Sign-In System: Starting With Invincible Physique

Chapter 42: Blood Sucking Crimson Plant

Bria and Hale were stunned.

Instructor Maren was in danger?

She was level 5 in Essence Condensation Realm. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Rhain stepped forward.

His composed demeanor cutting through Victor’s frantic panic "What happened to Instructor Maren?"

Bria tightly gripped the hilt of her sword, her face instantly draining of all color. "Victor, what is going on? Are you being chased by Ironpeak sect?"

"No!" Victor furiously shook his head, his eyes widening with lingering horror. "It wasn’t an enemy! It was a plant."

"A plant?" Hale repeated, completely bewildered.

"Yes!" Victor quickly spat out the situation with a trembling voice.

He and Maren had been teleported close to each other, along with three other disciples.

All of them grouped up quickly and started moving through a dense ravine.

They hadn’t realized the danger until it was too late. Victor had stepped right into the trap.

He stepped on a root, and massive vines suddenly appeared, trying to drag him to the center.

To save him, Instructor Maren didn’t hesitate to throw herself into the center of the trap to forcibly pry the vines off him.

But in doing so, she herself dragged into the center of the danger in his place.

As he spoke, tears filled Victor’s eyes, his face full of self-blame, and indignation.

He dropped his head, burying his face in his trembling hands. "It’s all my fault. If I hadn’t been so blind..."

Rhain’s expression had turned solemn.

Maren had stood before Roderick Graves to shield him at the sect gates. She had been willing to face a Level 9 Essence Condensation expert to protect him.

Everyone who treated him well, he would forever remember.

"Take me there," Rhain ordered coldly.

Victor froze, blinking through his tears. "W-what? Rhain, you don’t understand! That plant is beyond our control! Even Instructor Maren, a Level 5 Essence Condensation expert, could not save herself! We need an elder’s help! If we go back there without an elder, we are just throwing our lives away!"

Rhain took a single step forward.

"Take me there," Rhain’s voice dropped half an octave, carrying an absolute, undeniable authority that left no room for negotiation. "Take me there right now, or you will be the one solely responsible for her death."

A terrifying, suffocating aura released from his body, locking Victor completely in place.

Victor’s heart trembled.

Bria also shouted urgently from rear, "Victor, we don’t know where we will find elders. Trust Rhain, if he is saying it, he can definitely save Instructor Maren."

Victor looked into Rhain’s completely fearless eyes and his eyes flashed with the memories of him being defeated by Rhain.

Maybe he could really save Maren.

He gritted his teeth and scrambled to his feet. "Follow me!"

______________

Half an hour later.

A deep, fog-covered ravine.

The moment they arrived, the foul stench of rotting vegetation slammed straight into their brains.

Massive, writhing, blood-red tentacle-like plants covered the ravine walls.

Instructor Maren stood back-to-back with three exhausted inner disciples.

Dozens of spiked, blood-red vines whipped at them relentlessly from all directions.

Most of the attacks were faced by Maren.

She was heavily injured. Blood stained her robes all the way down her ribs.

Her essence was draining at a terrifying speed.

"Instructor Maren!" Victor screamed.

Maren snapped her head up.

When she saw Victor returning with reinforcements, a flicker of hope flashed in her eyes.

But when she saw it was only Rhain, Bria, and Hale, that hope turned into absolute despair.

"Run!" Maren screamed, her voice cracking under the strain of holding back the relentless vines. "Victor, are you stupid? Why did you bring them here? Run!"

Rhain stepped to the very edge of the ravine, his eyes locking onto the writhing mass of tentacles.

"Rhain, do not attack them!" Maren yelled frantically, severing another vine that immediately began to regrow. "Physical attacks are useless! If you cut them, they only multiply and split! It’s a trap meant to exhaust us until we are drained dry! Get out of here and find Torin!"

Bria and Hale drew their weapons, but their hands were trembling violently.

If a Level 5 Condensation expert was entirely helpless, what could they possibly do?

Rhain completely ignored Maren’s warning.

Deep within his dark, abyssal grey irises, faint golden light ignited.

Eyes of Truth.

His gaze pierced straight through the dense mist and overlapping tentacles, locking onto the absolute center of the ravine deep underground.

There, buried deep within the center of the ravine was a single, massive core root.

It was the source controlling the dozens of vines.

"Found you," Rhain whispered.

Swoosh!

The next second, his figure abruptly moved.

Shadow Flicker Step!

He stepped directly off the cliff, plummeting into the sea of blood-red tentacles.

"Rhain, NO!" Maren shrieked, horror flooding her face.

The moment Rhain entered the danger zone, the Crimson-Vein Vines reacted violently.

Sensing a new, incredibly dense source of essence, dozens of thick, spiked tentacles whipped toward him from all directions.

But Rhain’s speed was completely beyond their comprehension.

He flickered through the tentacles, easily dodging the incoming vines with absolute precision, slipping through gaps that were mere inches wide.

The main plant beneath the earth instantly registered the incomprehensible depth of the energy entering its domain. It was like a starving beast suddenly smelling a feast fit for a king.

Instantly, the plant shifted its entire focus.

The vines attacking Maren and the three exhausted disciples abruptly stopped.

Like a swarm of bloodthirsty vipers, every single tentacle in the ravine turned away from Maren’s group and surged wildly toward Rhain.

They whipped Rhain from countless directions at once, completely blotting out the sky.

The sudden release of pressure caused Maren’s legs to give out.

She collapsed to her knees, panting heavily, her eyes glued to the dark figure darting through the storm of vines.

As the cluster of thick vines attempted to completely entrap Rhain, he simply pulled his left fist back.

Using pure physical strength, he punched straight through the blockage.

BANG!

The massive tentacles were aggressively blown apart by the sheer concussive force of his physical blow, clearing a direct path to the center of the ravine.

Rhain landed heavily on the ground, standing directly above the core root he had identified with the Eyes of Truth.

The core root possessed an incredibly tough, almost indestructible, bark-like exterior, designed specifically to withstand the desperate attacks of dying cultivators.

But Rhain didn’t need to break the exterior.

Rhain’s dark essence surged towards his fist again.

It did not radiate outward; it gathered inward, compressing to an infinitesimally small point.

The remaining hundreds of vines converged on him, dropping from the sky like a blood-red waterfall to crush him into a paste.

Rhain drove his right fist directly into the ground, aiming for the buried core.

Void Fist!

His knuckles collided with the indestructible exterior of the main plant.

But the compressed dark energy did not explode on the surface.

It phased through the thick, armored bark, bypassing the physical defense entirely.

It traveled directly into the very center of the plant’s heart.

And then, it detonated.

BOOM!

A loud explosion echoed.

The effect was instantaneous.

The hundreds of massive, blood-red tentacles plummeting toward Rhain abruptly froze in mid-air.

A horrifying screech, sounding almost like a dying animal, reverberated from the ground beneath Rhain’s feet.

In the blink of an eye, the sinister red glow pulsing through the veins of the plants vanished, turning pale green.

The entire network of the crimson plant was instantly annihilated.