"Ah! Who is it? Why are you tying me up?"
My shout woke Xianli directly. From my experience, the moment she heard my voice, she had already chased after it. Sure enough, she was currently at the level of the tree trunk, bound into a bizarre shape by a mass of vines. Fortunately, there weren't many of them—only a few—so Xianli could still wave her limbs and cry for help.
I breathed a sigh of relief. These vines weren't the vines of Qingmao, the wood-element monster, but had been randomly formed from vines belonging to the various trees around us. In other words, the trees of North Mountain might all be alive!
After arriving at North Mountain, we hadn't stopped searching everywhere for traces of Qingmao, so we had given the vines no chance to abduct anyone. But the moment Xianli fell asleep, the vines became active, taking advantage of my inattention to move her away.
This was the unique ecology of North Mountain's forest. No wonder we hadn't seen a single decent monster here. Most of the monsters resting in this place had probably been secretly captured and eaten by Qingmao!
Fortunately, Xianli still had me, a living man, around. I immediately rushed over, and the peeling knife in my hand burst into action, severing the thickest vine with a bang. The peeling knife plunged straight into one of the great trees!
At the same time, having lost its support, the vine could no longer bear Xianli's weight. She cried out as she crashed toward the ground!
I hurriedly caught her in my arms, only to see the figure revealed by the way the vines had bound her tightly. Don't let this little girl's plain clothes fool you—her figure was anything but plain. I took a deep breath and