Chapter 117: The Pumagic Vine [Second Update]

Time slipped by, second after second, and the number of people in Xia City infected by the parasitic seeds grew steadily.

Beneath the earth, the blood-red vines, having just broken through to the Silver Realm, did not ease their surge of power; instead, their energy intensified even further.

Within less than two minutes after reaching the Silver Realm, a fresh wave of energy radiated from the vines—they had advanced to Silver Tier Two.

Upon reaching Silver Tier Two, the vines’ surface glowed with an even more vivid, almost luscious hue.

Under the fierce assault of Black Charcoal, one of the blood-red tendrils violently collided with him.

With a thunderous crash, Black Charcoal was sent flying backward, crashing through a rocky wall.

Although Lin Huang could not see the battle outside, he heard the sound of the wall shattering and Black Charcoal’s furious roars.

“How much longer, Black Charcoal?” Lin Huang asked anxiously, but received no reply.

After flinging off the persistent Black Charcoal, the blood-red vines began to hammer the ground with relentless fury.

Soon, the surrounding earth started to collapse under the force of their powerful strikes.

Yet, the vines could only attack the area around the alien energy body and were unable to reach the exact spot where Lin Huang hid beneath.

Still, Lin Huang’s heart pounded with anxiety; he sensed from the tremors that the ground beneath him would inevitably give way.

Fortunately, the vines ceased their pounding shortly, once again tangled by Black Charcoal’s relentless attacks.

Realizing he was outmatched in strength, Black Charcoal abandoned direct confrontation and instead chose to engage in a prolonged struggle.

Flapping his wings wildly, he dodged the vines’ strikes while continuously spewing dragonfire to harass them.

Though the dragonfire could not inflict substantial harm, the searing pain annoyed the blood-red vines immensely. They swung their tendrils wildly, attempting to drive Black Charcoal away, but most of their attacks missed.

After repeated attempts, the vines seemed to understand that Black Charcoal’s goal was merely to disrupt their assault on the ground. They ceased paying him attention and transformed their tendrils into drill-like spikes, plunging them into the earth.

Within the soil below, Lin Huang, now a ghostly shadow, altered his visual mode; the dirt appeared nearly translucent to him.

He immediately spotted the vines piercing the ground and frowned, slowly lifting his form.

From standing upright, he shifted to a prone position, pressing his body tightly against the base of the energy core.

The drill-like tendrils repeatedly struck the ground, at times even hitting where Lin Huang had stood moments before, but all their attacks missed.

Seeing one drill come within less than a meter of his back, Lin Huang’s skin broke out in a cold sweat. At Silver Tier Two, even a single strike from the vines would be searingly painful.

Black Charcoal, seeing his harassment was ineffective and worried for Lin Huang’s safety, launched himself again at the blood-red vines and switched to close combat.

Though the vines’ strength and defense had risen sharply, Black Charcoal’s claw and bite attacks still quickly left wounds on them.

His relentless entanglement angered the vines, which abandoned Lin Huang and shifted their attention to Black Charcoal.

The tendrils coiled around Black Charcoal’s neck; now stronger than him, they trapped him tightly. For a time, Black Charcoal could not break free and struggled desperately, biting and clawing.

【Warning: Black Charcoal is under mortal attack. Please recall immediately!】

A prompt suddenly flashed before Lin Huang’s eyes.

“Recall Black Charcoal!” Lin Huang commanded without hesitation. He knew all too well that if Black Charcoal perished, the corresponding card would vanish. Losing such a precious epic-grade dragonblood before it matured was something he could never accept.

At his order, Black Charcoal instantly transformed back into a card and returned inside Lin Huang.

To the blood-red vines, Black Charcoal vanished without a trace, provoking a moment of confusion.

But only briefly distracted, the vines remembered the small thief beneath them eying their energy core and resumed hammering the ground.

The thick tendrils again morphed into drills, repeatedly burrowing deep into the earth.

“How much longer, Black Charcoal? Say something!” Lin Huang felt he was near his limit; the tendrils’ strikes had nearly swept the entire vicinity. The most recent attack came within twenty centimeters of the back of his head. Had the tendril curved just slightly upwards, it would have pierced his skull.

【Ready!】

At Black Charcoal’s voice, Lin Huang suddenly felt the warm sensation in his palm vanish.

The blood-red vines unleashed a frenzied roar as a tendril plunged straight down from above Lin Huang’s head at a speed too swift to evade.

At that moment, Black Charcoal was summoned back up, intercepting directly overhead, while Lin Huang twisted underground and fled toward the distance.

The vines’ fatal strike pierced Black Charcoal’s left wing, splattering black dragonblood across the ground.

Lin Huang turned just in time to witness this and furrowed his brow.

He had initially planned to recall Black Charcoal and escape the underground space but stood frozen instead.

“Recall Bai!” he commanded.

In the next instant, a silver-haired youth appeared within the underground chamber.

“Advance him to the second stage!” Lin Huang issued the next order.

By summoning Bai for advancement, he intended for Bai and Black Charcoal to join forces and annihilate the parasitic entity once and for all.

【Confirm consuming two advancement cards to evolve Bai?】

“Confirmed!”

【Advancement cards consumed…】

Two golden streams of light spontaneously formed in the void, circling Bai repeatedly until they fused into a golden cocoon that enveloped him completely.

Lin Huang’s surge in energy quickly caught the blood-red vines’ attention. They noticed the golden cocoon on the ground and seemed to realize something, immediately lashing out to shatter the cocoon—hoping to interrupt the sudden mutation of this new monster.

If it were a normal monster’s mutation, perhaps the vines’ attacks could disrupt it. But an evolution via card advancement was irreversible. Even a demigod’s intervention might not alter the outcome, rendering the vines’ attacks futile.

The card advancement process was much quicker than usual mutation; within less than a minute, the golden cocoon dissolved.

The silver-haired youth reappeared before Lin Huang, his appearance largely unchanged but his aura now more unique and dangerous. A black mask covered half of his face beneath his eyes.

【Congratulations, Host. You have obtained an epic-grade monster card—Four-Winged Blood Duke (Divine Attendant).】

At that moment, the blood-red vines lashed out again.

Bai’s eyes flashed blood-red; four crimson wings unfurled behind him as he vanished like a streak of blood.

His movements had become so swift that Lin Huang could no longer track them.

“Black Charcoal, hold the defense. Coordinate with Bai to slay this parasite!” Lin Huang quickly instructed.

The wound on Black Charcoal’s wing healed visibly fast; his innate rapid regeneration allowed such minor injuries to seal within moments.

Taking flight once more, Black Charcoal repeatedly unleashed dragonfire, harassing the blood-red vines.

Now devoid of the alien energy core’s regenerative power, the vines could no longer ignore the dragonfire’s impact.

Meanwhile, the four blood-red wings behind Bai transformed into four razor-sharp blades, slicing toward the vines with terrifying speed.

His form streaked like a blade of blood, darting through the underground space and striking the vines again and again.

Though the vines’ defense was formidable, Bai’s wings were as sharp as golden-tier weapons. While they might not sever the vines in a single strike, they left deep, grotesque wounds.

The vines’ injuries multiplied rapidly. It could not anticipate Bai’s movements and was distracted by Black Charcoal’s interference. Overwhelmed by their coordinated assault, it struggled to respond.

Yet Lin Huang soon noticed the vines’ energy flaring once more, signaling another imminent breakthrough.

Unbeknownst to him, over one hundred thousand people in Xia City had already been infected by the parasitic seeds. The infected were no longer limited to ordinary citizens and Black Iron Realm practitioners; many Bronze Realm hunters and even some Silver Realm hunters had fallen under control.

Silver-white light surged from the blood-red vines again—a precursor to their ascension to Silver Tier Three.

Lin Huang had no time to hesitate. He swiftly submerged beneath the earth and darted toward the vines.

Bursting from the ground beneath them, he dispelled his transformation card and gripped his black treasured blade. With a thunderous slash, he struck the wound Bai had carved earlier.

The strike was as swift as a bolt of lightning, catching the blood-red vines completely off guard.

Under the sharp treasured blade, the massive body of the vines was sliced cleanly in two.

Even severed, the vines did not die immediately. They launched a frenzied counterattack, a drill-like tendril piercing Lin Huang’s abdomen from behind and exiting near his waist. The force lifted him into the air, making him look like a piece of meat hung on a hook.

Lin Huang spat blood and, before losing consciousness, issued one final command: “Use healing card!”

When he awoke, he found Bai and Black Charcoal standing vigil by his side.

“What about the parasite?” he asked, sitting up quickly. Not far away, the blood-red vines lay motionless on the ground.

“It’s truly defeated?!” Lin Huang was astonished that they had actually succeeded.

【Congratulations, Host. You have obtained an epic-grade parasitic seed card. This parasite is a new type of monster with no name yet. You may customize its designation.】

“Let’s call it the Bloodvine Demon,” Lin Huang decided. He recalled reading about a parasitic creature called the Bloodvine Tree and chose to adopt that name.