Before long, Yun Mu and Sui Yu experienced an attraction far more thrilling than any roller coaster being bound together in a “friendly” embrace by coarse vine branches trimmed with sharp leaves, making intimate and deeply abrasive contact with the solid earth.

The speed was swoosh as fast as lightning.

Wherever Sui Yu was dragged along, a trail of blood-splattered earth was left behind. As for Yun Mu, he flew headfirst into the wind mid-air, his fur blown straight out into the shape of a hedgehog, billowing behind him like a kite.

When they finally snapped back to their senses, they found themselves inside a massive hollow tree trunk. Twisted, knotty vines and creepers wove together like a web, wrapping and enveloping them tightly inside like a silkworm cocoon.

The surroundings were dead quiet. Through a gap in the weaving, Yun Mu spotted many similar vine cocoons nearby, presumably housing other captured and imprisoned cultivators.

Sitting ducks waiting to die was hardly a good option. He couldn’t care less about the others, but Sui Yu had to be saved.

After all, if the mission failed, he’d be done for as well. Failing to leave this world was a minor issue; what he truly feared was straying from the main plot, breaking character, and getting struck directly into a charred crisp by divine lightning—that wouldn’t be pretty.

“Damn system, don’t drop the ball at a critical moment. Hurry up and come out with an idea on how to get me out of here!”

System: [You only call on Guan Yin when you’re in trouble, and forget her when you’re not. Does this system have no pride at all?!]

“You piece-of-trash system, you don’t even have a face, what pride do you need? Hurry up and tell me how to get out!”

System: [No—comment!]

“Hoh, quite the temper you’ve got there!” Yun Mu gritted his teeth, shaking his fist angrily at thin air. “If you won’t say, you won’t say. Do you really take your lord and master for someone who can’t get out? Hmph!”

Narrowing his eyes within the cramped space, Yun Mu observed closely and discovered that the vines trapping him varied in thickness, with wider gaps in certain spots. Given his current state, if he flattened himself a bit more, he should be able to squeeze through.

Fortunately, he wasn’t an ordinary spirit beast, but rather a paper-crafted illusion. Getting out wasn’t entirely impossible.

Using his remaining reserve of spiritual energy, he condensed a bit of moisture in the air to dampen his own body. Once his paper-like form softened slightly, he lay down near a wide opening, used his paws to press and roll himself into as thin a sheet as possible, curled up, and slowly inched his way outward.

Thanks to his current weight and mass being roughly comparable to a tree leaf—making him exceptionally light—air buoyancy and gravity balanced out nicely, meaning he wouldn’t get hurt even if he dropped.

Once his feet were firmly on the ground, Yun Mu took a few deep breaths and applied a tiny sliver of fire-type spiritual energy to dry himself off, causing his flattened shape to puff right back up into its original form.

Looking back up at the vine cocoon he had just escaped from, he raised a paw to scratch his head. He seemed to have accidentally unlocked a high-altitude drop achievement. All through his past life, he had wanted to try skydiving, only to die before ever getting the chance. Who would have thought he’d manage it now in such an alternative way?

System: [Yo-yo-yo, not bad at all! Look at you actually getting yourself out!]

“Of course. Look who you’re talking to my brain isn’t just ordinary, it’s extraordinary.”

System: [Heh, yeah. Not your ordinary kind, indeed extraordinarily thick-headed.]

Yun Mu couldn’t be bothered to dignify that with a response. Shaking his head, he utilized the flexibility of his beastly form to climb back up onto the exterior of the vine cocoon holding Sui Yu. Peering through a gap, he saw that Sui Yu was clearly injured quite heavily and remained unconscious.

What should he do now? His divine sense was currently detached in an out-of-body state, and this paper-made Hidden-Spirit Fox possessed practically zero offensive power it couldn’t even break open this vine cocoon. Was he really going to kick the bucket right here?

Sect Master Senior Brother had given repeated, earnest warnings not to use spiritual energy under any circumstances. However, desperate times called for desperate measures; a healing spell should still be manageable. Fortunately, Sui Yu’s external injuries only looked severe; although Geng Duan’s previous strike had caused him to vomit blood, Yun Mu knew the boy had secretly neutralized most of the force internally, meaning he wasn’t in mortal danger.

Just as Yun Mu prepared to overdraw his spiritual energy to save the youth, the system stopped him.

System: [Hang on a second, Mu’Mu. Joking is joking, but you can’t play games with your own body. Do you remember your health points?]

“Duh, of course I remember. It was 60% when I first arrived in this world, and after resting and recuperating for a few days, it went up by 5%.”

System: [Then let me break the unfortunate news to you: because you just used a tiny bit of spiritual energy, your health points have dropped right back down to 60%.]

Yun Mu: [“…So? Do you have any good solutions?”*]

System: [This system happens to have an in-game store, though your current points are too low to unlock it normally. But we are very user-friendly—you can buy things on credit and advance the points! A Rejuvenation Pill costs 300 points, effective for both internal and external injuries; a short blade costs 500 points, capable of cleanly cutting through demonic vines. Well? Do you need them?]

You wretched system! So you were lying in wait for me right here!

“Yes, I do! If you had such a great option earlier, why didn’t you mention it and make me waste all that spiritual energy for nothing?” Yun Mu retorted briskly.

System: [Hey now, now you see the system’s good points, right? Remember to be a bit more polite from now on!]

Accompanied by the mechanical chime in his sea of consciousness, a white porcelain bottle and a short, crimson-gold blade slowly materialized in Yun Mu’s paws.

Point Settlement: -750

Host’s Current Health Points: 60%

Yun Mu curled his lip, brushing aside the fact that in the blink of an eye he had transformed into a debt-ridden sucker. Huffing and puffing, he slashed open the vine cocoon in a few quick strokes to rescue Sui Yu. Unfortunately, his paper-thin beast body possessed zero physical strength and couldn’t possibly catch a growing youth like Sui Yu, leaving him to watch helplessly as the boy dropped straight down, his left cheek scraping heavily against a protruding rock.

Oh crap, his face got disfigured!

Yun Mu gingerly crept closer to Sui Yu. Fortunately, the little disciple hadn’t woken up yet. He hurriedly fished out the Rejuvenation Pill and fed it to him.

Suddenly, the entire tree hollow shook violently. The wood-attribute spiritual energy inside the cave grew thicker and denser by the second, while the sounds of battle echoed faintly from the outside.

Curious, Yun Mu scurried over to the cave entrance to look out. To be able to trade blows with this tree demon on equal footing, the newcomers’ strength must not be underestimated.

“Zhixue, watch out!”

Lu Zhihui blocked a perilous strike in Lu Zhixue’s stead, shielding her as she rapidly retreated backward.

“Brother, I’m fine. The wood element spiritual energy here is abnormally dense; there’s a strong chance a Wood Spirit Essence has gestated within. Once we defeat the tree demon, let’s search the surrounding area together.”

“Alright, stay focused for now it’s coming again!”

[A Wood Spirit Essence? Now that’s top-tier loot right there.]

With the two of them keeping the creature occupied at the front, the tree demon temporarily lost track of what was happening inside the hollow. Without a second thought, Yun Mu scampered off at full speed toward the deeper recesses of the cave.

Two figures darted back and forth through the air, sword shadows flashing and spiritual energy continuously discharging, almost always managing to land a wound on the tree demon. After having countless vine branches hacked off and its trunk scorched by explosive magic, the tree demon flew into a furious rage.

Vines wove together to form a colossal cage trapping the pair inside, while thousands of leaves converged simultaneously, gleaming with a biting, freezing chill as pressure mounted abruptly.

“Zhixue, form the array!”

The brother and sister displayed flawless coordination. Their twin swords crossed and spun around each other, flowing with spiritual light and a murderous aura.

“Execute.”

Two forces erupted in a violent collision. The Lu siblings were both blasted backward by the lingering shockwave, leaves fluttered down in a scatter, the dust gradually settled, and the tree demon fell completely still.

“Brother, did we actually kill the tree demon?”

“It’s a bit strange. Judging by its momentum just now, at best we should have fought to a standstill. Why does it look as though it suddenly withered and died away?” Lu Zhihui asked, looking rather puzzled.