Chen Xuan sat for a few days, wanting to lay low for a little while, waiting to see if there were any more of those bugs around.
After 2 days of waiting, Chen Xuan relaxed slightly, seeing no trace of another weird super bug or anything of the ilk.
After 2 days, Chen Xuan noticed that his life energy gain had decreased a lot, dropping to 0.3 once more, all of the insect remains being fully absorbed by Chen Xuan's roots.
Left with no other choice, Chen Xuan started hunting a few ants; however, he didn't release any aroma and only used the hypnotic visual effect of the flowers.
Using his flowers to attract a few insects before hiding his branches to kill the few insects, he used them to boost his input level.
After a few days of doing the same, Chen Xuan finally gathered enough points for another upgrade, wasting no time in leveling up once more, gaining back another 3 Skill points which he wasted no time in using.
First, Chen Xuan put 1 point into his roots, not wanting to put any more since he was already losing nutrients pretty fast.
After using that point, he hesitated slightly, wanting to have a stronger attack yet pausing before upgrading his crown once more.
Wincing, Chen Xuan quickly put both points into his flowers, thinking that it would be more effective in case any more super bugs approached him in a swarm next time.
"This time I'll be ready, you dumb little bugs!"
When Chen Xuan put 2 points into flowers at the same time, throughout his body, flowers of different colors formed.
Some flowers were a deep blue, others purple, some red while a few were black and white, creating intricate and enchanting patterns.
What Chen Xuan experienced was a faint feeling of electricity in the area where the blue flowers were located. Not an intense lightning electricity, more like the bioelectricity in everyone's brains.
Ignoring the feeling for now, Chen Xuan relaxed, wanting to bathe in the warm energy that came with his progress. Despite his relaxation, he still made sure to keep an eye out; he just wasn't as attentive.
Sighing with relief even after the warm energy dissipated, Chen Xuan relaxed with a faint smile, always enjoying the process of leveling up.
Feeling the new and strange sense of strength emanating from his body, Chen Xuan couldn't help but be slightly excited. Though he soon managed to calm himself, knowing that it was but an illusion and that he wasn't truly strong yet.
Wanting to test how much the hypnotic effects had improved, Chen Xuan was about to make one of his flowers bloom, wanting to test the limit of one of his flowers, but he paused.
Chen Xuan looked at each of his flowers curiously, now wondering to himself why there were different colors, previously not even thinking about it.
Slowly, Chen Xuan bloomed one of his purple flowers, carefully observing the insects that were affected, not emitting any scent at all.
The ants, upon seeing the purple flower, started mindlessly walking towards the flower, walking robotically and mechanically, not like real beings at all.
Nodding to himself, Chen Xuan was satisfied, closing the purple flower before blooming the red flower and observing the ants.
The red flower, unlike the purple flower, completely froze every ant that saw it. Each of them trembled heavily, shaking like a leaf in a storm as they looked at the flower, unable to tear their gazes from the center of the flower.
The ants seemed to be looking at the most terrifying thing in their lives, like a rabbit in front of a lion.
Nodding with satisfaction and a bit of weariness at having not noticed before, Chen Xuan closed up the red flower; the ants, however, still trembled in lingering fear.
Already satisfied by the results, Chen Xuan proceeded to test the black and white flower next, unblocking one in a different direction, targeting some different ants.
Upon looking at the black and white flowers with intricate patterns painting their insides, the ants started to stumble and walk around in circles.
The ants affected by the black and white flowers looked drunk and disoriented, staggering and falling occasionally while walking aimlessly.
Based on the ants' reactions, Chen Xuan was able to guess the effects of this flower color, so he calmly closed the flower, turning his attention to the last color he had yet to test.
Gently blooming the blue flower, a faint buzzing was heard from the flower, prompting a raised eyebrow from Chen Xuan. Focusing more intently on the flower, he noticed a faint connection to it, different from his connection to the other flowers.
The connection was to his consciousness, able to send some signals via bioelectricity. Attempting this, Chen Xuan sent a simple 'walk' word outward to the blue flower.
Upon receiving the electric signal, the flower emitted a low hum, faintly letting out a dull field of electricity.
The field of electricity spanned a 1 meter distance from Chen Xuan's flower that had bloomed, not reaching far underground but still being within a 1 meter radius from the flower.
Every ant within this range froze for an instant before they started walking in a straight line from whatever direction they were looking in.
'T...this.....'
This scene made Chen Xuan widen his eyes as his mind started churning, thinking of the possibilities with such an overpowered ability.
The numerous possibilities from the blue flower made Chen Xuan want to start experimenting and playing immediately, but he forced himself to calm down and relax; only after a few minutes did he succeed.
Now more calm, Chen Xuan opened his panel, wanting to see his current stats before doing any sort of experiments, despite already having a few rough estimates.
Name: Chen Xuan
Crown Radius: 3.2m
Trunk Height: 1.8m
Root Radius: 6m
Trunk Diameter: 3.8cm
Cultivation: Tier 1 - Peak
Life Energy: 0 / 5 (0%)
Life Energy Capacity: 5.2
Skill Points: 0
Chen Xuan smiled as he looked down the list of stats, thinking that everything was coming along slowly until he got down to the next energy requirement, causing his smile to freeze.
'Over double... what kind of sick....'
Sighing deeply, Chen Xuan wanted to complain to whoever made this system. However, no matter how annoyed he was, Chen Xuan was unable to do anything but swallow his grievances.
'Guess... there will be some trouble from this one, this time.' His thoughts were filled with indignant resignation.
Wanting and partially needing a distraction, Chen Xuan turned his attention back to his blue flowers, which were sparse compared to the other colors.
Upon looking at the blue flowers, an idea popped into Chen Xuan's head involving his current predicament. His idea, however, did need testing and may not even work at all.