Chapter 49 Red Mist

Chapter 49: Chapter 48: Red Mist

"A mutation?" Han Ning’s expression shifted, and he aimed his palm at the tomato seedling once more.

A pillar of emerald-green light enveloped it.

[Natural Blessing (Basic Level) Skill Level +1, Current 33/200]

WHOOSH.

The moment the green light seeped in, the red glow at the roots of the tomato plant suddenly flared up like a fire doused in oil. It emitted a warm, peculiar red light that pulsed steadily like a heartbeat.

The emerald-green plant trembled gently, slowly growing another five or six centimeters until it reached just over eighty centimeters tall before finally stopping. Immediately after, the few unripe, finger-sized green tomatoes on the branches seemed to be fast-forwarded by an invisible hand. Their color changed at a visible rate, transitioning from a pale green to light yellow, then rapidly to a vibrant orange...

"Are they about to ripen? That’s so fast!"

Just as the color was about to shift into a ripe red, it was as if a pause button had been hit. The transformation came to an abrupt halt.

"?"

Han Ning lowered his gaze. He discovered that the soil around the tomato seedling’s root system was losing its moisture and color at an astonishing rate. The once relatively moist potting soil turned dry and cracked in the blink of an eye. All of its moisture had clearly been completely drained by the tomato plant, turning it into a handful of lifeless, parched dirt.

"Has it drained all the nutrients from the soil? Without any nutrients left, the transformation must have stopped," he wondered.

Realizing what was happening, Han Ning dug out the dried dirt and hurriedly grabbed a few bags of nutrient-rich potting soil he had scavenged from other residents. Tearing open the bags, he quickly filled the pot with the dark, organic-rich soil and carefully buried the tomato seedling’s roots once more.

Just as he expected. After adding the fresh black soil, the color of the tomatoes continued to change. However, the hue only deepened slightly from a pale yellow. In just a dozen seconds, the soil burying the roots dehydrated, turned a dull gray, and hardened into clumps right before his eyes. The few fruits on the branches remained a yellowish color, showing no signs of fully ripening.

"Again!" Han Ning kept digging out the dry dirt and replacing it with fresh soil.

With every repetition, the fresh soil seemed to dry up even faster. Bag after bag of potting soil was depleted. Finally, after burning through dozens of pounds of potting soil and nearly exhausting his entire stockpile, the process stabilized. When Han Ning packed in the fresh soil for the last time, the desiccation finally slowed down, returning to a relatively normal state. The tomato plant in the pot ceased its frenzied absorption.

A few fist-sized, dark-red tomatoes now hung steadily from the branches. They looked so plump they were practically dripping with juice, exuding an indescribable allure.

Most striking of all, an incredibly thin layer of mist began to rise from the surface of each tomato, swirling like a faint red veil. This mist didn’t look like ordinary water vapor; rather, it seemed to be some kind of Energy emanating from the fruit itself. It lingered around the tomatoes, giving them an extraordinarily mysterious appearance.

"It’s done? Is this the optimization effect brought about by the Natural Blessing?" Han Ning swallowed hard. Reaching out, he carefully selected the plumpest-looking tomato, gently pinched its stem, and plucked it from the branch.

The very moment the fruit detached from the plant—

PFFT!

A substantial stream of dark-red mist sprayed out from the stem of the freshly picked tomato. The red mist rapidly spread, enveloping a radius of over a meter around Han Ning and forming a faint red haze.

HISS!

Snow Cake, who had been staring closely at the tomato, couldn’t help but sniff the air. It inhaled a tiny amount of the red mist and suddenly let out a loud sneeze. Its body shuddered violently, and a strikingly human-like expression of confusion crossed its face.

HOWL!

It instinctively scuttled back a few steps, distancing itself from the red haze, and stared at the tomato in its master’s hand with clear unease.

Han Ning didn’t feel particularly uncomfortable himself. He just noted that the red mist carried a strange, faint scent—a mix of petrichor and some kind of spicy plant. He wondered how a tomato could act like a chili pepper, capable of smoking Snow Cake out.

He looked down at the red-mist-emitting tomato in his hand, then glanced at the retreating Snow Cake as his mind raced. "This mist... Snow Cake is having a huge reaction to it. It is obviously harmful to it, or at least causes severe discomfort, but it hardly affects me. Is it a difference in our physiques, or do I have some kind of immunity because I am the Druid who accelerated its growth?"

He decided to test the red mist itself first. He tried waving his hand through it. The mist was scattered by the airflow, but it would quickly begin gathering again within a certain radius around the tomato.

"Huh? Does it have a cohesive property?" Intrigued, Han Ning carefully placed the tomato on the floor in a corner of the balcony.

Something magical happened. The pervasive red mist actually acted like a miniature smoke generator. Using the tomato as its center, it stably maintained a faint red ring of fog with a radius of over a meter. The red mist no longer diffused irregularly; instead, it formed a relatively stable, hemispherical zone.

"It can form a fixed-range Fog Area..." he mused. "But what exactly is the purpose of this mist?"

He was in no rush to eat the tomato, wanting to figure out the mist’s purpose first.

"Snow Cake, come here." Han Ning beckoned, pointing at the red mist. "Slowly approach it. Tell me how it feels."

"AROO?"

Snow Cake was visibly resistant. However, under Han Ning’s command, it carefully shuffled its body forward. Its nose twitched continuously as it inched closer to the edge of the faint red mist.

The moment the tip of its snout touched the thin layer of red mist—

"AROO!" Snow Cake recoiled at lightning speed and sneezed again. A look of intense aversion and discomfort returned to its eyes.

Judging by the emotions transmitted back through the Soul Link, the mist seemed to make it feel extremely "choked out" or "nauseous," triggering an instinctive urge to flee. It irritably pawed at the ground.

"It is not physical damage. It is more like an interference or stimulation affecting the Spirit..." Observing Snow Cake’s reaction, Han Ning formed a preliminary hypothesis. "Does this red mist create a zone that causes intense discomfort or even outright repulsion in other creatures? Like some sort of... biological repellant?"

This discovery completely invigorated his Spirit. He wondered if this red mist could repel monsters. For instance... those annoying creatures from the Fog Area? Unfortunately, he couldn’t test it out right now. He would have to wait until he entered the Fog Area tomorrow to run a proper experiment.

Next up was the tomato’s flesh. He carefully broke off a fingernail-sized chunk. The flesh was translucent like red chalcedony and brimming with juice. It exuded a strange, sweet aroma that was several times richer than a regular tomato, interwoven with the same faint, spicy, earthy scent found in the red mist.

"The red mist doesn’t affect me, so eating the flesh should be fine too, right?"

Just to be safe, Han Ning opened his mouth and bit off a tiny piece. The flesh was slightly tart at first. Then, an indescribable, refreshing sweetness swept across his taste buds, far surpassing any fruit he had ever eaten.

However, this sweetness lasted for less than a second.

BOOM!

"Holy shit!"

An indescribable wave of dizziness rushed straight from his stomach to the top of his head.