Hail

With nothing else to do, Lu Heng stepped into the Planting Room.

He walked straight to the stone vat containing water, looked down at the Purifying Water Lotus in the vat, raised his hand to bring up the detailed status panel, and carefully checked the growth changes of the day.

The Purifying Water Lotus has fully entered its growth stage.

The Energy Core embedded underneath continues to steadily output nutrients. The lotus plant is also continuously absorbing energy without stopping.

However, its growth rate is completely different from that of the seedling stage.

When it first sprouts and takes shape, the Purifying Water Lotus absorbs energy extremely rapidly and grows very quickly, with noticeable changes every day.

The pace has now slowed down completely.

Absorption becomes slow and even, maintaining a steady level without any sudden surges.

Lu Heng knew this in his heart.

This Purifying Water Lotus has reached its current growth bottleneck and its own growth limit. The rate of nutrient accumulation is no longer sufficient to support its rapid advancement.

He had absolutely no intention of causing any trouble.

Just let things take their natural course.

Everything grows according to its own laws. It stores energy steadily, gradually settles, and when the time is right, it will naturally break through. At that time, it will continue to store energy, grow, and become stronger.

After checking the status of the Purifying Water Lotus, Lu Heng exited the panel.

The weather was bad today, and it wasn't suitable to explore the mountains and forests, so he simply stayed in the Shelter, opened the trading interface on his Wristband, and checked the resource refreshes in each of the major areas.

Since we're just sitting around doing nothing, stockpiling some useful supplies is always a good idea.

He refreshed the page several times, checking each section one by one. His finger slowly slid across the screen of his Wristband, scanning the names of the listed items from top to bottom. His gaze swept over the ubiquitous items like forging scraps, dried herbs, and fragmented animal bones. Most areas listed basic consumables and common building materials; there were no rare items or high-level resources worth exchanging for. After searching for a long time, he still found nothing suitable.

He didn't stop swiping his finger until he entered the Island Region trading area.

The Island Region region has seen a surge in affordable seafood options.

Kelp, seaweed, and all kinds of fresh seafood are available in a wide variety and in ample quantity. Rows of packaged fresh fish and shrimp, as well as bundles of dried kelp strips, are prominently displayed on the trading list at the dock.

These supplies have no level enhancements and are the most basic natural products. In the unpolluted waters of the post-apocalyptic world, the resources are abundant, and you can easily gather a lot by simply going beachcombing. Therefore, the trading price is extremely low, and there is no shortage of buyers.

Lu Heng turned around and walked to the corner of the storage room. He opened the stacked beast meat storage bags, took out a batch of ordinary beast meat that he had accumulated from hunting strange beasts on weekdays, and initiated a bulk exchange at the trading window.

After all the transactions were completed, he went back and forth between the trading window and the Cellar, carrying heavy woven bags, sorting the kelp, seaweed, and fresh seafood one by one, shaking off the fine sand attached to the surface, labeling them with simple tags, and moving them all into the cold storage area of Cellar for classified storage.

Looking at the fully stocked storage area, Lu Heng felt very peaceful.

Although this post-apocalyptic land is fraught with danger, teeming with strange beasts, and plagued by unpredictable changes in the environment, its unpolluted natural environment does indeed possess abundant resources.

Putting aside the dangers, the resources will never be completely depleted.

After sorting through the seafood, Lu Heng switched to the desert trading channel.

He continued to use the leftover animal meat to gradually exchange for scattered agate stones.

He doesn't get many at a time, sometimes three or five, sometimes ten or so, but he patiently accumulates, checks, and integrates them.

The newly exchanged Stone, along with the remaining stock, were all poured onto the stone countertop and gathered together. After counting them one by one, the total number was exactly two hundred, a neat and orderly quantity, eliminating the need for further scattered stockpiling. The heavy agate stones were stacked into a small pile, their colors varying in shade, which would come in handy later for crafting small decorative components and simple rune items.

After dealing with the agate, he continued to quickly browse through all the remaining trading areas.

The rainforest area was unusually quiet throughout the day, with almost no new goods being listed. Many traders' avatars were grayed out and offline, and the entire area was eerily quiet. Apart from the Bloodthirsty Vine acquired yesterday, there were no noteworthy outputs in the area that day; the entire day was uneventful, with no resources worth paying attention to.

While there was a large quantity of common supplies in the Island Region area, there was no high-level rare goods at all. It's highly likely that rare supplies briefly refreshed, but the survivors acted too quickly and snapped them up before he could, missing that brief window of opportunity when he refreshed the page.

Finally, open the High Mountain Trading Channel.

The traders here gave Lu Heng a very direct impression.

The high-altitude environment is barren, treacherous, and bitterly cold, with steep cliffs and constant wind and snow, making survival conditions extremely harsh. No one who can take root and survive in such a desperate situation is weak.

The supplies they displayed looked rough and simple, not particularly impressive, even somewhat shabby, mostly crudely polished animal bone knives and dried mountain roots. But these people were all tough and resilient. Those who could withstand the natural disasters and monsters of the mountains and survive had their character, abilities, and combat experience honed through countless trials, far surpassing those of survivors from ordinary areas. Lu Heng casually glanced at a few of the traders' comments, and every word carried the tough temperament honed by years of hard-fought battles.

Lu Heng stayed at the Fortress to rest and recuperate throughout the entire day.

There was no going out, no fighting, no dramatic events.

The harvest wasn't a pleasant surprise, but it was reassuring enough. We replenished the seafood reserves in the entire compartment, gathered two hundred agate stones, and weathered the rainy day peacefully.

After it got completely dark, he washed up, rested, and lay down early to recharge for the next day.

The next morning, Lu Heng woke up on time.

Without any unnecessary movements or delays, he got up and went straight to the second-floor balcony.

It had been raining all night, with the pattering sound outside the window lasting for most of the night. He instinctively assumed that it would be another ordinary rainy day after dawn.

But once you step onto the balcony and look out, the view is completely different.

What's falling outside isn't rain, it's hail.

A flurry of ice pellets pelted down from the clouds, creating a dense and loud noise that echoed through the mountains and forests.

The hailstones varied in size; the small ones were tiny and scattered, like marbles, shattering instantly upon hitting the ground and sending up tiny ice shards. The largest ones were as thick and heavy as an adult's fist, leaving shallow craters in the soil when they fell.

The entire mountain forest was being ravaged by hail and rain.

Numerous twigs were snapped off, fragile treetops were broken and crooked, and the forest floor was littered with broken leaves and branches. The once orderly woodland was now a mess. A cold wind carrying ice pellets swept across the balcony, bringing a chilling sensation.

Lu Heng stood on the second-floor balcony, raising his hand to slightly block the ice shards that were blowing towards him. His gaze went directly over the railing, precisely locking onto the area where he had personally planted the Bloodthirsty Vine seeds yesterday.

He didn't care about the damage to the mountains and forests.

He only cared about the seeds that had just been planted in the soil.

This was the first extreme weather event the seeds had encountered since being planted. He had to personally confirm whether they could withstand the impact and whether they would be damaged. He squinted slightly, carefully examining the flat surface of soil by the fence through the swirling hail, looking for any signs that the soil had been broken open and the seeds were exposed. This sudden hailstorm was also a first test for the newly planted vines.