Chapter 41：The Bloody Camp

Allen turned over one of the corpses, and the sound of fibers tearing filled the air.

Upon closer inspection, he saw that the back of the shattered corpse, which was in contact with the ground, had been penetrated and parasitized by fibers emerging from the ground.

The mat beneath the body was torn to pieces.

Allen's mind conjured an image of what had occurred.

In the dead of night, everyone had fallen into their dreams. Only the night watchman, feeling drowsy, had sneaked into his tent for a brief rest.

An unknown parasitic plant, sensing the presence of human bodies, had spread from the ground, piercing through the mat and animal hide, and into the fresh flesh.

This plant had powerful paralyzing toxins, causing the hunters to die in their sleep without any awareness.

The night watchman, being only lightly asleep due to his laziness, had been awakened by the pain of the parasitic plant piercing his body, but it was already too late.

In his panic, he had fled towards the waterfall, only to be swept away by the current and die, his body drifting downstream.

All of Allen's speculations seemed reasonable, but one question remained: where had the parasitic plant gone?

Frustrated, Allen searched the entire camp but found no trace of the plant.

It seemed that the parasitic plant had truly burrowed underground.

"Do I need to use myself as bait, sleep here, and lure it out?"

Even if his speculation was correct, such a risky move was out of the question for Allen.

"Catch an animal and see if it can attract the plant."

After some thought, Allen was about to take action when two indistinct figures appeared within his natural perception.

Two human figures were rapidly approaching the camp.

Allen quickly moved, jumping onto a nearby large tree to hide and observe.

"These two have a clear purpose. If they're not survivors from this camp, they must be connected to these corpses."

Allen waited motionlessly for about ten minutes before two agile figures, moving like leopards, came into view.

It was clear that these two were not extraordinaries.

However, their skills were superior to those of ordinary hunters, moving swiftly through the rugged forest terrain, something regular hunters couldn't achieve.

A man and a woman, dressed in green cloth armor, with bows and knives, sped towards the camp.

Even Bernice, the most skilled under Allen's command, couldn't match these two.

This gave Allen the feeling of having caught a big fish, hoping they wouldn't disappoint him.

After a brief reconnaissance, the two rushed into the camp and directly lifted the tent flaps.

Their familiar actions confirmed to Allen that they knew something.

But then, Allen's expression changed: "Damn, I checked that corpse!"

The side of the body in contact with the ground would have been connected to the special plant fibers.

Although Allen had restored the body to its original position after his examination, the severed fibers were an obvious flaw!

"It seems we're too late; the blood vine has indeed escaped!" the woman said regretfully.

The man sneered, "Hmph! It's not our fault. If the hunting team hadn't been careless and had thoroughly cut off the thorn blood vine's roots, this wouldn't have happened!"

"There's no use talking about it now. The thorn blood vine has absorbed the hunters' life force and must have regained some strength, burrowing underground and becoming hard to capture. We should think about how to explain this to the High Priest," the woman said, her tone worried and clearly afraid of the "High Priest."

The man's demeanor weakened, and he looked dejected.

Suddenly, the woman gave the man a wary look and gently lifted a corpse, noticing the severed fibers.

"Someone's been here!"

Allen saw the two instantly become alert, looking around, knowing his cover was blown.

"Who's there? Come out!" the woman shouted in a direction, trying to flush Allen out.

Though he hadn't been exposed, Allen decided to feign panic and be "flushed out."

"Who are you? What's your connection to the people in this camp?" Allen asked from a distance, pretending to be terrified as he slowly descended from the tree.

The two exchanged a glance, a look of desperate hope in their eyes.

To them, Allen, who had concealed his aura, appeared to be a weak, ordinary person, perfect for luring out the thorn blood vine!

The woman immediately adopted a seductive demeanor, softly saying, "Are you a hunter in this forest? We are members of this camp. Do you know what happened here?"

Allen feigned terror: "I don't know. I stumbled upon this while hunting. They all died so strangely."

The woman had already signaled to the man, and while she distracted Allen with her seductive act, the man quietly circled around.

Allen was aware of everything.

Originally planning to capture the two, Allen now had a reason to act.

Even though Allen was ruthless and cunning by nature, anyone striving for success likes to cloak their actions in righteousness.

Since these two intended to harm him first, his retaliation was justified!

As for why Allen didn't prevent this malevolent act in advance?

Ha! What fisherman would wave his rod to scare away the big fish nibbling at the bait?

As Allen pretended to panic and scream, the man quickly pounced, pinning Allen to the ground.

Their swift and coordinated actions showed they had done this many times.

After securely binding Allen, the man dragged him to the camp.

"Haha! This fool came just in time," the woman laughed seductively, her beautiful face filled with malice.

"What are you going to do?" Allen shouted in fear.

"Hmph! What do you think? We're going to use you as bait to lure out the thing underground!" the man sneered.

The two laughed triumphantly.

"Good thing we have you to help us lure out the thorn blood vine, or the High Priest would never forgive us."

Allen, like a frantic fly, asked everything he heard, pleading: "Who's the High Priest? Please, let me go. I can give you money."

"Don't worry, we'll knock you out. It won't hurt."

The woman, holding Allen's chin, said maliciously, "You just need to sleep, and you'll never be afraid again..."

But then they noticed that Allen, who should have been terrified and crying, suddenly fell silent.

"What's wrong? Scared stiff?"

Allen's eyes opened, and two beams of light shot out: "In that case, don't blame me..."

At the same time, a faint green mist had already spread around, and the two were horrified to find they couldn't move, not even a finger!