"So it takes time to find it." Li Feng looked at Xu Wuyi.
"According to experience, you need to first find out its recent activity trajectory, and then set up bait or search in different areas. If you are lucky, you can find it in a day or two; if you are not lucky, it may take three or four days."
Xu Wuyi was silent for a few seconds.
"Too slow."
Li Feng was stunned. "What?"
"I said, this method is too slow." Xu Wuyi picked up the tea cup and took a sip. The tea was made from inferior synthetic tea bags and tasted astringent and bitter. "Is there a faster way?"
Han Qingqing couldn't help but said, "But Rotten Wood Demon can move. If we don't look for it this way, how can you still let it show up on its own initiative?"
Xu Wuyi put down the tea cup, thought for a while and said, "Since it is a plant Star Beast, it should have spreading branches, vines or Root System. If you burn these, will it come out?"
Li Feng frowned. "It's theoretically possible, but ordinary flames have limited effect on it, and its regeneration ability is too strong..."
"You can try it first." Xu Wuyi interrupted him, "Get ready and leave now."
Li Feng and Han Qingqing looked at each other again.
They saw the same doubts in each other's eyes, but there was also a hint of wavering.
This young man was too calm to be bluffing.
"... Okay." Li Feng finally nodded, "Han Qingqing, go get the equipment. Three sets of full-environment protective masks, antidote, and flares."
"Yes."
At one o'clock in the morning, the three people left the outpost and entered Putrid Swamp Woodland.
As soon as you enter, the environment is completely different.
The outer snow is almost invisible here, replaced by moist, soft, rancid black mud.
The air was filled with gray-white miasma, and visibility quickly dropped to less than fifty meters.
Tall and twisted trees stretched toward the sky with claws and teeth, and their bark was covered with dark green moss and fungi.
From time to time, there was a "crunching" sound underfoot, which was the sound of dead branches being stepped on or falling into the mud.
Li Feng was walking at the front, holding a handheld energy detector in his hand, and the waveform on the screen kept beating.
"The miasma is poisonous, but the concentration is not high, and the filter system of the mask is enough to handle it." He whispered.
"Be careful where you step. Some of the mire is soft and it's very troublesome to fall into it. Also, pay attention to the top of your head and behind the trees. The vines controlled by Rotten Wood Demon may attack suddenly."
Han Qingqing was walking in the middle, having unfolded the composite crossbow, and the crossbow arrows were shining with light blue energy.
Xu Wuyi followed at the end, holding Long Spear in his hand, looking around.
His mental power has been expanded, with a strength of 37.6, making his perception range far beyond Li Feng and Han Qingqing.
You can "see" the intricate Root System underground, you can "hear" the subtle rustling sounds in the distance, and you can "smell" the woody smell hidden in the rotten smell.
That's the breath of Rotten Wood Demon.
"The energy reading is rising." Li Feng suddenly stopped and stared at the detector, "On the left front, about three hundred meters away, there is a strong life response."
The three of them lowered their bodies and moved forward under the cover of trees.
The further you go, the weirder the environment becomes.
The shapes of the trees are even more distorted, and some even resemble human figures struggling in pain.
Some dead branches, as pale as bones, began to appear on the ground, and the woody smell in the air became stronger and stronger.
Finally, they stopped at the edge of a relatively open forest glade.
In the center of the open space, stands a huge strange tree with a Tree Trunk diameter of more than three meters.
The bark is dark brown, and the surface is covered with knob-like protrusions. Some of the protrusions are still squirming slightly, as if something is breathing inside.
Tree Canopy has long since withered, leaving only a few bare branches stretching toward the sky.
But around Tree Trunk, dozens of dark green vines as thick as a bowl spread, slowly crawling on the ground like snakes.
"That's it?" Han Qingqing asked in a low voice.
"No." Li Feng shook his head and pointed at the detector, "The reading is wrong. This reaction is too weak. It is estimated to be only about level 30. It may be a branch of Rotten Wood Demon, or a bait it uses to attract attention."
Xu Wuyi stared at the strange tree and then looked around.
In his perception, this tree is indeed just "a part".
There is a larger and more complex Root System network underground extending to all directions and connecting to farther places.
The identity of Rotten Wood Demon is probably on a certain node of this Root System network.
"It will transfer." Han Qingqing was a little discouraged, "What we found was just a branch. To lock the main body, we have to follow Root System and touch it little by little. How long will it take..."
Li Feng looked at Xu Wuyi: "What do you say? Should we start tracking now, or should we return to the outpost first and make a more detailed plan?"
Xu Wuyi did not answer.
He took a few steps forward, left the cover of the trees, and stood at the edge of the clearing.
"Classmate Xu!" Han Qingqing was shocked.
Li Feng also frowned, but did not stop him. He just held the handle of the knife tightly, ready to respond at any time.
Xu Wuyi raised his right hand.
Palms upward.
Buzz--
The dark red Blood and Qi was forced out from the palm of the hand and floated into shape.
Immediately afterwards, a wisp of dark golden flame rose from Dantian, went up along Meridians, and came into contact with Blood and Qi.
Tsk!
A dark golden flame the size of a fist ignited in the palm of his hand.
[Undying Flame]!
The moment the flame appeared, the surrounding temperature did not seem to increase significantly, but Li Feng and Han Qingqing felt palpitations at the same time.
That is not the fear of High-Heat Rule, but the instinctive fear of a certain "concept".
It was as if the flame was burning not matter, but something more fundamental.
Xu Wuyi had a thought in his mind.
The flame in the palm separated into a small cluster, only the size of a fingertip, and flew lightly towards the strange tree in the center of the clearing.
It flies very slowly, like a feather.
But when it comes into contact with a vine crawling along the ground--
Boom!
The entire vine was instantly wrapped in dark golden flames!
Instead of spreading from one point, the entire vine is ignited at the same moment.
The vines twisted wildly and slapped the ground, making a loud "snap" sound.
But the flame did not go out. Instead, it burned more and more fiercely, and spread rapidly along the vines, to other vines connected to it, to Root System on the ground, and to Tree Trunk in the center!
"This..." Han Qingqing's eyes widened.
Li Feng also took a deep breath.
They have seen fire martial arts masters fight, and the flames are either explosive and violent, or soft and eroding the bones, but they have never seen anything like this.
Quiet, stubborn, as if he will never give up until his target is burned into nothingness.
And it spreads incredibly fast!
In just ten seconds, the strange tree in the center was completely enveloped in dark golden flames.
The flames flowed on Tree Trunk, and those knob-like protrusions "melted" and disappeared in the flames. They did not turn into ashes, but simply "disappeared".
What's even more frightening is that the flames started to spread along the underground Root System network and Diffusion Rule in all directions.
Xu Wuyi can clearly sense that those Root System that have been touched by the flame are rapidly losing activity.
It was not burned out, but disintegrated from the structural level, as if it had never existed.