Blood Thorn Devil

"Amazing, I can feel the geno trees rapidly growing as they absorb the life force." Hope Spirit said excitedly. They had been walking in the tunnels for almost one day, and she hoped there would be no pack of wolves waiting to ambush them like last time.

Bian had mentioned he had a way of masking their life force and their scent, they just had to avoid the sight of creatures in the forest. Although it would be difficult to travel through No Man's Forest, it was no longer impossible.

"Should I slow down, their rate of absorption?" Hope Spirit asked. She had seen the sacred-blood tree weakening when Bian absorbed life force from it, so she assumed he didn't have much of it. Meanwhile, Bian who had less than ten water drops left in his sea of soul, instantly felt his mood rise when he heard that.

"Please do."

Hope spirit placed her hands on the sacred-blood tree. There was no fancy light or weird scene but the increase in life force diminished greatly. She went back and forth, slowing down how fast the trees would absorb the life essence, thereby prolonging how long they could last while being uprooted.

Sadly, she had done this after a day had almost passed. The trees would soon need a round of refreshment to keep them going. Bian shared his thoughts with Hope spirit hoping to suck~ borrow more from the sacred-blood tree.

"Why don't we drain a weapon geno tree instead. It would be cumbersome tending to a bunch of weapons, and we don't know when we might stumble upon Luck Shelter." Hope spirit said after some thought.

Luck was actually the last child of Clover Spirit. Everyone thought she had died, but Hope spirit knew she was alive and thriving in the harrowing expanse of No Man's Forest.

The shelter was of sacred-blood class, and it quite literally walked around the forest. It was in a camouflaged state and only Hope Spirit knew of a method to identify it, sadly she did not know its exact location.

"What are the weapons growing on these three trees?" Bian asked intrigued. If the weapon was beneficial, he wouldn't kill the tree. He could see a tree growing silver broadswords and another growing longswords, but he had no idea what weapon was growing on the last tree.

"That tree is growing silver broadswords, they are heavy to wield and can deal devastating damage. The other is growing black longswords, the wielders have the ability to communicate with other wielders in a very short range. The last tree is growing silver shurikens, they can harness the power of the wind when thrown to become more lethal." Hope Spirit pointed to each tree and stated their attributes.

Bian didn't need much time to consider it and went to drain the silver broadsword tree. The lifeforce of the tree was rapidly absorbed until it withered and died, then it was brushed off the Bone Tamus reducing its burden.

Bian had absorbed seventy water drops from the tree, this was enough to water all the trees three rounds. With the aid of Hope Spirit, a single waterdrop could maintain a tree for five days. This meant Bian had fifteen days to find a proper place to replant the trees or to find another geno plant he could drain.

"We are getting close to the exit." Hope Spirit readied her black katana for combat. Bian had forgotten to mention that the katana was his, and he couldn't be bothered to say something so trivial at this point in time.

He summoned a rectangular air freshener with vents on all sides of the body, its casing was made of copper and it had a chain attached to its body. This item was called a Scent Eraser, it served to erase the scent of creatures within its vicinity. Its rate of depletion was dependent on how strong of a smell it masked and how many creatures it was masking.

Bian tied the Scent Eraser to the Bone Tamus which had some free space thanks to the removed geno tree. Now even wolf type creatures wouldn't be able to pick up on their scents.

With the second gene lock of the dongxuan sutra unlocked, Bian could mask his lifeforce and the life force of creatures in his dongxuan aura. This would prevent creatures from sensing them and with the Scent Eraser they could not be easily identified. Bian only had to take care to avoid the sight of the creatures in the forest.

He summoned the weapon of the Green Wind Wolf, a green dagger materialized in his hands. With the berserk mutant dagger, Bian could damage sacred-blood creatures.

He spread the Dongxuan Aura to its limit, sensing the environment above the hatch. The plains were mainly empty, with only a beast curled up in the fields, eating something. Bian could sense that it was a mutant creature, but he had no means of knowing the number of gene locks it had opened.

"There is a mutant porcupine in the fields. Once we kill it, we can head into the forest quickly. Distract it for some seconds." Bian told Hope Spirit, they left the group of Bone Tamus behind and went to challenge the porcupine.

The porcupine, as big as a dog, was eating a fruit shaped like a gold coin. As it swallowed the coin, its red quills took on a darker hue. Their sturdiness and sharpness increased greatly.

The next second and the beast noticed a spirit walking towards it with a black katana. It instantly stood up and its quills stood on edge, it ran quickly towards the spirit surprising her with its speed.

The dark red porcupine lowered its head, aiming to turn Hope Spirit into a sieve. Bian suddenly appeared from the ground like a ghost, his green dagger slashing towards the throat of the porcupine.

It was too late for the beast to dodge, it had been wholly focused on attacking Hope Spirit. The green dagger, cut through the throat nearly decapitating the porcupine.

[Mutant Creature Blood Thorn Devil Killed. Beast Soul has been acquired. Eat the Blood Thorn Devil to gain 0 to 10 mutant geno points randomly.]

Bian had retreated into the ground but he was a bit slower than he had expected, some blood of the porcupine had landed on his face drenching him in blood. He stepped out of the floor, wiping the blood off his face.

'I didn't practice rapid use and disuse of Terraslip, its still a bit difficult to strike and slip.' Bian reflected on his errors. He saw Hope Spirit approaching with a wry smile.

"I didn't know the porcupine you were referring to was a Blood Thorn Devil . I would have advised against fighting it if I knew."

"Is it not just a mutant beast?" Bian didn't think it was that difficult to face. He thought it might have been a bit tough for Hope Spirit since she was still a knight spirit.

"It is a mutant creature of the blood element, Its quills are quite sharp and sturdy. Not even sacred-blood beast would trifle with it carelessly. When threatened, it can blast all its quills and they are shaped to drill through the air, making it difficult to block even for higher tier creatures." Hope Spirit explained, she looked at the poor beast which had died without even getting the chance to use its ultimate skill.

Bian looked at the Blood Thorn Devil warily, a normal porcupine had around thirty thousand quills but this beast had less than two thousand quills on its body. It was still quite a lot, but it showed that it had just used its exploding move not too long ago.

He dropped another Scent Eraser near Hope spirit and said, "These quills are good stuff, help me remove them while I go bring the Bone Tamus over... but first."

Bian dug his arm into the slit in the porcupine's throat and used Vitality Drain on it before it lost too much blood.

[Flesh of Blood Thorn Devil Eaten. One Mutant Geno Point Gained.]

[Flesh of Blood Thorn Devil Eaten. One Mutant Geno Point Gained.]

...

With all the blood drained from its body, the quills got easier to remove. Bian checked the beast soul of the Blood Thorn Devil as he went to retrieve the Bone Tamus.

[Type of Beast Soul of Mutant Blood Thorn Devil; Weapon(One-time use)]

Bian summoned the beast soul to observe what type of weapon it was. A blood red arrow, red from tip to shaft materialized in his hands. He reckoned that with this arrow, even a sacred-blood creature could be in danger if it was struck in a critical spot.

Bian had to remove the trees from the tunnel. Then he returned the Bone Tamus to his sea of soul just to summon them back a second later, he tied the trees to them again and approached Hope Spirit.

She had just about removed all the quills from the porcupine. The dark red quills were longer and thicker than average porcupine quills, making them easier to launch from a crossbow.

"Lets leave, we already have over a thousand quills." Although Bian had masked their presence and the Scent Eraser was working, he did not like being out in the open. The sooner they entered the forest, the safer they would be.

Bian threw a quill with all his might towards a tree. He couldn't propel it as fast a bow or crossbow but it still built up quite a bit of energy. The faster the quill moved through the air, the faster it spun. Eventually, the spinning quill lodged itself deep into a tree. This was no small feet as the trees in this sanctuary had extreme durability.

Satisfied with the quills, Bian wrapped it up with some leaves and strapped it to the Bone Tamus that was carrying the Scent Eraser. The entourage of a human, a spirit and five Bone Tamus moved into the forest.