Cultivating the Second Template

The night in the Nameless Mountains was far from peaceful.

A dull rumbling, like thunder, echoed from all around the mountainside, accompanied by slight tremors. These were the disturbances caused by the battles of transcendent-level lifeforms.

It was obvious.

The mountain range where the second template, the Willow, resided was much more dangerous than the primeval forest where the first template, the Gamia Great Serpent, was located.

If only the locations of the two templates could be swapped now, the Gamia, having just acquired the Limit Breaker talent, could quickly complete its energy reserves.

Furthermore, the Willow template could spend its most vulnerable period in a relatively safe environment.

Unfortunately, it couldn't be swapped.

Fortunately, although the first night possessing a template wasn't peaceful, the danger did not spread to this moderately sized valley.

As the morning sun pierced through the mist and sprinkled between the mountain ridges, the frenzied mutated beasts finally calmed down temporarily after a night of intense combat.

The second template was not in good condition. Its gray trunk bore cracks, and many branches were broken in the middle, falling to the ground.

This was also why the Willow template's status was displayed as "Weak" during the possession.

When possessing a large tree, the pain wasn't very noticeable after being damaged.

But the feedback of the weakened state to Su Heng's consciousness was still unpleasant.

Just like Gamia.

The Willow template also had its own consciousness, a tiny green light spot like a blade of grass. It was very faint and didn't seem very intelligent.

It showed no reaction to Su Heng, who had suddenly entered its body.

"After all, it's just a willow tree. Even after awakening, it won't have much intelligence."

Su Heng attempted to communicate with the second template, but received no feedback. He wasn't very surprised by this outcome.

Human intelligence was far superior to that of ordinary animals and beasts, and even ordinary beasts had souls that were stronger and tougher than plants.

In the vast, dark, and boundless consciousness space.

If Su Heng's consciousness was a giant sphere of light like the sun, and the Great Serpent Gamia's consciousness was a satellite of moderate size.

Then, the Willow's pale green consciousness body was like insignificant dust.

If Su Heng hadn't specifically spent time searching for it earlier, he might have overlooked the Willow's consciousness.

But now...

After discovering the Willow's tiny consciousness, Su Heng protected it with his own consciousness and then completely took over the Willow's body.

Becoming a tree, after the initial novelty wore off, there was mostly boredom.

He couldn't move, but his senses were abnormally sharp.

Even during the night that had just passed, Su Heng could see his surroundings clearly from all angles. This feeling was somewhat similar to the "penetrating world" in a certain manga.

A gentle breeze rustled through the treetops, and sunlight shone on the verdant leaves.

Every sensation was completely fed back into Su Heng's consciousness.

Compared to Gamia, which could quickly absorb a large amount of nutrients to promote growth through its Devour Talent, the Willow's life force growth rate could be described as sluggish, even calling it a "turtle's pace" felt too fast.

From the rising sun to its peak at mid-morning.

In the entire half-day, the Willow's life force only increased by 0.01 points.

This was even with the system's buffs. If Su Heng hadn't descended into the Willow's body, this growth rate would have been even slower.

"If it really continues to grow at this rate, I'm afraid it might take ten years to accumulate enough life force to break through to the second Life Level..."

Su Heng wasn't an impatient person.

But looking at the Willow's slow growth rate, he still felt a bit speechless.

"It seems that accumulating the extracted True Points was an extremely correct decision."

Except for the very beginning, when the not-yet-grown Gamia encountered the mutated Caiman Crocodile, Su Heng had used the True Points he had to draw a reward once.

For the following month, all the points he obtained were completely saved.

A total of three hundred True Points.

This could be used for six ordinary-level talent draws, or two rare-level talent draws.

He spent one hundred and fifty points on three ordinary draws, and the remaining one hundred and fifty points were kept to deal with potential unexpected situations.

With each draw, he could choose one of the three talents provided by the system.

Su Heng's luck was good. In the three draws, the talents that appeared were basically usable by the current Willow.

Especially in the third draw, among the three talents that appeared, there was even a rare-level talent.

[Willow Template Deployed]

[Willow]

[Status: Weak]

[Life Level: 1]

[Vitality: 1.33 (Average: 3)]

[Tree Height: 3.27 meters (Average: 15)]

[Age: 2.1 years (Average: 30)]

[Bond Level: 1 (The higher the Bond Level, the greater the bonus obtained in Template Fusion State. Current level bonus is thirty percent.)]

[Template Traits: Life Enlightenment (Rare: Wielding branches full of vitality can guide lower-level creatures to Awaken. Awakened creatures will naturally feel goodwill towards the main body. However, the template itself will also be more susceptible to attacks and consumption by other mutated beasts.)

Body Doubling: (Common: Maximum vitality is doubled, increasing size. The toughness of roots, trunk, and branches increases with vitality.)

Super Absorption: (Common: The speed at which roots, stems, and leaves gain nutrients is greatly increased. Rapid growth can be achieved by increasing soil nutrients.)

Root and Stem Activation: (Rare: The strength and toughness of roots, branches, and leaves increase. Minor movements within an allowed range are now possible.)]

Body Doubling, Super Absorption, and Root and Stem Activation were three talents Su Heng obtained through the system's lucky draw.

Among these, Body Doubling had a similar effect to Gamia's Vigorous talent.

However, the Willow Template's vitality was naturally inferior to Gamia's, so the effect of this talent, which directly doubled vitality, was not as pronounced on the Willow.

This further proved that Su Heng's previous thoughts and direction were correct.

Every template had its own strengths and weaknesses. The most reasonable way to cultivate a template was to leverage its strengths and compensate for its weaknesses, maximizing each template's characteristics.

Thanks to God Key Boss for the 1,500-point reward!

Thanks to student Lei Huya Wan for the monthly ticket.