Re-birth: The Beginning after the End - Chapter 211

Chapter 211: CARNIVORE PLANT
She laughed softly, but the way she unconsciously bit her lower lip made his throat dry with sudden intensity. Their shared moment of intimacy, however, was abruptly shattered.

A piercing scream cut through the dense vegetation—a sound that began as an animal’s cry of terror before being suddenly muffled into wet, gurgling silence. The entire expedition halted instantly, disciples freezing in their positions with hands moving instinctively toward weapons and defensive talismans.

Mo Xing’s eyebrows quirked upward at the interruption, but he deliberately maintained his hold on Li Hua’s wrist, his thumb continuing to trace lazy circles against her pulse point despite the potential danger.

Elder Fu turned toward the group, raising one finger to his lips in a signal for absolute silence. With practiced stealth, he moved ahead through the towering vegetation, his form nearly disappearing among the massive stalks as he investigated the source of the disturbance.

The disciples waited in tense silence, spiritual senses extended to their limits. After several moments, Elder Fu beckoned them forward with a careful gesture. They advanced cautiously, pushing aside enormous leaves until they could see what had caused the commotion.

In a small clearing amid the giant grasses, a massive carnivorous plant was mid-feast. Its bulbous central pod, ringed with serrated teeth-like protrusions, had clamped around what was unmistakably a Mist Leopard. Only the creature’s hindquarters remained visible, still twitching as digestive enzymes dissolved the rest of its spectral form. The plant’s tentacle-like vines continued to wrap around the disappearing prey, ensuring it couldn’t escape its gruesome fate.

The sight of one feared predator falling victim to an even more formidable hunter proved too much for several junior disciples. Two young men immediately turned away, emptying the contents of their stomachs into the undergrowth. The scholarly female disciple turned pale but maintained her composure, already sketching the scene in her documentation journal with trembling hands.

“The Verdant Expanse’s food chain is… complex,” Elder Fu observed quietly, his weathered face showing no particular reaction to the gruesome spectacle. “What hunts in one territory may be hunted in another. Remember this lesson well—even apex predators must remain vigilant here.”

“There might be more Mist Leopards roaming here, Stormy,” Mo Xing whispered into Li Hua’s ear, his breath warm against her skin. “Perhaps you should take shelter in my arms? For protection purposes only, of course.”

Li Hua shot him a look that might have withered an ancient tree, her eyebrow arching with practiced skepticism. “And I suppose these ‘protection purposes’ would require me to stay there until we reach the Eternal Lake? How convenient for you.”

“Your safety is my primary concern,” Mo Xing replied with mock solemnity, placing a hand over his heart. “Though I cannot deny the… incidental benefits.”

“I’ve faced predators before,” Li Hua countered, tilting her chin up with pride that wasn’t entirely fabricated. “They’re considerably less dangerous than certain golden-eyed man with wandering hands.”

Mo Xing laughed, the sound rich and unrestrained in a way that drew startled glances from nearby disciples. “Fair point. The leopards, at least, have straightforward intentions.” His eyes gleamed with mischief as he added, “Though I assure you, my intentions are perfectly clear as well.”

Li Hua’s lips twitched with the effort of maintaining her stern expression. “Clear as the bottom of a mud pond, perhaps.”

“You wound me, Stormy,” he sighed dramatically, clutching his chest. “And here I thought we were making such progress.”

A terrified yelp shattered the expedition’s cautious advance. All eyes turned to see the scholarly female disciple suddenly yanked off her feet, thick emerald vines coiled around her ankles. Before anyone could react, she was dragged backward through the undergrowth, her hands clawing desperately at the ground as she disappeared into the dense vegetation. Her documentation scrolls scattered across the path, pages fluttering like wounded birds.

“Formation Celestial Shield! NOW!” Elder Fu’s command cut through the momentary shock, his hands already forming a complex series of gestures as he charged toward the point of abduction. “Sun Wei, Liu Fei—flanking positions!”

The elite disciples responded instantly, spiritual weapons materializing in their hands as they split into a pincer movement through the towering grass. The remaining disciples formed protective circles, senior cultivators generating shields of essence that rippled outward to guard against further attacks.

Mo Xing released Li Hua’s hand, his playfulness vanishing beneath cold calculation. “Carnivorous binding vine,” he stated with clinical precision. “Lures prey by mimicking normal vegetation, then drags victims to central digestion pools.”

Li Hua watched with mounting irritation as the two male junior disciples scrambled around in panic, their movements disorganized and ineffective. Even the elite disciples’ reactions seemed painfully slow to her trained eye, their formations taking precious seconds to establish while the captured female disciple was dragged further away. A flash of annoyance crossed her features—in her former life, such delayed response would have meant certain death.

Before Elder Fu could finish issuing his orders, Li Hua stepped forward with fluid precision, twin daggers materializing in her hands. Her celestial diamond earrings activating with a crystalline chime as her essence surged, wind and light enhancing her physical capabilities beyond normal limits. Without hesitation, she launched herself after the captured disciple, her form blurring with extraordinary speed that left only golden afterimages in her wake—each luminous silhouette fading moments after her passage.

Mo Xing reacted instantly, his expression shifting from casual to focused intensity in a heartbeat. His form dissolved into wisps of obsidian smoke as he employed a high-level movement technique. The darkness coiled through the vegetation with unnatural speed, following Li Hua’s golden trail like shadow pursuing light.

They rapidly closed the distance to the captured disciple, whose screams had escalated to desperate, terrified sounds that drove them forward with renewed urgency. The vines dragging her had gained significant ground, but the combined speed of the two allowed them to close the gap with each passing moment.

Mo Xing phased back into solid form beside Li Hua as they neared their target, keeping pace with her extraordinary velocity. His golden eyes tracked her movements with evident appreciation—not just for her beauty in motion, but for the lethal efficiency her body displayed.

“As always, your speed is Impressive,” he commented, voice unaffected by their rapid movement. “But let’s see how you handle what’s waiting ahead.”

They burst through a final wall of vegetation into a clearing where the true threat revealed itself—a massive digestive pool surrounded by hundreds of prehensile vines, all moving with coordinated intelligence toward the struggling disciple suspended above the bubbling surface.

The young woman’s head was bleeding profusely from a gash along her temple, her body now limp in the vine’s grasp as she had clearly been knocked unconscious during the violent abduction.

Mo Xing watched as Li Hua’s eyes darted across the clearing, her mind calculating angles, distances, and optimal intervention points with assassin-like precision. He recognized the focused intensity in her gaze—this was the tactical genius he had glimpsed in the Grove’s revelations of her past life, now directed toward preservation rather than elimination.

With a decisive gesture, Li Hua channeled her wood essence into the surrounding vegetation, compelling nearby plants to grow at impossible speed. Massive leaves and interwoven vines formed a temporary barrier above the bubbling digestive pool, creating a safety net beneath the suspended disciple.

The predatory plant responded with confused aggression, its tendrils whipping in conflicting directions as it encountered another plant controller invading its territory.