CHAPTER 286: CHAPTER 247 SYMBIOTIC BANYAN TREE

The two banyan trees, under Xu Xin’s identification ability, both emit a blue glow.

They are of blue grade!

Both trees grow in blue-grade soil, and are the only two patches of blue-grade soil beside this lakeside scene; all other soil is green grade, with none being white grade.

The size of these two banyan trees is roughly the same as the two-story blue-grade treehouse before additional floors were added. The canopy is dense, about seven meters above the ground, and has many roots.

They look just like a treehouse.

Xu Xin immediately walked to one of the banyan trees and reached out to touch its trunk.

[Banyan Tree (Blue): A special kind of tree that can be harvested for wood. Although it looks very much like an ordinary banyan tree, it can coexist with a treehouse if one exists within a hundred meters!]

Not a treehouse, but the description of this banyan tree is anything but ordinary!

A special type of tree that can coexist with a treehouse within a hundred-meter range!

Xu Xin’s eyes widened.

The last time he saw the word "symbiosis" was for a plant heart!

Symbiosis is not parasitism! Like a plant heart, it can provide very strong defensive capabilities for the treehouse, benefiting both parties mutually!

Unexpectedly, these two banyan trees they suddenly discovered can also coexist with a treehouse.

Moreover, Xu Xin was quite sensitive to the term "special kind of tree."

The first time he encountered these words was in the introduction of the blue-grade iron axe, which mentioned that it could cut down some special kinds of trees.

Afterwards, he discovered that treehouses are one of these special kinds of trees.

Now, this banyan tree is the same. Although not a treehouse, it belongs to the same species as treehouses, and can only be cut with a blue-grade iron axe or higher!

Exactly the same nature as the treehouse!

It truly made Xu Xin speculate, if planted near the treehouse, what marvelous effects could this tree that resembles a treehouse bring? Have they found another component of the treehouse?

Could it, like a plant heart, bring some powerful ability to the treehouse?

Ji Chaoyang also touched the trunk of the banyan tree, and after reading the description, his somewhat solemn expression softened: "It seems to be just an ordinary banyan tree, not a treehouse."

Ji Chaoyang looked up at the dense banyan tree: "However, I always feel this banyan tree has some relation to the treehouse; maybe we should extract its seeds."

He wasn’t as surprised as Xu Xin; he didn’t have identification abilities, so his introduction probably did not indicate a connection between the banyan tree and treehouse.

However, he still sensed that this banyan tree might be related to the treehouse.

"Indeed related to the treehouse." Xu Xin examined the banyan tree.

"...Oh, your identification ability must provide a more detailed description, what relation is it?" Ji Chaoyang was slightly stunned by Xu Xin’s affirmative tone and quickly understood.

"I can obtain more detailed descriptions. It tells me that if this tree grows within a hundred-meter range of a treehouse, it can coexist with the treehouse," Xu Xin replied.

The banyan tree’s canopy was very dense; however, he could still see the inside through small gaps in the canopy.

The canopy didn’t house any treehouse room but grew branches, looking just like an ordinary lush banyan tree.

"Symbiosis? Hundred-meter range?" Ji Chaoyang turned to look at him, associating these words with a plant heart, "How does it coexist, what new function does it bring to the treehouse, can you find out?"

"I don’t know." Xu Xin shook his head, "It only mentions symbiosis with the treehouse. But perhaps we can speculate."

In Xu Xin’s mind, scenes emerged where this banyan tree was planted beside a treehouse.

If the canopies of two dense banyan trees joined together...

Ji Chaoyang remained silent for several seconds before saying, "Expand the interior space of the treehouse?"

Xu Xin slowly nodded: "...It seems very possible."

Both of them strongly sensed the possibility.

Their banyan trees’ canopies had never grown horizontally, not once.

Under normal circumstances, banyan trees can grow to cover a large area.

But after they planted the treehouse, the treehouse’s canopy’s projected area has never changed, except for increasing once in layer count.

The green-grade small treehouse has always been around twenty-five square meters, blue-grade fifty square meters, while his and Ji Chaoyang’s purple-grade treehouse is a hundred square meters. Even when the treehouse upgraded, it only strengthened the protected area, meaning the base, but the canopy size and the interior space of the treehouse never changed.

For most people, the interior space of the treehouse is utterly insufficient, especially for planting. If you want to plant inside the treehouse, the area is way too small, plus the single layer of the treehouse is too low, making it impossible to fully utilize the space for planting. Some things have to be planted outside the treehouse.

Now that the weather is growing colder, only a small range outside the treehouse can still be used for planting. Furthermore, winter is coming soon, and under the threat of ice and snow, planting outside the treehouse might also become impossible, making indoor planting particularly important.

If this banyan tree could really expand the indoor space of the treehouse, it would be perfect.

"How about one each?" Xu Xin pointed at the two banyan trees.

Such large, mature banyan trees cannot be transplanted. Even if they could fit into a backpack at only a tenth of their weight, they couldn’t be carried by them.

They would have to cut them down and extract the seeds; two banyan trees mean two seeds, just right for each person to have one.

"No objections here." Ji Chaoyang nodded, "Let’s first check out other resources; we’ll do that last. This place is very peculiar; creating too much commotion might cause some unusual situations."

Ji Chaoyang was right, Xu Xin thought the same.

He glanced at the Treasure Pearl fragment placed in the stone crevice. Everything here might be thanks to that thing.

That item seems movable, but considering it last is wise; meddling with it is most likely to cause changes.

Xu Xin looked down at the ground’s colorful flowers, squatting down to gently pick one.

[Colorful Flower (Green): A beautiful flower that, when planted in a treehouse, can increase the treehouse’s decoration value. Blossoms last seven days before wilting. If picked during the blooming phase, the decoration boost is halved but can permanently maintain its bloomed appearance.]

"Wow, this is a good thing!" Xu Xin’s eyes lit up.

For him, who has a great demand for decoration, anything that can increase the decoration value is a good thing. His art and alchemy rooms are still eagerly awaiting more decorations.

He glanced at the entire patch of colorful flowers by the lake.

"Hmm, I’ll pluck them all and take them away." Xu Xin muttered to himself, stroking his chin.

Although this type of flower might also have a limited effect on each treehouse’s decoration limit, and he could create decorations himself, having more is always better.

The more, the merrier!

Moreover, these flowers gave them the potential to provide decoration value to other survivors.

Their art room requires their own carving creations, which can significantly increase the decoration limit, but at the moment, they couldn’t mass-produce it quickly enough, not even for other explorers, let alone other survivors.

But flowers that rely on planting don’t have that problem at all. After all, they don’t require their energy; they just grow them in the planting house.

"I got a notification that these flowers can also be used to make pigments, which increases the decoration value of each painted oil painting." Ji Chaoyang also squatted down to pick a flower and said in surprise.

One of Ji Chaoyang’s abilities as an [Artist], oil painting, requires pigments, which he had already told Xu Xin before.

"Then this is also a good thing. Let’s take them all when we leave."

Xu Xin had already decided to dig up everything. The flowers, trees, everything that could be taken would be taken!

These really are good things.

He even reached out to pull out some grass, although these grasses were not any valuable resources.

However, the best thing is still that piece of Treasure Pearl fragment!

Xu Xin looked at the piece of Treasure Pearl fragment emitting a soft white light and squinted his eyes.

"Ying." Keke stood by Xu Xin’s leg, pawing at his leg with her two little paws, then pointed towards the waterfall.

"What’s up, Keke?" Xu Xin snapped out of it, looked in the direction Keke was pointing, and asked in some confusion, "Is there a problem with that little waterfall?"

The water gushed from a near-horizontal crack in the wall, forming a small white curtain of water.

Accompanied by the sound of water splashing, the harmonious movement of fish swimming in the lake, and the gentle shimmering white light reflecting on the slightly rippling water surface, the entire lake was like an Immortal Lake in a paradise, making people feel incredibly comfortable.

Xu Xin even thought, "How great it would be to live here!"

"Ying!" Keke waved her little paw and gestured to Xu Xin.

Xu Xin understood Keke’s meaning, his expression tensed, and he turned to closely examine the small waterfall.

"...Are you saying there’s a hidden space behind the waterfall?"

"Ying!" Keke nodded her little head.

Due to the irregular flow of water, the waterfall appeared white overall, completely blocking the view, so the scene behind the water curtain couldn’t be seen. Also, this small waterfall wasn’t very big, so Xu Xin hadn’t thought in that direction.

Could it be, this is a Water Curtain Cave?

Inside the cave, is there hidden treasure?

However, the entire area ahead was occupied completely by the lake, and to get there, they had to swim across.

"A space behind the waterfall? Water Curtain Cave?" Ji Chaoyang also looked at the waterfall, his eyes widened with some surprise, "Isn’t this the back of that giant’s head?"

"That’s right." Xu Xin nodded.

The space behind that waterfall might very well hold the secret of this giant’s head.

The two exchanged a look and nodded.

Let’s go take a look. That was the intent of both.

They both jumped into the lake and swam towards that direction.

"Ying!" Keke jumped directly onto the Silver King’s head.

"Howl?"

"Ying ying ying!"

"Howl!"

The two beasts communicated a bit, and the Silver King also jumped into the lake, swimming towards the small waterfall.

Since Silver King’s head stayed above the water when swimming, Keke laying on its head didn’t get wet.

Meanwhile, Xu Xin had already dived to the bottom of the lake.

The bottom of this lake was nearly ten meters deep, which was already very deep for ordinary people, but Xu Xin, wearing Scale Armor and having multiple diving experiences, could easily dive to the bottom.

He dived down because he found that, besides many fish swimming around, there were also many crystals at the bottom of the lake!

There were red crystals, purple crystals, and crystals of various colors. As soon as he entered the lake, he was amazed by the array of colorful stones at the bottom.

Most importantly, a small portion of these stones emitted a blue-grade glow, and there was even one that emitted a purple glow!

Purple-grade crystal!

Purple-grade item, better stash it away first!

He immediately dived to the lake’s bottom, directly picked up the purple-grade crystal, and grabbed some blue-grade crystals to put in his backpack before surfacing back up above water.

Ji Chaoyang was nowhere to be seen; he must have already entered the inside of the waterfall.

Xu Xin also reached out his hand towards the waterfall.