The man in white was frantic. Those fine vines were now his greatest source of support, cultivated through so much time and effort. Although he could grow more, producing such an enormous quantity would certainly not be something he could accomplish overnight.
He practically roared at the others to search everywhere. The men scattered and plunged back into the surrounding forest.
Meanwhile, the tree where Chu Tian and the others had been standing was now completely empty.
Following the trail of burned vegetation, the man in white moved forward and soon discovered a mess of footprints and signs of a struggle.
It seemed that another battle had taken place the previous night, apart from the trap they had set.
The man in white immediately grew uneasy. He understood better than anyone how vicious the hair-thin vines were. There were also mutated plants in this forest that even his own people had to be careful to avoid. Had those people not only escaped the hair-thin vines but also fought other species?
Had they been carried away by other mutated plants, or had they won the fight and left on their own?
Uncertainty filled his mind. If it was the latter, then those people might be more than he could handle!
Unfortunately, it was already too late for the man in white to consider retreating. Several ordinary plants at his feet suddenly began growing like mad, rapidly wrapping around his legs and climbing up his body.
The man in white was startled. He thrust both hands forward, releasing a cloud of black mist from his palms toward the plants binding him. The parts touched by the mist withered slightly, but their rate of decay was nowhere near as fast as the plants’ growth.
Before the man in white could even launch a second attack, the plants had completely enveloped him, binding him tightly from head to toe.
“I thought you were going to be impressive. Turns out you’re nothing special.”
A voice came from within the forest. One after another, several bundle-like objects were thrown out of the trees.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight!
They were the eight people who had accompanied the man in white, including Yuan Shaohua and Jia Lunxu.
Like the man in white, all eight had been tightly bound by plants from head to toe. The only difference was that the man in white was still conscious, while the other eight had all been knocked unconscious.
“Who are you people?” the man in white asked, forcing himself to remain calm as he watched several people emerge leisurely from the forest.
Hearing this, Xiao Ziran sneered. What an interesting man! He had set a trap to ambush them, yet now he was asking who they were.
“So you ambushed us without even knowing who we were?” Bai Mingxi retorted.
They had initially assumed the mastermind would be someone formidable, but judging by this man’s panicked behavior, he didn’t seem particularly impressive.
“What do you want?” Without the hair-thin vines, he had lost his greatest weapon. Even his question lacked conviction now.
“Were you responsible for the recent disappearances? Where are the people who entered the mountains a few days ago?” Xiao Ziran asked bluntly.
At the same time, his question effectively answered the man in white’s earlier question: We’re here because of the missing people.
The man in white’s eyes flickered. He remained silent for a long while.
They had been gone for quite some time. Given that other man’s keen senses, he might already have noticed something was wrong. If he came here, perhaps there would be no need to fear these people at all…
“Looks like the boss hasn’t made his appearance yet,” Chu Tian remarked casually after studying the man’s expression.
They had expected a fierce battle, but this group had been far weaker than anticipated. They had dealt with them with almost no effort. As a result, Chu Tian had spent most of his attention worrying about the injury to Quan Xiaoyu’s foot.
If they had discovered the effects of the water sooner, Quan Xiaoyu wouldn’t have needed to get hurt. Chu Tian thought about it with a pang of heartache.
The same went for Xiao Ziran. If everyone hadn’t relaxed a little, believing victory was already assured, Xiao Ziran wouldn’t have been injured either.
Chu Tian had initially thought they had captured the main culprit. But after exchanging a few words and studying the man’s expression, he understood that this was probably just a lackey. The real mastermind was still behind the scenes.
After thinking for a moment, Chu Tian walked over to the man in white. He wore his usual gentle smile.
“Let me guess. There’s another mental-type ability user, right? And their level isn’t low anymore, is it?”
He had scanned the entire mountainside with his mental power but hadn’t detected anything unusual or found any trace of another living creature. If someone else was still here, there was only one explanation: a mental barrier. The other person had concealed all traces of their presence, using mental power to hide deep within the mountain.
The man in white’s eyes shifted slightly at these words, but he still didn’t answer.
Chu Tian didn’t say anything more to him. Instead, he turned to Xiao Ziran.
“Doctor, you’re better at extracting confessions through torture. I’ll leave this to you. Make him take us to the others.”
“Is there anything that can burrow into the human body like those demonic vines? We could give him a taste of that, too.” Bai Mingxi grinned mischievously.
Xiao Ziran glanced at him, and Bai Mingxi immediately fell silent.
Sure enough, Xiao Ziran lived up to expectations. Two vines shot into the air and pierced straight through the man’s shoulder blades, one on each side, lifting him into the air.
Blood trickled down the vines and fell to the ground. This long-forgotten sight seemed to awaken something that had lain dormant within the doctor. His eyes grew excited.
He didn’t bother asking any questions. Another vine shot into the air and flew toward the man in white. This time, however, it wasn’t aggressive. Instead, it moved with a strange, delicate softness, like a nimble, slick snake. It swiftly slipped into the man’s mouth and down his throat, writhing continuously like a worm as it went.
The slippery sensation, accompanied by the earthy smell of vegetation, immediately filled the man in white with disgust. Green, viscous fluid smeared the corners of his mouth as the vine slid inside.
He had eaten human flesh without batting an eye, but now his stomach finally began to churn. The food he had eaten the previous day, which had yet to be fully digested, surged toward his throat.
Unfortunately, his throat was blocked by a slippery, writhing vine…
“Although it’s not as delicate and disgusting as your demonic vines, I can make this plant grow countless tiny vines inside your body. They’ll burrow into your blood vessels, meridians, and internal organs, until—your entire body is completely filled with them.”
Xiao Ziran smiled. It was the same smile Quan Xiaoyu had seen when he first met the doctor.
“A perfect specimen. A body completely filled with plants… It’s practically a work of art.”
Strangely, however, the man in white, who had shown some fear when he was first captured, now looked at Xiao Ziran with a resolute, mocking expression, as though he had already made up his mind about something.
“Forget it. Looks like he isn’t going to talk.” Chu Tian had been watching the man’s reactions closely. His unusual emotional shift, so contrary to what one would expect, surprised Chu Tian for a moment, but he quickly made a decision.
“Deal with him. Do what you said. We still have eight other people. Someone will talk eventually.”
Xiao Ziran, who was already in an excited state, naturally had no objections. In less than a minute, the “work of art” he had described was complete.
Chu Tian then walked toward another person lying on the ground.
That man had already regained consciousness the moment the man in white was lifted into the air. At first, he had managed to pretend to be unconscious. But after witnessing Xiao Ziran’s casual, matter-of-fact process of “sculpting” his victim, he could no longer stop himself from trembling all over.
Indeed, just because the man in white wasn’t afraid didn’t mean the others weren’t.
Before Chu Tian even had to ask many questions, the man voluntarily confessed everything.
He was one of the “newcomers,” a water-type ability user who had originally belonged to Tianze Base. Like Jia Lunxu, he had been dispatched to the capital this time.
At the same time, he was one of the people who had successfully survived the experiment and upgraded his ability. His main task was to provide the group with sufficient supplies of clean drinking water.
A few days earlier, while they were traveling north, they had been attacked by the hair-thin vines. Their entire group of more than ten people had been captured.
When they regained consciousness, they found themselves in a dark, damp cave. Human bones lay scattered across the ground, stained with blood and scraps of rotting flesh. The stench was both nauseating and overwhelming.
More than thirty people like them were bound inside the cave. Some were awake, while others remained unconscious.
Most of those who were awake wore numb expressions and said nothing.
From the only part of the cave that gave off any light came wave after wave of an intensely rich, meaty aroma.
Under those circumstances, even though he was ravenous, he had vomited.
The human bones scattered across the ground made the source of that delicious smell painfully obvious.
Then the devil appeared.
As he recounted the events, the man swallowed hard, his face filled with horror.
The half-faced man entered the cave carrying a torch. He said nothing and gave no warning. He simply reached out with casual ease, grabbed one of the conscious prisoners, and sliced open the man’s abdomen.
The victim hadn’t even had time to react, much less feel the pain. He could only watch as his intestines were slowly pulled out.
Then the half-faced man smiled and stuffed the intestines into his mouth, slurping them up like noodles.
The “food” suddenly let out a terrible scream. The pain had finally reached his brain, and he began struggling, backing away, and trying to escape.
The half-faced man didn’t stop him, because the victim’s intestines were still firmly clenched between his teeth.
Blood smeared across the dark brown, foul-smelling ground, spreading over the scattered human bones…
The man recounting the story began trembling even more violently. That moment had taken root in his mind like a nightmare, gnawing away at his memories and leaving a mark so deep that he would never forget it for the rest of his life.