Starting Off Survival With A Small Treehouse

Chapter 147: Chapter 146: Scoring Points with Blood Patterned Vine

On the map, within the range of the Red Mist, countless red dots were scattered unevenly.

In the current situation, there were no beasts in the woods, leaving Xu Xin with no source to earn points. So these mutant vines appeared to him like scores and chunks of blue-grade soil.

In the Red Mist, these vines swayed gently with the flow of the mist, the Blood Patterns or Blood Thorns emitting a special red glow. Looking across, red glimmers flashed and shimmered within the mist.

These Red Mist are truly magical, not only disabling the Treehouse Protection Zone but also enhancing the power of mutant creatures, causing the Blood Patterns on them to shine with a blood-red radiance.

If Silver King and Mimi stayed long in the Red Mist, would they evolve faster? Of course, Xu Xin wouldn’t try it, since if the power boost from the Red Mist comes with a price, it would be more loss than gain.

Leaning against a tree, Xu Xin took a brief rest, mentally plotting how to kill these vines emerging from the ground.

After carefully observing the vine groups, he discovered that there were noticeably two factions among these vines.

These vines were mostly divided into two categories.

One type had slender vine bodies covered with rings of Blood Patterns, with vine tips as sharp as spearheads, the Blood Patterned Vine. This vine attacked by thrusting, its sharp vine tip directly piercing the target, or twisting several or dozens together to form a sharp drill, ready to spin and attack.

The other type had thick, resilient vine bodies bristling with blood-red thorns, the Blood Thorned Vine. This vine had no sharp vine tips and didn’t attack by thrusting, but instead lashed like a whip with great force, covering a large attack range, and besides strong blunt hits, the thorns would cause severe lacerations.

After losing their targets, these vines seemed unable to withstand the urge to attack, occasionally launching attacks against the other type.

Under Xu Xin’s watchful eye, a Blood Patterned Vine suddenly launched an attack, thrusting into the Blood Thorned Vine group, piercing through several Blood Thorned Vines in succession, only to be counterattacked by the Blood Thorned Vines. Several Blood Thorned Vines lashed at the slender vine branch of the attacking Blood Patterned Vine, slicing it into several segments.

The vine branch, originally taut from attacking, instantly became limp, fell to the ground, squirmed a little, the glowing Blood Pattern dimmed, and soon lay motionless.

Xu Xin couldn’t help but click his tongue; they started killing each other without him doing a thing.

”Eep!” Keke sat in Xu Xin’s arms, watching the movements of the vine group together with him, and let out a cry of surprise upon seeing the situation, wanting to get closer for a look, only to be pulled back by him as it leaped from his arms.

”Little thing, do you want to die? Don’t run around!” Xu Xin flicked Keke’s forehead.

”Eep...”

Keke rubbed its head and sat back in Xu Xin’s arms, but kept its eyes fixed on the vine group, continuously letting out quick little cries following the vine attacks.

It’s no surprise Keke kept calling; even Xu Xin, watching the back-and-forth attacks between the two types of vines, felt as if watching a match.

The vine group gave the feeling that they were fighting back and forth, yet seemed to fear something. Though they hated each other enough to gnash their teeth, every strike intended to kill, they feared a large-scale conflict.

As if constrained by some rule.

Xu Xin looked toward the Hilly Resource Zone. Through the Red Mist, two recessed white gleams shone exceptionally on the hill, like a giant gazing intently at everything here.

Xu Xin took out the crossbow, loaded a bolt, and approached to about ten meters from the edge of the Red Mist.

He dared not get too close to this patch of Red Mist, fearing these vines might use entanglement to emerge from the mist, snare his feet, and drag him in. If he got dragged in, he’d likely be torn apart instantly. The giant Cannibal Flower he encountered before attacked by entanglement. At the time, it snared his ankle and lifted him up, nearly tossing him in its giant maw.

If these vines emerged from the Red Mist area and quickly returned, they might not necessarily die; after all, those creatures previously had stayed in the protection zone for a while before dying.

Xu Xin aimed at the root of a Blood Patterned Vine and pulled the trigger.

The root held fast in the soil, could at most move slightly through gaps in the ground, effectively a fixed target.

”Whizz—crack!” The bolt accurately pierced the root of the Blood Patterned Vine, impaling the slender vine branch.

The swinging vine in the Red Mist stiffened in mid-air upon impact, then collapsed, like a snake squirmed twice, the red light of the Blood Pattern dimmed, and finally lay motionless.

[Killed Blood Patterned Vine, Points Earned: 20.]

”Eep!” Keke waved its little paws upon seeing this, like saying, ”Well done!”

”Great, it worked!” Xu Xin beamed.

He had somewhat worried the crossbow might be ineffective.

Even though the crossbow was the top-performing below purple-grade, he always used a green-grade bolt, so the crossbow’s power was not as expected, and wouldn’t inflict much damage on the sturdy Blood Thorned Vine. Previously, in the mine, the Blood Thorned Vine simply pulled out the bolt stuck in itself and lashed it back at him.

Thus he chose the relatively slender Blood Patterned Vine as a target, and it worked brilliantly.

It was a one-shot kill!

Looking at the vine cluster, although this Blood Patterned Vine fell to the ground, the other vines didn’t react at all. They continued to sway with the flow of the Red Mist, occasionally with one vine attacking another.

Since there’s no reaction, blame it on me for taking action!

Xu Xin reloaded a crossbow bolt, this time aiming at the root of a Bloodthorn Vine.

A direct hit!

However, as expected, no notification appeared. Although the Bloodthorn Vine was immobilized, it wasn’t dead—it simply used its tendrils to pull out the bolt from its root and tossed it to the ground.

Then, it continued swaying, its thorny form still emitting a red glow. Xu Xin noticed that its pierced root was slowly healing.

Is it the healing ability of the Red Mist on mutated creatures, or does the Bloodthorn Vine naturally have strong regenerative powers?

Xu Xin abandoned the idea of killing the resilient Bloodthorn Vine and focused on attacking the roots of the Blood Patterned Vine.

[Killed Blood Patterned Vine, gained score: 20 points.]

...

[Killed Blood Patterned Vine, gained score: 20 points.]

”Awesome!” Hearing the notifications constantly ringing in his ears, Xu Xin’s hands couldn’t stop moving, continuously reloading bolts and shooting at the Blood Patterned Vine’s roots.

And his score rapidly increased. Previously, to trade iron blocks with Li Wenxi for crafting Scale Armor, he had exchanged points for three pieces of blue-grade soil, leaving him with only a few hundred points. Now, his score exceeded a thousand once more and was still climbing.

The Red Mist enveloped everything, limiting visibility, but the red light from the Blood Patterned Vine’s rings penetrated the mist, clearly revealing the vine’s position to Xu Xin.

Another bolt shot out, accurately killing the Blood Patterned Vine.

By now, there were very few Blood Patterned Vines left within the Red Mist, mostly blocked by the Bloodthorn Vines, preventing further attacks.

At this point, Xu Xin’s score had returned to 1500 points. He had killed nearly fifty Blood Patterned Vines, earning nearly a thousand points.

Feeling his quiver, Xu Xin realized that he was running low on bolts.

Looking back, the Silver King lay calmly on the grass, with Afu on its back.

Mimi had also stood up, stretching her slender, elongated body. Despite having low endurance, her recovery speed wasn’t bad, and after a few dozen minutes of rest, she was almost back in peak condition.

Keke remained on his shoulder, chirping encouragingly each time Xu Xin killed a vine.

He rubbed Keke’s little head and glanced at the time. It was close to midnight, and only a few minutes remained until the next day.

”Let’s head back.” Xu Xin looked at the Bloodthorn Vine still swaying in the Red Mist, ready to return to the treehouse. Their rest day was only for today, and who knows what odd activities might happen tomorrow. It’s best not to stay out all night.

”Let’s go, Silver King, Mimi, Afu.”

The Silver King, who had been dozing off on the grass, immediately stood up and walked over upon hearing Xu Xin’s voice.

Xu Xin mounted the wolf, intending to return to the treehouse.

Just then, a faint white light appeared on the distant horizon, and a wind suddenly blew through the previously calm jungle, rustling the leaves.

A gentle breeze brushed his face, bringing Xu Xin a comforting coolness. At the same time, a silvery moon slowly rose, casting a pale silver glow across the sky.

Simultaneously, the dense Red Mist, pushed by the unexpected wind, began to disperse slowly instead of merely enveloping the vicinity of the hills.

Fortunately, the wind blew in the direction of the Hilly Resource Zone, so the Red Mist was not blown towards Xu Xin’s location but drifted towards the resource area.

Xu Xin decided not to leave immediately. He wanted to see if the Red Mist would scatter in the wind as he imagined.

Sure enough, it ended as he expected.

In just a few minutes, the initially dense Red Mist surrounding the resource area, with visibility down to only a few meters, dissipated under the breeze, leaving only a faint fragrance.

And the Bloodthorn Vines, which swayed gently in the Red Mist, gradually retracted into the ground before the mist completely disappeared.

Finally, a silvery crescent moon rose entirely from the horizon, and the entire hilly region returned to its usual tranquility, leaving only cracks and dead vines scattered on the ground.