The familiar sensation struck once more; the ancestral hall before Noah Ji’s eyes vanished, replaced by an alien environment.
Having experienced deduction once before, Noah remained calm, simply casting his gaze around to survey his surroundings.
He found himself in a desolate sandy wasteland, devoid of life, empty and barren.
The only sign of life was a tiny sapling—himself.
Noah couldn’t help but feel disappointed; he had hoped to return to the place from his last deduction. If he could encounter the Spring and Autumn Cicada again, perhaps he could have acquired another technique, distinct from the one granted by the Lunar Eclipse!
But now, it seemed like a distant hope.
Before Noah could dwell on his regret for too long, a line of text slowly appeared before him.
[You were born in a desert! To resist the scorching sun, you begin to strive for growth!]
As the text faded away, time accelerated once again.
This time, Noah didn’t just wait passively; he carefully experienced the process and observed his environment.
In this moment, he felt the fierce sun above scorching him, the heatwaves from all around assaulting him.
The excessive heat instinctively drove his roots deeper into the ground, seeking the scarce moisture in the damp soil below.
It might have been a moment, or it might have been an eternity.
As time passed, Noah grew from a tiny sapling into a small tree, as thick as a thumb.
But looking at his own scorched, yellowing leaves, things didn’t seem to be going well.
When time paused, another line of text emerged.
[The desert temperature rises, water evaporates faster. To absorb more water, you choose?]
[Roots grow downward][Roots spread outward]
Noah smiled knowingly at the question; he knew this one!
Even in the boundless desert, the structure deep underground was no different from other places—just covered by a layer of sand on the surface.
That meant as long as the roots reached deep enough, there would be water!
Noah decisively chose for his roots to grow downward!
He was confident in his choice!
As the text disappeared, the world resumed its motion.
But before Noah’s smile could fade, he saw the few yellow leaves on his branches begin to blacken and slowly fall off.
At the same time, new text surfaced.
[Your roots have grown downward, touching an ancient relic buried in the dust. Under the scorching sun, you died!]
Noah fell silent before the text.
He had calculated many outcomes, but he had not foreseen this.
As the desert world began to collapse, Noah found himself back in the familiar ancestral hall.
[Deduction complete!]
[From this deduction, you have gained a new ability: Root Strengthening]
[From this deduction, you have gained a new ability: High-Temperature Resistance]
Root Strengthening: You can use a certain amount of vitality to strengthen your roots, making them more sensitive.
High-Temperature Resistance: You can thrive in extremely high temperatures.
Indeed, because he died so quickly, he did not gain any techniques or supernatural powers, but two new abilities instead.
Noah opened his panel, and although he didn’t see these new abilities displayed, he could feel the changes in his branches.
It seemed these abilities had already integrated into his branches.
The ancestral hall was now empty; Ethan Chen and his companions had long since departed.
Noah immediately prepared to test his new Root Strengthening ability!
Although his trunk wasn’t thick, beneath the ground, numerous roots spread out under the ancestral hall, serving as his eyes, even more sensitive than eyes themselves.
However, he couldn’t actively control these roots; they had only begun to expand slowly as his vitality increased.
Noah picked the longest root and silently activated Root Strengthening.
With Noah’s will, the root underground began to transform.
As the root changed, Noah saw his scarce vitality rapidly depleting.
3.4, 3.3, 3.2…
When his vitality dropped to 2.9, Noah panicked slightly.
He had thought strengthening the roots wouldn’t consume much, but in the blink of an eye, he had already spent 0.5 of his vitality.
Fortunately, the vitality stopped decreasing once it reached 2.9.
When Noah sensed the strengthened root again, his heart stirred.
Under his control, a root as thick as a thumb emerged from the ground.
This root was several meters long, several times the size of Noah’s current trunk.
As Noah’s intentions flowed, the root responded promptly, as if it were an extension of his body.
After experimenting for a while, Noah silently retracted the strengthened root.
Although the gains from this deduction weren’t as significant as the last, it wasn’t without merit; the Root Strengthening ability was quite useful. Now, he at least had some means of self-protection and wasn’t completely at the mercy of others.
He just didn’t know the strength of his enhanced root, whether it could withstand Blood Condensation Realm Warriors.
He would have to witness the power of Blood Condensation Realm Warriors to know the answer.
As for the other new ability, High-Temperature Resistance.
Well, it’s better to have it than not.
All in all, there were gains, but they were modest.
And most importantly, these gains couldn’t help the Chen Clan escape their predicament.
Noah felt somewhat dissatisfied. He opened his panel to check his remaining Qi and Blood and Spiritual Power Points, hoping for another attempt.
[Qi and Blood: 9 (can be converted to vitality)]
[Spiritual Power: 0]
[Deduction Points: 20]
Regrettably, aside from sufficient Deduction Points, the other two were lacking, especially Spiritual Power, which had hit zero. He would have to wait for the Chen Clan’s next sacrifice, and even one might not be enough.
Noah sighed inwardly and reluctantly gave up.
Seeing his vitality at only 2.9, he felt somewhat frustrated.
Despite the sacrifices from the Chen Clan and his own Lunar Eclipse Technique, why did he feel like he was running a deficit?
The decline in vitality weakened Noah in all aspects, an extremely uncomfortable sensation.
Looking at his remaining Qi and Blood, Noah made a decisive choice to convert it all into vitality.
During the conversion, Noah realized he could control the exact amount of Qi and Blood to convert, meaning he could choose how much to convert while preserving the necessary Qi and Blood for deduction.
But this time, Noah didn’t hesitate and converted all 9 points of Qi and Blood into vitality.
As his vitality surged, Noah felt a powerful sense of life coursing through his trunk.
The vitality quickly gathered on one side of his trunk, and a new bud grew at a visible rate.
Soon, the bud turned into a cluster of new Sophora branches, standing atop the trunk.
With two new branches sprouting green leaves, Noah’s trunk finally looked a bit more robust.
But overall, it still appeared somewhat slender.
The increase in vitality didn’t stop there; several roots rapidly spread beneath the Blue Stone Slab, reaching throughout the ancestral hall and slightly beyond before stopping.
During the spread, one root pierced through the clan’s secret passage, and Noah sensed the Spiritual Positions in the room above the passage, as well as the ancestral patriarch lying in the coffin.
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