Five Frozen Centuries - Chapter 14

Chapter 14: Vegetative People
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

At the current state of Wei Huo’s body, the Strength Bracer did not aid him much. However, for new players who would have just come out of the time halt, the Strength Bracer would be extremely useful to them.
It was reasonable for Wei Huo to be dismissive of the Strength Bracer. He was over a hundred years ahead of the other players! 1
“Let’s hope humans will come out of the time halt soon!” Wei Huo said to himself before embarking on his journey to the south with his beasts.
The journey took three long years!
They came to a stop in their journey not because they arrived at the southernmost of the northern continent, but because something had happened.
There were multiple strong earthquakes over the last three years; the latest one was then the Earth cracked. There were also a few other earthquakes that were caused by the splicing of continents. The Northern, Southern, Eastern, Western, and Central continents were coming to their final form. The Central continent had already arrived at its designated location and stopped. It was located near the equator, and Wei Huo believed that the animals and plants on that continent were feeling extremely hot.
The Northern continent Wei Huo was on was still moving towards the north. Wei Huo estimated that there was still some time until it arrived at its designated location. Nonetheless, the temperature on this continent was already at a horrifying low with half of the continent already covered in snow!
Based on the map, Wei Huo was not far from the southernmost seashore of the Northern continent. He should be arriving in about a year or two.
However, they stopped on their journey as something weird happened tonight.
Wei Huo had gone into a jungle with his beasts in the evening. They would usually start the fire before anything else, so the beasts instinctively went to find firewood. After being by Wei Huo’s side for three years, they picked up a few survival skills of their own. They carried quite a bit of luggage on them. There were water bags, wooden pots, food, and some pickled meat. On top of that, there were wooden armors on their heads and bodies with scratches and prints on them. 1
They had been through danger time and time again over the past three years. Terrifying predators were everywhere as the speed of biological evolution had been accelerated. The preys of the past had become today’s terrifying predators. None of them should be underestimated.
After coming back with firewood and having Wei Huo light it up, they found a flat and warm spot to lay down. They were tired after traveling for the day.
Wei Huo sat down with his legs crossed. He wanted to take this opportunity to train his Qi.
His face had never aged as he maintained the look he had when he was 18. His body did not grow any taller either, and he seemed like he was of the average size of not too bulky or skinny. However, his cells were full of energy and strength, and his muscles were extremely powerful. 1
He had been the one taking down powerful enemies along the way. All that only made the beasts even more determined to continue following him.
‘What was that saying again? It did not matter if your opponent was weak, what mattered most was having a strong teammate1.
‘Anyway, no one could be as weak as us.’ 4
The trio had never taken turns during the night watch. Wei Huo would usually be meditating and training his Qi. During that process, his senses would have been heightened allowing him to even detect hostility from his surroundings. If there were any beasts about to attack them, he would wake them all up immediately.
Both beasts could rest peacefully with Wei Huo by their side. However, things were different tonight.
Wei Huo’s automatic detection system failed for the first time!
When the bonfire was put out in the middle of the night, the enemies hiding around them launched an attack all of a sudden. Wei Huo did not respond at all. He only hit back when his enemies were right in front of him.
Wei Huo felt like he had punched something hard. It felt like a wooden stick. However, the wooden item was broken in half by his strong force. Wei Huo could barely see who were the assaulters in the middle of the jungle at night. 1
The beasts were in a more pathetic state. Before they could even make sense of what was happening, both of them were grabbed from above and growled wildly after being awakened. However, it was of no use. Python-like weapons had grabbed and curled them up in the air.
The weapons were attempting to get Wei Huo as well. Due to him being small, quick, and so strong that they could not even touch him. There were also wooden sticks coming at him, but all of them were destroyed by Wei Huo. 1
When Wei Huo rushed out of the jungle, he could finally see his attackers under the moonlight.
They were huge trees!
They were walking Tree-Men! 1
Each tree was over 20 meters tall, and all of them had two legs, two hands, huge canopies, and a pair of eyes and ears in the middle of their bodies. Some of the Tree-Men seemed like they had just emerged from the soil and as they started walking upright, their roots began shrinking back into the insides of their legs.
The other Tree-Men which had yet to emerge from the soil used their huge hands to pull themselves off the ground, and their legs out of the soil.
Wei Huo’s eyes widened in shock.
‘Are these Tree-Men animals or plants, or perhaps… Vegetative people?’ 8
Wei Huo did not know how to describe them. They could either be human-shaped plants or plant-shaped humans. They seemed like they were quite interested in Wei Huo. They surrounded him while one of the Tree-Man still had the beasts tied up in its vines. Their luggage as well as daily provisions started falling onto the ground. Those Tree-Men stared at the things curiously and stopped moving.
Wei Huo’s brows scrunched together. He saw the Information Feed of the Tree-Man which showed that they were all at the rank of ‘Slightly Abnormal’. In other words, each of their powers was on the same rank as his own, and there were hundreds of them around him!
What could he do?
If he chose to escape without rescuing the beasts, he could make it out. However, if he chose to rescue them… Perhaps none of them would make it out. 1
As Wei Huo was deep in thought, one of the Tree-Man bent over with his head lowered and extended his fingers. He started shaking himself causing leaves and flowers to fall down. A few red and yellow flowers landed in front of Wei Huo.
Wei Huo was confused. “???”
‘What’s going on?’
Wei Huo did not see any mouths on those Tree-Men. In other words, they were unable to speak. However, it seemed like they had their own mode of communication.
Wei Huo was pretty good at biology. He knew that plants usually communicated with each other by spreading their pollen. However, he did not know what kind of trees were the Tree-Men in front of him. Their canopies had all kinds of flowers on them. It seemed like those were their organs of communication. 5
There was just one problem. Wei Huo could not communicate with them!
The biological evolution had indeed been accelerated. Not only did the IQs of animals increase, but even plants had also evolved into being capable of moving as well.
Within the next moment, Wei Huo sneezed. The Tree-Men was indeed communicating through pollen, and the pollen around the area was getting dense. Moments later, Wei Huo realized that the Tree-Men waved the red flowers on them followed by the yellow and purple ones intermittently.
Could it be that… was how they communicated?
Wei Huo picked up a red lower and waved it.
All Tree-Men immediately focused their attention on Wei Huo.