Chapter 326 - 316: Elf Tree House

Previously, the base announced that children would be gathered and raised by the state. Many people answered the call, but quite a few others felt they were strong enough to raise their children themselves and chose to keep them.

From the argument between the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, Moira Lynch learned what had happened.

To save fuel, the elderly woman of the house strictly controlled the amount of firewood used each day.

The food she gave the family each day was also cold, and when they were thirsty, they had to eat snow from outside.

This situation didn’t improve in the slightest even after the base issued a warning; the old woman stuck to her ways.

The child had only been in the middle stages of infection. A hot bath and a warm meal would have been enough to make him better, but the old woman wouldn’t listen. She thought it was a waste, convinced her big, strong grandson couldn’t possibly be infected.

The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, who had been scuffling, were forcibly pulled apart. The younger woman, for reasons unknown, suddenly bolted into the house as if she’d gone mad.

Just as everyone was wondering what was happening...

A moment later, the woman emerged from the house again, holding a pressure cooker.

The old woman’s son was still confused. "Honey, what are you doing with a pot?"

His mother, however, reacted differently. A flicker of guilt crossed her eyes when she saw the pressure cooker in the woman’s hands.

Seeing the mother and son’s reactions, a flash of hatred appeared in the wife’s eyes. "Take a good look at what your precious mother has done."

With that, the woman slammed the pressure cooker onto the ground.

With a loud crash, a rich, fragrant aroma exploded into the air.

The woman stared at the thick rice porridge and chicken spilling from the pot, its meaty aroma filling the air. She suddenly burst into laughter, tears streaming down her face.

"Dylan Grant, take a good look at this! Then look at what your mother feeds us every day! She’s the one who killed Shannon!"

"If she was really doing it for the good of the family like she always claims, I wouldn’t say a word! But her? She wouldn’t even spare a mouthful of hot water for us, for Shannon, while she was in her room eating this!"

"And I actually thought the old hag was saving things because she truly loved Shannon. Turns out, she just looked down on the scraps she gave us."

Faced with her daughter-in-law’s accusation, the old woman’s guilt lasted only a moment before she retorted with self-righteous indignation, "I was eating my own food. What does that have to do with you, an outsider? Besides, I’m old. What’s wrong with eating something nice?"

"When you get down to it, Shannon ended up this way because of you! If you had just given birth to a healthier child in the first place, how could he not even be able to withstand a little cold!"

The old woman’s words not only stunned her son but also shattered the worldview of the neighbors who had gathered to see what the commotion was about.

For Moira Lynch, the experience was even more direct.

She could feel the fluctuations of a person’s emotions.

She realized that when the old woman had spoken those words, her emotions had been running high. She genuinely believed what she was saying; it wasn’t just an attempt to shift the blame.

Moira Lynch couldn’t help but gasp. ’What a terrifying old woman.’

After watching for a while longer, she returned to her house.

Scenes like this farce were playing out all over the base.

Moira no longer paid any attention to the outside world, instead immersing her consciousness in her dimensional space.

On a flat expanse of land, a large number of Elf Tree Houses were growing vigorously.

All these Elf Tree Houses had grown from the seeds Moira Lynch had brought back from The Elven Race.

Initially, Moira Lynch had planned to sell the seeds directly, despite their great uncertainty—some might not even grow into treehouses, becoming regular Elf Trees instead.

’It would be like opening a blind box.’

However, Moira soon discovered that the soil on Caelus was not suitable for the growth of Elf Tree Houses.

Left with no choice, she had to plant the seeds in her dimensional space first, wait for them to mature, and then sell them. This was the first batch.

Aside from the ones that became ordinary Elf Trees, the resulting Elf Tree Houses were bizarre and varied, a far cry from the ones she had seen among The Elven Race.

They say no two snowflakes are alike. Now, Moira felt that there were probably no two identical Elf Tree House seeds, either (the rejected ones, at least).

The Elf Tree Houses grown from the non-rejected seeds were all identical, as if they’d been copy-pasted.

Moira had planted a thousand seeds in this first batch. She counted them now. Out of the thousand, just over a hundred had failed to grow into treehouses and had become Elf Trees instead. The remaining eight hundred-plus had all successfully become Elf Tree Houses.

However, their interior spaces varied in size, and the layouts were all different.

Moira sorted the Elf Tree Houses into three different grades based on their size—large, medium, and small—and then, it was time to list them for sale.

In these days when everyone lived under the shadow of the Iceborne, people suddenly discovered that SoySauceDrunkard’s "Don’t Miss It" shop had, against all odds, added a new item.

[Elf Tree House: Resists severe cold. Warm in winter, cool in summer. Comes with a complete set of internal facilities and a built-in defense system. Mom will never have to worry about strangers knocking at the door again!]

"An Elf Tree House? Is that the same kind of treehouse we saw among The Elven Race?"

"My God, how on earth does SoySauceDrunkard do it? She even managed to get her hands on Elf Tree Houses. She’s not actually an alien, is she?"

"Have you guys noticed? These Elf Tree Houses look different from the ones we saw with The Elven Race."

"They are a little different, but I prefer these ones. Looking at identical things all the time gets boring."

"I’m the opposite. I wouldn’t get bored, but I would never be able to find my way home."

To help people pick one they liked, Moira even thoughtfully provided a house-viewing service.

After all, a place you’re going to live in should be a place you love.

Moira picked one for herself as well—one with a thick, sturdy trunk that looked like an ancient, thousand-year-old tree.

A green orb of light appeared in Moira’s hand.

She took the orb and fused it with the house.

Soon, the house began to change.

The surroundings started to tremble slightly.

Sensing something was wrong, Shane Rhodes and the other two rushed over to see what was happening.

Then, before their astonished eyes, their line of sight began to rise, and the surrounding walls started to change, taking on the texture of wood.

Besides the visible changes, there was another: the ambient temperature had clearly begun to rise.