had received the blessing of the Divine Tree of Lanqi Country, they could understand.
Indeed, their child was the most excellent! A born spirit guide!
But Yun Manman was a bit distracted now, often zoning out while making desserts.
It had been three days already.
Yan Xi and Yan Ye would occasionally send messages in the group chat to let everyone know they were safe.
But Lu Qi remained unreachable.
Yan Xi said that Lu Qi had gone to Kafier City, but she wasn't sure exactly what he was doing there.
The closer one got to the Yali'ou Mountain Range, the worse the signal became, so it was possible he couldn't receive messages.
Yun Manman sighed quietly.
She felt somewhat uneasy.
Just then, her communication device let out a soft "ding," and Yun Manman quickly pulled it out.
She found it was a message from Director Xu of the research institute: "Miss Yun, are you available to come to the laboratory? We urgently need your help."
Seeing it wasn't a message from Lu Qi, Yun Manman felt a bit disappointed.
But she still quickly replied: "Okay! I'm coming right now."
Yun Manman was already very familiar with the laboratory, and thanks to her extremely high social skills, she had gotten to know many of the Beastmen there.
As researchers passed by and saw Yun Manman enter, they would stop to greet her: "Manman's here!"
"Good afternoon, Manman!"
"Manman, you've finally come! Director Xu has been worrying himself sick, hurry on in!"
Yun Manman smiled and waved at them: "Okay!"
She walked to the door of Director Xu's lab and opened it to find President Mianyang already pacing back and forth anxiously inside.
Yun Manman felt like grass was about to grow on his head.
When Director Xu saw Yun Manman arrive, his eyes lit up: "Miss Yun, you're finally here!"
He led Yun Manman towards the changing room while quickly explaining: "We may have discovered the cause of accelerated Beastman darkening. This substance is similar to the compound that dissipated in the desserts before. We suspect it's what's causing Beastmen to turn dark."
Yun Manman asked puzzled: "How does it enter the Beastmen's bodies?"
Director Xu explained: "We investigated the things that darkened Beastmen had come into contact with and found they had all eaten highland vegetables from Lingli Town. In the soil where these vegetables were grown, we discovered a colorless, odorless, crushed crystal."
"We preliminarily suspect that this crystal contains a dark-inducing substance similar to a lure, which plants can absorb. Eventually, when Beastmen eat the plants, the dark-inducing harmful substance is absorbed by the body, ultimately accelerating the decrease in Beastmen's spirit power purity and causing them to turn dark."
Yun Manman felt chilled to the bone: "Crushed crystals? So someone did this deliberately?"
Director Xu nodded: "We can't rule out that possibility."
"We now need your high-purity spirit power to act on these crystals and contaminated vegetables to see if they can be purified."
"You'll need to put on protective gear. This substance can cause a decrease in spirit power purity even if you just get close to it."
Yun Manman entered the changing room, put on the prepared protective suit, and under Director Xu's guidance, used her spirit power on the vegetables and soil.
Perhaps due to her increased spirit power strength, or maybe the Divine Tree's blessing had taken effect, Yun Manman felt her spirit power sensitivity had improved.
Within the range covered by her spirit power, she sensed a black substance slowly dissipating under the pressure of her spirit power.
This black substance was particularly concentrated in the soil.
This must be the substance Director Xu said was causing Beastmen to turn dark.
When they came out of the isolation room, Director Xu excitedly told Yun Manman: "Excellent! Sure enough, Miss Yun, your spirit power is effective against these dark-inducing substances!"
Yun Manman sighed in relief: "As long as it works..."
"But it would be a bit strenuous for me alone to purify all of this."
The highland vegetables from Lingli Town had likely already entered the market in considerable quantities. These vegetables could be painfully disposed of, but the land where they were grown would inevitably need treatment, otherwise, the surrounding plants would all be affected.
Yun Manman felt that with her current spirit power strength not even reaching B-level, she wasn't up to purifying such a large area of land.
Director Xu pondered: "You're right..."
"The new type of spirit guide agent we developed based on your spirit power can dissolve part of the dark-inducing substance in food. Although the resulting food hasn't reached the level of spirit guidance, we could try using it on the land..."
"We'll need to do more experiments to be sure."
Yun Manman instantly felt she needed to speed up her training.
C-level Spirit Power Strength had a relatively small coverage area, but if she could rise to A-level, then purifying a large area of land might be possible.
From then on, Yun Manman became even more dedicated in her spirit power strength training.
The person she liked and her dearest family were all here, and she also really liked the country of Kashida.
If she could help solve this problem of the dark-inducing substance, then the danger factors around her family would decrease.
After one training session ended, Yun Manman walked out of the room and collapsed exhaustedly on the carpet, turning into a cat pancake.
The orange cat's form had already grown very large, no longer looking like the small kitten from before.
Now it was as big as an adult Maine Coon cat.
But the cat face remained docile and sweet, simply scaled up proportionally. The long, sleek fur spread out on the ground like an exquisite, expensive carpet.
However, recently Yun Manman had been feeling a bit itchy at the base of her tail.
Probably about to grow a tail? She remembered that the most obvious expression of the Yunzheng Beast genes was the five tails.
Maybe she could change rooms now, as each room's simulated spirit power device had a different strength...
As she was thinking randomly, she suddenly sprang up from the ground and sent a message to Yin Qian:
"Can the simulated spirit power device achieve a spirit guiding effect?"