Foreign Land Reclamation By a Vegetable-growing Skeleton-Chapter 1793 - 1354: Does this count as marriage for them?

"Not the same, not the same, it has restrictions on its body." Everyone quickly noticed the difference.

On the body of this Little Fireman, there are restrictions formed by imprints, which are interconnected, firmly restraining the Little Fireman’s movements, allowing it only to stay within a certain range. Whenever it tries to leave this range, the imprints exert a strong pulling force, yanking it back to the original point.

The Restricted Little Fireman seems to have gotten used to this confinement, stepping out with force within a certain distance, only to be pulled back by the imprints, then stepping out even further, repeatedly like it’s a form of exercise.

With each step, both the temperature and brightness of the hotspot increase to a certain extent.

The tail of the Ancient Man Snake coiled forward, brushing the thorns on its body, much like a human wiping sweat from the forehead. But at this moment, it’s in an ideological form, so the thorns on it won’t get singed. It’s a subconscious action, indicating the pressure it feels against the Restricted Little Fireman.

"Stop fooling around, get me ten units of Star Flame," the Ancient Man Snake said.

The Restricted Little Fireman did not even glance at it, saying, "Why are you asking me? Can I refuse?"

"No," said the Ancient Man Snake.

The Restricted Little Fireman rolled its eyes at it, "Then why are you asking me? To convey that you’ve consulted my opinion? You deprive me of Star Flame just to limit my power, what does asking change? It’s meaningless."

The Ancient Man Snake chuckled awkwardly; indeed, it was pretty meaningless, except those ten units of Star Flame aren’t the usual confiscation but rather used as remuneration with special significance, so it spoke a few more words.

Without more words, the Ancient Man Snake pointed its tail at the Restricted Little Fireman. Imprints on the Restricted Little Fireman immediately lit up, floating up to the surface and forming a circle, the circle’s center precisely overlapping with the Ancient Man Snake’s tail. An Energy Channel was established at once.

Constant streams of Star Flame were extracted into the Ancient Man Snake’s form, continually ’dripping’ onto the ground.

Wherever Star Flame dripped onto the ground, a flower would grow, and flowers would bear transparent Crystal Stones, inside which a Star Flame flickered.

Negris whispered, "It’s encapsulating Star Flame, how amazing. It can crystallize plants to store the Star Flame."

Anthony said, "It’s quite normal. Remember the Chaos Stone? Isn’t it the product of Chaos Tree crystallizing and storing the Power of Chaos?"

"Uh, you’re right. Star Flame is essentially a higher-grade Power of Chaos. Chaos Stone stores Power of Chaos from sunlight, whereas this plant directly stores Star Flame; maybe these two plants belong to the same category," Negris said.

Regardless, encapsulating Star Flame is quite useful. After the plant blossoms and bears fruit, it wilts. Star Flame Crystal Stones fell all over the place, and the Ancient Man Snake reached out another tail to gather them all together.

It took a full two hours for the Ancient Man Snake to extract enough Star Flame equivalent to ten units; the Restricted Little Fireman appeared somewhat listless but still stubbornly stepping forward, causing the restriction imprints to flash continuously. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

However, after losing ten units of Star Flame, the Restricted Little Flame Man could no longer step as far as it initially could.

Seeing that the Ancient Man Snake was almost done, Negris quickly said, "Ange, can you mark this place with exotic powder so we can teleport back anytime after leaving?"

Ange shook his head, "Exotic powder, easily discovered."

Negris translated, "You mean the Little Sapling’s pollen belongs to an exotic species, so marking here would be easily found?"

Ange nodded.

"Then if we find one that’s not exotic...," Negris thought and turned to the Little Tree Man, "Can you mark?"

The Little Tree Man nodded, extended his finger, and a Little Flower grew at the tip, which he gently shook towards the outside, quickly scattering invisible pollen.

After shaking off the pollen, the Little Tree Man suddenly turned the flower on his fingertip toward the Little Sapling.

Negris felt tense, grabbing Anthony’s arm.

Anthony was bewildered, but once he realized what the Little Tree Man’s action meant, he too became instinctively tense.

The Little Sapling tilted its head, ’ah,’ looked down at Ange.

Ange nodded.

The Little Sapling extended its True Leaf, constantly extending, blooming a flower when it reached the front of the Little Tree Man.

The flowers exchanged a brief touch, then each retracted. The Little Sapling lay back on Ange’s head, and the Little Tree Man lay back on the Little Zombie’s head.

Negris quietly said, "Do these two count as getting married?"

Anthony replied, "Not at all. To Tree People, if this counted as marriage, their spouse would be a forest. You forgot how on the old tree road, every Tree Person would exchange pollen; when the old tree refused, they were thrown a sour fruit."

"Indeed, especially those wind-pollinated plants, during the breeding season pollen flies everywhere; the entire forest would be its spouse," Negris added.

If viewed through the moral lens of humans and Giant Dragons, plants would be considered absolute players—a single tree’s flowers can receive pollen from all trees nearby, and a tree with both male and female flowers can even self-pollinate.

Just then, Ange suddenly said, "Seedling, no need for pollen, reproduction. They exchange pollen to entrust their progeny."

"Huh? Entrust progeny? You mean the Little Tree Man entrusts its progeny to the Little Sapling?" asked Negris, taken aback, because it was the Little Tree Man who initiated the pollen exchange. If this were an entrusting act, it would mean the Little Tree Man actively entrusted them.

Ange nodded, "In the future, their progeny can receive the other’s protection."

Indeed, the Tree of Ten Thousand Realms doesn’t reproduce through pollination; exchanging pollen equates to swapping tree vein imprints, so later my World Tree is your World Tree, your progeny receives my protection, and mine receives yours.

It’s a mutually beneficial act for the Tree of Ten Thousand Realms.

"Here it comes, be careful," Ursman suddenly interrupted everyone’s conversation as the Ancient Man Snake came back, coiling a bunch of Star Flame Crystal Stones. The Restricted Little Fireman, seeing the Ancient Man Snake leaving, ceased its futile efforts and directly slipped back into the original hotspot.

From Ange’s perspective, the hotspot began rippling out waves of thermal radiation.

Placing the Star Flame Crystal Stones onto the head of the Little Vine, the Ancient Man Snake drilled into its body, controlling it to grow vines and secure the Star Flame Crystal Stones, then began retracting.

Soon, the Little Vine’s body retreated from the inside of the tree knot, and as it reached the innermost energy membrane, everyone clearly saw the energy membrane quickly close before their eyes, with the boundary’s flow of light passing swiftly.

Completely retreating from the tree knot, the broken opening quickly healed, forming a thicker tree scab.

Thus, the mission of the Little Vine was considered completed. The Ancient Man Snake emerged from the Little Vine, taking all the Star Flame Crystal Stones and flying downward without looking back.

"What a pity, we couldn’t get even a single Star Flame Crystal Stone, even one would be enough to study how it formed," Negris said regretfully.

Ange tilted his head, grabbed everyone, virtualized, and followed the Little Vine’s surface to the place where the Star Flame Crystal Stones had been piled; almost all had been taken, but a bit of light was seen from a Star Flame Crystal Stone squeezed in the corner’s bark layer.