Survival of the Nation: My luck was a tiny bit worse.

With a thought, Ou Yun conjured a longsword in his hand out of thin air.

The sword is long and slender, with fine runes engraved on the blade, and it still gleams with a cold light after three hundred years.

"This is Lu Yuan's Demon-Subduing Sword."

The desert lord's voice was somewhat low.

"He didn't die with this sword, but he deliberately left it in his ring before his final battle. He knew he wouldn't return and hoped that future generations of the Dragon Kingdom would inherit it."

Leng Ruolan took the sword and lightly flicked the blade with her finger.

The sword emitted a clear and long hum, like a sigh of awakening after three hundred years of slumber.

"A fine sword."

She only said two words, then handed the sword to Ou Yun.

"Go ahead and use it. Your red and green combination does have high damage, but the design is a bit..."

"What's up?"

"That's a bit too individualistic."

"You mean it's too ugly, right?"

"I didn't say that."

"That's what your expression just now meant."

"My expression is always like this; you've misunderstood."

Ou Yun sheathed the Demon-Subduing Sword back into its scabbard—the scabbard was also from the ring, exquisitely crafted, with runes engraved on it that echoed the sword's blade.

He put the sword into his spatial ring, then picked up the hilt of the broken sword.

"What is this thing?"

"Big Bear's weapon."

The desert lord pointed to the name carved on the wall.

"He was using a greatsword, which was broken in the battle against the desert lord. His fighting spirit should still remain in the hilt—if you have a blacksmith, you could try to extract the energy from the hilt and integrate it into a new weapon."

"We have Brother Chen."

Ou Yun put the sword hilt away as well. "Brother Chen even dares to throw abyssal crystals into the furnace, so a sword hilt should be no problem for him."

The third ring contained a set of silver needles.

The desert lord said it was Su Yan's relic, with a purple liquid never seen before quenched on the tip of the needle, which had not dried up even after three hundred years.

"These are anesthetic needles tempered with abyssal energy."

The desert lord explained.

"It has an instantaneous anesthetic effect on ordinary organisms and can cause temporary nerve paralysis on abyssal creatures."

It turns out to be a control skill.

Leng Ruolan quickly put it into her equipment bag: "I can use this."

"Don't you already have the Shadow Blades?"

"Having an extra remote control device is always a good thing. You don't understand, in forbidden areas, the more equipment you have, the safer you feel."

"We have so much equipment we could open an arms shop."

"That's not too much."

Finally, there was that bag of seeds.

This design exposes a knowledge gap for both Ou Yun and Leng Ruolan.

"What is this?"

The desert lord said he didn't know either.

"Isn't this something from your desert? Don't you know that?"

"This isn't something from the desert."

"Oh……"

Ou Yun could only sigh.

"I should have brought Brother Chen along..."

"It's okay, we have Brother Chen as a substitute."

Leng Ruolan handed the seeds to Marcus.

"Come and take a look."

Marcus opened the bag and peeked inside, then froze on the spot as if he had been electrocuted.

"This is...this is..."

His voice trembled slightly.

"Are these the seeds of ambergris?"

"What kind of grass?"

"Ambergris...!"

Marcus's heart pounded with excitement, his hands trembled.

"This plant can absorb toxins from the soil and release high concentrations of oxygen—its leaves can also heal more than a dozen diseases caused by abyssal energy!"

Leng Ruolan glanced at him immediately, "You seem to know quite a lot."

"Of course!"

Marcus proudly puffed out his chest. "Brother Chen told me."

"Oh……"

We still don't know exactly how much cheese Brother Chen explained to them.

"Nothing truly goes extinct in the forbidden lands."

"The desert lord said."

"This bag of seeds is very well preserved; I can try planting them when I get back."

Marcus carefully tucked the seed bag away from his body: "Brother Chen will go crazy if he sees this."

"Brother Chen goes crazy over everything he sees."

Ou Yun laughed, "Last time I brought him a fragment of an Abyss Bone Demon's fingernail, and he was so excited that he didn't sleep for three days. Later, Captain Leng forced him to stay on the bed, and he barely managed to close his eyes for a few hours."

"That's because he'll keep working unless he's forcibly pinned down."

Leng Ruolan's tone carried a hint of helplessness, "You researchers are all the same. Marcus, you too. What time did you go to bed last night?"

"Uh...around 3 a.m.?"

What time did you get up this morning?

"...Five o'clock."

"Look."

Alexander interjected, "Was Marcus drawing a topographical map of a sandworm nest last night? I saw him still drawing by the campfire when I got up to pee in the middle of the night."

"That's because topographic maps must be drawn while the memory is still fresh; if you leave them until the next day, you'll forget the details—"

"Excuse."

Leng Ruolan interrupted her directly, "Everyone must be asleep by 10 PM tonight. I will personally check up on everyone."

"Weren't you staying up late yourself when you checked on me?"

"I'm the captain, staying up all night is the captain's privilege."

"That's not fair."

"In the forbidden area, strength is the only measure of fairness."

"So if you fight your older brother one-on-one, and he loses, does that mean he has to listen to you?"

"When did he ever beat me?"

"I'm talking about a proper one-on-one fight, not the kind where you two just talk trash."

"Verbal sparring is also a form of strength."

"Then this guy's verbal skills must already be at the lord level."

"really."

Ou Yun was starting to lose her composure: "Can you two at least try to avoid any appearance of impropriety by discussing me in front of me?"

"cannot."

*

The relics left behind by that team three hundred years ago have been sorted and distributed one by one, each carrying the will and expectations of their predecessors.

But Ou Yun knew that the real value of these things was not their practical function, but that they proved one thing—that they were not the first to take this step.

Some people had walked this path earlier and with greater difficulty than them, only to fall at the last moment.

They left behind not only equipment and intelligence, but also a silent entrustment: to walk the rest of the way for us.

He opened Lu Yuan's notebook to the first page, where four characters were written in vigorous handwriting—

"I will have no regrets even if I die."

"This guy is really good at pretending," Ou Yun commented.

"really."

Leng Ruolan rarely agreed to his request, "but she did it in a way that made people believe her."

Everyone stayed in the safety room for another hour.

Douglas meticulously copied the map carved on the wall into his notebook, Marcus copied all the rune patterns, and Alexander tapped the wall with a heavy hammer to confirm that there were no hidden compartments (there weren't any).

Red Bean dozed off next to North and South, while North and South dozed off next to Ou Yun.

The desert lord stood before the stone table, gently touching the chessboard carved on it with his slender fingers.

That was used by the members of that team three hundred years ago to pass the time—the lines on the chessboard have been worn blurred, and there are a few shallow fingerprints on the edge, marks left by fingers pressing the same spot for a long time while playing chess.