The Flame Mountain title was seriously powerful. It could strengthen his plants—perfect for making up for his biggest weakness: lack of sunlight. If he could create a truly strong plant, then even without the Large Sun Mushroom, he could still fight high-level paranormals.

Maybe… throw the Snow Peashooter in?

Bai Wan suddenly had a bit of a wicked thought.

What would happen if ice undergo flame forging? Maybe it’d turn into some “ice-and-fire dual mode” plant?

…But then he pictured the poor Snow Peashooter melting instantly, and decided against it. That would just be embarrassing.

How about boosting the Ghostflame Wall-nut? No… not good either. If the Ghostflame and Samadhi True Fire didn’t fuse well, the plant would be ruined.

What about Choy Man with Knock-Knock Ghost Arms?

He was Bai Wan’s strongest fighter without the Giant Sunshine Mushroom. A Choy Man hybridized with Knock-Knock Ghost arms, then merged with flame power…That’d be a monster.

Just imagining a Choy Man burning with Samadhi True Fire, punching his way through ghost mobs—one fist of flame, one fist of knocking—got Bai Wan’s blood pumping.

But he shook his head. 

Not now, Choy Man already had the Knock-Knock Ghost’s strength, which raised sunlight cost quite a bit. Adding a Flame Mountain mutation would make the sunlight consumption even higher.

Right now, he needed a way to fight without the Giant Sunshine Mushroom. Choy Man could wait until later.

After thinking it over, his eyes landed on the sunflower perched on his shoulder.

This might be the best choice.

It had a powerful potential form—the Sunflower Queen—a plant ranked at the pinnacle above all other sunflowers.

Bai Wan remembered reading the Sunflower Queen’s lore.

Once, it had been a weak sunflower, producing only sunlight, bullied by other plants. But it was an inspirational story. It never gave up. It kept absorbing sunlight. After gathering massive solar essence and enduring hardships, it finally broke its chrysalis and became a queen. A queen that could bombard the entire map with tracking fire projectiles.

Following the usual progression, Bai Wan guessed his shoulder sunflower might have a chance to become a Sunflower Queen after absorbing enough sunlight. But that was just speculation. Right now, Flame Mountain was a real opportunity.

If it absorbed Samadhi True Fire, maybe it could evolve into something beyond the Sunflower Queen. An evolved sunflower with greatly boosted power and sunlight absorption was exactly what he needed.

“Not bad… not bad.” Bai Wan grinned as he tossed the sunflower into Flame Mountain through the interface.

In the lore, a sunflower became queen after enduring hardships—so why not let it train in Flame Mountain? It’d definitely come out stronger. That was the “backstory,” anyway.

He doubted the sunflower would object.

A prompt popped up in his mind:

[Consume 1 Flame Molten Stone to place the Sunflower into Flame Mountain for enhancement?

Note: Plants enhanced in Flame Mountain will gain a new mutation, but their sunlight cost will increase. Mutation requires time to complete.]

Bai Wan confirmed it. The twin-headed sunflower vanished from his shoulder—presumably transported into Flame Mountain.

Satisfied, he nodded.

…

The system also awarded him two new skill points for upgrading his skills. 

No new bug skills this time, though—which was fair. If you got a new skill after every dungeon, people like Yang Yujie would already have seven skills by now. The first two dungeons had been the newbie phase, where you could get character skills faster. Things were bound to slow down.

But with his Bug Abuser passive, Bai Wan could keep temporary bug skills—so not getting new ones right now wasn’t a big deal.

He decided to spend one skill point on his Glowing Sunflower, to unlock new plants, and the other on Misfortune.

Misfortune, combined with weather-changing items, was one of his most lethal combos.

[Ding! Your Glowing Sunflower has reached Level 3. New plants obtained: Pea Cannon, Sunflower.]

“Pea Cannon, huh? That’s a pretty brutal plant,” Bai Wan said. He remembered it well—its massive peas packed way more punch than normal.

He checked the info:

[Pea Cannon]

Description: A cannon modified from a pea shooter. Extremely powerful. Consumes medium sunlight.

Bai Wan’s eyes gleamed.

If he tossed this into Flame Mountain… would it turn into a Samadhi Fire Cannon? Just imagining a flaming Pea Cannon bombarding ghosts got him excited.

The second plant unlocked was… another sunflower. 

Perfect—since his twin-headed sunflower was in Flame Mountain, this one could fill in.

Next, he upgraded Misfortune.

[Ding! Congratulations — Misfortune upgraded to Lv2.]

Description: Inflict Misfortune on any target. Affected targets become extremely unlucky for 10 minutes. Cooldown: 10 hours.

Level 2: Can inflict Misfortune on all enemies once. Duration: one minute. Usable once per dungeon.

Bai Wan’s eyes lit up.

AoE Misfortune, combined with weather-changing gear, meant… no, it wasn’t just Kirin anymore—It’d be Thunder God’s Descent.

He pictured lightning raining from the sky, striking indiscriminately, and felt a thrill.

While he was lost in these glorious fantasies, his sister Bai Xi stepped out of the painting, looking lively and refreshed. “Bro, you cleared that dungeon way too fast. I was in another class and didn’t even see you—then you blew up the school!”

She’d been planning to meet up with him to take on Team Evil together. But in no time at all, he’d nuked the haunted campus solo. And this was the same brother who’d taken over a year to blow up their real-life school—he’d gotten way stronger.

“You could’ve just gone back into the painting and come out near me,” Bai Wan suggested.

Bai Xi shook her head. “I tried, but the system says going back into the painting erases your current NPC identity. You’d only be in the game as a player.”

“I see…”

“But, bro, this time I scored something big. Hehe. I can help you out in the future.” She grinned, and then, right before Bai Wan’s eyes, started to transform.

His pure, cute little sister turned pale, ghostly aura swirling around her. A rope mark appeared on her neck.

Bai Wan nearly smashed her with his hammer on instinct.

But she explained: “Bro, I played the role of a hanged ghost student in the haunted school. When I left, the reward was—now I have the ability of a Hanged Ghost."

Bai Wan froze. Then, reading her settlement info, he was completely shocked.

…That works too???

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