Xiao Xi sensed her thoughts, and its vines shot out, tightly encircling the edge of the burrow to stop the Gray Rat from digging another escape tunnel.
The Gray Rat seemed to know its end was near. Its blood-red eyes swept sharply over Ji Xinghe, then it let out a shriek.
The remaining baby Gray Rats heard the sound and lunged at her all at once.
Though they were small, blood-red liquid welled up in their mouths and sprayed toward Ji Xinghe and Xiao Xi.
Ji Xinghe gave a cold snort, leaping sideways to dodge the blood-red spit.
Then she activated Small Light Ball Technique. The Gray Rat and its entire litter of baby Gray Rats all stopped breathing.
[Killed Tier One Level Five Gray Rat (Half-Deformed), Baby Gray Rats (Half-Deformed) ×9. Obtained: Experience +12, Wow Coins +9, Raw Wood Treasure Chest +3.]
Ji Xinghe pulled up one of Xiao Xi's vines. Seeing the huge hole corroded through it, she frowned in displeasure.
"Xiao Xi! Don't do that again!"
When Xiao Xi saw that Ji Xinghe was angry, it hurriedly hooked one of her fingers with a vine. "Master, Xi wanted to help you..."
Ji Xinghe sighed. "I know. I'm just useless and need you to hurt yourself to stop them."
Xiao Xi hurriedly waved its vines. "No, I... I just sensed that Master didn't want to let them get away..."
"Then I'm telling you now: nothing is more important than Xiao Xi's safety. Do you understand?"
"I know you can eat meat to recover, but you're not a machine. You feel pain, too."
You're not a machine. You feel pain, too...
Ji Xinghe's words echoed over and over in Xiao Xi's mind. It felt a little moved.
No one had ever said that to it before. As far back as it could remember, they had always drilled the same things into it:
As long as you don't die, you don't need to be afraid of getting hurt. You recover quickly... You're the most talented member of the Bloodthirsty Vine Clan... You'll go far someday. What's there to fear from a little pain?
There had been so many words like that, so many that it had grown used to the pain.
Master... seemed to have really changed for the better.
It remembered that when it was first born, it had sensed that Master didn't want it. So it had deliberately acted obedient, just to be allowed to stay.
Even just now, it had deliberately failed to dodge the blood-red spit, hoping to make Master feel guilty.
It didn't want to be sent back to that terrifying place.
But now Master really was different. It could sense that her words had come from the heart. She was gradually growing fond of it. That felt so good...
"Xiao Xi likes Master so much."
Taken by surprise by the sudden, inexplicable confession, Ji Xinghe's ears turned red.
She took some fresh meat from her backpack and fed it to Xiao Xi. Only after it had fully recovered did she Drain the attributes of the ten monsters.
Total attributes gained: Agility +0.8
She fed the Gray Rats' corpses to Xiao Xi, making sure not to waste a single thing.
Just as she got up to leave, Ji Xinghe suddenly spotted a flash of white in the burrow.
An idea struck her. She crouched down and brushed aside the gray dirt nearby.
When she saw several White Ground Orchids in the soil, her face lit up.
"I'm rich! I'm rich!"
She counted them. There were actually three White Ground Orchids, sixteen Purple Raven Grass plants, and five green Herbs.
She put all three kinds of herbs into her backpack.
Then she hurried away from the trouble spot and headed toward the Red Route.
Along the way, she also checked the details of the green Herbs.
"Green Heart Grass (Herb type): Non-toxic. One of the secondary ingredients for making
Deformation Treatment Potion."
"Effect: Eating Green Heart Grass raw restores 10% of your Deformation value."
"Note: One of the rare Herbs on the Nine Yuan Continent. Due to its unique growing environment, it is rather scarce."
On the way, Ji Xinghe ate five Purple Raven Grass plants, bringing her Deformation value back down to single digits.
As for Xiao Xi, she glanced at its status panel, but nothing had changed.
She didn't know whether the concentration here was too low or plants simply couldn't become deformed.
In her previous life, she didn't think she had ever encountered deformed plants.
She rubbed one of Xiao Xi's vines and continued toward the Red Route.
A few minutes later, Ji Xinghe's ears twitched.
The sound of pounding footsteps came from the ground behind her. The earth beneath her feet began to tremble, as if a thousand troops were charging across a battlefield.
A dreadful feeling washed over her. She turned around—and her eyes nearly popped out of her head.
"Damn, they caught up so fast!"
She took off running!
A crowd of Deformed Monsters, shambling like the walking dead, chased after her.
When they saw her look back, they roared at her.
Ji Xinghe wanted to gripe: "I'm never saying no one's chasing me again. Look at that! A whole crowd is after me!"
Her Flying Broom had thirty-six seconds of use left, and she needed to save it for an emergency.
For now, the Deformed Monsters were still some distance behind her.
The sounds behind her grew closer and closer. Ji Xinghe pumped her arms furiously. "Dead legs, run!"
Luckily, she was wearing Swift Boots today. Otherwise, she might really have met her end here.
Along the way, Ji Xinghe spotted another White Ground Orchid. She had no time to stop, so she directed Xiao Xi to yank it out with a vine. Whether it came out intact was another matter.
It was better than nothing.
Xiao Xi was small, but quite careful. Even in such a tense situation, it managed to pull out the White Ground Orchid intact.
After putting the herb in her backpack, Ji Xinghe steadied her breathing and sped up again.
"Roar! Roar! Roar!"
Crack...
The Deformed Monsters smashed through the dead trees nearby, and more Deformed Monsters emerged from the gray mist.
Instead of attacking the monsters breaking the trees, they joined the pack chasing her.
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