Chapter 28: Goose, You Have Grown Arrogant

"What are you doing?"

Qin Xiaoyu withdrew her hand, but had no intention of letting the matter go. She curled her finger and struck it hard on the head.

*Thud!*

Tieguo felt as if its head had been struck by an iron hammer. Overcome with dizziness, it flopped onto the ground.

So dizzy. I’m going to become a dead goose.

Qin Xiaoyu looked at her hand, then at Tieguo, and tried to lift a log. It weighed about three hundred pounds, yet she lifted it with ease.

My strength has increased again.

Seeing her fingers turning into roots at a visible rate, she immediately let go and brushed off the bark fragments stuck to her hands.

No need to rush; I must take it slow.

She had only sensed that something was wrong with her body after having that dream where time was rewound and reversed. Coming here tonight was merely to verify a few things.

It was now confirmed: mutant plants contained crystals, and she had a blood ginseng lurking within her own body.

It must be the one from twenty years in the future. When time was reshaped, it had been overlooked along with her, and as a result, they were both flung back together.

Unless she could completely devour it, it would always have the potential to strike back and usurp her position.

Symbiosis? Impossible. Absolutely impossible.

Not to mention whether the blood ginseng would agree, she wouldn't allow it herself. Why would a perfectly good human want to become a plant?

She wasn't entirely sure how powerful the blood ginseng was, but the one thing she did know was that its intelligence was limited, and its sole impulse was to consume her.

Qin Xiaoyu needed to constantly strengthen her physical body in order to suppress it completely and devour it bit by bit.

Perhaps after devouring it, she would no longer be able to use its abilities, but so what? Isn't being a proper human better than being a plant? Humans can eat fresh food, while plants have to be composted.

She picked up a green olive to examine it and tried taking a bite, but the sourness made her plump, collagen-rich face contort in a grimace.

This thing—raw, it’s truly not meant for human consumption.

Pickled as salted vegetables, it’s too salty; processed in nine ways, it loses too much energy. It’s really not something the average person can enjoy.

She glanced at Tieguo and nudged it with her foot.

"Hey, get up and eat."

Tieguo jumped up in a fright, scanning its surroundings warily. It was momentarily stunned to find itself still on the mountain.

"Are you going to eat or not? If not, we're going home," Qin Xiaoyu said.

"Honk!" Yes!

Tieguo snapped back to reality and nodded hurriedly, though the motion made its aching skull throb.

Did I hurt my head? When did that happen?

It ate while pondering, but thinking only made its head ache more, and it couldn't remember a thing. Forget it, no use thinking about it.

Tieguo continued to eat while defecating. Qin Xiaoyu picked large clusters of olives and tore off several strands of mutant ox-tendon grass to use as rope. She also snapped off an olive tree branch as thick as her arm to use as a carrying pole.

These were level-two green olives. While one couldn't eat too many at once, it was fine to pickle them and have a few occasionally.

At the very least, there were over twenty chickens at home, and maybe Huihui would eat them too. In any case, it wouldn't do to be too wasteful.

Seeing that the small bamboo grove had also mutated—and was even emitting a green glow—she walked over to take a look, hoping to dig up some bamboo shoots.

She walked around and inspected the area, but saw no shoots.

Just as she was about to leave, she suddenly thought of something. She turned back and shouted at the bamboo grove, "Can you give me some bamboo shoots? Not too many, just ten will do."

She waited for a while, but there was no response. She figured it was unwilling.

Dissatisfied, she muttered, "How stingy. I even helped you get rid of that pest, the old olive tree, and you can't even spare a few bamboo shoots? One day when I'm in a bad mood, I'll just pluck you up entirely. My house happens to be short of some bamboo baskets anyway."

Before her voice had even faded, bamboo shoots began to spring up from the ground one after another.

They stopped growing once they reached a certain height; any smaller and they would be too tender and wasteful, any larger and they would be too old. The ones before her were just right.

Qin Xiaoyu froze for a moment, then grinned and trotted over to snap off the shoots.

She snapped off thirty in a row. When she wanted to gather more, the shoots suddenly shot upward, growing taller than her in the blink of an eye.

Qin Xiaoyu blinked. These seemed a bit too old now.

Forget it, I'll let it be.

She piled the snapped shoots together and sat down on the side to carefully peel them. As she peeled, she suddenly remembered something and turned to shout at Tieguo.

"Stop pooping everywhere; it's disgusting. Be a good bird and hold it in. If you really can't hold it, come to the bamboo grove to do it. If you dare poop anywhere else, I'll shove a plug in you."

Tieguo: ...

Tieguo was shocked and disbelieving. How could such a cute person say something so deranged?

"Look, a ready-made plug." Qin Xiaoyu held up a bamboo shoot and waved it in front of its eyes.

Tieguo immediately felt its rear tighten, its tail feathers drooping. Sensing something imminent, it dashed toward the bamboo grove at a hundred-meter sprint.

Once Tieguo had left, feeling refreshed, Qin Xiaoyu said to the bamboo grove, "See? I didn't treat you unfairly. Didn't I just provide you with fertilizer?"

The bamboo grove didn't make a sound; it simply didn't want to engage with her.

Qin Xiaoyu didn't mind. If these bamboo shoots tasted good, she would just come back next time.

The shoots, which would have only had about an ounce of flesh after peeling, had multiplied several times in size due to the mutation. She weighed one in her hand; it felt like less than a pound.

Thirty shoots would yield at least twenty pounds, which did seem like a lot. But after a moment's thought, she decided it wasn't much. Huihui might eat some too, and its appetite was truly no small matter.

If they didn't eat enough, they would be drained dry by the panda cub. It was hard on the rabbit, having to nurse a panda.

She glanced at Tieguo, who was still eating diligently. She couldn't imagine how powerful its digestion must be; eating so much hadn't even caused it to burst.

It must have excellent aptitude; there would be much room for improvement in the future.

It was indeed a pity that she had slaughtered it for the pot in her past life.

However, recalling that goose meat from back then... hmm, it was indeed very fragrant. She had eaten it for several meals without ever feeling sick of it.

Perhaps she should talk to her mom when she got back and buy another one from old Mr. Guo at the village entrance—the kind that grows only meat and no brains.

Even if those were powerful, they could never be combat partners; they could only be kept as meat-beasts. Besides, their genes were quite potent, and their offspring wouldn't grow brains either.

*Achoo!*

Tieguo suddenly let out a massive sneeze. The green olive it had just snagged in its beak shot out like a cannonball, striking a bamboo stalk a hundred meters away with a 'snap' and breaking it clean in half.

Tieguo froze, looking completely bewildered.

Qin Xiaoyu was also stunned. Good heavens, its beak was practically a gun barrel—or perhaps even more formidable, considering it was only...

Wait, this guy had mutated.

Good heavens, a single sneeze and it had become a level-one beast.

Looking at its body, which had expanded by a full circle, her eyes lingered involuntarily on its legs. She wondered if such thick goose legs would taste good.

"Honk!"

Tieguo sensed its own changes, feeling a mix of shock and anxiety, not knowing what had happened to it.

Meeting Qin Xiaoyu's gaze, it instinctively looked down at its own legs.