Remodeling the Willow Tree

The speed at which he obtained Elizabeth's blood sample was even faster than Chen Changsheng had imagined. Chen Changsheng was merely dribbling a basketball back and forth across the sports field when Elizabeth passed by him. With a deft throw, he sent the basketball smashing into Elizabeth's face.

Elizabeth's blood sprayed from her nose and spilled all over the ground. Even Chen Changsheng was startled by the sight.

It seemed like far too much blood was flowing. Elizabeth's nosebleed poured out like someone had turned on a faucet, quickly staining her clothes.

After glancing at the basketball that had completed its mission, Chen Changsheng hurried over to help Elizabeth up. Pretending to look full of remorse, he said, "Elizabeth, are you all right? I accidentally hit your face with the basketball."

As he spoke, he took a large handkerchief from his pocket and pressed it firmly over Elizabeth's nose, trying to soak it completely with her blood so he could obtain a larger sample.

Struck by the basketball for no apparent reason, Elizabeth was furious. She tried to push away the hand covering her face while saying, "Jack, you did this on purpose, didn't you?" Afterward, she glared angrily at Chen Changsheng.

But Chen Changsheng was a boy. How could Elizabeth possibly push him away? No matter how hard she tried, he kept her nose firmly covered.

The handkerchief pressed against Elizabeth's face was soon soaked through with the blood flowing from her nose.

When the hand holding the handkerchief came into contact with Elizabeth's blood, Chen Changsheng felt as if it had received an enormous stimulus. It actually began to feel uncontrollable.

Chen Changsheng felt an itch in the center of his palm first, followed by a slight sting. Finally, his palm seemed to have been stuck to Elizabeth's face.

Through his senses, Chen Changsheng clearly felt something sprouting from his palm—some fleshy tendrils that pierced through the handkerchief and burrowed into Elizabeth's nasal cavity, absorbing the blood flowing from her.

Elizabeth also felt as if there were foreign objects in her nasal cavity. Thinking that her nosebleed had grown worse, she tilted her head high. Since Chen Changsheng was covering her nose for her, her two small hands had nowhere to go and waved about in panic.

Seeing the students gradually gathering around them, Chen Changsheng immediately felt pressured. Wouldn't it be over if these people saw the mutation in his palm?

Without time to think, Chen Changsheng cleverly said to Elizabeth, "Come on, I'll help you rinse off at the faucet. Look, your nose is bleeding even more badly."

Elizabeth did not suspect anything. She obediently let Chen Changsheng help her up, and the two of them prepared to walk toward the faucet not far away.

Pushing through the circle of students, Chen Changsheng helped Elizabeth to the faucet at the edge of the sports field. A group of high school students tactfully dispersed, and no one noticed anything unusual about Chen Changsheng.

When they were almost at the faucet, the Original Virus inside Chen Changsheng finally seemed to have eaten its fill. The fleshy tendrils between his fingers slowly retracted into his palm and returned it to normal.

Chen Changsheng also felt that his senses had become sharper. Clearly, Elizabeth's blood really had an effect. This discovery made him very happy, because he felt that he had found a path toward growing stronger.

Drinking blood or whatever seemed far too abnormal, but given the circumstances, who cared about that?

Chen Changsheng removed the handkerchief from Elizabeth's nose. At that moment, there was not a trace of blood in her nostrils, and even the blood on the handkerchief had decreased considerably.

Anxious to wash the blood from her nose, Elizabeth did not notice these abnormalities. She tilted her head back and splashed clean water onto her forehead repeatedly. Only after doing so several times did she realize that her nosebleed seemed to have stopped.

After washing herself a little more, Elizabeth angrily turned toward Chen Changsheng. Chen Changsheng had also washed his handkerchief clean by then, and he met her gaze with an extremely apologetic expression.

After complaining at him for a while, Elizabeth finally stormed off. Chen Changsheng called out several more apologies from a distance before secretly slipping into the forest not far from his home.

He found an empty place and studied what abilities the Original Virus inside him had gained. In Chen Changsheng's perception, he seemed to have acquired an incredible ability.

Looking at his palm, Chen Changsheng tried hard to recreate the sensation of the fleshy tendrils emerging from it.

Immediately, his palm seemed to melt, revealing ripples across its surface. Then, tendril after tendril, like flexible threads, rose and swayed.

These fleshy tendrils did not resemble the parasites he had seen. Instead, they looked more like the roots and stems of plants.

Chen Changsheng tried it out and discovered that as long as he had a clear thought, the tendrils would respond.

After searching around for a while, Chen Changsheng failed to find a suitable target for practice and could only extend his hand toward an old Willow Tree beside him.

Before his palm even reached the Willow Tree, the tendrils seemed to have received some kind of signal. From a distance, they began extending toward the tree's bark.

When Chen Changsheng pressed his palm firmly against the Willow Tree's outer bark, he felt the tendrils in his palm constantly growing. Some of the virus inside his body was also being injected into the Willow Tree's branches and trunk.

This feeling did not last long. In just a brief moment, Chen Changsheng felt that he had infected the Willow Tree with a considerable amount of virus.

Vaguely, Chen Changsheng sensed that he had formed some inexplicable connection with the Willow Tree. He could even sense the feeling of a breeze brushing across its branches through some unknown channel.

It was a wondrous sensation. Chen Changsheng carefully experienced it for a while, but then a wave of hunger rose in his heart. It was no longer the sort of hunger from a few days ago, when failing to eat would make him feel as if he would immediately starve to death.

After sensing it carefully, he realized that the Willow Tree in front of him was hungry.

What should he do if a Willow Tree was hungry? It was a plant, so it should only need to absorb nutrients from the earth through its roots, right?

If it was hungry, then expanding its roots to absorb more nutrients should solve the problem. That was what Chen Changsheng thought.

As Chen Changsheng had this thought, the Willow Tree's roots began rapidly dividing and growing under the Original Virus's catalysis. In a short time, a root network several times larger than its canopy had formed, and the Willow Tree began frantically absorbing nutrients from the soil.

The nutrients absorbed by the Willow Tree could even be sent directly back to Chen Changsheng through the fleshy tendrils connecting them.

The nutrients absorbed by the Willow Tree were plentiful, but the amount needed by the Original Virus to drive its evolution was even greater. Chen Changsheng did not know why, but he could clearly understand this. It felt as if someone were explaining it inside his mind.

How else could the Willow Tree increase its nutrient intake? Could it possibly catch small animals and feed on them?

At that thought, Chen Changsheng felt he had a good idea. There were examples of plants capturing animals in nature—Venus flytraps and pitcher plants were perfect proof. However, plants passively waiting for prey were inefficient. It would be better if the Willow Tree could catch animals and eat them on its own.

As Chen Changsheng thought this, the Willow Tree had already begun evolving rapidly. Virus continuously flowed from Chen Changsheng's body into the Willow Tree's circulatory system, while nutrients poured in without end. Gradually, the Willow Tree's branches, which had originally swayed with the wind, began moving in an unusual rhythm.

The channels transporting nutrients through the branches also underwent strange changes. New specialized organs seemed to be appearing.

Animals had hearts to pump blood, and in a short time, the Willow Tree evolved a similar organ deep underground.

It continuously transported the nutrients absorbed from underground to every branch of the Willow Tree. At the same time, countless branches and the leaves on them grew even greener, while the leaves' photosynthesis was greatly enhanced...

On the Willow Tree, the insects that had originally made it their home were suddenly caught by the calm and harmless branches. They were wrapped up and eventually digested and absorbed.

In a very short time, no living animals other than Chen Changsheng could be seen anywhere around the Willow Tree. Even some of the weeds commonly seen throughout the forest seemed to have become noticeably sparser.

By the time Chen Changsheng came to his senses, a long time had already passed. It was now midnight. In the bright moonlight, Chen Changsheng discovered that the Willow Tree had changed beyond recognition.

Its originally tender, spring-green branches had become incredibly verdant, as if they could drip water. The ends of the branches had grown extremely thin, like silken threads.

As the fine threads danced in the wind, they deftly caught insects flying through the gaps between the branches. They then wrapped them up, while the leaves contracted into tiny cocoons that fell to the ground.

After the tiny cocoons containing the insects touched the ground, the Willow Tree's roots burst from the soil, dragged its dinner underground, and sent it to a specialized digestion site to be converted into nutrients.

Chen Changsheng felt that the Original Virus was like a group of Minions, while he was their master. As long as he issued a task, the Minions would do their best to complete it—though the quality of the results was another matter.

To avoid being killed by the Original Virus, Chen Changsheng still needed to participate and set some boundaries for its rapid evolution, restricting the direction of its development.

Looking at the first organism he had modified, Chen Changsheng suddenly felt like a creator. But that feeling did not last long. In the next moment, he thought of the town that would soon be wiped out by nuclear weapons. Had any creator in this world ever been killed by a nuclear strike?

Perhaps he should make good use of the Willow Tree's abilities and strengthen himself in a short time.

The energy fed back by the Willow Tree contained more energy than the food he had eaten. That tiny amount alone made Chen Changsheng feel as if his body had become a hundred times lighter.

Clearly, the Willow Tree's energy was of a very high level. It even seemed to have the effect of improving his constitution. If his training proved effective, then with the Willow Tree's energy as well, Chen Changsheng felt he could grow stronger rapidly.

Time was pressing. With a sword hanging over his head, he had no choice but to desperately improve himself.

Chen Changsheng's thoughts were simple. When the time came, even killing a soldier and disguising himself as a US Military soldier to flee with the army would be better than waiting here to be hit by a nuclear bomb.

However, Chen Changsheng believed that the ones arriving then would probably be elite soldiers from the Black Watch. These people were genuine elites. Chen Changsheng had no weapons, and facing fully armed Black Watch soldiers with complete equipment would be difficult without making preparations in advance.