36 The Forgotten Little Flower

The salt had been traded for so much food that, to celebrate, the Mud Mountain tribe members decided to light a big bonfire on the same night.

 Everyone gathered together to dance and feast.

 In the past, the Warriors would worry about running out of food and restrain themselves, but with so much food present, they put aside their inhibitions, devouring so much food that Ye Xi's jaw dropped and he began to seriously wonder whether they were humans or human-shaped dinosaurs.

 In the celebratory air, the chief sat in the crowd, eating roast meat and smiling as he watched everyone else feast. Not a single trace of his usual solemn appearance could be seen.

 Ye Xi sat next to the chief and saw him muttering to himself. He focused and found that he was saying, "Eat more, eat more. Only by eating more can you advance. If you can't even eat your fill, how can you get stronger?"

 Ye Xi turned pensive as he watched the Warriors ravenously devour their food. So the Mud Mountain Warriors were low-level partially because they didn't have enough food.

 But the chief's eyes… were strange, though he couldn't see why.

 Ye Xi suddenly thought about how pig farmers would feed their pigs while urging them to grow a little faster, and he shivered.

 They feasted until the last ray of sunset was about to vanish. Rubbing their bellies, the tribe members returned to the cave to rest.

 The next morning, Ye Xi woke up in his cave and walked to the forest near the tribe to breathe in the fresh air.

 Suddenly, a chilly object began to crawl up Ye Xi's leg. Ye Xi bent down and brought Scaly into his hand.

 Since yesterday, Scaly had been almost attached to him, even coiling around Ye Xi's feet to sleep.

 But Ye Xi found that there was an advantage to having Scaly around: he ate insects. Last night, when he returned to his cave to sleep with Scaly, the insects that normally crawled around the cave were gone. Scaly ate the insects the moment they appeared.

 When Ye Xi woke up, he already noticed that Scaly's thin stomach was bulging and it was coiled up and digesting. It had presumably eaten quite a few insects last night.

 But Scaly had a voracious appetite. Ye Xi put it on his shoulder, planning to find some new food for it on Little Mud Mountain.

 At this time, Plate suddenly walked over. "Ye Xi, did you forget something?"

 Ye Xi was taken aback. "What thing?"

 "You have a beast hide bag that has been moaning and groaning the entire night."

 Pa! Ye Xi slapped himself on the forehead. Oh god, I forgot about the flower!

 When Ye Xi opened up the beast hide bag with trembling hands, he saw that the large and gorgeous flower inside had wilted, and was drooping on the side of its pot, giving off soft groans.

 No… It was still barely alive! Ye Xi stared at it, not knowing what to do.

 In his last life, Ye Xi had enjoyed raising various kinds of plants and flowers, and there was one hibiscus that he particularly treasured. When the hibiscus began blooming in March, it looked very similar to this beautiful man-eating flower. It was why he had bought it without hesitation when he saw it at the trade area.

 But he had failed to care for it…

 Ye Xi caressed its soft head, filled with remorse as he picked up the pot and carefully began to water its roots.

 But even after receiving so much water, the man-eating flower remained listless.

 Ye Xi panicked. There were no medicines that could be given to plants here, and he had no idea how to save it.

 Seeing its wilting appearance, Ye Xi got desperate. He grabbed a chunk of meat, cut it into little pieces, and tried to shove them into its mouth.

 Ye Xi silently thought, In this state, it definitely won't be able to eat it. Let's just treat it as its last meal.

 But a moment later, the man-eating flower suddenly opened its bloody maw, its two rows of sharp teeth biting at the pieces of meat.

 In that swift and fierce action, it was impossible to see any semblance of its weak self.

 This sudden change was like a flower transforming into Godzilla. Ye Xi stared at it in a daze, still trying to digest what was going on.

 Then he saw the flower swallow the meat and wilt back, continuing to weakly moan and pretend to be a dying flower.

 Who was it trying to fool? If he hadn't reacted quickly, he would have lost a chunk of meat from the back of his hand. If it was this energetic, why did it have to act dead?

 A confused Ye Xi began to toss strips of meat to the man-eating flower, and the flower acted like a dog, opening its mouth and accurately catching its food.

 After consuming four catties of meat, the flower finally stopped acting wilted, and contentedly waved around its head, its petals reenergized.

 Scaly wasn't happy to see the man-eating flower fed so much, so it opened its mouth and lightly bit on Ye Xi's skin in protest. And then it shot forward to attack the man-eating flower.

 The man-eating flower's petals trembled, and its giant maw opened into a circle. Its head extended, reaching out and engulfing half of Scaly's body, leaving only the wiggling bottom half outside.

 Not even a cat could have been as nimble.

 In shock, Ye Xi grabbed onto Scaly's tail and pulled back.

 The man-eating flower was stubborn when it came to meat in its mouth, and it refused to let go.

 "Little flower, relax your mouth! Now!" Ye Xi was worried that something would happen to Scaly, and anxiously pulled at the man-eating flower's petals.

 The man-eating flower was unperturbed by Ye Xi's pulling, even swallowing down a little more of Scaly.

 Ye Xi felt worried and helpless. Would he have to use brute force to destroy the flower, to snap its stem? But his hand was made of meat…

 What do I do? What do I do? Ye Xi began to subconsciously tickle the man-eating flower's leaves.

 The small flower suddenly went stiff.

 "Eh?"

 Ye Xi continued to tickle the leaves.

 The flower's body began to tremble, and it moved left and right, trying to escape that demonic claw.

 Interesting! Ye Xi's eyes brightened, and he tickled with even greater force.

 Itchy! So itchy! The small flower trembled fiercely, its petals beginning to tremble.

 The flower spat out Scaly, and then several thin roots extended out of the bottom of the flower pot, acting like feet and whisking the pot away.

 Ye Xi stared in a daze at the fleeing flower, his face looking like he had been struck by lightning.

 It… it grew feet.

 Seeing that the flower was about to run out of sight, Ye Xi scooped up the listless Scaly and rushed after the flower, grabbing the pot before it was able to flee into the jungle.

 The flower saw that it was caught, and its thin feet began to flail in the air while its toothed mouth began to bite at Ye Xi. Ye Xi heartlessly extended two fingers and coldly pinched its mouth shut.

 Little guy, what am I going to do with you?

 After carrying the flower back to the tribe, Ye Xi surrounded it in a fortress of jerky. It stopped running at once, happily grunting as it drew back its roots, appearing ready to stay for the long term. A circle of jerky proved even more effective than the circlet used to restrain Sun Wukong.