Chapter 13: another piece of fertile soil

"It's fertile soil!" Xu Xin became excited immediately. After such a long time, besides the soil he initially used to plant the treehouse, this was the second time he had seen fertile soil (blue). With this type of soil, he could cultivate blue-quality plants himself!

Picking up the axe, he first chopped down this high-grade poplar tree, obtaining five pieces of wood (blue).

[Wood (blue): When making tools that require wood, using just one piece can greatly increase the tool's durability. When making furniture, using one piece will improve the furniture's quality.]

Blue-grade wood was actually a great material for increasing tool durability and improving furniture quality!

No wonder, no wonder he couldn't find high-grade furniture and only had recipes for white furniture. It turned out that high-grade materials were needed!

Xu Xin looked at the improved stone axe (green) in his hand, which only had half of its durability left, and suddenly felt a bit regretful about the stone blocks (blue) he had used.

Shaking his head to clear these thoughts, he picked up the improved stone hoe and started digging into the ground.

[Obtained fertile soil (blue)*1, wood (blue)*1, poplar seed*1]

The blue wooden stake still dug out ordinary seeds, which further confirmed Xu Xin's previous speculation.

He made several trips to transport all the food ingredients, wood, and soil back. He found a patch of barren soil around the treehouse, dug it out, and filled it with the fertile soil.

Looking at the patch of fertile soil on the ground, Xu Xin nodded with satisfaction. This was today's biggest harvest. With this patch of soil, he could continuously produce blue-quality wood or food ingredients.

"What should I plant first…"

Xu Xin remembered that there was still another high-grade poplar tree earlier. He quickly went to chop it down and dug out the stump, giving him a total of 12 pieces of wood (blue) in his possession.

"If I plant an apple tree, harvest the apples, and then chop down the tree, wouldn't I be able to get both blue food ingredients and blue wood?" Xu Xin calculated. He didn't have apple tree seeds on hand, but there were plenty of apple trees (green) in this resource area, so he could go dig for seeds.

Moreover, he hadn't seen blue-quality apples yet. Those would definitely be a food with new functions.

The more he thought about it, the more reasonable it seemed. So Xu Xin first tried chopping down an apple tree, and sure enough, he obtained wood (green)*5. He dug out the apple tree stump, but this time the goddess of luck didn't favor him, and he didn't get an apple tree seed. With no other choice, he had to go chop down another apple tree.

[Apple tree seed: Can be planted in soil. It only takes five days to grow into an apple tree, and another five days to bear fruit.]

Xu Xin had tried getting seeds from eaten apples before. He got the seeds, but there was no system prompt, which meant that seeds obtained from fruits were just ordinary seeds. Perhaps they could be planted, but how long would it take for an ordinary apple tree to grow and bear fruit? Xu Xin didn't have that much time to leisurely plant ordinary apple trees.

However, these dug-out seeds, with the system's boost, only needed ten days to bear fruit.

Xu Xin planted this apple tree seed in the fertile soil (blue). The seed slowly broke through the soil at a visible speed.

[Apple tree sapling (blue): It will take five more days to grow into an apple tree. It's very fragile before then, so be careful not to trample it!]

Success! Let it grow slowly.

Xu Xin brought the materials back to the treehouse, placing the wood resources on the first floor and the food ingredients on the table on the third floor. He also tried to list the barren soil he had just dug out on the trading platform, but the platform prompted that soil was a privately bound resource and could not be traded.

Feeling a bit disappointed, when he had just dug out the blue soil, Xu Xin had a sudden idea: could he dig out green soil to sell, since it was all over the place around him? But it turned out he couldn't.

Oh well, let's see what blue resources we have now.

[Red Berry · Large (blue)], a food ingredient that can provide 2 hours of night vision ability. Xu Xin had already experienced its effect. Unlike illumination tools, this night vision ability could make his nighttime vision identical to daytime.

[Premium Mushroom (blue)], something that can permanently increase intelligence by a tiny amount when consumed. Fungi can't be eaten raw. Once he got a grill, Xu Xin planned to roast and eat these 20-plus mushrooms first, after all, things that increase permanent attributes are always welcome.

[Orange (blue)], a good thing that can invigorate the spirit without side effects. It can keep the spirit in a very energized state for an hour, and after the effect wears off, the spirit feels as refreshed as if having had a deep one-hour sleep.

[Stone block (blue)], a good thing that can greatly improve tool efficiency.

[Wood (blue)], a good thing that can greatly increase tool durability and improve furniture quality.

[Iron ore (blue)], Xu Xin didn't have any, but he had seen it from Li Wenxi. It's a good thing that can be smelted into iron ingots (blue).

From what he could see so far, food ingredients all had temporary or permanent beneficial effects on oneself, while material types all significantly improved the functions of manufactured tools.

Time was of the essence, so he should first make the things that could be crafted on the crafting table.

Xu Xin opened the screen and initiated a video call with Li Wenxi.

The call connected after just a few seconds. Li Wenxi in the video looked cleaner than before, and Xu Xin even saw a fireplace on the wall behind her.

"Are you done with your tasks?" The pretty girl sat on the bed, looking delighted.

"You've built the fireplace?" Xu Xin was a bit surprised. Shouldn't this item have a low priority?

"Not just the fireplace, I've made the smelter and grill too! There were too many materials, it was uncomfortable just looking at them, so I used some."

"Did you save my share?"

"How could I forget about you? I have tons of stones, okay? I've only used a small part of them. And even if it's not enough, I can always go down and dig more!" The pretty girl seemed a bit upset when Xu Xin doubted her, putting her hands on her hips.

Well, well, she's quite the little rich girl!

"Look at this." Xu Xin held up the wood (blue) in front of him so Li Wenxi could see.

"What's that?" The pretty girl looked puzzled.

This time, Xu Xin remembered that she couldn't see the item's grade without identification, so he sent her the description of the wood (blue).

"This! This is! Blue material for upgrading furniture!" Li Wenxi's eyes widened, her body jerking forward. With her movement, the bed beneath her made a creaking sound.

"That's right. I also have a lot of green wood. You still have plenty of stone, right? Let's trade quickly, I need to make those things as soon as possible."

"Oh, oh, okay!"

Xu Xin exchanged 200 pieces of wood (green) for 200 pieces of stone block (green) from Li Wenxi. He first made a basic smelter and placed it on the second floor of the treehouse.

While crafting, Xu Xin also tried to add a stone block (blue) to see if it could improve the smelter's efficiency or something, but unfortunately, it didn't work. Come to think of it, it was a bit presumptuous to expect that adding one stone block (blue) to a smelter that required a total of 100 stone blocks could improve its efficiency.