Truly Tragic

"It could also produce a parasitic soul skill, but its traits suited me better. I didn't need potent venom!"

"Resilience and hardness were the foundation."

Yang Yunhai thought as he ducked behind a bush.

There was very little Blue Silver Grass on the ground around the large boulder in the distance, and the boulder was too tall for him to use the shared vision of the Blue Silver Grass to inspect its upper details more closely.

In this situation, he could only rely on his own eyes.

Thirty meters was enough for him to see clearly.

And it would not take much time.

After only a moment, Yang Yunhai's eyes widened slightly, delight rising in his heart. "No ant nest, and it isn't withered!"

"In other words, it's alive!"

"It really is a Pot Vine!"

"My luck!" Words could not describe how Yang Yunhai felt at that moment. If he had to describe it—

There was only one word for it: "Awesome!"

Pot Vine, also known in the Spirit Master world as the Land Barnacle—the origin of its name—was a plant-type soul beast renowned for its defensive abilities, with a certain capacity for devouring.

However, although it was known for its defense, its resilience was also exceptionally strong. It also had a habit of storing energy, making it a natural granary for certain predators.

The kind that came with its own protective wall.

Its entire outer skin was pale white and hard in texture, growing barnacle-like keratinous structures that contained shell-like seeds. Once the seeds matured, they secreted a type of strongly fragrant liquid through openings in those keratinous structures.

This liquid could attract birds and beasts to lick it. It had a certain hypnotic and hallucinogenic effect, though its toxicity was not particularly strong.

As soul beasts settled down to lick it, the mature seeds would easily crack open from being pecked or touched, releasing vast quantities of Parasitic Spores. The contaminated soul beasts would then have their energy slowly devoured by the spores.

Next, if the soul beasts failed to leave for a certain period due to the liquid's hypnotic and hallucinogenic effects, their bodies would grow increasingly weak as their energy was drained.

Like boiling a frog in warm water.

The result was naturally that they collapsed where they stood, their bodies burst apart by the engorged Parasitic Spores, dying on the spot. Blood and bodily fluids continuously flowed from their wounds, pouring into the densely packed openings in the keratinous layers, where they were devoured and absorbed by the Pot Vine's main body.

After a certain period, the Pot Vine would stop secreting the liquid and slowly drain the energy of the surrounding parasitic offspring as well, ensuring its own growth. Any soul beasts lucky enough to escape naturally became carriers for spreading the Pot Vine's seeds.

At the same time, they were also a source of nutrients for the seeds' growth.

The Pot Vine's growth was mainly divided into two stages.

The first stage was the parasitic settlement stage. It parasitized a soul beast and was carried away; if it landed on a rock, it bound the rock, and if it landed on a tree, it bound the tree. It coiled around like a snake, with astonishing resilience and strength, capable of snapping trees and shattering rocks.

The second stage was the permanent settlement stage.

After settling down and coiling itself up to disguise itself as a white rock, its outer skin would continuously harden as its cultivation increased, improving its defensive power. It would repeatedly secrete liquid to lure beasts over and devour them for growth.

The energy it devoured and absorbed would be stored in its roots. Its subcutaneous tissue would become increasingly red, and its nutritional value would grow higher and higher, making it a natural tonic for certain predators. However, because its medicinal properties were too mixed, it held little medicinal value for humans.

Its natural enemies were small insect-type soul beasts such as ants. Because they were small, numerous, and had sufficiently sharp teeth, they would begin gnawing through the cracks in the Pot Vine's openings before it had matured and developed its abilities, or before its seeds had ripened. They would hollow out its body and use it as a nest.

Its root system was well-developed, but its primary function was to store nutrients and energy; it possessed no offensive ability. As for its vines, they remained curled up for long periods, making their long-range offensive capabilities mediocre and rather weak.

Such was the balance of nature.

All in all, it was a fortress with almost no offensive power. Normally, it grew naturally by draining nutrients from the soil, then waited for the seeds to mature before lying in wait to harvest a batch of prey.

Moreover, because small insect-type soul beasts such as ants were simply too numerous and common in soul beast forests, very few Pot Vines could grow to a high cultivation level.

A thousand years was already considered high.

"Hard outer skin grants extremely high defensive power. Though it is famous for defense, its resilience is also exceptional. It even comes with powerful parasitic abilities and considerable energy-storage capacity."

"If it can store energy, how could its vitality be low?!"

"Although its devouring ability isn't especially strong, if I inherit it, it will stack with the devouring ability I inherited when absorbing my Second Soul Ring. No matter what, it should be an improvement over what I have now."

"As for the hypnotic, hallucinogenic toxin, it doesn't matter!"

"Ghost Vine's venom is stronger, and its resilience isn't much worse than the Pot Vine's, but when it comes to hardness, it falls far behind."

"Besides, the Pot Vine has other excellent traits!"

"Suitable, extremely suitable!" The more Yang Yunhai thought about it, the better he felt. Based on its traits, the Pot Vine was actually a soul beast that was easy to raise and easy to cultivate. There were records of them in the Beginner Soul Hunting Forest near Notting City.

Unfortunately, its natural enemies were like a tide; it simply could not withstand them.

He had read the soul beast records in Chang Gong Ao's book. The ones in the Beginner Soul Hunting Forest had basically all been crossed out.

Little creatures like ants were truly impossible to guard against.

If insect repellent powder was scattered in a circle around it, the Pot Vine's fragrance would become useless, leaving it no choice but to grow naturally. As a result, the survivors all had less than a hundred years of cultivation.

It was truly miserable.

Yang Yunhai silently mourned for the Pot Vine family, and for the one before him as well. Then, without hesitation, he immediately summoned his martial soul, flicked his hand, and shot out several vines.

With several muffled pops, they all struck their target and rapidly spread across its entire body. At the same time, his Second Soul Skill activated. "Crackle..." Violent Golden Thunder burst from Yang Yunhai's body and swiftly spread onto the Pot Vine.

"Pop, pop, pop..." Under attack, the Pot Vine reacted quickly as well. Vines all over its body twisted and bulged outward without pause, crushing the boulder bound within it into fragments.

"It looked completely motionless just now, but once it moved, what terrifying strength! Its resilience really is absurdly strong, not to mention that it's a plant with over three thousand years of cultivation. Damn it, I can't hold it!" Yang Yunhai complained.

"Damn it, as long as I can touch it! It's not even as long as I am tall anyway. I'll drain it! I'll shock it!" Yang Yunhai released the vine bindings to shed the tremendous force being transmitted through them while draining energy and unleashing electricity.

"Pfft, pfft..." Its energy was being drained, and when it tried to drain him in return, the electricity shocked it painfully. The Pot Vine instinctively drew upon its stored energy to resist and repair its body. At the same time, it stretched itself out, transforming into a several-meter-long vine that lashed at Yang Yunhai.

"I'm flying!" Yang Yunhai immediately activated his Soul Bone skill and flew away, while also pouring Soul Power into his martial soul to lengthen the vines.

Bang! The Pot Vine struck empty air, smashing the ground with a tremendous crash. Then, its length fell short—it could no longer reach him.

"Pfft, pfft..." It hurriedly drew upon its stored energy to force itself into maturity. Before long, pinkish-white mist sprayed from openings in the keratinous growths all over its body, carried toward Yang Yunhai by the fanning leaves and branches.

"Fuck! Who the hell wrote the records in that Spirit Hall encyclopedia? The intel was wrong! A three-thousand-year one can use its ultimate move!" Yang Yunhai wanted to curse aloud. The range covered by these Parasitic Spores was far more than a hundred meters. Without the slightest hesitation, he dismissed his martial soul and flew backward.

"Just you wait, I'll be back!"

Once the Parasitic Spores touched him, the consequences would be impossible to predict. He felt that he had to play it safe and wait for another chance to fight.

Soon, he circled through the forest in the opposite direction of the mist and landed over a hundred meters away, raising his eyes to observe. After spraying such an enormous quantity of Parasitic Spores, the Pot Vine had visibly wilted considerably. Even the speed at which its vines moved had slowed.

After pulling its limbs back, it did not curl itself into a ball again. Instead, it simply lay sprawled across the ground.

"Looks like spraying spores consumes a lot of its energy. After all, it released so many at once. Besides, my lightning seems pretty effective too..." Yang Yunhai fell into thought, then summoned his martial soul fifteen minutes later.

With a whoosh, he shot straight into the sky.

Once he reached the branch of a forty-meter-tall tree some distance to the side of the Pot Vine and steadied himself, he flicked his hand, sending a vine shooting out.

Because it was faster than the Pot Vine, it successfully made contact. While draining energy, he released electricity with a crackle, crackle, crackle...

The Pot Vine lit up all over once again.

Then, limited by its cultivation being below ten thousand years and its intelligence not yet fully formed, it instinctively repeated its old tactic and sprayed powder to drive away its enemy.

Yang Yunhai dismissed his martial soul without hesitation and flew in the direction opposite the powdery mist, lowering his head to observe the situation as he went.

Sure enough, the Pot Vine had grown even more listless.

"This might work!" Yang Yunhai's eyes brightened. He accelerated until he reached a safe distance, then repeated the same tactic without hesitation.

The weather was still somewhat cold in February, especially in the cool shade of the forest. It did not take long for the powdery spores sprayed by the Pot Vine to naturally settle to the ground.

Therefore, as long as he stayed in the air and kept his distance, the Parasitic Spores would never touch him.

As he thought, the crackle, crackle... of electricity rose again.

The Pot Vine sprayed Parasitic Spores once more.

Then it became even more sluggish.

"Since it's under ten thousand years old, its intelligence is still a little lacking. Since it already knows to consume energy to force itself into maturity, it could have secreted juice to lure beasts from the start and taken a roundabout approach. Then I'd have had no choice but to run." Yang Yunhai sighed inwardly.

While watching the Parasitic Spores sink and land, he quickly flew to another safe position.

He sat on a tree branch, closed his eyes, and recovered.

The energy stored within the Pot Vine came from devouring large numbers of soul beasts, so it was surely filled with impurities. Thus, he had no desire to absorb that energy into his body. He only used it to sustain the form of his vines, but that meant the large amount of Soul Power consumed in releasing lightning could only be replenished through meditation.

To inflict effective damage on the Pot Vine, he undoubtedly unleashed maximum-output electricity every time.

His Soul Power was being consumed rather quickly.

Half an hour later, Yang Yunhai opened his eyes and pressed on. He approached the Pot Vine through the air and continued extending vines to discharge electricity.

As expected, the Pot Vine sprayed powder again.

Then it became even more listless.

Only after nearly an hour did this tug-of-war finally come to an end. The Pot Vine lay unwillingly on the ground, utterly drained and motionless, like a dead vine.

No Spirit Ring had appeared yet, so Yang Yunhai naturally had to remain cautious.

"Whew..." After recovering for fifteen minutes, he slowly rose and flew above the Pot Vine, skillfully extending vines and releasing electricity.

Amid the reflected glow of crackle, crackle..., a Spirit Ring floated out.

"Ah, it drained itself dry and died such a miserable death. Think it can give me an External Soul Bone?" Yang Yunhai indulged in wishful thinking as he leaped down and landed atop a huge rock.

Without hesitation, he immediately began digging.

The massive rock before him was not buried deeply; the Pot Vine had knocked it askew earlier. Absorbing a Spirit Ring alone meant the dangers around him were unpredictable. Therefore, he felt it would be much safer to dig out the rock, excavate a hole beneath it, cover and bury himself with the rock, then scatter Insect Repellent Powder around the outside.

In any case, a Spirit Ring could remain for an hour before dissipating—two whole hours! He had plenty of time.

Forty-five minutes later, with the aid of his hooked vines, the rock had been dug out, the pit had been excavated, leaves and branches for padding and cover had been prepared, and Insect Repellent Powder had been scattered everywhere.

With everything ready, Yang Yunhai wasted no more time. He immediately jumped into the leaf-lined pit, reached out to pull the rock over, then dragged branches across himself, burying himself with only a narrow gap left open. He then sat down cross-legged, closed his eyes, and summoned his martial soul.

He swiftly circulated his Soul Power and began drawing in the Spirit Ring.

As a body of energy, the Spirit Ring naturally did not fear being blocked by the huge rock. Besides, the gap Yang Yunhai had left was right beside it.

Without any surprise, drawn by his martial soul, the purple Spirit Ring slipped through the gap and darted inside in the blink of an eye.

As the energy entered his body, excruciating pain struck him, as though his entire body were about to split apart. But compared to the pain of being continuously struck by lightning after consuming the Blue Silver Emperor's main body, it was far less severe. With only a slight furrow of his brow, Yang Yunhai gritted his teeth and endured.

Time passed bit by bit.

PS: Thank you all for your concern. The specialist finished examining my dad, and he's fine. I'm going to Shanghai tomorrow. Over the next few days, I'll accompany him on some walks to help him relax. Everything will get better.

When I return to Hunan, I'll make it up to everyone with a big update spree.

I have to leave by car early tomorrow morning, so I wrote this chapter in the middle of the night. If I have time after arriving tomorrow, I'll keep writing.