No one said anything else. They were deeply shocked when they saw Douglas disinfect himself, inject an active suppressant, cut open their skin, and rip out the spore cluster.
"Plop!"
The spore cluster was thrown into the storage container.
"Did it work?" Brad said in suspense.
"Yes." William hugged him and nodded.
When Douglas was done with the incision, everyone finally breathed a huge sigh of relief and cheered.
However, Sears screamed again, "Ah, this is bad!"
"What's wrong?"
Brad was shocked.
"Did Douglas forget to inject the anesthetic?"
Everyone looked at Douglas and finally reacted.
The man in front of them had operated on himself without any anesthetic.
Douglas saw the situation outside and replied into the microphone.
"All part of the plan. Even a local anesthetic will affect my precision, so I had to just endure it."
Douglas shrugged.
"This man's crazy!"
Everyone looked at Douglas in admiration. They did not expect that there was a God amongst them.
Douglas smiled and sat on the chair. All the strength in his body seemed to have been drained clean.
Fatigue, dizziness, and pain surged through his body. However, when he saw that Gaia was gradually stabilizing, he became happy again.
"Don't be too happy yet. There is still one last step," Douglas said to himself.
The last step was to purify Gaia's blood. There must be some spores in his blood. If left unchecked, the spore infections might continue to stay with Gaia, meaning that he could relapse at any time.
Douglas, who was always striving for excellence, naturally would not allow such a situation to exist.
Douglas supported himself and stood up, speaking to the display.
"Continue the blood transfusion, establish an extracorporeal treatment and begin blood purification."
During the extracorporeal treatment, Gaia's blood would be purified by a special machine. After purification, there would be no spores left.
After a few cycles, the spores would basically be completely removed.
——————————
After completely disinfecting his body, Douglas walked out and said to the exploration team.
"What are we going to do next?"
When he said this, everyone's faces turned into frowns.
When Douglas said this, they remembered that they had come out with a mission.
It was already noon, but they had barely completed one-fourth of their exploration mission. How were they supposed to walk the remaining three-quarters of the planned route?
They had only walked for one or two hours in the morning and already encountered so many close calls. Gaia had almost even sacrificed its life for this.
No one dared to guarantee that they would be able to successfully complete the exploration mission.
Seeing the group fall silent, William said.
"How about this, why don't we split up here. I will lead the team to cover the remaining half of the route, and Douglas will lead the team to take Gaia to cover the remaining quarter of the route."
After saying that, William looked at Douglas.
Douglas rubbed his chin and nodded.
"That works."
When everything was ready, it was already noon. Everyone was so hungry that they felt dizzy. They decided to stop by the mountain stream to have a quick lunch.
After a discussion, everyone decided to take a risk. They would not return to the base at noon, but instead, they would continue exploring the forest. Although it was much riskier, it would save a lot of time.
Gaia woke up when everyone was eating lunch. Although he was very weak, he had at least regained the ability to move freely.
After listening to William's proposal, he did not object and followed Douglas's team on the trek back to the base.
Although they still encountered many dangers on their way back, with Gaia's as a portable radar, they were all safe.
Of course, the area being on flat ground also played a factor. Although there were still a few literal thorns along their path, there was no complex terrain, so it was not difficult to explore.
On this journey, the group experienced four more attacks. Each time, they had hurriedly escaped, allowing them to fully experience the "hospitality" of this forest.
They also encountered several poisonous plants, all of which were collected by Douglas.
When they took a detour and returned to the base, they saw a huge tree that reached into the clouds through the thick fog.
"This is too amazing. It must be at least a thousand meters tall!" One of the members exclaimed.
"This must be the legendary Yggdrasil, right?" Gaia asid.
The power of nature was far greater than man.
"Did Planet Azure ever come into contact with this place before? This huge tree seems to be one of the symbols on the stone door..." Someone suddenly asked.
The altar and stone door were obviously man-made.
"Maybe," Gaia said. He felt that this was not impossible. In fact, the possibility was quite real.
Although he was the first person to discover the stone door, it did not mean that the stone door was the only space-time tunnel that could teleport to Planet Mushu.
He even had a vague feeling that the rapid development of Planet Azure in the centuries was closely related to this Planet Mushu.
"Roar!" A loud roar came out of nowhere. It was accompanied by an intense domineering aura that enveloped the area, causing the group to tremble.
"Bam!" Even the earth was shaking. The sound of trees falling could be heard from afar.
Everyone's expressions changed drastically.
Even Douglas, who had always been calm, had a change of expression at this moment. All the hairs on his body stood on end.
They did not know how far they had traveled to reach this place. However, to be able to cause such a huge commotion, what kind of monster is lurking out there?
Everyone looked in the direction of the sound. All they could see were tall trees and hanging vines. They could barely see over a hundred meters away due to the foliage.
However, everyone guessed that the source of the sounds was probably another huge monster.
Moreover, this monster was likely much more terrifying than the spider monster they had encountered previously.
"Let's ignore it and just proceed."
Just as they were about to reach the base, a system notification rang out once again.
"Congratulations, user! The user's exploration range has reached 500m. 50 points shall be awarded."
"I got points again! As expected, it was too good to be true. It gave me 100 points for the first time, but it will only 50 points for every additional 500 meters," Gaia said in his heart.
"I don't know how this exploration range is calculated. Maybe it's some combination of outward and horizontal exploration?
"However, I still have to think of a way to get more points. Otherwise, I can't afford anything from in the system shop."