Going Deeper!

Five hundred paces away, there was an area where the vegetation had withered noticeably.

It wasn't ordinary withering. It was the kind that came from something draining away its life force. The leaves drooped, the grass turned yellow and lay flat, and even the air felt oppressive.

The Wither Circle was about two hundred paces in diameter.

Huang Fei's heart raced. A Wither Circle two hundred paces across meant the Soul Beast responsible was at least four thousand years old. Soul Beasts of that caliber were rare near the boundary between the outer and middle regions. Those over four thousand years old needed more life energy and usually made their homes deeper inside.

He didn't know why this Soul Beast had appeared here. Maybe a stronger Soul Beast had driven it out, or maybe it had left its original habitat for some other reason. Whatever the case, finding it was an opportunity.

Huang Fei quieted his breathing and narrowed the range of his Purple Demon Eye's perception to two hundred paces around himself. He inched toward the Wither Circle at an extremely slow pace. His footsteps were as light as a cat's, each one landing on soft moss without making a sound.

Fifty paces.

At the edge of the Wither Circle lay a fallen dead tree. Its trunk had rotted and was covered in white fungi. A light touch would turn it to powder.

One hundred paces.

The vegetation inside the Wither Circle was even more thoroughly dead. There was almost no green plant life on the ground, only a layer of gray-white dead leaves and patches of exposed black soil. A strange, cloyingly sweet smell hung in the air, like something rotting, or something that had ripened far too much.

One hundred and fifty paces.

Huang Fei stopped. Not because he sensed danger, but because he saw that thing.

At the very center of the Wither Circle stood a large tree. But it wasn't an ordinary tree—the trunk had no bark, and its exposed wood was a sickly gray-white, as though something had hollowed out its nourishment from within. The whole tree stood there, crooked and twisted, like an old tree that had been dead for a very, very long time.

But through Huang Fei's Purple Demon Eye, the tree was alive.

And not merely alive.

Its roots were exposed aboveground, like gray-white pythons coiled across the black soil. Their tips had burrowed into the surrounding dead vegetation, slowly drawing out something, thread by thread.

Not nutrients.

Life force.

This thing wasn't a tree at all. It was a Parasitic Vine disguised as one. Its true body was concealed inside the trunk; the wood on the outside was merely a shell. Its roots were parasitic vines that siphoned life force by burrowing into the roots and stems of other plants, then converted it into energy of their own.

It was older than he had estimated.

Huang Fei pushed the perception of his Purple Demon Eye to its limit. The insight of the Mustard Seed Realm let him see through the gray-white wooden shell and glimpse the true body within.

Vines. The vines were completely transparent, as if made of some kind of gelatinous material, and pale green life energy flowed inside them. They were about as thick as an adult's thigh, but he couldn't yet tell how long they were, since most of their bodies were hidden inside the trunk and beneath the ground.

Between four thousand eight hundred and five thousand years old.

Leaning against a tree trunk, Huang Fei ran through the fight from beginning to end in his mind.

Plant-type Soul Beasts had three weaknesses: first, they couldn't move. Second, their attacks were limited. Third, they were poor at resisting sustained attacks.

This Parasitic Vine's attacks were likely to be entanglement with its roots and life-force absorption. The moment those exposed gray-white roots sensed prey, they would surge up in an instant, bind their target, then use the suckers along their roots to drain the target's life force and Soul Power.

The key to dealing with this kind of enemy was simple—he couldn't let it bind him.

Once it wrapped around him, the life-force absorption would begin. With his Soul Power at level thirty, how long could he hold out? He didn't know. But he didn't want to find out. The best defense was to keep its roots from touching him in the first place.

His Blue Silver Grass was the perfect counter.

His Blue Silver Grass embodied life force at its purest, while the Parasitic Vine sustained itself by draining life force. If his Blue Silver Grass was tough enough and strong enough, it could wrap around the roots first, before they reached his body, and sever their connection to the main body.

He wasn't here to fight. He was here to "chop vegetables."

Huang Fei took a deep breath and stepped out from behind the tree trunk. He no longer concealed his aura. Instead, he released all his Soul Power, letting the level-thirty surge ripple through the Wither Circle like a stone thrown into still water.

The Parasitic Vine's sensory system activated.

It sensed him.

Not as a threat, but as a feast. To it, the level-thirty Soul Power was a huge beacon brimming with life energy, many times brighter than the dead vegetation around it.

The ground began to tremble.

The gray-white roots exposed aboveground began to writhe like a nest of snakes roused from sleep. They tore free of the black soil and lashed through the air, their tips unfurling like flowers to reveal densely packed suckers. Each sucker was as tiny as a needle and packed as tightly as a honeycomb, all of them craving the taste of life force.

Huang Fei didn't retreat.

He raised his right hand, and Blue Silver Grass emerged from his palm. Six dark green vines extended from his arm at once, forming a semicircular shield in front of him.

Six vines. Each was two fingers thick, dark green all over, its surface gleaming with a metallic sheen. Under Huang Fei's control, they swayed nimbly, like six well-trained snakes poised to strike.

The Parasitic Vine's roots attacked.

It wasn't a probing strike, but a full-force assault without the slightest restraint. Dozens of gray-white roots rushed at Huang Fei from every direction, like dozens of hungry snakes lunging at a helpless prey.

They were astonishingly fast, slicing through the air with a sharp whistle.

But Huang Fei was faster.

All six dark green vines shot forward at once, each meeting an incoming root with pinpoint precision. It wasn't a contest of brute force, but a near-artful slaughter. Huang Fei's vines were like six sharp scalpels, darting between the gray-white roots and severing their tips with every touch.

The suckers on the severed roots hissed, like punctured balloons. Pale green life energy gushed from the cuts, dispersing into the air as clouds of green mist.

The Parasitic Vine let out a silent scream.

It had no vocal cords, but Huang Fei could feel it "screaming." The entire Wither Circle trembled, the ground shook, and the gray-white tree rocked back and forth.

More roots burst from underground. Not dozens now, but hundreds. They surged in from all directions, sweeping toward Huang Fei like a rising tide.