Chapter 81: Several Days in the Mountains

At noon three days later, Duan Rong sat on a rock by the stream, looking somewhat exhausted!

He had just leaned over the stream and drank his fill of the water.

Duan Rong wiped the water stains from the corners of his mouth with his sleeve, caught his breath, and then sat up a bit straighter.

On the rock next to him, a pile of firewood had been set up, and the rising flames were roasting two fat fish over a foot long, sizzling with oil and exuding a fragrant aroma!

Over these past three days, Duan Rong had devoured nearly forty Tree Spirits!

In truth, First Tier Tree Spirits are not easy to find!

There is little difference in thickness between a hundred-year-old tree and a hundred-and-twenty-year-old tree, and differences in tree species also cause interference.

Duan Rong had to touch them almost one by one!

In a single day, that amounted to only a dozen or so, and that was under his frantic efforts with almost no rest!

Although there was no longer that sense of discomfort after devouring, it was somewhat unusual...

But three days had passed, and there were no adverse reactions...

Although Duan Rong felt uneasy in his heart, he felt he was overthinking it; wasn't the lack of discomfort a good sign?

Perhaps before long, his Mental Power would be able to break through to Level 2!

"Since a First Tier Tree Spirit only provides a weak increase to Mental Power, then I will use the accumulation of quantity to reach a qualitative change!"

"As long as no adverse reactions appear, I will keep stacking them... until I break through!"

Duan Rong's eyes were sharp, and he was quite motivated!

Just then, not far from the stream, a leopard with gold coins on its fur suddenly sprang out; it was over a meter long, with a small head and a long tail, yellow fur, and a body covered in coin-shaped black spots.

The moment Duan Rong saw this beast, he immediately jumped up from the rock!

A leopard is not as majestic as a tiger, but it excels in speed; sometimes, it is even more dangerous!

The leopard pressed its two front paws onto the rock, its body slightly lowered, and its cold, beastly eyes stared at Duan Rong by the stream, as if weighing the strength of its opponent!

Duan Rong stood on the rock by the stream, confronting the leopard; he was calm and composed, not a hint of tension radiating from his body!

This state of Duan Rong's actually made the leopard faintly sense a hint of danger, but intense hunger still triggered its most primitive animal nature!

The leopard suddenly lunged, moving like a thunderbolt, pouncing fiercely toward Duan Rong!

The leopard excels in speed, especially the burst of speed at the moment it charges, which can be called the pride of all beasts!

Moreover, the leopard was only three or four zhang away from Duan Rong, which was the optimal distance for it to hunt!

At this distance, it could almost fully utilize its speed advantage.

In the blink of an eye, the leopard had reached Duan Rong; it jumped, pressed its two paws onto the edge of the giant rock in front of Duan Rong, pushed off with all its might, and launched its body to bite at Duan Rong's throat!

But the moment the leopard leaped, Duan Rong suddenly flashed... and vanished into thin air!

The leopard missed and landed, clearly somewhat bewildered; it immediately realized that for some reason, Duan Rong was already behind it!

The leopard whipped its tail and turned around, but at this moment Duan Rong was almost right in front of it; he could faintly smell the strange odor on the leopard and see its whiskers reflecting a faint halo in the sunlight...

Man and beast were mere inches apart!

Such a close distance is a provocation to a beast!

The leopard bared its teeth and lunged at Duan Rong again!

Duan Rong twisted his waist, his figure moving like a ghost, and with a flicker, he appeared behind the leopard once more!

At this point, the leopard finally realized it had seemingly encountered a legendary mountain demon; it ran toward the stream, fled along the bank, ran for a distance, then darted into the woods and headed deep into the old forest.

Duan Rong watched the leopard flee and smiled slightly, saying: "A beast is a beast after all..."

In truth, it would have been easy for him to kill this leopard!

But he was already very tired and really did not want to get blood splattered all over himself!

Duan Rong walked over, picked up the roasted fish that the leopard had knocked over onto the rock, blew off the dust, and began to eat!

The thoroughly roasted fish was incomparably delicious, and Duan Rong couldn't help but eat until his mouth was fragrant and covered in oil!

After filling his stomach, Duan Rong rested for only a moment before his figure suddenly moved, and he darted into the woods, leaping and shifting with the agility of an ape, continuously moving from tree to tree...

Six days later at noon, Duan Rong looked at the data floating before him with a somewhat weary expression.

Artifact: Old Cypress Wood (Tree age: 101 years)

Spirit Artifact Tier: First Tier.

Devouring Requirement: Host Level 1 Mental Power (Satisfied).

Devouring Effect: Initial awakening of intelligence (can weakly increase the Host's Mental Power).

"Finally found another one!" Duan Rong sighed.

Over the past six days, Duan Rong had been silently keeping count; he had already devoured exactly eighty-one First Tier Tree Spirits.

The one before him was the eighty-second.

Duan Rong's gaze was resolute, and he whispered: "Devour Spirit Tool!"

Suddenly, below the data panel in front of Duan Rong, a line of dazzling red text began to flash incessantly: Devouring failed! The relevant area of the Divine Sense Space is full!

Duan Rong's heart skipped a beat. "It really did run into trouble after all!"

This eighty-second First Tier Tree Spirit had actually failed to be devoured!

"Divine Sense Space... relevant area... is full..."

Duan Rong read this flashing prompt word by word, deconstructing its meaning.

After a moment of thought, Duan Rong suddenly stepped back two paces, placed his hand on another tree, and said: "Spirit Reader."

Artifact: Old Pine Wood (Tree age: 121 years)

Spirit Artifact Tier: Second Tier.

Devouring Requirement: Host Level 2 Mental Power (Not satisfied).

Devouring Effect: Initial possession of intelligence (can weakly increase the Host's Mental Power).

Duan Rong looked at the set of data appearing before him, his gaze lingering on the three characters: "not satisfied."

His Mental Power was clearly still Level 1 and had not broken through.

"My Mental Power hasn't broken through yet, but the Devouring Artifact Spirit failed!"

Duan Rong stood there, his expression revealing a deep sense of contemplation as he pondered once more the prompt that had just flashed by.

"Divine Sense Space?... Relevant area is full...?"

Duan Rong felt that all of this was related to the fact that he hadn't experienced that sense of discomfort when he first performed the Devouring Tree Spirit!

Something must have gone wrong, which is why that sense of discomfort usually felt when digesting and absorbing a Spirit Tool did not occur after the Devouring Tree Spirit!

And it was likely this very situation that led to the current failure of the Devouring Artifact Spirit!

Duan Rong stayed on Wild Boar Mountain for another two days, wanting to observe whether there would be any further changes.

However, the First Tier Tree Spirit continued to fail to be devoured, and no new feedback information appeared.

Duan Rong sat on a camphor tree, a wild rabbit clutched in his hand; the rabbit's fur was bright and shiny, and it shivered in Duan Rong's grip.

Duan Rong sat on the tree branch, stroking the rabbit while lost in thought...

Duan Rong's eyes suddenly lit up; he realized he could understand the problem before him from another angle.

Previously, whenever he performed the Devouring Artifact Spirit, it always required several hours to digest and absorb.

Yet, in these few days in the mountains, he had consecutively devoured a full eighty-one Tree Spirits!

"Divine Sense Space relevant area is full..."

Duan Rong repeated these words again, and suddenly he had a new understanding: perhaps it meant that his Divine Soul had eaten too many Tree Spirits and was too full!

"Perhaps... it just needs... a period of time... to digest and absorb..."

Duan Rong guessed, and the doubt in his eyes slowly began to dissipate...

Duan Rong suddenly leaped down from the tree, his figure like a large bird, landing steadily; he tossed the wild rabbit in his hand beside the tree roots and turned to leave...

"I've been out for eight or nine days; it's time to go back!"

As for the failure of the Devouring Artifact Spirit, he still needed to observe for a period of time to see if it was as he had guessed.

If he followed his previous experience of digesting and absorbing after the Devouring Artifact Spirit, a First Tier Spirit Tool required three hours to be fully digested and absorbed.

Following this time standard, if one First Tier Spirit Tool required three hours, then he had devoured eighty-one First Tier Tree Spirits in these few days, meaning the digestion and absorption time would take over half a month.

If it really required that much time, just wasting it away in the mountains wouldn't be the right thing to do!

(End of this chapter)