Ch 108: TGCIR

Shen Cheng’s breathing skipped a beat.

Almost as soon as she let out a low groan, Li Weilan noticed her discomfort and worriedly asked, “Cheng Cheng, are you feeling unwell?”

He had been prepared for the fall just now and had felt dizzy for a while, but he had barely suppressed it, so he didn’t notice her condition.

Shen Cheng stole a glance at him, unable to express her inner restlessness. Especially seeing his clear and calm expression, she felt even more ashamed of her own inner turmoil.

She couldn’t help but feel embarrassed as she looked at his high and straight nose in the dim light, focusing on her alone, which was particularly enticing.

But his eyes were filled with worry, and Shen Cheng felt that her current agitation was particularly strange. She lowered her head slightly, feeling ashamed and remained silent.

Seeing her silence, Li Weilan became even more worried. He reached out and grabbed her hand, gently squeezing it. Feeling her slightly elevated body temperature, he worried that she might be feeling uncomfortable due to the damp and gloomy cave. “Cheng Cheng, have some water.”

He had everything in his space, including water.

Shen Cheng thought for a moment and nodded.

Worried about her condition, Li Weilan hesitated for a moment and then took out a drop of spiritual water for today, quietly adding it to the cup.

Although he hadn’t drunk spiritual water before, according to her previous explanation, it was beneficial for both humans and plants. If she wasn’t feeling well, drinking some should help.

He took out the cup and was about to hand it over when suddenly, a rough, snake-like vine appeared out of nowhere, grabbed the cup with a violent snatch, and ran off.

The thing was rough and direct. It snatched the cup and ran off, yet it still managed to maintain stability, not spilling a drop of water.

Li Weilan’s expression changed. There was spiritual water in there.

Shen Cheng’s eyes were about to turn red with anger. This was the water her cub had poured for her.

But this time, even though it was dark, they could both see clearly that the one who snatched her things and ran off seemed to be a thick, long vine, twisting like a snake as it emerged from the ground. It turned out that the soil around them was hiding the thing that had been following them all the way.

It appeared suddenly, but now, holding the cup and unable to shrink back into the ground, it couldn’t escape.

Li Weilan directly took Shen Cheng and chased after it. The twisted passages in the cave looked like a maze, but under the guidance of this vine, the two of them ran after it all the way. Finally, they heard the sound of flowing water ahead.

Underground lake.

The two exchanged a glance, and Shen Cheng’s eyes reddened slightly. The restlessness she felt here was stronger and more distinct than the one before.

She couldn’t describe this feeling, it was like spring had arrived and she wanted to go outside and frolic, or it was like feeling itchy all over and wanting to roll on the ground, or it was like not having enough sleep and wanting to laze in bed.

Shen Cheng didn’t want to worry Li Weilan.

At this moment, the two had already seen the scene ahead. Li Weilan’s expression changed, and he slightly pushed Shen Cheng behind him. However, Shen Cheng had already seen the scene in the cave ahead, her heart tightened, and her face turned pale.

There was a giant tree by the underground lake.

This tree, which resembled a banyan tree, had branches that moved slowly like tentacles without wind. Countless cocoon-like bags hung from its trunk. From the nearly transparent surface, it seemed that there was a person lying in each bag, curled up inside.

With each breath, the thin film of the bag also moved slowly. The tentacles of the banyan tree were tightly connected to the tops of these bags, either absorbing something from inside the bags or watering something into them.

Shen Cheng’s stomach churned, and she suddenly remembered the first time her cub went shopping in the supermarket and encountered that tree. But at that time, what she saw was all in a cute style, and the impact on her spirit was not as great as it was now.

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

Thinking of the girl who had initially abandoned the game because it was too bloody and stimulating, Shen Cheng suddenly understood why the game chose a cute style as the entry point.

The vine that had snatched the spiritual water from their hands slowly returned to the side of the tree.

It devoutly, like a hand, slowly presented the spiritual water it had taken back to the tree.

Shen Cheng didn’t know if the tree was confirming the taste and nutrients of the spiritual water, but Li Weilan, watching this scene, could guess that the effect of the spiritual water on the tree was definitely greater than they had imagined. The entire tree trembled with excitement the moment it smelled the spiritual essence, shaking as if it had Parkinson’s disease.

Seeing that the tree was eager to drink the water he poured for his girlfriend, Li Weilan felt unhappy. There was only one drop of spiritual water a day, which was originally intended as an offering to Shen Cheng. Now, it was fed to the tree that brought them here. He couldn’t bear it.

He closed his eyes for a moment. Everyone in the room was asleep. This strange tree definitely had hypnotic abilities.

Outside, on night duty, the bodyguards died silently, without even a sound of struggle. How did this tree put everyone in the house to sleep?

Hypnotic infrasound.

No, when Li Weilan’s unconscious gaze drifted to the blue floating particles everywhere, he suddenly understood something. He remembered that when he used his space to cut open the vine earlier, a large number of blue luminous particles flowed out from inside. And the ethereal glow everywhere should be its means of controlling everyone.

These floating lights were its tentacles, its spores, scattered in the corners of the air.

It controlled everyone with spores.

The moment Li Weilan realized this, the problem followed. How to deal with spore control?

Wait, there seemed to be masks in his space.

Li Weilan remembered that he had previously stored gas masks. He immediately took out two of them, one for Shen Cheng’s face and the other for himself. He then jumped out and slashed at the tree.

A layer of electric light suddenly rose from the tree.

This layer of electric light was like a net, protecting most of the tree’s trunk. It trembled violently for a moment, ready to counterattack. However, Li Weilan’s face suddenly showed a cold smile. With another strike, he swallowed the spiritual water and the vine directly into his spatial rift.

The tree trembled with anger. It could feel that the thing that could get it out of its current situation was gone.

That pure spiritual energy, even from a distance, seemed to disappear.

And its hopes for advancement suddenly turned to zero.

The mist around gradually burst open with a “pu pu pu” sound. The entire space floated with clusters of light blue mist. However, at this moment, the tree’s ability, which had been invincible for days, suddenly failed. It hadn’t figured out why, but the person in front of it had already found a way to break through its defenses. Its shell was thick, but in front of the spatial rift, it was just a matter of folding a few layers of space.

Breaking through the protective film on the tree’s trunk like oil, Li Weilan inputted a large amount of energy into it with his other hand. With a burst of thunderous sword energy, the tree suddenly roared angrily. Although the damage to the tree itself was not too great due to its ability to block electricity, the cocoon-like bags connected to it trembled violently one after another, and then stopped moving.

It was at this moment that Shen Cheng suddenly heard a slightly hoarse female voice, “Are you also going to bully me with him? There’s a scent on you that makes me feel very close.”

“Lanlan… hold on a moment.” Shen Cheng shouted to Li Weilan. She could see that the blade had penetrated the tree deeply. Although the tree hadn’t been directly defeated, it was now on its last legs. From the position where Li Weilan’s thunderous blade penetrated, she could even see the milky-white sap slowly flowing out. Shen Cheng could hear the voice of the tree. She thought about it and ultimately shouted for Li Weilan to stop. An enemy without resistance could be dealt with later; there was no harm in hearing what she had to say.

The tree’s words were incomprehensible to Li Weilan, who couldn’t hear or understand them.

Li Weilan glanced back at her in confusion until Shen Cheng nodded affirmatively. Only then did he squint slightly and sheathe his sword.

He heard Shen Cheng’s voice, which this time spoke in a mystical language similar to a spell. “What are you?”

The tree trembled gently.

The leaves rustled. “I am just a tree.”

“What about those cocoons? What’s inside them?” Shen Cheng looked at the huge cocoons. Although the membrane seemed thick, she could still see humanoid figures sleeping inside each one.

As the tree wilted, the light inside these cocoons also dimmed.

She suspected that the tree was drawing life force from these people, which allowed it to thrive in such a place.

Otherwise, in the dim depths, where would it get nutrients?

This was also why Shen Cheng didn’t directly kill the tree along with Li Weilan. Not only because she was a druid who naturally loved and appreciated nature, but also because when this plant clearly became hostile to humans and even threatened the survival space of wasteland humans, she wouldn’t even think that the life of a plant was more important than that of a human. She wondered if the people inside these cocoons were still alive or if they could survive.

The tree bluntly replied, “They are people.”

Shen Cheng’s heart sank. “Why did you attack us?”

“You all have a pleasant smell,” the tree said slowly, “but it’s gone. It’s gone.”

It was the spiritual wwater, Shen Cheng immediately realized.

Even across space, it could smell the scent of spiritual water.

What was the origin of this tree?

“Why did you kill people?”

Snatching water is one thing, but why kill people?

“It wasn’t me,” the tree’s voice sounded very aggrieved. “I didn’t kill anyone.”

Shen Cheng translated the tree’s words for Li Weilan to hear. His face suddenly changed color. This tree’s self-defense ability was very strong.

It was large, and its hallucinatory and confusing abilities were also very powerful, but he had just discovered that its aggressiveness seemed not very strong.

If the tree didn’t kill the people, then how did the bodyguard die?

This was not good.

He immediately realized that it was probably a case of “when two dogs fight for a bone, the third runs away with it.” There were also people following them who posed a threat to the safety of Tang Lu. The tree knocked out the group, but someone else attacked and killed them, then hid without being found by them.

How did that person know they had spiritual water?

Unless that person wasn’t thinking of them, but about Tang Lu.

Bai Su and Tang Lu were a couple. If that person knew Bai Su had spiritual water, they might think Bai Su would save some for Tang Lu.

But by mistake, after the tree found them, it detected the scent of spiritual water on Li Weilan, so it only chased after them.

“What are these cocoons for?” Shen Cheng demanded.

“I’m raising them for someone,” the tree replied. “They are seeds.”

Shen Cheng approached and took a closer look. Her face suddenly turned ashen. Inside the cocoons on the tree were women, each hugging a huge belly. Their sleeping faces were not peaceful, but filled with pain, distortion, and struggle.

“You’re lying,” Shen Cheng said bluntly. “Who asked you to raise them? If you are as important as you say, would that person let you stay alone in such a dim underground place?”

“It’s not like that,” the tree trembled with grievance. It slowly wriggled its bark, revealing the tissue inside. For a tree, moving the bark to show the trunk was as painful as a person opening their wound to show their flesh and bones to others.

Chen Cheng saw deeply embedded in the tree’s body something purely artificial, like a spider, clinging to the depths of its trunk, emitting a blue fluorescence, like a heart.

That thing was still pulsating vigorously, resembling a human heart.

The tree wasn’t lying. There really was someone controlling it through this.

That heart looked extremely eerie, as if it were the power source of the entire tree.

And that heart emitted a radiating effect continuously. Shen Cheng, affected by it in an instant, felt the same sensation she had before—flushed cheeks, rapid heartbeat, dizziness, and weakness all over her body. Now she was sure, this was a kind of hormonal effect, but it should only work on plant-based creatures.

She could be affected because she had a natural empathy with plants.

Shen Cheng looked back at Li Weilan. In her gaze, there was confusion. What should we do? How do we deal with the tree? What about the people sleeping in the cocoons?

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The author has something to say: This is a short episode.

If Chen Cheng didn’t come, the result would be like this:

The tree curses everyone to fall into a deep sleep.

The assassin comes in and kills them one by one.

Game over.