Wang Wu had not shown himself for five consecutive days, so he was still alive, and that was good.
After all, he truly didn't shy away from viewing this Cultivation Realm with the greatest malice.
At this moment, it was the deep night of the sixth day, and the Little Demons in the valley were bustling around, making a lot of noise.
Wang Wu also crawled out of the grass, using Level 5 Danger Perception to scout his path, stopping every few steps to assess the surroundings before continuing forward.
With such caution, he arrived at the creek, drank his fill to reach the basic daily satiety of 50 points, then attended to personal hygiene and incidentally offered warmth downstream.
After handling these tasks, he climbed ashore and started foraging for edible wild vegetables in the dark.
Speaking of which, these past few days had been quite tough; the wild vegetables were bitter and hard to eat, sometimes even poisonous, and crucially, they provided too little satiety.
Fortunately, over the days, he had gradually gotten used to this bland lifestyle and had accumulated some experience. For example, he discovered a plant that looked ordinary on the surface but had extensive roots shaped like ginger.
He named this thing Yellow Ginger.
This thing contained a lot of water, and eating one piece could increase his satiety by 15 points. It became his top priority to dig up this conscientious vegetable.
Using his claws to search around, he cautiously excavated one upon finding it, chomping it down despite some bitterness, but it was really not bad.
Unfortunately, Yellow Ginger was not abundant; it could take quite a while to find one, and finding five in one night would be considered a huge harvest.
Occasionally, he would find a mushroom, requiring some luck; sometimes it was fine, but at other times, the amount of warmth he needed to spread downstream would increase severalfold...
Surprisingly, this little life was quite comfortable.
However, Wang Wu wasn't satisfied, knowing he couldn't squat in the grass forever. It might work in summer and autumn, but what about winter?
His Level 5 Concealment wasn't omnipotent; it couldn't work by simply crouching in an exposed area. There had to be an external environment to provide cover for it to work.
So he had been pondering digging out a dwelling.
During the day, he would watch from within the grass; at night, when free, he would conduct some fieldwork.
Considering comprehensively and after some field surveys, he indeed found a suitable area for digging a dwelling.
That was on the east side of the valley.
This valley had mountains on both sides, with most of the western side being sunny slopes.
Sunny slopes were great; as soon as the sun rose, it shone on them first, making them the best choice for absorbing Golden Particles.
Otherwise, when the sun finally hit the shady slope at midday, there wouldn't be anything left, with merely about nine minutes before and after.
Thus, the vegetation on the shady slope was much smaller and sparser than that on the sunny slope, and the number of Little Demons was less, but not nonexistent.
In fact, the top of the shady slope was the top of the sunny slope; it was actually the territory of the big shots.
For instance, the cliff top occupied by the Scorpion King; flipping over was still the shady slope, but who dared to act recklessly near there?
Wang Wu had fully considered this point, which was why he chose to observe for a long time.
He carefully learned about the chief leaders of the Little Demons on each hill of the valley's east side.
The answer was indeed alarming!
Yes, as expected, every hill, even a low mound, had leader-level Little Demons. The strength levels were unknown, but they were certainly not easy to provoke.
This was rather frustrating, much like back on Earth, where every possible money-making business and connection was overcrowded with people and competitors.
It was too competitive.
However, digging and constructing a dwelling was essential.
So after half a month's investigation, consideration, and preparation, Wang Wu finally chose a location for the dwelling and planned the excavation scheme.
The location he selected for the dwelling was on the east side's shady slope of the valley. Its main body was a relatively flat and low hill, significantly lower than other hills, thus avoiding those powerful Little Demon races.
The distance from the creek in the valley's center was about three hundred meters, a bit far, but it didn't matter; a little extra effort was nothing.
The main thing was to prevent summer flash floods from happening, which could flood the valley.
Secondly, the dwelling was about seven hundred meters away from the Flame Scorpion King's cliff territory.
It was about six hundred meters away from the Black Centipede's low hill territory.
It was about four hundred meters away from the Black Spider Race's big tree upstream.
It was as far as nine hundred meters away from that Mountain Lion, which looked terrifying and dangerous from afar.
It wasn't that he was unwilling to part with these familiar Little Demons; it was just that during these two months, he had become most familiar with this area.
He could almost fully know what Little Demons were in each area, their activity patterns, where the most Yellow Ginger was, where the most mushrooms were, and what grasses would cause poisoning.
For one and a half months, on average, every few days there was a heavy rain, and sometimes a mid-rain that lasted several days, but in any case, the rainfall was plentiful, mushrooms were abundant, and with more mushroom-eating, the chances of mushroom poisoning were also higher.
Wang Wu indeed had a hard time, but the gains were not small; now, his Plant Poison Resistance had built up to (3/10), so eating poisonous mushrooms no longer caused vomiting and diarrhea.
Additionally, he discovered some herbs that could cure diarrhea.
These were intangible assets, indeed.
Besides, during this month and a half, he had rarely been full, but he could still gain about 0.1% or 0.2% growth each day.
So cumulatively, it added up to a 4.1% growth, with his total growth reaching 30.4%. Recently, however, the mature berries Wang Wu collected were becoming more abundant.
Every day he could gather enough for 200 points of satiety, sometimes, if lucky, up to 300 points of satiety.
"Could it be autumn is approaching? It's time to act."
Thus, on a clear night, after routinely filling his belly, Wang Wu cautiously reached the predetermined location.
He was becoming more like a native of this valley, seamlessly traversing all Little Demon territories without being discovered.
Here was a dense clump of grass, twenty meters in a straight line from the shady slope dwelling he planned to dig.
He planned to start from here and dig a tunnel over.
Drawing out sharp claws, Wang Wu first uprooted a circle of wild grass, roots and dirt intact, and placed them aside, then started digging below.
The dirt he dug up was placed on a big leaf he had prepared in advance, the kind Gray Mouse Knight used to transport berries. It was indeed a treasure, being useful for carrying supplies and collecting dew.
Wang Wu wasn't pursuing excavation speed; he only cared about being cautious and careful in his work.
For every portion of dirt he dug, he would evenly crush it with his claws, then transport and evenly scatter it about ten meters away into the grass.
Once the pit was large enough for him to fit in, to turn around, he would stop digging and instead head to the bushes to gnaw off some hard branches, place them densely at the pit entrance horizontally, covering them with dirt, and then put the excavated grass sod back on.
Next, he went back and forth a few times, bringing some stream water to pour over, ensuring these wild grasses wouldn't wilt and die, ideally growing together with those branches into a single entity.
This way, he could easily move this makeshift sod door without worrying about the wild grass on top dying from frequent movement.
After completing all this, he patiently waited until daylight, using the pre-sunrise light to erase all remaining traces in the vicinity before slipping into the grass to begin his routine hiding.