Following that, Ye Feng conducted a meticulous study of the trees around him.
Generally speaking, plants that are 20 meters tall can absorb about 0.1 Spirit Point per hour.
This means that the absorption rate of these trees is only one-tenth of his.
Of course, this is not hard to understand, as he is the World Tree and cannot be compared to other trees.
He then tested other trees and found that as long as he devoured Spiritual Energy in a single instance without exceeding the amount the other absorbed in an hour, it would not have an impact on them.
"Good, then I can harvest once every hour."
Ye Feng turned his gaze to the other trees, as the length of his Main Root had now reached a full 50 meters.
50 meters might not seem long.
But if you draw a circle with a radius of 50 meters, the area you get is 7850 square meters.
Ye Feng's Main Root now controls an area that large.
Within this vast area, there are roughly 150 trees growing.
However, these trees vary in height, ranging from seven or eight to over twenty meters, and each absorbs a different amount of Spiritual Energy per hour.
Especially those trees that are not even 10 meters tall, after an hour, the amount of Spiritual Energy they absorb is less than 0.05 Point.
Of course, even a mosquito is meat, and all the numbers added up are sure to be substantial.
Ye Feng dispatched hundreds of Tree Roots to quickly harvest a wave of Spiritual Energy, soon earning 10 Spirit Points.
Besides the trees, the bushes and some thicker wild grasses also became his targets.
All these plants together added another 3 Spirit Points for him.
Furthermore, his Tree Body now stood at a height of 15 meters, allowing him to absorb 1.5 Spirit Points per hour.
That is to say, even if he did nothing now, he could harvest 14.5 Spirit Points in an hour, which would be 348 Spirit Points in a day.
After calculating this number, Ye Feng's leaves rustled excitedly.
"Stay calm, I must stay calm. After all, I'm the World Tree, considered a king of this world, how can I be so proud over such a harvest?"
"Unless I really can't contain myself, hahaha!"
After the excitement, Ye Feng viewed every tree around him with friendliness.
These were his subjects, and he should fulfill his responsibilities as a "Lord".
For instance, the Ficus tree to his right had several caterpillars nibbling on its leaves, which he promptly extended his roots to devour.
He went from tree to tree like this, hunting down caterpillars, cicadas, and other insects one by one.
He then began to Devour the weeds.
Even though these weeds could also provide him with Spiritual Energy, the issue was that the amount they provided was too little, estimated at only about 0.001 Point per hour.
Collecting them every hour would only waste his time, so instead, he chose to Devour them directly, which provided a decent amount of Spiritual Energy at once.
Of course, Ye Feng didn't clear out all the weeds, just those he found unsightly.
After about half an hour, he had "taken care of" his territory.
"Mm, much more pleasing to the eyes now." Ye Feng glanced over his territory.
No insect disturbances and no randomly grown weeds, replaced by neatly maintained grasslands.
Of course, the most important thing was that after half an hour of tidying up, he had gained another 35 Spirit Points.
The only slightly irritating thing was the Gingko Tree next to him with its yellowing leaves.
"Ah~ little buddy, I won't drain your Spiritual Energy for a while. You grow well, and later when you work hard, I'll have your back."
"It's a pity, though, that I can't give the Spiritual Energy back to you..."
Ye Feng mumbled to himself, then suddenly paused.
"Wait a second, perhaps it's worth a try." Ye Feng pulled out a root and once again wrapped it around the ginkgo tree.
This time, he used his Devouring Ability in reverse, and to his surprise, he felt the spiritual energy from his own body being injected into the ginkgo tree.
"It actually works." Ye Feng was somewhat astonished.
What astonished him even more was that as the spiritual energy was infused, the previously yellowing leaves of the ginkgo tree turned green at a rate visible to the naked eye.
Even the section of the tree body that had been withered for some time regained vigor within just a few minutes.
"Spiritual energy really has such magical effects!"
However, Ye Feng also noticed that the consumption for extraction and restoration was different.
Previously, he had withdrawn 3 spirit points from the ginkgo tree, but he had to inject a full 6 spirit points into it to restore the tree to its original state.
"Although it's a bit of a loss, it's still acceptable."
After all, the difficulty of destruction and repair was never going to be the same. Using twice the amount of spiritual energy, he felt, was acceptable.
Even though the ginkgo tree had been restored, Ye Feng didn't stop; he continued to infuse it with spiritual energy.
He wanted to confirm another hypothesis he had.
As he kept pumping spiritual energy into the ginkgo tree, just as he expected, the tree began to grow rapidly.
But, unlike him, perhaps because these plants lacked consciousness, their growth was all-encompassing: the tip height, tree width, and main root length all increased.
Ye Feng made a rough estimate; the growth rate of the tree's main root length was only about one-thirtieth of his own, which is to say, it grew about 0.66 centimeters per minute.
He also discovered that the tree's capacity to store spiritual energy was very limited. After he injected 5 spirit points into it, he couldn't infuse any more.
"With this in mind, it seems that the potential for ordinary trees to mutate is quite limited."
"Of course, not all are like this. For example, the one on Small Phoenix Mountain is very special."
While summarizing his findings, Ye Feng retracted the spiritual energy he had injected into the tree back into himself.
Experiments were experiments, after all; he couldn't actually give away the spiritual energy. Helping the tree to restore its body was just a means to better serve his own purposes.
Ye Feng glanced at the remaining 44 spirit points on the system panel, planning to allocate them in a new round of enhancements.
It was at that moment, as his gaze swept over the corpse beneath the tree, that a thought emerged in his mind.
"If spiritual energy is so miraculous, could I resurrect myself by infusing spiritual energy into my original body?"
Although he felt that being a tree wasn't too bad, it couldn't compare to being a human.
With that thought in his head, he could no longer contain himself. He immediately extended a root to touch his own body, then applied his Devouring Ability in reverse, incessantly infusing a stream of spiritual energy into it.
Then, to his delight, he found the body, which had been dead and stiff for some time, gradually became softer, and the livor mortis that had developed began to disappear.
Eventually, the bite wounds from poisonous snakes began to heal, and even the venom inside seemed to be neutralized.
In the end, he saw his own complexion become rosy, as though he might open his eyes at any moment.
But, this scene ultimately did not happen.
The heartbeat did not return, nor did the breathing.
Unable to continue infusing spiritual energy, Ye Feng finally stopped, feeling a sense of wistful disappointment.
His emotions were also quite complex. If his body had opened its eyes, would he still be himself?
However, he quickly discarded this notion, determined to find a way to resurrect himself.
Even if it was not possible now, he believed that with continuous evolution, there would come a day when he could do it.
In regard to his original body, he discovered that as long as it was filled with spiritual energy, it could maintain its preserved state indefinitely without decay.
The price he had to pay was merely 10 spirit points a day.
Spending 10 spirit points every day to hold onto the hope for resurrection was well worth it.