13: Chapter 13 Nutrient Plunder!

...

During the darkest hours before dawn, Jiang Ming did not sleep.

He did not need to sleep. Although photosynthesis stopped at night, his energy consumption dropped to a minimum, allowing his consciousness to stay awake at all times.

The fire on the outer wall of the Wooden Cabin had gone out. The charred planks emitted faint wisps of smoke in the pale morning light, but they hadn't burned through.

The night dew was heavy and the wood damp; after the haystack burned out, the flames failed to spread to the thatched roof and extinguished on their own.

He observed for nearly an hour before confirming it wouldn't turn into a forest fire.

The first thing he did after ensuring safety was to retrieve the corpses.

There was too much on the battlefield to let go to waste.

His root system extended once again toward the blood-soaked mud in front of the Wooden Cabin's door. Just as he was about to begin, his panel suddenly lit up.

[Daily Trait Unlocked — Obtained new trait: Nutrient Plunder (Purple)]

[Effect: Devouring a target extracts additional residual life potential, increasing immediate conversion efficiency by 50%.]

[Passive Effect: Blood, tissue fluid, and dissipating mental fluctuations within half a meter of the devoured target are included in the absorption range.]

Jiang Ming read the trait description twice over. It wasn't "increasing devouring Speed," but "expanding absorption range and raising conversion rate."

Previously, when he devoured a target, he could only absorb the target's own life essence, with a conversion rate of roughly eighty to ninety percent.

Now, this trait expanded the range from "the target's body" to "the target's body and all life-related matter within half a meter around it."

Blood soaked into the mud, dispersed tissue fluids, and even mental fluctuations dissipating right before death—all of it counted.

It was like eating fish before and only eating the flesh, but now drinking the soup and grinding up the bones as well.

He immediately used Brother Liu's remains to perform a test.

Brother Liu's corpse was buried beneath the mud, surrounded by a half-meter layer of blood-soaked soil. Before, he could only digest the body itself, absorbing only a fraction of the blood that had seeped into the soil.

Once Nutrient Plunder activated, the change was visible to the naked eye; it wasn't just the roots absorbing, but the mud itself transforming.

The dark brown blood-soaked layer faded layer by layer from the Outer Ring toward the inner ring, as if someone were drawing the pigment out of the dirt, leaving normal damp soil in its wake.

All residual blood, traces of tissue fluid, and even subcutaneous fat absorbed by the soil were drawn backward out by the roots.

The gains popping up on the panel were significantly higher than the previous round of devouring, and the extra portion originated from "dissipating mental fluctuations."

This was a new concept. He opened it for a closer look: Dissipating mental fluctuations—residual bioelectric charges released by highly intelligent life at the moment of death, containing faint memory fragments and pheromones.

In other words, he hadn't just eaten the body, but also consumed the neural signals from its final few seconds of life.

The signals contained Brother Liu's final visual images before death. They were too fragmented to piece together, but one fleeting image was exceptionally clear.

It was the muddy ground, the exact moment his Root Spike pierced through the ankle wound from a top-down perspective, filled with a sudden, shocked realization before cutting out.

Jiang Ming stored this fragment deep in his consciousness.

Not as a keepsake, but as information. The cognitive moments of highly intelligent life before death possessed value.

If he hunted stronger targets in the future, these memory fragments might provide critical intelligence.

He cleared away all the remaining corpses.

The torn remains of three Hyenas were scattered across a fan-shaped area of less than ten square meters in front of the Wooden Cabin's door, some already torn to pieces.

A few severed limbs had been dragged near the bushes before there was time to consume them.

Zhou Cheng's leftover residue was buried beside the path to the water source, while the bone fragments of the Rot Wolf were still lodged under the corner of the Wooden Cabin's wall.

Like sweeping with a broom, Jiang Ming used his roots to comb through every inch of the battlefield.

Wherever he passed, bloodstains faded, stench dissipated, broken bones dissolved into calcium powder absorbed by the roots, and the Hyenas' hides collapsed into thin keratin membranes before being broken down by microorganisms.

Nutrient Plunder doubled the efficiency of cleaning up this battlefield. If other humans passed by after daybreak, all they would see was an ordinary patch of muddy ground.

There were some traces of turned earth, but no blood, no corpses, and no direct evidence to prove four people had died here.

Only the burn marks on the Wooden Cabin's walls and claw marks on the doorframe offered faint clues, but such traces were far too common in the Mist World—every Wooden Cabin had them.

Sounds came from inside the Wooden Cabin. It was coughing, intermittent, cutting off halfway, followed by a period of suppressed crying.

The crying wasn't loud; she was likely covering her mouth with her hand, afraid of being heard outside.

Xiao Yun was still alive, or at least possessed consciousness and basic mobility.

Jiang Ming was in no rush to breach the door.

Though the door plank was warped by fire, it remained closed. There was no sound of furniture being moved away behind the door, indicating the person inside had no intention of coming out.

Prey that didn't come out didn't need to be killed in a rush; she would exhaust herself.

Her water supply was likely finished, her food probably running out, and her Sanity Value around thirty-something.

Within a day or two, she would dehydrate or collapse, either opening the door to run into the forest or losing consciousness inside the cabin.

If she opened the door and ran, she would step right into his root net.

If she didn't open the door and died inside, he could still extend his roots in from underground.

No rush; handle the exterior first.

He retracted a portion of his roots to review the combat data of Root Spike Raid.

On his panel, the proficiency bar for Root Spike Raid had progressed from "Rudimentary" to "Formed." He hadn't upgraded it with skill points; it was accumulated through actual combat.

The Grey-haired Rat was a probe, the Black-jointed Worm was survival, the Rot Wolf was assistance, and Zhou Cheng was the first complete impalement into a living human torso.

Brother Liu was a precision strike—piercing through a pre-existing wound to cripple a leg and create a lethal finish.

Every strike refined his attack habits: where to pierce for maximum effect, which angles avoided getting stuck on bones, and when to pierce versus when to strangle.

Now, Root Spike Raid had a twelve-second cooldown with piercing power equivalent to an iron short spear. His accuracy no longer relied on prey stepping into traps; he could actively choose the angle of attack.

His attacks had become standardized.

Before, every battle was improvised on the spot. Now, before striking, he had a standard procedure in mind: position control first, restriction of movement second, and finally piercing the torso or strangling the neck.

After daybreak, he continued spreading his net.

The roots on both sides of the water path were reburied, and fresh roots replaced those burned away by the fire.

Beneath the back window of the Wooden Cabin was an area he hadn't paid much attention to before. Previously, he felt humans wouldn't jump through the window because it faced an impenetrable patch of thorny bushes.

But now only one prey remained. Driven by fear, humans were capable of anything, so he deployed three roots under the window as well.

He also reburied roots beside the woodpile—the only place left around the Wooden Cabin to gather firewood. The moment Xiao Yun came out to fetch wood, stepping on them would trigger an ambush.

His outermost ring pushed out to sixty meters from his main body, mostly toward another direction—not toward the Wooden Cabin, but deeper into the mist, the outskirts of the forest.

He wanted to know if last night's fire and blood stench had drawn more creatures.

His roots reached a small Gravel Slope with a few short bushes growing on it, discovering a rabbit corpse whose entrails had been gnawed clean among the bush roots.

Beside the rabbit corpse was a line of light footprints—human—that vanished after only a few steps, heading south-southeast, roughly half a kilometer from the Wooden Cabin.

Someone had come to look.

Not passing by, but coming deliberately. The footprints stopped at the crest of the Gravel Slope and went no further.

This meant the person stood on the slope, observed the direction of the Wooden Cabin for a while, and then retreated.

Most likely a lone traveler drawn by the blood stench and smoke, too afraid to approach, yet not wandering far.

This area was already outside his hunting radius, out of Jiang Ming's reach for now, but he marked the location.

Once his root system extended a bit further, this lone traveler would be next.

On the way back, he uncovered a skinny fox beneath a layer of decaying leaves.

It wasn't an anomaly, just a normal wild animal, probably attracted by the scent of blood to scavenge scraps, only to find not even a single hair left behind.

It was digging in the soil with its head down and ears flattened against its skull, completely oblivious to what lurked underground.

Jiang Ming used it to conduct a live target test for Nutrient Plunder. A Root Spike burst from beneath the mud, directly penetrating its abdominal cavity for an instant kill.

Nutrient Plunder activated simultaneously. The conversion rate for a live target was already higher than that of a corpse, and with the plunder bonus added...

The total yield provided by this skinny fox was roughly twice that of devouring the Black-jointed Worm larva previously, despite its body size being only one-third of the larva's.

Live target yield > warm corpse yield, a gap widened further by Nutrient Plunder.

The conclusion was clear: he had to continuously hunt living targets of higher value.

F-rank anomalies and small beasts were no longer enough to feed him.

The main staple of the next stage would be humans, or higher-level anomalies.

As he was planning his hunting grounds, sound came from the direction of the Wooden Cabin once more. This time it wasn't coughing, but speaking.

She wasn't talking to herself; she was speaking to her system panel. Xiao Yun was using the Survivor Channel to call for help.

Her voice was muffled by the walls, but his listening tendrils were pressed against the base of the outer wall, catching every single word.

"This is the isolated Wooden Cabin on the edge of the Light Mist Area to the southeast. Coordinate mark sent. Our shelter has suffered an unknown attack, and three companions are dead."

"The killer isn't an anomaly, it's the forest! The roots move, actively attack people, and drag them underground. There's something wrong with this forest, anyone who comes will die."

She paused, then her voice suddenly grew softer, as if speaking to survivors in another channel.

"I'm not crazy! My Sanity Value is still thirty-seven. The system hasn't prompted me about auditory or visual hallucinations. Everything I saw is real."

"Roots coming out of the ground, alive, black, with spikes! My companion was dragged away by them, I saw it with my own eyes."

"Coordinate mark sent. Don't send too many people. Bring torches, bring oil. The trees are afraid of fire."

"My name is Su Xiaoyun."

So her family name was Su.

Several replies came from the channel. The voices were too far to make out specific details, but judging from Su Xiaoyun's responses:

Some were calling her a lunatic, some telling her to calm down, some asking if the coordinates really existed, and others warning her not to post fake intel that wasted channel resources.

But at least one voice asked her for detailed attack times and route descriptions.

Someone believed her.

Or at least someone took it seriously.

Jiang Ming archived this piece of information.

First, Su Xiaoyun posted coordinates in the channel, which would subsequently attract new humans into his hunting ground.

Second, her description was extremely accurate: "roots coming out from underground," "alive," "black," "with spikes."

If this information were received by an offensive team taking it seriously, the next visitors wouldn't come empty-handed.

Third, she said "our shelter" in the channel. That Wooden Cabin didn't belong solely to Brother Liu; it was a joint outpost for three people.

Now one was dead, one severely injured and likely dying soon, leaving only her.

She had turned the Wooden Cabin into a distress signal tower.

He didn't pull back his listening tendrils and continued to wait. Inside the Wooden Cabin, it fell silent for a few minutes, followed by the sound of a wooden cup dropping—empty, rolling twice before hitting the corner.

Immediately after was the dull thud of a heavy object collapsing—not furniture, but the cadence of a person slumping down, knees striking the floor first, followed by shoulders crashing down.

Su Xiaoyun made no more sound.

No crying, no coughing, no muttering to herself.

Either dead or passed out.

Or—Jiang Ming recalled the hidden mechanism of the Sanity Value system—once Sanity Value dropped below thirty, the body began to mutate, acquiring extraordinary abilities, but irreversibly.

Her Sanity Value was thirty-seven as she had stated herself earlier, very close to the mutation line.

He spread his roots back under the outer wall of the Wooden Cabin and reached inside. The gaps in the door and the dirt at the wall base weren't wide enough for thick roots, but fine roots could pass through.

A strand of the finest listening tendril slowly probed half an inch inside through the damp mud gap beneath the wall foundation.

Inside, there was no light and no sound, only the faint breathing of a person lying on her side on the cold wooden floor.

But her heartbeat was still present, very slow.