1071 Roots

Lin Qiao walked toward the tunnel from where she sensed the scent of a level-six underground creature and had her eyes on that creature before long, along with a large group of lower-leveled underground creatures following behind it.

The level-six creature was over five meters tall, having its body lowered, propped by its pair of arms. While moving forward, it was twitching its nose to sense the scents in the air.

Lin Qiao kept a distance from it as she raised a hand and released a stream of black fire. As the fire flew at the level-six underground gorilla, she released a cloud of dark mist with the other hand, which quickly shrouded the group of lower-leveled underground gorillas.

"Roar!" All the underground creatures on the scene instantly grew alert because of Lin Qiao's sudden appearance, soon sensing the dark fire. Except for the level-six one, all of them were thrown into a panic as they moved backward, trying to hide or run.

"Roar…" The level-six underground creature gave them a roar, seemingly ordering them not to run.

Lin Qiao's dark fire flew into its mouth the moment it turned and opened its mouth. Meanwhile, the dark mist filled up the entire tunnel, gathering toward the group of underground creatures, who were all enveloped by it within two seconds.

"Roar…" Lin Qiao stood by the side for a few seconds and then heard a wave of shrill screams from the mist. As the tunnel quieted down, she raised a hand and took the mist back. Then, she snapped her fingers, following which, a stream of dark fire popped out of the level-six creature's dead body and flashed onto her hand.

Lin Qiao walked past the bodies of those dead creatures and kept moving forward. She had absorbed their energy, and didn't plan to do anything to their bodies. But, those dead bodies didn't stop changing after she left. Lin Qiao had drained the energy of those creatures by using her power, so the corpses she left behind started melting slowly. An hour later, those bodies had turned into puddles of liquid.

While hunting underground creatures, Lin Qiao had also been observing the underground cave. She spent a few more hours down there and killed quite some underground creatures at level five, six, and even seven. At last, she entered another halfway done, abandoned tunnel.

Why did they give up on the tunnel? Was there a special reason?

Lin Qiao stood in the abandoned tunnel and looked around carefully, also touching the earth on the cave wall and then sniffing her fingers. She sensed moisture from the earth. However, that did not seem like the reason why those creatures gave up on the tunnel.

She took a few steps backward as she raised her head to carefully look up, and then look down.

After looking from side to side for a few times, she finally discovered something unusual.

Those were the roots of some kind of plants. What kind of plant could root so deep underground?

Lin Qiao believed that her location was at least two hundred meters underground. What kind of plant could root hundreds of meters deep underground?

She curiously moved closer to the roots and scratched the earth on them. The roots were thin, like the tips of chopsticks, spreading on the cave wall like a web.

She looked around and found some more roots like that on the surrounding cave walls. After a short while of digging, she found some thumb-sized lumps on those roots, looking a little like fruits.

It was some kind of plant with very strong roots.

She picked some pieces of the roots with a few lumps attached to them. Then, she put the roots under her nose, but sensed no smell.

She broke the roots with her nails, its skin seeming very thin and crispy. As a result, she broke it easily and exposed the matter inside it.

Once she broke it, a strong, stimulating scent was sensed.

She gave two sneezes in a row, then immediately pinched her nose with one hand and took the roots away from her face with the other. The mysterious plant should have some kind of effect on those underground creatures.

Lin Qiao thought for a moment, then quickly threw the roots in her hand into her space. Next, she dug out all the roots from the surrounding walls and put them into her space as well. Only after that did she turn and leave, continuing to move forward.

After spending such a long time in the cave, even she had started to lose her sense of direction.

Where was she?

It took her a long while to finally return to the last tunnel. She came into another room that had a dome, surrounded by a few tunnels. This time, no especially large tunnel was found. It meant that the leader of the underground creatures would not come to that area.

So, she turned around and headed the other way. While walking, she pondered for a while and decided to find a few underground creatures to find out what the roots could do to them.

So, belong long, she followed the earthy smell to the other room. She approached those creatures, then suddenly broke some roots and the lumps before throwing them at the underground creatures on the scene.

"Roar…" The stimulating smell instantly suffused the room as Lin Qiao quickly moved back tens of meters away.

Those underground creatures reacted intensely when they sensed the smell. In a panic, they darted about aimlessly, turning the place chaotic. The wall side was no longer safe, so Lin Qiao leaped up and spread her legs to step on both sides of the cave wall, looking down at those creatures rushing crazily out of the tunnel.

"Roar…" As all of them ran away, Lin Qiao landed back on the ground, then clapped her hands and continued walking forward.

Tens of meters away, she found those creatures lying on the ground with blood flowing out of their mouths, ears, and noses. Their life-force was gone.

They were dead.

'Eh? Dead? So soon?'

Lin Qiao looked at those dead bodies with surprise. But in the next second, she was thrilled. Those roots seemed to be the perfect weapon against those underground creatures.

Three hours later, Lin Qiao finally found a room that was connected with the tunnels exclusively for the leader of those creatures. Standing in the room, she sniffed around, then chose a tunnel from where she sensed the strongest scent of that level-eight underground creature.

The further in she went, the more sharply downward the tunnel declined, and the stronger was the creature's scent. Lin Qiao could even sense its vibe in that tunnel.

The road under Lin Qiao's feet abruptly grew wide, so she stopped walking. The ground had become like a weird type of rock that was still declining. She raised her head and found that the cave roof was formed from the same kind of rock.

A strong airflow could be sensed from the front. It seemed like giant gusts of wind were blowing across.

Lin Qiao carefully moved downward; the further she went, the steeper the ground got. She looked at both sides and found the area looking like a fault.

The other side gave her a different feeling, as the level-eight creature's vibe didn't exist down there. At last, she didn't go further down, but moved back to the room that she had been to before.