Chu Tian and his group proceeded cautiously through the mountain forest. With no remaining traces to follow, their pace had slowed considerably.
The uneasiness in their hearts continued to grow. Both Chu Tian and Quan Xiaoyu could clearly sense danger approaching, yet they could never pinpoint its source.
There were no animals, and the surrounding plants showed no unusual movements.
Finally, just as the hair-thin vines were about to spread beneath everyone’s feet, the two plant-type ability users finally sensed that something was wrong.
Xiao Ziran was the first to speak. “It’s under our feet! Be careful!”
As soon as Xiao Ziran’s words fell, Quan Xiaoyu, who was guarding the rear, felt something trip him. His reaction was extremely fast. The moment he sensed movement beneath his feet, he immediately activated his ability and flashed forward. At the same time, he grabbed Xiao Ziran and Pei Qianxing in front of him and whisked them over to Chu Tian’s side.
Then he turned around and spat out a fire serpent toward the ground they had just crossed.
The flames illuminated the surroundings. The hair-thin vines at the very front were instantly scorched, but everyone also saw clearly that the path behind them was now completely covered in hair-thin vines. Wrapped in black mist, they surged toward the group.
Xie Mingxuan did not have such keen instincts. Since he had been walking shoulder to shoulder with Quan Xiaoyu the entire time, he was the first to be entangled by these hair-thin vines.
The strange things had no roots at all. Once severed, they behaved like worms, wriggling toward Xie Mingxuan’s body.
Xie Mingxuan howled frantically as his claws tore wildly at his own body, ripping his clothes and tearing his skin.
Quan Xiaoyu was horrified. He was about to rush over and pull Xie Mingxuan away when a sharp pain struck his right foot. He looked down and only then discovered that the remnants of the vines that had wrapped around his right foot earlier were trying to burrow through his pants and into his skin.
Quan Xiaoyu acted decisively. He swung his katana downward, quickly slicing away the portion of skin the vines had already penetrated. Then he sent a small fireball over, burning the remnants to death and cauterizing his bleeding wound in the process.
When there was no way to stop the bleeding or disinfect a wound, cauterizing it was a temporary first-aid measure. These were survival skills he had learned in his previous life.
These tiny things were even more frightening than ferocious beasts. Quan Xiaoyu feared they might burrow into his blood vessels and spread throughout his entire body.
Meanwhile, Xiao Ziran and Pei Qianxing immediately began stimulating the growth of harmless plants nearby as soon as they regained their footing, using them to form a barrier in front of the group.
Everything happened very quickly. When Quan Xiaoyu cut away the flesh, Chu Tian was still observing the terrifying plants. By the time he came back to his senses, he had not even had time to feel distressed before he saw Quan Xiaoyu preparing to charge out again.
Chu Tian hurriedly reached out and pulled him back.
“You stay with Xiao Bai. I’ll bring Xie Ming back.”
As he spoke, gleaming silver armor had already spread over his entire body.
Then his glowing figure rushed toward Xie Mingxuan.
Only when he reached him did he realize that the situation around Xie Mingxuan was rather troublesome.
The tiny, hair-thin things clung to his skin and were extremely difficult to tear off. They were wrapped around various parts of his body, but Chu Tian could not simply spray fire at him. The flames produced by an ability user were also highly destructive to zombies.
Fortunately, Xie Mingxuan was not a living human. There was no circulating blood inside his body. The hair-thin vines seemed to have discovered this as well, and so they appeared to have lost interest in burrowing into his body. Nevertheless, they continued clinging tightly to him and refused to let go.
However, Chu Tian soon noticed something else. Xie Mingxuan’s frantic scratching was mostly caused by irritation and restlessness. He could not feel pain at the moment, and his roars were primarily an outlet for his frustration.
This discovery allowed Chu Tian to breathe a sigh of relief. At least Xie Mingxuan was not in any immediate danger.
Just then, Quan Xiaoyu’s second fire serpent arrived, once again forcing the hair-thin vines back and repelling their attack.
“What the hell are these things? They’re neither animals nor plants. I’ve tried, but I can’t control them,” Pei Qianxing said.
“Can we use a bigger fire to burn all of them to death?” Xiao Ziran turned and asked Quan Xiaoyu.
Quan Xiaoyu shielded Bai Mingxi behind him and shook his head.
“Burning them all would be easy, but a fire that big would set the forest ablaze too. By then, we wouldn’t have anywhere to escape.”
Even a fire-type ability user had no way to control a fire of that magnitude.
Their discussion had not yet ended when Bai Mingxi suddenly shouted from behind them, “Look out!”
Immediately afterward, he unleashed a spatial rift. Several sections of tree branches fell to the ground with a clatter.
Xiao Ziran and Pei Qianxing reacted quickly. Several vines shot out, entangling the branches that had launched a sneak attack from behind.
“This is bad! The firelight has attracted the nearby mutated plants!” Quan Xiaoyu said gravely.
He had seen these mutated plants before. During the period when he had been searching for Chu Tian, he had already witnessed how dangerous they could be.
That’s right—they were those things!
They were small mutated plants that had roots but could still move around. Individually, they were not difficult to deal with because of their small size. However, they had a habit of living in groups!
They generally attacked only small animals and attacked humans on rare occasions. Tonight, the firelight here had probably attracted them. Alternatively, perhaps the absence of other living creatures in this forest had left them so desperately hungry that they had joined the battle.
Before long, their attacks became increasingly dense, and the power of their coordinated assaults began to show.
With Xiao Ziran and Pei Qianxing’s current abilities, dealing with these plants as a training exercise would not have been particularly difficult. The problem was that the hair-thin vines were still ahead of them.
The moment Xiao Ziran and Pei Qianxing’s suppression of the mutated plants weakened, the latter seized the opportunity and swarmed toward them. Meanwhile, the two men were entangled by the group of plants attacking from behind and could not spare themselves to deal with both threats.
The hair-thin vines showed little interest in Chu Tian, who was covered in armor, or Xie Mingxuan. Instead, they quickly surged toward the other four people behind them.
Quan Xiaoyu had no time to worry about anything else. He sent out another fire serpent, once again blocking the hair-thin vines’ advance.
However, this intense burst of firelight further stimulated the tree-branch plants behind them. They seemed to grow excited, and their attacks became even more ferocious.
Bai Mingxi tried throwing several spatial rifts toward the front, only to discover that even after being severed, the hair-thin vines retained an astonishing amount of vitality. He had no choice but to abandon the battle at the front and go help the two people behind him instead.
Chu Tian’s formidable physical strength was difficult to bring to bear against these tiny, seemingly immortal things. Xie Mingxuan was still busy struggling with his own body, so for the time being, the battle at the front could only rely on Quan Xiaoyu’s fire-type ability to hold the line.
However, observant as he was, Chu Tian noticed something unusual when the hair-thin vines were burned for the third time.
“Cover your mouths and noses! The black smoke these things release when burned may be poisonous!”
Everyone was startled once again.
Whether it was merely psychological or not, they all felt a faint dizziness at almost the same time.
Poison? Poison!
In a flash, an idea crossed Chu Tian’s mind. He suddenly pulled a bottle of water from the pocket at his side and rushed straight toward the hair-thin vines.
Chu Tian’s actions startled Quan Xiaoyu. Even though he knew how powerful Chu Tian’s armor was, he could not help shouting anxiously, “Chu Tian!”
But Chu Tian had no time to respond. He rapidly splashed the water in his hand over the hair-thin vines on the ground.
Wherever the liquid touched, the vines instantly withered. The black mist disappeared, and wisps of white smoke rose into the air.
Chu Tian was immediately overjoyed.
Just as he had expected! The water from his spatial storage possessed a powerful purifying effect on things carrying viruses!
“Xiaoyu, Xiao Bai, water!” Chu Tian shouted, taking out the second bottle of water he was carrying.
This was the water that had been prepared earlier and given to the doctor as the “concentrated solution.” Before setting out, everyone had carried two bottles each as a precaution. However, both Quan Xiaoyu and Bai Mingxi had additional supplies stored in their own spatial storage.
Thanks to their mutual understanding, the two quickly grasped Chu Tian’s intention. They rushed forward at the same time, opened their bottles, and began splashing the liquid everywhere as though it cost nothing, emptying one bottle after another.
If Quan Xiaoyu had not remembered that Xiao Ziran and Pei Qianxing were present, he would have simply sprayed the water directly from his spatial storage.
They continued this work for ten minutes, rapidly advancing along the path they had taken earlier. Only then did they discover that the hair-thin vines were not actually endless. They extended for only fifty or sixty meters. Because they were so tiny, however, they had appeared boundless in the darkness of the night.
Soon, under the effect of the spatial water, those disgusting things were completely eliminated.
The three people on this side finally breathed a sigh of relief. The sense of danger that had been weighing on their hearts also disappeared.
With no longer any need to worry about this side, the other two immediately felt their pressure ease considerably and fought with increasing vigor.
Quan Xiaoyu quickly returned to Xie Mingxuan’s side.
The remaining hair-thin vines clearly possessed little intelligence. They continued clinging stubbornly to Xie Mingxuan, refusing to let go. Several patches of flesh had already been torn off his body by his own claws, and Quan Xiaoyu felt terribly distressed at the sight.
He knew that Xie Mingxuan was afraid of the water from the spatial storage, so he did not dare splash it directly onto him. Instead, he tore off a strip of his own clothing, soaked it in the water, and used it to wipe the hair-thin vines off Xie Mingxuan’s body.
Sure enough, as soon as the liquid touched them, the things quickly emitted white smoke and fell away.
However, the water from the spatial storage still burned Xie Mingxuan’s skin, making him bare his teeth in pain.
For some reason, Xie Mingxuan, who should not have been able to feel pain, reacted painfully to the water from the spatial storage.
Even so, he understood that Quan Xiaoyu was trying to help him. Although he was uncomfortable, he obediently stood still and let Quan Xiaoyu do as he pleased.