Rest assured, they won't let you off even as ghosts

The soldier's face went pale, but Bai Ye's terrifying strength left him no room to resist. He could only cautiously head toward the grass.

Rustle, rustle...

Military boots scraped continuously against the weeds. It had been a faint sound, but now it seemed exceptionally piercing.

As he went deeper, the bloodstains on the ground grew more numerous, along with drag marks.

Those traces came to an abrupt stop beneath a large tree.

"My lord, the blood trail ends here," the soldier said in a trembling voice.

"Come back."

The soldier nodded repeatedly and hurried back at a jog. Seeing the others getting closer, he felt slightly relieved.

But just as he was about to come within ten meters of them, he suddenly noticed that their expressions as they looked at him were strange—shock, terror, bewilderment...

His heart skipped a beat. Trembling, he turned around, and his soul nearly fled his body!

A thick blue-green vine hung from the large tree like a python. At its tip was an enormous flower bud. The bud split open down the middle, revealing serrated sepals like a beast opening its bloody maw, packed with sharp barbs!

"Ah!!"

He screamed in panic and ran toward the others like a madman. The thick vine topped with a man-eating flower lashed at him like a living creature, swift as lightning.

"It's a Man-eating Flower Tree!" The officer's eyes widened as he cried out.

"Open fire!" Bai Ye gave the order decisively. After a brief bout of panic, the soldiers raised their guns and fired.

Bang, bang, bang...

Most of the dense barrage struck empty air, but sheer numbers made up for the lack of accuracy. When several bullets hit the split flower bud, the man-eating flower vine actually let out a roar like a wounded beast. Green fluid dripped from within, sizzling corrosively when it hit the ground.

The soldiers were overjoyed at the sight. Anything that could be solved with bullets was no problem.

With their confidence restored, the soldiers' aim improved as well. After several shots, the vine man-eating flower was riddled with holes and drooped limply to the ground.

Just as they breathed a sigh of relief, Bai Ye's voice rang out from afar. "Why the fuck are you still standing there? Run!"

Everyone froze. The next moment, a sight that filled them with despair appeared.

From the canopy that blotted out the sky, thorny green vines descended one after another, densely packed, as though it were raining snakes in the forest.

Hundreds of green vines, each tipped with a man-eating flower bearing a gaping bloody mouth.

Man-eating Flower Tree

They fell from the sky, landing precisely atop the soldiers' heads, then... swallowed them whole!

"Ahhh..."

Screams rang out one after another. Whenever a soldier was swallowed by a man-eating flower, the green vine would rapidly contract and withdraw into the canopy a hundred meters overhead, seemingly to digest its meal.

Guns seemed utterly powerless at this moment. The vine man-eating flowers appeared endless; whenever one was shot down, more than a dozen immediately descended from the canopy.

Several clever soldiers realized that the tree itself was the key, so they raised their guns and fired at it. But against a hundred-meter giant tree that would take ten people to encircle, bullets were like ants biting an elephant—completely harmless.

Having already run to a safe distance, Bai Ye watched the bloody scene before him, his eyelids twitching. So this was Black Mountain?

"Save me! My lord, save me!" The officer, whose legs were inconvenient to move, had no time to escape the Man-eating Flower Tree's attack range. Overwhelmed by panic, he lost his balance and crashed hard to the ground.

Bai Ye immediately rushed over.

The officer was overjoyed. "Tha—ah, my legs!"

Before he could finish saying thanks, Bai Ye, who had rushed in front of him, efficiently removed both of the officer's legs, then ran off carrying them.

"Bai Ye! You bastard... Give me back my legs!" The officer's eyes nearly split with rage as he watched Bai Ye's retreating back.

The next moment, the shadow of death descended from above, and a gaping bloody mouth swallowed him whole.

Bai Ye and Li You possessed physical abilities beyond ordinary people. With a group of cannon fodder drawing the Man-eating Flower Tree's attention, the two managed to escape its range without incident.

A moment later, all the screams abruptly ceased. Over a hundred vines retracted into the canopy. Every soldier was dead, yet not a single corpse remained on the ground. Only pools of blood proved that they had once been there.

"Brother Ye..." Li You swallowed hard, still shaken. "They... they're all dead. Only us two superhumans survived."

"Don't worry. They won't let you off even as ghosts."

"Ah!?" Li You's face turned pale. "No, Brother Ye, you were the one who brought them here. Why wouldn't they let me off?"

"Because even if they become ghosts, they still can't afford to mess with me. Naturally, they'll come for you."

Bai Ye casually brushed him off, then carried the two mechanical legs and continued onward. Black Mountain was indeed dangerous, but it was not enough to frighten him. He was determined to get the Pangu USB Drive!

If there was a fifty-percent profit to be made, he would be tempted. If there was a hundred-percent profit, he would dare take risks. And the Pangu USB Drive offered far more than a hundred percent—it was a thousand percent, ten thousand!

A crystallization of technology from the age of civilization, it contained not only methods to make people superhuman, but also life-extension biotechnology. Every single technology within was enough to make the major powers wage war.

As the saying went, wealth was sought in danger and lost in danger too. Strike out that last part—no need to remember it.

"Don't come for me, don't come for me..." Li You kept muttering. "You were going to Black Mountain anyway. Dying in Black Mountain was only a matter of time. It has nothing to do with me... Brother Ye, wait for me!"

Amid the greenery, the two traveled together. If not for the wary expressions on their faces, paired with Black Mountain's primitive scenery, they might have looked as though they were out for a picnic.

"Brother Ye, don't get so close to the trees. I'm scared..."

"What the hell are you scared of? This tree is so thin, it obviously isn't a man-eating—uh..."

Bai Ye wordlessly raised his head and looked at a man-eating flower vine hanging from the canopy. It was watching him with eager intent.

Though it had no eyes, it still gave him the illusion that they were staring directly at each other.

You did that on purpose, didn't you?

Bai Ye was truly speechless. He had assumed all Man-eating Flower Trees would be as thick and sturdy as the one from earlier, so he had deliberately walked close to thinner trees along the way. He had not expected to encounter another one.

"Brother Ye, run!" Li You struck out anxiously. With a fierce swing of his right hand, he directly blew apart the man-eating flower vine.

"Run from what? These trees clearly have brains—they even know how to launch sneak attacks. If we don't show them what we're made of, they'll really think I'm prey."

Bai Ye had his own theory. He believed these Man-eating Flower Trees possessed instincts similar to those of predatory beasts. Beasts understood best how to seek advantage and avoid danger, how the strong preyed on the weak. They hunted according to the hierarchy of the food chain and rarely provoked creatures stronger than themselves.

So at times like this, they had to display their strength to avoid trouble.