Spirit of Vegetation, Moon Nether Vine

"You two, I need this Spirit of Vegetation, so there's no need for you to risk your lives with me."

Zheng Lei turned to look at Chu He and Zhou Haichao, trying to persuade them.

Whether or not to go down shouldn't have been a question in the first place.

Zheng Lei had come specifically for this Spirit of Vegetation, so naturally, he had to go down.

However, in a place like an underground garage, fighting a vine-type Spirit of Vegetation forced Zheng Lei to consider the consequences: what if the garage collapsed?

He didn't care much, and even Zhou Haichao would likely be fine, but Chu He was a different story.

An Intermediate War General Level martial artist was not yet capable of handling the collapse of an entire residential complex.

Back when they first entered the Mist Residential District, hearing the thudding sounds of footsteps hitting the ground, Zheng Lei had known there was something wrong with the ground beneath the complex.

Yet, even after warning Chu He, he hadn't been able to spot the threat coming from underground.

He hadn't expected that those disturbances were actually the work of this vine.

Now, facing the vine living in the underground garage, Zheng Lei felt compelled to dissuade the two of them.

"It's fine. I've long wanted to see what a Spirit of Vegetation actually looks like."

"Besides, a mere collapse isn't enough to hurt me."

Zhou Haichao held up his shield.

Seeing the cracks on the shield, he gave an awkward laugh and added, "Though, helping you fight is probably out of the question."

Chu He was thinking about the other materials on the vine and asked, "I want to go down and see it too. A vine this big and long can't all be the Spirit of Vegetation, right?"

"Hahahaha, of course not." Seeing that both of them wanted to go down with him—even if they weren't there to help him fight—Zheng Lei felt a surge of pride at their trust.

"While 'Spirit of Vegetation' refers to plants that have developed sentience, only parts of them are useful, such as the Millennium Willow Heart, Green Grass Dew, Iron Armor Spirit Pearl, and so on."

"This vine before us, while rare, is recorded in the Martial Arts Dojo Forum. The first person to discover it named it the Moon Nether Vine, and its Spirit of Vegetation, the Moon Nether Vine Heart, is just a section of its tuberous root."

As they descended toward the underground, Zheng Lei explained to Chu He.

These details were only accessible to those with War God-level clearance on the Martial Arts Dojo Forum.

The moment he caught a glimpse of the vine, Zheng Lei had opened his wrist computer to look up the relevant information.

Although Chu He didn't have that clearance yet, with his own Elementary War God Level Spiritual Force, there was no harm in telling him.

Of course, Chu He already knew most of this, aside from the parts specific to the Moon Nether Vine. He was simply using an excuse to go down with them.

That way, once Zheng Lei took the Spirit of Vegetation, he could ask for a portion of the remaining parts of the Moon Nether Vine, such as the Moon Nether Vine Leaves or Moon Nether Vine Stems, to see if he could use them as the main ingredients for brewing wine.

The moment they stepped into the Underground Garage, the trio was attacked by massive vines.

The fluorescent stick held in their hands immediately became the target of the vines' assault.

The brown vine stems were thick and sturdy, measuring over a meter in diameter, with surfaces covered in rough bark. The leaves of the vines were a deep, dark green, their edges as sharp as blades.

"Hmph!"

Zheng Lei stepped forward, the muscles in his arms tensed, and his Giant Axe carved a perfect arc through the air.

"Boom!"

The Giant Axe struck the vine with the force of a collapsing mountain. Amidst a sharp crack of displaced air, the vine snapped on impact.

The severed vine spun through the air, finally slamming into a distant wall with a loud thud. Green sap sprayed from the broken end, staining the wall a dark, murky green.

Upon entering the Underground Garage, the group finally caught sight of the true scale of these massive vines.

The vine branches wound and coiled like giant, dark green pythons. They wove between the concrete pillars of the garage and the abandoned vehicles; some had even pierced through the walls, reaching out toward the world beyond the garage.

The entire Underground Garage felt like a twisted jungle.

As soon as the three entered, seemingly stimulated by the light of the fluorescent stick, all the nearby vines lunged toward them at once.

In an instant, a multitude of vines, baring their fangs and brandishing their claws like countless giant pythons and venomous snakes, coiled in from all directions.

"Whoosh!"

Zheng Lei raised his Cold Iron Giant Axe. The blade glinted coldly in the light as the axe tore through the air, descending upon the vines with the force of a thunderbolt.

But with so many vines, it was clear that Zheng Lei could not handle them by hacking away one by one.

Seeing the vines closing in tighter and tighter, Zheng Lei simply let out a cold snort. No longer concerned with Chu He or Zhou Haichao, he gripped the long handle of his Cold Iron Giant Axe and spun his entire body violently.

The pair of Cold Iron Giant Axes rotated with him, forming a massive whirlwind that sucked the surrounding vine tentacles into its vortex.

The Giant Axe spun in the air, carving out silver arcs. Accompanied by the whistling sound of the wind, fragments of vines scattered in every direction.

Seeing this, the Moon Nether Vine's attacks grew even more frenzied.

The massive vines, like out-of-control pythons, wreaked havoc throughout the garage. Concrete pillars were uprooted, steel rebar was twisted into grotesque shapes, and vehicles were tossed into the air only to crash down heavily, emitting ear-piercing screeches of metal.

The vine tentacles whipped and tore, shredding the sturdy concrete walls to pieces, while steel rebar was snapped as easily as fragile straw.

Huge chunks of concrete plummeted from the ceiling, slamming into the ground with deafening roars, sending dust and gravel flying everywhere.

Soon, under the destruction of the Moon Nether Vine, the entire Underground Garage was reduced to ruins, leaving behind nothing but broken walls and twisted metal.

Yet, even so, it failed to inflict any harm upon the three of them.

There was naturally no suspense regarding the outcome of the battle.

Zheng Lei hoisted his Giant Axe and charged forward like a cheetah, the weapon carving a dazzling arc through the air as it struck directly at the main trunk of the vine.

The Moon Nether Vine seemed to sense the threat of death, its tentacles dancing frantically in an attempt to block the lethal blow.

"Bang!"

A thunderous roar erupted, like a crack of lightning.

The main trunk of the vine was cleaved open, and dark green sap gushed out.

The body collapsed with a violent tremor, the dust kicked up by the impact spreading like a thick fog.

"Senior Brother Zheng is truly peerless and fierce!" Chu He, who had spent the fight on the sidelines, looked at the Mist Residential District, which had been reduced to ruins, and exclaimed with genuine admiration.

Just a War God, yet when fighting with full force, he possessed such destructive power that it could topple mountains and sever cliffs...

Thinking back to the battle between Hong and the Cloud-Touching Vine, which had completely destroyed the entire Mist Island and turned it into an ocean...

Zhou Haichao's face was flushed with excitement.

Because after this, he would also have the opportunity to break through to become a War God; how could his blood not be surging with excitement!

Zheng Lei turned a deaf ear to the reactions of the two men.

At this moment, he was using his pair of Giant Axes like shovels, digging out a piece of emerald-green tuber from the root system of the vine.

This was the Moon Nether Vine Heart.

"Good! Good! Excellent!" Zheng Lei cheered repeatedly.

With this piece of Moon Nether Vine Heart, he could fully utilize it to break through to an Advanced War God.

By then, paired with this pair of Cold Iron Giant Axes and achieving a fourfold force output, he might even be able to contend for the title of Invincible War God.

In high spirits, he saw Chu He collecting the stems, leaves, and dark green sap of the Moon Nether Vine nearby and couldn't help but ask, "Junior Brother Chu, you want these things too?"

"Are these things of any use?"

"Oh, they're useless," Chu He replied casually. "I just plan to soak them when I brew some wine; who knows, they might be useful for something."

However, his Spiritual Force was actually circulating the Spirit Guiding Technique, sensing the spiritual essence within these materials, and he was practically drooling.

Whether it was the stems or leaves of the Moon Nether Vine, or even that dark green sap, they could all be added to the Antler Wine, which used Crystal Antlers as its main ingredient.

Its effect was precisely to assist in calming the mind and spirit, and to enhance Spiritual Force.