Level 2 Shelter

Tang Zhixue felt a little annoyed. If he had thought of this sooner, he could have used his innate ability to help fell trees. He might even have cut down enough Clear Spirit Trees by now.

Fortunately, it still was not too late.

Walking up to a Clear Spirit Tree, Tang Zhixue crouched down and reached out to touch the trunk near its base.

Vitality Absorption!

With a thought from Tang Zhixue, plant vitality was immediately drawn out of the spot where his fingers touched the Clear Spirit Tree, leaving it withered within moments.

Tang Zhixue circled the Clear Spirit Tree in a crouch, leaving a ring of withered, grayish-brown marks around its base.

But perhaps because his innate ability was not strong enough yet, the damage to the Clear Spirit Tree was not particularly great, even though he could absorb its vitality.

Prying away the withered wood with his iron axe revealed that he had only drained the vitality from a depth of two or three centimeters.

Tang Zhixue had expected as much. If once was not enough, he could simply do it a few more times.

For a while afterward, Tang Zhixue circled the Clear Spirit Tree again and again, each circuit shaving another layer off the diameter of its trunk at the base.

At last!

Rustle!

The Clear Spirit Tree, its trunk as thick as a thigh, slowly toppled before Tang Zhixue, while a mass of emerald-green plant vitality floated in front of him.

Tang Zhixue absorbed some of it to ease the discomfort from his recent exertion, then brought the rest into the shelter.

The Clear Spirit Tree was likewise dragged within the shelter's bounds, though Tang Zhixue had the shelter absorb it as soon as it entered the area.

Back inside the shelter, Tang Zhixue transplanted all the mutated plants growing in bamboo tubes into the Planting Box, then used plant vitality to help them take root fully and grow.

After that, Tang Zhixue returned almost every time he felled a Clear Spirit Tree to use the plant vitality on those mutated plants.

He had to admit, using his innate ability had done far more than improve his efficiency a little-it had increased exponentially!

He could obtain ten Clear Spirit Trees in just one hour, and that was with having to drag the trunks back within the shelter's bounds. Otherwise, he could have been even more efficient.

By noon, Tang Zhixue had gathered enough materials to upgrade the shelter.

[Blazing Sun Shelter's stored energy meets the requirements. Basic materials meet the requirements.]

[Shelter upgrading...]

The instant he confirmed the shelter upgrade, pale blue light enveloped the entire shelter.

[Upgrade complete!]

In an instant, the light flared brilliantly. Tang Zhixue hurriedly shut his eyes and held a hand in front of them.

Once the light faded, Tang Zhixue lowered his left hand and discovered a wooden house covering roughly two hundred square meters before him.

Although it was still a wooden house, its footprint had clearly grown considerably, and the wood on its exterior now bore many strange, dark green patterns.

"Amazing!"

Although he had seen this scene more than once, he still could not help exclaiming at the sight of it again.

Suddenly, a panel appeared before Tang Zhixue.

[Shelter: Blazing Sun]

[Level: 2 (0/1000)]

[Function: Regional trading]

[Structure: Martial Arts Space]

[Effects: Door God Protection · Tier 1, Clear Spirit Evil-Repelling, Purification · Temporary]

"I can open the shelter panel outside now?"

That was Tang Zhixue's first reaction, but his attention soon shifted to the newly added effect.

[Clear Spirit Evil-Repelling: While inside the shelter, you can resist mental erosion from tier 1 supernatural entities and gain a small increase in comprehension.]

"Wow, that's a great effect!" Tang Zhixue's eyes immediately lit up.

Judging by its description, Clear Spirit Evil-Repelling had two effects in total. The first was resisting mental erosion, while the second was the one Tang Zhixue valued most-increased comprehension!

Although the increase was only small, this was only using tier 1 clear spirit wood!

But it was too early to dwell on that. Tang Zhixue could only suppress his excitement for now and enter the shelter.

He had yet to see how its interior had changed.

"Tsk, it's a little dark."

The moment he entered, all he saw was pitch-black darkness. The entire house did not have a single window.

After a while, once his eyes had adjusted to the dark surroundings, Tang Zhixue began inspecting the shelter carefully.

Unlike the previous single-room house, the shelter now had three rooms and a main hall.

The front door opened into the main hall, where a fireplace stood at the center of the entire shelter. Not far from it were the trading chest and the wooden door leading to the Martial Arts Space.

To the left of the main hall was the bedroom, with the single bed inside.

The room to the right of the main hall contained the Planting Box and some plant seeds.

There was another room behind the fireplace, adjoining the planting room and separated from the bedroom by a corridor. It held assorted items and seemed to be a storage room.

Tang Zhixue looked around, quite satisfied, though he still found something to nitpick. "It would be even better if there were a toilet."

He currently went outside to relieve himself, having to be extremely careful every time in case a monster attacked him while he was vulnerable.

After looking around, Tang Zhixue finally entered the planting room. He still had a mass of plant vitality left to use.

In fact, after repeated applications of plant vitality, the mutated plants he had originally planted had already matured several times, and the soil in the Planting Box was showing signs of turning grayish-white and becoming compacted.

But there was one thing Tang Zhixue found rather strange: despite absorbing so much plant vitality, these mutated plants had not undergone a second mutation. It seemed that their first mutation had already been their limit.

Tang Zhixue walked straight toward the Jade Flowers in one corner of the Planting Box.

After a morning's work, there were now ten Jade Flowers in the Planting Box, and he had also harvested five Plant Vitality Crystals.

The Water-Gathering Grass had also increased to five plants. Only the White Melon Vines remained at five, though he had harvested a hundred and thirty-four White Melons.

As Tang Zhixue let the Jade Flowers absorb the mass of plant vitality in his hand, they grew more vigorously, but did not form energy crystals.

He had done this deliberately, dividing the plant vitality into ten portions so that absorbing it would accelerate the Jade Flowers' growth without reaching the point of forming energy crystals. He wanted to find out how naturally formed crystals differed from the Plant Vitality Crystals he produced by stimulating growth with plant vitality.

Crunch!

Rubbing away the fine little prickles on the surface of a White Melon with his hand, Tang Zhixue bit straight into it.

But after chewing just a few times, Tang Zhixue could not help grimacing. "Sure enough, I've eaten so much I can't stomach it anymore."

Now, eating it made him feel a little nauseous. He had simply eaten too many White Melons lately.