As they were about to leave the area around the lake, the vehicles in front suddenly stopped.
Zhuo Nian saw someone running towards them, it was Shen Qian with his flat-top haircut.
"What's happening up ahead?"
"Something is coiled on the road, it looks dead, but just to be safe, we decided to walk the rest of the way. Keep the noise down."
Zhuo Nian thought for a moment and nodded, "Okay."
Everyone in the vehicles heard this and got out of their cars. Just as they all alighted and Shen Qian was about to put his vehicle into his spatial storage, the people behind caught up. Seeing the vehicles stopped ahead, the driver of the leading car honked instinctively.
Zhuo Nian turned her head, her gaze sharp and severe as she looked at the people in the car.
The other party immediately cowered. They unbuckled their seatbelts and got out of the car, asking from a distance, "Why did you stop?"
Shen Qian was exasperated by the idiot's foolishness. He cursed in a low voice, "Didn't I tell you there's something in the lake nearby and you shouldn't honk? Are you deaf, you motherfucker?"
The other party, hearing him cursed at, was about to retort but was frozen by a glare from Shen Chongyan.
"Get out of the car quickly, put it into your spatial storage, and we'll walk."
The distance from here to the first car was several hundred meters. The man was visibly displeased upon hearing this but dared not argue due to the presence of Shen Chongyan, a master.
All the vehicles were stored away. Dozens of people walked together. As they got closer, they finally saw what Shen Qian had mentioned.
It was a limb, whether of a plant or an animal, extending from the side of the road. It was coiled into a ball on the highway, forming a hemisphere with a diameter of at least four to five meters, occupying more than half of the road.
Its surface resembled some kind of vine, or perhaps the skin of a green-skinned animal, wound round and round like a ball of yarn.
"It doesn't look alive. It's probably just some plant's vine. What's all the fuss about?"
The man said, reaching out to kick the thing.
"Fuck!" Old Jin was furious. He walked over, grabbed the man, took a few steps forward, and then put him back on the ground. "You really can't resist causing trouble, can you? If you mess around again, I'll kill you! Idiot!"
He was tall and burly, with a height and weight starting with a "2." The man in his grip was like a little chick. This scare finally made him a bit more subdued.
As everyone was carefully passing the coiled mass, someone from behind, taking advantage of the distraction, kicked it again, just like the other man had.
Instantly, Zhuo Nian felt something. She turned her head. The man was laughing as he withdrew his foot, "It's fine, isn't it? You're all making a fuss. Look..."
"Run!"
Everyone turned and fled without hesitation. The man looked back, not yet realizing what was wrong. As he was about to call out to them, something pierced through his body from behind, lifting him into the air.
"Ah!"
Someone looked back and saw the man impaled on a vine that had emerged from the hemisphere. The vine swung his body a few times. The man went limp, his body rapidly withering as if all his bodily fluids had been drained.
Some wanted to scream but were too terrified to make a sound. Pulled along by others, everyone ran for their lives for hundreds of meters. Just as they thought they were safe, several vines suddenly shot out from under the road, entangling the people running at the front and rapidly retracting.
"Stop!"
Old Jin raised his gun and fired several shots. The approaching vines were splattered with sap and severed into several pieces. The vines paused in mid-air for a moment, then, to everyone's shocked gaze, quickly grew new tips and continued to crawl towards them.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" Old Jin exclaimed. With no time to fire again, he drew his dagger, dodging and attempting to cut the vines. Someone next to him was pulled away by vines emerging from behind. He rushed forward, grabbed the vine, and cut it with a single stroke. The vine retracted slightly, and he quickly pulled the person back.
"Don't run around. Stay together."
Unfortunately, most of those people were ordinary civilians with no combat experience, and they had no idea how to unite, cooperate, and help each other.
On Shen Chongyan's side, for the moment, they could only protect the people from the Shen and Jin families. They formed a circle, with those capable of attacking on the outside. Vines that lunged at them were cut down. For now, they could hold them off.
This was only temporary. More and more vines began to crawl towards them. The hemisphere they had passed earlier also moved, with one of its branches still carrying the corpse of the man.
This vine was different from the others. The others were green, but the tip of this one was red. It could open, like the mouth of some animal, revealing serrated mouthparts as it opened and closed.
Shen Chongyan swung his sword. Previously, he could have cut it easily, so he didn't put much force into the blow. To his surprise, it didn't cut through. The sword seemed to hit steel and was deflected.
This unexpected event immediately disrupted their formation. A vine wrapped around Lin Wan's waist, pulling her backward. Shen's mother instinctively tried to help her but was almost struck by the red vine.
"Be careful." Zhuo Nian pulled her back and sent a palm strike towards the red vine, sending it flying.
More vines began to attack them. Jin Wenye finally rescued Lin Wan, but he himself was entangled. The vine pierced his skin and was drilling inward.
"Xiao Ye!"
Old Master Jin became anxious and wanted to go to his rescue.
Zhuo Nian pulled a few people towards her and said to Lin Wan, "Take them into the spatial storage. You can do it, quickly."
As she spoke, she leaped into the air, her sharp palm strikes clearing the vines around them. Lin Wan, though terrified and bewildered, quickly reacted.
She had never tried to bring people into her spatial storage before and didn't know how to operate it. As she pulled Old Master Jin, she could only focus her mind, intending to go in.
It didn't work.
Zhuo Nian ignored her. She used her powerful wind to sever the vines on Jin Wenye, bringing him back to the ground. She then flew to Shen Chongyan's side and took his hand.
"Don't panic. Hold on tight, imagine that you and he are one."
Shen Chongyan looked at her solemn face, momentarily lost in thought.
Zhuo Nian guided him as he wielded his long sword, his qi flowing with his movements. The sword began to glow, and Shen Chongyan gradually felt a surging power gather in his hand.
"That's it. Gather your qi, focus your spirit, and find your direction."
She held his hand, and the two of them spun in mid-air for more than half a circle, facing the direction of the lake. The light around the sword was now very clear, and the sword seemed to have grown several times larger.
"It's there." She looked in the direction the sword was pointing. "Like writing, strike heavily and retract lightly. Come on, don't be afraid."
The long sword descended, and its sword qi swept across a thousand miles.
Although Zhuo Nian was teaching him how to control the force, the final strike still cleaved the road for several hundred meters in all directions.