By now, the animals in the space had all been drawn over by the aura of the Tree of Life and gathered curiously around the enormous tree.
The Mandrake picked a leaf up from the ground and tried stuffing it into its mouth. After a few chews, its eyes quickly lit up.
Taking advantage of the moment when Mu You turned away in the distance, it quickly grabbed a handful of leaves from the ground, then turned and ran. It fled all the way to a distant corner, found a hole in the dirt, and buried the leaves.
In the stream on the other side, the Mermaid quietly poked her head out. Seeing the Mandrake hiding its snacks, she could barely contain her curiosity either. She reached out to pick up a leaf that had drifted to the bank and tossed it into her mouth for a taste.
The astringency immediately made her little face scrunch up.
But then she saw the Unicorn lying beside the great tree in the distance, munching leaf after leaf as though eating potato chips and looking thoroughly engrossed in the meal. The Mermaid persevered and chewed a few more times. Although it was still very astringent, she finally tasted the sweetness and vitality within, and it was no longer so difficult to swallow.
Mu You fetched bamboo baskets and, together with Xiao Ya and Lin Xue, collected all the leaves on the ground and those still remaining on the tree.
In the end, they filled five large baskets to the brim.
Partway through, Mu You did a rough count. There were 4,650 leaves in total: 4,014 poor-quality leaves, 550 ordinary leaves, and only 86 fine-quality leaves.
These leaves, which possessed their own aura of life, would not rot over time and were easy to