Chapter 670: Seeking Life Amid Death

Chapter 670 Seeking Life Amid Death

A short while later, the puppet bodies arrived from the sky. One by one, they landed before Lei Hu.

After they landed, they all did the same thing. Reaching out with their right hands, each of them thrust their hand into their heart to pull out the core of the parasitic plant within them. After doing so, they abruptly fell down and returned to their original state of lifeless corpses.

The eleventh body fell. Before Lei Hu was a small mountain of corpses.

Regarding the amount of bodies before him, Lei Hu revealed a somewhat dissatisfied expression. However, he could no longer wait for more Irregularities to come.

Slowly shaking his head, Lei Hu then extended his right hand, inserting it into the topmost body.

Countless vine tendrils grew from his arm to wrap around the corpses. Next, a soft-looking plant sprouted upward. In the blink of an eye, the plant had grown into a gigantic tree-like woody vein.

After a few more seconds, a red-coloured flower bud appeared at the tip of the woody vein before slowly blooming.

The moment the flower bud bloomed, countless fine seeds the size of dust particles spread out in every direction.

…

Three figures walked hastily across a desert. The helicopter that was out of fuel had been kept back into the Storage Ring.

The desert they were in was unlike that in the outside world. There was no sun blazing above their heads. Even so, the sight of the endless yellow sands still made them feel anxious.

“Damn it, why didn’t we gather some of the snow waters in the snowfield instance dungeon earlier?” Qiao Qiao complained with a pouting expression.

Even now, they had yet to see Lei Hu. Thus, the most troubling matter for her now was the feeling of thirst.

“We do not have any containers to store the waters anyways. Just hang on for a bit.” Chen Xiaolian squeezed Qiao Qiao’s palm. “Maybe there will be water in the next instance dungeon.”

“All right…” Qiao Qiao forced herself to swallow her saliva and continued moving forward.

Bluesea had been the only one to continue walking with an impassive face. He took the lead and there had been no change in his pace since the beginning.

After taking around ten more steps, Bluesea suddenly jerked his head backward.

Chen Xiaolian’s heart gave a pound and he quickly followed suit to look backward. However, he could see nothing but an expanse of rolling yellow sands behind him.

The same was true for his life signature detector, no other life forms could be seen within its detection radius.

“What is it, Mr Bluesea?”

His hand holding the Sword in the Stone, Chen Xiaolian asked grimly.

“Something is not right.” Bluesea furrowed his brows as he looked into the distance. A moment later, he quickly shouted, “Run!”

Chen Xiaolian showed no hesitation. He immediately pulled Qiao Qiao by the hand and ran forward. As he ran, he looked back.

The detection function of the Bug Armour far exceeded that of his electronic life signature detector. Since Bluesea had noticed something amiss, it meant that there was a problem.

After running for a good two minutes, Chen Xiaolian finally saw it. Behind them, a green-coloured wave was gradually spreading forward.

They were clearly within an arid desert where not even water vapour existed. Yet, numerous woody vines were rapidly growing across the desert. 

Judging by the way the woody vines were spreading out, they had originated from the Mount Olympus instance dungeon. They had begun from that point, where one woody vine after another grew up from the ground, rapidly reaching maturity. Then, a red-coloured flower bud appeared at the tip of each vine.

The flower petals bloomed and fell just as quickly. However, as they were falling, tiny seeds flew out from the flower as well. The seeds fell upon the surrounding sands before quickly transforming into another new woody vine. Again and again, the cycle repeated itself.

In the wake of the woody vines were green leaves and swaying flowers.

The rate at which the woody vines were spreading forward outpaced the rate at which the three of them were running. Thus, it did not take long before the vines were right behind them.

When the vines came close, Chen Xiaolian was able to get a clear view of the woody vines.

Although it was clearly a plant, the vine squirmed constantly. The surface of each woody vine was covered with spikes and a translucent layer of slime, which was also slowly moving.

After blooming and releasing its seeds, the flower petals quickly fell off. As for the woody vines, they quickly wriggled about.

“Does this guy have unlimited power? Just where did he get it coming from?”

Chen Xiaolian swore out hoarsely.

Undoubtedly, this was a skill from Lei Hu.

Even so… this was simply too outrageous.

Judging by the green expanse of woody vines behind them, it was clear that Lei Hu did not know where they had gone to. Thus, he had unleashed this indiscriminate form of attack, which spread out in a circle with him in the centre.

However… … although the Blackhawk helicopter had had to land due to insufficient fuel, it had still flown a distance of over half an hour before that. That was a distance of nearly 200 kilometres.

In other words…

This skill of Lei Hu had already covered a radius of 200 kilometres. It had continued on up until now without respite.

Just what was the limit of his power?

The woody vines quickly caught up to the three of them. The seeds fell upon the sands before them and quickly grew up into numerous vines covered in spikes and slime. The spiky vines wriggled, stopping them from advancing any further.

Every one of the woody vines were as tall as an ordinary human. After halting Chen Xiaolian’s group from advancing, the many vines closest to them seemingly sensed their presence and quickly whipped toward them.

Chen Xiaolian swung the Sword in the Stone. The vine was not that durable. Thus, the Sword in the Stone was able to easily hack apart several of the vines.

The instant that the Sword in the Stone cut the vines, a thick yellow-coloured slime spurted out from the cut portion of the vine. The yellow-coloured slime was scattered all over the ground, causing the sand beneath the desert to release sizzling sounds as thick smoke rose up.

A few drops of the slime also made contact with Chen Xiaolian’s left arm. A charred scent quickly wafted through the air.

Without hesitating, Chen Xiaolian quickly turned the Sword in the Stone back to cut off that part of his flesh.

“It is a strong acid! Do not cut them!”

Chen Xiaolian gritted his teeth as he used the flat surface of his sword to knock back the incoming vines whipping at them. Although he was able to defend the incoming attacks, they were no longer capable of advancing.

“Leave it to me, you two keep running!”

Qiao Qiao shouted as she transformed into a clump of black fog, which surrounded both Chen Xiaolian and Bluesea.

The instant the whipping woody vines made contact with Qiao Qiao’s black fog-form, they swiftly turned stiff. The green colour on them faded and they withered before turning into powder.

Even the powerful acid could only be devoured by the Child of Darkness’ skill.

Chen Xiaolian felt somewhat relieved and they continued to run forward.

…

The square before the Pantheon Temple was completely covered by the woody vines.

Even the ground areas that were covered by tough marble tiles were not exempted. The woody vines had popped up the tiles and grew upward.

The core woody vine in the centre of the square had already grown to a height of tens of metres high. Thanks to the wriggling vines that rose up high, the corpses that had been laying on the ground could no longer be seen.

Lei Hu stood beside that main woody vine with his right hand extended, pressing upon the surface of the main woody vine. It seemed as though he had become one with the woody vine.

His enclosed eyes snapped open to reveal a joyous look.

“Spreading out through such a large area… … in the end… … I still found you!”

Lei Hu mumbled to himself as he retracted his right hand.

Without making any other movements, his body slowly floated up into the air before flying toward the position that he had sensed.

…

The black fog dissipated as Qiao Qiao re-assumed her human form, landing beside Chen Xiaolian as she did.

Behind Chen Xiaolian’s group, a narrow passage could be seen amid the endless number of woody vines.

On either side of the passageway were the wriggling woody vines. However, the vines within the passageway had all withered away.

Originally, the three of them had fallen deep within the dense foliage of vines. Qiao Qiao’s black fog protected them from any harm that the woody vines might bring to them. However, the rate at which the woody vines were spreading far exceeded the rate at which they were running.

Yet, for some unknown reason, after their group ran a distance of several kilometres forward, the woody vines stopped spreading.

“Is this the limit to his power?” Qiao Qiao revealed a look of happiness.

Coincidentally, the three of them had reached the end of the desert.

Before them stood a city-type instance dungeon. The faint outlines of high-rises could be seen there. Additionally, it would appear that the instance dungeon covered quite a large area.

If it was a large city… … maybe they can find fuel for helicopters.

Even if they can’t, they can at least find a transport.

Bluesea turned to look back at the sea of woody vines and shook his head. His face grew grim.

“It is not that he has reached his limit. Rather… … he has found us!”

“Yes.” Chen Xiaolian smiled bitterly as both his hands gripped the Sword in the Stone. “He spread these disgusting things just so he could figure out our location. Now that he has found us, there is no longer any need for him to waste more of his power on it. Lei Hu himself… … will likely arrive soon.”

“Are we not running anymore?” Qiao Qiao looked at Chen Xiaolian.

“Yeah.” Chen Xiaolian shook his head firmly. “At this point in time, we can no longer run.”

“Fine.” Qiao Qiao nodded and smiled. “Truth be told, I have never actually fought against an [S] class.”

“If we all die here… … will you feel fearful?” Chen Xiaolian turned to face Qiao Qiao. “Honestly, though, using the word die feels so awkward. We are already in World’s End, already dead people.”

“What about it?” Qiao Qiao turned to stare intently at Chen Xiaolian with a serious expression. “Since we have already died once before, what else is there to fear? Besides… … I am now with you.”

“I had died twice, though,” Bluesea added with an emotionless face.

“Then… … let us try it. Let’s see if we can find life amid death!”

Chen Xiaolian looked at both Bluesea and Qiao Qiao as he kept the Sword in the Stone.

…