The ability users all shot sideways glances upon hearing such a bizarre request for the first time.
Lin Juan silently shrank back a little, looking at him like he was a pervert.
“I’m really not a pervert,” the Vine Person defended himself unconvincingly. “These monster vines growing on my body—I tried all sorts of ways to deal with them. No matter if I cut them with scissors or sliced them with a knife, they grew back in no time. But the ones this gentleman just yanked off… they haven’t grown back.”
The pain had been real, and the effect was obviously effective.
Plus, he really wasn’t some pervert!
They shouldn’t look at him with those weird stares!
“Was the Five-Colored Rope yours to sell?” Lin Juan asked.
The Vine Person fell silent.
Lin Juan turned crisply on his heel. “Fine, if you don’t want to say, I won’t force you. But those monster vines on your body…”
“It was me!” The Vine Person knew he couldn’t hide it anymore and threw caution to the wind. “I sold them.”
Once he admitted it, the rest came easily.
The Vine Person was named Sun Qiang. Two months ago, he had seen a post on a niche foreign website claiming that Solitary Cry Mountain had glowing vines. If you picked them, mashed them up, and soaked regular ropes in the juice, you’d get a particularly beautiful product.
Sun Qiang was unemployed and figured he might as well make a little money if he could—no loss if he couldn’t. So he went alone to Solitary Cry Mountain.
“After you entered Solitary Cry Mountain, did you notice anything special up there?” Lin Juan remembered the Anomalous Affairs Bureau was investigating it and asked one more question.
“Something special?” Sun Qiang parted the green vines blocking his view. “Does a mountain full of monster vines like the ones on me count?”
Before setting out, Sun Qiang had researched a ton of info on Solitary Cry Mountain online and thought he was fully prepared. He’d also found a few interested buyers on the niche site and arranged to meet at the base of the mountain.
“You had accomplices?” One ability user couldn’t help asking. “Where are they?”
Sun Qiang: “I don’t know. We lost contact after I came down the mountain.”
Lin Juan: “Don’t interrupt him. Continue—what happened after you went up the mountain?”
Sun Qiang: “I remember, the weather was great that day—bright sun, clear skies. But by the time we gathered at the base and entered Solitary Cry Mountain, the sky suddenly changed.”
Dark clouds rolled in thick and fast. Soon, the sun was completely blocked, and the sky turned dim.
Sun Qiang’s group totaled five people. The other four seemed to be together; they wore similar clothes and strange masks that covered their faces completely. From their builds and voices, they were four middle-aged men.
Heading out with a group like that made Sun Qiang uneasy.
“That mountain was weird. Normal mountains are full of all kinds of trees, but on Solitary Cry Mountain, the higher we climbed, the scarcer the trees got. In their place were massive patches of vines covering the ground, making it almost impossible to find footing.”
“Those four pulled out bottles and jars, gloved up, and picked some vines to put inside. I wore gloves too, but when I yanked the green vines, the juice soaked through and got on my hands.”
“The spots that got touched itched and burned. My gut told me something was off, so I didn’t pick much. That’s when I saw a glow from a spot wrapped in vines.”
“The light was faint in the dimness, but impossible to ignore. I walked straight over, parted the green vines, and saw the glowing thin vines inside.”
“That’s when I knew—this was the real stuff from the website.”
“I was thrilled, ignored my stinging hands—even when my gloves and clothes tore, I didn’t care. Like I was possessed, I collected those glowing thin vines.”
“I gathered a ton, filled up all the bags I brought, and still didn’t stop.”
At that point, Sun Qiang paused.
After waiting a bit with no continuation, Lin Juan prompted, “And then?”
“Then…” A blank look flashed in Sun Qiang’s eyes. “I don’t know. I must have passed out. When I woke up, I was back in my rental. If not for the bag full of glowing vines, I’d have thought the whole Solitary Cry Mountain trip was a dream.”
“Clearly, it wasn’t a dream,” Lin Juan said.
Sun Qiang: “Yeah.”
Lin Juan: “You knew something was wrong, so why follow the website’s instructions and turn the glowing vines into Five-Colored Ropes to sell?”
“For money!” Sun Qiang’s face twisted ferociously. “Who asked the landlord to jack up the rent? He knew I was unemployed and broke, but still took advantage!”
Rent was due, and Sun Qiang was strapped for cash. The landlord leaned against the doorframe, tone impatient. “Sun Qiang, I’ve already given you an extra month. You can’t keep dodging rent forever—I need to live too. My daughter’s getting married; I have to prepare her dowry. If you really can’t pay, just move out.”
Sun Qiang stood there, fists clenched at his sides.
“Don’t blame me for being unreasonable. If you weren’t an old tenant, I’d hike your rent by at least three hundred a month. I could rent to someone else for five hundred more. I won’t press you for this month’s back rent—pay when you get a job and have the cash.”
Moving out now? Sun Qiang didn’t have enough money to rent elsewhere. He swallowed his anger, sweet-talked the landlord, and begged for more time.
After the landlord left, he sat at the table for a long time. Finally, he got up, pulled out the big bag stuffed under the bed.
He thought: I’m barely scraping by myself—screw if this stuff is safe or even sellable.
He logged back into that niche site he’d stumbled on before.
It was dark; the room light was off, only the computer’s eerie blue glow illuminated it.
Sun Qiang sat intently, noting down the steps. He didn’t notice green leaf-like things sprouting on parts of his body.
With a whoosh, the leaves retracted when he stopped.
Following the site’s instructions, he mashed the glowing vines. The juice that oozed out looked like dark red blood flowing from his own body—uncannily weird.
Would this really sell?
Doubt crept into Sun Qiang’s mind.
But he’d already done it—no harm in trying.
He took out pre-bought ropes and soaked them in a bucket, then sealed the lid.
It needed three days to soak.
On the third day, he opened the bucket. The liquid had dried, leaving ropes that shimmered with color—eye-catching for sure.
Perfect timing—Dragon Boat Festival was coming.
Sun Qiang registered a small shop on a shopping app and tentatively listed the special Five-Colored Ropes.
Then he hired some college students looking for gigs to advertise at their schools.
To highlight how special they were, he priced them high on a whim. After all, those schools were full of rich kids.
Things went smoothly. He quickly made his first bucket of gold—just a few sales covered a month’s rent.
He personally delivered the rent to the landlord and, to “show thanks,” gave him four Five-Colored Ropes.
Just enough for the landlord’s family of three plus the new son-in-law.
Seeing the shimmering Five-Colored Ropes, the landlord was delighted. Sun Qiang was too.
Lin Juan interrupted Sun Qiang, lost in memory. “How long ago was it that you gave the Five-Colored Ropes to the landlord’s family?”
Caught off guard, Sun Qiang felt annoyed but had witnessed Lin Juan’s strength and didn’t dare act out. He suppressed his anger. “About ten days or so.”
Lin Juan: “Where’s the landlord’s family now?”
Sun Qiang: “I don’t know. Three days after I gave him the Five-Colored Ropes, these weird green vines started growing on me. At first, I could hide them with clothes, but soon I couldn’t. Scared of being seen as a monster, I didn’t dare go out.”
When he first noticed the weird vines sprouting from his body, Sun Qiang panicked. He frantically tried to rip them off, but they seemed grown from his flesh—immovable no matter how he pulled.
Desperate, he went to the kitchen, stared at the bendy monster vines sprouting from him, and hacked at them with a knife.
The monster vine snapped.
Emboldened, Sun Qiang kept at it, severing several. Before he could celebrate, new vines regrew—more numerous and tougher.
Watching the monster vines multiply on his body, Sun Qiang freaked out. He messaged the poster repeatedly. Finally, on the seventh night, he got a reply.
The reply said that on the tenth day after selling the Five-Colored Ropes, he needed to collect the worn ones and eat them to ease the symptoms.
Sun Qiang was out of options. The rampant vines were ruining his life. Sometimes he’d “plant” himself on the balcony to sunbathe; his tastes changed too—he craved raw food, not eating with his mouth but strangling and devouring with the monster vines.
He was living more and more like a monster.
Unable to take it, Sun Qiang went for broke as a last-ditch effort. But when he mustered the will to retrieve the ropes, he horrifiedly found most had been seized after their anomalies surfaced—only a few stragglers remained.
“How did you know where those Five-Colored Ropes ended up?”
“I have this weird sense—I can feel their locations and distance from me.”
“So that’s why you were skulking around us— you sensed the Five-Colored Rope here?” Lin Juan reached out, revealing the Five-Colored Rope Sun Qiang had desperately sought.
“Yes.” As the Five-Colored Rope appeared, Sun Qiang’s gaze locked on uncontrollably. His pupils shifted to slits, monster vines surged wildly toward Lin Juan.
“Mr. Lin, careful!” An ability user watching them closely activated his supernatural ability.
The vines halted for a moment under attack.
Lin Juan swiftly grabbed a vine. “Move again, and I’ll crush them.”
He tightened his grip; the thin Five-Colored Rope creaked in protest under the pressure.
“Give them to me!” Sun Qiang, losing all reason, lunged at Lin Juan.
Before the ability users could act, Lin Juan twisted his wrist and bound him tight with his own monster vines in a few moves.
Sun Qiang’s eyes blazed red. Trussed up securely, he still snarled toward Lin Juan.
Lin Juan stomped his back. “Where’s your Pollution Detector? Bring it and test him.”
An ability user quickly fetched the Pollution Detector.
Beep. The pollution value shot up to over four hundred.
“How’s it so high?!” The ability user holding it exclaimed in shock.
Over four hundred pollution value—higher than some E-Rank Anomalies. At that level of mutation, a human shouldn’t retain self-awareness. Yet when Mr. Lin showed the Five-Colored Rope earlier, Sun Qiang had been coherent.
The Five-Colored Rope had instantly stripped his reason.
“Does he still have consciousness?”
No one could answer.
Lin Juan approached with the Five-Colored Rope. The closer he got, the more agitated Sun Qiang became—his eyes fixed only on craving for it.
“Sun Qiang said the forum poster told him eating Five-Colored Ropes worn for ten days would relieve symptoms. Should we try?” one ability user suggested.
