Baqilia Bloodsucking Vine

When had they started watching him?

Was it when he bought the Plant Guide at the entrance and received the wristband containing newbie benefits?

Was it when he walked straight across the grass in the safe zone and entered this dense forest with poor visibility and few people?

Was it when he focused on the joy of successfully taking a class and overlooked the extra shadow following behind him?

"I was careless. I need to reflect on that."

Lu PingAn calmly opened the Plant Guide and began examining the plants by the roadside.

His opponents' stalking skills were poor, even amateurish. Every now and then, he could glimpse the edge of a black cloak from the corner of his eye.

But anxiety and unease would only make the wolves attack early. He should first consider how to deal with them.

Lu PingAn's acting was passable, but Lei Shui Yun, who had kept saying, "Leave it to me," had arms that were trembling slightly.

"Didn't you say it was relatively safe inside? We haven't even gone that far."

"My brother and I came twice. It was completely safe."

Her brother, Lei Huo Ren? The one who came wearing a Bureau of Anomalous Affairs Keeper uniform? It would be stranger if it weren't safe.

Lu PingAn sighed helplessly. Expecting a newbie to be reliable was his own fault.

But the little cat's ears and tail had both stood upright. She looked like she was about to give herself away, so he needed to reassure her.

"There's good news and bad news, Shui Yun. Which one do you want to hear first?"

"...The bad news."

Lu PingAn smiled and casually said, "There aren't just two of them. There are at least three."

"What's the good news?"

"There are at least three of them."

Lei Shui Yun was no fool. She froze at first, then understood the next moment.

There were many of them, they were tailing newbies, and they still did not dare make a move. That meant they definitely were not strong and could only win through numbers.

"Meow, a newbie hunter group?!"

Why was he so certain? With the Plant Guide in his hand, Lu PingAn was clearly a newbie gardener accompanied by a low-tier bodyguard, probably the weakest combination in the entire secret realm.

If everyone was Tier 0 or Tier 1 trash, then with Cat Cat's beastification advantage—

"Meow, leave it to me!"

In an instant, the confident cat head successfully boosted morale.

Leave it to her? Lu PingAn was not that foolish.

New recruits, especially those who had never seen blood, were not worth expecting anything from, even if she could kill him in a single exchange.

"From here on, listen to me. We'll split up now. Pretend to head back, while I go deeper into the woods. They'll definitely follow me, and then it'll be your turn to hunt them. The trees and dense forest are your home ground, aren't they?"

Smiling, Lu PingAn patted Cat Cat's head, whose fur had suddenly bristled from being exposed. It really did feel nice.

"I... I..."

Cat Cat felt somewhat guilty. Though "cat" combined with Spiderwalk gave her the potential to become a king of the jungle, she truly did not have that confidence.

Smack!

"Meowow!"

Lu PingAn reached out, twisted, and sharply yanked Cat Cat's tail.

Before Cat Cat could react, he leaped away carelessly and cursed loudly.

"Little Girl, with skills like yours, who could actually count on you as a bodyguard? I hired you for that, didn't I? And you're still pretending to be all high and mighty? Won't let me touch you? Fine, get the hell out! I can handle the rest of the way alone. Don't even think about getting the remaining payment!"

After yelling loudly, Lu PingAn turned and walked into the forest, leaving behind a completely dumbfounded Cat Cat.

Lu PingAn really did run fast. He was soon about to disappear into the forest.

"Come on, follow that fat sheep."

From the shadows, four cloaked figures quickly followed after him.

On one side was an obvious beastification bodyguard, on the other a newbie gardener employer. There was no need to discuss who they should deal with first.

As for Lu PingAn, who had entered the forest, he smiled happily more than ten minutes later when he heard hurried footsteps behind him.

"Sometimes, the hunter and prey can switch identities at any moment."

This was the safest secret realm because there was no death.

This was also the most dangerous secret realm because, without death, cowards and wild dogs dared to try taking other people's lives.

And once wild dogs tasted blood and became evil wolves, would they still be accustomed to eating vegetables outside?

Was the Maiden of the Forest merciful? Lu PingAn only wanted to give a derisive laugh.

He calmly leaned behind a Big Tree, flipping through his book as he waited patiently. Waited.

"Where is he?"

The four black cloaks walked right past him, yet ignored him completely as he stood wrapped in bushes and bark.

Lu PingAn yawned, his eyes nearly watering. He was a little tired today. He should finish early and go back to sleep.

"Hey, hello."

Lu PingAn suddenly appeared among the four and even took the initiative to greet them.

He had one unlucky man's neck hooked under each arm and waved at the others with a smile, still holding the book in his hand.

"You... you..."

At that moment, the newbie killer group was terrified.

The others pointed at Lu PingAn, but they first noticed their companions' miserable states.

Around the necks of the cloaked men held by Lu PingAn, purplish-red "demonic vines" were spreading rapidly, visibly growing wildly over their heads, chests, and arms.

"This? Heh, I wonder if you've heard of the Baqilia Bloodsucking Vine? It lodges in wounds, sprouts inside blood vessels, rapidly parasitizes the entire body, drains all the blood, and turns its victim into a dried corpse."

In an instant, the faces beneath the cloaks turned pale.

"I have a few questions for you, so don't move around, okay?"

Could a newbie even get their hands on something so insane and twisted? Had they run into an iron wall this time?

"Stop! Stop it now!"

"Don't do this, brother. Don't move, whatever you do."

The purple vines were spreading frantically, while the unlucky men were so terrified they barely dared breathe, nearly collapsing onto the ground on the spot.

Seeing their brothers' plight, the others panicked.

Dying in this situation would be better. No one could bear the experience of having all their blood drained and becoming a dried corpse.

The rookie killers' panic nearly made Lu PingAn laugh aloud.

He shook his head and directly opened the guide. He remembered buying some of the Demonic Plants on this page as spares. Was it this one? The green seed with rings on it...

"Catch."

With a casual flick, he threw a "seed" to the nearest cloaked figure.

"This is..."

That cloaked man actually reached out and caught it on instinct.

Boom!

The sudden explosion directly blew off the second unlucky cloaked man's head and upper body.

The violent blast erupted right before their eyes, killing one companion on the spot.

His corpse fell, then his flesh and blood melted into part of the secret realm, leaving behind only his clothes.

"Demonic Impatiens Balsamina Thunder! It's a plant mine!"

This was not some rare plant. The unlucky men recognized it immediately.

"He's crazy, using that at such close range..."

The survivors looked at the smiling man. His face had been splattered with blood.

Eh? It seemed to be his blood? Was he injured too? Could it be that he was not as powerful as he looked?

The remaining two black cloaks were restless, but then they saw an even stranger sight.

In just an instant, the wounds on the man's face healed more than halfway.

He even licked the blood from the corner of his mouth in an utterly perverse manner, watching the two of them with a smile and anticipation in his eyes.

"He did it on purpose?! This madman deliberately hurt himself. He wants to see us struggle and resist."

The two did not dare move at all. This time, hunting rabbits had led them into a super man-eating shark. They no longer hoped to survive, only that they would not be left with psychological trauma.

Meanwhile, Lu PingAn sucked in a breath from the pain.

"Damn, that thing's powerful. I almost screwed up."

Yet at that moment, he still smiled as he flipped through the guide, seemingly searching for something.

At last, he found it and pointed at a page as he asked, "...I'm looking for Purple Half-Dragon Grass. Its characteristics are purple leaves and a dragon's roar at midnight. Have you seen it?"

It was another name they had never even heard of, and it sounded very high-tier.

The two shook their heads frantically, only hoping this big shot pretending to be a newbie would hurry up and leave.

"Sigh, you're making this difficult for me."

For some reason, Lu PingAn heard the sound of trickling water.

Looking down, he indeed saw one of the purple-vine-covered men collapsed on the ground in despair, with a puddle beneath him.

"Forget it. We have no grudge against each other, and I'm in a good mood today, so I'll do a good deed."

As he spoke, he put a Touch-Me-Not Mine seed into the unlucky man's mouth, patted his face, and then walked toward the other two.

"...The Blood-Sucking Vine has reached this stage, so he can't be saved anymore. You won't mind if I give him—"

Boom!

Behind the smiling man was a violent explosion and a spray of blood soaring into the air.

How could the two unlucky survivors dare object? They hurriedly shook their heads and forced smiles.

"You're truly merciful, sir. I thank you on my brother's behalf!"

"Boss, you're such a good person! Meeting you is the fortune of our Wilderness Four Wolves."

The final two members of the notorious newbie killer group, the Wasteland Four Wolves, were practically wagging their tails at Lu PingAn.

Lu PingAn was in no hurry. He merely yawned and opened the guide again to look through it.

The two men before him did not even dare breathe loudly as they waited for the big shot's instructions.

They looked at their two brothers' headless corpses and the purple vines gradually withering on the ground. Perhaps thinking of their own future fates, their expressions grew increasingly ugly.

Suddenly, the big shot closed his book.

"She's here."

"Who's here?"

The third wolf had barely asked when a black shadow suddenly descended.

Boom!

This time, it was the sound of a human head being stomped into the ground and directly crushed to pieces.

Cat Cat had arrived.

Before the Wolf Boss could react, he discovered that the "big shot" had already touched him!

And the lethal "Blood-Sucking Vine" was spreading visibly from the arm where they had made contact! He could not be saved either!!

"I have a few questions to ask. You had too many brothers, and I didn't want too many people knowing, so I sent them out first. You don't mind, do you?"

"No objections, no objections!"

The big wolf was covered in tears as he looked at the Blood-Sucking Vine covering half his body. He was practically about to piss himself. How could he possibly object?

He answered every question without holding anything back, nearly revealing even his own family's treasure stash, yet he still could not provide any clue about that damned Purple Half-Dragon Grass.

He felt cold all over, and his body had gone completely numb. It seemed the Baqilia Bloodsucking Vine had already drained too much of his blood.

At last, after revealing everything he knew about rare demonic plants, the big wolf looked pitifully at the big shot, only asking for a quick death.

Lu PingAn smiled. He smiled at the utterly baffled Cat Cat, then took out a seed.

Under the victim's grateful gaze, he stuffed it into the big wolf's mouth.

The big wolf waited expectantly for the "mine" in his mouth to explode, but at the very last moment, he seemed to hear something wrong. How could the big shot say something like that?

"Oh right, I nearly forgot to mention it. This is just an ordinary Morning Glory Vine. A Blood-Sucking Vine or something? Hehe, how could that possibly exist?"

"...You, you were playing us..."

Boom!

The explosion of flesh and blood stuffed the "big wolf's" remaining words back into his mouth.

Only Lei Shui Yun, her face full of disbelief, witnessed this incredible four-kill.

"Let's go. I'm tired. Let's finish the work quickly and go home to sleep."

In Lu PingAn's bored eyes, whether an ability was powerful or not was important, but it had never been the key.

Who used it was the key.

"Cat Cat, you were way too useless. I'm docking your pay. Uh, you aren't being paid this time? Then I'll dock it from your next payment."

At the entrance to the secret realm, three wolves were anxiously staring at the "revival point."

When their boss finally appeared there, the three wolves also breathed sighs of relief.

In this secret realm, death was not frightening. What was frightening was a desperate situation where one could not die even if one wanted to.

And that fatal Blood-Sucking Vine was precisely the most terrifying fate.

The Three Brothers had been worried that their boss would be drained dry and fall in the dense forest, left waiting for death.

"Boss, wonderful, wonderful! He didn't torture you, right?"

"What are you saying, Third Brother? Are you looking down on Boss? Boss held out for so long. He clearly kept every secret and finally died after all his blood was drained!"

Seeing the reverent, admiring looks in his brothers' eyes, the big wolf fell silent for a moment before gazing into the distance.

"Although having my blood sucked by the Baqilia Bloodsucking Vine was agonizing, I held out until the end. He got nothing from me!"

"Boss!!"

From then on, Jianghu gained a legend: a wolf king and a vicious Baqilia Bloodsucking Vine that no one had ever seen!

"Boss, you'll always be our boss!"