After stabilizing her energy, Shen Mu Ning discovered that her physical condition had improved significantly. Previously, her strength was on par with a well-trained adult man, but her physical attributes, honed through training, were only comparable to an average woman. However, now that her wood-type ability had reached level one, the physical tempering during the upgrade was the most intense. She now possessed strength exceeding 300 jin (approximately 150 kg), and her physical attributes had caught up with those of a well-trained adult man. She was confident she could defeat even a large animal, or at the very least, escape.

After that, Shen Mu Ning stopped cutting down trees, because the level one wood-type ability could only make vines grow longer and stronger, but it could not connect with the surrounding plants to understand the surrounding situation, so she used her mental power to sweep around her.

In less than an hour, she had harvested several wild grapevines, peach trees, pear trees, and a few clumps of blueberry bushes. Although the fruits on these trees were few and small, Shen Mu Ning believed that planting them in the black soil of her space, with ample nutrients, would definitely transform these trees, and the fruits they bore in the future would surely be delicious.

During this time, she didn't see any large animals, but she did encounter a few pheasants and rabbits. Shen Mu Ning encouraged the surrounding vines to grow and entangle the prey to catch them. She originally wanted to just bleed them out, but then she remembered that she wanted to raise chickens in her space, so she decided to use the rabbits to test whether living creatures could enter the space first.

Shen Mu Ning put a wild rabbit into her spatial storage. She observed it from outside using her spiritual power and found it was thriving without any adverse reactions, so she released them all inside. She also cut down many branches from the mountain and cultivated thorny vines in her space to fence off an acre of land where she planted fruit trees. One side of the fruit grove was bordered by a stream, and the other by scattered wheat, perfect for grazing animals under the fruit trees; she could also raise ducks there later.

On her way back, Shen Mu Ning encountered a beehive, and without hesitation, she destroyed the entire hive. She wasn't particularly fond of honey, but in case the crops in her space needed honey for pollination to reproduce, she decided to collect a hive just in case. The harvested honey could be used to make a drink, and it was also suitable as a gift. In this era, there weren't many beverages available, and honey water was quite a unique drink.

Shen Mu Ning managed to get some wild rabbit and pheasant, which meant she could finally eat more meat. Since arriving here, she hadn't had enough meat to eat; she always wanted to take the food she got from state-run restaurants back to the countryside to satisfy her cravings. So she only ate meat once a day, and the rest of the time she just ate rice and steamed buns to stave off hunger.

She managed to get her hands on some meat today, and she's planning to cook herself a nice meal. She's collected a lot of seasonings in the apocalypse, even those lazy-person's stew packets—just put the meat and the packet in a pot and it's done. The only inconvenience is that you have to keep an eye on the fire while stewing, and she doesn't want to be glued to the stove all the time. She also needs to buy some coal; it would be much more convenient to stew meat on a coal stove without having to watch the fire.

Thinking of this, Shen Muling immediately went to He Lao Er at the black market. The black market had channels for obtaining coal, and Shen Muling bought a ton of coal in one go. This seemed like a lot, but considering Shen Muling's appetite, her meal was equivalent to that of two adult men. Her physical abilities wouldn't increase much further after reaching level three of her wood-type superpower, and her strength would be relatively stable, at which point her appetite would return to normal. If she used a coal stove to cook every day, it would run out in less than a year, which was why she had stockpiled so much. With the coal, Shen Muling happily ate a meal of meat.