Chapter 110 - 101: Am I Human?

Chapter 110: Chapter 101: Am I Human?

Around three in the afternoon, a light, drizzling rain predictably began to fall from the sky.

Huai Yu held up an umbrella and went to check on the bamboo forest. She found that Kuang Biao had already bent down several bamboo stalks, forming a very spacious, wind-and-rain-proof shelter for Big Pup and Second Pup.

Uh... she hadn’t even said anything yet!

"Kuang Biao, you..." she asked hesitantly, afraid of puncturing Kuang Biao’s precarious, paper-thin pride.

But Kuang Biao spoke up first.

"What’s the big fuss? Can’t I stretch a little after standing for so long? 𝘧𝓇ℯℴ𝓂

"Don’t flatter yourself into thinking I’d build a house for you like this. Impossible! Absolutely impossible!

"Even though Big Pup and Second Pup are always pecking at my shoots, you did entrust them to me in the beginning. I have to take responsibility for them. If you insist on staying in a shelter, you can just join them in my Supreme Invincible Green Bamboo Shack."

Huai Yu took a step back and immediately shook her head. "No, no, I’m not worthy. I’m perfectly fine living in a normal house."

"But..." she trailed off, suddenly reaching out to touch the bamboo beside her. "Kuang Biao, do you think... I’m human?"

"???" Kuang Biao rustled his leaves, sending a flurry of water droplets falling onto her umbrella with a loud PIT-PAT. Then, he shouted loudly:

"How are you not human? If you aren’t human, does that mean I am? Do you just not want to be human anymore?"

Huai Yu felt a bit helpless. "I just feel like I’m a little strange..."

Her ability had been useful on everything so far, so why wasn’t it the least bit noticeable on the Rose Corridor? If she had to be technical, it wasn’t that it had zero effect, but the gap between her energy output and the resulting effect was massive. If that was simply because the Rose Corridor’s main body was too large and dispersed the power, then why did she see such a scene when outputting her power? It was as if she was...

She shook her head, unable to resist testing the waters. "Kuang Biao, why don’t you feel my ability for yourself?

"See if I still seem human when I use it."

Kuang Biao let out an "Ah," sounding a little disdainful. "Your Wood Element? It feels even less useful than the crap those two poop out. Fine, bring it on! Even if it’s as thin as a silk thread, I’ll try my best to feel it!"

He sounded incredibly sincere, but upon hearing it, Huai Yu only wanted to kick him hard again.

Taking a deep breath to calm herself, she slowly channeled both her growth and purification powers toward Kuang Biao at the same time. If her previous full-power output was like wispy threads, it was now like a bubbling spring—visibly much thicker and stronger.

She wasn’t wrong in her feeling; after recovering from her illness, her ability had grown a bit stronger.

This power washed over Kuang Biao’s body like spring water, causing the entire bamboo forest to tremble slightly. The bamboo roots writhed and arched aggressively across the ground, breaking through the wet soil inch by inch. Standing in the center of the bamboo forest, one could practically hear them growing.

Huai Yu withdrew her trembling hands, feeling completely drained of energy. She finally understood: although the "spring" of her ability had grown larger, her total "water capacity" had only increased by a tiny fraction. As a result, her stamina was actually worse than before.

Kuang Biao’s loud yells rang out. "Ahhhh! Your power! There’s something wrong with your power! How can it be this strong... I can’t hold it, I can’t hold it! I need to grow! I need to grow! I really can’t control it!"

He yelled while extending his bamboo roots outward. However, after expanding just a little bit, he hesitantly shrank them back. The memory of the Rose Corridor beating him up was still fresh in his mind. Thus, he had no choice but to hold his breath, sending new bamboo shoots springing up within the forest confines with a rapid WHOOSH WHOOSH.

Seeing this, the two goslings acted as if a new game had begun! They charged out of Kuang Biao’s supreme shack once again, pecking wildly at the shoots with a flurry of CRUNCH CRUNCH sounds, having the time of their lives in the rain.

There was a force pushing up from under her feet—clearly bamboo shoots about to break through the soil. Huai Yu pulled her hands back and asked Kuang Biao again, "How about it? Do you feel any changes in me?"

The bamboo forest’s growth gradually came to a halt. Kuang Biao’s voice carried a heavy sigh as he said, "Sneaky!"

"What?" Huai Yu was shocked.

"I said you’re too sneaky!" Kuang Biao thrashed his bamboo leaves in anger. "If you had told me you had this kind of ability earlier, I would have followed you down the mountain without you even having to ask!

"But no, you just had to hold it in and play dumb! You made me get beaten up by them when I came down the mountain!

"I got beaten by Rose, and I get beaten by your geese... I might be rooted in your territory, but that doesn’t mean I have to take a beating every day! I never suffered such grievances when I was in the mountains!"

Kuang Biao was full of accusations, every word dripping with blood and tears. He was exceptionally aggrieved.

Huai Yu felt utterly helpless. "My ability doesn’t have any offensive power. What would be the point of telling you? What if you captured me and forced me to feed you like this every day?"

"How does it not have offensive power?" Kuang Biao sobbed. "That mixed feeling of purification... if you gave me more, I could absorb the purest Mutant Value, and then my temper wouldn’t be so volatile.

"The more you give, the better my temper gets, and the more I’ll like you. Then I wouldn’t beat you up, right?"

Huai Yu was speechless. "Then... thank you, I guess?"

She was also quite disappointed—how did it end up like this? Did using this ability mean that if she encountered an enemy, she’d have to transfer all her power to them first, make them stronger, and then hope they’d become mild-mannered, develop a dependency on her, and refrain from attacking her? That was just too...

Her expression was conflicted and exceedingly complicated.

Kuang Biao paused, then hemmed and hawed, suddenly turning coy. "Also! I reeeeeally like that power of yours that stimulates my growth! It feels like Big Pup and Second Pup pooped for three days and three nights straight, let it ferment, and piled it around my roots... I’d feel bad for it if I didn’t grow...

"How about... you give me a little more!

"If you give me twenty times that amount, I can really grow even stronger!

"When that happens, I can build you a Supreme Top-Tier Kuang Biao Shack! Super sturdy! It won’t fear heavy winds or heavy rain!"

To be fair, Kuang Biao was quite good at making analogies. However, whether it was Big Pup and Second Pup’s three days and three nights of poop, the Supreme Top-Tier Shack, or that twentyfold amount of power, it all left her feeling a chill in her heart. After all, she was already completely out of energy.

Standing there with her umbrella, Huai Yu felt as if her heart had been poked full of holes like a torn net, while the rain continued to fall with a PIT-PAT.

Finally, she asked again, "So do you feel like Rose and I are similar?"

Kuang Biao froze, his bamboo leaves swaying helplessly. "What do you mean? Do you really not want to be human anymore? But the chances are slim. Rose is so powerful, and you don’t even look as strong as a gosling... You’re not alike at all."

Huai Yu sighed and made her question clearer. "What I mean is, is it possible that I was the one who accelerated the growth of the Rose Corridor?"

At this, Kuang Biao wildly shook the rainwater off his body with a loud SWISH. Even with her umbrella, Huai Yu couldn’t dodge the spray.

"How is that even possible? Could your ability ever grow such a—powerful Rose Corridor?"