Chapter 146: Chapter 136: The Laid-Back Phoenix Mountain, Li Zheng Goes on a Crazy Mowing Spree! (Today’s 1st Update)

Plop!

Xiao Siyuan was thrown by the little spider beside Phoenix Mountain. Luckily, his physique had also been upgraded to Black Iron 2+; otherwise, that throw alone would have kept him bedridden for more than a day.

“Cough!”

Xiao Siyuan quickly scrambled to his feet, his chest having taken a hit, causing his breathing to become erratic. Once he steadied himself, he checked Fengshan’s injuries.

“What bit you?”

He had been a bit further away earlier, and Li Zheng along with the little spider had blocked his view, so he hadn’t seen the process clearly.

“Some kind of blood-red vine,” Yan Guang quickly explained from the side, pointing to the half thing thrown in the nearby bush, “That creepy thing has a spiky tip that burrows into the flesh to suck blood. I was in such a hurry that I yanked it off, and as a result, a huge chunk of flesh was taken out.”

Xiao Siyuan pressed a few times around the wound, observing the blood situation, then looked up at Phoenix Mountain. He saw that his face was pale, but there was no sign of pain.

“It contains a potent anesthetic toxin. You did the right thing. In such situations, pulling it out as quickly as possible is best. Otherwise, the toxin would increase, and little Feng’s trip in this dungeon instance would end up in another helplessly prone position.”

Saying this, he quickly retrieved several items from his kit and got to work.

He first used his ability to condense some Black Water into a beaker, then poured it directly onto Phoenix Mountain’s wound.

Upon contact, the Black Water reacted like it had been poured onto a red-hot iron, emitting a plume of steam.

“This toxin is pretty strong. Here, drink this.” He handed Phoenix Mountain a cup of the freshly condensed Black Water, then picked up a packet of bright yellow powder, spreading it over Phoenix Mountain’s wound before tightly wrapping it with a large amount of bandage to stop the bleeding.

“Alright, we can take the bandage off in half an hour to check the situation. Meanwhile… eat and drink as needed.”

As the wound was bandaged, the color on Phoenix Mountain’s face gradually improved, and the sensation in his leg slowly began to return, with the pain increasing from faint to noticeable.

Xiao Siyuan’s skills were indeed outstanding. In no more than forty seconds, he had managed to treat Phoenix Mountain’s terrifying wound, which had lost half its flesh at the ankle.

“Old Xiao, you couldn’t have said something nicer,” Phoenix Mountain grimaced, “You make it sound like I’m on the brink of death.”

Xiao Siyuan patted the wound and said, “Given your careless nature, surviving so many days in the Matrix is nothing short of miraculous.

We’ve gone into the dungeon twice, and twice you’ve been the first to go down. If you don’t enjoy life while you can, you won’t have enough time to regret it when you’re gone one day.”

“You…”

Phoenix Mountain was just about to retort when his expression suddenly changed. He pulled Xiao Siyuan, who was squatting in front of him, aside and shouted, “Watch out!”

A blood-red vine had silently crept up behind Xiao Siyuan, only ten centimeters away from repeating its trick of wrapping around his ankle to drag him away.

His reaction drew the attention of everyone, and they all looked in that direction. At one glance, they all turned pale at the sight of the vine.

However, at this moment, a bizarre scene caught everyone by surprise.

The vine started to twist and wriggle madly among the dry grass, as if in extreme pain, thrashing on the ground amidst a mess of dry branches and leaves.

Seeing this, everyone backed away to give it space.

A minute later…

The blood-red vine went silent, lying in the dry grass, motionless.

“Is it… dead?”

Yan Guang, holding up his left arm, cautiously took two steps forward to probe.

However, the blood-red vine suddenly twitched twice, startling Yan Guang to retreat several steps and accidentally step on Phoenix Mountain’s wound.

“Ow~~”

Phoenix Mountain howled in pain, cursing, “Crazy woman, you’re doing it on purpose, aren’t you?”

Yan Guang quickly moved aside and was about to apologize, but was interrupted.

“What’s going on? Why are you yelling?”

Everyone turned following the sound, it was Li Zheng!

They saw him walking back from not far away, with his long spear resting on his shoulder, bearing a mass that looked twisted and crimson like an animal’s intestines at the front. With each step he took, blood-red liquid dripped like fresh blood.

Little Sakura flapped her wings and followed him, holding a cheering stick in her little hands, waving it back and forth.

Bang!

Li Zheng arrived upfront, unloaded the thing from his shoulder, and threw it down in front of Phoenix Mountain and the others. Only then did everyone see that it was actually the root of a blood-red vine!

“I just went to kill a monster, and here you are howling… There, got revenge for you.”

He kicked the root-like mass with his foot, stomped it, and pulled out the long spear forcefully.

Squelch.

The long spear pulled out a trail of crimson liquid, spilling all over the place, followed by a foul stench.

“Is this the only one?”

Xiao Siyuan and the others gathered around, and Yan Guang checked along the vine, his expression grim as he said, “Its front end is intact; this isn’t the vine that ambushed Phoenix Mountain earlier. There must be more of such creatures around.”

Just as he finished speaking, the piles of grass around them suddenly started shaking madly, rustling away.

“Oops, miscalculated.”

Li Zheng felt a tinge of regret upon seeing this.

This time, the decision to select team members for the dungeon had a strategic error.

He shouldn’t have brought Yan Guang in places filled with dry branches and leaves, where Yan Guang’s miniature cannon couldn’t be used.

If a fire broke out, except for himself, everyone else in the team would be helpless.

However, now that things had come to this point, there was no use thinking too much. They could only take it one step at a time.

With the long spear gone, Li Zheng took out two knives with different designs and gripped them tightly, one in each hand.

“Yan Guang, Li Chun, you two hold this spot, don’t let those vines break through.”

He bent slightly, dragging the knives to the sides like a swift leopard, and sprang out.

“Leave the rest to me!”

With double knives spinning, Li Zheng didn’t even infuse them with genetic ability this time, twirling the two knives into two crescent moons, one black and one white, as they swept through nothing was left behind.

With two Platinum Level weapons, their sharpness needs no elaboration; slicing through these things was like cutting through tofu, with absolutely no resistance.

Charging all the way and circling around the others, the grass and leaves around him were stirred into the air, occasionally mixed with pieces of cut-up blood-red vine.

At that moment, Li Zheng resembled a frenzied lawnmower, circling everyone, shaving the thick accumulated layers of dry grass as if it had been stockpiling for ages.

But, no matter how strong a hero is, they can’t handle too many fists.

Li Zheng was still too slow. In order to clear more thoroughly, he had to expand the battlefield, covering one side but unable to guard the other.

Ultimately, quite a few vines managed to attack within the circle, aiming for the relatively “weaker” center.

“Underestimated them, huh.”

Xiao Siyuan grinned, revealing his large white teeth. He pulled out two military daggers, tossing one to Yan Guang, saying to Li Zheng, “You go handle the root system, we’ll take care of the rest!”

Casually, he deflected a vine that lunged for his throat mid-air; the sharp military dagger easily sheared its tip off, more cleanly than when Zhan Zhouzhou trimmed Li Zheng’s hair back then.

The system interface in front of Xiao Siyuan displayed a system message:

[Skill match with basic dagger combat, Dagger Mastery progress +0.01%, current progress: 98.71%]

This was a short knife combat skill he learned during his time in service, using a Mitsubishi military dagger, which was a very sinister weapon.

After entering the Matrix, he habitually collected weapons that felt handy, with military daggers naturally being included.

“…Alright!”

Without hesitation, Li Zheng turned, slashing through a few vines around, seeking their root system’s hiding spot, and stabbed directly there.

With a flash of blue light on the knife, Ice Attachment activated, instantly freezing the underground vine root into an icy chunk.

Without Li Zheng’s encircling harvest, the pressure on Xiao Siyuan and the others increased significantly. Vines crisscrossed around them, too numerous to count, like countless crimson venomous snakes madly besieging them.

“Little Spider!”

Li Chun lay atop her pet, calmly commanding, “Plants need water for nourishment; give them a taste of venom spray!”