In the pitch-black forest stood a willow tree, emitting a hazy green glow. It looked beautiful.
But Su Heng quickly realized something.
For such a willow tree to grow, it would be far more difficult than it was for Gamia, his First Template.
After all, Gamia could move freely through the forest and search for prey. Even if she encountered an enemy she could not defeat, she could rely on a snake's keen sense of smell and perception to avoid danger in advance.
Then, a few days later, she could come back and eat those creatures.
But the willow tree could not.
For the time being, the willow tree could not evade enemies, and its growth through light and speed was nowhere near as absurd as Gamia's growth through Devour.
"Hmm, and my vision now..."
Su Heng's vision was also rather strange. Everything within a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree radius around the willow tree was displayed before him without a single blind spot.
Even in the pitch-black, lightless night, he could see clearly.
This was a flat valley, flanked by high rolling hills. Wildflowers bloomed everywhere, while a babbling stream flowed through cracks in the rocks.
At the bottom of the valley grew many tall trees, ranging from a dozen meters to several dozen meters in height.
In such an environment, the willow tree Su Heng possessed was not particularly conspicuous.
Of course...
That was only if one ignored its faintly glowing leaves in the darkness.
He examined the willow tree again.
More than a hundred soft branches hung down like a curtain, swaying gently in the night breeze like a waterfall.
The willow tree's crown was broad and sparse, its bark grayish-black and marked by a few irregular cracks. If he was not mistaken, this should be a fairly common ornamental tree species.
A weeping willow.
An adult weeping willow generally stood around twelve to eighteen meters tall. It lived in moist soil and had a lifespan of roughly thirty years. A very small number of weeping willows could survive for more than a century.
Weeping willow branches were highly flexible and could be used to weave baskets. Their leaves also had some medicinal value.
This willow tree was roughly three to four meters tall.
Using a rough estimate of two meters of growth per year, this willow tree was probably less than two years old.
"And if I remember correctly, weeping willows are generally found on the Ardis Continent, where Qing City is located. Does that mean this willow tree isn't too far from me?"
Such a guess surfaced in Su Heng's mind.
However, he also knew that it was only a possibility. In reality, the odds were not high.
The Ardis Continent covered tens of millions of square kilometers, far larger than the combined Eurasian continent of his previous life.
And as the restricted zones expanded, the areas where humans could operate had been squeezed into a very small range.
Let alone Qing City.
In these dark mountains, even encountering a human was no easy task.
"Deploy Second Template State."
Su Heng issued the command in his mind, and the familiar panel appeared before him.
Second Template: Willow Tree State: Weak Life Level: 1 Vitality: 1.32 (average: 3) Tree Height: 3.26 meters (average: 15) Tree Age: 2.1 years Bond Level: 1 (The higher the Bond Level, the greater the bonuses gained in Template Fusion State. Current level bonus: 30%) Template Trait: Life Enlightenment (Rare: By wielding branches brimming with life force, it can guide lower lifeforms to awaken. Awakened lifeforms possess a natural fondness for the original body. However, the template itself will also become more susceptible to attacks and consumption by other mutated beasts.)
"This willow tree... can actually guide creatures to become Awakened Ones."
Unlike Little Boa's Devour Talent, the willow tree's talent could not grant it rapid growth, but its effect was just as extraordinarily powerful.
Awakened creatures were a rank below the Transcendent tier.
For ordinary humans, beasts, or even plants, becoming an awakened creature might not immediately result in a massive increase in vitality.
But the process was a transformation of Life Level from zero to one.
Ever since the Red Moon Era began, countless scientists and martial artists had tried every possible means to find a method that could reliably promote human awakening and thus resist natural disasters.
Yet unfortunately...
More than three hundred years had passed. Even when the Red Moon had first appeared, when humanity had inherited most of the scientific research capabilities of the Golden Age—
Those top-tier researchers of the time had still failed to develop a sufficiently stable and effective method.
And now, after several centuries, city after city had fallen into restricted zones. The surviving humans had been divided by the Red Moon and lost most of their capacity for scientific research and innovation.
Trying to find the key to opening the gate of awakening had long since become an impractical fantasy.
Some biotech companies boasted every day that they had developed stable Gene Awakening Potions, but these potions, heavily concentrated with Red Moon radiation, were not only expensive—their success rates were also extremely low.
And once they failed, the price paid would very likely be one's life.
They were often mockingly called expensive poison.
Other scholars believed that by exercising and practicing martial arts to gradually push the human body to its limits, then receiving Red Moon radiation, one could increase the chances of awakening.
But Su Heng always felt that these scholars had taken bribes from certain martial arts schools. They repeated the same few lines over and over, and the examples they cited were always the same handful, with little factual basis.
But now...
The key that billions of humans had desperately sought for over a century since the arrival of the Red Moon Era had been discovered by Su Heng in this remote, unfamiliar valley.
The gate of evolution, as distant as the stars, was now within reach.
Even a shut-in like Su Heng immediately realized the value possessed by this willow tree.
"But I can't celebrate too early." Su Heng sighed. "In such a dangerous environment, surviving and developing won't be easy."
He had not forgotten the warning given by the system.
While the Life Enlightenment talent possessed wondrous power, it would also attract many unwelcome visitors.
Most beasts affected by the Red Moon became more sadistic and brutal.
Like the pack of evil ghosts Su Heng had seen in the mountain village before, concepts such as sustainable development and friendly coexistence could not be reasoned out with those crazed monsters.
His most pressing task now—
Was to cultivate the Willow Template as quickly as possible. Once it possessed the ability to protect itself, he could consider how to maximize the effects of Life Enlightenment.
"Enlightened lifeforms will naturally feel fondness toward the willow tree... Based on that, perhaps I can become a restricted zone myself and create an earthly paradise where ten thousand demons bow in reverence."
Su Heng could not help imagining such a scene...
Beneath a sky heavy with dark clouds.
A gigantic willow tree stood shrouded in hazy radiance, like an immortal god.
With a wave of its branches, tens of thousands of mutated beasts would surge and roar like a torrent of mountains, crushing all the strange and ominous things blocking their path.
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