Chapter 10
Between the light and shadow, the vines were cut in two, but the bloody scene I had imagined did not appear.
Lin Zhu breathed a sigh of relief.
The broken vines twitched twice before going still, while the person who was expected to be injured stood there upright, holding a dark scythe, his expression changed from relaxed to deep and unfathomable as he stared at the demonic plant before him.
Something's wrong with this magical plant.
The two exchanged a glance and, in unison, took three feet back, safely distancing themselves from the demonic plant.
“It developed intelligence!” Wen Wan said.
Demons without intelligence will only attack indiscriminately, just like how they abandoned Senior Sister Zhang at the beginning and prioritized attacking the cultivators who attacked them.
Once a demon gains sentience, its strength will greatly increase, making it extremely difficult to deal with.
Normally, only demons in the Infant stage can develop sentience, but the demon in front of us is only in the late Nascent Soul stage.
It's playing dumb to fool others!
The two of them realized at the same time.
The levels of demonic plants are the same as those of demonic cultivators, in the following order: Body Refinement, Spirit Absorption, Yuan Condensation, Nascent Soul, Devouring, Demonic Infant, Out-of-Body, Shattering Void, and Tribulation Crossing.
The level of a demonic plant in the Infant stage corresponds to that of a cultivator in the Nascent Soul stage, but the cultivation of plants is far more difficult than that of humans, so their strength will be a level higher.
In other words, if the demonic plant in front of you is at the Infant stage, then at least a cultivator at the Integration stage is needed to deal with it.
"Moreover, it seems to have lurked in this secret realm many times, and is very skilled at using the Firefly Fungus to attract prey." Lin Zhu's voice was low, unusually serious.
Seeing that it had been exposed, the demonic plant stopped pretending. It emitted black energy and its size instantly expanded again. Huge vines rapidly grew all over its body, and each vine looked extremely hard, covered with sharp thorns, and probably contained deadly poison.
This is a poisonous vine.
I thought it was just an ordinary poisonous vine from the secret realm, but it turned out to be a poison-devouring vine.
Although they differ by only one word, they are worlds apart.
Simply put, poison vine is only poisonous. Just avoid it, and if you do get involved, you can usually escape unscathed.
Unlike other poison-eating vines, this one possesses both offensive and defensive capabilities, holds grudges, and has even developed sentience.
"Junior Sister Song," Lin Zhu called out to her, "Do you still want the Firefly Ganoderma?"
Wen Wan smiled gently: "How could I refuse a spiritual treasure I've seen?"
Even if they want to leave, they have to get the vine's permission first.
Since they let their prey escape, they should take their place.
The monster gave them no time to communicate. The vines that grew from its body quickly attacked them. The two dodged quickly and saw that the spot where they had just stood had been blasted into a large crater.
Clearly, they're already planning a major operation on their first visit to the secret realm.
Wen Wan's fighting spirit was ignited. She could feel Hei Lian excitedly shouting as she encountered an equally matched opponent.
The demonic plant gave them no chance to breathe, continuing to attack them with its vines.
The luminous pearl in my hand was really in the way, but I had to use it to see in this spiritual mist.
She took out a talisman from her spatial ring, stuck it on the luminous pearl, and casually tossed it into the air. The luminous pearl then floated steadily above, illuminating the battlefield like a miniature artificial sun.
The levitation talisman is really useful; she can finally unleash her full potential.
Facing the attacking vines, she used her sickle to block them, pressing closer and closer to the main body of the vines.
Its weakness lies in its seven inches.
Seeing this, Lin Zhu summoned his natal spirit sword and continuously attacked the growing vines to attract their attention.
Wen Wan felt a sense of relief; this teammate wasn't too stupid after all.
But why is Lin Zhu's sword energy a bit off?
Now is not the best time to ask these questions. Let's get this thing first and get our hands on the Firefly Mushroom.
As for how to divide it after it's acquired, that depends on my mood.
The demonic plant hadn't expected the two people before it to be so powerful, able to cooperate in resisting its attacks.
The demonic cultivator was holding back several vines and even trying to cut them off. If his vines weren't strong enough, he probably wouldn't have been able to cut them all. And the little girl in front of him wasn't a cultivator at all. His vines couldn't beat her in terms of strength, and she was pressing closer and closer to his body. If he didn't have enough vines, she would have succeeded long ago.
What's the deal with these two people it provoked today?
This secret realm unexpectedly brought it mortal danger.
The Demon Plant felt a pang of regret, wishing it had given up the Firefly Mushroom sooner. At the same time, it was also excited, thinking that these two were a great tonic!
Seeing that it was losing, it used all its strength to bounce the two away and disappeared from the ground in an instant.
Before the two could react, dozens of vines appeared on the ground, forming two huge cages that quickly closed in, trying to tightly envelop them.
Lin Zhu quickly offered up his magical artifact, creating a shield around himself to avoid being pricked by the vines' thorns. However, as the vines tightened, the shield probably wouldn't last long, and he didn't know how Junior Sister Song was doing. He focused his mind, crossed his legs, and quickly chanted incantations to gather power for his spirit sword.
Wen Wan was not trapped by the vine cage at all. Just as the cage was about to tighten, she gathered her supernatural power, took the bottom of the black lotus and threw it heavily to the ground. The rushing vines instantly turned to ashes.
But it also consumed a huge amount of her supernatural power.
She swung her sickle and pressed her advantage. Its vines split into two cages, one binding Lin Zhu and the other being destroyed by Wen Wan. Now only the main body remained, which presented an opportunity.
Before it could grow new vines, Wenwan quickly picked up a sickle, leaped into the air, aimed at its vital spot, and swung it fiercely with all her might.
Unexpectedly, the scythe only cut an inch before getting stuck and not moving at all. The demonic plant had already grown a vine, which quickly grabbed Wenwan's body and threw her out violently.
At the same time, Lin Zhu's spirit sword finally gathered enough power to break through the cage. In the blink of an eye, he soared into the air and caught Wen Wan, who was being flung away, preventing her from getting hurt. However, he himself was thrown several meters away due to inertia.
"Are you alright?" Lin Zhu quickly put the person in her arms down and asked with concern.
"It's nothing." Wen Wan stood up, glaring angrily at the poisonous vines.
How dare you drop me, your grandmother! You're asking for it!
The monster, whose vines had not yet fully grown, once again bore the brunt of her wrath.
Wen Wan was furious and unleashed the rest of her supernatural abilities all at once.
Black Lotus trembled with excitement, cooperating with its master with all its might, severing the monster's last two vines in one go. Aiming at the small cut the monster had made earlier, it charged up its strength again and launched a fierce attack. The monster was instantly cut in two, without even a chance to cry out.
He took the Firefly Fungus that fell from the monster, turned around and smiled confidently at Lin Zhu: "Got it."
Lin Zhu silently gave her a thumbs up: Strong.
Yinghuozhi tossed it at Lin Zhu: "Here, take it. I don't need it."
Lin Zhu was the one who discovered the item first. What she wanted was the Marrow Cleansing Grass, not the Firefly Mushroom. Since her partner was capable, giving him some benefits wasn't out of the question.
Besides, the other party was willing to protect her immediately.
If Lin Zhu hadn't caught her, she probably would have suffered internal injuries from the fall. Consider this a token of gratitude.
Lin Zhu didn't stand on ceremony and accepted it directly.
"By the way, was that your natal spirit sword just now?" Wen Wan asked.
Lin Zhu paused for a moment, but did not deny it.
Wen Wan didn't think much of it: "It's nothing, I just thought he looked familiar."
"Come help me up."
She tossed Lin Zhu a high-grade spirit-replenishing pill to help him recover quickly, while she herself only took a high-grade recovery pill to restore her vitality.
Having exhausted her supernatural powers, her body is now extremely weak. The elixirs and medicines in her space are all designed for cultivators and have little effect on her.
Now at least Lin Zhu can recover as soon as possible. If she hadn't given it her all, the outcome would have been uncertain, and they would have just wasted more time here.
That's absolutely out of the question. They haven't found the Marrow Cleansing Grass yet, and they can't waste any more time here.
Let's go.
After a short while, Wenwan asked to continue on their journey, and the two of them carried the luminous pearl onward.
"Have you two encountered some troublesome demonic creature, that you've ended up in such a sorry state?"
They encountered disciples from other sects on the road, one of whom was concerned about the Dao.
The biggest obstacle in the Spirit Mist Secret Realm is this thick fog. The two people in front of them have excellent luminous pearls, so they shouldn't be in such a sorry state. There are only two possibilities: one, the two are too weak, and ordinary monsters in the secret realm can beat them up like this; two, the two have encountered high-level monsters, and high-level monsters are often accompanied by excellent treasures.
Compared to the former, the person asking the question felt that the two were more like the latter. If they were too weak, how could they possess such high-grade luminous pearls? Just by looking at the area they illuminated in the Spirit Mist Secret Realm, one could tell they were no ordinary items.
The best lighting artifacts they had, the Night-Shining Pearls, could only illuminate a range of ten feet, while the Night-Shining Pearls in their hands could easily illuminate thirty feet.
We need to probe their strengths and weaknesses first to determine if they possess any other, better magical treasures.
Wen Wan immediately saw through his intentions; the principles she had learned to survive in the apocalypse were deeply ingrained in her.
Resources are scarce; if you can't find them, you'll steal them.
Those who consider themselves to be from prestigious and upright families are not exactly clean in their methods either.
Observing the white robes worn by the group and the Kunshan pine ornaments unique to Kunshan around their waists, she could tell who they were.
"Are you fellow Daoists from the Kunshan Sect?" Wen Wan asked, her eyes sparkling as if she had seen a savior. "It's so good to see you all! I heard this secret realm isn't dangerous, so I kept pestering my brother to come and see the world. But we just encountered some vine-like demonic plants that hung us up and beat us. Luckily, my brother had some immortal artifacts given to us by our elders, which saved our lives."
With a few words, Wen Wan defined herself as the pampered young lady of her family, and the two of them relied entirely on the magic artifact to save their lives.
The other party couldn't find fault with these words; she had no spiritual power, and Lin Zhu had concealed his strength, so they couldn't tell.
"From what I'm saying, fellow Daoist, you're not very strong. If that's the case, how could your elders feel comfortable letting you come out alone?" The disciple from Kunshan continued to inquire.
"We're not strong, but we have a lot of magical artifacts," Wen Wan said proudly. "Moreover, our elders have placed talismans on us. If something really happens to us, the images of us before the accident will be transmitted back, and he can avenge us by leveling this broken secret realm."
Level this place? A secret realm just like that? Was this elder just saying it casually, or...?
Thinking of this, the group of people who were secretly plotting something broke out in a cold sweat. If what she said was true, her elders were probably Mahayana or Tribulation Transcending cultivators, and they should not be easily provoked. Fortunately, they did not make the first move.
"May I ask, fellow Daoist... which powerful cultivator is your elder in your family?"
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