Reincarnated as A Bamboo

Chapter 9: Savage Evolution

After the Adorable Little Snake swallowed the Spiritual Fluid, it paused for a moment, spiking Lin Ming's concerns.

Luckily, it quickly slithered along the bamboo branch to the ground to play with the wolf pups, looking in high spirits. He relaxed a little bit.

He proceeded to keep a close watch over it for some time, and felt further relieved as it seemed the Adorable Little Snake did not experience any side effects.

By the looks of it, perhaps the Spiritual Fluid only boosted vitality and heightened energy levels. There didn't seem to be any drawback to consuming it.

Feeling assured, Lin Ming produced a few more droplets of the fluid to feed the wolf pups, who eagerly awaited. They lapped up the liquid, clearly pleased and enjoying themselves. He could not help but playfully lift them up with his branches.

...

Before he could quite realize it, a month had already gone by.

Ever since moving to the small lakeside, Lin Ming had taken care to keep track of time.

This made things a little unpleasant for a large boulder by the lake not too far from him.

Every day, he would utilize his bamboo whip, which had drastically strengthened, to carve out a deep gully. Later, as he grew more skillful with the whip, he would simply carve day trackers on the boulder.

After Lin Ming brought himself to the lake, his growth was no longer stunted. The speed at which he grew might even be described as 'savage'!

Today, he had reached a height of nearly forty meters and a diameter of close to 30 centimeters. He may not be at the level of the giant bamboo in the forest from before, but he was still quite large.

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From the bottom to the top, the color of his stem transitioned from dark shades of green to lighter and brighter tones. Above nearly a hundred branches, tens of thousands of emerald-green leaves swayed with the wind.

Now that he had gained so many Evolution Points, Lin Ming had already completely evolved his branches.

Along with his growth, his branches had nearly doubled in length to reach almost six meters!

Now, he could control nearly a hundred branches while making movements like curling and twisting branches together, or pulling out his bamboo whip -- which created a noise that shook even mountains and valleys!

Of course, Lin Ming had already tested the limits of destruction that this whip could cause. 

A day ago, he used an extremely powerful taproot to dig out an obtrusive boulder that was half-buried in soil.

After the bamboo branches curled themselves up as far as they could go, unrolling them could strike a blow resembling a strong gust of wind.

The solid boulder was blasted into two halves by this blow!

Being strong, however, did not equate to being powerful. If he could perfectly control his other abilities, only then would he be truly powerful.

As of today, the whip could easily be used to engrave the boulder with a small mark for every day. If he wanted to, he could also smash the boulder into tiny pieces. He possessed skillful and comfortable power control over the ability.

Right now, his roots were deep underground.

Unlike ordinary bamboo, Lin Ming did not utilize bamboo's biggest weapon, 'reproduction', to essentially clone himself.

For reproduction, roots grew horizontally with some empty spaces in the middle. There were many dense knots, where fibrous roots and shoots grew out of. Some grew out of the ground as bamboo plants of their own, while others simply grew horizontally and developed into new underground stems.

Hence, bamboos could spread out in a forest, or even become the forest themself.

The reason Lin Ming did not develop this ability was that he chose the 'Movement Type' over the alternative given by the System.

He felt he had made the right choice.

For instance, if he had initially chosen the 'Strength Enhancement Type' he would be imprisoned at his starting point and could only absorb a very thin Spiritual Aura. Even if all the giant bamboos surrounding him were to be uprooted, he definitely would not be able to reach his full potential there.

He remembered a saying 'trees move to die while humans move to live'. However, Lin Ming had moved twice and arrived at the lakeside where there was a dense Spiritual Aura. This could surely be regarded as 'moving to live'.

Due to his selection of 'Movement Type', he could not develop his 'reproduction'. Although that was a bit regretful, it was not all that bad after careful consideration.

Continuing to grow increasingly larger and stronger was now his main focus. 

Although it had rained for a long period this month, Lin Ming's almost completely degraded 'reproduction' did not respond at all to this.

He did not hold any hope for that. Instead, he extended his taproots even deeper into the ground, making short work of any hard rocks that tried to block his way.

The large rocks were dug out and flung out into the distance, while the smaller rocks were taken care of with even more ease.

After not too long, the taproots broke through to about a depth of a hundred meters, and were met with ice-cold groundwater veins!

"Hm, this feels like Spiritual Aura?"

Lin Ming noticed that the inexplicable substance absorbed by his roots from the underground river was rather dense.

"It seems like I've come to a place in the valley with the densest Spiritual Aura"

With that, he finally decided that he should properly take root in this place to strengthen himself.

"Hiss"

Adorable Little Snake entangled itself around the tip of a bamboo branch and looked up at the sky, unsure of what he was looking at.

Adorable Little Snake had vastly grown during the month.

Compared to its initial earthworm-like size, it was now about five centimeters thick and one meter long. It was certainly nothing to scoff at.

Its scales which have now completely become white dazzled in the sun and reflected silver rays of light. Under its ruby red-colored eyes grew two spots of emerald green.

Its scales were now white and easily caught sun rays to reflect them. Under its ruby eyes grew two spots of emerald green. Its fangs, which were usually almost invisible, had grown a lot sharper.

Adorable Little Snake no longer needed Lin Ming's help to find food. It could now dig through the soil to scour for bugs or catch grasshoppers. It could even wander twenty or thirty meters away by itself, occasionally catching rabbit-sized mice to enjoy when it returned.

He was not sure if it was because of the Spiritual Fluid, but he was sure that the Adorable Little Snake had grown much smarter than it used to be.

Sometimes, the little guy would set a prey by his culm, as if it wanted to share with Lin Ming. That warmed his heart.

Then, there were the wolf pups.

They would no longer be regarded as wolf pups today.

They had essentially grown into adult wolves, bodies reaching a length of one meter and a half. Their long grey-black fur was soft and shiny, and the soft white fur on their face, abdomen, and legs resembled satin.

They also happened to bear a white diamond-shaped patch of fur on their grey foreheads, which looked slightly odd.

Their fangs had too grown sharper, the canines sticking out of their mouths especially taking on a terrifying appearance. It would deter almost anyone looking to pick a fight with them.

As for their golden pupils, they now carried more ferocity and viciousness. A complete change from the cuteness the eyes evoked before.

Nowadays, the seven wolves would band together to hunt for food in the forest regardless of whether it was day or night. Lin Ming could hear their loud howls echoing in the valley from time to time. After the hunt, they would return to his side to sleep and play.

For now, Lin Ming did not know if the rapid growth of his pets in such a short span of time was due to their daily consumption of Spiritual Fluid, or something else.

However, he understood that they were already fundamentally different from any snakes or wolves that he knew or had heard of in the past.