Published: February 8, 2025
After receiving the name "Third Update, thanks to Brother for the first little excited 1000!", Ye Zhongming stopped infusing his mental power.
In just about ten seconds, the Luo Shen Cypress had already grown to around twenty centimeters tall, about the thickness of a finger. However, it had consumed one-tenth of Ye Zhongming's total mental power.
While this proportion might not seem too much, under Ye Zhongming's vast mental capacity, it was a bit terrifying. With such a large amount of mental power infused, the plant had only reached twenty centimeters, and Ye Zhongming estimated that even if he exhausted all his mental power, he wouldn't be able to mature this thing.
Moreover, the Luo Shen Cypress should be quite tall. The air raid shelter was only about five to six meters high, which likely wouldn’t be enough for this creature to grow.
However, aside from the name, Ye Zhongming also gained some subtle connections with the plants he cultivated. This connection wasn't as clear as when creating equipment, but it allowed him to vaguely guess or sense a lot of things.
He now confirmed that these seeds were indeed the seeds produced by the mutated plant referred to as Yama Tree by the people of Linhai, which meant that the Yama Tree should actually be called Luo Shen Cypress.
As for what abilities the Luo Shen Cypress possessed, Ye Zhongming could not ascertain at the moment. He had an instinctive feeling that this thing gave him a dangerous vibe; he just didn't know where this danger came from, nor did he understand what Uncle Jia meant by “powerful things” made from these seeds.
While he was studying the state of the young Luo Shen Cypress, footsteps were heard outside. After putting it back into the space, Yang Yixi and the others entered one after another.
“Brother Ye, you didn’t go out but came back instead.”
Ye Zhongming greeted, “Just went out for a stroll.”
The three of them sat down. A Hai clearly knew about Ye Zhongming's promises from Yang Yixi, and looked at him with a hope similar to that of his good friend.
“Brother Ye, I’ve already talked to the boss about you and vouched for you. The boss agrees to let you stay in the camp temporarily, but…”
Yang Yixi showed a difficult expression, hesitated for a moment, and then said, “But the boss said you need… to contribute a bit.”
Originally, it was Yang Yixi who brought Ye Zhongming here because she suspected he had a way to go out. Ye Zhongming had also promised to take them out, but now they were asking others to take risks. He felt a bit guilty, and his words were somewhat hesitant.
Ye Zhongming responded with an "oh," but he wasn't surprised internally.
If a stranger arrived at Cloud Summit Villa, he would also be cautious and would likely take this approach, giving the subordinates face while probing the outsider's intentions.
Being cautious to avoid risks was never a bad thing in the apocalypse.
Moreover, even if this boss didn't come looking for Ye Zhongming, he would still need to go find him.
“Our survivors in Lin City are particularly lacking food and water. Tree corpses cannot be eaten and do not produce magic crystals for spinning the roulette, so to survive and evolve, we can only hunt those increasingly rare mutated life forms or find leftover food from the previous city.”
Yang Yixi began explaining to Ye Zhongming what the boss wanted him to do, and Ye Zhongming gradually understood the harsh conditions of Linhai Underground City.
Although the surface was controlled by tree corpses, preventing survivors from daring to act on the surface, there were certain moments when they had to go up, such as looking for food and water.
The closure of the city and the decrease in mutated life forms was nearly lethal for survivors, as they not only lacked food provided by mutated life forms but also lacked magic crystals, making it impossible to spin the roulette and obtain food and water from it.
In the beginning, this situation only impacted the evolution of survivors, but now, a year later, it began to truly affect their survival.