Looking at the panel blankly, Chen Xuan wasted no time upgrading, feeling the warm energy spreading throughout his body once more.
Sighing lightly as he felt the calming, warm energy, Chen Xuan opened his panel, looking at his 3 skill points and thinking about how to use them.
Putting one point into roots, Chen Xuan was about to put 2 points into the crown, remembering what happened to his branches before, but he hesitated.
Looking down at the flowers, Chen Xuan put one point into the flowers and one point into the crown, evenly splitting his points around.
The sudden input of multiple upgrades sent warmth throughout Chen Xuan's body; his branches strengthened, his leaves toughened, and a sharp edge began to form on the leaves.
His roots strengthened as well, becoming slightly more metallic in texture but still not there yet.
Meanwhile, the flowers throughout his trunk and crown slowly became deeper in color, with more intricate shades mixing in and forming a more entrancing appearance. The flowers were now subtly emitting their scent without Chen Xuan's input.
After a dozen breaths of time, Chen Xuan felt the energy receding as it used up all of its power, leaving him feeling refreshed and relaxed as if he had just come out of a hot spring.
"God, that always feels good," he muttered before looking around, wanting to test his new abilities.
However, no matter what Chen Xuan hoped for, he could find nothing. About to give up, he suddenly saw a few ants within the surrounding meters coming from the ground.
What surprised Chen Xuan was that they seemed to come to the surface so they could all walk towards him. The ants within the surrounding meters walked as if hypnotized, despite him not doing anything.
Searching his body, he found the cause, noticing the scent emitting from the flowers; he had previously remained unaware of it due to its subtlety.
The sweet scent emitted from the flowers attracted the ants that had no real consciousness.
Not hesitating at all, Chen Xuan brought down his tree branches, slightly surprised at how fast they had become. Chen Xuan could guess that the branches each moved at a speed of about 0.4 m/s, moving much faster than before.
With the help of his newfound speed, Chen Xuan pierced each ant quickly, making quick work of the hypnotized insects.
Smiling to himself at the joy from his strength, Chen Xuan buried the bodies quickly under his roots.
However, while burying the corpses beneath his roots, a faint buzzing sounded to the side. Not scaring Chen Xuan at all, he assumed it was another insect attracted by his scent.
Focusing his attention on the bug, Chen Xuan started moving his branch. When he actually took a look, though, he paused.
What he saw seemed to be a mosquito approximately 4 inches long, flapping its wings as it stayed stationary in the air, hovering just a meter from Chen Xuan.
Shocked by its huge size, Chen Xuan was slightly dazed; this mosquito was about 10 times bigger than any he had seen in his life.
As Chen Xuan was frozen, the mosquito suddenly zoomed towards him at a fast pace of about 8 m/s, which is about as fast as a normal person's punch.
Surprising Chen Xuan, he quickly tried to react, but his speed was nowhere close to that of the mosquito.
As Chen Xuan moved his branches, the mosquito tried to approach the trunk and burrow into his core, wanting the sap that was filled with life energy.
As it weaved through Chen Xuan's branches, he became slightly desperate, guessing the bug's goal and reason for being there.
Quickly powering up his fragrance and the hypnotic effects of his flowers, the mosquito became more sluggish; it was slightly affected but not enough to be fully controlled.
Using this chance, Chen Xuan shook his branches quickly, causing the leaves to rustle and shake erratically.
While shaking his branches, Chen Xuan slowly moved them towards the mosquito's flight path, attempting to block it.
With a combination of luck and the hypnotic effects from the flowers, the mosquito was blown into one of Chen Xuan's branches, stunning it. Due to his upgrades in his crown, Chen Xuan's leaves were rougher and acted like a wall to the small mosquito.
Upon being hit by the leaf, the mosquito froze for an instant, stunned by the strike. Not wasting this opportunity, Chen Xuan surrounded the mosquito, catching it on the leaves beneath it.
Immediately, Chen Xuan used his branches to crush the giant mosquito into a paste on his leaf.
"Phew... what the hell was that?!" Chen Xuan muttered as he relaxed, the mosquito causing a slight fear in him that he couldn't explain nor understand.
Despite his lingering fear, as if it were habitual by now, Chen Xuan wiped his leaves on the dirt, smearing the remains before slowly covering it with dirt, all while watching and looking around for any more.
Chen Xuan waited for hours, worried that a swarm would approach, until he got a notification.
+ 0.07 life energy
Seeing the sheer amount of points coming from the system this time stunned Chen Xuan, making him relax slightly.
Opening his panel, Chen Xuan looked at the points needed to level up once more.
Cultivation: Tier 1 - High
Life energy: 0.07 / 2 (3.5%)
Life energy capacity: 2.5
Upon seeing the number, Chen Xuan was slightly surprised at the sharp increase in points, causing a slight groan from him.
"Could be worse; at least I'm getting more points now thanks to that stupid bug," Chen Xuan muttered to himself, part of him hoping that the type of bug would come back, though the rational part of him didn't want it to.
Deciding to just relax a bit after the experience with the super bug, Chen Xuan shut off the hypnosis flowers fully and stopped the killing of insects temporarily, still having the bodies of the hare and many insects beneath him.