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Of course, devouring a mutated wild boar was just wishful thinking on his part.
If he actually encountered one now, it would likely not be him devouring it, but the mutated wild boar breaking his tree body instead.
Still, one must have dreams; if he couldn't overcome it now, perhaps after evolving a few times he could.
Next up was the allocation of points: 25 spirit points would directly increase the length of his roots from 27 meters to 32 meters.
Then it was back to the monotonous hunting.
As he had expected, the number of insects steadily declined hour by hour.
If the bioenergy from the mutated frog was not taken into account, the spirit points he harvested in the third hour had diminished to 14.
In the fourth hour, it decreased to 13 points.
In the fifth hour, 8 points.
In the sixth hour, 5 points.
There was no helping this decline; as Ye Feng kept devouring, the number of insects in the vicinity was bound to plummet.
Luckily, even in such a situation, by midnight, Ye Feng had finally achieved his goal.
He had completed 100 allocations, and the length of his roots had reached a full 40 meters.
Furthermore, for every 10 allocations, he could gain 1 evolution point.
The evolution points on the system interface had also reached the maximum value of 10.
He could finally evolve.
"Ding! Please choose a direction for strengthening."
Looking at the system prompt that popped up, Ye Feng was slightly surprised, and then he began to check the details.
It turned out that during evolution, besides enhancing the tree body in all aspects, it was also possible to strengthen certain abilities in a specific direction of the body.
For example, in the aspect of root length, it was possible to enhance: strength, flexibility, toughness, and repair speed.
Every part of the body had similar enhancement directions, though there were certain differences.
Tree height could increase the speed of spiritual energy absorption.
Tree trunk width could increase the limit of energy storage, and so on.
Of course, Ye Feng was currently only considering from the aspect of root length.
The first thing he thought of was increasing strength, but after careful consideration, he ultimately chose to enhance the flexibility of his roots.
What he lacked the most at the moment was flexibility.
If his roots had been flexible enough, the mutated frog wouldn't have had any chance to escape earlier.
Before the frog could react, a dozen roots could surge forward and firmly imprison it.
After Ye Feng made his choice, the evolution officially began.
A strange energy enveloped his entire body.
With the help of this strange energy, drastic changes were happening throughout his body; his tree body was rapidly growing taller, the trunk was becoming thicker, and the roots were extending continuously.
He felt a spiritual and physical sublimation.
The evolution process was not long, taking merely 5 minutes, but he had undergone earth-shaking changes.
Ye Feng immediately opened the system interface to check.
Host: Ye Feng (World Tree)
Tree Height: 15 meters
Tree Trunk Width: 0.75 meters
Root Length: 50 meters
Realm: Mid Stage First Order
Evolution Points: 0/10
Special Ability: Devour
Spirit Points: 0/150
Bioenergy: 20/150
The realm had broken through from Early Stage First Order to Mid Stage First Order.
All three attributes had also significantly improved.
Tree height increased by 5 meters, trunk width by 0.25 meters, and root length by 10 meters.
"To think it increased that much; my height has suddenly soared to 15 meters. If I keep evolving at this rate, I'll stick out like a sore thumb in this valley!" Ye Feng murmured to himself, unable to help it.
In this valley, the tallest tree was just over 50 meters, and very few trees exceeded 20 meters in height. With his sudden spurt in growth, he had become somewhat conspicuous.
If he evolved once more, advancing to Late Stage First Order, he would catch up to the top tier in terms of height.
"As long as my height doesn't exceed the 300-plus meter giant tree on Small Phoenix Mountain, the research institute shouldn't be targeting me yet, right?" Ye Feng felt a bit nervous; he did not wish to become a research subject.
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But soon he adjusted his mentality, "Don't worry about that for now; improving strength is what's most important. I can't just stop eating because I choked."
With the breakthrough in strength, it wasn't just that he had grown taller; in fact, his improvements spanned various aspects.
His power, toughness, and repair speed all increased to varying degrees. If another mutated frog were to come along, it wouldn't be able to rip through the roots like before.
However, these overall enhancements certainly couldn't compare to the abilities he specifically strengthened.
A tree root burrowed out of the earth; before, he could only control the roots for whipping or simple binding.
Attempting anything more complex was not possible.
But now the flexibility was significantly greater; he could even use the roots to write on the ground.
Although the writing was a little skewed and twisted, this was undoubtedly a major progression.
At the same time, both the attack and movement speed of the roots had doubled from before.
"Previously, my success rate in hunting crickets was only about 70%. Now it can be increased to 100%," Ye Feng assessed after familiarizing himself with his new capabilities for a moment.
Next was to continue improving.
In just 6 hours, he completed his first evolution, which naturally was cause for joy.
But the problem hadn't been solved; the number of insects passing through his territory was still decreasing.
"If this continues, I estimate it will take a day's time to accumulate enough Evolution Points for the second breakthrough, and the speed of subsequent breakthroughs will probably slow down even more."
"That's even with my territory constantly expanding," Ye Feng sighed to himself.
Of course, there were solutions.
After quickly clearing out the earthworms in the ground and insects on the surface, he directly aimed for the targets in the sky.
For a tree to hunt targets in the air was sheer fantasy before.
But now that the length of his main root had reached 50 meters, with lateral roots up to 40 meters.
With the improved flexibility of the roots, he could weave them into a large net.
If there were birds flying at low altitudes below 40 meters, he had at least a 60% certainty that he could catch them with his root net.
Besides, the nearby trees, particularly a fig tree to the right, had cicadas on them, and one even had a bird's nest.
All of these could be his food.
Ye Feng scanned the area; there were no birds at this time.
So, his first target was the cicadas still chirping on the Gingko Tree next door.
A root broke through the soil, swiftly climbing up the trunk.
But halfway up, the root stopped.
Ye Feng was somewhat astonished to discover that when his root touched the Gingko Tree's trunk, he could activate his Devouring Ability.
"Right! Since my Devouring Ability can absorb the Spiritual Energy and Bioenergy of any creature, it naturally includes trees as well."
At this moment, Ye Feng, as if discovering a new treasure, spoke with an excitement that was hard to contain.
He immediately activated his Devouring Ability and began to absorb Spiritual Energy and Bioenergy from the Gingko Tree.
"It really works!"
As Ye Feng devoured, the leaves of the Gingko Tree began to yellow, and the part of the tree wrapped by his roots withered away.
Watching this scene unfold, Ye Feng's excitement vanished instantly.
Because he thought of a rather serious issue.
He could devour other trees and grow quickly.
But doing so, the surroundings would become bare in a few days.
Then after a few more evolutions, as his tree body rapidly grew taller, it would stick out like a sore thumb,
Probably even a casual satellite sweep over this valley would reveal something amiss.
"This won't do. If the trees wither away, not only will I be discovered, but it is likely to scare away the other mutated beings from coming close, effectively cutting off a large portion of Spiritual Energy," Ye Feng felt troubled at that moment.
He felt it out; this Gingko Tree could provide at least 30 Spirit Points if he absorbed it completely.
It would be such a waste to let it go.
"Hm?" As he pondered over any good solutions, Ye Feng suddenly noticed that the Spiritual Energy inside the Gingko Tree had increased ever so slightly.
Although it was weak, he caught it.
He instantly realized that these trees were also continuously absorbing the Spiritual Energy from the air.
"That means the Spiritual Energy inside these trees are renewable resources!" In this moment, Ye Feng's excitement caused even his roots to tremble.
He could simply wait for the surrounding trees to absorb Spiritual Energy and then harvest it from them periodically.
If he didn't consume too much Spiritual Energy at once, it wouldn't significantly impact the trees' growth.
"Yes, this is the best development path."
"Later on, I could even have the entire forest sustain my growth."