Shen Cong drove the Great Vajra off-road at the front, the Snail Traveler trailing behind, the convoy rolling to last night's battlefield.

The dragon-claw pagoda tree still stood where it had, and you could see its branches, leaves, and flowers had all sprung back to life — the Mushroom Arrows and Mushroom Cannons seemingly having left no scars on it at all.

Only the toppled trees and scorched earth around it testified that a great battle had once been fought here.

Shen Cong sat in the cab, feeling the Activity wave the pagoda tree radiated, translating it into Pagoda Tree Cicada-Language — roughly absorb, grow, sun hurry and shine on me, nutrients I need, and the like.

"The pagoda tree's emotions are about the same as my Mechanical Vine's — both a kind of unconscious, mumbling babble. Pity about this Pagoda Tree Cicada-Language of mine. Learning it is useless — there's no way to actually communicate with it."

Seeing the pagoda tree wouldn't be moving for a while, Shen Cong didn't linger and drove on.

He planned to head north along the Beijing–Shanghai Expressway, to where the Qinglan and Beijing–Shanghai Expressways crossed, and find a spot to camp there. That way he could move quickly along both expressways, circle the Xihai Park settlement, and keep close watch on the Twin Cities Republic's Bug Warriors.

Along the way, apart from cleaving the hills to open a road, Shen Cong spent most of his time communicating with the Snail Traveler.

Learning Snail Cicada-Language, chiefly.

Understanding the Snail Traveler's purpose, secondarily.

Progress wasn't smooth.

He had genuinely learned a great deal of Snail Cicada-Language, but the sentences he most wanted to learn — why, destination, what are you looking for, what's drawing you here — he still hadn't learned, and seemed unlikely to learn easily.

Even though Activity brought evolution, mutating animals, developing their nervous systems and brains, raising their intelligence at an unexpectedly rapid clip — an animal remained, in the end, only an animal. Its thoughts couldn't yet keep pace with its swiftly rising intelligence; it had trouble contemplating anything beyond…