Wen Xian woke from the pain, dense, searing pain that tore through her.
She found herself suspended in darkness. Countless tubes as thick as little fingers, white and faintly glowing, had pierced through her clothes and into her flesh, feeding on her blood and tissue.
Terror gripped her. The pain made her want to moan, to scream for help, but only a faint sound like a kitten’s whimper left her throat.
Instinctively she struggled, yet the more she fought, the tighter the vines binding her constricted, until she had no choice but to stop.
She could feel her life draining away rapidly. As her body temperature dropped, her flesh seemed to shrink taut against her bones, her body growing thinner and more hollow.
Wen Xian was in agony and consumed by fear. Helpless tears slid down her face. In this moment, she was filled with regret.
Yet when she thought about it carefully, she didn’t even know what she regretted. Her life had been too ordinary, too sorrowful. She had known despair and paid a heavy price just to survive until now. She had only just begun to feel hope for the days ahead, and now it was all gone.
She was utterly unwilling to accept it.
So she struggled desperately. The binding vines cut into her flesh; she heard her bones creak under the crushing pressure. Her chest was compressed, her breathing quickly becoming labored. Her waist felt nearly snapped in two, her legs twisted out of shape.
Still, those white tubes moved relentlessly, like drill bits on mechanical arms, thrusting in and out, leaving countless bloody holes across her body.
To watch herself being drained of blood and flesh until death was torment beyond words.
“Ah!!!”
Wen Xian roared in defiance. As she threw her head back, it struck something above her. She hadn’t noticed it before, until a crystal-clear, oval bead the size of an apricot brushed past her head and fell before her eyes.
The bead was suffused with a rich green glow; at a glance, one could feel the vitality within it.
Her consciousness was already fading. She forced herself to follow the bead upward and saw it suspended by an extremely thin tube, the other end connected to something white.
She was too weak, and only after staring for a long while did she realize that the white mass was formed by the same white tubes that were feeding on her, coiled layer upon layer.
In her haze, she slowly understood, those tubes were drawing nourishment from her to sustain that green bead.
Hatred surged within her.
She didn’t know what kind of monster this was, but she would never willingly become its sustenance.
Not even in death.
She gathered the last bit of strength she had, stretched her body with all her might, pushed out her chest, and strained her neck upward, biting down on the bead with everything she had.
“Sss—!”
A strange, piercing sound suddenly erupted. She couldn’t tell what had made it, but she could feel its fury.
The vines binding her immediately tensed, and several crack-crack sounds rang out as Wen Xian’s bones were forcibly broken.
Pain wracked her body, her skin quivering, her face twisted in agony, but she mercilessly chewed on the bead in her mouth.
Strangely, the bead looked crystal-clear and delicate, but it was surprisingly fragile. Its outer layer was slightly hard, like the casing of a sausage. Under her furious biting and tearing, the shell instantly broke, releasing a colorless, tasteless liquid that she instinctively swallowed.
“Sss! Sss!!!”
Wen Xian had fully enraged the monster in the darkness. It let out a series of piercing, anguished howls. A sharp vine whipped around her neck, and with a sudden force, crack!, her head slumped forward in a twisted position.
Yet at the corner of her mouth lingered a mocking, defiant grin.
“Sss————!!!”
The monster screamed in pure rage, then its cry seemed to lose support and gradually dwindled until it vanished completely.
The tubes that had pierced her body slowly dissipated. A beam of white light pierced the blackness, growing stronger and spreading. The vines entwining her withered rapidly, and with a loud bang, Wen Xian fell.
She was already dead, and thus did not see the truth, the black hole that had trapped her was corroding and weathering rapidly, revealing its true form: the trunk of the giant tree.
By now, the towering tree that had once blocked the sun had mostly withered and dissipated. Light flooded the area, revealing the dense collection of animal carcasses and bones within the trunk, and among them, Wen Xian’s body, already nearly desiccated.
A gust of wind blew, and the remaining half of the stump turned to dust, drifting away.
“Sss! Eh?! Chitter! Hee!”
The shadows of the surrounding trees rustled and stirred, emitting all sorts of strange sounds. They seemed to be in a heated discussion, puzzled about what had just happened, why their king had suddenly vanished.
Their king was gone? But why was the king’s energy still present?
Some branches stirred, trying to move closer to investigate, but other branches quickly restrained them. After a flurry of chittering communication, no trees moved further. They watched devoutly and eagerly toward the center of the mountaintop, where a faint green glow shimmered, a pure, vital energy.
The sun sank in the west, stars climbed the sky, and day shifted into night.
Amid the pale, lifeless bones, the once shriveled and ugly human body was visibly restored, filled out again with life.
First came her head. Her messy black hair suddenly shimmered like black pearls, becoming soft and silky like satin. Then, the flesh on her face gradually plumped up, especially the clearly sunken areas like her temples and jaw muscles, regaining life and elasticity.
Her once-dead chest began beating again in an instant. Broken bones were restored. Her full chest pushed against her clothes, dried-out fingers turned fair, and a faint green hue shimmered on her nails.
Finally, her lower body. With a series of crack-crack sounds, misaligned joints were mysteriously snapped back into place, and fresh flesh wrapped around them. A completely new body was born.
“Wow—!”
It was as if the mountains themselves were cheering her rebirth. Countless branches, flowers, and blades of grass swayed and twisted in celebration.
「Beep! Life-energy crystal detected… confirmed… system… bindable…」
Wen Xian, regaining consciousness, vaguely heard a few words. But her mind was still scattered and unfocused, so she quickly forgot them.
Her curled eyelashes twitched. She slowly opened her eyes, her emerald-green irises filled with confusion. For a long time, she couldn’t comprehend the scene before her.
Only when the discomfort of lying on the hard ground pressed against her body did she gradually regain awareness. The faint pain triggered her memories of fear, now crystal clear.
Her eyelids blinked rapidly. The emerald hue vanished, replaced by her natural brown irises. Panicked, she scrambled up. When she realized she had been lying among a pile of bones, a chill ran through her. She staggered away, fleeing the scene.
After about ten meters, she stopped and collapsed unsteadily to the ground, noticing her hands and feet trembling violently.
She turned to look. The pale bones, some still wrapped in flesh, were piled in a massive pit. Just seeing it made her heart turn cold with fear. And she had just been lying right inside that pit.
No… something was wrong!
Wen Xian suddenly remembered. She had been pulled into the trunk of that giant tree, her blood drained, and in her final moments, she had viciously bitten and crushed the green bead. Then…
Instinctively, she touched her neck. She clearly remembered the vines strangling her to death, but now she was alive?
Or had she gone to hell?
She frantically scanned her surroundings. The giant tree was gone, but the grassy field remained, surrounded by dense forest. Her gaze froze. Just a short distance ahead lay her basket, quietly overturned. The mushrooms she had gathered, the bread she had brought to stave off hunger, water, and even her phone were scattered across the ground.
She practically crawled to it, trembling as she picked up her phone and swiped the screen. The familiar interface appeared, and she finally exhaled. Even if she had died, there was no way her phone would have died too.
But what had actually happened? Why was the tree gone?
Her eyes shifted to the mountaintop. All she could see was a mountain of corpses and bones.
That tree, it should have been growing right there!
Wen Xian’s heartbeat faltered, her hands still trembling. She forced herself to calm down and analyze the situation, slowly piecing together a rough understanding.
So, those bones must have belonged to the giant tree’s trunk. No wonder she hadn’t encountered any animals on the mountain, they had all been eaten. Later, she herself had almost been drained, but wasn’t, probably because of that green bead?
She wasn’t entirely sure, but there was no other explanation. Or perhaps something else had happened while she was unconscious that she didn’t know about.
But none of that mattered now. The key was that she needed to leave immediately and report to the authorities about a monster that had been consuming both animals and humans here.
Struggling to control her weak body, she picked up her basket along with the food and water she had brought. She had collected a fair number of mushrooms, but she no longer had the energy to gather more. She didn’t want to stay here even a moment longer, though it was inevitable to feel a pang of regret, at least she could take what she already had.
No sooner had the thought crossed her mind than the mushrooms vanished right before her eyes.
Wen Xian: !!!
“Who’s there?!”
She spun around, scanning the area, but the view was open and clear. There was no one else, just her.
Her hair stood on end. She could no longer think about anything else; she sprinted down the mountain.
In her panic, she didn’t notice that the trees, flowers, and grasses had grown incredibly lush, as if alive. She would normally never have been able to run freely in the mountains, but the plants seemed sentient, they parted for her path, even trembling with excitement when she brushed past them, as if energized by some powerful stimulant.
But Wen Xian only focused on survival, constantly looking over her shoulder, feeling as though something might catch her at any moment.
Finally, just as her lungs and heart felt ready to burst, the forest suddenly opened up, she had emerged!
Wen Xian felt a surge of relief and hope, turning toward the town. But her expression instantly froze.
The town was barely recognizable. Buildings were covered in dense greenery, leaving only rooftops and eaves visible.
Every few meters around the town, plants soared skyward, ten to twenty meters tall. She stared for a long time before realizing that what she had thought were utility poles were now wrapped in unknown vines that had even climbed the wires themselves.
The world she knew had become almost unrecognizable.
At some point, Wen Xian began trembling, her eyes wide with fear. She pulled out her phone and shakily dialed 110.
A busy signal, no connection.
Her pale face drained even further. She pressed her lips together and tried again. Busy. Again, still busy.
“Meow!”
A loud, piercing cat cry snapped her out of despair. She looked up, and saw a tabby cat, as large as a grown goat, leaping toward her with astonishing speed.