Chapter 249 - 216: Kuang Biao’s Sincerity

Chapter 249: Chapter 216: Kuang Biao’s Sincerity

The heavy rain poured for a full day and night, leaving both Ke Taichiro and Da Pang very unhappy.

The former was upset because the rainwater and mud had brought his work progress to a grinding halt. As a born workaholic, resting for even a single minute felt like a crime.

Furthermore, after this rain, the flowers and plants Ke Taichiro had previously set his sights on would either be completely unusable or much harder to work with. It was hard for him not to feel depressed. At the moment, he could only dig out the large box from his nest, pick out a favorite ball, and hug it to his chest to find some solace.

As for Da Pang, the rainwater had completely saturated the soil, turning what was once a tolerable environment into something increasingly gross and uncomfortable. Bizarre energies within the dirt were trying to seep into its flawless body. Being so delightfully plump, pale, and perfect, why would Da Pang ever want to absorb those energies and become frantic and ugly?!

And so, for the past twenty-four hours, it had been forced to wedge itself inside the opening of the Square Hole Brick that served as its planter, its roots only shallowly grazing the soil inside. It was better than nothing.

Only Kuang Biao was delightfully carefree, completely unrestrained by the weather. His branches and leaves RUSTLED loudly in the pouring rain as he bellowed, "Sooner or later, I will become strong!"

But this domineering aura lasted for barely three seconds. Soon, he frantically bent his topmost section down, desperately trying to shield the sunflowers ahead from the merciless downpour.

"Little Kui! I am willing to give up everything for you!"

Layers upon layers of bamboo leaned over, struggling to prop up a relatively rain-free shelter for the tall, sturdy sunflowers. However, with water flooding the ground, it was inevitable that the sunflowers still absorbed quite a bit.

Kuang Biao’s heart instantly ached. "Little Kui, SOB... It’s all my fault for not being strong enough to shield you from the wind and rain..."

To be fair, if he wasn’t technically only six years old, this display of devotion might have actually made up for his cringey behavior from earlier in the day.

Seeing Huai Yu pressed against the window, watching the scene with great relish, Zhou Qian couldn’t help but wander over to join her. After a long moment, he pulled his gaze away, his expression complicated.

"Does his personality really have nothing to do with your Superpower?"

Huai Yu’s eyes widened. "I haven’t touched him in the slightest! He was born this way!"

"Are the other mutated plants on Sanqing Mountain like this, too?"

Huai Yu was speechless. She recalled how silently the other trees had behaved during their fight the other day. She struggled to reply, "Maybe... the others are just a bit more low-key."

Zhou Qian stared at her, his eyes full of suspicion. "So tell me the truth. Do you have another Superpower that naturally attracts these weird..." He paused to find the right word. "...organisms?"

Huai Yu wanted to defend herself but didn’t know where to start. Then, looking Zhou Qian up and down, she suddenly grew curious. "You’re saying all this—is it because you want to go to Sanqing Mountain with me to take a look?"

Zhou Qian kept his face perfectly straight. "I guess I wouldn’t mind."

She wondered what kind of answer "I guess I wouldn’t mind" was. Huai Yu shot him a look, thinking that if he wanted to go, he should just say so instead of being so subtle about it. The only reason she hadn’t gone recently was because her chores at home weren’t finished yet!

But after this rain, the vegetables in the fields would need to undergo a lengthy purification process before they could be eaten. Since they would be sitting idle with nothing to do, taking him up the mountain wasn’t a bad idea. Given the sweltering summer heat, it might even be a bit cooler up there.

"There’s just one thing—" Huai Yu hesitated. "Last time, I actually wanted to explore deeper, but I ran into Kuang Biao as soon as I tried. If we go deeper this time and run into another mutated plant, can you defeat it?"

Zhou Qian rubbed his nose. "If I had weapons, I should be able to fight off a few."

Unfortunately, since he had retired, all his firearms had been confiscated. The only thing he had left was a cold weapon—a long sword—that was useless for digging or chopping firewood, so it was currently just sitting around the house gathering dust. Having the biological prosthetics installed had strengthened his abilities somewhat, but there were limits. He might be highly experienced in close-quarters combat, but when it came to dealing with mutated plants from a distance, he simply couldn’t match the convenience and efficiency of a Superpower User.

Huai Yu felt a bit conflicted.

"I heard there’s a Daoist Palace on Sanqing Mountain, and I kind of wanted to go check it out. But the paths up the mountain have been completely overrun by mutated plants. Once you get deep into the mountains, the trail just disappears.

"If we can’t fight them, we’d better just wander around the outskirts. There’s a big pine tree there that treats me pretty well."

Her phrasing sounded incredibly niche. But Zhou Qian still nodded in satisfaction.

"That works for me."

He truly wanted to see exactly how much affinity Huai Yu had with mutated plants—especially since plants generally became far more irritable after a polluted rain. And this irritability was exactly the normal state of those bloodthirsty plants in the Wilderness. If she could freely come and go even on Sanqing Mountain, then Zhou Qian would have an extra layer of confidence when it came time to venture into the Wilderness.

But for now, the two of them stared out at the continuous, drizzling rain and sighed yet again.

Just as they were feeling down, they suddenly heard Kuang Biao kicking up a massive fuss, yelling as if he were being beaten.

Not daring to touch the rainwater, the two of them could only press themselves against the window once more to look outside. They saw that the thorny vines shooting over from the Rose Corridor had viciously seized the tips of the bamboo, wrapping them up tightly once again.

Zhou Qian became curious. "Does the Rose Corridor need him to shield it from the wind and rain, too?"

But on second thought, it wasn’t entirely impossible. Many mutated organisms without strong desires thoroughly detested the downpour of such highly polluted rainwater. During the last rainfall, the patrol team had treated the situation so seriously that they only dared to yell a warning to Huai Yu from far away. That was entirely because they feared the Rose Corridor would riot and throw a tantrum in the rain.

And now, perhaps because it truly liked Huai Yu, the Rose Corridor’s temper tantrum consisted solely of tormenting Kuang Biao. That didn’t seem quite so terrifying anymore, Zhou Qian thought to himself silently.

However, in the next moment, Kuang Biao started screaming again.

"OUCH, OUCH! I just crossed the boundary a tiny little bit! Isn’t it a bit too much to beat me in the rain like this, taking advantage of a bamboo when he’s down?!"

He tried to defend himself. "I did it to shield Little Kui from the rain! If I was too far away, even if my bamboo bent over, the height wouldn’t be right and I wouldn’t be able to cover them! What would be the point of that?"

He screamed himself hoarse, sounding like a pig being hauled to the slaughter as he bellowed:

"Little Yu, save me! Little Yu! Help me—

"Tell the Rose Corridor that I didn’t mean to use this as an excuse to burrow right next to your foundation! I just wanted to give Little Kui a home safe from the wind and rain!"

What did that mean? Huai Yu instantly grew furious as well. The destructive power of bamboo roots was enormous!

One only had to look at that fat bamboo shoot that had drilled a hole right through her house to know that. Even now, because they lacked the materials, that hole hadn’t been fully patched up yet. Kuang Biao claimed he was shielding Little Kui from the wind and rain, but once his bamboo roots burrowed under the base of her walls, would he ever retract them?

And if he eventually decided he wanted to get up close and personal with Little Kui, sprouting a few more stalks of bamboo in the process—

Great. Her newly built house would crack right at the foundation. How could she possibly tolerate this?

"I forbid it!" she yelled through the window. "No! Absolutely not! Kuang Biao, stop trying to steal our territory!

"If you keep this up, I’ll transplant your Little Kuis as soon as the rain stops!"