Free Web NovelChapter 160: Chapter 160: Poisonous Tuber
Kaelen looked at Rowan with an indescribable expression, struggling to squeeze out a question:
"How do you get it out?"
Rowan burst into laughter and said, "This is just the main vine. We take the smaller strands deep inside." He bent down, pointing out a path hidden under the giant rattan vine arch for Kaelen to see: "Here, we crawl in through this entrance. It’s quite spacious inside; let me lead you in."
Rowan reminded Kaelen and the three little ones to be careful, then slowly led them inside. Only then did Kaelen see the familiar rattan plant from his own understanding, and he immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
Fortunately, it was still a rattan plant with vines as small as a ring finger, and the rattan leaves were still normal leaves.
"Be careful where you step. Sometimes the vines crawl so fast we don’t have time to cut them; if you don’t pay attention, you’ll step on them right away." Rowan walked in front, brushing aside the rattan branches swooping down over the path.
Kaelen had to carefully watch both sides while also keeping an eye on his footing. Fortunately, this ancient rattan forest grew in an orderly manner, not blocking the light, so he could clearly see his surroundings. The rattan forest was very vast. They had walked for more than half an hour and reached the end of the path, yet there was still no end to the rattan.
Rowan pointed at the rattan forest blocking the front and said, "It’s still very vast, stretching for several miles. But we don’t need that much rattan, so we only cleared the path up to here."
Kaelen nodded, preparing to follow Rowan back, when Ryder suddenly jumped down from the fabric pouch and darted into the rattan forest. Kaelen panicked and shouted loudly:
"Ryder, what are you doing? Come back here at once!" In his anxiety, he even completely forgot Ryder’s fake name. Luckily, Rowan’s memory wasn’t very good, and he didn’t remember what name the boy had initially introduced himself with.
The two adults hurriedly knelt on the ground, trying to peek inside. Besides rattan vines, there were only more rattan vines; not even a shadow of the mouse cub could be seen.
Kaelen could only close his eyes, intending to use his Divine Energy to track Ryder’s whereabouts. Just as he was about to release his Divine Energy, he heard a rustling sound; the mouse cub was carrying a small sapling back in his mouth. This rattan sapling emitted a dark green light all over its body, completely different from normal saplings.
As soon as Ryder placed the sapling on the ground, the young shoot on top of the sapling immediately quivered, and then its roots instantly splayed out into two, as fast as two legs. The sapling immediately sprang up, using its roots as legs, and bolted away to escape.
Unfortunately, after running only a few steps, it was pinned down by Finnick extending his claws.
The rattan sapling struggled continuously, even transforming out two vines to whip at Finnick. Unfortunately, it was just a weak sapling and didn’t injure Finnick in the slightest. The sapling despairingly laid flat out to throw a tantrum.
Rowan’s jaw dropped, and he rubbed his eyes repeatedly. Then, he pointed in horror at the rattan sapling playing dead under Ryder’s claws, stuttering "it, it, it" for a long time without being able to form a sentence.
Kaelen rubbed his face and patted Rowan’s shoulder: "Don’t be afraid, let’s go back first, and I will explain it to you later."
He extended his fingertip, manifesting a vine to tightly bind the rattan sapling, and led the little ones and the dumbstruck Rowan outside. On the way back, he didn’t forget to scold Ryder for acting recklessly. Being scolded by his Papa, Ryder aggrievedly poked his two fingers together, muttering:
"I just wanted to find something delicious for my younger brothers to eat..."
Kaelen lightly knocked the boy on the head, saying: "That’s still not acceptable. If you find something, tell Papa, and Papa can get it for you. What? Are you afraid Papa will eat it all up?!"
Ryder knew he had done wrong and clung to Papa’s arm, acting spoiled: "I was wrong, Papa. From now on, I won’t run off on my own anymore."
Kaelen gave a cold snort, then heartachingly stroked the mouse cub’s body gently, helping Ryder pull out the thorns still embedded in his flesh and healing the boy’s wounds. Knowing Papa’s anger had subsided, the mouse cub started chirping happily, recounting the process of discovering and catching his rattan sapling to Papa and his younger brothers.
The boy said excitedly, "It’s very cunning, Papa, it even knew to burrow underground to hide from me. But it miscalculated. I’m a mouse, digging dirt is just a flex of the leg for me."
Oliver and Finnick clapped their hands in unison, babbling "ya ya" to give Ryder a compliment.
Kaelen glanced at Rowan, who was still staring blankly beside him, and asked: "You all have lived here for so many years and never noticed anything unusual?"
He had said it before: as long as rattan vines are uprooted, they can no longer spread widely. The reason this tribe failed multiple times to eradicate the rattan vines turned out to be a Wood Spirit playing tricks in the middle of it all.
Rowan blankly shook his head. What unusual point could they possibly discover? Aside from the thorny vines never being fully eradicated, nothing strange had happened. He asked hesitantly, "Sir, what is that thing?"
Also, how could you manifest a vine? Rowan didn’t dare to ask this question out loud.
Kaelen slowly explained it to Rowan: "This world is very vast and full of wonders. We beastmen ourselves are a marvel of creation. Have you heard of the Temple’s hunt-and-kill order and the recruitment order for divergent ones?"
Rowan nodded: "I have heard of it, sir. But I don’t know what the divergent ones in that prophecy are."
Kaelen smiled and said: "That’s because you haven’t met them. A divergent one is someone like me." After speaking, he gently waved his hand. All the rattan vines on both sides of the path instantly rustled, then automatically parted to the sides, widening a path much larger than the original one. "We call this special ability Divine Energy."
Rowan’s jaw dropped, and his somewhat dull eyes gradually lit up, filled with adoration. If Kaelen hadn’t caught him in time, Rowan might have already prostrated and kowtowed.
Kaelen said kindly: "People like me are not many, but not few either. Perhaps we are individuals leftover from ancient times. If we beastmen already have miracles, then why can’t other species?"
"Like that running sapling, right?" Rowan’s voice carried a hint of envy. Why could a tree have Divine Energy, yet he didn’t...
Kaelen smiled: "It is called a Wood Spirit, an intelligence born from plants. Don’t look at it like that and assume it’s formidable, belittling yourself in the process. For a tree to birth intelligence, it must undergo tens of thousands, even tens of millions of years of refinement. Right now, aside from running and planting vines, it’s completely useless. It might not even be able to beat a caterpillar in a fight."
Hearing this, the Wood Spirit trapped in the fabric pouch unwillingly extended two rattan vines to flail about, only to be grabbed by Oliver and tied into a bow.
Rowan looked at the sapling being played with by the children and slowly nodded.
The rattan vine path had been widened, so the two of them walked back much faster. In just about twenty minutes, they reached the exit. Kaelen waved his hand to widen the exit a bit more and stepped outside. Outside, Sane and everyone else were already standing there waiting. The old Chief was still pointing at the giant rattan vines, expressing their tribe’s concerns.
Seeing Kaelen and Rowan step out, the old Chief hurriedly leaned on his cane and stepped forward, scolding his grandson: "There is nothing in the thorny vine forest, why did you lead Sir Cael in there! Did you run out of places to show him?"
Being scolded by Grandpa, Rowan scratched his head and stuck out his tongue. Truthfully, he hadn’t known where to lead the Priest disciple, which was why he brought him into the vine forest. Kaelen took a step forward and waved his hand:
"Don’t blame Rowan; I wanted to go in and take a look myself. Saying it like that, does your tribe still have other scenic spots?"
The vine forest that gave them a headache was called a scenic spot by the Priest disciple. The Chief’s old face flushed slightly, and he quickly said:
"We do! The purple flowers behind the tribe have started blooming; I will lead you all over there to see." Anyway, looking at flowers was still better than looking at vines covered entirely in thorns.
However, when the old Chief led them to the patch of purple flowers he mentioned, the flowers on the plants had completely fallen off, and the leaves had also turned yellow. The old Chief embarrassedly coughed:
"Oh my, a few days ago when I came out to check, there were still flowers... Haha, haha..."
Rowan and the Bramble clan members: "..."
Grandpa/Chief, please stop laughing, it sounds like you’re about to cry.
However, Kaelen completely didn’t care whether the plant had flowers or not. He handed the three children back to Sane, then approached and squatted down to observe the plant. The compound leaves were feather-shaped and alternate; there was also a layer of fine fuzz on the surface of the petioles and stems. It had a characteristic pungent smell.
He immediately waved his hand: "Aaron, dig this plant’s roots up for me."
Before Aaron could step forward, Evan had already taken the lead, transforming his hands into claws and quickly digging the plant’s roots up. His claws even accidentally pierced a soft tuber growing underground.
Kaelen’s eyes behind the mask’s slits raised slightly, filled with teasing. Evan blushed and removed the tuber stuck to his claws, stepping back. Kaelen picked up the pale yellow round tuber from the ground, twirling it in his hand.
Rowan anxiously spoke up: "Sir, please be careful. This plant is poisonous! The thing you are holding in your hand is its fruit, which is also poisonous."
Kaelen held up the round tuber and asked: "Have you all eaten this before? How did you eat it?"
The old Chief looked bewildered: "We just washed it clean and put it in our mouths to eat?"
He didn’t quite understand this Priest disciple’s question. How else could fruit be eaten? Naturally, it was eaten directly.
Kaelen understood and immediately said: "Did eating it cause stomachaches, dizziness, vomiting, and diarrhea? In more severe cases, losing consciousness and dying rapidly within just a few hours?"
The people of the Bramble tribe immediately nodded profusely: "Yes, yes, exactly like that. My Grandpa also passed away because of this fruit!"
Kaelen shook his head, the tassels on his hairpin clinking against each other:
"You all ate it the wrong way. This plant is called a potato; it is a staple food. The entire plant from top to bottom is poisonous, but if prepared properly, it can be eaten. This round thing in the dirt is a tuber, not a fruit. It is also the most precious part of the potato plant. The leaves can be used to make soup or stir-fried, but they can only be picked before the plant flowers. Just like the tuber, they also need to be cooked thoroughly."
Kaelen explained, and then to prove his point convincingly, he told everyone to turn the soil and dig up all the tubers. The wild potatoes grew without human care, so they were extremely stunted, with each plant only yielding about three to four tubers the size of chicken eggs.
"Don’t throw away the roots; dry them out to compost for fertilizer."
After instructing them, Kaelen told a few strong beastmen to carry the baskets of potatoes back to the tribe. Along the way, he asked the old Chief: "Sir Carat, besides this place, are there any other places with potatoes?"
The old Chief answered in confusion: "There are many. Every short distance, there is a patch like this, growing all the way to the small grove on the side of the Fang tribe."
Kaelen nodded in satisfaction. He waved his hand: "If there are still that many, then everyone wash all these potatoes clean for me. Today I will treat everyone to a potato feast!"
