The Cockroach Beast had no intelligence.
It only knew how to charge forward blindly.
To it, Jiang Li was already nothing more than food.
Just like real cockroaches, Cockroach Beasts usually couldn’t fly.
They only took flight in emergencies or during mating.
Its movement was slowed by the dead trees, and Jiang Li ran straight toward “home.”
Fortunately, the shelter wasn’t far.
Just as she saw the hidden, crude little door, she suddenly stopped.
She remembered her skill.
She had not used it since waking up that morning.
Soul of Nature—besides tempering the body and nurturing the soul, it also granted control over the Five Elements.
Jiang Li raised her hand and imagined fire.
Crackle—
A sudden burst rang out in her palm.
She felt a wave of searing heat, but there was no pain.
A fist-sized fireball, slightly unstable and wobbling, formed in her hand and shot toward the Cockroach Beast’s front legs.
With a sizzling sound, the beast sensed danger.
It flapped its wings and took off, fleeing rapidly in the opposite direction.
Seeing this, Jiang Li quickly slipped back into her shelter and shut the small door tightly.
Only then did she collapse to the ground, gasping for breath.
Sweat poured from her forehead, soaking her hair and dripping down her jaw.
Just one fireball and my mental energy is completely drained.
She felt as if her spirit had been completely emptied.
A new negative status appeared beneath her mental stat.
(Exhausted: state of extreme mental fatigue)
Her Spirit stat dropped from 9 to 5 due to the debuff.
[Spirit: 5/9 (recovers with rest)]
This meant the reduction wasn’t permanent—just temporary.
As long as she rested, her spirit would recover.
Jiang Li’s body was too weak.
After running all the way back, even her stamina was affected by fatigue, and hunger struck again.
She took out the reward from the cloth bag—still Cockroach Beast jerky.
After eating and drinking several gulps of water, her exhausted body finally eased slightly.
That was the restorative effect of being full.
Thinking back to the Cockroach Beast she had just faced, she still felt a lingering fear.
Up close, she had clearly seen its hard, glossy exoskeleton, its grinder-like mouthparts, and its dense, hair-covered limbs.
“Good thing I have a shelter,” she couldn’t help but sigh.
Without it, she would never have dared to stop and test her skill.
The shelter’s first three days were a beginner protection period.
Though the wooden door looked thin and fragile, during this period nothing—neither wraiths nor disaster beasts—could break through it.
The Cockroach Beast she drove away would likely not return for several days.
Even without intelligence, these creatures still avoided danger.
Using the dim crimson sunset filtering through the shelter’s ventilation window, Jiang Li looked down at her palm.
She had only tried it on a whim—but her body actually could manipulate the Five Elements.
After a moment of thought, she focused on water.
Her mind tightened.
A chill suddenly formed in her palm.
A bean-sized water sphere appeared.
But before she could throw it, a sharp pain shot through her head.
“Ha… ha…”
Cold sweat dripped down her forehead.
As her focus wavered, the water sphere lost stability and dripped from her fingers, spilling onto the ground.
My spirit is still too weak.
At most, I can only form one fist-sized fireball a day.
Still, she did not feel discouraged.
The Soul of Nature skill wasn’t limited to elemental control.
Its most important abilities were actually body tempering and soul nurturing.
Body tempering was self-explanatory.
Soul nurturing strengthened mental power.
But how was it supposed to be done?
At that moment, a line of text appeared before her.
[Enter meditation state to absorb the Five Elements energy of heaven and earth?]
Jiang Li’s eyes widened in delight.
The system really was incredibly advanced—it provided exactly what she needed.
She didn’t accept immediately.
The prompt soon disappeared, but whenever she thought about meditation again, it reappeared.
So she wouldn’t miss her chance.
Rubbing her temples, she forced down her fatigue and carefully moved to the cave entrance.
Through the small ventilation window, she looked outside.
At dusk, the sunset looked like blood spreading across the sky, painting everything in deep red.
It cast a heavy, oppressive gloom over the world.
This is the sign of nightfall.
A warning to all humans still outside.
Night was coming.
They had to return home and light oil lamps before darkness arrived.
Otherwise, once the red faded and the Gray Mist spread, people outside would become helpless lambs.
They would be corroded by mist, devoured by disaster beasts, and killed by wraiths.
Compared to last night, Jiang Li’s heart was calm.
She looked at the blood-red sky outside the door.
She had to survive.
No matter how dangerous this world was.
She had to live.
The crimson sunset lasted only half an hour before being swallowed completely by darkness.
Outside the ventilation window, night fell completely—thick and ink-like.
Silence also enveloped Crescent Moon Mountain.
Inside the cave, there was no oil lamp.
It was pitch black.
She could only navigate by touching the cave walls.
But she no longer needed light.
Leaning against the wall near the door, she sat down.
Tonight was noticeably colder than yesterday.
She pulled her clothes tighter and reviewed the day’s events.
At the trading station in Spark Village, she had solved the oil lamp issue.
The water source was guarded by a Cockroach Beast, but I drove it away with a fireball. It probably won’t guard that place for the next few days.
That meant she could fetch water soon and solve her drinking problem.
She had also noticed muddy soil near the water source.
In the game, mud was the ideal breeding ground for mushroom seeds.
Unlike real plants, mushroom seeds didn’t grow on soil or cave walls.
They only grew in mud.
The mud near the water source, mixed with long-term waste from disaster beasts, was highly fertile.
It would greatly improve mushroom growth.
Today was a good harvest.
A faint smile appeared on Jiang Li’s face.
Knock. Knock.
Suddenly, knocking echoed through the cave, breaking the silence and interrupting her thoughts.
A brief jolt of fear flashed through her, but she quickly calmed down.
She ignored the Knocking Wraith outside and immediately activated meditation.
It wasn’t that she wasn’t afraid.
She was still human, not a game character who could erase fear at will.
But fear had no value to her now.
She had to become stronger.
Only strength could make her immune to all dangers in this world.
Meditation meant entering a deep state of consciousness.
In reality, meditation was about focusing attention and calming the mind.
But the Soul of Nature worked differently.
Even with her eyes closed, Jiang Li could still see countless glowing points of light appearing around her.
They floated in the darkness like fireflies.
Slowly, they drifted into her body.
Her body grew hot.
Every blood vessel felt like it was burning.
It was as if those light particles were passing through her.
Her blood began to circulate rapidly.
And she could clearly hear her heartbeat—
Thump… thump… thump… like a war drum echoing in her chest.