Jiushi went back to investigate the corpse of the variant and backtracked the path where it originated from. The more he walked, the fainter the footprints became. He also came closer to the inner circle, which he had promised Tommy to stay away from, originally. 

He stopped.  

Swisssss~ 

Odd, Jiushi thought as a breeze brushed past him. He could hear the sound of the wind, but except that, absolute silence. Not even the sound of leaves swinging could be heard. 

An ominous feeling crawled down his back as his eyes followed the faint footprints leading into the darkness. He could see a group of glowing mineral rocks illuminating the path. The faint glow brought light to some familiar-looking plants. Jiushi didn’t need to look twice— the very same vines of the variant were hanging down from the trees.  

Maybe it was sheer coincidence, maybe this was a trap set by someone, or the plant possessed the intelligence to come up with the idea. Amateurs might go in like a headless fly, but Jiushi wouldn’t venture deeper without backup. It was too suspicious.  

Only those vines were swinging in the wind, while the leaves of the trees remained frozen. It was clear that the terrain was already under complete control of the enemy.  

Mistore Forest hadn’t had an apex predator before and therefore wasn’t patrolled tightly, but now a dangerous plant mutation appeared and was preying on flesh. The number of casualties was still low, but would only grow if they let it be.  

Jiushi took something out of his pocket and threw it in the direction of the vines.  

The object was shattered to orange dust when one of the vines collided with it. Instead of a vine, it was closer to a barbed whip with all the unnatural thorns on its surface.  

It lunged at Jiushi, but the latter threw more of the cinnabar-colored marbles that was pulverized earlier in the air.  

A cloud of orange dust formed in front of him.  

He naturally didn’t let this chance to escape slip by. It wasn’t far, Jiushi just had to retreat back to the outer circle to the common trees. If his assumption proved to be true, then those vine mutations could only scrounge beings or things with spiritual energy. Otherwise, he would have been captured the moment he went out alone. 

The vine tried to reach out to him, but ultimately reached its limit.  

Jiushi was approximately a short sprint of fifty meters away from his original spot. There were significantly more trees to infect, yet the vines didn’t jump over. It didn’t surprise him. Most attacks were also reported near or deeper in the boundary.  

He watched several vines lunging at him for a few minutes, but all of them couldn’t reach him. Some gave up and retracted back into the darkness. 

Just as he turned his back to them, another fierce vine came out from the orange dust cloud. It used the obstruction of the dust pollution to launch a surprise attack. But not only the concealed presence took him by surprise, but the reach was also much farther than Jiushi had assessed.  

The vine clasped his right angle and freshly healed arm. It dragged him towards their tree, where many other vines were waiting. 

Tsk, how annoying. 

Jiushi took out several white flat stones. Each of them had a sigil imprinted on them. He threw the one with a black sigil first. 

The stone collided with the vines and the contact point began to dry up until it crumbled into black ash. The severed parts fell to the ground and wiggled like desperate worms. They dried up after a few seconds without the supply of spiritual energy. 

It was a sordid picture, but Jiushi continued without letting the disgust show on his face. He had other worries. His leg was, fortunately, free again, but the next batch of vines was already coming.  

He activated the next stone with a blue sigil. This time it was a water attributed spell. 

It mazed through the vines and trimmed them even to one length. From the cuts was viscous liquid slowly dripping to the ground. It wasn’t translucent like rosin, instead, it was copper red and had a nasty stench to it. 

A smell that Jiushi was accustomed to. It was the same smell that was coming from low-level demons. Their assumption of the vines being mutated plants was entirely wrong.  

Those things were demonic adherents! 

Now that he gathered enough information, he didn't need to entertain the parasite any longer. 

He broke a stone with ice attribute and imprisoned the wiggling vine remains on his wrist in an ice cage, then he threw a blank white stone into the dust cloud. The vines were reacting to the pure spiritual energy and charged at it. 

At that moment, Jiushi’s pale lilac eyes glistened up with brilliant purple. The flat stone exploded and set off a chain of explosions. The flame marbles he threw earlier reacted with the spiritual energy as a catalyst and the dust explosion burned down the whole area. 

Jiushi waited until the last explosion ceased and looked satisfied at his work. The combustion, fortunately, didn’t start a bushfire. Although it would decrease his workload in killing those vines, it would be just as inconvenient if their camp was polluted with smoke. 

The value of Mistore Forest lied in the ore mines anyway. They wouldn’t be affected as a clearing around them was already done as a precautionary measure to possible bushfires.  

His eyes wandered around. The nearby vines were enraged but couldn’t get closer to him. Their noise was especially strenuous. Some imitated the cry of help from humans and other beasts to garner sympathy and attract new victims.  

Disgusting.  

A brief headcount gave him an uncomfortable feeling. The spreading of those parasites was much more advanced than they had initially assumed. Their two plus one manchild team couldn’t possibly exterminate the whole plague, let alone he just by himself. 

He had no other choice than to go back.  

*** 

Halfway on his way back.  

The leaves were rustling in the wind as they should be.  

After a fierce day, Jiushi could finally relax. The sounds of small animals hiding and rushing in the treetops was especially assuring.  

It showed that no man-eating parasite was roaming around anymore. 

Or so he thought. 

Crunch, crunch— 

The sound of leaves being trampled on was coming from his left.  

Jiushi hid behind a thick tree. He didn’t want to admit it, but his quota to utilize his ability was, with one use, already exhausted. He wasn’t saving up with his spirit stones either.  

There were still plenty of firestones left, but the forest was densely packed with trees in the outer area. If he were to use it, he would really burn down the whole forest. 

Just as he positioned himself behind a tree, the sound of tree crunching stopped. His back was pasted to the tree trunk while his legs were ready to dash and escape at any second. 

Bang! 

The surface of the tree on the other side from Jiushi bursted into thousand splinters as he felt a strong gush of mana and wind brushing past him. 

That energy—! 

Before he could reach out to the other party, he was already grabbed by the collar.  

The other party miscalculated his strength and both fell to the ground. 

Both hissed from the pain. 

“Ouch, Harem...get off me…” Jiushi mumbled with a heavy body on top of him. 

The latter heard his voice and jumped up like a startled squirrel. 

F*ck, f*ck, f*ck, f*ck, f*ck, f*ck, f*ck, f*ck, f*ck, f*ck! 

Why are we on top of each other again?