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"What is this..." What greeted his eyes was a patch of newborn grass; as far as he could see, there was only desolation.

Lin Chenxing was instantly plunged into deep thought by surprise. Why was he seeing these things? Where was his body? Why was he here?

After observing carefully for a while, Lin Chenxing discovered that his current body was actually a newly sprouted Bamboo Shoot, and this shoot of his was growing rapidly. In just a few hours, the Bamboo Shoot had transformed into a tender, slender bamboo.

Lin Chenxing used his current height to observe his surroundings once more. It turned out that very close by, the traces of a Bamboo Forest having been felled still remained; strips of bamboo roots had been dug up, scorched by fire until they cracked, and stripped of all vitality.

However, the area outside the Bamboo Forest had not been cleared, as the bamboo roots had simply snapped off within the forest.

Lin Chenxing was somewhat puzzled: why had he turned into a Bamboo Shoot?

After recalling the memories of the Bamboo Forest, he learned that when only the very last stalk remained, the Bamboo Forest had made a decisive choice. It extracted a portion of its nutrients and channeled them into a segment of bamboo root, using that root to transport both the nutrients and the consciousness of the Bamboo Forest outward, eventually giving birth to a new Bamboo Shoot outside the forest to ensure its survival.

However, during the transport of nutrients, Lin Chenxing had been blown away by the exploding bamboo. As luck would have it, the spot where Lin Chenxing's head landed happened to coincide with the place where the bamboo root had surfaced.

Although the consciousness of the Bamboo Forest had not yet reached the level of a human, its volume was still immense. Under the impact, the consciousness of the Bamboo Forest leaked out, directly crashing into Lin Chenxing's sea of consciousness.

Although this surge of consciousness was quickly retracted, it inadvertently carried away a portion of Lin Chenxing's own consciousness, which was the primary reason for his coma.

This portion of Lin Chenxing's consciousness wandered continuously within the consciousness of the Bamboo Forest, absorbing the forest's consciousness—which had not yet re-coalesced—along with his own scattered consciousness. Gradually, it grew larger and larger, eventually gaining dominance within the Bamboo Forest's consciousness and successfully merging all of it.

This consciousness was then transported by the Bamboo Forest to this Bamboo Shoot located outside the forest.

After Lin Chenxing awakened—or rather, after the consciousness of the Bamboo Forest awakened—this Bamboo Shoot finally received the stimulus, beginning to unleash the accumulated nutrients all at once, causing the shoot to grow rapidly.

After sorting through his memories, Lin Chenxing finally arrived at this despairing fact: he had turned into a shoot, and now, he had become a stalk of bamboo.

Was there any way to return his consciousness to his original body? Lin Chenxing had been pondering this constantly.

He dove back into his sea of consciousness, beginning to explore the secrets within, hoping to find a way back.

After searching for some time, he finally discovered something: on his current consciousness, there was a faint, flickering thread connecting to the distance.

Following this thread, Lin Chenxing moved forward continuously until he finally reached the edge of his sea of consciousness, watching as this thread pierced through the barrier and drifted off to who knew where.

But Lin Chenxing had a guess: the other end of the thread was his own body. As long as he could break through the barrier, he could successfully return.

However, he was not strong enough yet. At the very least, his current mass of consciousness was too large and not condensed enough to break through the obstruction.

Thus, Lin Chenxing began to try and control his mass of consciousness to change shape. This step was indeed successful, though he often exhausted himself before he could hold it for long.

This made Lin Chenxing realize that the nutrients his current body could provide were still too few; he had to absorb nutrients from the outside world to allow himself to grow again.

After returning to the bamboo body, Lin Chenxing began to try and control the bamboo leaves and branches. He started by controlling a few leaves to change their orientation, slowly beginning to vibrate all the leaves without moving the bamboo stalk or branches.

Once this technique succeeded, Lin Chenxing began to control the bamboo leaves to kill small animals that ran near him, absorbing their nutrients, while simultaneously using his bamboo roots to entwine the roots of other plants to seize even more nutrients.

Several days later, Lin Chenxing had finally grown from a small bamboo into a tall one, but the plants that had originally existed around him had withered away in a large patch.

The nutrients he had obtained were now sufficient—enough for him to begin attempting to condense his consciousness into a cone shape capable of breaking through the barrier. Upon successfully breaking the barrier, Lin Chenxing felt a massive suction force coming from the direction of the thin thread, and before he could prepare himself, his consciousness was rapidly pulled away.

Lin Chenxing was plunged into pitch-black darkness once again.

Amidst his constant attempts to wake up, voices reached his ears.

"Miss Xi, look, the Boss's hand moved."

"Finally. I didn't expect him to wake up at such a critical moment. Right, keep this a secret. Don't let it spread, especially to that side. Just act as if you saw nothing, understand?"

"Yes, Miss Xi, rest assured, I know what to do."

As Lin Chenxing struggled to wake up, a trace of doubt began to stir in his heart.

What exactly is going on? Why keep it a secret? And which side is 'that side'? This Miss Xi... judging by the voice, it should be that Xi Qing, but I don't have much of a connection with her. Why is she here taking care of me?

These doubts lingered in Lin Chenxing's mind, making him extremely anxious.

But being unable to wake up was useless; none of his questions could be resolved. Lin Chenxing could only grit his teeth and try even harder to wake himself.

After another unknown number of days passed, Lin Chenxing finally felt his eyelids. He wanted to pry them open, but even a tiny slit left him utterly exhausted.

During these days, he heard more news.

For instance, Gao Zheng's injuries had become more severe; how arrogant the subordinates of He Qishun were; what new species of monsters had been discovered; and which regions had been recaptured.

There were also some terms he found very strange, such as Beast General, Battle General, and Lord.

These terms made him feel exceptionally familiar, yet he couldn't recall what they were, only feeling in the dark that they should be related to his past life.

It seemed that during the time he was in a coma, everything had changed, as if he had arrived in a new world.

He began to memorize these terms, analyzing and calculating, wanting to find a breakthrough from these conversations.

However, it was not so easy to find one; aside from the names of people, everything else was different from before he fell into a coma.

Finally, on this day, his eyes adjusted to the light and successfully opened. He rolled his eyes, looking at the decorations in the room, which were exactly the same as before, and his heart surged with excitement.

"He's awake! Miss Xi, the Boss is awake."

A young girl in a nurse's uniform called out happily, though her voice was not loud; one probably wouldn't have heard it outside this room.

Lin Chenxing looked in the direction the nurse was looking. A girl wearing armor, with her hair styled in a ponytail with ox-horn ornaments, was standing by the window. Under the sunlight, she slowly turned around.

So beautiful, Lin Chenxing thought to himself. Why hadn't I noticed it before? He couldn't help but start to doubt himself.

He watched as Xi Qing walked over, the slight frown on her forehead gradually smoothing out.