Supply Card

The leaves on these trees were no longer emerald green either, but they were not grayish brown. Instead, they were yellowish brown, with pitch-black veins.

And their trunks remained as before, without the hideous, terrifying spikes of the Thorned Strange Black Trees.

Tang Zhixue walked over to the nearest tree and examined it closely, then swung his iron axe and began chopping.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The sharp iron axe struck the tree again and again.

Before long, the tree slowly toppled under Tang Zhixue's gaze.

"Damn, I think I've got blisters." Tang Zhixue glanced at his hands. "This first-tier level isn't much good. I still get blisters just chopping down a tree."

Complaining was one thing, but none of the work could be skipped.

Tang Zhixue immediately chopped off the tree's excess branches, leaving only a bare trunk, then dragged it toward the area covered by the shelter's effects.

Just as before, the moment he dragged the entire trunk into range, an information panel appeared before his eyes.

[Item: Clear Spirit Tree · Trunk]

[Tier: First]

[Description: Originally an ordinary pine tree, it underwent a wondrous mutation while resisting the erosion of the Silent White Fog. It can resist the erosion of eldritch beings and evil entities to a certain extent.]

"Huh?"

Tang Zhixue's eyes immediately lit up. "It can resist the erosion of eldritch beings and evil entities?"

But a moment later, he frowned again. "Isn't this description a little too vague?"

The Clear Spirit Tree's description only said that it could resist the erosion of eldritch beings and evil entities, without mentioning how it worked.

Could the tree itself resist their erosion? Or could certain parts of the tree help others resist them?

Frowning, Tang Zhixue turned around and brought back all the Clear Spirit Tree's other branches, and even its leaves.

After carefully inspecting them all, his frown did not ease in the slightest.

The descriptions of these branches and leaves were exactly the same as the trunk's. For the moment, Tang Zhixue could not figure out the Clear Spirit Tree's precise effects.

"Forget it. I'll stop thinking about it."

Tang Zhixue was quite easygoing about it. Since he could not figure it out, he did not intend to keep speculating blindly. He would be better off spending that time chopping down a few more Clear Spirit Trees.

Since these Clear Spirit Trees could resist the erosion of eldritch beings and evil entities, a house built from them should also be able to protect its occupants from that erosion, right?

At that thought, Tang Zhixue turned and went back inside the shelter.

After reciting the Pure Heaven and Earth Divine Mantra to extend the duration of Purification, Tang Zhixue sat beside the bed and began munching on a White Melon.

Although he had only chopped down two trees since morning, with the time spent clearing the rubble earlier, it was already noon. Chopping trees with an iron axe really did take quite a lot of time, and it was physically exhausting too.

As he kept eating White Melon, Tang Zhixue gradually filled his hungry stomach.

But his heart grew increasingly heavy. "There aren't many White Melons left, and they don't keep me full at all. At most, they'll last through tonight."

"I need to find a way to solve the problem of growing White Melons by tomorrow morning at the latest."

Once he had rested enough, Tang Zhixue picked up his iron axe again, left the shelter, and headed toward another Clear Spirit Tree.

Just as he was about to swing the axe and start chopping, Tang Zhixue suddenly stopped, his eyes fixed on what lay ahead.

A human figure was slowly approaching through the white fog.

Because the figure was in the white fog, Tang Zhixue could not see clearly and could only make out a rough silhouette.

"Who's there?"

Tang Zhixue called out tentatively.

Yet there was no response at all. The figure continued approaching slowly, at an unhurried pace.

The figure was not far from Tang Zhixue; otherwise, he would not have been able to see it through the Silent White Fog.

Only ten or so seconds after Tang Zhixue called out, the figure emerged from the white fog.

"Roar!"

An inhuman howl rang out in Tang Zhixue's ears, followed by a spreading stench of decay.

"Damn!"

A humanoid creature, rotten all over and crawling with maggots, opened its mouth and howled, but its movements were extremely slow.

It was like an ordinary person slowed to a tenth of their normal speed.

But the rotten flesh and maggots on its body, along with the increasingly intense stench, made Tang Zhixue's stomach churn.

That's disgusting!

For that very reason, Tang Zhixue fought back his nausea, picked up a long wooden stick from nearby, and jabbed it toward the humanoid monster.

He did not want to get close to that monster.

"Roar!"

Yet just as the stick was about to touch the monster, it suddenly dodged swiftly to one side, then lunged at the stunned Tang Zhixue.

Tang Zhixue froze for only an instant, but the monster seized that opening.

I knew this monster wasn't that simple!

In a flash, as the monster rapidly loomed larger before him, Tang Zhixue dropped the stick, grabbed the iron axe beside him, and swung hard while taking a few steps to the side.

Squelch!

"Roar!"

The iron axe swept through a full arc, cleaving the lunging monster in two at the waist.

"You don't often see an attack that leaves you so wide open." Tang Zhixue looked at the monster lying on the ground, with only its upper half still struggling. "Are all you monsters this brainless?"

Honestly, if the monster had not suddenly leaped at him, Tang Zhixue would not have cut it in two so easily.

It would have been one thing if the monster had strong defenses, but the problem was that this thing was all rotten flesh!

Tang Zhixue had even prepared himself for the axe to get stuck inside the monster, only to slice it in two with ease.

Picking up the wooden stick he had just tossed aside, Tang Zhixue gripped it with both hands and drove it hard into the monster's head.

Squelch!

Dark red liquid immediately gushed from the wound, accompanied by an even fouler stench.

"Damn! You can't even give me peace when you're dead!"

Tang Zhixue stepped back in disgust, avoiding the foul-smelling blood spurting out.

"Huh? What's this? A card?"

Suddenly, Tang Zhixue spotted a white, rectangular, card-like object hovering above the monster's corpse.

Tang Zhixue waited a while. Only after noticing nothing unusual did he reach out to touch the card.

[Item: Supply Card]

[Tier: First]

[Description: Tear open the card to obtain fifty kilograms of edible rice.]

???

!!!

Tang Zhixue's eyes widened. "There's even something like a Supply Card?! Killing monsters drops items?!"

Abandoning the tree chopping, Tang Zhixue hurried back into the shelter.

But just as he was about to tear open the Supply Card, he stopped.

"Does this fifty kilograms of rice come with a container?"

If not, he would have to find a way to get a container to hold the rice.

"Should I tear it open or not?"

For a moment, Tang Zhixue was at a loss too.