"Thank goodness. The silver mantis must have been in a hurry to fight your Yin Yi, so it didn’t deal a fatal blow. It was lucky to survive." Luo Chen let out a long sigh of relief, his face filled with lingering fear.

The wounds inflicted by the silver mantis were extremely difficult to heal. It took Yin Yi a great deal of effort to completely expel the silver light clinging to the Heavy-Armored Tree Spirit.

It had even taken her a great deal of effort to dispel the silver light from herself at the beginning.

"Tianhe, what about you?" Han Ning turned to look at Lin Tianhe, who was squatting in front of his Tree Spirit not far away.

But he found that Lin Tianhe’s expression wasn’t sad or anxious, as he had expected. Instead, it was filled with surprise and joy.

"Han Ning, come look, quick! I’ve discovered a new ability of Xiaoyu’s!" Lin Tianhe called out, waving frantically at Han Ning without turning his head.

"What?"

Stunned, Han Ning walked over.

After Lin Tianhe’s Silver Lotus Wood had evolved into a Tree Spirit, its body wasn’t as large as Luo Chen’s. It also wasn’t proficient with Spiritual Energy. The only ability it had displayed that set it apart from an ordinary tree was its excellent endurance.

Earlier, this Tree Spirit had fought a ground beetle wreathed in Flame. Unable to withstand the beetle’s burning Flame, it had been severely injured.

But now, its flame-scorched branches were gradually returning to their brownish-yellow color.

Countless tendrils were rooted amidst the insect corpses on the ground, and on its once-bare branches, tender green leaves were sprouting at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Most astonishingly, streams of faint green light traveled from Xiaoyu’s grayish-white roots up toward its crown. As the light reached the ends of the branches, plump, green fruits began to slowly grow larger beneath the twigs.

"It’s bearing fruit?" Han Ning asked in amazement.

"Yeah. Xiaoyu can actually absorb the Energy from Soul Beast corpses and bear fruit on its branches. Look."

Lin Tianhe opened his palm, revealing a perfectly round, apple-sized fruit resting in it.

A bite was taken out of its surface, exposing the pale yellow flesh inside.

"You ate it?" Han Ning’s expression shifted from amazement to a strange look.

"Yeah! Xiaoyu wanted me to eat it."

Lin Tianhe explained, savoring the memory of the fruit’s taste,

"This fruit seems to help us recover Physical Strength. I just took a bite, and I already feel slightly full. That empty feeling from using up all my Physical Strength running around has also faded a bit."

’Xiaoyu is Lin Tianhe’s Soul Beast, so since it prompted its master to eat, there shouldn’t be any food safety issues.’

’The only issue was that the fruit’s Energy source was clearly the insect corpses littering the ground. One just had to get over that psychological hurdle.’

"So amazing..."

Han Ning took the fruit from Lin Tianhe and examined it, rubbing it carefully in his hand.

The fruit’s texture was similar to that of ordinary fruit. When he squeezed it gently, clear juice trickled down from the cracks in its flesh.

At the same time, a line of light-blue text appeared on a panel before his eyes: [Energy detected. Absorb?]

’Could it be?’

A thought struck Han Ning, and he said,

"Tianhe, can I have this fruit? I happen to be hungry."

"I’ll get you a new one. Xiaoyu is still bearing more fruit; there’s enough for everyone." As he spoke, Lin Tianhe plucked a fresh fruit from a branch and handed it to Han Ning. He then dragged some of the smaller insect corpses over and dropped them next to Xiaoyu.

"Alright, thanks." Han Ning stuffed the fruit into his mouth, chewed a couple of times, and swallowed it.

As he chewed, the system completely absorbed the Energy inside the fruit.

[Energy +0.4]

’0.4 Energy...’

He looked at the insect corpses on the ground beneath Xiaoyu.

The corpses of about three to four small insects looked as if their Energy had been drained, their exteriors now dry and shriveled.

’If I’d used the system on those few insects, they would have yielded about 0.2 Energy each, for a total of 1 point of Energy.’

’After Lin Tianhe’s Xiaoyu absorbed them all, it only yielded a total of 0.4 Energy.’

’The absorption efficiency of a typical Soul Beast is only about twenty or thirty percent.’

’While it couldn’t compare to the system, Xiaoyu’s Energy utilization rate was still higher than that of other Soul Beasts.’

’The system’s Energy absorption rate is basically over 99%. Whenever I absorb, it can suck a Soul Beast corpse completely dry, leaving only the faintest trace of Energy in the flesh and tissue.’

’Its utilization rate is about 10% higher than other Soul Beasts, and that’s likely after its own consumption. All things considered, that’s incredibly impressive.’

’If everyone’s Soul Beasts ate the fruit from Xiaoyu, or if we cultivated Silver Lotus Wood in this same way, the academy’s overall power would increase much more quickly.’

"That’s an impressive ability. It seems it can draw Energy from the corpses of other Soul Beasts, bear fruit, and share it with others."

Han Ning analyzed,

"Will other Soul Beasts have a higher Energy utilization rate if they eat Xiaoyu’s fruit? Later, get a few teachers from the academy to run a comparative experiment with you."

"If the Energy efficiency for growth is higher than when Soul Beasts eat or absorb on their own, we can cultivate a batch of Silver Lotus Wood in the same way you raised Xiaoyu to help us improve our overall strength."

’We’ll need to run several comparative experiments to determine the precise growth data and the exact range of improvement.’

"Okay, I get it. Shouldn’t we give Xiaoyu’s Race a name, then? It feels so awkward just calling it a Tree Spirit all the time."

Lin Tianhe stroked Xiaoyu’s branches, a thoughtful expression on his face. Then, his eyes lit up.

"How about Soul-Draining Tree Spirit? It drains the Spiritual Qi from other Soul Beasts to bear fruit."

"Soul-Draining Tree Spirit it is, then." Han Ning was terrible with names himself and couldn’t think of anything better on the spot.

Clearly, the Soul-Draining Tree Spirit’s abilities were geared more toward support than combat.

「A while later.」

The more than 200 teachers, students, and Silver Lotus Woods on site gathered all the insect corpses scattered throughout the forest and the nearby marshland.

The countless insect corpses formed a small mountain. Blood of various colors oozed from the wounds and pooled on the ground, emitting a foul, metallic stench.

On the other side of the pile of corpses was a small mound of multi-colored Crystal Stones.

"While I was digging out the crystals from the swarm, I noticed something interesting. All of the relatively stronger insects had a pale green Crystal Stone condensed where their brain would be. This type of Crystal Stone doesn’t seem to be of any other Element; it seems to be unique to insects."

"In addition to this pale green Crystal Stone, there’s also a slightly smaller Attribute Crystal Stone somewhere on their bodies, depending on the insect’s Attributes. These are just like the stones we’ve found before; they contain Elemental Power."

Lü Xiuning walked over, rolling two Crystal Stones—one green, one red—in his palm like worry stones.

"So, the pale green Crystal Stones should be called Insect Crystals. I just wonder what they’re for," Han Ning said, puzzled.

Just then, Teacher Zhou picked up a branch and began to write the specific numbers for each type of Crystal Stone in the dark mud as he spoke.

"Everyone, the spoils from this battle have been tallied. We killed a total of 1,421 insects of varying strength, 921 of which had produced Crystal Stones. We’ve collected 921 pale green Crystal Stones, 321 Gold Attribute Crystal Stones, 311 Earth Attribute Crystal Stones, 132 Fire Attribute Crystal Stones, 111 Wood Attribute Crystal Stones, 42 Poison Attribute Crystal Stones, and 32 Cyan White Crystal Stones..."

Looking at the ground before him, covered in Crystal Stones glittering with all sorts of light, Han Ning felt the thrill of a Giant Dragon for the first time.

’The battle was tough, but the rewards are immense.’

According to legend, Giant Dragons love to collect glittering treasures and hide them away in their lairs.

’Who doesn’t like shiny things, after all?’

"Are there any injured people or Soul Beasts?"

Quickly, Han Ning tore his gaze away from the trove of treasures and surveyed the surrounding students.

"Fortunately, we were positioned far enough back that no one died. Only about a dozen people were careless and got caught in the crossfire from the Soul Techniques, suffering fairly serious injuries."

Teacher Fang, who was in charge of tallying the casualties, said with a grim expression,

"The casualties among the Silver Lotus Wood were much higher. The ones we brought from the academy were all relatively weak, mostly at the third mutation. Out of a total of 212, 32 were destroyed, and nearly 100 were heavily injured. You could say it was a brutal outcome."

"The injured people and Silver Lotus Wood, along with the remains of those destroyed, have already been sent back to the academy ahead of time."