Developing Superpowers in Another World

Chapter 340 – Encounter with Vines

 

Reappearing at the entrance of the tunnel, Xi Chunzhi stood there waiting for them.

“How did it go?” As soon as Xi Chunzhi saw them, she stepped out from the shadow behind the tree.

The tunnel was almost pitch dark, and when they were suddenly exposed to bright light, Tu Ran raised her arm to shield her eyes. Once she adapted to the brightness, she slightly turned her body and squinted toward the direction where the manor was located.

Due to the obstruction of the trees, only the highest peak of the manor was visible, with a round metal plaque hanging there. The center of it bore the character “Xie” written in a special font. Under the direct sunlight, it gleamed with golden light, making it hard to look at directly.

This was the symbol of the Xie family, branded on everything and everyone associated with them.

It had also been branded on the woman who had vanished like the wind.

Tu Ran withdrew her gaze, her eyes slightly lowered as she glanced at the ground beneath her feet. “It’s done.”

“That’s good. Let’s leave here quickly,” Xi Chunzhi said, stepping forward to grab Tu Ran’s hand.

Xi Chunzhi’s recorder had displayed the words “Vine, run!” just a moment ago. The recorder was something she had specifically set up for herself because her ability, [Seven Seconds], often allowed her to glimpse the future in an instant, only to forget it within two to seven seconds. She carried the recorder to capture those fleeting moments and what she had seen.

It was rare for her recorder to show the words “run,” which indicated that the situation was serious.

One hand was pulling Tu Ran, while the other grabbed Huo’s sleeve, and they ran in the direction away from the manor. But Tu Ran grabbed her forearm, forcefully pulling her backward. Both she and Huo veered off their original path.

At the moment they were leaving, a green plant suddenly shot out from the ground. It was thick, sharp, and smooth, emerging exactly where Xi Chunzhi had been standing earlier.

Had Tu Ran been even a moment slower, without a doubt, Xi Chunzhi would have been impaled by this vine.

Xi Chunzhi and Huo both looked up, gazing at the vine in midair that was changing direction and charging toward them.

Huo had never seen such a plant that could move on its own, and its enormous size had a huge impact on her eyes.

Xi Chunzhi was the first to release her grip on Tu Ran and Huo, and as the vine rushed toward them, the three scattered. The vine’s target was not focused; it circled in midair before selecting Tu Ran and speeding toward her.

Tu Ran focused on the vine, pulling out a laser gun from thin air. She aimed the barrel at its root, her finger ready to press the button.

A fireball struck the vine.

Instantly, the flames spread over the entire vine, and before it could struggle, it turned into a pile of black ash.

Tu Ran looked toward Xi Chunzhi on the opposite side.

Xi Chunzhi was pulling back her right hand, a ball of fire still building in her palm.

“Disgusting soft-bodied creature!” Xi Chunzhi looked disdainfully at the pile of ashes on the ground. She closed her palm, extinguishing the flames, and then brushed the ashes from her hands.

“We need to leave quickly.”

The suffocating feeling that had surrounded her heart didn’t disappear with the death of the vine; in fact, it grew stronger. Xi Chunzhi didn’t believe that one vine was enough to make her recorder display the words “run.” There was likely a far greater danger waiting for them.

“We can’t leave,” Huo said, staring at the ground. She had seen it—beneath the surface, countless vines were surging upwards in a frantic rush.

The ground trembled, and a rustling sound echoed from deep within the earth. At first, only Tu Ran could hear it, but now both Xi Chunzhi and Huo could hear it too.

Tu Ran activated [Teleportation], her body leaving behind afterimages as she rushed to the middle of Huo and Xi Chunzhi. She grabbed both of their arms, lifting them up and running away from the area as fast as she could.

In the Federation, air and soil pollution, water acidification, overcrowding, and lack of land were widespread. Trees and greenery were rare. In places like this, where dense forests still grew, considerable money was required to create them. Only in the estates of wealthy families like the Xie family could such lush environments be found.

The Xie family’s estate, in particular, was built on a verdant mountain. The world of ordinary people surrounded the foot of the mountain.

Tu Ran ran downhill with the weight of both Xi Chunzhi and Huo, her speed not as fast as usual but still far exceeding that of ordinary transportation.

Behind them, thick vines followed closely, and more vines kept emerging from the ground, charging toward them. Tu Ran nimbly dodged left and right with the two in tow.

But there were simply too many vines, and the places they emerged from were unpredictable. The moment Tu Ran stepped on a slightly raised patch of ground, a vine shot out from the earth, sending the three of them flying into the air.

Other vines seized the opportunity to attack. The sharp tips of the vines aimed at the trio as they were in midair.

Tu Ran released her grip on Huo and Xi Chunzhi, and with a powerful step, she landed on one of the vines coming toward her abdomen. Using the force of the impact, she was the first to hit the ground.

While Xi Chunzhi and Huo were still falling, Tu Ran swung her hand, sending an invisible light blade slicing through the air. The plane of the cut was aligned with the height of her arm, severing everything at that level.

[Space Cutting]

The vines that had emerged from the ground were all cleanly severed at waist height. The vines that had been wildly swinging in midair lost their support and fell helplessly to the ground.

Green sap flowed out of the neatly cut roots.

Huo and Xi Chunzhi landed, avoiding the falling vine fragments, and quickly moved toward Tu Ran.

These vines had strong regenerative abilities. Tu Ran had only severed them in the middle, but their root systems had not been destroyed.

As Xi Chunzhi and Huo drew closer, the broken vines began to sprout new shoots from their cut ends. Fed by the green sap, they grew at a maddening pace. In the blink of an eye, they had transformed into thick new vines. Some cuts even produced two or three new vines.

Not only had the number of vines not decreased, but it had increased, with more constantly emerging from the ground.

The entire forest was nearly covered by vines, their density now greater than the original trees. In some places, the vines had even pushed the trees aside.

A vast net of vines, woven together, blotted out the sky, trapping the three of them inside.

“This is impossible to kill!” Xi Chunzhi continued to throw fireballs, burning the vines that came too close to them. Sparks and ash flew through the air.

Tu Ran also used her laser gun to cut down wave after wave of vines. Originally, the laser gun could only fire a few times before running out of power, but she had managed to use it endlessly by activating [Wheel of Time] after every two shots, restoring its energy to full capacity.

Huo, surrounded by Tu Ran and Xi Chunzhi, had no direct way of dealing with the vines, as both of her abilities were support in nature and ineffective against the vines.

“Huo, can your X-ray vision see where their roots are?” Tu Ran asked, recharging her energy once more.

Huo focused on the ground, her sight piercing through the dirt and stones, reaching deeper. She saw a mass of twisting, writhing vines beneath the surface.

“There!” she shouted.

Tu Ran immediately looked in that direction. Compared to their current position, the vines there were thicker, with a higher density, nearly packed together.

“Can we tunnel to their roots?”

Huo’s gaze swept around the root system, her eyes aching with strain. She forced herself to focus and turned to Tu Ran. “Yes, but our movement underground will be limited. If the vines attack us beneath the surface, we’ll have a hard time escaping.”

 

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**TN

Warmest wishes for a joyful Christmas and a prosperous New Year! °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖°