Chapter 33 Part 1

“Mr. Lin, is this obedient weapon one of your supernatural abilities too?” After a long while, an ability user who had recovered from his shock asked.

Lin Juan: ……

To be honest, he had no idea where it came from.

“Forget about Mr. Lin’s weapon for now. Hurry and check on them.” Zhuang Yufeng walked up to the unconscious ability users, squatted down, and examined their bodies.

“The pollution value here is too high. We need to get them out first.”

There were far more unconscious people than conscious ones. Lin Juan thought for a moment and had the wood rope form a large makeshift net to hold the ability users.

Seeing this, the other ability users zoned out once again.

The return trip was much faster than the way in. For those waiting outside, the whole round trip had taken less than half an hour.

The door to the wooden cabin opened again, and the first one out was still Lin Juan.

When they saw someone emerge, the ability users guarding outside stepped forward.

Then they witnessed a scene that made them question their sanity.

A massive net filled with over a dozen ability users floated behind Lin Juan. If not for the confirmation that Lin Juan’s pollution value hadn’t exceeded the threshold, they would have suspected that the group coming out was disguised weird phenomena.

Lin Juan stepped through the door.

The wood rope net followed close behind but got stuck in the doorway.

The wood rope pushed hard.

“Boom!”

With a massive crash, the doorframe and the surrounding wall were smashed open in a huge hole, sending wooden splinters flying everywhere.

Holy crap.

The ability users were dumbfounded.

Why did this wood rope act exactly like Mr. Lin?

The same straightforward brutality.

And was 【Forest Cabin】 really this fragile? One shove and it created a huge hole.

It was a B-rank weird, after all. Shouldn’t it be tougher than that?

One ability user couldn’t hold back and blurted out, “Is this really the B-rank weird 【Forest Cabin】?”

The wood rope awkwardly squeezed the massive bundle through, seemingly oblivious to the words as it quickly set down the unconscious ability users and darted behind Lin Juan.

With the people rescued, Lin Juan turned to look at the 【Forest Cabin】. “What do you plan to do with this thing?”

No one noticed, but Lin Juan keenly sensed that when he asked the question, the wood rope trembled slightly.

As expected, Lin Juan thought to himself. His guess was probably right.

The suddenly appearing wooden hoe that could change shape was connected to the 【Forest Cabin】.

“Does Mr. Lin have any ideas?” Director Liu pondered for a moment before asking for Lin Juan’s thoughts.

They truly had no clue what to do with the 【Forest Cabin】.

The 【Forest Cabin】 reeked of weirdness everywhere. They still didn’t know how the landlord family had been devoured or why the 【Forest Cabin】 had suddenly appeared in the Imperial Capital.

“I need to go back in.” Lin Juan had a plan in mind.

Director Liu thought it over and sent Sheng Tianzong along with two ability users to accompany him.

Zhuang Yufeng needed to escort the unconscious ability users and the two children for full checkups and treatment, so he left first.

The wood rope continued dragging the weird hybrid formed from the landlord family behind them.

Lin Juan familiarly headed to the kitchen.

The kitchen was just as they had left it, littered with corpses and scattered crimson soil.

The ability users who hadn’t been there before gasped. “These are all the people eaten by the 【Forest Cabin】?”

The wood rope turned, using what might have been its “head” end to “look” at the ability user who spoke.

The ability user shivered, feeling like something had locked onto him.

He glanced around. Aside from the wood rope standing rigidly upright, there was nothing else.

It couldn’t be the wood rope staring at him, right?

Impossible.

The ability user dismissed the thought and reassured himself that seeing all these corpses had just made him too tense.

“This soil,” Lin Juan squatted down, picked some up, and rubbed it between his fingers. “Has a high pollution value too.”

The soil felt different from normal dirt—very wet and slick, as if it had been soaked in blood for a long time.

“You mean this soil is the problem?” Sheng Tianzong was sharp. Lin Juan’s words made the key point click for him. “You’re right. The vines that the landlord family mutated into grew in this crimson soil. Their mutation was very likely caused by it.”

“Look.” Lin Juan stood and went to where the vine roots had been severed. Several tender vine sprouts swayed, growing to arm’s length in a very short time.

“It’s still alive!” Gu Kai leaned in, shocked.

“If it were dead, that thing wouldn’t keep existing.” Lin Juan meant the weird hybrid bound by the wood rope.

He had wondered earlier why chopping the giant vine at the root hadn’t ended the weird hybrid. Turns out, it could keep sprouting even after being severed.

Lin Juan casually snapped off a tender sprout. “I want to dig up this root and see what’s underneath.”

No need for him to do it himself. Sheng Tianzong and the other two had brought plenty of tools this time. The three ability users each grabbed an entrenching tool and started digging at the spot Lin Juan indicated.

One shovelful down, and crimson, viscous liquid oozed out. Lin Juan covered his nose and mouth at the foul stench.

It was like meat that had rotted in a jar for a month, then having the lid suddenly popped off—a smell that could qualify as a biochemical weapon.

At the same time, the tightly bound weird hybrid went berserk, thrashing wildly.

The sudden burst of strength caught the wood rope off guard. The weird hybrid sprouted sharp teeth all over its body and bit through the wood rope one chomp at a time.

The wood rope writhed in pain but kept sprouting new branches, wrapping layer after layer around the weird hybrid.

The commotion was too much. Lin Juan walked over and smashed a fist into it. The weird hybrid let out a shrill scream.

“Aaahhhhh!!”

The piercing cry made Gu Kai slip, and his shovel hit the wrong spot.

To prevent the weird hybrid from going berserk again, Lin Juan landed a few more punches, only stopping once it stopped moving.

The three ability users worked quickly. Soon, they had dug out the entire vine root.

The broken vine root oozed crimson liquid nonstop, like a human wound that kept bleeding.

Where the vine root had been dug up, a large hole was revealed.

“Mr. Lin, there’s something here!”

At the bottom of the hole was a fist-sized, about twenty centimeters in diameter, meat tumor—the same crimson as the surrounding soil. It was covered in tentacles, rising and falling rhythmically like it was breathing. Countless slender, vein-like tentacles extended from it: some spread into the crimson soil, others plunged deep into the base of the vine root.

“What is this thing?” Gu Kai stared at the meat tumor for a moment, and his vision blurred with afterimages. The tumor turned into something like a beating heart.

“Thump—thump—thump—”

Its beating synced with his heartbeat.

“Gu Kai!” Seeing the crimson tentacles extending toward Gu Kai, who seemed oblivious and even took a step closer, Sheng Tianzong shouted.

The yell snapped Gu Kai out of it.

Gu Kai jolted back to awareness and stared at the slender crimson tentacle nearly touching him. He retreated rapidly. “Fuck, what the hell is this!”

He had almost fallen for it.

“Everyone, be careful! This thing can bewitch people!” Gu Kai warned urgently.

No need for his warning—they had all seen him walk toward it like he was entranced.

Everyone’s alertness shot to maximum.

“This thing’s pollution value is insanely high!” The ability user with the pollution detector exclaimed. “It’s almost surpassing the B-rank weird 【Forest Cabin】!”

The scattered vine roots shriveled bit by bit. The bound hybrid withered along with them, ultimately leaving only a few overlapping layers of human skin.

The crimson tentacles sucked the last nutrients from the vine roots and slowly retracted—

But failed to retract fully.

Lin Juan had stepped on it.

He was just an ordinary-looking human, and he hadn’t even put much force into his foot, yet it pinned the tentacle like a mountain, immovable.

“Found you, the real culprit.” Lin Juan’s lips curved slightly. He smiled, and the smile sent chills through the meat tumor.

“A lowly parasite.”

In extreme terror, the meat tumor let out a silent scream. Not yet hatched, it had no defenses beyond its tentacles.

The tentacles spreading everywhere retracted rapidly, lunging madly at Lin Juan.

Kill him!

He had to be killed!

Only by killing him did it have a chance!

Tentacles filled the sky, turning everything crimson. The three ability users activated their supernatural abilities at once to block them.

The other ability user who had come in attacked while grumbling, “Why did it suddenly go berserk?!”

“Its life was threatened,” Gu Kai, who knew full well how demonic Lin Juan was, replied calmly. “From what Mr. Lin means, this big meat tumor is the owner of all these remains?”

“What the hell even is it?”

Lin Juan grabbed a handful of tentacles reaching for him. The moment they touched his skin, they burrowed in with all their might.

Burrow.

I’m burrowing.

Can’t burrow…?

“What, trying to tickle me?” Lin Juan sneered, feeling their movements.

He gripped a tentacle and yanked it hard.

The stunned meat tumor was partially uprooted.

Realizing Lin Juan was not to be trifled with, the meat tumor painfully severed the tentacle. It stopped attacking, retracted all its tentacles, wrapped itself up layer by layer, rolled on the ground, and vanished into the crimson soil.

Lin Juan eyed the soil, pinpointed the direction, and stomped down swiftly.

“Squeak—”

The meat tumor was crushed. The tentacles shielding it flattened underfoot, and Lin Juan’s stomp landed directly on its body.

Lin Juan kept his foot in place and glanced at the wood rope slowly slinking away. “Turn into a net and bag this thing.”

The wood rope froze.

Sheng Tianzong wiped sweat from his face. “What the hell is it trying to do?”

“It’s all weird phenomena. Now that the threat to it is almost gone, doesn’t it feel carefree?” Lin Juan chuckled lightly. “You’d better do as I say, or else…”

Lin Juan pressed down harder with his foot, making the meat tumor squeak louder.

Threatening weird phenomena had become second nature to him.

Sure enough, after hesitating in place, the wood rope meekly slunk back, transformed into a large net, and nuzzled Lin Juan’s leg ingratiatingly.

Gu Kai clicked his tongue. “This thing is really a weird, huh?”

“Not bad. If I’m not mistaken, this wood rope is the true 【Forest Cabin】.”

Exposed by Lin Juan’s words, the wood rope’s nuzzling froze.

Lin Juan bent down and picked up the wood rope. “Don’t you want revenge? Hurry and turn into something to dig out the meat tumor.”

Lin Juan didn’t think a B-rank weird couldn’t manage that.

The 【Forest Cabin】 didn’t dare make any more moves and obediently turned into a large spoon, scooping out the meat tumor.

It presented it fawningly to Lin Juan.

Lin Juan looked away. “Thanks, but I’m not eating it.”

With all its tentacles retracted into a ball, unable to harm the 【Forest Cabin】, the parasite was at its mercy. The 【Forest Cabin】 bullied it relentlessly, transforming into vines that whipped the meat tumor viciously.

The meat tumor squeaked nonstop under the blows.

Gu Kai and the others watched the scene intently.

Weird-on-weird violence? They loved it.

“What the hell is this thing, anyway?”

Lin Juan’s group emerged with the meat tumor. The instant they crossed the threshold, the wooden cabin collapsed with a boom at Lin Juan’s signal. The surrounding bushes vanished too, and all the weird phenomena caused by it disappeared in a flash.