Survival at Sea: I Became Number One by Growing Mushrooms

Xu Jiawei was extremely careful on the rest of the journey. At her current speed, it would probably take her more than two hours to leave this ring-shaped desert.

This desert is much smaller than the previous island, so even if there are traps, they shouldn't be as strong as those on the previous island...

Probably, but let's not set any goals yet.

Xu Jiawei cleared her mind and continued forward. When she reached the center of the desert, the ground began to shake. It seemed that the Dark God was quite cunning and treacherous, waiting for her to enter the center of the desert before taking action.

Xu Jiawei was extremely disgusted. Being targeted by the shady side was a really bad feeling. Were they afraid she would run away?

She immediately assumed a defensive stance, activating the Light Purification to its maximum to purify all the polluted aura around her.

Then, it floated into the sky, taking the initiative to strike first!

Xu Jiawei's eyes sharpened, and she immediately released a photon meteor towards the ground. The vines that had just broken through the sand were hit by the photon meteor and burst into flames.

The vines wriggled and twisted, trying to retreat back to the ground, but Xu Jiawei, having learned from experience, was absolutely certain that she wouldn't let them retreat to put out the fire.

So she targeted one vine completely, burning it to ashes before moving on to another. Fortunately, this tree was much smaller than the previous one, and there weren't many vines, so Xu Jiawei could manage.

However, there are over a thousand items in total. Xu Jiawei is very focused, and if she gets distracted, she will be put on the defensive.

She needed to find a way to move deeper into the desert; she didn't want to be pulled back to the surface. She'd better just leave obediently.

The vines had no way to stop her for the time being. She moved while releasing her skills, slowly approaching the center of the desert.

Seeing how difficult Xu Jiawei was, the vines became anxious. In an instant, the desert trembled violently, and the sand slowly sank into the ground, like quicksand, only the sinking was a bit too large.

The entire desert seemed to have sunk more than ten meters into the ground, and the intricate vines were now exposed to Xu Jiawei's view.

I never expected that the giant dead tree would actually come out on its own. It can do this? When you push a tree too far, it can even burrow through holes.

Are there any underground rivers below?

However, Xu Jiawei can no longer see the underground river because it has been buried under the sand.

As the desert collapsed, the long, circular river flowed into it, turning it into a shallow lake. The underground river, buried by the sand, merged with the flowing river, turning the entire lake black.

Xu Jiawei thought untimely that the river she had just seen actually looked quite like a school playground, except that it was gone now and had become a circular lake.

The water level only reached Xu Jiawei's calves.

This is also beneficial to the Death Tree, because it no longer needs to worry about Xu Jiawei's radiant flames and can insert its burning vines into the lake at any time.

However, due to the dilution by the river water, its ability to extinguish the flames was also weakened.

For a moment, Xu Jiawei was actually at a stalemate with the Death Tree. Xu Jiawei was already very proud of herself, because last time she had no chance to fight back at all, but now she was actually fighting the Death Tree to a standstill.

Of course, this could be due to the fact that the dead giant tree was small.

Now, neither side wants to fight to the death; they're simply wasting each other's lives.

It seems that the Death Tree harbors ill intentions towards the Dark God and has no intention of sacrificing its life, displaying a very risk-averse fighting style.

Although Xu Jiawei's strength is not that great, her recovery ability is extremely strong. Relying on her mana regeneration skill, she actually managed to balance her mana intake and expenditure.

However, the Dark God's Spring of Death could not withstand such depletion; the lake water faded in color and would soon become completely clear. That would be the time for Xu Jiawei to launch a counterattack.

The God of Darkness knew that if he continued to exhaust himself like this, his plan would fail again. So he released pressure on the Death Tree. The Death Tree trembled, and then the dark energy of the entire tree surged.

Xu Jiawei frowned. This seemed similar to the skills that allowed priests to suddenly increase their strength, but the side effects were significant.

Forcing a tree that doesn't want to die to burn its life force—no wonder it's the God of Darkness; he doesn't even spare his own underlings. Is this guy going mad to level up to 100?

Since the Death Tree is going all out, it seems she'll have to unleash her life-threatening skills as well.

Xu Jiawei immediately released a light sacrifice, her whole body bursting into golden flames that collided with the vines radiating dark light. Soon, the golden flames were at a disadvantage.

However, Xu Jiawei's Light Sacrifice could not be used only once. Just as the golden flames were about to go out, she used Light Sacrifice again, and the flames, which were originally declining, seemed to have been fueled and surged again.

The flames and the dark vines were locked in a fierce struggle, but the Death Tree was extremely anxious because its life was burning away second by second. Many of its vines were gradually withering, and its once bright leaves had turned dull.

Xu Jiawei, however, did not have this problem. She also did not know what kind of bug the Golden Body was. She was clearly unharmed, but she did not know where the burning energy was extracted from.

She quickly gained the upper hand; the flames ignited the vines, and the Death Tree anxiously plunged its vines into the lake, causing the lake's color to fade rapidly.

The time it used to be turned off in one second has now been extended to three seconds, and it's still going on.

When the time came, Xu Jiawei drank several bottles of potion, filled her body with energy, and released the Light Sacrifice once again. The color of the Light Sacrifice flames grew darker and darker.

The giant tree of death seemed to sense the danger. Its vines lashed out, emitting a piercing scream that made Xu Jiawei dizzy and her eyes glazed over. She didn't even have time to react when the vines lashed out at her. Fortunately, the rainbow blocked the attack.

Xu Jiawei then came to her senses, realizing that she had just lost consciousness. She immediately used Light Sacrifice to crash into the trunk of the Death Tree.

As for how she found the main trunk, it was thanks to the Dark God's threats that severely depleted the Death Tree's vitality, causing most of its vines to die.

Just like hair, the more you lose, the thinner it becomes, and you might even end up with a receding hairline.

As more and more vines died, the main trunk was naturally exposed. The giant dead tree screamed even more shrilly, and even the ground shook. Unexpectedly, it was the roots that were rooted in the ground that were wriggling, as if trying to pull it out.

Xu Jiawei was amazed. It was the first time she had ever seen a plant grow legs to escape. Look how strong this giant dead tree's will to survive was; it even grew legs to move its body.

If it's so afraid of death, why call it the Death Tree? But even if it grows legs, it won't have a chance to run away. Xu Jiawei won't give it that chance.

The golden flames crashed into the branches, causing the giant tree of death to convulse even more violently, twisting wildly and lashing its branches hard at Xu Jiawei.

However, no matter how much it struggled, it could not escape the burning flames.

Gradually, the speed at which its branches twisted decreased until it gradually stopped moving altogether.

Xu Jiawei suspected that the tree was playing dead, so she released a photon meteor again. Sure enough, the branches twitched and attacked Xu Jiawei again.