A Year's Plan Begins in Autumn

Time passed day by day, and autumn truly arrived.

Rainfall visibly decreased, the sky grew bluer, and the temperature became pleasant.

Especially the scent of the plants—it was the smell of ripeness.

All kinds of grass seeds and ripe berries carpeted the ground. Every day, Wang Wu could reach 350 points of Satiety.

During this time, those Grasshopper Bandits suddenly became more numerous, patch after patch, swarm after swarm.

Many Sprites were hunting these Grasshopper Bandits.

Wang Wu was no exception.

They were the only meat he had eaten in the past two-plus months. They tasted like chicken—crunchy with every bite.

While he was at it, he would also casually grind up his Plant Toxin Resistance.

And after so many days of digging, his tunnel had finally reached the shaded slope twenty meters away.

There, he did not try to dig through to the surface. Instead, he continued digging deeper.

Of course, he only dug at night. During the day, he absolutely did not move.

Thus, by the second month of autumn, he had dug out a dwelling at the foot of the short mountain's shaded slope, roughly two meters underground and two meters along each side.

All right, it should have been called a cave.

After reaching this stage, Wang Wu stopped digging. Instead, he began hauling stones back from the creek. He needed to build a food storage room. Stones could keep out moisture and prevent little insects, rats, and the like from raiding his home.

Though in truth, he himself felt it was not particularly meaningful.

But there was simply too much food in autumn.

All the Sprites were busy preparing for winter, storing food for the cold season.

During the day, Wang Wu also began catching grasshoppers. After catching them, he threaded them onto grass stems and left them to dry amid the grass.

Oh, and those Yellow Ginger plants had grown even bigger. After digging them up, Wang Wu brought them back to his cave and covered them with soil again, hoping to preserve more of them this way.

He also threaded all kinds of mushrooms onto grass stems and dried them.

Sometimes, other Sprites stole these strung-up drying foods. Wang Wu did not care; he would not lose the big picture over a trifle.

Because during this period, he could clearly sense the agitation, anxiety, and panic of those Sprites. It was as if they greatly feared winter.

This included his old friend, the Flame Scorpion King. No Sprite could challenge its position anymore, and it had birthed another huge brood of little scorpions. Every day, hundreds of them basked atop the cliff.

By all rights, it should have been immensely pleased with itself. Yet from Wang Wu's observations, the Scorpion King was inexplicably restless as well. Its strength had clearly advanced at least another step, and its body was already as large as a water vat—mighty and utterly badass.

Just like that, without anyone noticing, the leaves in the valley turned yellow, while the shrub leaves became a sheet of blood-red. When morning came, there was even a thin layer of frost and snow.

The weather grew steadily colder.

Wang Wu's storage room was packed to the brim.

During the day, he no longer lurked motionlessly in the grass. Instead, he returned to his cave and entered Level 5 Stealth without moving a muscle.

He did not know why, but he truly felt an inexplicable pressure.

Time passed day by day. When leaves began to fall and the mountain wind developed sharp edges, that black Giant Eagle arrived and took away the Flame Scorpion King's bearskin banner. Then the Flame Scorpion King descended from the cliff and walked in the direction the black Giant Eagle had flown.

It was not just him. The three Mantis Swordsman leaders, each already as large as washbasins; the Little Red Birds' leader; the old spider of the Black Spider clan; the leader of the Blood Spiders; three enormous Gray Rat Knights; a Black Snake Priest; and the Black Centipede clan's leader all emerged. No one dared resist, and no one dared flee.

That day, every Sprite in the valley came out and silently watched the scene, as though witnessing some mysterious inheritance.

Soon, the brown Giant Eagle arrived as well. It took away the bearskin banner and led off a large group of Sprite leaders, including the Great Mountain Cat. Even the Armed Bee Swarm provided three exceptionally sturdy, exceptionally robust Armed Bee Swarm squads.

And this was not happening only in this valley. Nearby valleys, forests, and grasslands were all playing out the same scene.

Sprite leaders gathered one after another, merging into ever-larger legions, yet no one knew where they would ultimately go.

Wang Wu did not witness any of this firsthand. By the time he discovered it through various clues and all the strange signs, the first winter snow had already begun to fall.

His first winter in this world had finally arrived.

After fattening up and growing throughout the autumn, he had gained a total of 45% Growth Rate, bringing his overall Growth Rate to 75.9%.

In terms of size, he had grown roughly five centimeters taller and eight centimeters longer. He could barely fit two little teddy bears inside himself now.

As a result, his base attributes had also undergone two leaps.

His current attributes looked quite lavish.

Status: Ancient Giant Bear Cub Form (four Bloodline Talents awakened)

Life: 210

Stamina: 130

Strength: 10

Agility: 5

Defense: 12

Bloodline Talent: Stealth Level 5

Bloodline Talent: Self-Healing Level 4

Bloodline Talent: Spiritual Essence Level 1

Bloodline Talent: Danger Sense Level 5

Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy: 24/200

Satiety Limit: 450 points

Growth Rate: 75.9%

Special Growth Rate: 20%

Bloodline Evolution: 10%

Fire Resistance 6/10

Ice Resistance 7/10

Bee Venom Resistance 2/10

Plant Toxin Resistance 7/10

Normal Snake Venom Resistance 5/5

Normal Spider Toxin Resistance 5/5
--

Of these, the additional 14 points of Spiritual Energy had come from eating grasshoppers over the past few months. They were precious.

"I wonder whether Golden Particles will still fall after heavy snow seals off the mountains in winter?"

Wang Wu was very curious about this, so after the first snowfall stopped, he carefully passed through the tunnel and waited half the night at the hidden door's entrance. Only when dawn faintly brightened did he cautiously push the hidden door open a tiny crack.

The next moment, he saw the pale blue sky and the brilliant rosy clouds. The sun was about to rise.

He did not push the hidden door open any farther, nor did he intend to poke his head out. Looking at the sky was enough. After so long, he already understood very well whether there were Golden Particles within the sunlight, even though only very few of those Golden Particles could fall down.

A few seconds later, Wang Wu's pupils shifted slightly. He knew the answer, and it seemed to be a good one.

Because at sunrise every day, a large number of Golden Particles still fell within the sunlight. Then, as expected, that mysterious great net intercepted more than half of them. Beyond that, he could no longer see. Presumably, the rest would once again be gathered by the Great Demons in different places, with only the smallest portion reaching the Sprites.

Now that heavy snow had sealed off the mountains, which Sprites on the sunny slopes were absorbing Golden Particles?

But this time, Wang Wu suppressed his curiosity and continued to lie low.

Even if he intended to use winter weather to grind up his Ice Resistance in the future, he would have to wait until the depths of winter, when blizzards came, before venturing out.

He could not let all his previous efforts go to waste.