“Everyone, go back and absorb the crystal cores. Hold them with both hands and use your superpower to connect with the crystal core’s energy. You’ll understand once you try,” Bai Yaoyao said.
After everyone returned to their rooms, Bai Yaoyao called out to Fatty.
“I need to go out tonight.”
Fatty was taken aback. “Is it dangerous? I’ll go with you!”
“No need. I know what I’m doing. With my space ability, safety is guaranteed. I just wanted to let you know so you wouldn’t worry if you couldn’t find me,” Bai Yaoyao replied.
“Alright, let me know when you get back.”
…
Bai Yaoyao planned to go to Fengming Mountain tonight to find a mutated willow tree—the Invincible Willow Emperor.
In her previous life, this tree had devoured countless humans, animals, plants, and zombies. In the end, even twenty high-level ability users above level 7 and fifty ordinary ability users joining forces couldn’t defeat it. Instead, the human side suffered heavy losses.
Almost all the ordinary ability users perished, and several high-level ability users were also lost.
At that time, Bai Yaoyao had taken the Dark Night Squad on another mission and happened to avoid the disaster.
Later, she heard that this mutated willow tree had originally been at the foot of Fengming Mountain. So Bai Yaoyao wanted to go and look for it—if she couldn’t subdue it, she would destroy it.
This would eliminate a major threat to humanity in advance.
But first, she needed to absorb today’s crystals. After leveling up, her self-defense capability would be stronger, and her chances of success would be greater.
Bai Yaoyao slipped into her space and discovered that the batch of honeysuckle and cassia seeds she had planted earlier were almost mature.
Since she had stockpiled plenty of food, Bai Yaoyao had prioritized planting commonly used medicinal herbs.
Returning to the cabin in her space, she sat cross-legged on the bed and began absorbing the crystal cores.
The zero-level and level one Enhancement-type Crystals successfully upgraded her Strength Power to level 2, while 25 ordinary zero-level crystals upgraded her space ability to level 2.
After her space ability leveled up, a spring appeared beside the space cabin. Bai Yaoyao was startled and went forward to examine it carefully. She even cupped some water in her hands and tasted it, but found no difference from ordinary water, only managing to wet her sleeves.
So she decided not to worry about it for now.
With more people to feed and food supplies limited, her Mental Ability would have to wait until next time.
While absorbing the crystal cores, Bai Yaoyao specifically checked the time and found that it took her less than an hour to absorb everything—more than three times faster than normal speed!
She deliberately took an undistributed crystal core and tried absorbing it outside her space, only to find that not only was it much slower than absorbing in the space cabin, but the effect was also significantly reduced.
Bai Yaoyao was suddenly thrilled. This meant that as long as she had enough crystal cores, even with her Tri-Ability, her overall leveling speed wouldn’t be slow!
She was so excited that she felt like going out to hunt zombies right then.
But she restrained herself—business first.
Bai Yaoyao drove to the vicinity of Fengming Mountain. Under the moonlight, it wasn’t completely dark, but it was unusually quiet.
She wandered around the mountain foot for a bit and realized she had been too naive. Fengming Mountain was too big—she must have seen at least eighty if not two hundred willow trees, and they all looked pretty much the same.
How could she tell which one was the most powerful? It certainly couldn’t be the crooked neck tree in front of her—it was the ugliest of them all.
Bai Yaoyao sighed and turned to leave. After taking two steps, she suddenly stopped and quickly turned back to look at the crooked neck tree before her.
The direction the willow leaves were swaying was opposite to the wind direction!
After looking at the other willow trees, all of them were normal, only this ugliest one was like this.
Why are you so stubborn!
Bai Yaoyao immediately raised her guard to the highest level, tensing all her muscles, and moved the large machete into her hand. After all, it wasn’t just the big willow tree whose strength had weakened—she was in the same boat.
Standing still in place, she released her Mental Power and cautiously probed the Crooked Neck Willow. She didn’t sense any intention to attack from the willow; instead, she felt a lighthearted vibe.
Bai Yaoyao tried taking a few steps closer, and the willow leaves shook even more excitedly. Though there was no verbal communication, Bai Yaoyao felt as if the willow was greeting her.
Slowly raising her hand, the willow branches and leaves also lifted gradually. Just as her fingertips were about to make contact, the willow branches suddenly wrapped swiftly around Bai Yaoyao’s wrist.
Bai Yaoyao instinctively wanted to slash with her machete but realized the willow meant no harm. It was just rubbing repeatedly against her sleeve, as if it had some kind of obsession. When it saw her raise the machete, it trembled and shrank back a little.
But even so, it didn’t let go of her hand. Bai Yaoyao found she could actually sense a hint of grievance from the rustling sound of the willow leaves?
Good heavens, I don’t even have Wood Power, so why can I communicate with plants?
Bai Yaoyao suddenly remembered the newly appeared spring in her Space Cabin after it upgraded. She had cupped her hands to take a sip and seemed to have spilled some on her sleeve—exactly the spot the willow kept tugging at, unwilling to let go.
So she took out a little of the spring water and placed it in her palm. The willow suddenly paused, then became so excited its branches flailed wildly, resembling electrified hair.
“Do you want to drink it?” Bai Yaoyao said gently, like a creepy uncle luring a child.
“Rustle, rustle, rustle!”
“Then you have to come with me. From now on, behave and listen to me. If I tell you to go east, you can’t go west; if I tell you to walk the dog, you can’t chase chickens! And I promise you’ll have spring water to drink every day. How about it? Do we have a deal?” Bai Yaoyao stroked the willow branch, speaking to it with a serious tone.
The willow actually understood and nodded without hesitation, using its branches to absorb every last drop of the spring water from Bai Yaoyao’s palm.
Bai Yaoyao wasn’t sure if she could store it in her Space Cabin. If not, she could have Keke come and claim it—Keke had Wood Power and could contract with plants.
Unexpectedly, she succeeded on the first try. The Crooked Neck Tree before her vanished, leaving only a deep pit. Bai Yaoyao curiously examined it and immediately got goosebumps all over.
She hadn’t realized that, even at the beginning of the apocalypse, this willow tree was already so powerful. The dense, bottomless root holes in the deep pit made that clear.
Bai Yaoyao wasn’t in a hurry to return. She slipped into her Space Cabin.
Inside, she saw the willow tree anxiously pacing by the spring, too afraid to drink without permission for fear of being thrown out. The willow could sense that in this space, Bai Yaoyao was the boss, so it knew better than to overstep.
“Go ahead, drink your fill!” Bai Yaoyao pointed at the spring and said.
With a spring source that could regenerate, there was no need to be stingy.
Hearing this, the willow immediately plunged all its branches into the spring water…
Its overeager demeanor really didn’t suit the style of a master.
In less than five minutes, the willow had drunk all the spring water and then came over to act cute and beg for affection, as if possessed by Gouzi.
Bai Yaoyao didn’t feel the slightest bit of heartache over it. After all, you can’t expect the horse to run fast without letting it graze.
……