The Second Mountain in the Spirit Realm

"This plant's growth rate is far too astonishing!"

"The soil composition hasn't changed at all!"

"The air-environment index has also undergone normal data changes caused by the appearance of the plants."

"What about the water? Have the nearby water sources been tested?"

An old professor led his students and assistants, hacking through the tangled shrubs and opening up a path into the depths of Lord Finger Mountain. Every time they entered Lord Finger Mountain, they had to repeat this process, because the path they cleared that day would be covered again by crazily growing plants the very next day.

"Xiao Ming, remember to test the nearby water sources next time!"

"Did you notice? The plants' growth rate seems... to have slowed down?" The old professor trudged with difficulty along the mountain path, but he keenly noticed that some traces of the path they had cleared yesterday still remained today instead of being completely covered as usual.

Zhou Yang, who was following the group, looked around and said, "Indeed! What does this mean?"

The old professor's expression grew solemn. "It could mean that the factors causing the plants to run wild are stabilizing, or gradually disappearing!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he became anxious and agitated. "No, we have to pick up the pace. We must explore every corner of Lord Finger Mountain as quickly as possible."

The changes had begun at the main peak of Lord Finger Mountain, so their primary goal was to collect samples of various plants and take them back for testing.

The group once again climbed to the summit of the main peak. This side faced the sea, with a cliff on one side. Dense green vines grew across the cliff, while the summit was also covered by groups of giant trees dozens of meters tall.

Someone immediately noticed the vines on the cliff. "What kind of plant is this?"

The old professor summoned everyone over. "Come and take a look. Has anyone seen this kind of plant before?"

An assistant in his early thirties, wearing glasses, carefully identified it and said, "It should belong to the class of dicotyledonous plants, a vine. But I've never seen this type before. Could it be a new species that appeared because of Lord Finger Mountain's special environment?"

"This should be of great research value!"

The assistant grew excited. He put on his gloves and wanted to cut off a section of the vine to preserve as a sample and take back.

But the moment his hand touched the vine and he brought the scissors up, he found that the vine was as hard as steel. The large scissors were like shears cutting a steel cable. Even after he used all his strength, he could only open a tiny slit, from which green sap flowed.

What happened next completely exceeded everyone's imagination.

They immediately saw the vines, which had originally seemed like dead objects, come alive like snakes. They shook violently, and the movement of this single vine spread to all the vines across the cliff like a chain reaction.

"Not good!" Zhou Yang was the first to react. He grabbed the professor nearest the cliff and a female graduate researcher and immediately pulled them backward.

"No! No! I'm going to fall!"

The researcher collecting plant samples was instantly swept up by the crazed vines. As the vines continuously tightened and whipped upward, they dragged him toward the cliff below.

"Help me! Help me!" The researcher desperately tugged at the vines, completely terrified as he let out shrill screams.

At that moment, Lin Shu rushed out from the rear and charged toward him in great strides.

By then, the man had already slipped over the cliff and was inevitably falling toward the abyss below. Lin Shu's nimble body slid down after him. She clung to the rock wall with one hand and, at the critical moment, caught him.

Then she exerted herself and actually hurled the male researcher's hundred-plus-kilogram weight back up. Following that, she made a running leap and jumped back up herself.

The entire sequence of movements was incomparably smooth and agile, filled with the beauty of athleticism, health, and strength.

But at that moment, what shocked everyone wasn't Lin Shu's strength or heroic bearing. Instead, they all stood there with their mouths agape, staring at the cliff and the sky above it.

They saw the vines crawling across the cliff begin to writhe as one. They danced like mad snakes across the cliff, while vines stretching for thousands of meters rose into the sky, blotting out the heavens and the sun.

The scene looked as though a terrifying Great Devil King or an apocalyptic monster from a movie had made its entrance.

"Rumble!"

A guard stationed at the foot of the mountain also looked toward the summit. He saw several whips as thick as steel cables lash straight from the mountaintop to the foot of the mountain, sending up sheets of dust amid the violent commotion. It was a spectacle of demons dancing wildly.

From a distance, it looked as though the entire mountain peak had gone berserk.

"Clatter!"

The cup in the guard's hands fell straight to the ground. Before long, the mountain's alarm sirens began to wail.

"What kind of monster is this? Its size has already surpassed that of every known plant!" The professor's teeth chattered as he spoke, and his hands and feet felt weak.

"A carnivorous plant? This could be some kind of mutated carnivorous plant! It might be hunting! We've already provoked it!" The researcher who had just been rescued was drenched in cold sweat, looking as if he had been scared witless.

"Run!" Seeing the vines waving down from the sky, densely intertwined and blocking every line of sight, Zhou Yang immediately let out a thunderous roar.

The professor and several students standing atop the cliff were so pale with terror that they collapsed to the ground. They scrambled backward on all fours without even daring to look back. Fortunately, the vines on the mountain did not pursue them, instead thrashing about wildly as though they had been provoked.

After a long while, the disturbed Mountain God Vine finally calmed down and withdrew into the ground. Most of its main body shrank beneath the earth, while the visible portions drooped down along the cliff and clung to the rocks.

Even Zhou Yang and Lin Shu had been frightened by what they had just witnessed. Everyone fled down the main peak along the path they had cleared earlier.

As they ran, many people's clothes were torn, and in their panicked flight, their arms and faces were scratched.

At that moment, vehicles drove over one after another at the foot of the mountain, while drones circled overhead. The commotion had already alerted the guards stationed below Lord Finger Mountain. A team preparing to climb the mountain and rescue the research group was about to set out when they happened to encounter the researchers fleeing down the mountain.

"What exactly was that?" Sirens rang out at the foot of the mountain. The professor, his assistants, and students huddled beneath blankets, drinking water with trembling hands, still shaken to the core.

Zhou Yang and Lin Shu stood among the crowd, looking toward the summit. What they had just witnessed suddenly reminded them of the Mist God Tree on Yellow Goat Mountain.

"First came the monster and the Sword Immortal. Then Yellow Goat Mountain underwent its great upheaval. And now it's Lord Finger Mountain!"

"Could it be that this world really is undergoing changes we know nothing about?"

Within the Spirit Realm, Fang Xiu stood atop Qinghua Palace. The palace was brightly lit. Along the corridors of the uppermost palace tower, which resembled Star-Picking Pavilion, hung quaint wooden lanterns covered with paper. There were no candles inside them; instead, eerie balls of flame floated within the lanterns, radiating a dark-red glow.

He stood in the corridor and looked toward the distant surface of the deep sea in the Spirit Realm, tens of millions of miles from Qinghua Palace.

There, the originally tranquil surface, which carried a faint sense of unreality, suddenly developed a gigantic whirlpool, as though some change had occurred in the depths of the seabed.

The whirlpool spun violently and continued expanding—from a hundred meters to a thousand, then ten thousand. It looked deep and dark, as if it led all the way to the ocean floor.

Then, from the depths of the seabed, a mountain peak gradually arched out from within the whirlpool.

Its peak slowly emerged, appearing from the vortex. Bit by bit, it rose from the sea, but in the end, only the mountain's upper half broke the surface before it stopped.

"The second mountain in the Spirit Realm has finally appeared!" Fang Xiu stood beneath the lanterns of Qinghua Palace and nodded in satisfaction.

"After this, there will be a third and a fourth!"

"Then the mountains will connect into a continent, the sea will transform into a spirit sea, and this world will become a truly vast Spirit Realm World!"

Fang Xiu stepped out of Qinghua Palace in a single stride. The sea stretching tens of millions of miles was illusory and nonexistent; Fang Xiu still lacked the ability to transform it into a spirit sea.

Thus, it looked as though Fang Xiu had crossed tens of millions of miles of space. In reality, from his perspective, he had only taken one step, and that one step had brought him to the half-emerged mountain peak.

This mountain peak had gradually formed because the Mountain God Vine had drawn in the nearby spirits. As the Mountain God Vine continued drawing in the spirits of the dead, the mountain would slowly rise from the seabed and gradually transform into a range of mountains.

At that moment, the entire mountain suddenly began to shake violently. Fang Xiu looked toward the sky of the Spirit Realm, as if he could see the commotion atop Lord Finger Mountain directly.

"Have they noticed?"

"The Mountain God Vine has already matured, and the effect of the Spring God Art has essentially ended. After this, the first batch of Spirit Fruits should be formed soon!"

Fang Xiu calculated the timing. It was nearly the appointed time. As for the Mountain God Vine being discovered, Fang Xiu had expected it from the beginning. In fact, he had chosen to place it on Lord Finger Mountain precisely because he hoped someone would discover it.