Phoniex Requiem
Chapter 45: Wild Vine Spirit

Chapter 45: Wild Vine Spirit

Fortunately, Yun Ruoyan was still holding the inner core of the fire dog in her hand. Under the weak illumination he emitted, he was able to hold onto one of the vines lining the cave walls and reduce his speed.

He began to fall at a much slower pace, and for a while he avoided the possibility of death from falling. By the time he reached the tip of the tendril, the ground was close enough that he could push against the wall and land on both feet.

His moleskin boots hit the ground with a thud. Accompanying this noise, Yun Ruoyan's surroundings were suddenly filled with light.

The light is soft, warm, and somewhat green.

Yun Ruoyan slowly rose from a crouching position and looked at her surroundings.

This was a very spacious basement and the floor, ceiling, and four walls were all decorated with a kind of starlight.

This made Yun Ruoyan think of the cave they had to go through to leave the order of misdirection, and she judged that the light was caused by the same type of mineral.

In his past life, when Yun Ruoyan followed Pei Ziao into the imperial territory, he heard him mention this type of mineral. Unlike usual, the mineral has a kind of spiritual alignment that allows it to sense people and emit light while doing so.

The more people there, the stronger the light.

In addition to the light from this mineral, the entire area was covered in vines. Although there is no natural sunlight at all, these vines are very numerous.

One end of the vines protruded to the top of the hole where he had just fallen, and the other end towards the far side of the basement.

Yun Ruoyan's intuition told her that whatever was dragging Lin Qingxue and the snake was inside.

Yun Ruoyan walked towards the other end of the room, and as she walked, she noticed that the four walls around her started to sparkle in a dim green light, getting brighter and brighter.

"Help! Save me!" Suddenly, he heard a weak cry for help. It was Lin Qingxue's voice!

"Qingxue!" Yun Ruoyan quickly called out, before dashing towards the direction of the voice. "Don't worry, I'm here to save you!"

He circled around the corner and looked at Lin Qingxue in the corner. His face was deathly pale, and his entire body seemed to be covered in tiny tendrils, as if he would be consumed by them.

Beside his body were a large number of bones, humans and beasts. More frighteningly, the corner opposite Lin Qingxue was a real mountain of bones, about half as tall as Yun Ruoyan.

"Sister Ruoyan, please save me, I can't last much longer." As soon as Lin Qingxue saw Yun Ruoyan, she spoke weakly.

"Don't worry, I'm here." Yun Ruoyan hurried over.

Just as he was about to get to Lin Qingxue's side, a tree crept down from the air, trying to snare Yun Ruoyan's limbs.

But Yun Ruoyan's reflexes were fast enough that she managed to dodge the vine by twisting to the side and pushing herself backwards.

He looked at the vine hanging in the air, and saw the unusual sight of the snake from before behind him, wrapped in something similar to a bridle.

"Sister Ruoyan, be careful!" Lin Qingxue warned. “Not only will these vines attack people, they can even suck up their spiritual energy. Most of mine has been taken from me.” He weakly closed his eyes, as if saying everything that had made him lose whatever amount was left.

After hearing Lin Qingxue's words, Yun Ruoyan did not hesitate to summon the Feilai Blade and cut down the vines surrounding Lin Qingxue.

Before Lin Qingxue could react, most of the vines on her body were cut off.

The vines looked furious as they headed towards Yun Ruoyan once again. As a diversion, he directed Feilai Blade to cut the vines that held the snakes in the air.

With a thud, the snake landed on the floor, and the vines covering its body scattered. However, as if they were alive, they turned around and turned on the floor, reminding Yun Ruoyan of the snake that was inside the cave.

Yun Ruoyan stored the Feilai Blade once more and rushed to Lin Qingxue's side, helping her stand up.

"Can you walk?" He asked, and Lin Qingxue forced herself to nod.

Yun Ruoyan immediately started walking towards the outside of the room with her, but at the same time, the vines that landed on the floor wriggled towards them.

Yun Ruoyan unsheathed the dagger on Lin Qingxue's waist and cut away the vines that were trying to snare their legs while trying to protect Lin Qingxue behind her.

The problem was that the vines never seemed to die. Even after they were cut, they continued to move closer, and even the Feilai Sword could only temporarily block them.

What are these vines made of? Why aren't they dead?! Yun Ruoyan started to panic.

"Sister Ruoyan, it is a wild vine spirit!" Lin Qingchen's voice came from behind.

Yun Ruoyan turned around in shock and saw Lin Qingchen and Zhuo Yifeng turn the corner.

“Your cousin is really very worried about you two, and I couldn't stop him from going down, so I instead followed him,” Zhuo Yifeng told him expressionlessly, dropping the vines backwards with her bow.

Lin Qingchen helped bring Lin Qingxue to a corner so she could lean against the wall. His gaze was very affectionate, but his tone was fierce. “Have you learned your lesson? Next time, you better not be rash!”

But Lin Qingxue was so weak that she couldn't even deny her sister, and she could only pursed her lips dejectedly.

"Where's your sister?" After cutting again the indomitable vine, Yun Ruoyan asked Zhuo Yifeng. He had just realized that Zhuo Lin'er did not seem to be with them.

“Above there, in a safe place. He's also very worried, but I don't think he'll be much help.”

"Forgetit." Yun Ruoyan cut another vine and looked at Lin Qingchen on his back. "Since you're all here, let's find a way to deal with this!"

After Lin Qingchen sat down her sister, she unsheathed her steel sword and joined the party in cutting vines.

But the new vines grew out of the room faster than they could cut, so at this rate, they would definitely not be able to do so.

As he cut, he spewed out all the information he had about plant-type beasts. “Grandfather told me that some plants, after absorbing enough pure spiritual energy, will be able to create spiritual bodies, and those who have done so long enough will even be able to take human form. I wonder to what extent these wild vines thrive.”.

"His own body?" yun Ruoyan asked. "Does that mean, if we can find his spiritual body and kill him, we can kill the entire vine system?"

Lin Qing Chen nodded. “It should be so, but there are so many vines here! How will we find which one is the spiritual body?”

The entire room was full of vines, but if only one of the vines was real, then how would they find it?

As if understanding what Lin Qingchen said, the vines started attacking them more ferociously.

"Aah!" The vine grabbed Lin Qingchen's wrist. Yun Ruoyan wanted to save him, but in the moment of disturbance, a vine also gripped her waist, and the two of them ended up stuck in the air.

Yun Ruoyan began to feel a strange suction of the vines encircling her waist, and her spiritual energy began to drain away.

"Madam, this kind of vine will deplete the spiritual energy of everything it traps, so you should try to find a way to escape its clutches!" Qiuqiu said anxiously.

But Yun Ruoyan did not have time to worry about herself, as she saw some vines moving quickly along the wall towards Lin Qingxue.

"Zhuo Yifeng, protect Qingxue, hurry!"

Zhuo Yifeng glanced at him. She originally wanted to save Yun Ruoyan first, but she obeyed her instructions and ran to Lin Qingxue's side, cutting the vines that approached her with her bow.

Even though he ran out of arrows, the bow in his hand was very well made. In particular, the bowstring was sharp enough that it could cut through the vines in a single blow, even if it was two or three wrists thick.

Seeing how powerful the bow in Zhuo Yifeng's hand was, the tendril suddenly split into two in midair, one attacked Zhuo Yifeng, and the other attacked Lin Qingxue.

Regardless of the sharpness of his bow, Zhuo Yifeng could barely fend off the vine while having to protect Lin Qingxue.

Yun Ruoyan looked towards them, anxious and worried, but she had to worry about herself first.

"The spiritual body is there!" Lin Qingchen suddenly shouted. “Ruoyan, I've found it! Right in that pile of bones, you just need to follow the vines back to where they came from."

As Lin Qingchen instructed, she retraced the vine that was currently attacking Zhuo Yifeng and Lin Qingxue, and indeed came to the same conclusion.

So that's where his real body was hidden!

"But we can't do anything now!" Lin Qingchen groaned, not succeeding against the vines in the air.

"Don't worry, I have a plan!" Yun Ruoyan summoned the Sword of Feilai. Given that this was a life-and-death situation, he did not have the luxury of worrying about keeping secrets, and he felt that his three friends were clearly trustworthy.

Lin Qingchen felt his vision blur, and all he could see was a purple radiance, emitting a slightly cold aura, flying past his eyes.

Yun Ruoyan pointed the Feilai Blade at that pile of bones. The bones flew as soon as the blades collided, revealing the heart of the vine.

It was blood red and looked like a gigantic artery, two men thick, a spooky and round growth.

"Feilai Blade, cut it!" Yun Ruoyan called out.

Feilai Blade managed to cut off his heart halfway; at the same time, a piercing scream came out from the heart, and the vines that were holding Yun Ruoyan and Lin Qingchen back, respectively, as well as the ones attacking Zhuo Yifeng and Lin Qingxue, it quickly convulsed before pulling back into the heart.

Yun Ruoyan and Lin Qingchen fell from the air.

“Feilai Blade, attack once again!” As Yun Ruoyan landed on the ground, she commanded the sword once more.