Chapter 81 – Massacre

Translated by Sunyancai

Shao Xuan leapt high, he rebounded from the white thread to dodge the piercing vine aimed towards his face. In mid air, he pulled out the last spearhead dart and grasped it tight in his hand.

With the last remnants of the the white thread wrapped around the dart, Shao Xuan jumped. The line pulled taut, Shao Xuan could clearly feel the tension through the body of the dart.

Shao Xuan took a deep breath. The spearhead dart in his hand immediately weaved left and right before he finally pulled it back with all his strength.

Kill!

Creak…

The sound was like some steel threads sawing on wood.

This time, the sound could be heard from more than just a few spots. Dozens of places emitted the same creepy sound almost at the same time, and it was a lot shriller than before. Everyone who heard the sound felt as if they were witnessing a huge tree being strangled to death gradually. Their nerves all stiffened by the sound and the vision.

Tuo and Keke, as well as the others had no idea what Shao Xuan was planning to do, but under such urgent circumstances, they knew it at heart that the situation required their full cooperation. They decided to do their best to cooperate, even though deep down inside they did not think that Shao Xuan could actually accomplish anything.

However, right after they stepped backwards and retreated from the battle zone, they heard those disturbing sounds that set their nerves one edge.

People looked over there to see what was creating that sound, but soon enough, they were stunned by the sight.

The originally loose web of snares tightened instantly.

The vines thrashed and swung in the air, its movements were restricted by the threads. The tension of the threads caused the web to tighten upon itself as the vines moved. However, the vines continued to resist, causing the snare to pull tighter and tighter.

All of it happened within a single breath.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Right after the creaking sounds, there were sounds of wood and threads breaking. People were under great mental strain already, and now the sounds almost exploded in their minds.

Along with the sound, the “blood” of the fire lances splashed everywhere.

Red liquid filled the air and splattered all at once. No matter if the vines were close to ground or were suspended in the air, all of them were sliced by the threads. Its blood red sap poured out along with the haunting sounds of its struggle.

The blood in the surroundings spluttered out evenly, despite of it coming from two separate plants. These fire lances emitted the smell of a dangerous predator belonging to the plant wilderness.

In contrast to the carnage of blood-like sap on the ground, two giant bloody flowers bloomed. Like evil spirits, the flowers were even more colorful than the red fire lances themselves. [In case you don’t get it, the ‘bloody flowers’ are the snare wrapped around fire lances pulled together, being all bloody from the bloody sap.]

Ta used to assume that the blood-like flowers pictured on the animal skin roll were the blood-like. But he discovered that the view he was witnessing right now had surpassed his imagination. The shocking sight he had now seen impressed him so much that it would be carved in his memory even after a long time.

There was no smell of blood, but people felt like they accidentally stepped into a slaughter house.

It was a massacre. A massacre created by the snare.

Shao Xuan felt that he now had a slight understanding of the “Lethal Trap” Dao that Old Ke had told him about.

However, this was merely a half-done snare, which could only be considered as an incomplete chain trap. Hence it was an incomplete “Massacre”, and could not reach the state of lethality that Old Ke mentioned.

If there were enough white threads, Shao Xuan could totally have made a more constrained trap. At last it would form a net in the center, similar as the one that trapped the Wind Ball. However, the Fire Lance was too large in the scale, and there were two of them. With the lack of material, Shao Xuan could only make a half-assed snare that could only circle half around the two Fire Lances.

However, right now, it was more than enough to just take care of the urgent problem they were facing at hand.

The broken white threads flew down lightly while swaying in the air. “Blood drops” fell down on the ground after the blossom, while broken parts of the vines were tossed up and then headed down towards the ground…

A moment earlier, the Fire Lances were aggressively blustering. But now, they were badly wounded and droopy.

They had been chopped on the vines several times earlier before they were seriously injured by the snare. One of the Fire Lances quickly collected all its broken and half broken vines together and drilled down into the ground like a screw. The earth shook for some moments and then became calm again, while the Fire Lance disappeared.

The other Fire Lance was not so badly wounded as the first one, but still, it was no longer obsessed with intertwining with the warriors as well, and drilled into the ground a moment later. Perhaps it felt dread by the earlier attack, or perhaps it just lost its appetite for fighting.

The rumbling battlefield quieted down again, with broken branches and red liquid everywhere on the ground.

Shao Xuan was breathing heavily, as the totem strength in his body was running crazily. He almost reached his limit when he was setting the trap, and all his strength was used up by the final strike. Due to the overuse of his totem strength, his arms, shoulders and legs all felt extremely sore after all was done. He had to finish setting the trap as quickly as he could. Earlier he did not feel it, but after he relaxed, his fingers began to tremble uncontrollably. He estimated that the trembling wouldn’t stop for a long time.

Shao Xuan was completely worn out and he did not want to keep standing anymore. He shook off the red liquid on his feet, before he looked around and found a bucket-thick branch right behind him. It was broken by the Fire Lances earlier. Shao Xuan directly sat down on the branch, ignoring that there was still red liquid on its surface. Also, he put down the stone box that he had been holding in his arms all along.

The sound of the stone box touching the ground brought people back to their senses.

Tuo looked at the chaos on the ground and then looked at Shao Xuan as he was resting. Before he could ask Shao Xuan anything, his arm was grasped by Keke. Tuo was still quite nervous from the earlier shock, so he was frightened by Keke’s sudden grasp as well. He felt that his arm became the Fire Lance’s vine, while Keke was about to strangle him as the thread. He almost slapped on Keke’s hand reflexively.

“Wh…What?!” Tuo shook off Keke’s hand from his arm, and he wanted to shake off the creepy feeling of being strangled like the Fire Lances as well.

“Er…I’m getting cold feet now.” Keke’s face was twisted. It was rarely seen this bold lubber getting scared like that. A short while ago he was standing near the edge of the snare, and he planned to chop down one of the vines then. However, before he could do that, he saw the massacre in person. Some vines near him spilled their “blood” all over Keke’s body. Unlike the pleasure he felt while chopping on the vines himself, this time it gave him the creeps.

“Ah-Xuan, what was that?” Tuo calmed himself down while down and then asked.

The others all stared at Shao Xuan at the question.

“That? Well, it’s a trap.” Shao Xuan answered.

Tuo and the others were reluctant to believe that. What kind of traps could behave like that?

Shao Xuan did not give any further explanation.

In fact, those kinds of large-scaled traps and snares did exist in early times, and some warriors in the tribe would use them constantly. However, Old Ke had said that out of the pursuit and admiration for physical strength, people gradually abandoned the skill. Also, since the ferocious beasts grew stronger as time went by, efficient traps required higher quality raw materials, which were not so easy to find. Later on, some more experienced trap-setters chose not to use those traps and snares. So even fewer skills got passed down through generations.

Looking up at the sky, people noticed that almost all the tall branches were splashed down on the ground, and there was a big “window” above their heads.

Beneath the blue sky, the broken branches and sawdust had fallen down already, and there were only light white threads dancing in the wind.

Shao Xuan reached out his hand and caught a piece of it. The broken white thread was only half its original length. The big roll of the white thread had been broken into small pieces, although that they were tied with each other earlier. Most of them became small ends like that.

It was not real steel wire after all, and it was reasonable enough that it was broken like that.

If the white thread had been more tenacious, or if Shao Xuan was given enough time when setting the trap, it would close faster, so as to cut the vines in a split-second, avoiding the splashing of the “blood”. Then it would’ve been a certain kill for sure.

Of course, just because the thread of white hairs had its limit and flaws, the visual effects and shock it created became much stronger.

Ta and the others weren’t the only ones that were stunned. Shao Xuan himself was shocked as well.

He literally did not expect to see such results.

This was the first time that he set such a big-scaled snare, and it was more powerful than he thought. Luckily he had the white thread prepared. However, it was such a pity that the materials were difficult to obtain, just as Old Ke had said.

Ta glimpsed at Shao Xuan with a complicated expression, and then called on the others to clean up the battle field. The broken vines were neither edible nor listed on the animal skin roll, so they were tossed away.

As for the red liquid on the ground…Ta did not mind it at all.

Fire Lance was a “predator” in this forest, and the blood of the predator would send a natural signal of danger to the other species, until the “blood” disappears in the future.

Fortunately, the giant tree that they slept on yesterday remained unharmed. Earlier, they were some distance away from the tree in order to search for the Green Thief seedlings. Then, they became even further away when fighting with the Fire Lances. There were only a few traces of whips and pierced holes on the trunk. The place they used to sleep at night was still there at least.