59 Vulgar Activity (1/2)
While Li Xue Lan was recounting her experience to Long Yu, her stomach suddenly growled loudly. Her face immediately reddened from embarrassment.
”Let's eat while we talk, otherwise the food's going to go cold,” Long Yu started to grab food from each dish and placed them onto her plate.
Just from the smell of the food alone, even he became hungry, not to mention the girl who hadn't eaten anything for the past couple of days.
At first, Li Xue Lan reservedly took small bites of the food on her plate. However, her hands and mouth unknowingly sped up, almost rivalling Xixi's.
Xixi showed a pained expression, causing Long Yu to almost break into laughter. Obviously, the little lass was dissatisfied seeing someone else snatch away her food.
”Considering what you said, does that mean that the entire group besides the three of you have died to the vampire plant?” Long Yu asked while he started to eat.
”Well, we did not witness them being killed…. It was more like they were captured by vines coming out of the plant…” Li Xue Lan thought for a while before replying.
Long Yu had personally seen those red vines from afar, so he was not surprised at all.
'As expected, the red vines from the plant are quite flexible. They can attack, defend and even capture its victims,' he solemnly thought.
”What happened next? Did you notice anything else after they were caught?” he followed up with a question.
”I didn't manage to see it clearly since we had gotten pretty far away at that time. But the vines seemed to secrete some kind of white mucus, which wrapped around the people who were captured,” she showed a disgusted and scared expression at the same time. She then continued, ”Although the leader managed to break free of the vine that held him, he was not able to resist the following dozen of them….”
Even without her finishing her sentence, Long Yu could already tell the leader's fate.
As he went deep in thought, the taste of the delicious mutant meat didn't even register in his mouth. His mind was preoccupied with the girl's description of her experience and the information he exchanged from the system.
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[Redwood Vampiric Oak Plant- Level 2]
[An original redwood plant that went through mutation, granting it the unique ability to integrate itself into another host plant. Due to it having amalgamated with another mutated oak tree, it caused both plants to undergo an exponential mutation rate, enhancing both their natural abilities. The redwood plant eventually outgrown the oak tree and has now become the main controlling entity.]
[Abilities:
Vampirism- The plant is able to siphon the genes within the blood of other creatures to enhance its growth.
Enhanced Regeneration- Stemming from the original mutated oak tree's ability, the plant is able to consume its prey's blood to rapidly regenerate from any injuries.]
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Considering what Li Xue Lan said, he hypothesised that there was a high possibility that the victims were captured as blood bags to supply the vampire plant's abilities. The 'vampirism ability' increases the plant's growth, whereas the 'enhanced regeneration' ability allows it to quickly recover from any injuries.
However, there is a noticeable difference in the way its victims are treated. If it was the former ability, the victims would most likely be directly consumed for their genes. As for the latter, they would be kept as blood reserves in case the vampire plant gets injured.
Hence, Long Yu came to the conclusion that there were two possible reasons why the plant would protect its crown from damage. Hidden within the leaves were probably 'blood reserves' made of its victims.
Another possibility was that, the vampire plant was protecting some kind of treasure. Although the latter was a tempting thought, Long Yu was hoping for the former. That way, the plan he was formulating would not be affected.