Chapter 152 Problems and Solutions
I gazed at the deep snow, bewildered and lost.
Wait, is there something wrong with me again? Why did you look at me when you said that?
Confusion swirled in my mind like a tangled ball of yarn. Before I could even sort out my thoughts, I saw Miyuki reach into her bosom, pull out something that looked very familiar, and gently place it in front of me—
Half an apple shimmering with a bluish-gold halo.
My eyes widened in astonishment, and I jumped up from the cushion, the fur on my back standing on end.
It's like waking up in the middle of the night and suddenly finding yourself barefoot on the shore, with half of your body submerged in the turbulent waters of high tide.
Fear, confusion, unease.
Unexpected emotions overwhelmed my mind, enveloping my already chaotic thoughts and making them even more complicated.
"I found this near my bed when I got up this morning."
Miyuki stretched out her finger and lightly tapped the stem of the half apple: "At the time, I thought someone had gone to the kitchen in the middle of the night and picked it up on the way. I was just going to put it back in its place."
"And then what happened?"
Hikari eagerly picked up the conversation, her eyes flashing with suspicion: "I remember that not long after Miss Miyuki left, she heard fighting coming from the direction of the kitchen. Then she was alerted by the neighing of the Pegasus and realized that all the barriers set up around here had failed."
"Could all of this be related to this half apple?"
Miyuki was silent for a few seconds, then shook her head, then nodded: "Perhaps."
She stood up, first taking my arm and pulling me into her embrace, then opening the restaurant's main door to the outside, gesturing for us to look out.
In the howling wind, the white snow sparsely obscured the end of the road. Some kind of dark brown, sturdy thing meandered and occupied the place that should have been the kitchen. The wooden house structure was also catastrophically destroyed in an instant, with only the part of the house near the dining room remaining basically intact.
"Those are the roots and stems of trees that suddenly grew wildly nearby."
Letting me climb onto her shoulder, Miyuki explained, "The kitchen is located near the forest, but there haven't been any major issues until now. But when I was carrying that half apple, before I even got close enough, the trees suddenly started twisting, and their roots grew so long that they spread toward the building, destroying all the outer anchor points with barriers."
"Then, those animals that suddenly went berserk attacked."
She shrugged, indicating that she didn't know the specific reason either.
"Meow, meow (but that doesn't mean this is related to what you have in your hand)."
I glanced down at Alice, who was trying to slack off by looking down at her long ears, and then I saw her turn her back and suddenly go to pull up the newly sprouted blades of grass.
Hikari, on the other hand, understood my meaning smoothly without a translator. She quietly approached me, drawing me back to her, before whispering, "There's another reason why we might suspect these two things are related." She pointed to the ground. "Look, Mr. Yumi. All the wood here is blooming."
"Meow?"
I did as I was told, looked down and around, then pulled on my ear.
Just as she said, from the entrance near the restaurant all the way to the destroyed kitchen, all the dead wood that should have been processed, dried and thoroughly treated was now covered with a thin layer of new green. Some parts even had lush grass sprouting up, and even small flowers in light pink, light blue or pale yellow blooming. The winding path looked like the faint marks left by snakes that had crawled and lingered on it.
Now, the lush new flowers and grasses are most abundant near where Shen Xue stands, with the wild grass almost reaching halfway up her calves.
Looking back towards the direction leading to the other side of the bath, although there was still a sparse patch of grass, it mostly showed signs of decay, scattered sparsely to the left and right.
I tried to envelop the half of the bluish-gold apple that Shen Xueping held in his palm, and the familiar fluctuations of life energy echoed in my senses.
But compared to the one I'm familiar with, the total amount contained within it is less than half. It's like comparing an ocean to a small lake; even though this half can now influence the ecosystem of a region, it still can't compare to its original, complete form.
But... that's true. If what I'm seeing is the fully grown version, the area being destroyed by the rapidly growing vegetation wouldn't just be the kitchen. We might have been buried beneath the gigantic jungle long ago, passively waiting for predators to come to us.
Then another problem arises.
Is this half-greenish-gold apple the one I've seen before? If so, how did it suddenly appear here, and how did it come to be? If not, where did it come from?
Hikari and Miyuki clearly didn't know much about it, let alone Annie and Aian, who were indifferent to it to begin with. I've never seen anything like it anywhere else either.
I have a feeling that things are getting a bit complicated.
I glanced at the void behind me, but didn't sense that my mentor intended to intervene.
“By the way—” Annie’s voice came from inside the house, “Have you finished looking outside? If you’re done, come in quickly and close the door. It’s freezing.”
This guy had no intention of joining in the fun. He sat on either side of the fireplace with Aian, who was quietly reading a book. He was wrapped in a thick quilt, warming his hands and cracking nuts that he didn't know where they came from.
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