Chapter 150: Zhang Lingyun’s Unusual Behavior

“Your Majesty, a participant in the Redstone Mining Project requests an audience!”

Mo Fangyuan was holding a paintbrush, intently drawing banknotes on a sheet of paper, when the office door suddenly rang.

The voice of a messenger came from outside.

“Then let him in!”

The wooden door was pushed open, and a scout responsible for observing the underground lava lake entered.

“Speak. What is it?”

Mo Fangyuan set down his brush and looked at the scout before him.

“Your Majesty, Zhang Lingyun, the coordinator in charge of preparations for the Redstone Mining Project, says that the Colorful Experience Orb wishes to speak with you... She also asked me to deliver this document.”

After handing over the document, the scout struck his right fist against his chest and solemnly withdrew.

“Hm? It has only been a few days, and that girl Zhang Lingyun has already succeeded? Incredible.”

Mo Fangyuan carefully placed the unfinished one-yuan banknote to the side before picking up the document. A trace of surprise crossed his mind.

Such efficiency was not at all in keeping with Zhang Lingyun’s usual working principles.

“The Colorful Experience Orb is not a living creature. It is suspected to be the embodiment of the consciousness of an unknown stone pillar. Only the stone pillar itself possesses offensive power; the consciousness avatar has no attack capability...”

“It enjoys peeking into the daily lives of other creatures and likes using its abilities to satisfy its perverse interests...”

The document contained only three brief sentences, yet they gave Mo Fangyuan a general overview of the Colorful Experience Orb’s essential nature.

He had no idea how Zhang Lingyun had obtained this information, nor did he know what plan she had in mind.

Nevertheless, based on the material before him, two possible countermeasures had already taken shape in his mind.

The first was based on the fact that the Colorful Experience Orb was not a living creature and could not be killed directly. However, destroying its source—the stone pillar itself—would eliminate it.

The specific plan was brutally simple: charge straight in and use every means available to blow the unknown stone pillar apart.

The second plan was built around its personality. Perverse interests, voyeurism... In short, it was free-spirited and mischievous. If they granted it suitable privileges based on that nature, there was a very good chance it could be persuaded to join them.

By nature, Mo Fangyuan actually leaned toward the first option. Leaving no future trouble behind had always been his guiding principle.

But at present, the best course of action for the Block Kingdom was still the second one: persuade it to join them, then proceed smoothly with the Redstone Mining Project.

After finishing the brief report and considering it for a moment, Mo Fangyuan put on a leather coat and left the office.

This leather coat was one of the crafting recipes recently acquired after another tailor advanced to apprentice rank.

Aside from it, the catapult, leather shoes, and stockings—recipes already familiar throughout the kingdom—the Block Kingdom had also acquired five other recipes over the past three years: a paintbrush, a leather cap, a glass cup, a wooden bookcase, and a wooden barrel. None of them had particularly remarkable uses.

Following the mine shaft downward, Mo Fangyuan soon arrived at the entrance to the lava lake, aided by the speed buff from the Blade of the Empire.

“Ah, this...”

Mo Fangyuan had always believed that he possessed a strong heart. He had overcome countless difficulties while managing the Block Kingdom and weathered storms that would have shaken anyone else. He had long since assumed that nothing could surprise him anymore.

Yet even he was stunned by the sight before him.

The lower half of the pale-gray stone pillar at the center of the island had long since vanished beneath a layer of pure black. Not a trace of its former color remained.

Mo Fangyuan recognized the substance at a glance.

Obsidian.

At the base of the round stone pillar, now completely encased in obsidian, Zhang Lingyun stood motionless. A Colorful Experience Orb was circling her incessantly.

“What a brilliant plan! When did Zhang Lingyun become this clever?”

Mo Fangyuan suddenly understood her strategy and could not help applauding in admiration.

Although the Colorful Experience Orb was the embodiment of the unknown stone pillar’s consciousness, it could not pass through solid blocks and roam wherever it pleased.

As long as the unknown stone pillar was sealed away, the Colorful Experience Orb could not escape. Given its personality, however, it would almost certainly go mad.

To prevent a crazed orb from unleashing a barrage of attacks and causing unnecessary losses to the Block Kingdom, Zhang Lingyun had used obsidian—the hardest block in the original game—as the sealing material.

As it happened, judging from the abilities the unknown stone pillar had displayed earlier, its Block Magma Transformation skill had no effect whatsoever on obsidian.

Therefore, once the pillar was sealed in obsidian, its consciousness avatar would have no way to break free.

“Wonderful!”

Zhang Lingyun’s actions had opened an entirely new path in Mo Fangyuan’s mind. In the future, whenever they encountered an enemy they could not immediately deal with, they could try using the block-sealing method.

“Zhang Lingyun has finally had a breakthrough!”

With that thought in mind, Mo Fangyuan stepped onto the surface of the lava lake, which had been quenched into obsidian with water, and began walking toward the island at its center.

“Ahhh, no! Please, please, I beg you...”

The facts proved that the stone pillar’s consciousness, which normally acted as though nothing mattered—do whatever you liked, adopt whatever posture you wished, it would remain an unmoving pillar—had completely panicked in the face of Zhang Lingyun’s strategy.

It was even begging her to spare its life.

“We’ve been together for so long. We’ve seen each other’s bodies, after all. In the language of your Block Kingdom, that makes us practically husband and wife...”

“Your king, Mo Fangyuan, even said that a hundred days of marriage creates a hundred days of affection...”

The stone pillar’s consciousness circled Zhang Lingyun at astonishing speed.

“Then turn me back to normal, and turn yourself into a magical girl!”

Zhang Lingyun practically ground out the final four words through clenched teeth.

“I think we can discuss something that would promote peaceful cooperation and mutual benefit...”

“Nothing to discuss. Stay in that obsidian!”

“Please, no...”

Not far away, Mo Fangyuan’s forward stride abruptly halted.

“That’s Zhang Lingyun?”

Having heard Zhang Lingyun’s calm, icy reply from a distance, Mo Fangyuan’s thoughts froze.

Wasn’t Zhang Lingyun supposed to be the natural, adorably airheaded type beneath that aloof, mature-woman exterior?

Filled with suspicion, Mo Fangyuan paused for a moment, drew the Blade of the Empire, and only then continued forward.

He felt that the person ahead might not be Zhang Lingyun after all. He had to proceed with caution.

“I want to go out and play! I don’t want to stay here, boo-hoo...”

“Hmph. In your dreams... Ah, don’t be like that. I can’t make that decision. You’ll have to ask His Majesty the King...”

When Mo Fangyuan came within roughly a hundred blocks of the central island, Zhang Lingyun’s demeanor suddenly changed from that of an icy, domineering beauty back into her naturally sweet and foolish self.

The transformation was so swift that even Mo Fangyuan was caught off guard.

“What is going on?”

This time, Mo Fangyuan was utterly baffled. He was far too familiar with the manner Zhang Lingyun had displayed earlier. He could be certain that it had been the real Zhang Lingyun, so she could not possibly have been some monster in disguise.

Then where had that profoundly incongruous cold and aloof temperament come from?

Could he have been seeing things?