As Lin Qiao finally stopped kicking the turtle back into the lake, the vines slowly calmed down, then drew back in and sank down. Lin Qiao looked at the turtle, thinking about how to keep it in the space alive. She shouldn't kill all those turtles and keep the meat in buckets like she did with the snake, should she?
Before she could figure out a solution for the turtles, she suddenly sensed a wave of energy from the outside, and then heard Qiu Lili's scream.
"Ah!"
Hearing that, Lin Qiao left the nearly unconscious turtle and directly flashed out of her space.
Once out, she saw tens of human-arm-thick vines reaching out of the woods. She couldn't see the color of the vines, but as they were dark gray in her eyes, she figured that they were all deeply-colored. These huge vines were covered in small and sharp thorns and many leaves.
About twenty or thirty vines had reached out of the woods toward the lake. These vines danced in the air while wriggling toward the few large turtles which were turned over by Lin Qiao earlier.
At that time, Qiu Lili was angrily staring at those vines which came for the turtles. She cut off every single vine which had approached her.
Sticky liquid flowed out of the vines which were cut off. The broken vines soon drew back, but more and more of them had been darting out of the woods, toward the turtles.
'What the hell is this? Another conscious vine?' Lin Qiao thought. Looking at the vines before her, she compared them with the vines inside the lake in her space and felt the latter to be much prettier.
"Ah!"
'They're coming for the turtles!' As Lin Qiao showed up, Qiu Lili immediately roared at her.
Lin Qiao fixed her eyes on these fiercely wriggling vines and suddenly sensed waves of energy from them. It was a strange kind of energy, which wasn't like the energy of zombies or the energy of superpowered human beings. It was a special type of energy.
Was it the energy of mutant plants? It seemed that this vine already had a nucleus!
With that thought, Lin Qiao gave Qiu Lili a roar. 'Wait here, I'll go take a look,' she said.
After that, she made herself invisible, bypassed these vines, and walked toward the woods.
The vines ignored the invisible Lin Qiao and rushed toward Qiu Lili. Qiu Lili was incredibly fast, so dealing with these vines was a piece of cake for her.
Hearing Lin Qiao's roar, she understood that Lin Qiao was probably going to deal with the main body of these vines. So, she waited there while playing with the vines which just wouldn't give up on approaching those turtles.
Lin Qiao walked into the woods along with these vines and soon found their main body. It was only about ten meters away from the lawn by the lakeside. That area was covered by nothing but vines.
In the middle of the vines, was a large, fruit-like thing, which was surrounded by a few strange plants.
These plants didn't look like parts of the vine plant. They were another kind of plant, growing on the vine. They looked a little like pitcher plants, because they had large bags covered by leaves.
Their leaves had thick and hard thorns on the edges. At the moment, the few bags of the pitcher plant had been uncovered, exposing their interiors.
There were three bags, each guarding a side of the fruit. The openings of the bags were facing the outside, as if the pitcher plants were protecting the fruit.
Lin Qiao sensed that the energy was coming from the fruit. It seemed that there was a nucleus inside it.
Apart from the energy, Lin Qiao had also sensed a tempting aroma from the pitcher plants' bags. However, she didn't like the aroma, because it felt unreal.
Before the apocalypse, these kinds of plants would emit a certain type of scent to attract some insects or small animals into their bags. Then, they'd cover the bags to trap their preys and secrete a digestive juice to digest them.
Lin Qiao gently stepped onto the thick vines and leaped toward the center.
The vines under her feet all paused for a few seconds, maybe cause they had sensed Lin Qiao's weight, but didn't sense her vibe.
The vines in this area were as thick as Lin Qiao's thighs, and their thorns were very sharp and large. Lin Qiao needed to put her foot between the thorns while walking on the vines.
While walking, she popped both her claws. She didn't bring any powerful fire source, so she figured that she should conveniently cut the vine with her claws.
When she sneakily approached the center of the vines, the aroma became stronger.
She leaned her head forward to look into the pitcher plant's bags, and saw the bodies of many rats, some birds, and bugs.
The bags weren't large, and were swinging. She didn't understand why these two types of plants would be together, and how they could benefit each other.
However, as the openings of the bags were only as big as the screen of a regular sized laptop, those turtles wouldn't fit in; not to mention the fact that these pitcher plants could never digest the turtle shells.
In this case, why would the vine want those turtles?
Lin Qiao looked around, then fixed her eyes on the ends of the vines. Surprisingly, she found the bodies of some other animals, mostly cats and dogs. Those dead animals were pressed under the vines, so she didn't see them earlier. But now, she found that there were quite a lot of dead animals. Afterward, she checked the other two bags of the pitcher plants and found some dead kittens.
The strange thing was that the dead animals under the vines and in the bags were all drained. Lin Qiao didn't even sense the stink of corpses from them.
The animals in the pitcher plants' bags were digested to a greater extent. Except for the bones, all other parts of these animals had been absorbed. Unlike them, the dead animals under the vines were simply drained of blood and moisture, turning twisted and dry.
Lin Qiao gently walked over to a pitcher plant and observed the fruit. The fruit wasn't large, only at the size of a man's fist. It looked a little like a persimmon, with a short stem.
Lin Qiao popped her claws. She didn't know if these pitcher plants were fierce or not. But, judging from the dead animals in their bags, they should be quite hard to deal with.
She reached out her pair of claws, flashed into her space, and came out immediately. Then, she swiftly cut at the joints of the pitcher plants' bags and the fruit.
Comments