Chapter 3: The Cub Works Hard to Pick Up Trash part 1
“Mmm~”
The cub lay in the warm liquid, humming comfortably. Sometimes he got tired of lying on his side and changed positions to keep lying down. The small room gave him a full sense of security, but it also gave him a small worry.
Shen Lin stretched, tapping on the eggshell wall. Other than the dull, sturdy “thump-thump” sound, there wasn’t a single crack. During these days, he had never found a way to get out. He had tried to get the vines to attack the eggshell, but after a long time of communication, the vines remained indifferent. If he pushed too hard, they would just circle around him like a big dog. The emotions coming from their consciousness were very complex.
Unable to recruit his only external help, Shen Lin sighed for several days. If he never hatched, would he be locked in here until he died? The cub was truly worried.
Hearing the tapping sound from within the eggshell, the hanging vines knew it was a sign that the cub was awake. The woven vine basket swayed gently, and some naughty vines poked out tender buds to lightly tap the eggshell.
Shen Lin also poked out a small tentacle to touch the tips of the vines. The vine tip shuddered violently. Then, the green leaves turned over, revealing a stone like red jade, which was placed gently in the nest.
Looking around, stones like red jade filled the nest. Shen Lin didn’t understand why the vine tips thought he would like these shiny things.
His thoughts drifted. Immersed in the warm liquid, Shen Lin, who had finally regained his spirit for a while, became drowsy again. He had grown accustomed to this routine over the past few days—waking up and sleeping, sleeping and waking up.
Just as he was dazing off, a loud bang echoed, and the massive space began to shake. The cub swayed left and right with the liquid; he felt as if his brain was being scrambled. He felt a bit like vomiting. His two small paws tightly covered his mouth, fearing he might accidentally throw up. Currently, the egg liquid was his only relief food; he didn’t have the ability to produce and consume it himself.
Deep underground, inside a mechanical fortress forged from energy stones. Within a giant nest built from densely packed high-grade energy stones and lined with soft, milk-scented Yeye Grass, lay a glowing pink egg. The egg was only about the size of a washbasin.
The eggshell was covered with fine, strange patterns. Under the gentle glow, the lines flashed from time to time. The various colored energy stones piled around also pulsed in synchronization with the egg’s light. For a moment, it was hard to tell which was more dazzling.
Xiong Si saw this scene as soon as he entered. He had sacrificed many of his subordinates to escape the mutated vines and wasted several human-flesh self-detonation weapons. Finally, he had opened the giant mechanical door, which was made of energy stones, weighed over a thousand pounds, and was a meter thick.
After entering, only Wil and another bounty hunter were left among Xiong Si’s men. Even Xiong Si himself had lost an arm.
Wil said with lingering fear, “Leader, what on earth are those things? They’re more terrifying than a beast tide.”
The one-armed Xiong Si swept away the mangled flesh stuck to the mechanical door. “If I’m not mistaken, these should be Ghost Vines.”
Wil’s brain stalled for a moment, and he managed to squeeze out a voice from between his teeth. “Leader… you, you mean these things are the legendary Ghost Vines that can destroy a planet with a single seed?! Haven’t these things been extinct for a long time?”
The Ghost Vines’ ability seemed weak—they broke when pulled—but their reproductive capacity was terrifyingly strong. They grew continuously; just a battle of attrition could drain an enemy to death. Moreover, these Ghost Vines had already mutated. In addition to their strong reproductive power, they also had blood-sucking abilities. With two buffs stacked, their combat power increased by an unknown amount.
When the bounty hunters first stepped onto the waste planet, they were a team of more than twenty people. As a result of being dragged underground by the Ghost Vines, they were all lost. Thinking of the manpower he had worked so hard to cultivate, Xiong Si’s face, which was almost covered in bear fur, showed bloodshot eyes.
“We were tricked! If Shen Zhengtu didn’t have enough certainty, he wouldn’t have randomly placed his bloodline on a waste planet.”
“Damn, I knew people in politics were all dirty-hearted!”
Rustling sounds echoed. It was only after entering this place that they understood what those rustling sounds were. They were the sounds of the vines, as flexible as snakes, moving through the cavern. At this moment, they emerged from every corner, densely packed, blocking the path they had come from.
Xiong Si cursed under his breath. “Get inside the door.”
The three of them scrambled into the door they had finally opened. Seeing a pink egg lying quietly in a pile of energy stones, their eyes lit up.
“We finally found it!”
After Shen Lin regained his senses from the intense dizziness, he poked out his tentacles and saw the images transmitted by the Ghost Vines. He saw three people blowing open a hundred-meter-high mechanical door and approaching his location.
His first reaction upon seeing people wasn’t joy, but caution. The people he had met on his journey to find his family had given him a very bad impression. Especially…
Shen Lin touched his chest, and the curve of his mouth dropped by another 0.5 pixels. At the sudden appearance of the three people, the cub’s entire body bristled with sharp thorns. His claws involuntarily scratched the dense, bubble-like walls. Because the cub hadn’t hatched yet, the hooks on his small claws were actually soft. As the owner’s emotions were revealed, the hooked claws turned outward from the flesh at the base, oozing traces of blood.
Waves of uneasy power spread out in all directions with Shen Lin as the center. The Ghost Vines roaming the cavern paused for a moment, as if they “smelled” the cub’s injury and felt his anger.
The Ghost Vines in the entire underground cavern fell into a frenzied state, rushing toward the three people at the door like crazy. The Ghost Vines in the forest of giant trees, except for those weaving swinging beds for the cub’s amusement, mostly disguised themselves as stationary old trees. They seemed harmless, but once they went into a frenzy, creatures in the underground space would suffer indiscriminate attacks.
“What’s going on? Are these Ghost Vines crazy?!” Wil saw the Ghost Vines attacking so fast they were a blur and instinctively grabbed another bounty hunter to block in front of him.
A scream rang out as the Ghost Vines pierced through the bounty hunter. They quickly absorbed his blood, turning him into a dried corpse. Xiong Si showed no guilt for using his comrade as a human shield; he kicked the obstructive corpse away without any psychological burden.
He was about to move forward but stopped, tapping the ground with his heel. A burst of energy spread from underground. He seemed to realize something and looked at the towering giant trees not far away. “Wil, we must resolve that egg. These Ghost Vines are sitting on high-grade energy stones providing power. Delaying further will be even more disadvantageous for us.”
“What? The entire underground space is buried with high-grade energy stones?” Greed flashed in Wil’s eyes. “Leader, a single high-grade energy stone is enough for an ordinary beastman to live without worry for a year. If…”
“Wil, don’t forget our mission. That bounty is enough for us to live comfortably for a lifetime. Hurry up; you distract the Ghost Vines, and I’ll go destroy that egg.”
Without waiting for Wil’s answer, Xiong Si had already led the Ghost Vines toward him. Wil’s face changed. Suddenly, he was slammed away by a Ghost Vine attacking from the side, hitting the hard wall and sliding down powerlessly. A person-shaped dent appeared in the wall forged from energy stones, showing how hard the Ghost Vine had struck. Wil spat out a large mouthful of blood, staining the front of his clothes. He probably had internal injuries.
Xiong Si got closer and closer to the pink egg. The egg lay obediently in the nest, its surface occasionally showing light-golden secret patterns that pulsed in sync with the Ghost Vines’ emotions. It looked extremely harmless. The Ghost Vines wrapped around the entire nest, layer by layer, enclosing the pink egg within. Their protective attitude was undeniable.
“What on earth is inside this egg? Why don’t the Ghost Vines attack it? Is it some kind of freak?”
Wil struggled to dodge the Ghost Vines’ attacks, thinking secretly.
Inside the eggshell, Shen Lin heard the word “freak,” but his heart could no longer feel any ripples. At first, everyone had avoided him like the plague, and he might have been a bit sad. But now he was no longer a pitiful cub who could be easily bullied. Monster Baba had taught him that people who scold cubs should be beaten!
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