BFET Chapter 8

Ripening

The vines throughout the pit seemed to come alive, bursting forth and attacking Xie Yi.

The dense attacks forced Xie Yi to retreat constantly. When he finally stood firm, countless vines had risen around the flower bud, their tips all pointing towards him, forming a tight protective barrier.

They were protecting the flower bud.

“Symbiotic plant.”

Xie Yi’s expression darkened. This lantern mushroom, not yet evolved, actually had a symbiotic plant.

Symbiotic plants are a unique mutation specific to plant-based Mutated Entities, but they are not easily produced.

All related records of these plants appear within high-risk Enclosed Zones. Their conditions for birth are still unknown, but one thing is certain: plant-based Mutated Entities below the mid-level will never have symbiotic plants.

The vines continued to attack relentlessly. Xie Yi tried to approach the lantern mushroom again during the lulls, but each time the distance closed, the vines’ attacks became even more frantic and difficult to deal with.

No matter how much he attacked, these things could quickly regrow. High Pollution Dissociation Bullets had minimal effect on them, making them incredibly annoying.

Xie Yi clicked his tongue and, after blasting away a vine that was directly aimed at his head, he turned and charged straight towards a massive abyss-like mouth formed by countless intertwined vines.

Sensing Xie Yi’s approach, the vine-composed maw instantly churned. Within the maw, countless tentacles and branches rapidly split apart, layer upon layer, quickly growing and extending, grabbing the prey, enveloping it, and swiftly swallowing it whole.

After devouring the prey that had delivered itself to its doorstep, the surrounding vines surged forth, blocking the opening and forming a large vine ball.

The vine ball began to chew and grind like a mouth, but in the next instant, a hill-like shape suddenly bulged from the back of the ball, rising and falling repeatedly.

Finally, with a loud bang, the back of the vine ball shattered.

A figure burst out, covered in branches and vines – it was Xie Yi.

At this moment, the corners of his eyes were tinged with a faint cyan hue, and shallow scale-like patterns were faintly visible.

As he broke free, he turned and slashed at the vines stillWrap on him, then used the momentum to spin around again, raising his hand and firing a shot at the flower bud.

With a bang!

The bullet rapidly pierced the air towards the receptacle, then grazed the swaying pedicel and hit the vines behind it.

Xie Yi: …

Missing the shot, Xie Yi immediately used the vines’ attacks to propel himself towards the flower bud. He alternated between his knife and gun, the black blade flowing with red veins, the blade heading straight for the receptacle.

However, at that moment, the vines that had been chasing himWrap around Xie Yi’s ankles. The instant he realized it, he forcibly chopped down, but theWrap vines pulled him, so only the tip of the knife lightly grazed the surface of the receptacle.

Damn it.

Xie Yi’s expression changed slightly, and he immediately countered with a backhand strike.

Unexpectedly, the lantern mushroom flower bud suddenly spurted out a cloud of thick mist, and a rich, foul odor rushed towards him. Xie Yi was immediately thrown back.

In the gap, he saw all the vines frantically surging towards the flower bud.

The thick fog spewed from the lantern mushroom flower bud covered the entire bud, and black mucus seeped out of the fog, eroding the constantly surging vines.

This lantern mushroom was actually relying on devouring its symbiotic plant to ripen itself!

The surrounding pollution concentration began to rise sharply.

Xie Yi felt a constant stinging sensation on his skin, as if something was about to grow out of it.

This lantern mushroom not only had a symbiotic plant, but it also seemed to possess complete self-awareness. If it was allowed to complete its ripening and evolve, it would definitely become a high-level Mutated Entity.

He couldn’t let it be born in the Fengjiang Enclosed Zone.

Xie Yi moved along the surging vines and approached the lantern mushroom again, while also actively absorbing the surrounding pollution due to the abnormality of his body and releasing his power.

The cyan tinge at the corners of his eyes spread downwards along with the gradually clearer scale-like patterns, disappearing into his collar and then seeping out from his cuffs, covering his entire hand.

At this moment, the red veins that had only been flowing on the blade of the black knife he held became incomparably dazzling in the dark night.

As his body changed, Xie Yi almost completely adapted to the constantly rising pollution concentration around him.

The vines that had not yet been swallowed attacked him again with their claws and teeth, trying to prevent him from getting closer.

In his powered-up state, Xie Yi was biased towards becoming a Mutated Entity, and the surrounding vines couldn’t suppress him. He managed to approach the evolving lantern mushroom several times, forcibly feeding a High Pollution Dissociation Bullet into the slightly opened flower bud amidst the frantically surging tide of vines with his knife and bullets.

The injured lantern mushroom flower bud let out an ear-piercing groan, and the surrounding frantically surging symbiotic plants swept over even more intensely as if summoned.

Xie Yi was almost swept in along with them. After finally stabilizing himself, a sense of crisis welled up in his heart, and he looked up ahead—

The flower bud that was still slightly open a few minutes ago instantly bloomed!

Xie Yi didn’t expect this flower to be able to forcefully complete its evolution so quickly in its ripened state. He reflexively and quickly cut off the remaining branches and vines on his body and flashed back.

When he stood firm and looked up again, the symbiotic vines that had been surging around had completely disappeared, leaving only a fully bloomed lantern mushroom.

The evolved lantern mushroom was several times larger than its bud state.

Thick pedicels were rooted in the rotten mud, and the lantern-shaped petals bloomed up and down. Dense stamens stretched out from the petals, opening towards all sides like the cap of a fungal plant. The stamen heads even overflowed with saliva-like liquid as they opened and closed.

“Hee hee… ha ha ha… hee…”

Empty laughter spread intermittently from the stamen heads, and dense black dots on the lantern-shaped petals wandered, gathered, and scattered, slowly condensing into overlapping faces!

The facial features on each face overlapped, twisted, and changed. Finally, all the faces seemed to squeeze together, and the eyes squeezed together as well, suddenly opening.

The moment those eyes locked onto him, Xie Yi instantly entered a defensive state.

The rich, foul odor permeated the air. The empty laughter that had been hee-hee-ha-ha disappeared at this moment, and the surroundings fell into silence. Those eyes stared at him, as if to see through him, for a full seven or eight seconds.

Something’s wrong!

Xie Yi suddenly woke up, accompanied by hee-hee-ha-ha laughter coming from far and near. The scene in front of him suddenly turned into a bloody maw.

He almost avoided the sharp teeth by a hair’s breadth.

At this time, he saw that all around him were tentacles growing from the flower stem of the lantern mushroom. These tentacles also had strangely shaped faces growing on them, and each face was smiling at him.

Xie Yi was in a trance for a moment. He felt the handle of the knife in his hand gradually becoming hot, and an inexplicable desire to devour arose in his heart.

With a bang!

Xie Yi came back to his senses and saw a tentacle explode in front of him.

Immediately afterwards, he heard a familiar voice from behind him: “Captain, what are you spacing out for?”

Hearing the voice, Xie Yi turned his head and saw Shen Shu, who was supposed to be acting with You Xue, standing on the edge of the pit, looking down at him.