Chapter 891
Chapter 891 - 877: Grand Gesture
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8 min read
Tree-men are actually an ability that high-level Gardeners are very fond of using.
They transform plants into "mobile Tree-men", granting them the characteristics of both half-plant and half-animal for a short period of time.
The reason it’s short-term is that this forceful change of life form often has many flaws... It neither has the digestive system of an animal nor can it root itself in the earth as before, rendering its survival difficult.
Of course, since the ability exists, naturally there are Tree-men in nature, and Big Boss Gardeners do have methods of truly transforming trees into living Tree-men to serve as their own guards...
"Stop dreaming, the tier of true Tree-men is not low, and they are generally hard to acquire (as they are considered intelligent creatures). And, to cultivate an Ancient Tree into a real living Tree-man, even for a Rule-level Gardener, it takes years of effort... Of course, they can cultivate a batch at once, but you neither have the time nor the ability."
The strength of Tree-men isn’t actually fixed; after all, it is essentially a "plant" in humanoid form, its strength is directly linked to the original species.
For Lu Ping’an to create a Tree-man from scratch is impossible.
In the past, his creation/control of Tree-men was actually through the use of a prop.
[Liuzi Stele’s Four-color Set Tickets (Upper Silver Ranked Enchanted Item)]
[Liuzi Stele, an unfortunate soul who had been stuck at the rules bottleneck for twenty-six years. He believed that the faith in the Lady of the Forest restricted his further breakthrough, and thus, he decided to leave his comfort zone... And then he was gone.]
This is the legacy of Liu Zibei, who was at the peak of Law Peak, regardless of what it was before, but after it came into Lu Ping’an’s hands, the analysis result included the name of "Liu Zibei" and the past events.
This shows that this Taboo item is his "Legacy of Remnant Soul".
Clearly, Liu Zibei used his life and remnant soul to create it, just like the Life Encyclopedia he acquired, its potential actually exceeds its tier.
Lu Ping’an used to enjoy it quite a lot, as providing fourth-fifth tier trash trees (lightwood) would yield an Upper Silver-tier Tree-man... Although it was mostly hollow inside and could only serve as a loser in hand-to-hand combat, it was still quite useful for the old Lu Ping’an.
"I don’t love it anymore... It’s useless now."
But now, after Lu Ping’an sorted out his own combat system, this set of cards has become useless.
The former hand-to-hand combat daddy, after becoming a combat loser, now can’t even do that well... Nowadays, with his full explosive power, dealing with these purely tier-based hand-to-hand units is a matter of one punch each, yet one Tree-man requires the use of an "Ancient Tree", and the cost is not cheap.
Today’s low-level Tree-men are no longer fit to be Lu Ping’an’s cannon fodder, and to use powerful Sixth-order peak Magic Plants for fodder... Uh, it might not necessarily be useful, but going bankrupt would definitely happen quickly.
To think that an Upper Silver Taboo item would become inconsequential in Lu Ping’an’s hands, one could only say his growth speed and path are somewhat outrageous.
"...it’ll be you, Core of Wisdom!"
At that moment, Lu Ping’an cheerfully made a decision. Since he was going to raise a baby, he naturally wanted to give it the best.
The Taboo item, Liuzi Stele’s Four-color Set Cards, were tossed into the slot for the newborn "Core of Wisdom", becoming its first core component.
[Feature 2: Programming Life (Lower Gold): Distill a designated target, use ’existence’ to create ’Life Encyclopedia Page’, which can be inserted into the pet column, treated as its ’gift’ and ’inborn Abnormal Ability’, up to five pages.]
After the Life Illustration upgraded to the Life Encyclopedia, the targets it could control were no longer limited to life materials.
"Taboo items", these semi-living entities, are also "existences", that can be used as materials to be controlled and utilized... It’s just excessively luxurious and costly.
"Are you serious?"
"Won’t you reconsider?"
In the face of his companions’ persuasion, Lu Ping’an shook his head.
The Magic Pet is the very foundation of his pathway to power, an absolutely first priority that justifies the luxury... right now, he has no idea how much he regrets that the initial creation of Little Flame was too crude.
Lu Ping’an vaguely realized the rules of the Way of Life: a huge investment does not guarantee a return, but if you try to save on materials, you’re guaranteed a pile of trash in return.
Lu Ping’an’s spirituality and rational thinking both told it that within this Taboo item, not only were there the core rules and characteristics of the "Tree-man," but there should also be remnants of Liu Zibei’s soul... As a sacrifice of a Silver-tier peak professional, it should become the best possible core for a Newborn.
At this moment, however, Lu Ping’an hesitated... It wasn’t that he had suddenly become reluctant, but he wondered whether he should add more.
"Just a remnant soul, might it not be enough, might it lead to insufficient intelligence..."
"...Is high intelligence really a good thing?"
A comment from Big Cat made Lu Ping’an regain his composure.
Needs shape results, his template for imitation was the Energy-devouring Demon Sunflower, did it require a high IQ? No, it did not. The simpler the life, the more invincible it was in terms of pure growth potential, single-cell life forms are quite suitable for appreciation and unlimited growth...
After deciding on the Core of Wisdom, this time, the newly added fourth column was "Parents’ Expectations."
"You will become... a Tree-man capable of infinite growth..."
Expectations? Hopes? Or needs? In essence, there was no real difference, the Creator had proposed his own desire; whether it would come true depended on whether the materials were sufficient and if the Codex was supportive enough.
The Bone Flesh Foundation and Blood Essence were the basics of a life form’s constitution.
To endow it with the ability to grow infinitely, merely having "expectations" was not enough, materials capable of endless growth were essential, and Lu Ping’an just happened to have such an item...
"Redemption..."
Don’t get it wrong, Lu Ping’an wasn’t planning on spending his scenery; it was his first "creation," and he couldn’t bear to part with it.
But the Sumeru Fusu Tree was an Ancient Tree legacy that, apart from "infinite growth," really had no other traits (actually, it wasn’t developed), and "Redemption" was still growing rapidly in the Courtyard, cutting off a portion would be enough.
"...I’ll take out part of it, too."
On this side, Guan Xinxian was quite generous as well.
The materials regularly pruned from his Ark were abundant, and even cutting off parts of it from the front and back wouldn’t make much difference; it would quickly grow back.
His Ancient Tree was older than Lu Ping’an’s, which was just right to make up for it.
"Now we have flesh and bone, but next..."
For the remaining materials, Lu Ping’an looked toward the Captain... where were the "materials" that had been promised?
The Captain generously presented the flesh and blood essence of a Rule-level creature, which Lu Ping’an accepted with pleasure... and it was stowed away in his own storeroom.
An Energy Consumer using an Energy Creature as the core? Materials that are incompatible in characteristics are better left unused.
Expensive and rare materials will always have their day of use... selling them is also a way to use them, it’s not a loss.
But this didn’t mean the Hammer-men really couldn’t offer materials; they were actually swimming in riches. As merchants traversing the universe, their ship was fully loaded too.
They were Multi-universe experts in metal smelting, particularly adept at mass-producing various mechanical prosthetic limbs, and naturally, their storage was filled with a vast array of precious metals.
Lu Ping’an needed those "metals" for a skeleton and a vascular system, giving the Newborn frameworks to support its vast body.
Therefore, he sent out the most knowledgeable Fang Wen to scavenge specifically...
He also had thoughts about the remaining core components, but the most important was always the starting point.
"Go hunting, kill as many Energy-devouring Demon Sunflowers as possible, turn their flesh and blood into the culture medium for your New Life."
— End of Chapter 891 —