Chapter 77.2 - Tower of God: Fairy Illusion (1/2)

Du Ze was behind Xiu. The reader thought of the hint that was written on the sign at the maze’s entrance. However, Du Ze could see that Ariel’s arrows could break the vines but they simply grew back and even multiplied.

Both magical and physical attacks were useless; the vines were incredibly powerful. Du Ze thought that this was probably one of the Tower of God’s checkpoints. It was like a maze chase game,1 how brutal!

The ground was wet with the vine’s juice that flowed down when they were cut. Ariel failed to notice where she was stepping and almost slipped on the juice. Enoch used his shadow shifting ability to grab Ariel and move her away from the vine’s attack. Watching them take on the vines in a hopeless battle, Xiu issued the order to retreat. He and Rachel will stay to beat back the vines while the others escape.

Du Ze was just about to turn around when a vine that was as thick as his wrist rose up from under a pile of cut vines and wrapped around his ankle. Some silly, cute person was raised up in the air by the vine.

“Du-”

Du Ze heard Xiu shouting the first half of his name then the vines pulled on his headphones’ wires. The vines ran away with him like a scammer running away with his ill-gotten gains.

Du Ze, who was now without his headphones, tried to grab a vine and escape but he was pulled into a tangle of vines.

Countless vines came from all directions and wrapped themselves around Du Ze tightly. The friction of the rough vines sliding over his body made his skin tingle. Du Ze was dragged deeper into the depths of the vines; he tried to struggle but his whole body was covered in vines with no room to move, much less escape.

A flash of light split the vines around Du Ze. He looked up and saw that Xiu had rushed into the midst of the vines. In spite of the vines that completely surrounded him, Xiu determinedly reached into the mass of vines enveloping Du Ze and grabbed Du Ze’s hand, trying to pull him out. However, Du Ze’s skin was slippery with the vine’s juice so his hand slipped off Xiu’s.

The vines had restored themselves so Xiu had to cut them up again. Du Ze tried to pull the vines off and go to Xiu but a vine wrapped itself around his waist and pulled him back. Du Ze, randomly waving his arms around, accidentally grabbed a green fruit and squeezed it by reflex.

“Snap.”

All of the vines suddenly trembled as though they were in great pain. They hung limp then finally began to wither. The people outside were startled to see the vines dying but they did not have time to think and just hurriedly pulled Du Ze and Xiu out of the mass of vines.

Enoch asked curiously: “What happened?”

“There was a fruit. That should be their weakness.” Xiu spoke this sentence then went to see how Du Ze fared.

Du Ze cut a sorry figure. His whole body was covered in the vine’s juice. Although it was not unpleasant and even smelled a little sweet, the slippery feeling felt very weird. Du Ze walked away from the others and found a more private place. He pulled up his clothes to check his body. Xiu saw at a glance that Du Ze’s back bore the mark of the vines. The bright red stripes were printed messily on his white skin, making it look as though he had been abused, but giving off a weirdly pleasant fragrance.2

Xiu couldn’t help but stretch out his hand, wanting to touch Du Ze’s back, but the vines that had been motionless until now suddenly made a strange noise.

Du Ze pressed on the red marks on his belly. In some places the vines had broken through his skin. The marks were itchy and sore.

His headphones were on strike so he didn’t notice anything strange until Xiu patted him on the shoulder. Du Ze found that a strange situation was unfolding right in front of them. A group of porcelain people were climbing out of the withered vines. If not for their lifelike expressions, Du Ze would have really thought that they were a bunch of figurines and not real, living creatures. Each porcelain person was about half a meter high and as soon as they saw the people outside, they began to wail and say something.