Volume 2 Chapter 22 Huang Que Zai Hou*
* idiom that refers to the fact that when the mantis is preying on a cicada, there is actually a Huang Que (bird) waiting from behind
That tall tree really resembled a crooked umbrella. Even the dense branches and leaves looked like the umbrella cover. It was only the fact that the tree trunk was so twisted, that made it look like a screw.
There is nothing in the perimeter within 15 metres of the tree, not even a blade of grass existed. There was only a root of a dark green vine climbing around the tree. The leaves of the tree were shaped like a sharp blade with a few blooming fist-sized red flowers. The stamen was gold coloured and seemed as if there was liquid circulating it. In between there were two fingernail-sized fruits shaped like a rain drop hanging from the vine.
Shao Qing could senseMao Laosan’s eyes light up. Quickly stepping forward, he stopped after taking two steps. There was danger all around this forest, this was especially the case for the surrounding areas of more important vegetations. There definitely must be a variation creature guarding it.
Or it might be the vegetation itself that is dangerous. Mao Laosan didn’t dare to be careless. Failing at the final effort and throwing his life on the line, wouldn’t he have died for nothing?
Calling over one of his little brothers, he told him to go and scout out first. That little brother was quite courageous, very cautiously, he advanced forward. Arriving at the bottom of the tree, nothing dangerous has popped up.
Turning his head back to look at Mao Laosan, Mao Laosan immediately gave him an indication to pick the fruit. The little brother nodded his head and then extended out his hand. Before his fingertips could even touch the fruit, he let out a shriek. With a twitch he fell to the ground, allowing everyone else to see a scorpion the size of a palm had its tail penetrate through his shoes and into his flesh.
Lying on the ground twitching, the skin on his body began changing into a cyan colour. After another while, it returned back to his original colour and he became motionless on the ground.
No one dared to approach him. One person who was smarter picked up a rock and threw it over. Once the rock touched the little brother’s body, his body inflated like a balloon and with a pop a hole was formed and a rush of blood came flowing out. In just a few seconds, the ground was just left with blood and a sheet of skin.
The remaining people paled. What kind of poison is this? In just a split second it was able to dissolve a person’s meat and bones into blood.
Mao Laosan gritted his teeth and threw out a wind blade. The wind blade easily sliced the scorpion into two.
Looking carefully, one could see that the scorpion had drilled out from under ground. Mao Laosan being smart for once, allowed an earth elemental user to solidify the surface. Then did he bring a group of people to approach it very carefully. Little by little, they advanced towards the tree, yet Shao Qing and Yan Qiyue didn’t make a single move at the back.
Mao Laosan was muddle-headed from his own self-interest, but they weren’t. Right now the thing Shao Qing and Yan Qiyue should be doing is stand and wait. When Mao Laosan and his group were mostly dead then they’ll approach.
Not out of Shao Qing’s expectations, the group of people continued to approach the tree. As this happened, countless vines ignoring the hardened ground, drilled deep within it. Successfully boring a hole, a group of scorpions immediately followed them out.
The scorpions seeing people immediately threw themselves towards those bodies. With a slice of his wind blade, Mao Laosan easily cut away a slice of them. However, there were just too many scorpions. In addition to the vines disturbance, it was unavoidable for the people to get stabbed by the scorpions.
As long as they were stabbed by the scorpion, within a minute they would all dissolve into a puddle of blood. Besides its poison, those scorpions had no attack power. Yet its poison is incurable.
Even if there was a medicine that could cure it, the people who have been poisoned just had no opportunity to take any medicine.
Strength and speed users were the most miserable. At least those elemental users could adorn themselves with an earth shield or fire shield, but body enhanced users can only cover their heads and run away.
Looking on as a bystander, Shao Qing discovered that the tree seemed to be in motion. Looking at it attentively, it wasn’t the tree that was moving but the leaves. Behind the leaves were quite a few moths. Its wings were bigger than a standard moth by a little and had a tinge of a pink powder. Every time it spread its wings, the pinkish powder would fall out and whoever it landed on would cause their body to become rigid allowing the opportunity for the scorpions to stab at their bodies and causing them to become a puddle of blood.
Even if they were to prop up their shields, they still couldn’t escape. When the powder landed on the shields, the shields would slowly dissolve. Finally, they would become rigid and get poisoned to death. Luckily Mao Laosan reacted quickly. With a wave of his hand, a rotating wind blade swept up the pile of moths. Just seeing the pink powder and the badly damaged wings fall onto the round, it seemed that those moths also don’t have any ability to protect themselves. Real soon, they were quickly wiped out. After killing all the moths, killing all the scorpions became a lot easier. Being distracted by the vines, Mao Laosan was annoyed to the extreme. Unable to bear it, he condensed a meter long wind blade and chopped it towards the tree. The tree was immediately cut in half, then red liquid like blood came spilling out. Not even mentioning Shao Qing, even Yan Qiyue who had more knowledge and experience was also given a shock.
A tree can actually ‘bleed’. Within horses there are “Han Xue Bao Ma”*, then could there be Han Xue Bao trees?
* horse that shed red blood-like sweat that is known to be super fast -> mentioned in wuxia novels usually
After the tree got chopped, the vines became frantic. Some superhumans who were holding onto shields were directly sent flying.
An unlucky superhuman had his shield directly blown apart and was sent flying into the river. There a crocodile had its mouth opened wide and swallowed the ‘meat pie’ that came flying down from the sky.
The others were slightly luckier. Even though they were also sent flying, the location where they fell was rather safe. Besides the variation weeds cutting them up a bit, there wasn’t any other injuries.
In the original place, only Mao Laosan was left. The injuries all over his body were caused by vines. Utterly furious, not caring about over-drafting his powers, he lifted his two hands and issued out a strong maneuver. The wind blade looked like a large moon as it directly wiped up the remaining scorpions and continued to chop the tree again.
The tenish metre high tree then collapsed with a bang. Even the green vines came falling down. Then liquid like blood started to trickle out. Exhausted, Mao Laosan fell to the ground panting. Then he yelled: “Liu Zi, go pick the fruit.”
After a long time, still, no one answered. Getting angry, Mao Laosan turned around and yelled: “Liu Zi, I’m yelling at you!” Before he could finish, he was stunned. This was because Liu Zicurrently didn’t have his head attached to his neck.
It wasn’t just Liu Zi. The other surviving superhumans were even more tragic. This was because they died under Yan Qiyue’s hands. All of them had been compressed into meatballs.
Liu Zi could be considered to have died directly and quickly. Shao Qing at the moment was currently wiping her blade. Mao Laosan’s eyes turned red: “You guys!”
Shao Qing sheathed the glittering knife into the sheath and coldly smiled: “What about us?”
“Didn’t we just seize you to get you guys to lead the way? How could you be so cruel!” Mao Laosan in this short time still couldn’t crawl back up as he fumed with rage.
“En, after all, I am originally a cruel person.” Shao Qing smiled slightly. Mao Laosan suddenly felt a sharp pain in his heart. In the next second, he had already stopped breathing. Right before he died, Mao Laosan finally figured it out. All those unexpected deaths of his brother probably died from Shao Qing’s hands.
The dead Mao Laosan’s body started to grow delicate buds. After Yan Qiyue extracted the source crystals from the several superhumans, then he piled them up together. There was a saying, “Do not ask to be born in the same month and year but ask to die in the same month and year. Do not beg to sleep in the same bed but ask to be laid in the same coffin”. They were just helping them out. Hm, but something seemed wrong.
“Whoever strikes first, gets the upper hand…..” Shao Qing sighed then went forward to pick the fruit. Her curiosity towards the fruit was extremely high. Mao Laosan risked his life for it so it should be worthwhile.
Yan Qiyue at the moment had already found a bottle and was extracting the liquid the tree was leaking out. Dividing the work and cooperating, they were very well coordinated.
Just as Shao Qing touched the fruit, a python came boring its way out from the river. If the python they had met before with Qiao Mo was as thick as a bucket, then this one in front of them now was even thicker than a tub.
Who knew how long it has lived for it to grow this big. The only thing Shao Qing knew was that this thing was rushing towards them right now.
