If it weren’t for the vines dragging Xia Yu inside, this place would have been truly hard to find.
Deep in the mountains, there was a Pit concealed by intertwining vines and branches.
Scattered around were numerous discarded food wrappers, torn papers, and even tiny White Bones.
Xia Yu glanced over but didn’t pause; it was as if the Climbing Rope had pulled him straight into the Pit without hesitation.
Where exactly were they taking him?
The blood clan’s vision in the dark was far clearer than that of ordinary humans.
The further down he went, the denser the green and brown vines became, until finally reaching a ground that looked like it was built from a nest of twigs.
Only then did the vines slow their pace.
Xia Yu tugged again at the vines wrapping around him.
They showed no sign of loosening their grip.
The vines secreted a transparent, silky liquid that soon gave off white smoke.
The next second, Xia Yu felt a bulge on his chest and his body began to change—signifying that the suppressant drug was being neutralized by the liquid released from the vines.
The surroundings were far from quiet; the sound of vines crawling echoed everywhere, like countless tiny snakes coiling around the nest, and Xia Yu was about to become their prey.
Xia Yu had come to the mountains searching for the Ten Girls’ Consciousness.
Glancing around, he looked up to see three faint glimmers high above, drawing his attention.
The Ten Girls’ bodies were like projections from a projector—transparent and painfully trapped in the gaps between the vines, slowly fading away as if they were nutrients for the plants.
“Is anyone there? Let me go.”
Xia Yu felt puzzled.
He didn’t understand why the vines brought him here directly, rather than bringing his consciousness like they had done with the Ten Girls.
“A rare Undead wandering into the mountains? This is far tastier than the food from last night.”
Accompanying a voice aged and worn, several tender vines wrapped around a creature covered in withered vines as it slowly moved out from the mountain wall.
Before Xia Yu’s eyes stood a towering figure nearly three meters tall, with only a pair of human-like eyes observing the surroundings.
They stared at each other; Xia Yu’s gaze was tense, confronted for the first time with such a strange being.
Fresh sprouts emerged from the earth, curling around the creature’s front.
When it raised its right arm, the vines slowly slithered toward Xia Yu, crawling up his heels in an attempt to envelop him completely.
“Let me introduce you. This is your future mother.”
“Who’s your mother? Let me go!”
Xia Yu struggled fiercely, using all his strength to shake off the vines, but they tightened their grip and continued to approach.
“There’s a special spiritual energy within you. Using your body to nurture my offspring is perfect. So I brought you here directly. From today on, you’re family—living with us.”
“I’m not living in this godforsaken place. Get lost!”
The creature seemed unable to understand human speech.
Xia Yu anxiously watched as it pulled out from deep inside a black Seed and continued speaking:
“The vines born from you will become an immortal monster that humans can neither cut nor kill. Once more offspring are bred, we will no longer fear humans.”
Xia Yu refused to stay here.
Despite all his efforts, he couldn’t break free.
He watched helplessly as the creature approached, seemingly intent on implanting the Seed inside him.
He understood nothing of his own race’s habits—words occasionally mentioned by Mo Yidong to Xia Yu.
As if Mo Yidong knew more than Xia Yu herself.
At that moment, she suddenly remembered that person who never appeared no matter how much she called.
That person was truly infuriating!
She didn’t want to become a tool manipulated by a monster.
She didn’t want to die here.
But in the depths of such a Pit, no one would know she was here.
No one would come to save her.
For the first time, she felt genuine fear and despair facing something stronger and taller than herself.
She didn’t want to die—nor bear a child for this monster.
What could she do…
Xia Yu stared at the creature before her, tense and serious.
If all else failed, she would stall for time—any amount of time she could get!
Summoning her courage, Xia Yu shouted boldly at the creature:
“If you dare do this, you’re dead! Listen, I have people above me!”
“There’s no one above.”
The creature’s Thunder Barrier had been carefully set around the Pit, making it impossible for anyone to find or enter.
“Damn! So you can understand human speech!?”
At that moment, distant rumbles of thunder suddenly echoed from above the Pit, making the creature slowly look up.
The sky darkened abruptly as Rain Clouds gathered, and the creature felt something strange.
Its Thunder Barrier prevented anyone from finding or entering the Pit, and even the natural weather shouldn’t change inside.
So why was there suddenly thunder?
Just as it wondered if the Barrier had been broken from outside, a Blue Lightning bolt shot straight down, striking the creature’s arm, instantly burning the Seed to coal.
“This Seed took me a hundred years to nurture! Who dares to ruin my breeding plan?”
The creature growled with anger, squinting to see a gigantic Black Snake hidden deep within the Rain Clouds.
Its form was unclear, but its sheer size terrified the creature.
“Impossible! Absolutely impossible! How could you appear in a place like this?”
To protect itself, the creature abandoned the captured Undead to the side and fled first.
The slow-moving creature couldn’t escape the next lightning strike.
Blue Lightning shattered several of its vine-made Barriers and struck its forehead.
The vines entangling the ground and surroundings withered as the creature died.
As the vines withered, Xia Yu was thrown to the ground.
Looking up, the sky above the Pit suddenly cleared—there was no sign of the feared creature.
“Hey, is someone down there—?”
Xia Yu heard a familiar voice from above and was about to respond, but as soon as she opened her mouth, her lips trembled, nearly breaking into tears.
This useless body—why was it so timid?
So cowardly!
Wiping her eyes with her dirty arm, Xia Yu calmed herself before answering upward:
“Yes—!”
She didn’t want to stay here even a moment longer.
She wanted to see that person quickly, to punch them with her own hands, to beat them up hard!
“This place is really hard to find. Are you okay?”
Xia Yu was far from okay—she’d nearly been scared to death!
She was almost in trouble, but thankfully the monster was killed by the lightning!
Mo Yidong found her and used the Climbing Rope to pull her up.
Seeing her reddened eyes, it was clear she had been badly frightened.
“Who sealed this immortal monster in this corner? Over time, the Seal weakened, allowing it to escape.”
Luckily it died in time.
Xia Yu had almost become a caretaker for a Tree Spirit’s offspring in the mountains.
“Seriously, whoever sealed it should have come back to reinforce the Seal.”
Wiping sweat from her forehead, Xia Yu didn’t answer Mo Yidong directly and instead said angrily:
“You almost caused me to never come back.”
Xia Yu was about to become a missing person in the School.
But even if she disappeared, there was no one to contact at home.
At most, Mu Yiqiu would cry for a while, but as time passed, she would gradually be forgotten.
“That won’t happen. I won’t leave you here.”