Maine held Xie Sen in her arms, pulled up his collar, and gently stroked his face, her eyes filled with heartache.
Xie Sen subconsciously rubbed against Maine's palm. His head was spinning, as if he had turned into a well-risen dough, being steamed in a steamer. As the water boiled, he grew hotter and hotter, his body feeling like it was about to explode.
He thought to himself, "This bun is too unreliable. Once steamed, it will definitely be fake fat, easily squeezed into a thin layer, and it won't bother my stomach even if I eat it." After a long time, he was still burning up. He thought again, "That damned steamed bun forgot to take me out of the steamer! It's going to spoil!"
Xie Sen regained consciousness the next day. He felt relaxed and full of energy, but the stickiness from sweating made him feel particularly uncomfortable.
He also had a strange, inexplicable feeling, as if something had entered his consciousness, but he couldn't see or touch it. For a moment, he thought he was hallucinating.
"Is there anything else that's bothering you?" Maine asked immediately as soon as he opened his eyes.
Xie Sen reached out and touched the stubble on his lips, smiling. "It's nothing, I feel great, I just want to take a shower," he said, somewhat puzzled. "What's wrong with me?"
Maine's hand slid from his face to his left shoulder. Xie Sen instinctively pulled back; he was covered in sweat and hadn't even brushed his teeth since waking up. This guy was so careless! "I'm filthy, I don't want to..."
Maine couldn't help but chuckle, pulling down his collar. "I just wanted to show you your beast markings."
Beast markings? Xie Sen turned his head and saw a sunflower suddenly appear on his previously bare shoulder. The flower wasn't big, just in the middle of his shoulder, bright and vibrant, quite pretty.
"This?" He couldn't care less about the embarrassment from the misunderstanding and couldn't help but be surprised. "This is my beast marking?"
"Yes, you've awakened a second time," Maine said, his expression puzzled. "Your beast marking was on your right shoulder before, why is it on your left now?"
The location of the beast markings on contracted beasts indicates their gender. Both of Xie Sen's contracted beasts were plants. Did that mean the gender of plant beast owners wasn't determined by the location of their beast markings?
Otherwise, it's impossible for them to have plant-beast markings on different parts of their bodies, one on the left shoulder and the other on the right.
Xie Sen understood perfectly well that the peony wasn't a beast marking at all. After a moment's thought, he roughly realized that the sunflower must have been his original contracted plant.
He suddenly remembered what Gu Luo had said: the near extinction of plant-type beast masters was related to the decrease in edible plants.
In his previous life, he rarely ate vegetables, and after his adoptive parents passed away, he wasn't even guaranteed to take his nutrient solution on time. As a plant-type beast master, his lack of nutrition prevented him from awakening his contracted plant.
He couldn't help but sigh. His previous life was truly a pitiful child; failing to awaken his contracted beast before adulthood was the final straw. But in reality, he was originally a rare plant-type beast master.
He rubbed the sunflower, sighed, and thought, "What a rip-off! Now it's irrefutable proof—he really is female!"
Seeing him sigh, Maine assumed he was worried and put her arm around him, saying, "It's alright, no matter where the beast markings are, as long as you're okay."
Xie Sen pushed his shoulder, saying, "I'm covered in sweat, don't get too close." He glanced outside, "Is this the second day?"
"Yeah, are you hungry?" Maine asked.
"Hahaha, I caught a huge fish!" Just then, Long Teng's excited voice came from outside the tent.
Xie Sen sat up, his eyes shining, "Hungry, I want to eat fish." Maine pulled him up, and the two went out of the tent, where they saw Long Teng holding a nearly meter long, already cleaned white fish.
"Ah Sen, are you feeling better?" Long Teng asked quickly when he saw Xie Sen, and Bai Jiao, who was piling firewood together, also looked over with concern.
Xie Sen smiled at them, "I'm fine," and looking at the water dripping from the fish, he asked, "Where's the water? I want to take a bath."
Long Teng pointed to his right, "There's a river over there."
Xie Sen didn't hesitate, looking at Maine, who immediately understood his thoughts and followed him to the riverbank.
The river Long Teng mentioned wasn't far from where they were. It flowed downstream, meandering from upstream to downstream, then turned a corner where its view was blocked by a mountain wall.
Xie Sen confirmed there were no dangerous creatures in the water, took a refreshing open-air bath, changed into clean clothes from his backpack, and felt incredibly refreshed and relaxed.
However, the feeling of something suddenly appearing in his consciousness lingered. Seeing his furrowed brow and puzzled expression, Maine asked, "What's wrong?"
Xie Sen explained his feeling: "I feel like there's something extra in my consciousness; it feels strange."
Maine said, "It should be your connection to the new contracted plant. Didn't you feel this way with the previous contracted plant?"
Xie Sen shook his head. Maine looked at him for a long time, then suddenly hugged him tightly. Xie Sen sensed his unease and blinked, "What's wrong?"
"You're amazing. So many things are different with you. I can't explain it. This feeling scares me. You're right in front of me, but I always feel like you don't belong here."
A flash of surprise crossed Xie Sen's eyes. Maine was really too sensitive. He hugged Xie Sen's waist and laughed, "Don't overthink it. I just have a slightly different constitution than others. By the way, where's the Flying Lion Beast? Did you see it?"
Maine released him, led him back, and answered, "After you fainted yesterday, it fought for a long time, then suddenly left, but returned after a while. Long Teng went to investigate. It wasn't attacking animals, it was attacking that flower."
Speaking of the flower, Xie Sen glanced at the dim light around him, looked up, and saw the forest sky shrouded in shadow—it was that flower.
He saw the back of the flower through the gaps, and in that instant, the image of a sunflower suddenly appeared in his mind. An instinctive impulse rose from the bottom of his heart, wanting to make that flower his.
He was startled, then realized that this enormous sunflower might be his contracted plant.
Just as this thought crossed his mind, a rustling sound rang out, and a huge green leaf, like a ribbon swept by true energy, hurtled towards them from afar.
The leaf was large but thin and extremely soft, automatically retracting to avoid obstacles, carrying a sharp aura as it swiftly reached them.
Logically, a leaf should be fragile, but this one was thin, its edges glowing with a green light, giving it a sharp and dangerous feel.
Maine's expression changed abruptly. He pulled Xie Sen back a step, simultaneously raising his hand to strike the leaf. A sharp dagger suddenly appeared in his empty hand, cleanly severing the tip of the leaf.
The severed part curled up, then suddenly grew a new leaf, restoring it to its original state, as if it had never been severed.
Maine was wary, and Xie Sen summoned his watermelon vine, staring intently at the green leaf.
He felt a rich, natural energy, and his right shoulder burned with heat. He knew that this leaf must be part of that flower, and the wood energy was in the flower's branches.
The green leaf seemed to freeze in place, and Xie Sen sensitively sensed an emotional fluctuation, as if it were feeling distressed or wronged.
He stared at the green leaf in bewilderment. The enormous leaf curled inwards from both sides, gradually forming a long green rod. Then the rod began to bend, twisting into a circle. It continued twisting, and after a while, the distorted pattern lay horizontally two meters away from Xie Sen—QAQ.
Although the green rod had no broken strokes in the middle and many repeated marks, making it appear somewhat messy, Xie Sen recognized it at a glance. He rubbed the bridge of his nose, suddenly realizing that the emotional fluctuations he had just felt might not be an illusion.
He tentatively asked, "Can you understand me?" The green rod, with its carefully crafted expression, swayed from top to bottom.
Xie Sen thought to himself, "Sure enough." Based on his experience with the previous two types of energy, when the energy was in or near animals, he could communicate directly with them because of his internal system.
But this time was different. This time, the energy was in a plant, and plants cannot speak. Now it seemed that although it couldn't speak, it had gained intelligence because of the energy, could understand human speech, and could convey emotions.
However, this was the first time Xie Sen had encountered this situation, and he began to ignore these emotional fluctuations.
He looked at the severed leaf on the ground: "Sorry, you were too fast just now. We thought you were going to attack us, so we hurt you."
His aggrieved mood vanished, the green leaf returned to its original state, slowly extending its large leaf towards Xie Sen, its tip curled inward, concealing its sharp edges and revealing a harmless, curved surface.
Xie Sen reached out to touch it, and the instant he touched it, he immediately felt a strong, vibrant energy, along with a light and cheerful feeling.
The leaf rubbed against his hand, then folded inward, unfolded, and folded again, like a person waving.
Xie Sen roughly understood and asked, "You mean, I can come with you?"
The leaf swayed up and down, conveying a cheerful emotion to Xie Sen; clearly, it was happy that Xie Sen understood its meaning.
Xie Sen hesitated for a moment: "I have friends here. I need to go tell them. Can I wait a moment?"
The leaf swayed again.
So, when Long Teng and Bai Jiao returned, they were followed by an enormous green leaf whose trunk was nowhere to be seen, following Xie Sen wherever he went.
"Wow! What's this?" Long Teng was extremely curious, and Bai Jiao was also surprised, secretly pondering the characteristics of the leaf, trying to recall what kind of plant it was.
Xie Sen said, "It's a leaf of my contracted beast—that big sunflower. It wants me to follow it now, but I don't know where it's going. I guess it's going to its trunk."
Long Teng's eyes lit up, looking reluctantly at the almost-grilled fish: "Shall we eat before we go?"
Xie Sen had the same idea and immediately nodded: "Okay, I'm very hungry!"
The green leaf was very patient, waiting for them to eat, and curiously darted around the four of them, seemingly very curious.
After eating and drinking their fill, the four of them followed the leaf towards the middle. Not long after, they heard the roar of the flying lion beast, but the leaf didn't change its speed, as if it hadn't heard it.
The green leaf only stopped when they could see the green branches.
At the same time, Xie Sen and the others also saw the flying lion beast roaring from time to time. After watching for a while, Xie Sen's mouth twitched suddenly.
Why does it look a bit silly?