Chapter 14 – Blood-Drinking Vines
There was a reason Hua Mian insisted on letting Chi Rui stay behind.
He was a self-taught mechanical genius, much like a hacker from 21st-century Earth, able to falsify data on the star network to a certain extent.
Having heard that Shen Xueji and Yu Jin were both injured, Hua Mian didn’t delay. After a quick discussion, they set off immediately.
Fortunately, the hotel they were staying in was located in a rather remote area.
Hua Mian changed into clothes suitable for movement and brought Yan An and Chu Fufeng with her.
When she noticed the curious gaze of the shopkeeper downstairs, her eyes flickered slightly and she leaned over.
“I heard that Soffia the Soother is here?”
The shopkeeper straightened his posture.
“That’s right. And you are…?”
“To be honest, my younger brother has only recently come of age, and he hasn’t matched with a female yet,” Hua Mian lowered her voice.
The shopkeeper leaned in too. Chu Fufeng frowned slightly when he saw how close he was getting to Hua Mian.
“The canine beastman, is it?”
Hua Mian paused for a moment at that.
“If he’s handsome enough, he might have a chance. Let me tell you, Lady Soffia truly doesn’t have a canine among her beast-husbands yet—but don’t get your hopes too high. There are dozens, maybe hundreds, of beastmen with the same idea.”
Hua Mian nodded thoughtfully.
“That would be wonderful! He’s the only younger brother I have, and I want him to have a bright future. So we came here to help him realize this wish.”
The shopkeeper nearly laughed out loud, but remembering she was a female, he restrained himself a little. Still, the amused look in his eyes wasn’t even concealed.
He was just saying it casually—he didn’t expect someone to take it seriously.
If Lady Soffia could be impressed that easily, he wouldn’t still be working as a small innkeeper.
“If you really want to help your brother, go track down the snake beastman and the deer beastman. At least that gives your brother a reason to approach Lady Soffia,” the shopkeeper said, smelling the faint scent of roses from her, and becoming a bit more patient.
“Thank you so much!” Hua Mian praised him repeatedly, leaving the shopkeeper feeling light and fluttery.
He even shared which areas had already been thoroughly searched and didn’t need to be checked again.
Hua Mian became even more grateful and pulled out some female-favorite candy to give him.
“No, no, it’s nothing. I only shared information that might not even be useful.” These candies weren’t cheap, and the shopkeeper felt embarrassed accepting them.
“No need for modesty! I’m young and inexperienced—it’s fortunate to meet a kind beastman willing to advise me!” Hua Mian complimented him again, making Yan An and Chu Fufeng beside her look like two carved statues.
It was the first time the shopkeeper had ever met such an easygoing female. She wasn’t an elite female, but he still felt genuinely happy—he even considered waiving their room fees.
The shopkeeper explained everything he knew about Soffia in detail and even offered to explain it all again to Yan An, the “younger brother.”
Hua Mian thanked him repeatedly and said they would set out immediately in the night to secretly locate the two beastmen and deliver them to Soffia.
The shopkeeper turned out to be quite sharp himself. He immediately promised that if he discovered any leads, he would notify Chi Rui so he could get a chance to speak to Soffia ahead of the others.
By the time Hua Mian and her group left the inn, they had already learned a great deal of useful information.
Outside, many females had also brought their husbands to spectate the unfolding events and enjoy the excitement, so the three of them didn’t stand out.
Once they entered the forest and confirmed no one was nearby, Hua Mian spoke:
“We need to move quickly. Any information the shopkeeper can obtain clearly isn’t secret.”
Yan An and Chu Fufeng nodded solemnly.
They rushed deeper into the wilderness, heading toward the inner forest.
Meanwhile, inside a hidden cave, Shen Xueji was burning with fever, half-conscious, while Yu Jin tended to him nearby. Yu Jin didn’t look much better—his lips were pale, and his body was covered in blood.
“…Wife…”
Shen Xueji’s feverish murmur broke the silence of the cave.
Yu Jin bit the inside of his cheek, feeling mentally and physically exhausted.
After consuming the Fire-Rain Flower, Shen Xueji had developed a fever, and ever since then—until today—his mind had been hazy and incoherent.
They couldn’t travel in their condition. If Shen Yan found them, relying on the privilege of being the spouse of a Soother, he would never let them go.
Perhaps because Shen Xueji had been murmuring “wife” all day, Yu Jin also thought of Hua Mian.
He was a man with extremely subdued emotions. The greatest emotional turbulence of his entire life had come because of Hua Mian.
When he was first tortured and whipped, he felt disgust and shock. Slowly he became accustomed—developing hatred—and now, all he felt was confusion and bewilderment.
To think that the arrogant and beautiful female had somehow become tied into the core of his emotions—it was absurd.
The nighttime forest was full of danger. With Hua Mian’s limited vision, she couldn’t clearly see the ground and stumbled repeatedly.
After about half an hour, she gave up. Yan An carried her on his back, and their pace actually increased.
In the middle of the night, Chu Fufeng suddenly spoke:
“This is a signal left by Brother Yu Jin.”
Hua Mian blinked awake and saw him pointing at a pile of crushed stones.
“What do you mean?”
Yan An explained,
“I know this. When I was small and kept crying before I matured, Brother Yu Jin would hide snacks around the house and leave clues so I could find them. This is the same kind of directional marker.”
“Do we need to rest?” Hua Mian’s voice was hoarse.
“No!” Yan An answered excitedly. Then he added, “Wife, are you tired?”
“I’m fine. If you don’t need to rest, keep going.”
They pressed onward, finding more scattered piles of stones marking the way.
Hua Mian couldn’t fall asleep again, lying quietly on Yan An’s back while observing the increasingly silent forest around them.
“…Isn’t it a little too quiet?” she suddenly asked.
Chu Fufeng froze. Something had been bothering him, and now he realized what it was—this silence was unnatural.
Yan An asked,
“Fufeng? What is it?”
“We should return the way we came. It’s better to take a detour. Something feels wrong.”
Yan An had barely turned around when something wrapped around his ankle, almost pulling him to the ground.
Hua Mian reacted instantly, drawing the knife tied at Yan An’s waist and slashing down. The vine snapped—but thick, blood-red sap oozed from the cut.
“Blood-Drinking Vines,” Chu Fufeng said sharply, his face going pale.
With the brutality of these plants, there was almost no chance of escape.
“What’s their weakness?” Hua Mian tightened her grip on the knife.
Chu Fufeng’s expression was grim.
“They don’t have one.”
“Do they fear fire?”
“No.”
He blamed himself. If he had been more cautious, they wouldn’t have walked straight into this.
“Break through while we still can!” Hua Mian shouted, hacking apart more vines. After slicing through more than a dozen, her wrist was trembling uncontrollably from overexertion.
Chu Fufeng handed his hot-loaded weapon to Yan An, then moved to shield Hua Mian as the three of them pushed forward inch by inch.
Their bodies were soon covered in bloody welts from the vines’ attacks.
The moment the vines tasted blood, even more surged toward them.
Hua Mian looked at Chu Fufeng’s back, her expression cold, doing calculations in her heart.
If it came down to life and death, she wouldn’t mind throwing Chu Fufeng out as bait if it meant survival.
She never claimed to be a good person.
Just as she was weighing the timing, a group of beastmen suddenly charged toward them from ahead.
“Someone’s here!”
“Save them first!”
