Chapter 183: By the Sea
In the end, Honeysuckle agreed to transplant one of its consciousness into a new vine.
This task required Xia Lu Nong’s help.
Rose was also assisting.
Rose, who was quite experienced, said, “It’s just about separating consciousness. If it doesn’t work once, we can try a second time. If the second time fails, we can attempt a third. It will eventually succeed; there’s no need to be so nervous; we’re not animals.”
Xia Lu Nong heard its casual tone and replied, “You’re talking about separation; of course, I’m nervous. Even if you’re not, I’m nervous for you.”
Rose scoffed, “Then you’re just being unnecessarily anxious.”
“Fine, you can consider me overly anxious.” Xia Lu Nong squatted down beside it, lowering his head to negotiate. “This is such a big deal; why don’t you help out a bit?”
Rose countered, “What can I do to help? Has Honeysuckle called me for assistance?”
“Are you not good friends?” Xia Lu Nong asked. “Can’t you help each other out?”
Rose huffed a couple of times, “The relationships between us plants are different from yours. There’s no such thing as good friends. We just know each other and have a bit of acquaintance. Anyway, I’ve said what I needed to say; going over again would be pointless. I’m not going.”
Xia Lu Nong was somewhat surprised.
The relationship between Rose and Honeysuckle was even colder than he had imagined.
If Rose said it wouldn’t help, then it wouldn’t help.
Xia Lu Nong asked Honeysuckle if it wanted to persuade Rose to share some experience, but Honeysuckle also refused, saying that they would call on Rose for help when needed. Separating consciousness was a significant matter, and it was inconvenient to let other plants get involved.
Xia Lu Nong remarked to Kong Zhi, “It seems that the relationships among plants are more delicate than we imagined.”
Kong Zhi walked down the mountain beside him. “If they don’t spend time together, it’s naturally hard to build any relationship, especially in this era where most intelligent beings are considered competitors.”
Xia Lu Nong sighed, “Being a plant is really not easy.”
“That’s good for us,” Kong Zhi replied. “If the plants band together, we’d be in trouble.”
Xia Lu Nong agreed with that thought.
The new branches given to them by Honeysuckle were planted in the backyard, facing the descendants of Honeysuckle from a distance.
The descendant of the honeysuckle was named Little Silver by them.
Little Silver had low intelligence and didn’t have much of an opinion about the newly planted honeysuckle in the backyard. Instead, it sensed a familiar aura and appeared very happy.
Xia Lu Nong had carefully nurtured this new branch.
The branch had already sprouted new buds in their backyard, but it hadn’t communicated with them yet.
Xia Lu Nong didn’t know whether this new branch could carry one of honeysuckle’s consciousness.
That remained to be seen.
After this event, the main honeysuckle plant in the plains also fell into a dormant state.
However, to repay Xia Lu Nong and the others, the honeysuckle shared the locations of two sentient mutated plants with him before entering dormancy.
Xia Lu Nong hadn’t expected that the first breakthrough would come from the honeysuckle, rather than the rose, as they had initially thought.
The rose was quite frustrated. “Honeysuckle is good at making friends and gets along well with most plants. I didn’t consider the friendship aspect before, and since I have no connection with those mutated plants, earning their trust will take some time. Who knew honeysuckle would share the information with you so quickly?”
Xia Lu Nong stroked the rose’s leaves and smiled, “That’s because it sees that we’re trustworthy too.”
The rose wasn’t convinced. “Hmph! In your human terms, it’s just a hypocrite, using other plants to repay your favors.”
Even though the rose was grumbling, it still didn’t disclose other locations to Xia Lu Nong without permission from other plants.
Xia Lu Nong pinched the tips of the rose’s leaves. This guy was more astute than he had imagined.
This was a good thing.
It meant that the plants were willing to adhere to some order, which would help prevent chaos in the future.
Xia Lu Nong tried to comfort the rose.
The rose didn’t seem to appreciate it.
The more he defended the honeysuckle, the more reactive the rose became.
Xia Lu Nong had no choice but to keep quiet.
The two mutated plants provided by the honeysuckle were quite different from each other.
One was a peach tree, and the other was a cactus.
Moreover, the places where they grew were interesting.
The peach tree was in the valley that Xia Lu Nong and the others had visited, the one with honey.
The cactus, on the other hand, grew in a yard by the sea.
That place used to be land; last year, a tsunami submerged most of the surrounding areas underwater, so the cactus became a coastal plant.
The peach tree agreed to share specific information with them because it had seen how they interacted with Xia Hua Jiao and felt they were relatively reliable.
The cactus agreed to relocate because its current living conditions were too harsh; the coastal winds and salt made it unbearable, so it had to agree to move.
Xia Lu Nong and the others brought along space bamboo tubes in their backpacks and decided to first dig up the cactus from the seaside and then visit the peach tree.
According to the information they received, the cactus by the sea was quite small and was still in a pot.
The road was mountainous, making driving cumbersome.
Since the cactus was very small, they decided not to drive and instead travel light, walking and flying as a way to enjoy the spring weather.
To be honest, after two years of restoration, the wild grasses and flowers along the roadside had grown quite lush.
As they walked, they spotted many large, red wildberries.
Now that there were hardly any pesticides or fertilizers, they could just pick them and eat them after a quick wash.
Xia Lu Nong picked one and ate it. The wildberries were sweet and juicy, extremely refreshing.
The more he ate, the more addicted he became, and he was reluctant to let Kong Zhi fly over to him.
Seeing Xia Lu Nong’s enjoyment, Kong Zhi plucked a few wild taro leaves from the roadside, folded them to make a makeshift fruit platter, and offered him wildberries to eat.
As Xia Lu Nong enjoyed the warm breeze and took in the lush greenery, he exclaimed, “These days are just too comfortable!”
Kong Zhi looked up with him, squinting at the bright sun. “It’s not that these days are comfortable; it’s that we’ve made our lives comfortable.”
“That makes sense; a carefree life is a light life.” Xia Lu Nong laughed, “Speaking of which, last spring, when we wanted to eat wild fruit, we had to risk our safety to go out. This year, we can think about wild fruit again since there aren’t many beasts around anymore.”
“Now that there are so many people at the base, the surrounding beasts have already been mostly cleared out. What beast would still dare to come here?”
“Exactly! Even if they come, they’ll just end up on our dinner plate.”
As they walked and stopped, it was only in the afternoon that Xia Lu Nong finally grew tired of the scenery and didn’t want to move anymore.
He transformed into a cat, stretched out his limbs, and arched his back while wagging his tail lazily.
Kong Zhi stuffed their clothes into the space bamboo tube, then placed the tube into his backpack. He picked up the large, silver-gray fluffy cat and looked down at it, squeezing its soft paws. “It feels like you’ve gained some weight again.”
The emerald-green eyes of the cat looked up at Kong Zhi, blinking, “Meow.”
That was because his animal form had grown a bit larger, and his weight had naturally increased.
Kong Zhi hadn’t had the chance to pet a cat in a long time, and he didn’t want to let go of the soft, fluffy cat.
After holding it for a while, Kong Zhi finally transformed into a golden eagle and flew into the sky.
Looking down at the earth from the sky offered a different perspective.
Perhaps it was because there was no pollution, but the sky was particularly blue this year, the trees particularly green, and large, fluffy white clouds floated beside them.
The clouds carried moisture.
As they navigated through the clouds, the air they breathed was exceptionally fresh and moist.
The long fur of the cat became damp, but he felt excited, shaking his paws and looking down at the earth.
The green mountains and fields stretched far away below.
The grass was tender and green, making him want to transform into a herbivore and take a bite.
Flying in the sky was much faster than walking on the ground.
After flying for over two hours, they finally spotted the sea.
This was a newly formed ocean.
The coastline wasn’t sandy but muddy.
Next to the mudflats were the ruins of a town.
The town connected with the mountains.
Xia the cat sniffed the salty air vigorously, staring unblinkingly at the deep, grayish-blue sea.
He could already smell the scent of fish!
Soon, he would definitely be able to eat some delicious fish!
“Meow!” Xia the cat called out to the golden eagle flying above him.
They should head to the beach first; after all, the cactus didn’t have legs and couldn’t run away. They could enjoy a good meal at the beach and then find the cactus tomorrow.
The golden eagle had spent enough time with him that it didn’t need to hear his words. As soon as it heard his meow, it knew what he was thinking, flapping its wings and changing direction toward the beach.
It was still spring, and the wind was strong, with waves crashing rhythmically against the shore, making a “whoosh” sound.
Hearing this noise excited Xia the cat even more.
He stretched his neck to look at the beach, wanting to see if there were any big fish down below.
This area had no human settlement, so logically, the ocean should have nurtured countless delicious seafood.
Xia the cat thought of the crabs, bullfrogs, and clams they had caught last year, feeling a strong itch to catch some himself.
The golden eagle flew quickly, and five minutes later, it landed on the grass by the beach, not directly on the beach itself.
As soon as Xia the cat landed, he didn’t bother turning back into human form. Instead, he quickly ran a few steps to the edge of the grass and stretched his neck to look outside.
He saw some dead fish on the beach.
These fish seemed to have washed ashore during low tide, and there were quite a few of them. Many were belly-up, looking quite fresh.
“Meow—” Xia the cat looked back at Kong Zhi, who had already transformed back into human form and was putting on his clothes, signaling him to come and take a look quickly.
Instead, Kong Zhi came over and petted his back, saying, “There’s no rush. Hurry up and get dressed; otherwise, if you run down in beast form, your fur will be covered in mud and water, and we won’t have enough fresh water to bathe.”
The seawater was flooding quite severely, and it was unclear whether the river at the mouth was saltwater or freshwater.
They had brought enough drinking water, but finding water for bathing would be more difficult.
Xia the cat’s eyes revealed disappointment; he still wanted to experience the fun of catching fish in beast form.
He had grown quite large in beast form; while he couldn’t compare to white tigers or giant wolves, he was still a carnivorous beast, so catching fish shouldn’t be a problem.
Seeing that he didn’t move, Kong Zhi got dressed and picked him up. “Stop being reluctant; hurry up and transform back.”
“Meow.” Xia the cat meowed and transformed back into human form, spreading his arms for Kong Zhi to help him put on clothes, exclaiming, “This place is simply a cat’s paradise!”
“It’s also a paradise for humans. Luckily, we have space bamboo tubes to keep things fresh, so let’s catch more fish and shrimp to take back.”
Xia Lu Nong raised his head slightly. “That’s definitely not a problem; we should at least catch enough for a month.”
Kong Zhi laughed, “Why not say we’ll catch enough for a year?”
“No need for a year. If the fish is good, we can come back next time. If it’s not tasty, we won’t want to eat it for a year.”
