Chapter 11: Plant Lifeforms
“Not so loud.” Linley was extremely cautious. “See that massive green snake corpse down below?”
Barker glanced down, then nodded. Linley said solemnly, “This massive green snake had transformed to the size of a finger and had hidden itself on a tree leaf. It suddenly ambushed me. If I had been too arrogant and hadn’t been in Dragonform already, my Pulseguard Defense in human form definitely wouldn’t have been able to take it, and I probably would’ve lost my life.”
“That bad?” Barker couldn’t help but say in shock.
Linley’s face was extremely grave. Staring at the surroundings, he said in a suppressed voice, “According to what Desri said, these three tunnels in the Yulan continent all lead to three different Necropolis of the Gods, and this is the most dangerous one. In the past, Desri and the others had hidden on the fifth floor and waited there until the ten years were up.”
Barker clearly was rather shocked. “And to think I wanted to go to the eleventh floor.”
“The eleventh floor? Desri didn’t even dare to go to the sixth floor, and you want to go to the eleventh floor?” Linley looked seriously at Barker. “Barker, don’t think that just because your defense is high that you can be rash. This damnable place has all sorts of creatures from different planes. There might be one that is perfectly suited for countering your abilities. If you aren’t careful, your life would be gone.”
“Do you remember what Desri said? If we are just the slightest bit avaricious, we would be lucky to see ten of us survive, out of the eighty plus total.” Linley glanced at Barker. “If only ten were to survive, I expect that five of them would be the Five Prime Saints, as well as the others who had already come here. As for me, if I’m not careful, I might die here.”
Hearing Linley’s words, Barker immediately grew much more cautious.
After all, in terms of who would be able to survive, those who had come before naturally had a higher chance of survival. In addition, amongst the eighty plus experts, there were the likes of the three Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lions and the terrifying magical beasts of the Forest of Darkness. When factoring in the human experts as well, there were definitely more than ten people who were as strong or stronger than Barker.
“Let’s go.” Linley whispered.
“Right.” Barker immediately followed Linley. The two of them travelled very carefully, Bloodviolet and the greataxe in their respective hands, prepared to do battle at all times.
This actually made many of the powerful creatures in the forest decide not to attack them.
“Lord Linley, in this place, there are far too many thistles and far too much foliage. We can’t even clearly tell which direction we are going in.” After flying for a long time, both of them grew impatient. From the outside, the Necropolis of the Gods had seemed to only be ten thousand meters long, but inside, the space had expanded so dramatically.
Linley and the others could only stare in amazement at this.
“Don’t worry. Be calm. Search calmly.” Linley whispered.
Suddenly…“Ah!!!” A fierce, agonized scream could be heard from afar, and ravaged pieces of leaves blasted out from afar as well.
Linley and Barker glanced at each other, then quietly moved towards the direction of the battle. Soon, the two discovered an astonishing sight; an enormous flower was wrapped itself around and ‘biting’ a Saint, like a massive mouth trying to devour something. The insides of the flower were quivering; clearly, the Saint inside was trying to fight back.
But in just a few moments, the insides of the flower regained its normal calm.
That Saint had died already.
“Man-eating?” Linley couldn’t help but frown.
In the Forest of Darkness, upon seeing that living, metallic castle, Linley had come to understand…that it wasn’t just humans and magical beasts which had life force. Even metals or plants could have intelligence, and sometimes were even more terrifying than humans.
“Lord?” Barker said in a hushed voice.
Linley gestured at him with his eyes. At this moment, Linley, too, had noticed…that some vines and thorns were slowly moving.
“These rattan vines are alive. Most likely, there’s some plant lifeform that wishes to kill us.” Linley quirked his lips. Against plant-type creatures, using the adamantine heavy sword probably wouldn’t be very effective. After all, even if one demolished half of the plant, the other half would still be alive.
But if one used a sharp, quick weapon such as Bloodviolet, the effect would be much better.
“Rustle…” Suddenly, from afar, a rattan vine dozens of meters long suddenly shot out directly towards Linley and Barker, while at the same time, the vines wrapped around the various trees also left them, moving to surround Linley.
The vines in the grass also shot out.
In an instant…hundreds of rattan vines, thin or thick, covered the skies, attacking from above, from below, and from around them. Even the rattan vines in the mud snapped out. Linley and Barker had suddenly found themselves trapped within a prison of countless vines.
The countless rattan vines formed a giant, ten-meter wide green rattan sphere.
Linley and Barker were within that giant sphere.
“This will be troublesome.” Linley tried to use his arms to push apart the rattan vines that were wrapped around him, but the rattan vines were extremely soft and pliable. They only bulged outward slightly. Raw strength alone simply wasn’t capable of breaking through this rattan vine cage. In addition, Linley had the sense that countless sharp needles were piercing out at his entire body from those rattan vines.
Although his ‘Pulseguard Defense’ was able to take it, his battle-qi was beginning to deplete at a rapid pace.
“Lord, I’m unable to break free.” Barker was frantic as well. He wanted to wield his greataxe, but the large number of rattan vines surrounding his arms made it impossible for him to wield it. The elasticity and endurance of those vines was simply terrifying. “Lord, what should we do?”
Barker was frantic.
Although he was powerful, the life force of these enormous rattan vines was even greater.
Suddenly…
“Haha, the two of you, accept your death. After killing the two of you, I will kill three more, and then I’ll have enough corpses. Once I offer the corpses to his Lordship, I will also become a Deity. Don’t resist. You aren’t able to resist. The strength of you humans can’t possibly match mine.” A thin, wild voice echoed from within this rattan cage.
“Enough corpses?” Linley was shocked.
He was beginning to understand why all of these creatures in the Necropolis of the Gods wanted to kill them.
“Die.” That thin, sharp voice rang out again.