Chapter 80 - 79: Growing Casually

Chapter 80: Chapter 79: Growing Casually

The bamboo shoots had been peeled for five or six hours and no longer looked as fresh to the naked eye.

However...

Huai Yu picked one up in confusion and examined it. "Kuang Biao’s Mutant Value is over fifty. Why don’t these bamboo shoots feel too ’dirty’?" she wondered.

Curious, she took a bite. It had the distinct green scent of bamboo shoots, mixed with the taste of grass and tender branches. It wasn’t delicious, but... it wasn’t as awfully unpalatable as Uncle Zaozi. In fact, its fresh, fragrant aroma was exceptionally crisp and rich!

Huai Yu dumped all the bamboo shoots into a basin to wash them. She then poured the boiling water from her pot into a kettle, refilled the pot with cold water, and placed the bamboo shoots in one by one. As she did, she mulled it over. "Could it be... once they surpass a certain threshold, the edible parts of highly mutated, fierce plants actually have exceptionally low Mutant Values? It’s highly possible!

"Otherwise, when I first brought those low-value items over, why would Boss Tang and the others just assume I had someone really powerful backing me at home?" She grabbed a bag of salt, poured some into the pot, covered it with a lid, and added more firewood to the stove.

The door was left open. Outside, Kuang Biao’s fluorescent green glow pulsed steadily on the ground. Fresh bamboo shoots couldn’t wait, and since he was still so lively and vigorous, he could just hold on a little longer.

There were simply too many bamboo shoots, and Huai Yu’s pot wasn’t very big. She had to boil three separate batches before she was finally done. After transferring them to a basin to soak in cold water, she glanced at the small bowl of bamboo hearts. "Never mind, I’ll deal with those tomorrow!" she thought.

She then grabbed her hoe and shovel and headed out the door. "Kuang Biao, let’s go! I’ll take you to see your new turf."

With the Rose Corridor present, even if the Defense Army came by and wondered why there was bamboo behind her house, she could just play completely dumb. She didn’t know. She had no idea. She just woke up in the morning, and the bamboo was already there.

With this in mind, she pointed grandly to the vast, spacious plot of land behind her house. "Come on, take your pick!"

Kuang Biao immediately rustled his leaves. "Just put me about five meters behind the house. Once my bamboo grows out in all directions, it’ll repel mosquitoes and provide shade.

"And when the snow weighs me down in winter, I definitely won’t bend toward the house."

Huai Yu was speechless. He had thought this through far too thoroughly.

"Alright then."

Thanks to the Rose Corridor’s protection, Huai Yu felt much more relaxed. She eyeballed a reasonably good spot and stepped down on her shovel. "Right here! By the way, don’t grow too out of control. It’s not like I’m raising pandas; a massive bamboo forest is useless to me."

Though raising bamboo rats might not be a bad idea, she mused. At this thought, she softened her tone a bit. "Alright, just grow however you like for now."

Kuang Biao was very sensible and tactful. "You got it! Don’t worry, Little Yu, I know my limits!"

Planting just a single bamboo—especially a mutated one—wasn’t all that difficult. She dug a deep hole, shoved his short bamboo roots inside, backfilled the soil, compacted it, and poured a bucket of water over it. And that was that.

By the time Huai Yu finished everything, returned to her room, took a quick sponge bath, and lay in bed, it was already four in the morning. She stretched deeply and soon fell into a heavy slumber. In her dreams, braised bamboo rat with bamboo shoots smelled absolutely divine...

She had been so exhausted the night before that it was past ten in the morning when she finally woke up. She sat up blankly on her bed and spaced out for a moment before her eyes landed on the large basin of soaking bamboo shoots, which instantly jolted her awake. When she opened the door, the weather was clear and the sun was shining bright!

After being blanched and soaked overnight, the bamboo shoots had become soft and tender. She fished them out one by one, gently wrung out the excess water, and hung them directly on the drying rack outside. Though fresh bamboo shoots were delicious, the ones she brought back weren’t fresh anymore. In that case, she might as well wait until Kuang Biao grew a massive new patch of... What the?!

She spun around and saw green bamboo leaves poking out from behind her roof. Furthermore, it was a dense, sprawling mass.

"Kuang Biao!"

She rushed behind the house, but she was so shocked that she couldn’t utter anything beyond his name. Earlier, due to the angle and the house blocking her view, she had only seen a fraction of it. Now, up close... HISS!

The bamboo forest before her blotted out the sky. It was densely packed, forming a perfect straight line behind the house that stretched for forty or fifty meters! She stepped back to check the edges and saw it extending far, far back into the distance. This was nowhere near just two acres of land! It was at least five!

Even as she stood there in a daze, she watched a bamboo shoot break through the soil near the edge. Then, it slowly, slowly, slowly extended upward—shedding its husks, sprouting branches, growing, and unfurling its leaves... finally becoming a tall, upright bamboo.

"Little Yu, you’re here! Do you want to eat some bamboo shoots? They just sprouted, super fresh!" Kuang Biao called out. "Do you need bamboo poles? The new ones are pretty sturdy too. If you cut them down to make bamboo tube rice, it’ll be really fragrant!"

He rustled his leaves, trying hard to curry favor. His voice sounded somewhat exhausted and weak. Spawning so much bamboo overnight had clearly taken a significant toll on his strength. No wonder he had wanted to enter the safe zone so badly. Otherwise, if he ventured into the Wilderness in this state and chose not to take root and expand his territory, any random large plant nearby could easily besiege and kill him. But if he did take root and expand, he would enter a weakened phase. Surrounded by powerful enemies, it would be just as dangerous.

However, his weakness and attempts at flattery earned no sympathy from Huai Yu. Instead, she just felt like she had been an absolute fool yesterday! She had worked so hard to carry a full basket of bamboo shoots on her back, sweet-talked him, and painstakingly extracted all those bamboo hearts, only to realize that Kuang Biao could have just grown it all back in a single night?! Her hard work suddenly felt so cheap and pitiful!

"Didn’t you say you’d just grow however?" she demanded.

"I did..." Kuang Biao’s voice was small. "It’s so spacious here, but I fought hard to restrain myself and just grew however I pleased.

"It’s just that... after all, I went through a fierce battle and had to make painful sacrifices to survive. My vitality took a huge hit.

"The land here is quite fertile, so my roots stretched out just a tiny bit further... It’s actually not that bad, right...

"Just a little bit! I really just grew however!"

He rustled his leaves again and asked softly, "Little Yu, do you want to eat some fresh bamboo shoots? Although these newly grown ones don’t taste quite as good as the ones on the mountain that hold more of my power, they should still be pretty decent."

Trees often chatted with each other and passed along news, so he could sometimes vaguely hear what the human Explorers were talking about. For instance, bamboo shoots from a powerful entity like him had a high probability of maintaining a Mutant Value below 12, making them extremely popular.

Huai Yu was speechless. Still, she had to admit she was genuinely placated. Because on her own, there was no way she could farm over six hundred acres of land. Whether the bamboo covered two acres or five acres made little difference to her. Doing it this way just made all her efforts from yesterday look ridiculous. But if there was a difference in quality... Well! Such was human psychology. In any case, she wasn’t mad anymore.

"Alright then!" she nodded. "You just focus on growing. I’m going to roast the bamboo hearts I picked yesterday."

She would then see what exactly the difference was between the bamboo from the mountain and the ones that grew last night!