"Bamboo!"
The moment Russell saw the small patch of plants inside and outside Old Charlie's yard, he recognized them as bamboo. And not trees, but grass.
"My lord, you know this strange tree?" Charles asked.
"This isn't a strange tree. It's merely a special kind of grass." Russell smiled as he walked toward the small bamboo grove.
If there was any plant Russell liked most, it was undoubtedly bamboo. Back when he lived on Earth, he returned to his hometown every weekend. For no other reason than to visit the small bamboo grove his family had planted and hide inside it to enjoy the breeze.
Of course, he merely liked it.
He had not reached the point of "rather eat without meat than live without bamboo."
Still, discovering bamboo in Guangguang River Valley—or rather, within Wuyou Snake Manor—was truly an unexpected delight for Russell.
What delighted him even more was that when he touched the bamboo and carefully sensed it, he found that every stalk in the entire grove emitted a faint, nearly imperceptible aura of magic. Not just one stalk, but every single one.
Charles quickly noticed it as well. His eyes widened in shock. "My lord, th-these bamboos are all Worm Grass? How many stalks of Worm Grass does that make?"
"Don't get ahead of yourself." Russell shook his head. "These aren't separate bamboo stalks. This whole bamboo grove is just one bamboo plant. Its roots spread underground, and all these stalks grew from the same root."
Bamboo came in three main types: clumping, running, and mixed.
The bamboo before them was undoubtedly the running type. Its underground rhizomes extended outward to form runners, from which bamboo shoots sprouted, and the shoots then grew into bamboo. It looked as though each stalk grew separately, but they were actually