Chapter 268 | Chapter 269 | Chapter 270
Chapter 268: The Fibrous Roots of the Tree Cocoon
Huai Yu, however, was absolutely thrilled! At this moment, she handed the canteen directly to Zhou Qian. “Drink it, quick, quick!”
Then she turned back and brought the entire pot over. “Come, come, come, Brother Zhou Qian’s good leg—do you guys want oral administration or topical application? The water is still a bit hot, let it cool for a bit longer!”
Zhou Qian nearly spat out a mouthful of water, coughing so hard that red stains seeped back out of his wounds. Only then did he glare at Huai Yu:
“Don’t you find this incredibly bizarre?”
Huai Yu went silent.
After a moment, she suddenly said, “I’m already raising Da Zai, Er Zai, and Ketaro. Brother Zhou Qian, your leg… doesn’t even rank that high up on the weird scale, okay?”
It was just a few moving little Boston ivy vines that hadn’t even dared to grow leaves, with no thoughts of their own and only the instinct to evolve. They just wanted to drink some ginseng water—what was wrong with that?
Zhou Qian: “…”
“Be that as it may, isn’t there something inherently wrong with you comparing my level of weirdness to Ketaro, Da Zai, and Er Zai?”
“Xiao Yu, your taste is way ahead of its time.”
Huai Yu briefly self-reflected for a split second—Sigh! Having tastes that were ahead of one’s time wasn’t a crime, so why couldn’t she?
Plants, animals, and humans just happened to have their own unique characteristics; what was wrong with grafting them together!
Besides, she used to date someone like Wu Yue; how was that not a unique taste?
Like she said, it was the world that had wronged her. Just when she reached the age for romance, Heaven had pushed a scumbag her way—huff!
She was completely justified.
Lowering her head again, she watched the Boston ivy branches glide around the rim of the pot without acting rushed. She roughly understood that since they were connected to Zhou Qian’s body, after all, he needed to consume it orally for it to take effect.
“Brother Zhou Qian, stop dawdling. There’s a whole pot here, drink it all!”
“This leg is our life-saving leg, it put in the work! Give it a good, proper supplement!”
“And these spores…”
The spore powder was scattered all over the ground between the vines, and the amount wasn’t small. It had clearly packed the crevices of the entire leg to the brim. It was also a stroke of luck that the golden oyster mushroom knew they were its dispersal ambassadors, so it hadn’t directly contacted Zhou Qian’s flesh.
Now that it had genuinely saved a life, Huai Yu took a glance at the head full of mushrooms on the mutated macaque, and reverently stuffed the handful of spore powder back into the crevices of his leg—
Zhou Qian: ??? He shifted slightly.
“Don’t move!” Huai Yu stopped him. “Brother Zhou Qian, you really lack combat awareness—look, you don’t have an ability, so you’ll always be at a slight disadvantage when you run into fierce things during a fight.”
“Now that the golden oyster mushroom is willing to cooperate with you, you should use your leg more in the future. Use this spore powder to catch people completely off guard!”
“How wonderful is that! If we could have used this trick the last time we went to the wilderness, that whatever-it-was widow spider would have been sucked dry long ago.”
Zhou Qian followed her words and visualized that highly venomous black widow covered in mushrooms… For some reason, despite it being such a brutal and perilous memory, inserting this scenario actually made it a bit comical.
Although Huai Yu’s suggestion sounded unreliable, with the experiment on this mutated macaque’s body right before them, it was clearly the most reliable approach possible.
Since that was the case…
Just as he was about to say something, Huai Yu already looked up. “Brother Zhou Qian, you have to treat the golden oyster mushrooms growing in front of our house better in the future. Otherwise, if they get unhappy, they won’t give you any spore powder.”
Zhou Qian: “…”
The thousand words he had ready were choked in his throat, and he could only listen in silence at this moment.
……
That cup of ginseng tea was quickly finished.
Regrettably, it had no effect on his bodily wounds. On the contrary, a sudden wave of pain hit his leg once more.
The Boston ivy branches were connected to his nerves and were currently growing at a rapid pace.
During his injury, his endurance was much lower than before. His face suddenly turning pale and the heavy sweat pouring down instantly made Huai Yu realize something was wrong—
Da Pang’s root hairs only worked on mutated biology!
So now, the most severe problem had arrived—how was she going to get Zhou Qian down the mountain?
She looked at her own slender arms, regretting for the first time that she hadn’t built a body of solid muscle. Right now, there was no way she could carry him on her back!
Huai Yu looked outside the Daoist temple, finally making up her mind. “Brother Zhou Qian, hang in there a bit longer. I’m going to make a stretcher for you!”
She looked at the dust-laden main hall again, and then at the painful endurance written all over Zhou Qian’s face. She hurriedly propped the boat-shaped tree cocoon slightly upright:
“Brother Zhou Qian, get inside this and lie down first, so your wounds don’t get contaminated any further.”
Zhou Qian no longer had the strength to speak. At this moment, even his lips had turned stark white as sweat kept seeping out from his forehead. Fortunately, since his legs hadn’t sustained any new injuries, he was able to clumsily ease himself down into the tree cocoon.
He knew the predicament they currently faced—they were too deep in the mountains. Even if Huai Yu rushed down the mountain right now to call for help to save him, he wouldn’t necessarily be able to last until then.
But if she expected this little girl to carry him down the mountain on her back…
Zhou Qian found humor in his misery, managing a difficult tug at the corners of his mouth: it would honestly be faster to tie himself up a few times and roll straight down the mountain.
Therefore, all he could do was cooperate as much as possible to make his body hold out a little longer.
Hold out until she gave up on staying by his side and headed down the mountain to find a way…
At the very least, having gone through that, she wouldn’t suffer as much from facing a direct parting and giving up.
The white fibrous roots of the tree cocoon were layered over each other, resembling a massive sponge bowl. Lying inside, it felt thick, substantial, and soft. The boat-like curvature would gently rock with just a slight shift of the body. Although his legs needed to be curled slightly, it was indeed far more comfortable than the hard floor.
He offered a faint tug of his lips to Huai Yu, who was nervously stabilizing the tree cocoon. “Go ahead.”
Huai Yu nodded, stating with utter solemnity, “Brother Zhou Qian, don’t worry. I will absolutely never give up.”
Right now, she had to force-grow as many vines as possible to weave a simple stretcher as quickly as she could.
And then drag it, step by step, down the mountain.
In that brief instant, her expression reverted to a resolute and highly confident look.
Zhou Qian watched her figure as she hurriedly stepped out the door. The main hall fell into dead silence, yet a sudden surge of envy rose within him.
How wonderful it was! To always hold onto hope.
The area tightly bound by the makeshift towel tourniquet throbbed with a numb ache, and intense pain radiated from his leg once more. The prolonged combat and continuous blood loss caused his consciousness to blur.
Unbeknownst to him, countless milky-white, fine fibrous roots suddenly began to sprout from the interior of the tree cocoon, densely wrapping and enveloping him like spider silk.
And then, they completely blocked out the sky.
Zhou Qian’s eyelids twitched slightly, as if trying hard to wake up from this inexplicable state, but ultimately, his world finally plunged into total darkness.
Outside the main hall, the small, solitary wild rose flowers trembled, and very quickly, a full head of petals rapidly withered away. Yet in the next instant, new flower buds, deeper and richer in pink than before, burst forth anew.
Chapter 269: Too Happy!
Huai Yu was entirely oblivious to the changes occurring both inside and outside the main hall.
Had she retraced her steps at this moment, she would have seen that within the boat-shaped tree cocoon, Zhou Qian was wrapped in layer upon layer of fine, dense fibrous roots like a sleeping beauty, clearly deep in unconsciousness.
On the outside of the tree cocoon, the fibrous roots had somehow extended forward once more, like a mass of actively crawling spider silk, bizarre and inexplicable.
Those thousands of fibrous roots groped forward, quickly climbing onto the carcass of the mutated macaque. The golden oyster mushrooms on its head and face trembled slightly before quickly falling still.
The spreading, milky-white fibrous roots then pierced through the mutated macaque’s thick, armor-like fur, plunging fiercely into the gradually cooling flesh.
A moment later, that patch of milky-white roots faintly flushed pink, accompanied by a flowing, shimmering bioluminescence.
Inside the tree cocoon, Zhou Qian’s entire body was also enveloped in this pale pink aura, and the savagely torn wounds on his body began to sprout new granulation tissue at some point…
……
Meanwhile, Huai Yu was standing out in the thick, blocking undergrowth, looking for flexible yet sturdy vines. It would be best if the leaves were thick, which would provide better cushioning and shock absorption.
As she searched, she was also mulling things over—
Although the Daoist temple was deep in the mountains, since it used to be a tourist attraction, its distance from the foot of the mountain shouldn’t be too far.
The reason it had taken them a whole day plus a morning to get here was partly because traveling during the day wasn’t highly efficient (after all, Huai Yu had been dedicated to slacking off), and partly because they had taken many detours. On top of that, many of the old paths were difficult to navigate…
In other words, as long as she found the right direction, there was bound to be a shortcut down the mountain! If all went smoothly, it wasn’t entirely impossible to bring Zhou Qian back tonight!
The thought filled her with renewed energy. She quickly parted the different shrubs in front of her, swiftly releasing her ability.
The initially unremarkable branches rapidly swelled and grew, like a giant python moving through the undergrowth. Although the thickness didn’t become absurd, the long, long vines piled up to an incredible length.
Huai Yu panted as she withdrew her hand.
She had never tried forcing herself to use her ability with such high intensity. Though it had only been a brief moment, the growth speed of these vines far exceeded any species she had ever force-grown before.
Now, picking the right spot, she pressed down with her knee—
Snap!
With both hands working together, the long vine was snapped at the appropriate place, the tough bark tearing into a long strip. Huai Yu dragged it along, heading back into the Daoist temple.
As she hurriedly passed the entrance of the main hall, she froze for a moment, then slowly stepped backward—
In that brief glimpse just now, the rose flowers at the entrance seemed a bit different.
The petals looked fresher and more vibrant, and the color of the flowers seemed slightly richer than before, making them look not quite as frail and pitiful.
This fleeting puzzle flashed through her mind, but it was quickly overshadowed by her concern for the life-or-death situation of Zhou Qian. Huai Yu dragged the long vine and dashed forward again, entering the main hall. The milky-white tree cocoon still rested there quietly. Whether it was an effect of the light, it actually seemed to emit a hazy pink glow.
Huai Yu hesitated and stopped in her tracks.
She kept feeling that something wasn’t quite right, yet she couldn’t put her finger on what it was.
Was this a sixth sense? Just like Zhou Qian’s instinct to dodge the moment the mutated macaque launched its ambush—wait!
The mutated macaque!
Huai Yu finally knew what was wrong!
Because at this exact moment, she discovered that the carcass of the mutated macaque, which had been on one side of the hall, had shriveled up at some point! It looked as if only a pile of fluffy monkey skin remained!
Her face turned stark white instantly—could this mutated macaque perform a cicada-shedding trick?
Shedding its own fur and skin to escape with a blur of raw flesh and blood? But there were no signs of thrashing or movement anywhere around, nor was there any blood, and the golden oyster mushrooms on its head…
Oh, the golden oyster mushrooms were still there.
Quietly, Huai Yu let out a massive sigh of relief.
Only now did she approach the tree cocoon.
Yet she saw that Zhou Qian’s body was wrapped in the dense network of roots. He was sleeping peacefully there now, his breathing steady and his expression relaxed.
The agony he had displayed before she stepped out the door seemed to have vanished without a trace.
Huai Yu: …Her mind was full of tiny question marks at this moment.
What… did this mean? Did the tree cocoon think he would catch a cold lying directly in thirty-seven or thirty-eight degree weather? So it gave him a blanket?
But regardless, looking at this tree cocoon she had once inhabited for several years, Huai Yu instinctively felt it was safe.
And she didn’t know if it was an illusion, but after staring for so long, she felt Zhou Qian’s complexion looked much better than before.
Then…
She gazed hesitantly at the long, long vine she was still clutching in her hand: should she still weave this makeshift stretcher?
……
When Zhou Qian opened his eyes, he momentarily didn’t know what time or day it was in his daze.
Dust-covered, high curtains drifted overhead. From his angle lying down, he could also see a pair of cold, indifferent eyes belonging to some deity enshrined on the high altar table.
An orange-red light danced across the divine statue. Occasionally, as the curtains lifted, the light reflected in the deity’s eyes, making this high-and-mighty god seem to possess a touch of warmth.
He gazed blankly for a while, when he suddenly heard a rustling movement. He instinctively turned his head, causing the tree cocoon to wobble slightly. Zhou Qian snapped out of it completely, bolting upright:
“Xiao Yu!”
“I’m here!”
Huai Yu’s voice was right next to him! Joy and excitement were completely packed into that response!
Zhou Qian turned his head, only to see that it was pitch black outside. A hazy firelight danced inside the main hall—the orange-red light he had seen moving across the divine statue just now was cast by the flickering flames.
The familiar small pot was still propped up on the makeshift stone stove, the water inside bubbling and gurgling. Zhou Qian blanked:
“It’s dark?”
When he lay down, it should have been just past noon, right?
“Mm.” Huai Yu leaned over and nodded. “Brother Zhou Qian, it’s already past 10:00 PM!”
Zhou Qian’s mind was a complete blur. He had too many words he wanted to say, too many questions he wanted to ask. But when he instinctively rolled over to sit up, causing the tree cocoon to wobble again, his entire person froze once more:
“My wounds…”
Huai Yu’s eyes were also brimming with delight, and she nodded heavily at this moment. “That’s right! Your wounds are healed!”
In fact, after her hesitation this afternoon, she had decided to continue weaving the stretcher. But because she was too anxious, she still checked on Zhou Qian’s condition from time to time, and she could clearly see that beneath his dirt-streaked face, a healthy color was faintly returning!
Especially his lips, which had turned from a pale, dark shade back to a normal, muted dark red. Zhou Qian—it seemed his body truly was repairing itself!
The moment Huai Yu realized this, she wrapped her arms around the large tree cocoon without another word—how happy!
She was just too happy!
Chapter 270: Yet Another Secret
The joy and excitement in Huai Yu’s voice were so distinct that Zhou Qian instinctively looked at the spots where he had been injured. Beneath the torn fabric, the newly grown pink skin contrasted sharply with the surrounding skin tone; it had clearly just formed.
He rolled over, sat up, and climbed out of the tree cocoon. Moving his limbs on the spot, he found that apart from feeling a little weak due to blood loss, his movements were not hindered at all.
He was truly healed!
“This tree cocoon…”
He turned his head to look at the tree cocoon, which remained milky white. Dropping onto one knee beside it, he couldn’t resist running his fingers carefully over the fibrous roots. “Are these the roots of some plant?”
Huai Yu stared at it too. “I don’t know! Many plants grow fibrous roots like this—flowering herbs, vines, or trees… I can’t tell them apart.”
“Then, is it alive?”
Zhou Qian looked around once more, still unable to discover where these fibrous roots connected. It seemed to be nothing more than a perfectly ordinary woven object.
But if it was just a woven object, how could it have healed his wounds in such a short amount of time?
Huai Yu crouched down to examine it as well. “It’s alive!”
“Only when a plant is alive are its fibrous roots this milky white, plump, and tender. If it dies, these turn into strands of shriveled gray.”
She let out a massive sigh of relief as she spoke. “Brother Zhou Qian, I had actually already woven a stretcher, but the tree cocoon enveloped you inside as if it were treating your wounds, so I just waited until now.”
“If I had used my method to tie you to the stretcher and drag you all the way down the mountain, with all the bumps and the rough mountain paths, you definitely would have suffered more trauma. This is truly wonderful!”
As she said this, she couldn’t resist pressing her palms against the tree cocoon again, gently resting her cheek against it with actions full of deep attachment.
Only now did Zhou Qian recall that, according to Huai Yu, she had lain here for a very long time. He grew tense once more:
“Although my wounds weren’t severe, they still would have required stitches and a period of rest to recuperate. Yet injuries of this scale were mostly repaired in a mere ten hours. Xiao Yu, did you have any scars on your body?”
Otherwise, why would the repairs have taken so long?
Huai Yu’s eyes were completely blank. “No, I didn’t have any scars on my body.”
Not only did she have no scars, but her skin was also very soft and delicate. That was why she had initially mistaken herself for a young lady who used to own a castle and a manservant.
Zhou Qian fell deep into thought. “You dated Wu Yue, and that relationship was during your university years. But no one knew anything about you, and he never mentioned you either—and he is a native of Flower City, and went to university in Flower City as well.”
“But in the end, he force-grew the Rose Corridor, while you were fast asleep in a tree cocoon…”
His initial theory had likely come true—the Rose Corridor probably really had nothing to do with Wu Yue. Even if it did, Huai Yu’s presence must have been involved within it!
Zhou Qian’s brow knit tightly. If the truth really was like this and Huai Yu wanted to seek justice, he truly had to elevate his own abilities.
At this moment, he silently lowered his head, casting another glance at his vine-covered leg caked in spore powder.
Huai Yu’s expression grew serious as well.
After a long while, she let out a sigh. “So I drew a Sleeping Beauty script? I wasn’t supposed to wake up on my own, but wait for a prince…”
Bringing Wu Yue’s face into the role of the prince made life feel utterly cursed!
“The tree cocoon is still the best!” Huai Yu snuggled against it again. “It must have known my predicament, which is why it let me wake up earlier!”
The cool, refreshing tree cocoon seemed capable of soothing a person’s soul. Half-embracing it, Huai Yu tilted her head up under the leaping firelight to look at Zhou Qian. “Can we bring it back?”
Zhou Qian nodded. “Naturally! Isn’t that the whole reason you entered the Daoist temple? Wait, you don’t mean to—”
What could Huai Yu be thinking?
With a tree cocoon this massive, she couldn’t carry it on her back alone, so she could only count on Zhou Qian!
Zhou, the hired hand, realized at this moment that it seemed every time his life was saved, he needed to dedicate his own labor to Master Huai Yu!
But it was dark out now. Zhou Qian fell silent for a moment and could only sit back down. “Let’s rest and regroup for the night, and head down the mountain tomorrow.”
“In addition, carrying this tree cocoon means we won’t be able to carry the golden oyster mushroom. Give it up.”
Huai Yu could still distinguish between what was urgent and what could wait. She nodded, then hurriedly checked her pot. “There’s still one flatbread left, but there are no side dishes left to go with it. Brother Zhou Qian, just make do with some water.”
Zhou Qian looked around the area. “Have you checked this main hall? Is there anything else we need to take? Did you find any clues about yourself?”
Huai Yu shook her head. “No, there’s only this tree cocoon. This main hall actually feels quite unfamiliar. I was in a muddle when I woke up and didn’t pay close attention to these things… but it definitely wasn’t inside the hall.”
There was, however, another problem right now—
“Brother Zhou Qian, what should we do with this mutated macaque?”
The mutated macaque still lay there completely shriveled. The golden oyster mushrooms on its head had already begun to wither, and only its fur appeared normal.
Zhou Qian took a couple of looks and felt something was slightly off, but considering it looked truly abstract, and the monkey hide…
He figured Huai Yu wouldn’t necessarily want it even if he took it back to tan into a rug, so it was best to just give it up entirely.
“I’ll throw it into the woods later—that way the spore powder can grow, and its corpse can turn into nutrients for the earth after it rots.”
The weather was too hot. If he didn’t throw it far away, spending the night in the hall would probably become foul and rancid.
Huai Yu nodded.
Looking back at Zhou Qian, he had already walked over to the side of the mutated macaque.
The dim firelight cast its glow from a distance. He stared at the silhouette of the mutated macaque, frowning slightly. However, when he tentatively grabbed its arm to lift it, he finally detected the anomaly:
“Why is it so light?”
During the fight earlier, although the creature’s movements when leaping and landing were agile, its weight could still be felt, and its arms and paws were exceptionally powerful when swung! Not to mention it had now lost its life—as everyone knew, the corpse of a dead macaque was supposed to feel heavier.
There was no way it should have this feather-light weight now.
He dragged the macaque’s carcass straight to the side of the campfire!
Huai Yu stood to the side, looking hesitant. “Um… you understand the conservation of energy, right? Repairing the wounds on your body requires energy, and that energy was… ahem, contributed by the macaque!”
“The tree cocoon merely played the role of a slight middleman—but I believe it didn’t take too much of a cut.”
This was called “gained from the macaque, healed upon the macaque”—very balanced!
Zhou Qian’s hands, which were currently running through the creature’s fur, froze.
The fur sustained absolutely no damage. When parted, coagulated blood could be seen at the incisions, and both hide and flesh were intact, yet beneath the skin, it seemed to have been completely drained…
Or rather, its mutated energy had been sucked dry.
Combining this with Huai Yu’s answer, Zhou Qian slowly exhaled a breath, and then unexpectedly developed a sort of resignatory mindset:
Since there were already so many secrets, it didn’t matter at all if there were one or two more.
