223: Wood Vine Monster

Long Yuan's figure was as fast as lightning, and hidden within the countless shadows; he had almost merged into the surrounding environment, and no one could perceive that someone had just passed by them...

Having gained experience in the wilderness when he previously eliminated Yun Yi and Cold Moon, he was now familiar with the routine. He ran quite comfortably, and even when he encountered some exotic beasts on the way, he would casually eliminate them and sweep them into the devourer of the Heavenly Dao Space...

The reason he had to make this trip to Shan Feng Forest was that during the continuous tracking by the Heavenly Dao Eye, Long Yuan had suddenly discovered an anomaly that was well worth a trip.

Although Shan Feng Forest was a bit far, almost reaching the neighboring Shanyang County, with his current abilities, it would take less than an hour of running at full speed, and it would be effortless.

He kept monitoring the changes in the information from the Heavenly Dao Eye and saw that the search team from the Blood Wolf Hall had indeed withdrawn quickly after receiving Feng Qin's order, returning toward Southern Yue City. Meanwhile, Xu Guanghu and his party, who had gone to support in Shan Feng Forest, were now trapped within the forest, fast approaching the location where Geng Rutai, Xu Guanghai, and the others had met with misfortune.

That's right, Geng Rutai and the others had all met with misfortune!

It wasn't that they had been counter-killed by Scarface and Big Head, but rather that they had all encountered danger in the forest and were now unable to move...

Among this group, Big Head was the first to encounter danger; he had met with trouble shortly after sending a message to Feng Lifeng, followed by Qi Huaiyi, and then Scarface, Xu Guanghai, and Geng Rutai. Even two Martial Commanders had met with trouble, which truly left Long Yuan dumbfounded!

But he quickly figured out the reason. Looking at the information panel displayed by the Heavenly Dao Eye for that dangerous place, it was very clear:

[Name: Wood Vine Demon, a type of spirit wood common in the Cultivation World.]

[Level: Yellow Rank to Profound Rank, equivalent to the first to seventh layers of a Cultivator's Qi Refining.]

[Characteristics: The vine tendrils are extremely tough and can rapidly extend and retract within a certain range to capture prey. They have extremely strong regenerative capabilities; as long as there is a sufficient supply of Spiritual Qi, they can continuously produce a large number of vine tendrils.]

[Weakness: Located at the wood core, hidden in the center of the main root underground. There are often spirit items or Spirit Stone veins near the center of the main root.]

The Heavenly Dao Eye's identification of the Wood Vine Demon opened Long Yuan's eyes, and he sighed with immense emotion. It seemed the Lingqi Era on Blue Star had truly begun long ago. Just like these wood vines, having seized the opportunity of some spirit items, they had mutated and evolved into spirit wood! For them, this was a leap in the level of life, granting them powerful hunting and regenerative capabilities!

These abilities were truly monstrous. Even Martial Ancestors and Martial Commanders among the Xuan Practitioners had been captured by them. I fear that if some Martial Commanders were careless, they might also get trapped inside and be unable to escape. After all, their regenerative ability was too strong; no matter how many vine tendrils were cut off, they could still grow back endlessly, directly exhausting all the strength of their prey...

As Long Yuan ran and observed, he saw that Xu Guanghu and his party had also encountered the Wood Vine Demon Forest!

The scene shifted to the Wooden Vine Forest. After discovering that several people in front had vanished in an instant, Xu Guanghu felt puzzled and somewhat anxious. He hurriedly stepped forward a distance to investigate the situation. Suddenly, he felt a sense of alarm, leaped up a zhang, and looked down to see a rope-like object sweep past under his feet. He couldn't help but shout, "Watch out! There's an ambush here!"

The people behind were startled and hurriedly crouched down. They looked at Xu Guanghu in front. Because they were in a dense forest, they couldn't leap very high, or they would definitely hit the trees, so they could only dodge and shift within a small range. The ropes rushing toward him seemed to be increasing; although some were cut off by Xu Guanghu's blade, there were still endless ropes rushing at him from all directions!

"Not good! What is this situation?"

"Could it be a Formation set up by an evil cult?"

"Impossible, how could a Formation be like this? Those ropes seem to have grown eyes and are pouncing on their own..."

"That's right, if it were a Formation controlled by someone, it couldn't be this flexible..."

"With General Xu's combat power, mere ropes are nothing to worry about..."

"That's right, General Xu has already cut off many ropes; the opponent can't have many left..."

"Ah!" "Ah!" "Ah!"

Just as the Xuanwu Guards and county office guards watching from the rear were discussing, they all suddenly screamed. It turned out that each of them had one to several rope-like objects on their bodies, and were quickly wrapped up tightly. Some were dragged by the ropes to a tree trunk and tied up, some were bundled like zongzi and thrown under a certain tree, while others were hung high in mid-air, looking like a huge fruit growing from the tree...

Before long, this support team of over twenty people was completely wiped out, all becoming the spoils of the Wood Vine Demon!

Xu Guanghu had no time to attend to anything else. He was now surrounded by countless vine tendrils, unable to even see what was happening outside. Before his eyes were only dense vine tendrils, vine tendrils, vine tendrils—endless vine tendrils!

Suddenly, he screamed. A thick vine tendril suddenly wrapped around him, rendering him instantly unable to move. In that very instant, more vine tendrils wrapped around him, binding him tightly until he became a huge wooden stake. With a "swish," the wooden stake was hoisted high up, becoming another Wood Vine "fruit"!

This Wood Vine Demon Forest became silent again, with only the broken rope segments on the ground reminding passing creatures that a thrilling battle had just taken place here...

About ten minutes later, a figure appeared beside the pile of remaining rope segments. The rope segments were already much fewer than before; they had been pulled back into the underground soil by the Wood Vine Demon, becoming nutrients to nourish its growth. Long Yuan sighed with emotion. Honestly, this behavior of the Wood Vine Demon was quite environmentally friendly—not wasting a single bit, achieving a natural material cycle within a small range!

He swept out his Divine Sense and discovered that quite a few people were enduring painful torment. The capillary needle-like structures on those vine tendrils were deeply embedded into the bodies of these prey, greedily sucking their flesh and blood nutrients. With every breath, a portion of their flesh and blood was sucked away by the Wood Vine Demon. At this rate, those with low cultivation would be sucked into dried husks within a few hours; those with high cultivation might last for a day, but they would ultimately not escape the fate of becoming dried husks...

Long Yuan waited for a little while, but discovered that the Wood Vine Demons did not come to attack him. He felt a bit strange. Upon checking with his Divine Sense, he found that these Wood Vine Demons seemed to have retracted their vine tendrils, and some were even trembling. What was going on?!

"Could it be that they are afraid of me?!" Long Yuan suddenly had a realization.

That's right, these Wood Vine Demons were indeed worthy of being sentient. They had keenly discovered that his life level was far higher than theirs, so in this instant, they had all turned into well-behaved babies, not daring to make a single sound. And the reason they were able to discover this was likely the power of the Divine Sense he had just spread out!