Ye Zhongming was no longer in his previous weak and feeble elderly state but had returned to his normal form. He began attempting to break free from the control actively.
However, to his frustration, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t free himself from Lan You’s branches. It was as if this thing needed his skills to absorb energy.
“Boss! Zhongming! Little Ye!”
Shouts came from outside. Seeing that Ye Zhongming seemed motionless, the others from Cloud Peak were urging him to give up quickly.
What they didn’t know was that Ye Zhongming couldn’t break free at all.
For a moment, Ye Zhongming felt as if his hands had grown together with Lan You.
Forcing himself to stay calm, Ye Zhongming knew it wasn’t yet time to despair. The reason he hadn’t mentally summoned Red Hair to come and chop Lan You down was that he noticed something: among the leaves of Lan You, which had now surged to a height of fifteen meters, a small number of white flowers had bloomed.
The vibrant green and pure white formed a striking contrast.
Flowers?
Lan You was flowering?
The mystery of this plant had already given Ye Zhongming a “personal” experience. He was curious—what would happen after it bloomed?
Ye Zhongming knew that speculating here wouldn’t yield any answers, so he began observing the reactions of the battle beasts around him. This was the most direct way.
Yellow Ball, Yangos, Three-nosed Elephant, Jiubao were all battle beasts Ye Zhongming was very familiar with. He saw them lying quietly with their eyes closed, breathing rhythmically as if asleep.
Compared to before, their breathing had quickened slightly.
This meant they were now absorbing more energy than before.
It seemed that after Lan You bloomed, the energy it produced had increased.
At the same time, now that he had returned to his peak condition, Ye Zhongming also noticed changes underground. Red Hair relayed the deaths of the Rat King couple and the mental communication they had sent earlier to the Cloud Peak King.
Lan You’s roots could kill and absorb level-eight lifeforms?!
Ye Zhongming was utterly shocked. It had just grown from a small seedling to its current size—how could it already possess such formidable power?
Even if the Rat King couple weren’t among the most powerful in the Cloud Peak faction, they had an army of 100,000 underlings. Together, even Yellow Ball or Yangos would have had to tread carefully around them. How could they have been killed so easily and turned into energy for this tree?
Ye Zhongming began to feel worried.
If these roots ran out of things to absorb underground, would they suddenly surge to the surface?
There were over 20,000 mutated lifeforms around Lan You—nearly all of Cloud Peak’s battle beasts were gathered here. If the roots killed them all, Cloud Peak’s strength would instantly drop by a third!
And what if Lan You’s roots weren’t just interested in mutated lifeforms? What if they targeted evolved humans, too? Given how effortlessly it had killed the Rat King couple, wouldn’t all of Cloud Peak be in danger?
This was something Ye Zhongming could not tolerate.
He decided to take action.
If Lan You had only demonstrated its ability to enhance battle beasts, Ye Zhongming would have absolutely chosen to have Red Hair chop it down and burn it. Because this was a ticking time bomb—who knew when it might bring disaster to all of Cloud Peak?
Compared to its benefits, Lan You’s potential threat was far more alarming to Ye Zhongming.
But now, the tree had bloomed. Would it bear fruit? If just the energy it emitted could have such a powerful effect on warbeasts, what about the fruit it produced?
Could it be some kind of divine fruit for mutated lifeforms?
With this speculation, Ye Zhongming became reluctant to destroy the tree simply.
He chose another approach.
Ye Zhongming cast a skill on Lan You.
Intelligence Mark!
This was one of the abilities granted to him by the Nature Essence.
This ability allowed Ye Zhongming to bestow medium-level intelligence upon a mutated plant and… gain control over it.
The cooldown was long, but Ye Zhongming rarely used it.
This was also why he hadn’t panicked earlier—he couldn’t break free from Lan You’s hold on his hands, nor could he stop the Gardener’s Cultivation skill. However, Intelligence Mark was an ability that could be used alongside other Gardener skills.
After using Intelligence Mark, Ye Zhongming felt uneasy. He couldn’t guarantee whether this skill would work on the mysterious and powerful Lan You.
Then, changes began. Ye Zhongming felt his mental energy pouring wildly into Lan You’s trunk.
A herd of mythical beasts stampeded through his mind.
First, it had absorbed his life force—now it was absorbing his mental energy?
Ye Zhongming might not claim to be the strongest in combat, but the Cloud Peak King was a monster when it came to mental energy.
His mental energy surged into Lan You’s body like a tidal wave. Both Ye Zhongming and the other Cloud Peak members noticed the mysterious tree trembling slightly. Moments later, the trembling intensified.
At first, Ye Zhongming didn’t understand what was happening. He thought it was the same as before—Lan You was simply absorbing life force to enhance itself, and now it was doing the same with mental energy.