Bearing the blue sky

Chapter 330 Taking Root

Zhu Ge sensed the information emanating from the roots; the underground water veins had moderate humidity and a cool temperature, carrying a sense of stability formed by years of flow.

Growing upwards allows leaves to expand their photosynthetic area more quickly, but if the root system is not deep enough, there may be a risk of insufficient water during the dry season.

He chose to stay put.

You should prioritize establishing roots downwards.

Your taproot has penetrated the aquifer and touched a denser layer of rock.

[There was a tiny crack on the surface of the rock. Your roots followed that crack downwards for a while, then encountered a harder rock surface and could not go any further.]

You begin to extend your root system laterally, searching for deeper passages along the cracks in the rock surface.

On the twenty-seventh day after you took root, a rain fell on your area. The rainwater seeped through the topsoil, flowing downwards along your roots, bringing more minerals and dissolved nutrients to your roots.

You have absorbed a large amount of water and nutrients, and are beginning to grow rapidly.

Your main stem has grown from half an inch to two inches, and the number of leaves has increased from two to six. You are still quite short, but your root system has already covered an area of ​​about three feet square.

[Gained Trait: Deep Cultivation.]

When the first real leaf unfolded, Zhu Ge felt a completely new dimension of perception.

It was a perception richer than the signals transmitted from the roots, like expanding from a single sound into a set of notes playing simultaneously.

The slight vibrations caused by the wind passing over the edges of the leaves, the temperature changes left by the sunlight shining on the leaf surface, and the subtle coolness when water vapor condenses on the leaf surface—all these information were simultaneously flooding into his senses, forming a complex yet orderly picture.

He began to be able to perceive his surroundings. There was a sparse canopy of trees overhead, filtering out some of the sunlight and casting dappled shadows on the ground.

Amazing!

There were several stones half-buried in the soil under the tree, covered with moss, and glistening with moisture after the rain.

Occasionally, small animals would pass by in the bushes not far away, creating a soft rustling sound as they walked through the foliage.

However—this growing environment is not ideal?

He could sense that the tree canopy above blocked some of the sunlight, and he could also sense that the surrounding soil was not particularly fertile.

However, the existence of underground water veins compensates for the lack of soil, allowing it to continuously obtain water and nutrients dissolved in the water without relying on surface rainwater.

On the thirty-sixth day, as your roots extended along the cracks in the rock, they touched a small area of ​​soil with a significantly higher concentration of nutrients.

The soil was dark brown, loose in texture, and had an odor distinctly different from the surrounding soil.

Your roots are rapidly expanding in that small patch of soil, absorbing a large amount of nutrients. Your growth rate has noticeably accelerated; the main stem has grown from two inches to five inches, and the number of leaves has increased from six to twelve.

[Gained Trait: Absorb.]

The days moved forward at a very slow pace.

There is no clear perception of a day-night cycle because the shading of leaves makes the changes in light more gradual, but the direction of the wind and humidity form a certain pattern over a long period of time.

In the early morning, the wind blows from the east, carrying the moist scent of grass and trees.

The wind weakened in the afternoon, occasionally bringing some dry, hot air from the north.

As evening approached, the wind picked up again, shifting its direction to the west, carrying the scent of grass and trees from the distant fields.

Zhu Ge's roots continued to extend downwards. After passing through the soil layer with a high concentration of nutrients, he encountered several similar areas.

The soil layer is dark brown, loose in texture, and has a higher nutrient concentration than the surrounding soil.

They are distributed at different depths and in different directions, like tiny enrichment layers formed by organic matter deposited at different times.

He didn’t deliberately seek them out, but his roots naturally veered toward those areas as they penetrated the soil.

By the sixtieth day, its main stem had grown to nearly a foot in height, and the number of leaves had increased to about the size of a palm.

His perception range is gradually expanding, and he is able to vaguely sense the direction of the roots of the nearest tree.

[Day 73, the dry season begins. After several days without rain, the moisture content of the topsoil begins to decrease.]

Your root system has penetrated deep into the underground water veins, so the surface drought has a limited impact on you.

However, your leaf area has already reached a certain size, and water loss due to transpiration is increasing.

Your choice is—

First, reduce leaf area to decrease transpiration.

Second, it will further extend its roots deeper to increase its ability to obtain water.

Third, maintain the current status quo and wait for the rainy season to return.

This choice is more complicated than the first one.

Reducing leaf area means slowing down growth, but it allows the plant to survive the dry season better.

Rooting deep into the soil requires energy, but it can fundamentally solve the problem of water supply.

Waiting is a moderate choice, as it neither hinders growth nor increases risk due to overexpansion.

Zhu Ge sensed the signal coming from the root system.

The flow of underground water veins has not decreased significantly, and the additional water acquisition capacity obtained by its downward roots is indeed sufficient to meet the needs of the existing leaves.

However, if he continues to expand the leaf area, the water supply may become strained in the middle and later stages of the dry season.

"Give roots deep!"

He made his choice.

You continue to root yourself downwards.

Your main root penetrated a crack in the third layer of rock and touched an aquifer with a lower water level but a slower flow.

The water in that layer was clearer and more mineral-rich than the upper layer, and its flow was almost stagnant, like a pool of groundwater buried for many years.

Your roots slowly unfurled within those water veins, drawing upon a stable source of water.

In the forty-seven days since the dry season began, your leaves haven't increased, but your root system has almost doubled in depth. Other plants with shallower root systems are beginning to wither or stagnate, while you continue to grow slowly.

[Gained Trait: Deep Dive.]

As the dry season ended, a rain fell overnight.

Rainwater seeps through the cracked topsoil and slowly merges with the underground water veins.

The roots of the basil plant sensed the rise in water level and began to unfurl again, having remained contracted during the dry season, to absorb a new round of nutrients.

Its main stem enters a period of accelerated growth after the rainy season begins.

New leaves unfold on the branches one after another, each one larger than the previous leaves, with a denser distribution of veins.

Its height increased from about one foot to nearly two feet, transitioning from a low shrub to a small tree.

There were changes in the other plants around him.

Not far away, a banyan tree that has been growing for many years is slowly expanding its canopy, with slender aerial roots growing from the edges of its branches and drooping towards the ground.

Once the aerial roots touched the soil, they began to penetrate it, as if they were building new support points for the banyan tree.

The banyan tree is expanding its range through aerial roots, gradually incorporating distant underground water veins into its root network.

Zhu Ge's roots touched a slowly extending aerial root near that area. After hesitating for a moment, it did not choose to go around it, but instead extended along the direction of the aerial root for a distance, and took root next to the end of the aerial root.

The two root systems were not in contact, but their sensory areas began to overlap.

On the 120th day, you have reached a height of three feet, and new branches have begun to sprout from your main trunk. Your leaves now number more than a hand's width, covering a large area of ​​the lower and middle canopy.

[Gained Trait: Spread Branches.]

After the rainy season ended, his growth rate slowed down again.

The end of the rainy season is accompanied by a period of stability, with rainfall becoming sparse, but his root system is deep enough to support his stable growth during the longer dry season.

His perception range extended to an area of ​​several feet around him, allowing him to sense the direction and density of the aerial roots of the old banyan tree.

His root system never actually came into contact with the aerial root system of the old banyan tree.

However, their sensory areas partially overlap, and this overlap leads to a subtle exchange of information, like two trees with adjacent root systems silently confirming each other's position and status.

Zhu Ge could sense that the banyan tree was growing in a slightly different direction from where he was.

It wasn't intentional, but it seemed like it was slowly adjusting its expansion direction, as if it were searching for a path that suited it better.

A few days later, the rainy season arrived again, and his canopy had expanded enough to shade part of the ground beneath the tree, providing some shelter for the shady ferns.

Its trunk has grown from a thin branch to a tree as thick as an adult's arm. It is still slender in the face of a decades-old tree, but its roots have penetrated deep into the ground.

Then he heard the first sound that couldn't be categorized into the environment.

The sound was indistinct, like the faint sound of a repeatedly folded cloth being unfolded, or the lingering echo of a sentence that had been repeated many times and lost its specific meaning.

Something he had never sensed before appeared within his field of vision.

That thing had no temperature, no smell, and could not be described using any dimension of his existing sensory system.

But its presence is extremely strong, as if the end of its root system is touching a place it cannot reach.

Your perception has crossed a line.

That boundary is not rigid, nor can it be crossed in any physical way. It's like a thin film that always remains at the edge of your perception, invisible and intangible, yet always present.

The thin film is slowly becoming clearer.

Your choice is—

[First, continue growing downwards, attempting to penetrate that boundary.]

Second, focus your perception on the area above the boundary and wait for it to change.

Third, extend the root system laterally, bypassing the area where that boundary is located.

Three choices, three completely different directions, represent the possibilities for the banyan tree's next stage of growth.

Zhu Ge did not rush to make a choice.

He first let the roots linger near that boundary for a while to confirm their texture.

That boundary felt unlike anything he had ever encountered before.

It wasn't the hardness of rocks, the moisture of flowing water, or the looseness of soil; it was more like a thin layer, indescribable by touch, existing on the edge of his perception, yet he could never penetrate it.

"Could it be the World Membrane?"

Zhu Ge inwardly grumbled.

He could feel that boundary slowly changing, like a thin film being blown by the wind, changing its shape and tension at an extremely slow speed.

The change didn't seem to be driven by something external; rather, it was as if the change itself was adjusting its position at an inherent rhythm.

He recalled the theme of the simulation.

Tribulation.

When the word appeared in his mind, it was like a drop of water falling into the water, leaving a ripple that was slowly spreading.

Tribulation.

Is the banyan tree undergoing tribulation?

No, it can't be that simple.

"Continue to grow downwards, try to break through that boundary." Zhu Ge finally made her choice.

Your primary root begins to extend downwards, advancing towards that boundary.

Initially, the process went smoothly, with no significant resistance encountered as the root tips penetrated the soil. However, as you approached the boundary, the soil texture began to change.

The soil became increasingly fine and dense, like compacted clay, significantly increasing the resistance for roots to penetrate it.

At that boundary, your root tip touched a hard surface, neither as rough as rock nor as cold as metal, but more like a tightly compressed, elastic membrane.

Your roots try to penetrate it, but it won't budge. The longer you push, the more stable that membrane remains; your roots can only stay on its surface.

Zhu Ge felt his roots coiling around the thin membrane, as if searching for a gap to cut into.

However, the surface of the film has no cracks or gaps, and its presence remains constant.

He did not give up and continued to let the roots extend along the surface of the film, looking for possible changes.

The soil moisture in that area gradually increased, and his roots circled most of the surface of the film. Near the edge of the film, he suddenly felt a different sensation.

The surface of that membrane was slightly concave, like a membrane that had been pressed down by a heavy object but had not yet fully recovered.

His roots converged on the concave area, trying to apply pressure to that depression.

At first, it had no effect, but as the pressure continued to be applied, the indentation did slowly become deeper.

You found a faint indentation on the surface of that thin film. Continued root pressure caused that indentation to slowly deepen, like a crack being stretched open.

[On the 183rd day, the indentation has reached two-thirds of the current length of your roots, but it still hasn't penetrated the membrane.]

You're starting to feel a constant sense of depletion. The pressure of maintaining that depression is continuously consuming the energy you get from your roots, and your leaf growth has noticeably slowed down.

Your choice is—

First, continue to concentrate your efforts and try to penetrate that depression.

Second, retreat back above the film, resume growth first, and then look for an opportunity.

Third, extend the root system laterally to find other weak points on the film surface.

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