Chapter 75 - 74: Pine and Bamboo

Chapter 75: Chapter 74: Pine and Bamboo

The mountain offered plenty of good things to eat this season.

However, in Huai Yu’s eyes, everywhere she looked was just green, green, green! If she kept eating like this, her face would turn green. It was way too vegetarian! Eating it for too long left her stomach feeling empty and bland, making her crave richer food more and more.

Because of this, she had a clear goal coming up the mountain this time. Following a barely visible tourist boardwalk all the way up, she ignored all surrounding temptations. Whether it was the tender Chinese toon, the tart tiger rod perfect for sour soup, or the water ferns that had just sprouted fresh leaves...

"No, no, I don’t want any of it..."

Huai Yu reinforced her resolve as she walked. If she relaxed and bent down to pick wild vegetables, the abundance covering the mountains would cost her another entire day.

She had to eat meat today. She absolutely had to!

When she passed the giant pine tree, seeing that his descendants still had so much Pine Pollen left to harvest, Huai Yu stopped to chat.

"Big pine tree, I’ll come back to harvest the Pine Pollen next time," she said.

"Do you happen to know where I can find rabbits or wild pheasants?" She hugged the tree’s thick trunk, looking pitiful as she whined. "I really want to eat meat."

The pine needles rustled, and a unique, refreshing fragrance lingered in the air. A moment later, the branches jolted.

SQUEAK SQUEAK SQUEAK!

A squirrel plummeted from above with a THUD. Huai Yu reacted quickly, grabbing its tail and holding it up.

The human and the squirrel stared at each other. The squirrel looked at her with its dark, beady eyes, its fur puffing out all over its body.

Huai Yu was dumbfounded.

"No way. Is it really being this generous?" she wondered.

The giant pine tree swayed in the wind, swaying so much that Huai Yu actually blushed. "I do want to eat meat, but I’m not that desperate yet... Your neighbor has been with you for so many years. Let’s just forget it."

Besides, the nuts she had found earlier might have been this squirrel’s treasure stash. If the little guy worked hard again this year, she could reap another harvest in the winter.

Huai Yu placed the squirrel back onto the tree trunk. Then, as if hearing the giant pine tree say something else, she once again grabbed the tail of the squirrel just as it was about to dart away and said fiercely, "Hey! Little squirrel!

"The big pine tree says to stop digging holes in his trunk to hide your nuts! You’ve dug two or three, and you can’t even remember a single one yourself. What’s the point?"

The little squirrel SQUEAKED loudly, not knowing if it was protesting or defending itself, before swiftly vanishing from sight.

Having received the giant pine tree’s unique "squirrel consolation," Huai Yu felt much better.

"I’m amazing! The big pine tree was even willing to sacrifice its neighbor for me!" she thought.

Harboring this joyful confidence, she finally arrived at an uninhabited area around three in the afternoon.

There was vaguely a boardwalk here as well, though it was now completely entangled in branches and vines. She could only faintly see the anti-rot wooden planks beneath her feet, pushed up by saplings, looking like something once exclusively used for a scenic spot.

Looking down, she saw a low cave up ahead entirely made of stone walls. It was spacious, deep, and sheltered from the wind and rain—a great place to settle down. Huai Yu looked around and silently left a mark in a conspicuous spot, deciding to search back and forth in this general vicinity. This way, regardless of whether she caught anything, she could still build a fire and rest here tonight. With hard rock both above and below, she wouldn’t have to worry about starting a wildfire.

Ahead lay a massive, bizarrely shaped rock that looked like a long, slender human finger pointing upward. Huai Yu observed it curiously for a moment, then noticed that the extension of the wooden planks beneath her feet was quite wide. This was probably an observation deck for a scenic view!

It was strange; the area felt completely unfamiliar. She wondered why she had woken up on this mountain in the first place, but she just couldn’t figure it out.

However, recovering her memories wasn’t as important as finding meat right now. Huai Yu looked left and right, wanting to see if there were any slightly gentler slopes amidst the jagged rocks and steep cliffs where she could easily forage for food. She couldn’t eat squirrels, and she certainly didn’t want snakes. Hedgehogs were too small, right? Wild boars were an absolute no—she would have to run the moment she saw one.

So where were the rabbits and pheasants? Why weren’t they taking the initiative to show up?

As she pondered, she carefully gripped her shovel and slowly made her way toward a gentle slope. As she walked, the area in front of her gradually opened up.

Looking closer, she realized it was a small bamboo forest!

It seemed like it had only been growing for a few years, as the bamboo inside wasn’t very dense, allowing sunlight to filter through. There weren’t many other plants growing underneath, which made Huai Yu’s eyes light up. Where there was a bamboo forest, there were bamboo shoots. And where there were bamboo shoots, there might be bamboo rats!

If she could catch a fat one...

She instantly grew excited and was about to charge forward with her multi-purpose shovel! After all, the bamboo forest was spacious and empty. She could take in the whole scene from a distance, and it genuinely didn’t look like a threat.

But just as the thought crossed her mind, thousands of bamboo leaves abruptly stood upright toward the sky in the very next moment. Then, like flying daggers, the leaves shot out in all directions!

This fighting style was exactly like the Rose Corridor!

However, Huai Yu had never seen the Rose Corridor in action, so she just thought this was incredibly fierce. A continuous THWACK THWACK THWACK echoed through the air as the trunks of the surrounding trees were instantly peppered with half-embedded bamboo leaves.

Huai Yu was speechless.

She silently pulled her foot back. Realizing the battlefield was still a good distance away, she quickly breathed a quiet sigh of relief and huddled to the side.

She wondered if this bamboo forest was really that sensitive. She had only thought about it and hadn’t even stepped forward yet, but its reaction was so extreme. Could its mutation be the Mind Reading Technique? Or did it sense that she was going to dig up its bamboo shoots? It couldn’t possibly be protecting the bamboo rats she hadn’t even seen yet, could it?

While she was still muttering in her heart, the ring of large trees surrounding the bamboo forest suddenly began to move.

No! It wasn’t the trees moving—it was the ground!

Huai Yu grabbed the trunk of the tree beside her in a panic, dropping her multi-purpose shovel to the ground.

Not far away, the large trees that had just been attacked by the bamboo forest swayed wildly. The earth in front of them fractured into deep crevices, and exceptionally thick tree roots arched out from underneath! Those roots tunneled rapidly through the soil, growing at a blistering pace. They were heading straight for that small bamboo forest.

Endless amounts of earth were churned up and thrown back down, and the entire mountain forest rumbled with a terrifying noise! The ground before her violently quaked as if a natural disaster was replaying itself. Even the small tree trunk Huai Yu was clinging to trembled restlessly. She hugged it tight with both her arms and legs, terrified of being thrown into the shifting earth.

Just then, a massive, echoing CRACK tore through the air. The ground beneath the bamboo forest was completely upended, revealing impossibly long, colossal bamboo roots crisscrossing in every direction!

The moment the bamboo roots left the earth, the tree roots that had unearthed them immediately plunged back down, taking root as if terrified the bamboo would recover and reclaim the territory.

In an instant, the ground was littered with a messy layer of fresh, damp subsoil scattered over the dead branches and fallen leaves. A faint scent of earthy mud and dust permeated the air.

The entire bamboo forest, with its lush, emerald-green, and perfectly straight stalks, was tossed haphazardly onto the surface.

By the looks of it, there was no way it could survive!