Chapter 184: The Meeting
The spring sea breeze was still chilly, whipping against their cheeks painfully.
Xia Lu Nong didn’t care about anything else; he rolled up his pants and sleeves quickly, turned around, and reached out his hand. “Quick, quick, quick! Are we going to catch fish?”
Kong Zhi took his hand and said, “What’s the rush? The vast ocean is right in front of you, and there are countless fish waiting for you inside.”
Upon hearing this, Xia Lu Nong’s eyes lit up even more. “Then I’m even more excited!”
They left their shoes and backpacks on the shore, holding hands as they walked onto the beach.
The beach was covered in mud, and with every step, the mud could reach up to their knees.
The mud was both wet and cold, and once they sank in, it felt as if a mouth was sucking at their feet, making each step extremely difficult.
After just a few steps, Xia Lu Nong began to gasp.
Kong Zhi held him back, turning to look around. “This isn’t going to work; it’s too dangerous. We don’t know when we might sink into a swamp or what might be hiding in it.”
Xia Lu Nong also realized that continuing like this wouldn’t work, so he reluctantly gave up and followed Kong Zhi’s lead. “How about we check other places to see if there’s a sandy beach?”
Kong Zhi said, “We flew over from that direction and didn’t see any particularly good sandy beaches; we’re probably not going to find one.”
Xia Lu Nong stopped, hands on his hips, panting. “So what do we do? Are we just going to retreat?”
“Let’s retreat for now. I’ll see if I can chop some wood to make a small raft.”
“It’s impossible to make a raft with wet wood. I feel hopeless,” Xia Lu Nong said, dejected. “How about you transform into beast form and fly around the surface of the sea to see if you can catch any fish while I go to the riverbank to catch some?”
“Alright.” Kong Zhi held his hand and took a few steps back. “I’ll go catch a couple of fish for dinner, and you wait for me on the shore.”
Xia Lu Nong was quite interested in eating fish, so he had no objections to Kong Zhi’s plan. He held Kong Zhi’s hand as they backed up to the shore.
After taking just a few steps, their legs were already covered in mud.
The worst part was that the sea looked so close, but there were actually ten meters of mud flat in between. They couldn’t even splash around or wash their feet.
Kong Zhi tugged at a leaf nearby to wipe his legs. “Just deal with it for now; we’ll wash our feet by the river later.”
“Looks like we can only do that for now,” Xia Lu Nong murmured, lowering his head. “It seems we’ll have to plan for tomorrow.”
“Yeah, let’s get some good rest tonight.” Kong Zhi told him to sit down. “Stay here for a while; I’ll go catch a couple of fish.”
As Kong Zhi said this, he took off his clothes for Xia Lu Nong to see and transformed into a giant golden eagle. With a flap of his wings, he flew out over the sea.
The wind from the golden eagle’s wings made Xia Lu Nong shiver, and he called after the huge figure, “Be careful! If you can catch something, grab it. If not, that’s fine; safety first!”
The Golden Eagle: “Kek—”
The Golden Eagle is very large, but compared to the vast ocean, it seems insignificant.
Under the leaden clouds, the golden eagle flits like a kite between the sky and the sea.
Xia Lu Nong stares ahead, fearing that it might not be able to control its wings and plunge directly into the sea.
The sea wind howls, and the waves crash in rhythmic patterns.
The loudest sound Xia Lu Nong hears is the thumping of his own heart in his chest.
The Golden Eagle flies over the distant sea, occasionally diving down to strike the waves, sending up a large spray of water, as if it could plunge into the ocean at any moment.
Watching it struggle against the waves, a growing sense of fear wells up in Xia Lu Nong. Holding his clothes, he cups his hands to form a horn and shouts to the Empty Golden Eagle, “Kong Zhi, come back—never mind, let’s go to the little river to catch fish!”
“Kek—”
After receiving a response, Xia Lu Nong’s anxiety increases, “Come back quickly!”
In the moment he was shouting, the Golden Eagle dove directly into the sea.
Xia Lu Nong was so scared that his heart nearly jumped out of his throat.
Half of the eagle’s body plunged into the water, but it quickly separated from the sea. When it flew back up, Xia Lu Nong squinted to see that it had caught a large fish in its claws.
That big fish was larger than a canoe and was struggling fiercely in its grip.
Its scales reflected the sunlight, appearing like a piece of silver metal.
The Golden Eagle returned from the sea and tossed the big fish onto the grass about thirty meters from the shoreline.
Xia Lu Nong looked up at him and saw that he seemed about to fly back to the ocean again, quickly calling out, “That’s enough, that’s enough! We can’t eat that much fish anyway.”
Only then did the Golden Eagle stop and land back on the ground.
Xia Lu Nong hurriedly took out clothes from his backpack and rushed over to hand them to him as he transformed back into his human form, still shaken, “That was too dangerous! I thought you were going to fall into the sea.”
Kong Zhi took a towel to wipe the water from his feet, saying, “Not at all, I know what I’m doing.”
“Even if you know what you’re doing, I still worry,” Xia Lu Nong murmured, “Forget about catching more fish; it’s too dangerous.”
Kong Zhi smiled and gave him a kiss, putting on his clothes, “Let’s go check out the fish I just caught.”
The fish, which had been struggling fiercely, was now lying still, its beautiful silver scales glimmering.
Xia Lu Nong stood a few meters away and walked around the big fish.
He noticed that the fish had only slightly mutated, having just two extra eyes.
He sighed with relief, “No problem; this fish is edible.”
Kong Zhi pulled out a knife from the bamboo tube, “It’s getting late; let’s cut up the fish and pack it into the bamboo tube.”
“Why not wait a bit?” Xia Lu Nong looked at the fish lying quietly on the ground and quickly grabbed Kong Zhi’s arm, “It feels like this fish is gathering its strength. Let’s not rush in; it might attack us.”
Kong Zhi chuckled, “We’ve already caught the fish; what are we afraid of from a little attack?”
Xia Lu Nong looked at the fish, which was longer than himself, and still felt uncertain.
Kong Zhi told him to stand back a bit, “It’s fine; I know what I’m doing.”
Xia Lu Nong, being a man, didn’t want to hide away.
That would be too embarrassing, even in front of his partner.
He said, “Let’s knock this fish out first; if not, I can summon vines to tie it up.”
Seeing Xia Lu Nong’s worry, Kong Zhi smiled and moved aside, “Okay, you summon the vines.”
Xia Lu Nong rummaged through the seeds he carried in the bamboo tube, took out two pumpkin seeds, threw them on the ground, and began to summon them.
His abilities had grown significantly, and it didn’t take long to summon the pumpkin vines.
He directed the vines to grow toward the fish.
The big fish, which had been struggling, found itself on land and, having no way to leverage its strength, struggled for a bit before being firmly bound by the pumpkin vines.
Xia Lu Nong sensed the state of the vines and, seeing that the fish couldn’t attack them anymore, breathed a sigh of relief and turned to Kong Zhi, “Alright, you can kill the fish now.”
“Okay.” Kong Zhi approached with the knife and began to process the now unconscious fish.
Xia Lu Nong squatted beside him, watching his movements.
Noticing that the pumpkin vines had started to grow buds, Kong Zhi asked, “Do you want to summon two pumpkins?”
Xia Lu Nong nodded without hesitation.
The pumpkin vines produced countless flowers; Xia Lu Nong picked most of them, leaving five flowers. He then ran over to pollinate them manually and summoned pumpkins afterward.
Kong Zhi was busy killing the fish while Xia Lu Nong focused on the pumpkins.
The roots of the pumpkin flowers first grew a small, round fruit that slowly swelled like a balloon, changing from light green to dark green and finally to a golden color.
Kong Zhi finished with the fish, and Xia Lu Nong had also summoned the pumpkins.
The fish meat was translucent, white, and elastic, looking exceptionally plump.
The pumpkins were golden and round, exuding a sweet aroma unique to pumpkins.
Xia Lu Nong looked at the fish meat and pumpkins laid out on the leaves, swallowing hard as he started to feel hungry.
Kong Zhi smiled and patted his head, “Tonight, I’ll steam the fish for you.”
“Great!” Xia Lu Nong recalled the things in his backpack and said, “I just so happen to have some sauce.”
Xia Lu Nong plucked the pumpkins and stuffed them into the bamboo tube, letting the pumpkin vines twist around to bury the fish bones and entrails in the dirt below.
This way, the area would be cleaned up, and even if other humans came by, they wouldn’t notice anything unusual.
Seeing that Xia Lu Nong had finished tidying up, Kong Zhi shouldered his backpack and pulled him up, “Now let’s go find the cactus that lives here.”
Xia Lu Nong squinted at the horizon, feeling anxious, “I wonder what kind of temperament the cactus has. Will it be difficult to deal with?”
Kong Zhi replied, “It shouldn’t be too bad. It came to find us actively, so it should be easier to negotiate. Besides, we’re already here; we’ll find out once we see it.”
Xia Lu Nong thought for a moment and agreed.
Since they were already here, there was no point in avoiding it.
They were very close to where the cactus lived.
The two of them walked straight ahead, observing the surroundings along the way.
It was spring, and most of the plants had already sprouted new leaves.
No matter how fierce these plants might be in their mature form, young leaves didn’t have much power to harm.
As they walked, all they could see was green, which slowly lifted their spirits.
They walked deeper into an abandoned village.
Though the buildings had collapsed, some plants had managed to survive stubbornly.
On their way, they collected plenty of wild berries, strawberries, green plums, and even a few remaining grapefruits from the branches.
Looking at the bag now filled to the brim, Xia Lu Nong said, “We’ve got our after-dinner fruit.”
“Not only do we have fruit for after dinner, but we can also take some jam back.” Kong Zhi held his wrist. “Come on, no need to be nervous.”
Xia Lu Nong took a deep breath; he was indeed a bit nervous.
In the past, when they encountered mutated plants, there wasn’t much at stake. Whatever the outcome of the talks, it just was what it was.
This time, however, they were negotiating with a mutated plant for personal gain.
Kong Zhi was completely calm.
Xia Lu Nong looked up at his partner’s profile and slowly began to relax as well. “Let’s go, we’ll search yard by yard. It should be around here.”
By now, most of the houses had collapsed, making it easy to search the courtyards.
The cactus they were looking for had very distinctive features. As soon as they entered a yard, a glance was enough to tell if it contained the cactus.
When Xia Lu Nong and Kong Zhi entered the seventh yard, they immediately spotted a large cactus planted in a pot about thirty centimeters tall.
Several slender stems extended from the cactus, and it had several flowers in bloom.
The flowers were double-petaled, pink and white, with lotus-like petals that looked incredibly beautiful.
At a glance, Xia Lu Nong knew this was most likely the cactus they were looking for.
He and Kong Zhi exchanged a look and moved closer.
Before they got within three meters, the flowers on the cactus suddenly rotated, and the center of the flowers turned toward them, like someone suddenly whipping their head around.
Then the petals trembled, and a voice spoke, “Hey, guys, you’ve finally made it!”
Xia Lu Nong: “???”
Why was this thing so enthusiastic? It wasn’t at all what they had imagined.
