Xi Yue walked over to the mutated rice and squatted down, lightly touching its leaves with her finger. The mutated rice remained completely motionlessness.
“Alright, I know you’re a mutated plant. Stop pretending.”
entered a slight tremble, extending one leaf to lightly tickle the center of Xi Yue’s palm.
“Did you come all the way from Yun County?”
The mutated rice waved its leaf up and down, as if nodding its head.
“Yun County should be pretty far from here. How did a tiny thing like you make it all the way over?” Xi Yue was immensely curious.
The mutated rice shook its body and pulled itself straight out of the soil. Its brown root system twisted into two halves, resembling a pair of tiny feet, and it began taking little steps back and forth in the dirt.
After demonstrating, it extended a leaf and pointed to Xiao Ha standing beside Xi Yue.
“Are you saying you walked part of the way, and then came together with Xiao Ha?”
The little rice stalk nodded its head.
Just then, Xiao Ha trotted over to the patch of ground where it had been lying earlier, began digging in the dirt, and eventually trotted back with a black card in its mouth, tapping it with its paw.
“So you two found your way here because you saw the hotel’s business card? You actually know how to follow directions! You’re way too smart!” Xi Yue hadn’t expected these two little cuties to find their way all the way here just by following the hotel business card.
“Awoo, awoo, wuf.” Xiao Ha shook its head, lowering its nose to sniff at the card as if smelling a scent on it.
“Did you find your way here by following the smell on the card?”
Xiao Ha curled its mouth into a smile and nodded.
Speaking of last night, the mutated rice had grown a bit exhausted from walking, so it rooted itself into the dirt to take a nice rest.
Suddenly, a giant dark silhouette pounced toward it; under the moonlight, it only caught sight of a mouthful of razor-sharp teeth. It had been terrified at the time, tightly clutching the card while shivering violently, thinking it was about to be eaten.
The dark silhouette landed right in front of the mutated rice, but opening its mouth wasn’t to eat it—it was to snatch away its precious card…
With its treasure stolen, the enraged mutated rice didn’t care whether it could win the fight or not.
Using its superpower to rapidly grow its leaves, it gave the thief in front of it a chaotic, thrashing beating.
The dark silhouette—which was the mutated Husky—yelped and howled from the whipping, hurriedly rolling over on its back to expose its belly to the little rice stalk.
Truth be told, being whipped by the little rice stalk did hurt, but having undergone apocalyptic mutation, the Husky’s defense was greatly enhanced; after such a beating, it hadn’t even lost a single hair. However, it instinctively felt it was painful, so it surrendered.
Having vented its anger, the little rice stalk felt much better, wrapping its leaf around the card to pull it back.
The surrounding zombies, hearing the commotion, began swarming toward the area. The little rice stalk hurriedly used its leaves to scramble onto the Husky’s back, and the Husky smashed right through the crowd of zombies, making their escape just like that.
Xi Yue picked up the hotel business card from the ground and placed it under her nose to sniff lightly. Aside from a faint earthy smell, there was nothing else. When it was crafted earlier, she hadn’t noticed any particular scent either.
Perhaps only mutated animals or mutated plants could sense it.
Xi Yue recalled that among the seeds Shen Yu brought back were some rice seeds. Earlier, she wasn’t sure if rice could be grown in this soil, but seeing how comfortable the mutated rice seemed staying here, she inquired, “I have some rice seeds. If you’re going to live here, could you help me take care of them?”
The mutated rice nodded, its leaves waving frantically around, though it was unclear what it was trying to express. Seeing Xi Yue’s puzzled gaze, it finally stopped waving its leaves and made a heart gesture at her with them, as if saying *don’t worry, leave it to me*.
Xi Yue very formally extended her left hand to the mutated plant and said, “Little Rice, welcome to the Cosmic Hotel. Please take good care of me from now on.”
The mutated rice lowered its leaf heart, appearing somewhat at a loss. It then extended a leaf, wrapped it around Xi Yue’s left hand, and gave it a brief up-and-down shake.
[Host a cute little creature (1/1) completed! Reward task bundle granted!]
Remembering how she had asked the system earlier why Xiao Ha wasn’t the task target and the system said Xiao Ha wasn’t a little creature, testing it out just now proved that Little Rice really was the cute little creature!
“System, does the farmland here need watering?” Xi Yue looked around, seeing no water source anywhere. The only pond nearby was completely dried up.
[The fountain has been modified by the mysterious spring. When paired with the Never-Barren Fertile Soil Patch, plants will forever grow under the most optimal humidity.]
Such a combination was absolute perfection! It was practically a match made in heaven—even divine matches couldn’t compare to this!
After scattering the rice seeds into the dirt, she bade farewell to the two little guys, preparing to head back.
Just a few steps out, she suddenly recalled something.
“Oh dear, I completely forgot earlier! Xiao Ha, have you not had any water this whole time? I forgot to pour water for you! Come on, let’s get you refilled right away!”
Xiao Ha looked at Xi Yue, tilted its head, and raised a paw—a stream of water trickled out from its paw.
Although there were several guests with superpowers in the hotel, this was the very first time Xi Yue had seen a superpower in action.
As if to prove how formidable it was, Xiao Ha turned the stream of water into a water orb, then into water arrows, and finally into a water dragon that circled once around Xi Yue.
“Heavens! Xiao Ha, you are way too cool! You were already super cool, but you actually have a superpower too! You really are the most amazing dog in the whole world…”
Xi Yue babbled on with a stream of praise for Xiao Ha, making Xiao Ha tilt its head higher and higher, a wicked, proud smirk emerging on its face.
The onlooker beside them, Little Rice, expressed its discontent, waving its leaves to force-grow them. In an instant, the rice seeds Xi Yue had just scattered popped up a tender green sprout from the dirt, growing taller and taller until lush, green grains of rice emerged shortly after.
Little Rice stopped its dancing leaves and returned to its original length. Looking a bit exhausted, its originally upright stems drooped slightly.
Xi Yue squatted down and touched its drooping leaf tip. “Little Rice is so amazing! I’ve never seen a plant grow so fast all at once; Little Rice must be the most formidable plant ever!”
Having heard the praise it wanted, Little Rice stepped back over to where it had been staying, rooted itself in, and contentedly began soaking up the sun.
After saying goodbye to Xiao Ha, Xi Yue jogged all the way back to the front desk.
Shen Yu sat in his chair passing the time with a book. Seeing Xi Yue rush in with a mysterious look on her face, he looked up.
“Did you know? Xiao Ha is a superpower pup! It just performed for me, it was so cool! It actually turned water into water orbs and water arrows, and even turned into a long dragon that circled around me!”
“And, and! Do you know what that extra plant from today was? The one you moved off to the side that looks like grass! You definitely don’t know—it’s actually mutated rice!”
“It just waved its leaves a few times, and the rice seeds I scattered popped right up and grew actual grains! They’re both so amazing! This was my very first time seeing superpowers!”
As Xi Yue spoke excitedly, her eyes shone with unbelievable brightness, her small face flushed with excitement.
Shen Yu placed his book on the table, extended one hand, and opened his palm. A orb of water appeared in his hand, which then transformed into a water flower. The flower slowly froze into an ice flower. Immediately following that, the ice flower melted, revealing a glowing white flower of flame that flickered dynamically, causing the surrounding temperature to rise slightly. Finally, the flame extinguished, giving way to a flower crackling with electric arcs.
Xi Yue’s eyes went wide and round, her mouth slightly agape, her cheeks flushed pink, looking just like a startled little rabbit.
Shen Yu retracted his hand and quietly watched Xi Yue. Xi Yue’s mouth opened and closed, completely at a loss for words. Pouting her cheeks, she ultimately gave Shen Yu a big thumbs-up, then turned her head back to watch TV.