Song Jimin immediately sprinkled the corpse-dissolving powder over Xiao Ping’s body.
Flesh and bones began to rot with a “sizzle,” white smoke rising from the corpse.
Song Luyuan hurriedly reached out to stop him:
“Didn’t you promise him that his corpse would be buried together with Miss Wan’er?”
“I did promise him, but he’s just a kid. I’m allowed to break my word with a child.”
Song Jimin clapped his hands and turned to leave.
Song Luyuan thought to himself: Indeed, the one who promised Xiao Ping wasn’t a gentleman but a villain, a real villain—he only reached up to his chest in height anyway.
Besides, that Xiao was no good either, deserved a fate of being left unburied, his bones lost without a trace.
The three brothers’ figures quickly disappeared into the darkness, and Xiao Ping’s body gradually dissolved into a pool of blood and water.
Clatter, clatter.
A black vine as thick as a wrist slithered out from the fallen leaves, moving like a swimming snake, slowly covering the pool of blood.
Morning dawned, the sky just turning light.
Song Xian got up, dressed, and grabbed his Bamboo Basket, preparing as usual to head up the mountain to gather his daily harvest.
With a creak, the door opened.
Song Xian stepped out with his left foot but immediately pulled it back.
Song Jimin, half-awake, unwilling to open his eyes, stumbled out the door and bumped straight into Song Xian.
“Ugh, gotta pee, gotta pee! Dad, move aside!”
Song Jimin pushed past Song Xian, about to rush out the door, but Song Xian grabbed him by the collar and yanked him back.
Song Jimin was fully awake now, his drowsy eyes wide open.
“What’s going on?”
“Something’s wrong.”
Song Hanchen came over and stood next to Song Xian, looking out toward the valley.
“Hm?”
Song Jimin poked his head through the space between them to look out as well.
The valley looked just as it always had—the hillside was the same as yesterday, and he even thought the wildflowers blooming on the slope were more vibrant and beautiful than before.
“What’s wrong then?”
Song Jimin saw nothing unusual but really couldn’t hold it anymore.
He tried to squeeze past the two but was immediately pressed down by both Song Hanchen and Song Xian, who forced him back.
“What are you doing? I’m going to pee my pants!”
Song Hanchen said calmly,
“Normally the valley would be filled with the sounds of insects and birds, but now it’s completely silent.”
The anger Song Jimin had built up from needing to pee was instantly extinguished.
“Seems so, it’s eerily quiet all around… Could there be a predator nearby?”
Song Jimin quickly went to wake Song Luyuan, wanting him to hunt the beast.
“I’m coming!”
Song Luyuan grabbed his chive-leaf-covered kitchen knife as usual, ready to fight.
“It’s not a beast. Knives won’t help.”
Song Xian finally finished reading the value description of the Hellvine and explained to his three sons.
“It’s a man-eating Hellvine. Once a living creature enters its territory, its vines and tendrils will entangle and suck the blood to death, leaving no flesh or bones behind.”
“Hellvine?”
Song Luyuan scratched his head.
“Never heard of it.”
“Haven’t you seen enough strange things in the ancient forest?”
Song Jimin really couldn’t hold it anymore and turned around to find a ceramic pot to solve his problem first.
Just then, Bai Ge came yawning out from the east room.
Seeing the scene, she let out a scream, covered her eyes, and turned around—accidentally knocking over a ceramic pot filled with millet on the table.
A gray, fluffy old rat darted out of the fallen pot and sprinted out the east window.
Clatter, clatter, clatter…
Something was moving around the wooden house, making faint noises.
“Squeak.”
The rat that ran out the window was instantly wrapped by countless thin yellow vines.
In moments, the vines scattered, leaving not a single hair behind.
Everyone—
Witnessing this, Song Jimin broke out in a cold sweat, feeling a chill of fear for having almost stepped outside to relieve himself just now.
Thankfully, his father stopped him in time!
After the clattering sounds ceased and the surroundings fell completely silent, they cautiously poked their heads out to observe the area around the house.
“Under the east window, on the roof, everywhere.”
Thin vines, eerily colored almost the same pale yellow as their wooden house, so that unless you looked closely, you wouldn’t notice them.
“Over on the hillside, there are thicker ones, about wrist-sized, but they blend in with the surrounding flowers and grass, so they’re green.”
After observing and summarizing, everyone fell silent.
“Is this thing that sinister? It can change colors?”
“Now that the valley is so quiet, does that mean all living things here have been eaten by it?”
“That thick one over there looks like the main trunk, seems to be coming from the direction of the ancient forest.”
“No wonder we didn’t see any large beasts’ traces in the ancient forest before. This thing must be growing inside the ancient forest, eating all the living creatures. But we never saw it before—how did it suddenly spread all over the valley overnight?”
Faced with this unknown and ferocious new plant, everyone was full of questions, and only one person could provide answers.
Song Hanchen, Song Luyuan, Song Jimin, and Bai Ge all turned their gazes simultaneously toward Song Xian.
“The Hellvine grows by feeding on the blood and flesh of living beings. The more it hunts, the faster it grows and spreads. If it doesn’t feed for a long time, its branches and leaves will turn yellow and dry up, entering a dormant state of pseudo-wilting. It only awakens again when it encounters fresh blood and flesh.”
The value description of the Hellvine was very long; Song Xian had spent a long time reading it.
Each stage of growth had its special value: during pseudo-wilting, the branches ground into powder could effectively remove rot and promote flesh regeneration.
At its peak, the branches were impervious to blades and bullets; boiling the branches could kill hundreds of insects.
“After the Hellvine hunted all the animals in the ancient forest clean, it had nothing left to eat, so it entered the dormant state. The dry branches and dead leaves were inconspicuous in the forest, which is why we didn’t notice it before. Last night, something must have nourished it with fresh blood and flesh, waking it up. It began a large-scale hunt on living creatures around the forest and rapidly grew into its peak state, expanding its hunting range to where we are now. Its vines have tendrils that can sense living creatures with extreme sensitivity. If we recklessly go out, we’ll end up like that rat.”
“No way.”
“What do we do now? We can’t just stay trapped inside forever.”
Song Luyuan asked anxiously; he was starting to feel desperate as well.
“Does Father know how to deal with it?”
Song Hanchen’s calm voice strangely eased everyone’s tension.
Song Xian shook his head.
He could only read the value of things; he didn’t know how to destroy it.
For a moment, everyone inside almost lost hope.
Song Luyuan sighed repeatedly,
“I thought all the taboos and curses around the ancient forest were exaggerated. Alas, it’s truly unlivable nearby. The Hellvine is right in front of us—what do we do?”
Song Xian said,
“But I guess one thing—the essence of wood is that it fears fire.”
“Oh, Father, can you speak without gasping so much? Fire, huh? That’s simple; we’ll just try it!”
Song Luyuan took a bamboo tube candle and was about to go out to try.
“No, that fire is too small and can easily be extinguished.”
Song Xian grabbed Song Luyuan and stopped him from risking it.
Song Xian found some old cloth, wrapped it around a bamboo stick, soaked it with Duzhong Seed Oil, and lit it, making a torch.
He was about to step outside with the torch but was stopped simultaneously by Song Hanchen and Song Jimin.
Taking advantage of this moment, Song Luyuan snatched the torch and ran out first.
“Dad, I really need to pee—let me go first!”
As soon as Song Luyuan stepped outside, the Hellvine hidden in the grass stirred, stretching its vines toward him.
Song Luyuan swung the torch around, and the extending Hellvine vines quickly retreated.
“Haha, it really does fear fire! Let’s make some more torches, gather straw and firewood, and burn it down!”
Everyone responded and busied themselves making torches, laying straw, piling firewood, and lighting the flames.
Three hours later, after their tireless efforts, they finally forced the Hellvine back beyond the valley’s border.
Song Xian frowned.
“This isn’t enough. We have to find its root and destroy it completely. Only then can we live here in peace. If it feeds on living flesh again, it will come back. Next time, we might not be lucky enough to wake from sleep. I won’t let my children live in constant danger.”
“To destroy it, we must enter the ancient forest and prepare enough fire. Otherwise, halfway there, we might become the Hellvine’s meal.”
Song Hanchen remembered the Duzhong Seed Oil Song Xian used to soak cloth for torches.
Clothes soaked in it would burn longer.
“I’ll go find Chief Chen to make wooden wedges and squeeze more oil.”
Song Xian immediately cooperated with Song Hanchen.
“We still have forty to fifty jin of Duzhong Seeds stored. The oil extracted should be enough.”
Chen Changgui’s carpentry skills were excellent.
After seeing Song Hanchen’s drawings, it took only half an hour to make the wooden wedges.
“Officials came to the village this morning, showing pictures of Bai Ge, Liu Da, and others, asking if we’d seen them.”
Chen Changgui handed the wedges to Song Hanchen, hesitating before finally saying,
“Is that really necessary? If it were me, I wouldn’t keep people around—it’s too dangerous.”
Song Hanchen coldly asked Chen Changgui,
“Then who would you keep? Fang Dashan?”
Chen Changgui’s face instantly changed.
He was choked up and silent.
Song Hanchen glanced coldly at him and turned away.
Before nightfall, Song Xian successfully extracted more than ten jin of Duzhong Seed Oil.
Taking advantage of the fading daylight, they hurried with the oil and water, torches in hand, into the ancient forest to burn the Hellvine’s roots.
The Hellvine truly feared fire.
When scorched, it curled into a ball, losing all its former vigor.
After locating the Hellvine’s growth spot, Song Luyuan poured half a bucket of oil onto the main trunk and set it alight.
The trunk burned like dry straw, and the flames quickly spread along the vines.
Song Xian shouted,
“Quick, stop the fire from spreading outward, or the entire forest will catch fire!”
“All right!”
Bai Ge rushed to pour water.
Song Luyuan instinctively raised his machete to chop but was shocked when it broke.
“Hey? I thought the vines were impervious to blades?”
He tried chopping parts not yet burned but still couldn’t break them.
“Ah, so only the burned parts can be cut easily. Wow, this wood is amazing—not just for farming tools, but also could be made into wooden swords for weapons!”
“Wow, that’s really incredible! Second brother, you finally showed some smarts!”
Song Jimin half-jokingly “praised” him, which naturally annoyed Song Luyuan.
The two started bickering again, with Bai Ge joining in and adding fuel to the fire.
Song Xian watched the playful children, his gaze gradually unfocusing.
Suddenly, he snapped back to attention and looked at Song Hanchen.
“I want to break that bad habit.”
“What?”
Bai Ge overheard this and was completely confused.
“All right.”
But Song Hanchen understood what Song Xian meant.
He was referring to the “Steam-Eating the Young, Longevity Ritual” that had been practiced in the Yongzhou region for over thirty years.
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