Chapter 5: Did They Even Ask Me? They Just Slammed A Spiritual Sense Contract On Me!
Ge Bai drove the small electric scooter alone, heading along the main road toward the depths of the Blue Star Spirit Plant Garden.
The map showed that the Spirit Plant Garden and Botanical Garden were connected by two entrances, right at the northeast corner and northwest corner.
She was now entering from the northeast corner of the Spirit Plant Garden, passing through the Rainforest Area, Forest Area, Grassland Area, Desert Area in sequence, and finally arriving at the Plateau Area before returning to the Spirit Plant Garden from the northwest corner.
Not long after entering the Rainforest Area, Ge Bai activated the Spirit Plant Communicator state.
Compared to the noisy and bustling seedling nursery before, the Spirit Plant Garden inside seemed exceptionally serene.
Perhaps the spirit plants here had lived too long and no longer had much desire to chat.
When she slowed down the scooter or simply got off to touch the branches of certain spirit plants, she could almost hear the faint breathing sounds and rhythmic snoring sounds of the spirit plants.
The sounds these spirit plants made were even smaller than the sounds of birds and beasts flying in the garden.
This also explained why wild spirit plants were hard to contract.
After all, they were sleeping; trying to contract directly? If the spirit plants weren’t even awake, there’d be a ghost of a chance for a successful contract.
Ge Bai wasn’t in a hurry, wandering through the garden like a real tourist, patiently looking around curiously and admiring the sights.
It was still contract peak season recently, and unlike the lively neighboring Spirit Plant Garden, Ge Bai didn’t encounter any other visitors along the way, as if she were the only human in the entire Spirit Plant Garden.
After driving for more than 10 minutes, the surrounding scenery changed accordingly.
She left the Rainforest Area and entered the Forest Area.
The spirit plants in this area were far less crowded and lush than in the Rainforest Area, but they had their own unique characteristics.
Ge Bai kept the Spirit Plant Communicator state on.
Suddenly, she was attracted by a noisy sound not far from the roadside by the lakeside.
“Banyan Brother! Can’t you control your branches! They’re about to droop onto me again.”
Ge Bai looked toward the sound; the lake water rippled with green waves, and on the small island in the center, a tall banyan tree was rooted right in the middle.
The banyan tree’s crown spread like an umbrella, with many branches diverging from the trunk, intricate and complex, like a huge green net; the twigs drooped down into the soil, merging with the roots, forming a dense green shade that covered most of the island’s space.
And the speaker was a Weeping Ancient Willow standing abruptly at the edge of the island.
The ancient willow’s main trunk was thick and straight, with branches extending upward, dividing into countless slender twigs that hung lightly down, almost touching the lake surface.
Although its occupied area and thickness couldn’t compare to the banyan tree, just from the Weeping Ancient Willow variety itself, it was quite a well-grown specimen.
Ge Bai parked the small scooter by the roadside and found the corridor leading to the lake heart island, walking toward the island.
The ancient willow was still shouting loudly.
“Ah! I don’t want to stay here anymore! I want to move somewhere else! Moving me back to the opposite shore would work too!!!”
As it spoke, it shook its full tree of willow branches swaying in the wind.
The lightly drooping willow threads should have been a pleasing sight, but this ancient willow flung them into a chaotic frenzy.
“Little Willow, stop making noise. If you hadn’t annoyed the Peach Demoness, you wouldn’t have been moved here.”
This should be the banyan tree’s voice, much deeper.
“Exactly, exactly, we don’t want to be with you either; you’re the noisiest every day!”
The surrounding small leaf shrubs chimed in one after another.
“The island used to have only us and Banyan Brother; it was quite comfortable.”
“You’re the one who came last, taking our space, and nagging all day; it’s so annoying.”
The ancient willow’s willow branches flung even more violently, and Ge Bai was very sure this wasn’t due to the wind.
As she was thinking, she stepped onto the lake heart island.
It was called an island, but once she got there, she realized the island’s area was quite vast, impossible to see across at a glance.
Sunlight filtered through the layers of green leaves of the huge banyan tree, casting mottled light and shadows.
Shrubs and vines grew wildly under the tree, green grass carpeted the ground, and even the few small wildflowers by the shrub clusters bloomed very comfortably.
They didn’t pay particular attention to Ge Bai’s arrival and continued nagging.
Among them, the ancient willow had the loudest voice.
“So annoying! Life can’t go on like this! That damn bird nags my leaves too! I’m going to find the Peach Demoness!”
Peach Demoness? A peach tree? Ge Bai looked around; there wasn’t a single peach tree on the island.
Calming her mind, she cautiously mobilized her spiritual sense, using the Spirit Plant Communicator skill for the first time for real.
“Hello, my name is Ge Bai.”
In an instant, all sounds on the island disappeared, exceptionally quiet.
Seeing this, Ge Bai coughed lightly twice and continued.
“Don’t panic; I’m just an ordinary person who happens to have the ability to talk to spirit plants.”
In a corner Ge Bai didn’t know about, the System flashed with a black line and couldn’t help complaining: You’re ordinary my ass; this is looking down on me, the System?
As she spoke, she slowly moved her steps to the side of the Weeping Ancient Willow.
She gently touched the ancient willow’s rough trunk; the willow branches flung lightly but didn’t particularly resist.
“I heard your chat just now; I mean no harm. This is also my first time chatting with spirit plants. Have you seen anyone like me before?”
“No, really? You can actually hear us talking?”
The first to can’t hold back was still the ancient willow, probing with a question.
“Yes, do you want to find the Peach Demoness? I didn’t see any peach trees nearby.”
Seeing the ancient willow chatting with Ge Bai, the nearby small leaf shrubs gradually livened up too.
“Scared me to death; I thought some monster came out.”
Ge Bai felt a bit speechless listening to the small shrubs; what kind of world was this? Talking spirit plants weren’t monsters, but talking humans were?
“Don’t normal researchers treat us like ordinary plants?”
Ge Bai raised an eyebrow, just about to ask about the researchers, when she heard the banyan tree speak.
“Little girl, what are you here for?”
She looked up at the banyan tree; standing on the island, she couldn’t see the banyan tree’s full appearance at all.
“I’m here to contract a spirit plant. I didn’t find a suitable spirit plant seedling in the Spirit Plant Garden earlier, so I came here to wander around.”
Ge Bai went straight to the point.
“Yo, you’re quite polite.” The ancient willow chimed in quickly. “Unlike those white coats before, smashing spiritual sense contracts right away; so offensive.”
“Did she even ask me? Just wanted to contract? Dream on.”
The ancient willow’s temper flared up instantly, with a very confident tone; it seemed it had been hit by spiritual sense contracts many times.
So this was how spirit plants viewed researchers?
Ge Bai instantly confirmed that the System was right; this might be why the contract success rate for wild spirit plants was low.
As the ancient willow gradually livened up, Ge Bai could clearly feel the spiritual power flowing faster in the branches, with even faint glows at the tips of the willow threads.
They really were spirit plants; perhaps they were usually in a dormant state, making their spiritual power content seem low. This was just Ge Bai’s guess.
She didn’t forget to defend the researchers a bit.
“Maybe the researchers, unlike me, don’t have the ability to talk to spirit plants, so they don’t understand what you’re thinking and come off as offensive.”
“Hmph.” The ancient willow proudly flung a cluster of willow threads.
“Not at all; today they pull a couple branches, tomorrow they dig up some roots; researching back and forth, so boring.”
It seemed the ancient willow really disliked the researchers in white coats.
The banyan tree spoke at this time: “Alright, Little Willow, the researchers also give you nutrient solution injections regularly.”
The ancient willow flung its willow threads again, didn’t respond, and turned to ask Ge Bai: “Little girl, I think you’re pretty nice; who are you planning to contract?”
“I haven’t decided yet. Most on the way here were resting; I came to the island because you all seemed to be chatting happily.”
The ancient willow was very interested in Ge Bai.
“Then we’re fated; I’m not nagging with Banyan Brother every day either.”
The small shrubs, hearing this, let out a jeer.
“Don’t listen to him; he’s the noisiest every day.”
Ge Bai held back a laugh, picked up a willow thread, and carefully asked the ancient willow, “Do you have any intention to contract? I should be a pretty good Spirit Planter.”
Our Ge Bai will really become a pretty good Spirit Planter.
