Chapter 29: Touched

Translator: Henyee Translations  Editor: Henyee Translations

The sun was gradually sinking in the west, and at some point, a faint mist rose in the surroundings, making them even more dimly lit in the shadows.

The sounds of beasts could always be heard—wolves howling, lions roaring, eagles crying, and insects chirping, all echoing one after another.

Bai Wushang listened for a moment, slightly adjusting the direction of his movement.

He had already eaten his light meal briefly, and intended to go a little deeper before it became too dark.

As he walked, a herd of bigfoot deer appeared in front of him.

It was a relatively short walking type beast, only a meter tall, hornless, with deep sunken eye sockets and a splotchy back.

It was characterized by a muscular body. Although it was short-legged, its limbs were extremely thick. The soles of its feet were as wide as the feet of an elephant. The ground would shake as it ran, and the commotion it caused was particularly large.

Bai Wushang held his torch and stepped back quietly, not recklessly moving closer.

Amongst this herd of bigfoot deer, the weakest one was in the mid-stage youth, and the leader was probably in the peak stage of youth.

Bigfoot deer were recognized for their poor temperament, and even if their bloodline quality was only three stars at the Mortal Bone level, a dozen of them together would be enough to make most peak youth creatures back off.

Just then, Bai Wushang felt goosebumps as he vaguely sensed something approaching.

In the darkness, a continuous sound of air appeared from far to near, coming swiftly.

It was too late to react, and three black thick, long things grazed the legs of Bai Wushang’s pants, and shot towards the herd of bigfoot deer in attack.

“Yo… yoyo…”

The panicked cries of the deer were immediately followed by the booming sound of hooves trampling around and chaos ahead.

By the light of the fire, Bai Wushang saw what was by his feet, and was surprised. Is this… a vine?

The black stems and leaves spiraled and twisted, forming an arm-thick vine that twisted like a snake’s body, weaving back and forth through the herd of bigfoot deer.

In no time, Bai Wushang saw two dying bigfoot deer tied like dumplings being dragged by black vines and pulled somewhere behind him.

Bai Wushang tiptoed around, and sneaked up behind.

After about a dozen paces and then around a bend, Bai Wushang stopped, extinguished his torch as fast as he could, and then lay prone in the bushes.

Not far away, a huge vine plant was rooted in the ground, shaped like four black pythons stuck upside down in the earth.

The thickest one in the center would be the main vine, and at the very top of that wooden vine, a branch grew a dazzling round flower bud that was over two meters in diameter, and emanated a dense glow in the darkness.

It should have been a pleasing sight, but Bai Wushang sweated and wanted to curse when the buds bloomed.

What was in that bud was not a stamen at all, but a huge hideous mouthpiece as the mouth of a monster with sharp teeth, interlocking in layers, and faintly glowing with a ghostly green liquid.

The three branching vines that encircled the main vine near the bud hastened to send the two strangled bigfoot deer into the mouth of the bud.

The food went into its mouth, and the bulging bud closed again, making an anthropomorphic chewing motion. The sound of it eating and crunching was quite creepy in the silent night.

Ghost Vine. This is a Ghost Vine, a rare species of plant… Bai Wushang’s gaze gleamed as he mused, Looking at this size, it should be late-stage youth, not yet at its peak. Otherwise, the secondary vines wouldn’t number only three…

Quickly recalling the relevant points of knowledge in his mind, Bai Wushang couldn’t stop excitement from showing on his face.

Ghost Vine, a plant-type transcendent creature of the Abyssal Realm with an ancient bloodline, characterized by a fondness for the flesh, a brutal nature, and a strong recovery ability. Its main attack method is the black vine tentacles, which are not only tough, but also extend extremely far, making it one of the ideal crowd control pets…

I remember from the Sacred Beast Record that there was once a master nicknamed Ghost Monarch whose life-bound pet was a Ghost Vine, and under his nurturing, the Ghost Vine evolved to the extreme, and eventually advanced to a legendary level holy beast, the Thousand-Handed Ghost Vine Demon King. With just a man and a beast, they swept across a border with an army of 100,000 orcs, creating a great battle achievement…

If I could contract such a pet… Bai Wushang was in a trance as thoughts floated through his mind.

A few seconds later, Bai Wushang, who had come back to his senses, took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, cutting out all the distracting thoughts that shouldn’t be there.

He began to analyze the possibility of capturing the Ghost Vine seriously.

The way and method of taking in a pet vary from person to person and from beast to beast; there is no way to generalize. Some attract through emotional empathy, some attract by virtue of their bloodline talent, and some even seduce and deceive…

The most common of these is definitely still forceful persuasion… Only if one first proves that one’s fist is hard enough and can overpower the other side will transcendent beings that follow biological concepts such as superiority and dominance be likely to submit obediently…

It goes without saying that with this kind of ferocious Ghost Vine, no one would form a contract with it at its perfect state. Unless your soul power is so high that you can directly suppress it, you will definitely piss it off… I must think of a way to severely damage the Ghost Vine first, and sign a contract with it in its weakened state so that the probability of success will be higher…

Thinking of this, Bai Wushang frowned helplessly.

But how am I going to defeat it alone? The most obvious weakness of the Ghost Vine is undoubtedly its slow movement speed, but… its tentacles’ movement range is so large that even though there is no way to cover the entire area with three tentacles, I still can’t choose to tangle with it…

The trap method doesn’t work, either. It’s a plant, not a walking animal, I can’t count on it…

Bai Wushang pondered for a while, and suddenly tapped his head. Maybe I should backtrack on which part of the Ghost Vine I can severely damage? Without a doubt, its body is the main vine in the very middle, and the bud on top is equivalent to a human’s head. If I can damage it a bit there, I won’t be far from success…

Let’s see if I have anything on me that can come in handy first… Forget the dagger; it’s too short… The poison spear is fine, but only if I pierce that flower bud. There’s flesh and blood tissue there. Piercing vine tentacles won’t help at all… Also, I seriously doubt that the green liquid in the bud is a corrosive toxin. Creatures that carry their own toxins tend to have some resistance to them, and it’s a plant type itself with a high recovery ability. It’s hard to say how much the venom will work…

What else could come in handy?

Bai Wushang reached out, and flipped open the dimensional backpack, and after a moment, his fingers suddenly froze, and a hint of surprise bloomed in his gaze.

Right, the heart of the Fireball Snake! How could I forget it—it’s a good and potent explosive. As a dark-type plant, the Ghost Vine should still be afraid of fire at this youth stage. If I can detonate the heart of the Fireball Snake in the bud, it will definitely be able to injure it seriously!