Chapter 193 - 182: Treehouse Core

The owner of this treehouse is not from their region?

That can’t be right. This is the closest treehouse to his, so how could it not be in the same region? Could it be that he’s on the edge of two regions?

No, that’s not right either.

During the rainy season event, he had seen the strong light emitted by the lightning rod on the roof of Li Wenxi’s treehouse, which was also in this direction and further away.

How could this treehouse, which is between him and Li Wenxi, not be from their region?

"Ying!"

Just as Xu Xin was puzzled, Keke, on his shoulder, suddenly jumped up and quickly climbed into the tree canopy along the perforated trunk.

Afu also flew up and followed Keke inside.

"Hmm?" Xu Xin discovered that from the part of the canopy that Keke had opened, it seemed very dilapidated inside.

Was it gnawed by ants?

The trunk of the low treehouse was only three meters tall, and with the various visible marks that could be stepped on, Xu Xin climbed up in two or three moves.

Pulling apart the canopy, Xu Xin was shocked to find that the house within it, from its walls to its floor, had been eaten up and was full of holes, leaving behind only a broken framework supporting the already yellowed canopy outside.

This is a treehouse that has been destroyed in every sense of the word.

Xu Xin crawled through a large hole in the crumbling floor into the interior of the treehouse.

Inside the treehouse were some scattered things, like synthetic tables and beds, which were preserved because the ants were only interested in the treehouse itself.

But he did not find the corpse of the treehouse’s owner. Instead, there were a few green-level backpacks left by the owner, containing some basic supplies of little use to him.

Afu flew around the central space of the treehouse a few times, landing on the ground. Keke also ran two laps and finally sat in the center of the treehouse, scratching the floor with its little paws.

Xu Xin threw his backpack aside, avoided the traps-like holes on the ground, and squatted down beside Keke.

"What’s wrong?" He looked at the spot Keke was scratching on, which was one of the few undamaged parts of the treehouse floor.

"Ying! Yingying!" Keke waved its little paws explaining to Xu Xin.

"You’re saying there’s something good underneath here!" Xu Xin’s eyes lit up.

"Ying!" Keke nodded its small head vigorously.

This spot was not ordinary; it was the center of the treehouse, directly above the tree trunk.

Could there be something good inside the trunk of the treehouse?

Speaking of which, this treehouse is just green-level, it should be able to be chopped down, right?

No way, if I chop it down and the surrounding protected area suddenly disappears, that would be suicide.

Xu Xin pulled out his iron axe and decided to chop open the floor to see what’s underneath.

"Keke, get back!" Xu Xin swung his axe.

"Ying!" Keke quickly scampered to the side, nearly falling through one of the holes in the floor, and clumsily climbed back up.

"Crack!" With just one swing, the floor cracked. Another swing sent wood chips flying, breaking the floor into several pieces.

Xu Xin picked up the broken pieces of the floor and tossed them aside, revealing the true form of what lay beneath.

To his amazement, he discovered that the trunk beneath the floor was hollow!

The trunk of the low treehouse was about a meter thick, and at its center was a hole with a diameter of more than half a meter, extending straight to the ground. Looking inside, at the very bottom, there was an orb emitting a soft white light, half-buried in the soil.

The soft white light was real and not the grade glow he could discern. Strangely, like the treehouse seed, Xu Xin could not determine the grade of this orb.

This tree hole with a half-meter diameter was large enough for him to jump into; after all, the human shoulder width is only about thirty to forty centimeters.

However, Keke had already jumped inside ahead of him, landing at the bottom of the tree hole, curiously patting the orb buried in the soil.

"Keke, bring that orb up here," Xu Xin called from above.

"Ying!" Keke responded, using its little paw to dig out the chicken-egg-sized white luminous orb from the ground, holding it in its mouth, then using the tree hole walls to bounce left and right to climb back up.

"Good boy!" Xu Xin patted Keke’s little head and took the orb from its mouth.

[Core of the Low Treehouse: The core that provides growth energy for the treehouse. Once removed, the treehouse will immediately perish. Draining the energy from the core of the low treehouse can upgrade a batch of blue-level basic materials to purple-level.]

Xu Xin: "!!!"

This core can upgrade blue-level to purple-level!

Basic materials refer to resources like wood, stone, and ore obtained through mining, not the materials and tools obtained from hunting or crafting.

But this is already great. With basic resources, he could make purple-level tools!

Wait a minute...

After the core is removed, the treehouse dies immediately...

Holy crap, could he actually be outside the protective area?!

Xu Xin quickly touched the treehouse’s trunk with his hand and received a prompt.

[The deceased small treehouse (gray): A treehouse whose core has been removed, thoroughly dead. Though its roots remain on this land even in death, unable to thwart the underground creatures’ attack, these creatures still dare not emerge where the roots are dense—thus serving a certain protective function.]

"This..." Xu Xin’s expression looked a bit peculiar.

The introduction means, even though the small treehouse is dead, the protective zone still exists—it’s just an ostentatious zone, simply because the underground creatures dare not come out!

But in reality, they can come out; appearing on this land would no longer drain them to husks—it’s just that no underground creature dares to be the first to emerge.

"There’s this kind of tactic too..." Xu Xin was a bit speechless.

He glanced again into the tree hole, scanned the inside of the treehouse to ensure nothing else was there, then held Keke and carried Afu as they jumped down from the treehouse.

Silver King was lying below the treehouse; seeing Xu Xin descend, it stood up and let out a "roar".

Mimi was nowhere to be seen.

Glancing at the map, Xu Xin found it nearby, wandering around his location and sightseeing. Though the jungle scenery had hardly changed, it was still a good place for Mimi, who had been underground for decades.

Xu Xin didn’t call it back and let it roam freely, perhaps it might help him scout the surroundings a bit.

Looking back upwards, the already yellowing treehouse canopy had turned into dead leaves by now. With the wind blowing, leaves fell, and within seconds, the entire treehouse became a bare scaffold.

At the same time, the trees above the ruined treehouse emitted faint, densely clustered cracking sounds, which his enhanced hearing caught clearly.

Eventually, like dried twigs, the entire treehouse split open with a "crack", shattering into pieces on the ground.

The initially nearly ten-meter-high double-decker treehouse was now reduced to a stubby, roughly three-meter trunk, looking ragged.

Of course, it wasn’t only the trunk; beneath this land, its roots stretched across three kilometers, though dead, were still protecting this land.

The reason it’s three kilometers is that its owner didn’t survive last night’s attack—thus the treehouse likely hadn’t upgraded successfully, so the protective area should be about three kilometers wide.

... In this case, the treehouse’s protective zone barely overlaps with his own protective area, merely touching at the edges.

Fortunately, his protective zone spans nine kilometers, larger than other survivors’, or else he couldn’t have made it.

Understanding his current situation now, Xu Xin felt reassured and began inspecting the emitting white-glow treehouse core in his hand.

The introduction stated, exhausting all its energy could elevate a piece of blue-level material to purple-level—meaning one core equates to one purple-level resource.

Or, the energy within the treehouse core could be... replenished?

If replenishment is possible, it would be formidable indeed—as it might generate purple-level materials continuously!

Thinking of this, Xu Xin tightened his grip on the core, taking a deep breath.

Purple-level materials can be used to craft purple-level tools, weapons, and armor.

Purple-level to blue-level is a functional watershed.

His scale armor set is a whole purple set, so he’s well aware of the purple level’s power.

Green-level sets have no abilities; blue-level sets have one ability—increased physical capabilities. For instance, blue-level iron or steel armor grants strength boosts, while blue-level leather armor reduces presence and enhances stealth.

His purple-level scale armor set not only boosts strength but offers him free underwater movement like a fish, even intimidating aquatic life—essentially providing a superpower!

In terms of weaponry, blue-level weapons far surpass green-level ones in might; and perhaps purple-level weapons might begin possessing unique effects too.

Purple-level tools need no further explanation, like purple-level boning knives can carve out purple-level materials, and purple-level engraving knives can engrave purple-level crystals!

As for production tools, it’s irrelevant. Blue-level axes can chop purple-level wood, and blue-level picks can mine purple-level ores—this is normal since production tools should be able to harvest higher-level materials, or the materials would be unobtainable.

However... even Li Wenxi, despite her home’s mineral wealth, hasn’t seemingly mined purple-level ores yet. Maybe she hasn’t mentioned it, but Xu Xin feels it’s unlikely since metal blocks are of little use to her, hiding them would be pointless.

Clutching the palm-sized, glowing core tightly, Xu Xin suddenly felt a sense of impending storm.

This item’s allure is immense.

Everyone strives to grow stronger. At present, most people wear and carry green-level items; even among the [Explorers], some might only have a blue-level leather set—when Li Wenxi offered a blue-level iron set, Wang Lei, Zhao Xiaochuan, and Qin Yunlong argued over who should have it for a long time.

If they discover such potent resources can be extracted from others’ treehouses, the ensuing consequences would be obvious.

Conflicts between people are likely starting.

This second phase indeed teems with crises.

He’s unsure if he should share this news with the others in [Explorers].

Stowing the core in his backpack, Xu Xin decided to head back and test the core’s function.

Turning around, a sudden thought crossed his mind; he quickly turned back to look at the treehouse’s roots.

If he uses a shovel on the treehouse, would it yield a treehouse seed?