Yang Yong's original plan was simple: sneak over without disturbing the roots and get Wang Ying down before the giant tree could react.
He had time, and plenty of patience.
Yes, he had thought he did.
But he had never imagined that these things had a time limit.
While Yang Yong was sneaking forward, he suddenly spotted a strangely shaped branch.
The branch extended from deep within the giant tree, moving very slowly, as though choosing something.
A spike glinting with cold light grew at its tip, some kind of thick liquid clinging to its point and dripping down, drop by drop.
Yang Yong's pupils abruptly contracted.
It was choosing among the "fruit" hanging all over the tree, its spike passing before one fruit, then moving to another.
Like a picky diner choosing a dish to their liking.
It was choosing a person.
Yang Yong's heart leaped into his throat.
He prayed silently, repeating almost instinctively: Don't choose Wang Ying, don't choose Wang Ying, don't choose Wang Ying...
Perhaps his prayers really worked.
The branch lingered beside Wang Ying for a moment, then moved.
It chose a piece of "fruit" next to Wang Ying.
Before Yang Yong could breathe a sigh of relief, the branch had already driven its spike viciously into that fruit.
Then he saw something that made his scalp prickle.
The person wrapped inside that fruit...
That unfamiliar face clearly did not belong to anyone in their convoy...
Suddenly opened his eyes.
But those eyes held no pain, no fear, only a pleasure twisted to the extreme.
A smile blossomed across the man's face, as radiant as if he were drunk, as if he had won the jackpot, as if he were lost in a beautiful dream from which he would never wake.
But that smile lasted