Chapter 29: A Bat’s Plea and a Plant’s Fury

Oh, it was just a bat. I thought it was something else entirely; it gave me quite a fright.

Patting her chest, which was as flat as a board, Qi Lin let out a sigh of relief.

With a flutter of its wings, the bat from above slowly drifted down to settle before Qi Lin.

As her gaze met the small creature before her, Qi Lin found herself devoid of fear, instead feeling an unexpected sense of kinship.

Fixing her gaze on the bat, Qi Lin extended a single finger, gently caressing the small creature’s head.

‘It seems the Bloodline has quite a good relationship with bats.’

The tiny bat, its head being stroked, remained silent, yet its wings fluttered with evident delight.

‘This place appears to be a bat’s roost.’ Releasing her finger, Qi Lin began to move slowly, venturing deeper into the crevice.

Upon seeing Qi Lin depart, the bat hesitated for a moment, its small body swaying, before it took flight and followed her.

As she continued her journey, Qi Lin surveyed the uniquely textured rock walls around her, an unbidden thought arising in her mind: ‘These rock walls are truly a masterpiece of nature’s artistry.’

Suddenly, a rustling sound emanated from behind her, prompting Qi Lin to turn back with a questioning glance.

Upon realizing it was merely the bat, a hint of exasperation crossed her features.

‘Little one, what are you doing following me?’

Naturally, the bat offered no reply.

However, once the tiny bat soared to a position in front of Qi Lin, it began to hover unsteadily.

‘Are you trying to convey something to me?’ Qi Lin inquired, her expression etched with bewilderment as she regarded the bat obstructing her path.

As if it had comprehended her words, the small bat nodded its head.

With this confirmation, Qi Lin embarked on a series of conjectures.

‘Do you not want me to proceed deeper inside?’

After a moment of contemplation, Qi Lin posed the question, despite harboring little hope that the bat would genuinely understand her words.

Yet, to her astonishment, the bat nodded again, its movement remarkably agile.

Qi Lin was taken aback; could this bat truly possess such remarkable intelligence?

Before Qi Lin could fully regain her senses, the bat had already flown onto her arm, its tiny claws gripping her sleeve.

Sensing an external pull, Qi Lin’s eyes drifted to the bat, which was now attempting to drag her arm back in the direction from which they had come.

However, this effort proved utterly futile; a tiny bat could hardly hope to move Qi Lin.

‘It’s alright, little one, I’m quite strong. Whatever lies inside, I’ll be fine, uh… probably.’ Qi Lin, who had initially been confidently patting her chest and reassuring the bat, found her words faltering into a mumble as the memory of the knight from earlier flashed through her mind.

Shaking her head, Qi Lin gently placed the bat on her shoulder. ‘It’s fine,’ she murmured, ‘it’s perfectly safe.’

With these words, Qi Lin, unswayed by the bat’s warning and feeling little sense of impending danger, proceeded further inward.

A considerable time passed before Qi Lin found herself staring dumbfounded at the sight before her.

Just a short distance from Qi Lin, a dense carpet of vegetation flourished, strikingly similar to the plants she had recently retrieved from the Black Serpent’s Lair.

‘So many… here?’ Retrieving the medicinal herb from her pocket, Qi Lin held it up, comparing it to the sprawling vegetation on the ground.

The lack of comparison hadn’t bothered her, but now, side by side, the plants were unmistakably identical.

‘I wonder if these are the Flame Tails Ailin spoke of,’ Qi Lin mused aloud, plucking one of the plants.

The moment Qi Lin plucked the plant, the bat on her shoulder, already prone to trembling, began to shake even more violently, resembling a teetering top.

‘What is it that frightens you so?’ Qi Lin questioned, feeling the tremors on her shoulder and spreading her hands in a gesture of helplessness.

But the bat soared into the air, distancing itself from Qi Lin. After emitting a mournful shriek, it ceased to care whether Qi Lin had heeded its earlier warnings, instead flapping its wings frantically and darting towards the exit.

Watching the bat flee in such disquietude, Qi Lin found herself at a loss for words.

After all, she genuinely hadn’t encountered any danger here. She had merely plucked a flower identical to the one she held, so why had the bat fled in such a panic?

Still unable to comprehend the bat’s reaction, Qi Lin bent down and once more harvested an herb that she suspected was a Flame Tail.

However, just as Qi Lin tucked away the freshly picked herb, the very ground beneath her began to tremble.

‘…? There can’t actually be danger, can there!?’ Clenching the plant tightly in her hand, Qi Lin slightly lowered her stance, bracing herself against the possibility of being thrown off balance by the trembling earth.

The tremors eventually subsided, allowing Qi Lin’s heart to momentarily ease before it promptly tensed once more.

The ground began to fracture, and from the widening fissures, countless vines erupted.

Then, a colossal flower, an impossibly magnified version of the medicinal herb Qi Lin clutched in her hand, burst forth from the earth.

Gazing upon that enormous, foxtail-like plant, a tremor ran through Qi Lin.

‘This is outrageously huge!’ she thought, ‘It’s easily more than ten times my size! What on earth does this thing consume to grow so massive?’

Qi Lin instinctively took a small step back, her mind, however, was already barraging the colossal flora with a torrent of complaints.

After all, it was better to vent her thoughts now, for she might not have the luxury of time later.

Yet, as Qi Lin was about to retreat several dozen steps, the monstrous flora remained utterly motionless, resembling nothing more than a lifeless object.

Swallowing hard, Qi Lin ceased her retreat, instead returning to the grassy field.

Yet, her regret was swift in coming.

The enormous plant began to convulse.

Momentarily, a vertical, abyssal maw gaped open, manifesting from the plant’s central stalk.

‘Heh, it’s… it’s just a mouth. Without eyes, it’s practically useless,’ she scoffed.

No sooner had Qi Lin’s words left her lips than a pair of eyes, glowing like miniature lanterns, snapped open on the plant’s enormous petals.

The colossal, foxtail-like entity blinked once, then fixed its gaze upon Qi Lin.

Under the immense plant’s unwavering stare, Qi Lin’s heart plummeted.

A guttural roar erupted!

The monstrous maw, extending from the plant’s stalk, unleashed a terrifying bellow.

‘Holy crap!’ Qi Lin shrieked, instantly turning tail and sprinting towards the cave’s exit.

Her efforts, however, proved futile. The numerous vines, strewn across the grassy expanse, began to writhe and lash out, snaking towards Qi Lin.

‘Hey, I’m not some plaything you can just snatch!’ Gritting her teeth, Qi Lin swiftly summoned her sickle.

With a powerful swing of her sickle, she deftly cleaved through the vines that had lunged directly at her.

The colossal plant, reeling from the blow, let out a deafening roar of pain.

The sheer force of this roar vibrated through the entire cavern, causing it to tremble violently.

Having harbored a sense of unease ever since the colossal plant first surfaced, Qi Lin, after severing all the vines that had snaked towards her, bolted towards the cave’s exit without a single backward glance.

Yet, after only a few strides, fearing the colossal plant might continue its assault, she swiftly spun around and uttered an incantation.

Mana surged into her hands, and Qi Lin, gripping her sickle tightly, casually unleashed several slashes behind her before resuming her frantic escape in earnest.

The slashes Qi Lin had delivered, upon impact with the colossal plant, erupted into fierce, roaring flames.

The colossal plant roared in fury, its enormous eyes, now seemingly ablaze, fixed on a seemingly empty patch of ground in the distance, as if it could still perceive Qi Lin’s fleeing form there.

Just as Qi Lin, nearing the exit, allowed herself a momentary sigh of relief, a chilling sensation crept up her spine.

A quick glance over her shoulder instantly filled her with dread.

A vine, thick as several intertwined steel cables, lashed out towards her.

Unable to evade the strike in time, Qi Lin cried out as the vine lashed across her back, sending her rocketing out of the cave like a cannonball.

A plummeting sensation enveloped her, and Qi Lin, gritting her teeth against the searing pain in her back, forced open her eyes which had instinctively squeezed shut.

With eyes slightly moist at the corners, Qi Lin watched her own body hurtling downwards, swaying uncontrollably through the air.

Just as the ground rushed closer, the realization that she possessed the ability to fly struck her, and Qi Lin abruptly unfurled her wings.

‘That… that scared me half to death,’ she stammered, landing with a flutter of wings before collapsing onto the ground.

‘Qi Lin? What happened to you?’ Ailin, who had already finished gathering the Flame Tails and was waiting at the foot of the mountain, rushed over upon seeing Qi Lin descend from the sky.

‘N-nothing at all,’ Qi Lin managed, sucking in a sharp breath as she endured the throbbing pain in her back and pushed herself to her feet.

‘Is that so?’ Ailin asked, casting a skeptical glance at Qi Lin before speaking again. ‘Alright then, did you manage to gather any Flame Tails?’

‘Is it this?’ Qi Lin asked, feeling the pain in her back abate somewhat, as she produced the three plants she had harvested.

Ailin accepted the plants Qi Lin offered, turning them over in his hands to inspect them.

‘Hmm, it is indeed Flame Tail, no doubt,’ he confirmed, ‘but… why is the color so remarkably deep?’ After examining them closely for a prolonged moment, a new wave of confusion washed over Ailin.

‘Oh, well, never mind the color,’ Qi Lin interjected, ‘as long as they’re Flame Tails, it’s fine.’

Upon hearing her words, Ailin ceased his questioning, concluding that Qi Lin must have simply gathered Flame Tails that were older and more mature.

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