Xu Xin took out a boning knife and a wooden barrel. He wanted to collect the juice from the thick blood-thorn vine.
"Let me help you!" Li Wenxi helped him lift the vine. Although the thorns on the bloodthorn vine were numerous, they were spaced fairly closely together, so if you were careful, you should be able to handle it without any problems.
Xu Xin cut the vine with a knife, and a milky white sticky liquid flowed out from the scratch, which made Xu Xin breathe a sigh of relief.
He was afraid that the vines attacked by the purple-grade steel halberd would have their vitality absorbed, resulting in the same situation as the trees, where materials could not be collected. That would be too uncomfortable.
Fortunately, although the halberd cannot be used to cut down trees, it does not affect the materials obtained after killing monsters.
The amount of juice in this blood thorn vine is basically equivalent to that of four or five previous blood thorn vines.
"This juice is one of the raw materials for me to make steel fire and universal alchemical materials. You can help me collect it when you have time." Xu Xin threw the blood-thorn vine, which had lost its juice and become lighter, to the ground and said to the two of them.
Ji Chaoyang said, "It just so happens that I still have a lot in my tree house. If I keep them in my hands, I can only make explosives. I have enough explosives. I will trade them all to you when we return to the tree house."
"Ah? I don't have one...and I don't think I can beat it..." Li Wenxi lowered his head and said a little embarrassedly.
She knew basically nothing about fighting. She could use her excellent physical fitness to kill ordinary beasts or dodge the attacks of mutant creatures, but she had no confidence at all in facing the mutant creatures head-on and killing them.
"You don't have to fight in close combat. You can use an explosive crossbow arrow to blow it off at the root with one shot." Xu Xin made a trigger-pulling gesture towards Li Wenxi.
"Explosive crossbow arrows? Yes! But this vine is so thick, can it be broken by explosion?" Li Wenxi asked, looking at the vines on the ground.
"Then let's try again."
As he spoke, Xu Xin once again stepped out of the protected area and then quickly retracted his foot.
The cracks in the ground widened again in an instant. This time, three sharp and thick blood-marked vines emerged and quickly stabbed towards Xu Xin!
"Ah!" Coco was so scared that she ran behind Xu Xin's legs, baring her teeth and raising her claws at the three vines.
Under Xu Xin's gaze, the three vines actually broke through the protected area and attacked them!
He was startled and quickly pulled Li Wenxi to the side.
However, the vine did not go deep, but only entered a certain distance. The blood veins all over its body turned brighter red in an instant, and then it quickly retracted and stopped outside the boundary of the protected area. The three sharp vine tips were pointing directly at Xu Xin and the other two, and were still spinning continuously.
"Did you see that just now?" Xu Xin frowned. "Did they just enter the protected area?"
This blood-veined vine is five or six centimeters thick. The originally slender blood-veined vine is now almost as thick as the blood-thorn vine in the defense battle. The vine is surrounded by dense bright red blood veins, and the tip of the vine is still extremely sharp, like a freshly polished rapier.
"Although it's only a little bit, it has definitely entered..." Ji Chaoyang's expression was also very solemn, "This is not a good sign."
"I saw it too!" Li Wenxi opened her eyes wide as she stared at the vines outside that now dared not enter. "The moment they came in, the blood patterns on their bodies seemed... brighter? Glowing? Just like... just like those vines in the defense battle!"
...Reinforced by something?
"You just said that you hadn't encountered such thick vines yesterday?" Xu Xin thought of what Ji Chaoyang had just said and asked.
"Yes, I circled my protected area yesterday and explored every direction. Only the four relatively straight directions of east, south, west and north are connected to the protected area. The rest are dangerous areas." Ji Chaoyang explained in a deep voice, "I have tried the same thing as you, and the vines that emerged from the ground are the same as before. This is the first time I have seen vines this thick."
This time, the vines...
"Two possibilities." Xu Xin raised his hand and made a two sign. "The first possibility is that this place is special. There's something underground that can strengthen the vines, so the underground creatures are stronger."
"The second possibility," Ji Chaoyang continued, "is that after the jungle entered autumn this morning, all the underground vines became stronger."
"Just try it out in a few more places and you'll know." Li Wenxi had already taken out her steel crossbow and loaded it with an explosive bolt.
Ji Chaoyang told this information to the other explorers on the spot and asked them to pay attention to whether the underground creatures outside the protected area have become stronger.
"I don't think there's anything special here. Maybe these mutant vines just like the cold temperatures. In autumn and winter, stronger ones emerge. They can survive in the reserve for a while. Didn't the ones we encountered during our jungle exploration die after attacking us in the reserve? So, can I shoot them?"
Li Wenxi was holding a crossbow and was eager to try to bomb the three blood-veined vines.
Xu Xin thought of the giant carnivorous plant at the entrance to the golden treasure chest.
That carnivorous plant survived in the protected area for quite some time before dying. Now that I think about it, it seems to be stronger than any intermediate mutant creature. It can even control people's minds and cause them to hallucinate.
If the carnivorous plant had not become dry and brittle and died at the last moment, Xu Xin would probably have died there.
It seems that perhaps it is just the stronger underground creatures that can last longer in the protected area.
Seeing that Li Wenxi's crossbow was aimed at the root of the blood-veined vine, Xu Xin immediately stopped her.
"Stay away, the explosion has a large range." Xu Xin pulled the two of them ten meters away.
At this time, the three blood-veined vines had lost their target and were about to retreat underground.
"Hurry up!"
"Oh, okay!" Li Wenxi immediately aimed at the root of the vine and pulled the trigger.
“Whoosh—”
The blue-grade steel crossbow had a very fast firing rate. Before the three vines that had lost their target could react, the explosive crossbow arrows had already hit their roots.
"boom!"
The thick smoke produced by the explosion gradually dissipated. The three people looked towards the original location of the vines. There were two blood-marked vines that were blown off and left on the ground. Only one vine had completely retracted below the ground at the moment they saw it.
It seems that they are not that strong, at least they can be dealt with with the weapons in their hands.
23shu8
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