"Look! What are those things?"
"Eldritch! They're Eldritch!"
"Run!"
Screams tore through the silence of the night.
Almost every driver floored the accelerator at once, throwing the already congested mountain road into chaos.
Several cars at the rear tried to cut ahead to escape faster, only for two of them to wedge together and completely block the road.
Countless Tree Spirits and vines kept closing in.
Car windows shattered like thin paper at the slightest touch from those vines.
The sounds of cracking bones, crumpling metal, and agonized screams mingled together.
The few cars at the head of the convoy were luckier and broke through the Tree Spirits' encirclement immediately.
But Shen Ye's RV and Song Shiya's Huolala were too heavy to pick up speed, so they weren't among them.
By the time they reached the edge of the encirclement, several humanoid Tree Spirits had already blocked the road ahead.
Shen Ye glanced at the rearview mirror.
Tree Spirits had sealed off the road behind them, too, while countless more uprooted themselves beside the road and converged on him.
They were trapped in the middle.
The Volvo that had already escaped only braked hard a short distance away after its occupants saw what was happening in the rearview mirror and confirmed that no Tree Spirits were pursuing them.
An Ning leaned out of the window, and her face went pale at the sight behind them.
"Wanqiu, turn around!"
"No, it's crawling with monsters back there."
"Turn around! If Shen Ye dies, we won't survive either!"
An Ning raised her voice, something she rarely did, with none of her earlier meekness.
"But what can we even do?"
Lin Wanqiu shook her head and murmured the question.
Then she gritted her teeth and wrenched the steering wheel around, forcing the Volvo into a U-turn on the narrow road.
An Ning was absolutely right. If Shen Ye and Song Shiya died, they wouldn't survive either.
By then, Shen Ye had already stepped out with Ghost Head in hand.
The Red Moon hung overhead, and the Tree Spirits shone an eerie dark green beneath its light.
The human faces on their trunks turned toward him in unison. Countless vines whipped through the air, while black sap seeped from their hollow eye sockets and streamed down their bark, making them look hideous and terrifying.
"Shen Ye, watch out!"
An Ning's Volvo had stopped outside the encirclement.
She leaned out of the window, her black eyes having turned deep purple at some point.
"These are Tier One Man-Eating Tree Spirits! They're slow and like to feed on human blood. They attack with branches and vines. Be very careful of their sneak attacks!"
"Got it. You two go ahead."
Only after they had shared that information did Lin Wanqiu hit the accelerator again and drive farther down the road.
With that information and an assessment of his situation, Shen Ye quickly made his decision.
He took a deep breath, tightened his grip on the hilt, and charged. He had to cut an opening as quickly as possible and escape this ever-tightening green meat grinder.
Almost the very next second, the Tree Spirit closest to him moved.
Suddenly, a thumb-thick vine burst out of the earth and stabbed straight at his ankle.
Fortunately, Shen Ye had stayed on guard from the moment An Ning warned him.
That let him shift his footing immediately and dodge with a clean sidestep.
The vine stabbed into the ground behind him, spraying clods of dirt.
Before the vine could withdraw, dark red patterns spread across Ghost Head's blade.
Hard Edge activated.
Dark red blade light swept down, cutting the vine cleanly in two.
Black-green sap seeped from the severed ends, hissing as it struck the ground and sending up wisps of white smoke.
The Tree Spirit let out a low roar. The corners of its twisted human face's mouth split open, revealing a pitch-black hole.
The next second, more than a dozen vines shot toward him like spears from different directions.
Shen Ye kept twisting aside and blocking with his blade.
The supple vines struck the blade with repeated metallic clangs.
The impacts left the web between his thumb and forefinger throbbing.
Fortunately, he had been a mercenary in his previous life, and his reflexes and combat skills far surpassed those of ordinary people.
Otherwise, that barrage would most likely have beaten his body to pulp already.
While he was busy defending himself, a barbed vine appeared behind him without warning and lashed him hard across the back.
Shen Ye grunted, his back burning with pain.
"Hss..."
He sucked in a sharp breath but didn't turn around. Instead, he endured the pain and slashed at the human face on the trunk of the Tree Spirit in front of him.
[Killing Points: +36]
The twisted face with its gaping mouth split in two, and the upper half of the trunk crashed to the ground in a cloud of dust.
The death of one Tree Spirit did nothing to stop the others from swarming in.
Song Shiya had also gotten out of her vehicle.
Rather than rush into the encirclement, she stood beside the Huolala with the Light of Holy Healing glowing in both hands, ready to support him at any moment.
Shen Ye braced his left hand against the ground and was just about to rise when something tightened around his leg.
A vine had emerged from underground without him noticing and wrapped tightly around his left leg.
Its surface was covered in tiny, densely packed thorns that instantly pierced his trouser leg and dug into his flesh.
Blood ran down the vine, which writhed violently as though it had come alive, greedily drinking it.
Shen Ye clenched his teeth and slashed the vine.
It snapped under the blow, but its barbs tore away several small pieces of flesh as they pulled free.
His left trouser leg was soon soaked with blood, and every step brought excruciating pain.
In that instant of distraction, a Tree Spirit directly ahead swept a thick branch toward him.
Shen Ye had no time to dodge and could only raise his blade across his body to block.
The branch smashed into the blade, and the tremendous force sent him staggering backward.
Before he could regain his balance, another Tree Spirit lashed out with three vines from the side, wrapping them precisely around his right wrist.
Ghost Head's tip pointed toward the ground. He couldn't swing it.
"Shen Ye!"
Song Shiya lost her composure completely. As she rushed toward him, red light glowed around her right hand, and she cast Inspiration on him, easing most of his stinging pain.
Then the white glow of the Light of Holy Healing enveloped his relentlessly bleeding left leg, and the wound slowly began to close.
Shen Ye drew a deep breath and exerted his right arm, pulling all three vines taut through sheer force.
The vines around his wrist bit into his flesh, and blood seeped around their barbs.
He didn't stop, but kept forcing himself forward, step by agonizing step.
The three-meter-tall Tree Spirit was actually dragged along by Shen Ye, each step he took leaving a bloody footprint on the ground.
The Tree Spirit braced its roots desperately to hold its ground, yet he dragged it a full two meters.
Then he took Ghost Head in his left hand and delivered a backhand slash.
All three vines snapped at once.
The Tree Spirit recoiled with a roar, the split in its human face gaping wider and wider as though it were cursing him.
Freed from his restraints, Shen Ye leaped into the air, gripped his blade in both hands, and brought it down from above.
The blade cut down through the crown and cleaved the entire trunk.
[Killing Points: +42]
"Aah!"
Before he could catch his breath, another scream rang out behind him.
Shen Ye whipped around.
A short Tree Spirit had circled around to the back of the convoy without anyone noticing.
Its vine had slipped through a gap in a car window and wrapped around the neck of the woman in the passenger seat.
The woman struggled desperately, clutching the vine with both hands. Her wide eyes fixed on Shen Ye as she silently mouthed, "Help me..."
The vine tightened relentlessly, its barbs piercing the blood vessels in her neck. Crimson blood streamed down her deathly pale skin. Her mouth gaped, but only a rush of air came out.
In less than three seconds.
Her eyes rolled back, and her entire body shriveled at a visible speed.
The skin of her face clung to her cheekbones, her eyes sank deep into their sockets, and she looked like a corpse that had been dried out for years.
By the time the vine released her, she no longer looked human.
Shen Ye severed the short Tree Spirit's main trunk with a single slash.
The human face in its trunk twisted for an instant, then froze. Its vines drooped limply, and the woman's corpse slid off the seat, as light as a pile of dead leaves.
[Killing Points: +31]
"If you don't want to die, follow me!"
Shen Ye shouted toward the rear of the convoy, then grabbed Song Shiya with his left hand. Blood still dripped from his right hand, staining the hilt red.
His left leg felt as though it had been filled with lead, heavy and painful, but he didn't stop, swinging his blade again and again to clear the Tree Spirits blocking the road.
Beside him, Song Shiya used the Light of Holy Healing to barely stem the bleeding from his wounds, but repeated use of the skill had severely depleted her mental and physical strength. She wasn't doing much better.
Her face was as white as paper, cold sweat kept trickling down her cheeks from her forehead, and her steps were unsteady.
At last, Shen Ye cut the final Tree Spirit blocking the road in half at the waist.
[Killing Points: +38]
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