Starting Off Survival With A Small Treehouse

Chapter 169: Chapter 162: Plant Heart Seed

The faint green light was at the center of the heart, at about three or four meters in height, and was very inward. Xu Xin couldn’t reach it with his hand.

He cautiously took a step back.

Could this be the heart’s final trick? Some kind of explosive attack perhaps.

”Keke, is there any danger?” Xu Xin asked Keke on his shoulder.

”Ying.” Keke shook its little head, indicating it didn’t sense any danger anymore, then jumped inside the broken flesh.

”Hey, you little thing! Dirty!” Xu Xin wanted to grab it back but caught empty air.

This little creature, even if there’s no danger, shouldn’t jump in like that, it’s so disgusting...

Keke kicked twice inside, and nimbly climbed to the center of the ”heart,” where the light was, tilting its head as it examined the thing.

Only then did Xu Xin notice that the flesh hadn’t actually leaked a single drop of blood. Just because it appeared red made him mistakenly think of it as ”flesh and blood.” In reality, its cross-section was akin to a plant’s, quite clean, though a bit unpleasant to look at.

It made sense; this large heart was called the [Heart of Mutant Plants], so being a plant’s heart, naturally, it wasn’t made of meat. A lack of blood was normal. However, it indeed smelled somewhat like roasted meat, tempting Xu Xin to take a bite of the roasted part.

Yet, since the description didn’t specify its edibility, Xu Xin resisted the urge. If it were poisonous, that would be bad.

Since it wasn’t dirty, Xu Xin didn’t stop Keke. Watching Keke play with the thing using its little paws, he asked, ”How is it, Keke? What is that? Quickly bring it to me to see.”

”Ying!” Keke responded, gripping the object with its mouth, and jumped back to Xu Xin’s arms in two moves.

Xu Xin held Keke and removed the walnut-sized object from its mouth.

This thing was emerald and crystalline throughout. Indeed, how unexpected to find such a green object within the blood-red heart.

[Plant Heart Seed: Once planted, it can grow into a plant heart below the surface, best planted in the same soil as a tree house. It symbiotically grows with the roots of the tree house, transforming part of the tree house roots into aggressive vines, and increasing the protection of the ground area near the tree house, complementing the tree house, jointly protecting survivors.

Planting in barren soil (white) results in a small plant heart, planting in ordinary soil (green) results in a medium plant heart, planting in fertile soil (blue) results in a large plant heart.]

...This!

This is actually a seed, allowing him to cultivate a heart himself! It’s for protecting the area beneath the tree house!

Moreover, the description... it’s so similar to the tree house seed description! This is the same type as the tree house seed!

From the description, this seed seems like an accessory to the tree house. It grows symbiotically with the roots of the tree house, transforming part of the roots into vines. Meaning, planting this plant heart if enemy units appear under the tree house, vines will emerge from underground to attack them!

As long as he’s near the tree house, the situation with those mutant monsters will shift instantly! If mutant beasts step within the range of his tree house, it’s akin to him stepping out of his protected zone.

Good stuff, this is really good stuff!

This isn’t just about enhancing safety; planting this seed turns the area near the tree house into his territory! No longer fearing trampling by beasts, he can freely plant the plants he desires near the tree house, raise the animals he wishes to breed!

It’s equivalent to directly adding a great courtyard to his tree house!

Really nice!

Wait a moment...

Transforming tree house roots into vines...

”Hiss—” Xu Xin thought of something, sucking in a cold breath.

Those mutant vine clusters under his tree house, weren’t they transformed by this large heart using the tree house’s roots?!

Also, the area just charred by him, wasn’t it the tree house’s roots penetrating deep underground?

The more he thought about it, the more plausible it seemed.

The seed he obtained is named [Plant Heart Seed], while the heart he killed isn’t called [Plant Heart], but [Heart of Mutant Plants].

He also saw the process of ordinary vines transforming into mutant vines. At such depth underground, mutant vines are plausible, but from where did ordinary vines originate? It truly seems they were transformed from tree house roots.

First converting the roots of the tree house into vines, then transforming vines into mutant vines, this must be what this heart of the mutant plant was constantly doing.

...Truly insidious, transforming the roots of the tree house into mutant vines to attack the tree house.

The insidiousness isn’t just limited to this.

Suppose someone believed that killing a certain number of vines around the tree house stops their growth, choosing to continuously kill the mutant vines, this heart would perpetually use the tree house roots to generate more vines...

That would mean the survivor is effectively attacking their own tree house! If the vines truly ceased growing, it only indicates the roots near the tree house are thoroughly destroyed by the survivor.

Thinking about this, Xu Xin couldn’t help but break into a cold sweat, no wonder the heart grew under the tree house! Luckily, he hadn’t excessively killed those vines.

Yet, transforming roots into vines, usable by him, is quite powerful, meaning the tree house itself gains attacking capabilities, using its roots to attack external enemies.

”Ying?” Keke, being held by Xu Xin, saw him standing dazed for quite a while, nudged Xu Xin with its paw.

Xu Xin came back to his senses and took a deep breath.

Carefully storing the seed into his backpack, he began examining the massive flesh before him.

The total weight couldn’t be determined by Xu Xin, but must be about eight or nine tons, just under ten thousand kilograms.

It’s best to take these things back first.

Nearly ten tons of blood and flesh—it’s not an easy task to take it back. But if he just puts it on the transaction platform here, he doesn’t feel very safe. The transaction platform won’t manage the items; this pile of blood and flesh will remain here, but who knows if something might happen here again.

Keep in mind, the mystery of Ji Chaoyang’s disappearance hasn’t been solved yet. There might be other things existing underground.

There’s no choice; he sent a video to Li Wenxi on the spot.

It took a long time for the other side to connect; Li Wenxi was lying on the sofa, rubbing her eyes, her voice a bit lazy, ”What’s up?”

”...Are you sleeping?”

”Yeah... Gotta rest up and build up energy. If you stay tense all the time, when danger comes you won’t have any energy left.” Li Wenxi sat up and opened her eyes, immediately seeing the shattered giant heart in the video, her eyes widened in astonishment, ”Wow, is this that heart you talked about? You actually killed it!”

”Yeah,” Xu Xin traded her a piece of the flesh. ”Check out the benefits of this heart fragment.”

”Let me see... This! It can repel the mutant plants outside. Isn’t this exactly what we need right now! You really found it!”

Even though the piece of flesh looked blood-red and a bit gross, Li Wenxi didn’t mind at all. She clutched the meat with both hands, her face full of joy.

”That’s right, we should be able to get through this treehouse defense now.” Xu Xin was now quite relaxed; no matter what happened to others, he was sure he’d survive this event.

”Fantastic!” Li Wenxi jumped up; she had been worried something would happen to Xu Xin outside, but it seemed he had resolved everything.

He truly deserves the title of the number one man in the whole server!

”I want to trade these things to you, store them all at your place.” Xu Xin pointed at the giant heart. Thanks to the purple-level watch, he could directly transfer materials.

”Huh? What are you gonna do with so many? Oh, you want to distribute them to others, right? No problem, store them with me. I’ve made a lot of backpacks for ores, and many of them are empty!” Li Wenxi patted her chest confidently.

With Li Wenxi’s permission, Xu Xin started processing immediately.

The surrounding ground was covered in fragments; Xu Xin had the Silver King’s four beasts gather them while he took out the boning knife.

This thing is huge...

Slicing down with the knife, thankfully, the boning knife had the ability to separate materials, so Xu Xin didn’t have to exert much effort to remove chunks of flesh from the heart, turning them into resources that belonged to him. Then, he traded these pieces of blood and flesh to Li Wenxi.

It took about half an hour for Xu Xin to transfer the entire heart along with the surrounding exploded meat fragments.

”Finally done...”

”Oh my, that’s a lot! A total of 9,524 kilograms, over nine tons!” Finally finished, Li Wenxi exclaimed after holding it in for a long time.

It is indeed a lot, but is it really enough?

If he wants to save everyone, this won’t be enough.

He glanced at the district channel; there were still 3,015 people left. It seemed that these people had followed Xu Xin’s advice and no one had gone on a mission to die.

Currently, the vines under the treehouse weren’t attacking the treehouse, probably because they were mutated from the treehouse’s roots and instinctively wouldn’t attack their own body, but that wouldn’t stay that way forever.

According to his estimate, around six or seven o’clock in the evening, the blood thorns on those vines below the trees would light up entirely, becoming fully strengthened. By that time, these mutant vines would likely be controlled by the mutant plant heart under their treehouse and attack the treehouse.

The event ends at six in the morning, meaning everyone would have to withstand nearly twelve hours of vine attacks!

His less than ten tons of blood and flesh wouldn’t be enough for all three thousand people. If equally distributed, each person could only withstand three hours of attacks.

Survivors without blood and flesh would be in a dilemma; attacking the mutant vines would be like attacking the treehouse’s roots, while not attacking means watching the mutant vines destroy the treehouse.

...This event is simply terrifying.

In this event, the weak must rely on the strong to survive.

In fact, Xu Xin had already guessed; the second phase would likely relate to teamwork, requiring the entire zone to complete an activity together against an enemy.

This first event is practically forcing each zone to select a leader.

He still needs to protect these people’s lives, as many as he can save; the number of people in the zone might relate to the survival situation in the second phase.

If he wants to save everyone, what he has is certainly not enough. He can only see if Ji Chaoyang, Wen Guixin, and Wang Lei can bring back some more. If that’s not enough, he’ll have to carry out a selective rescue.

”Finally sent everything to you, I... huh?” Xu Xin’s gaze was drawn to a hole in the corner.

That corner had always been blocked by the heart, and he hadn’t noticed the hole before. Was that half-human-high hole always there?

”What’s wrong?” Li Wenxi asked.

”Oh, it’s just over here... hm?”

A sharp-nosed animal suddenly poked its head out of the hole.

”Pew!” Keke immediately called out, and Silver King Mimi and Afu all turned to look at that small hole.

With a long, narrow body, covered in scale armor, with short and thick limbs, a long and flat tail, a slightly convex back, and blood-red patterns covering its entire body...

...A pangolin? A mutant pangolin? Isn’t this the burrowing pangolin Wen Guixin mentioned before?

The mutant pangolin’s eyes met with one man and four beasts and instantly let out a sharp cry, then swiftly retracted back into the hole.

Xu Xin quickly stepped forward to look into the hole.

The small hole was winding and twisting, extending about ten meters deep, leading to an unknown destination.