The blood-thorn vines in front of them were extremely thick, much thicker than the blood-thorn vines they had seen before and had dealt with in the defense battle!
The previous blood thorn vine was about five or six centimeters in diameter. In fact, compared with the blood thorn vine with a diameter of two or three centimeters, it was already very thick.
But the vine covered with blood thorns in front of him was at least ten centimeters in diameter! If it wasn't bent, Xu Xin would even think it was the trunk of a small tree!
The Silver King bared his fangs at the vine and his low roar became louder. Red Boy stared at the vine, as if he would suddenly attack at any time.
"Xu Xin, what happened to the Silver King?" Li Wenxi immediately shouted to Xu Xin anxiously.
"Silver King, don't be impulsive!" Xu Xin turned around and saw the appearance of Silver King. He felt that it was a bit like a crazy intermediate mutant beast after being injured. He was immediately shocked and hurriedly walked over to stroke its head twice.
"Oh oh!" Coco also jumped onto its head and gave it a claw on the head, as if warning it not to be impulsive.
The Silver King then slowly retracted his fangs.
"Ah?" It didn't seem to understand why it suddenly became excited.
Seeing that the Silver King had calmed down, Xu Xin finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"This is..." Li Wenxi asked worriedly.
"The emotions of the intermediate mutant beast are not stable. This vine seems to have stimulated its desire to fight, right?" Ji Chaoyang also came over and asked.
“… It should be correct.” Xu Xin turned back and observed the vines again.
"How can it be so thick?" Xu Xin muttered to himself, "After the tree house was upgraded, the strength of the underground creatures also increased? Moreover, it can actually make the Silver King impulsive, why is this?"
Ji Chaoyang walked forward and observed the blood-thorn vine with a serious expression, "When I went out yesterday, I didn't encounter such a thick vine."
Li Wenxi also walked forward cautiously, hiding behind Xu Xin, looking at the vine, and exclaimed: "This is much thicker than the previous blood thorn vine. Fortunately, it still cannot attack the protected area."
Although the vine was very thick and looked scary, it still did not attack Xu Xin who was standing in the protected area. Instead, it turned around a few times on the spot. Seeing that it could not attack the target it wanted to attack, it began to sway slightly on the spot and retracted below the ground.
Now that it has come out, we can't let it go back.
Xu Xin immediately swung his halberd and swept towards the roots of the blood-thorn vines.
The halberd was very long, at least three meters long, and the blood-thorn vine was at the edge of the protected area. So he could attack the vine, but the vine could not attack him.
"Card."
Xu Xin exerted a lot of strength, combined with the powerful force after his strength was amplified, the long spear easily cut off the root of the blood-veined vine as if cutting tofu.
A warm current much stronger than the one he had felt when he was felling poplar trees flowed along the handle of the halberd he was holding, instantly restoring his body, which had become a little tired from riding the wolf for a long time, to its peak.
The vine that was still swaying slightly suddenly froze, the originally bright red blood thorns turned dim, and then, it fell towards them.
The three of them had all experienced battles, so they were not panicked at all. They just dodged slightly and avoided the fallen vines.
With a "bang", the thick and heavy vines fell to the ground, raising up pieces of dead leaves that had fallen on the ground.
"嘤!" Coco ran to the vine, ran around looking at the vine which was much thicker than before, and scratched it hard with her little claws.
Coco's claws were actually quite sharp and could easily cause a deep scar on human skin, but they didn't even scratch the skin of the vine, only leaving a white mark on it.
The defensive power of this vine is much higher than before. Fortunately, Xu Xin's weapon is also much stronger than before, so it is not stressful to deal with it.
Kill the blood-thorn vines and get points: 50 points.
The previous blood thorn vine only had 15 points, but this one actually had 50 points.
"You actually cut it off in one go!" Li Wenxi said in surprise.
"The mutated vines are actually very easy to deal with. As long as you attack the roots and destroy them before they retract, you can basically kill them successfully." Xu Xin explained to Li Wenxi.
"So that's how it is." Li Wenxi looked at the vine on the ground that was still trembling and twisting slightly even though it was dead.
During the defense battle, she only killed the big ants that crawled into the tree house, and had never killed the mutant vines, so she didn't know its weakness.
"How is it? How many points is this vine worth?" Ji Chaoyang squatted down, observed the vine carefully, and asked without raising his head.
"50 points. Fortunately, it has not reached the level of an intermediate mutant creature."
An intermediate mutant creature is worth 100 points, and this vine is still far from the intermediate level.
However, he still couldn't let his guard down, because the vines were not like the intermediate mutant beasts he had encountered before that all acted alone. These vines were numerous, and if he rode the Silver King out for a run, it would be no problem for him to attract dozens or even hundreds of them to appear.
If the situation like the previous defense war happens again in the future, the vines will definitely appear in groups.
If they are intermediate mutant creatures, then we will be in big trouble.
"That's good. Well, the vines haven't changed much except for getting a little bigger. They have indeed not been promoted to intermediate mutant creatures. Moreover, this should be a good way to earn points. There are blue-level fertilizers in the points mall, and there are still many people who have never seen fertile soil." Ji Chaoyang touched his chin, stood up, and thought.
Xu Xin took out a boning knife and a wooden barrel. He wanted to collect the juice from the thick blood-thorn vine.
"Let me help you!" Li Wenxi helped him lift the vine. Although there were many thorns on the blood thorn vine, the distance between them was not small, so if you were careful, there would be no problem in holding it.
Xu Xin cut the vine with a knife, and a milky white sticky liquid flowed out from the scratch, which made Xu Xin breathe a sigh of relief.
He was afraid that the vines attacked by the purple-grade steel halberd would have their vitality absorbed so much that, like the trees, their materials could not be collected. That would be too uncomfortable.
Fortunately, although the halberd cannot be used to cut down trees, it does not affect the materials obtained after killing monsters.
The amount of juice in this blood thorn vine is basically equivalent to that of the previous four or five blood thorn vines.
"This juice is one of the raw materials for me to make steel fire and universal alchemical materials. You can help me collect it when you have time." Xu Xin threw the blood-thorn vine, which had lost its juice and become lighter, to the ground and said to the two.
Ji Chaoyang said: "It just so happens that I still have a lot in my tree house. If I keep them, they can only be used to make explosives. I have enough explosives. I will trade them all to you after we return to the tree house."
"Huh? I don't... and I don't think I can beat it..." Li Wenxi lowered his head, a little embarrassed.
She knew basically nothing about fighting. She could rely on her excellent physical fitness to kill ordinary wild beasts or dodge the attacks of mutant creatures, but she had no confidence at all to face the mutant creatures head-on and kill them.
"You don't have to engage in close combat. You can use an explosive crossbow and blow it off at the root with one shot." Xu Xin made a trigger-pulling gesture towards Li Wenxi.
"Explosive crossbow failed? Yes! But this vine is so thick, can it be broken by explosion?" Li Wenxi asked, looking at the vines on the ground.
"Then let's try again."
As he spoke, Xu Xin once again stepped out of the protected area, then quickly retracted his foot.
The crack in the ground instantly widened again. This time, three sharp and thick blood-marked vines emerged and quickly stabbed towards Xu Xin!
"Ah!" Coco was so scared that she ran behind Xu Xin's legs, baring her teeth and raising her claws at the three vines.
Under Xu Xin's gaze, the three vines actually broke through the protected area and attacked them!
He was startled and quickly pulled Li Wenxi to the side.
However, the vine did not go deep, but only entered a section. The blood veins all over its body turned brighter red in an instant, and then it quickly shrank back and stopped outside the boundary of the protection area. The three sharp vine tips were pointing straight at Xu Xin and the other two, and were still spinning continuously.
"Did you see... what happened just now?" Xu Xin frowned. "Did they enter the protected area just now?"
This blood-veined vine is about five or six centimeters thick. The originally slender blood-veined vine is now almost as thick as the blood-thorn vine in the defense battle. The vine is surrounded by densely packed bright red blood veins, and the tip of the vine is still extremely sharp, like a freshly polished rapier.
"Although it's only a little bit, it has definitely entered..." Ji Chaoyang's expression was also very serious, "This is not a good sign."
“I saw it too!” Li Wenxi opened his eyes wide and looked at the vines outside that were now afraid to enter. “The moment they came in, the blood patterns on their bodies seemed... brighter? Glowing? Just like... just like the group of vines in the defense battle!”
…reinforced by something
"You just said that you hadn't encountered such thick vines yesterday?" Xu Xin thought of what Ji Chaoyang had just said and asked.
"Yes, I circled my protected area yesterday and explored all directions. Only the four relatively positive directions of southeast, northwest and northeast are connected to the protected area. The rest are dangerous areas." Ji Chaoyang explained in a deep voice, "I have tried it like you, and the vines that came out from the ground are the same as before. This is the first time I have seen such thick vines."
This time the vines...
"Two possibilities." Xu Xin stretched out his hand and made a two. "The first possibility is that this place is special. There is something underground that can strengthen the vines, so the underground creatures are stronger."
"The second possibility," Ji Chaoyang continued, "is that after the jungle entered autumn this morning, all the underground vines became stronger."
"Just try it out in a few more places and you'll find out." Li Wenxi had already taken out her steel crossbow and installed an explosive crossbow.
Ji Chaoyang told this information to other explorers on the spot and asked them to pay attention to whether the underground creatures outside the protected area have become stronger.
"I don't think there's anything special here. Maybe these mutant vines just like low temperatures. In autumn and winter, stronger ones emerge. They can survive in the reserve for a while. Didn't the ones we encountered during our jungle exploration die after attacking us in the reserve? Can I shoot them?"
Li Wenxi was holding a crossbow and was eager to bomb the three blood-veined vines.
Xu Xin thought of the giant carnivorous plant at the entrance to the golden treasure chest.
That carnivorous plant survived in the protected area for quite some time before dying. Now that I think about it, it seems to be stronger than any intermediate mutant creature. It can also control people's minds and cause them to hallucinate.
If the carnivorous plant had not become dry and brittle and died at the last moment, Xu Xin would probably have died there.
From this perspective, perhaps it is just the stronger underground creatures that can last longer in the protected area.
Seeing that Li Wenxi's crossbow was aimed at the root of the blood-veined vine, Xu Xin immediately stopped her.
"Stay away, the explosion has a large range." Xu Xin pulled the two of them ten meters away.
At this time, the three blood-veined vines had lost their target and were about to retreat underground.
"Hurry up!"
"Oh, okay!" Li Wenxi immediately aimed at the root of the vine and pulled the trigger.
“Swoosh—”
The firing rate of the blue-grade steel crossbow was very fast. Before the three vines that had lost their target could react, the explosive crossbow had already hit their roots.
"boom!"
The thick smoke produced by the explosion gradually dissipated. The three people looked towards the original location of the vines. There were two blood-marked vines that were broken by the explosion left on the ground. Only one vine had completely retracted below the ground at the moment they saw it.
It seems that it is not that strong, at least it can be dealt with with the weapons in their hands.