Chapter 60 Rainy Day Training
Xia Tong walked with an elegant feline gait, slowly leaping down from the rock and walking over to the corpses of Liu Ye and Wang Quan. Extending her claws, she effortlessly sliced open their skulls and hooked out two crystal cores radiating different energy fluctuations.
One was earthy yellow, and the other was pale red.
As for He Ting's core, it was a translucent and crystal-clear pink crystal core that emitted a faint, fresh botanical fragrance.
[Target eliminated, obtained 25 points of energy experience.]
[Target eliminated, obtained 28 points of energy experience.]
[Available experience points: 78]
Looking at the prompts on the interface, Xia Tong felt no great emotional ripples in her heart. Eliminating this squad was merely a small interlude on her path to becoming stronger; more killings would accompany her in the future.
This was something unavoidable in the wasteland.
...
The night wind blew, carrying a hint of a bloody and decaying scent.
This rockery area of the abandoned zoo returned to its former dead silence, leaving only three gradually desiccated corpses silently recounting the fierce slaughter that had just taken place.
Xia Tong did not linger here for long. Turning around and following the route in her memory, she silently returned to the dilapidated brick cottage from earlier.
...
Inside the cottage, the familiar smell of mold and dust still lingered.
Xia Tong jumped onto the dilapidated wooden table and took out the three crystal cores, examining them closely in the dim light. The earthy-yellow rock-type crystal core and the pale-red mutant-type crystal core had mixed and impure energies, making them of little use and not very compatible with her.
Her gaze finally settled on He Ting's pink wood-type crystal core.
The color of a crystal core often hinted at certain intrinsic characteristics contained within it...
She just wondered what this crystal core contained.
The crystal core felt warm to the touch, emitting a gentle breath of life that faintly echoed the wood-type energy within her body.
"Source Core, analyze this crystal core."
[Special wood-type crystal core detected. Medium quality, containing weak plant affinity and pollen perception enhancement. Can be purified and absorbed. Estimated to increase wood-type ability experience by 40-60 points, with a small probability of comprehending a new trait or strengthening existing wood-type abilities.]
"!!!"
"Did I read that right? It can actually comprehend a trait?" Has the "Source Core" become this powerful already?
"Plant affinity? Pollen perception enhancement?" A trace of interest flashed in Xia Tong's glass-like feline pupils.
Aside from her sensory range being practically negligible, the vines she manipulated were still fragile. If she could use this to break through her bottleneck, it would undoubtedly be a huge boost for her.
"Absorb." Without hesitation, Xia Tong pressed the pink crystal core against her glabella, secretly praying to acquire a new trait.
A gentle and pure wood-type energy slowly drifted out from the crystal core, guided by her spiritual power into her limbs and bones, and finally converged into the "Source Core" within her spiritual sea.
After being purified and transformed by the "Source Core", this energy became even more condensed, and then slowly poured into her cyan-green crystal core representing her wood-type ability.
[Current wood-type ability: Tier 1, Three Stars (50/1000)]
Phew, what a pity. This absorption only increased a small portion of her experience, and neither traits nor ability enhancements were comprehended... But Xia Tong did not take it too much to heart, as these were extremely low-probability events after all.
Finally, Xia Tong handed the remaining two crystal cores entirely to the "Source Core" for absorption and purification, obtaining a total of 86 universal experience points to temporarily save for future use.
[Available experience points: 164]
As late night approached, Xia Tong casually ate some dry rations and prepared to get a good rest. Today's battle had truly exhausted her, though she doubted she would encounter such high-intensity combat very often.
...
...
Early the next morning, Xia Tong awoke from her light sleep. Habitually looking out the window, she found the weather depressingly overcast.
The dense gray fog did not dissipate with the sunrise as it usually did; instead, it grew even heavier, shrouding the entire zoo in a depressive atmosphere.
Not long after, raindrops the size of beans descended without warning, "pattering" heavily against the roof and windows with a hurried and dull sound.
The raindrops quickly merged into a magnificent sheet of rain, blurring the scenery in the distance.
The rainwater seemed to carry a trace of imperceptible, restless energy, causing Xia Tong to instinctively feel a hint of unease.
She walked over to the damaged window, extended a paw to catch a few raindrops, and frowned slightly at the vague, abnormal fluctuation.
"What is going on?"
"This rain is a bit strange! It seems to contain a special and restless energy."
...
The heavy rain isolated most of the outside sounds, making Xia Tong feel instead that this abandoned zoo had temporarily become a good shelter.
She had no intention of venturing out in this disastrous rain; she could just use this abundant moisture to cultivate.
She came to the broken eaves of the cottage, where she could barely escape the rain. With a thought, she stimulated her wood-type ability, attempting to guide the wood elements in the air to converge at the roots of a withered yellow weed in the corner of the wall.
Under her mental guidance, that weed seemed to be infused with vitality, and a faint hint of green even appeared on the edges of its withered yellow leaves.
Immediately afterward, she extended her perception to several surviving vine plants nearby, controlling them to grow slowly in a specific direction and entwine around a few exposed steel bars under the eaves, attempting to build a simple barrier.
Urged by her wood-type ability, the growth rate of the vines accelerated significantly, climbing upward at a pace visible to the naked eye.
More importantly, Xia Tong's perception of the subtle life veins inside the plants became much clearer, as if she could "hear" their joyful breathing in the rain.
The rain fell harder and harder, and the rich moisture permeated the air, making her mastery of water elements even more handy.
She stepped out from under the eaves and came to a relatively open, damaged viewing platform. The rain instantly soaked her black fur, but she did not care in the least.
She began attempting to integrate the 'Wither' trait into the ubiquitous tiny raindrops around her.
Compared to using skills alone, this required an extremely high level of control.
One drop, two drops... Countless "withered raindrops" containing faint gray flowing light, under the control of her mind, silently permeated several rockery stones next to the viewing platform.
There was no violent sound, only the surfaces of the stones turning gray and withered at a speed visible to the naked eye, as if they had experienced countless years of weathering, crumbling into stone powder with just a light touch.
She carefully observed the speed and range of the decay, continuously adjusting the degree of integration of the 'Wither' trait and the penetration method of the raindrops.
...
A whole day of cultivation in the rain gave her a new understanding of the application of wood-type energy—not just catalysis, but how to utilize and resonate with the elements in the environment.
Her control over the water-type 'Wither' power also became increasingly refined, gradually shifting from her previous unrestrained approach to a stealthy, silent infiltration.
Near dusk, the rain showed no sign of abating; instead, it grew even more intense.
The sky was pitch black, as if it could collapse at any moment.