Although this situation hadn’t caused any problems, the guilty look on Dong Tianyu’s face just now was completely out of character for him.

To put it bluntly, how could humans empathize with plants? So, the emotional change just now definitely wasn’t in line with Dong Tianyu’s personality.

After ruling out emotional fluctuations caused by Dong Tianyu’s own condition, he felt that his momentary trance was definitely related to the vine’s root system.

In order to ensure his own safety, Dong Tianyu grabbed a few chickens from the ranch and then tossed them beside the vines.

The vines, which seemed to have lost contact with the tendrils and lay motionless as if dead, sprang to life when the chickens approached. Many thin filaments, similar to blood vessels, instantly killed all the nearby chickens.

Only then did Dong Tianyu notice that the vine’s root system was slowly reviving.

It seemed that even if all the tendrils were severed, the vines would definitely retaliate given the chance.

The thin, blood vessel-like tendrils and their familiar hunting method made Dong Tianyu feel more and more familiar as he watched.

Dong Tianyu immediately tried to control them with the Art of Controlling Objects but, upon discovering the technique was ineffective on living beings, he became frustrated and doused the vine’s root system with gasoline.

Perhaps this vine was special, for when the fuel was poured on it, the root system made an obvious dodging motion. Just this action alone convinced Dong Tianyu that the vine’s root system must possess intelligence.

Yet at that moment, Dong Tianyu had no other plans for it and could only use the Fire Curse to send it off once again.

The vine’s root system, soaked with fuel, was just ignited by Dong Tianyu’s Fire Curse when many more tendrils quickly sprouted from its body, densely entwining and tightly covering the root area.

Despite the root area being doused with fuel, when enough tendrils wrapped around it in layers, the flames posed no threat to the vine’s root system.

If Dong Tianyu were to claim that the vine lacked intelligence based on its behavior, he wouldn’t believe it himself.

Seeing that the fire was no longer a threat to the vine’s root system, Dong Tianyu attacked once again. This time, however, his actions were no idle play but a direct assault with the Sword Control Technique.

Since there were so many vines in the forest, even if he didn’t capture any alive, it was no loss to Dong Tianyu.

Considering the vine’s root system, bullets were not very effective. It was better to directly use the Sword Control Technique to chop it apart.

Under Dong Tianyu’s control, a flash of silver light streaked by, and the cleaver, enhanced with Spirit Power, deftly split the vine’s root system in two.

When the cleaver flew back to Dong Tianyu, the tendrils that had been tightly coiling around the vine’s root system on the ground far away began to slowly slide off.

He wasn’t sure if the vine had been completely annihilated, but seeing that the defensive state had been lifted, it seemed that at the very least, the opponent had been severely injured.

The silver light flashed again, creating a perfect cross-cut above the base of the vine’s root.

The third flash of silver did not pass over the vine’s root system again; instead, it gently struck the root system.

The vine’s root system, hit by the blow, was neatly divided into four equal parts. Looking at the quartered vine root system scattered on the ground, Dong Tianyu then cautiously approached for inspection.

Aside from the tendrils scattered around, the vine’s root system turned out to be a gelatinous solid. When Dong Tianyu had dismembered it, the liquid inside the gel spilled out onto the surrounding ground.

Dong Tianyu poked the corpse with his cleaver but didn’t find anything resembling a Demon Core in their bodies.

Undeterred by the lack of findings, Dong Tianyu wasn’t too disheartened. After all, when he had entered the forest, he was already prepared. Even though the concentration of Spirit Energy had reached the minimum standards for the emergence of spiritual entities, the birth of such entities required time.

Entering the forest today was merely to scout the terrain in advance and identify the objects most likely to spawn items imbued with spirit.

Put simply, it was about locking onto targets early on, and after some time, once the moment seemed right, Zachary would return to harvest them.

After understanding the specifics of the vines, Zachary continued his analysis, dissecting other plants that actively attack humans based on the standard for dealing with such vines.

According to the patterns in most novels, plants that awaken with spirit energy and attack other creatures tend to produce something like a Demon Core or Demon Core within their bodies.

Animals shouldn’t be overlooked either; however, despite wandering the forest for so long and slaying many ancient creatures, Zachary had yet to encounter one with energy crystals inside.

Beyond animals, Zachary also found the mud pits that the hunting team members dreaded.

Compared to the simple gear of the hunting team members, Zachary, equipped with various gadgets, felt very confident about exploring the mud pits.

When Zachary found a mud pit, he initially used his Divine Sense to scan it. Although the opening on the surface did not seem large, the depth was beyond Zachary’s imagination.

Zachary would normally not utilize his Divine Sense to its full extent, as its use, although not depleting Spirit Power, would indeed strain his mind.

So, most of the time, the scope of Zachary’s Divine Sense was only a third or even less of what it could be if he were to exert himself fully.

Moreover, if Zachary’s Divine Sense was focused in a single direction instead of spreading out, the range it could reach would be even further.

Nevertheless, when Zachary used his Divine Sense to probe the depths of the mud pit, he couldn’t detect its bottom.

Since Divine Sense couldn’t reach the bottom, Zachary then thought of the underwater equipment in his space.

Despite having various diving gear, Zachary had no desire to personally delve into the mud pit; instead, he took out an underwater camera and sent it down into the pit using a rope.

Because it was a wired device, after connecting it, Zachary could observe the situation within the mud pit through a monitor.

As Zachary dropped the secured periscope into the wild mud pit, the television screen beside him began reflecting the scene inside the pit.

While Zachary continually released more of the safety rope, the camera’s view didn’t change much. It was unclear whether the murky images were due to the muddy water or the turbidity within the channel; regardless, there was little change.

Although he had heard about the nature of mud pits and had just scanned one with his Divine Sense, Zachary couldn’t fathom why the seemingly bottomless pits would move each day from one place to another.

While his mind wandered with wild guesses, Zachary’s hands didn’t relax. Instead of simply lowering the camera further, he loosened the rope three times, then pulled it up once to ensure that the camera attached to the safety rope hadn’t disappeared.

As time passed, though there was still enough length in the safety rope for the bound camera, the transmitting cable had reached its limit.

The length of the transmission cable Zachary brought out spanned hundreds of meters, yet now it seemed insufficient.

This perplexed Zachary, but since he confirmed it was due to the transmission cable’s shortage, he decided to pull out the camera equipment from the mud pit and switch to a longer data cable to try again.

Unexpectedly, as Zachary tugged at the safety rope, intending to pull the camera equipment out of the mud pit. he felt a sudden slack in his grip; both the safety rope and the transmission cable had snapped.

Logically, the surface of the mud pit was just mud and water, which should have had no capacity to cut objects.

Feeling somewhat unwilling to accept this, Zachary tried using a stick and the result left him quite astonished.