Chapter 40 Carnivorous Flowers

The first wave of vines came at him from three directions at once. Lin Feng didn’t try to block them all. He kicked off hard, Fleet Footed Coward Dash carrying him across the flowers. One vine whipped past his ribs and another caught the edge of his satchel and nearly yanked him off balance. He cut that one with a short, ugly slash of the knife and kept moving.

"Fuck Fuck Fuck!!" He chanted as he kept dodging the vines while running.

Flowers peeled open as he passed, showing sharpened teeths. Vines rose and struck like snakes. The sweet scent in the air grew thicker, trying to fog his thoughts and slow his reactions. He bit the inside of his cheek hard enough to taste blood and forced himself to stay angry instead of calm.

"Pretty," he muttered, cutting another vine that reached for his ankle. "Real pretty. Shame you’re a pack of hungry bastards."

A thicker vine slammed into his side and spun him around. He hit the ground, rolled, and came up cutting. Sap sprayed across his sleeve, and it felt sticky and numb where it touched his skin. The Dash let him slip out of a closing ring of stems, but there were always more. The whole field felt like one creature trying to drag him under.

Defense alone wasn’t going to work if he needs to survive. Lin Feng stopped trying to just survive and started trying to piss it off.

He targeted the biggest clusters, hacking into the densest patches of blooms and shouting whatever garbage came to mind. He called the field a fraud, a coward, and just a bunch of useless plants. Eventhough he doesn’t know if the understand him, he continued screaming curses. Then he cut the showiest flowers first and made sure it saw him do it. The response was immediate. The pressure in the air spiked with clear, wordless hatred.

The system liked that.

[Ambient non-human hostility rising]

[Rage Value +390]

[Current Rage Points : 2433]

The increased aggression made the movements more readable. Lin Feng stopped reacting and started punishing. He used Thick Face Counterstep to crash through a sweeping vine and drive the knife into a swollen root cluster that looked more important than the others. As soon as he drove his knife into it, domething under the ground shuddered and he nearest flowers started convulsing.

He kept the aggression on. Every time a vine tried to wrap him, he cut it and stepped closer. Sap covered his hands and forearms and his breathing turned ragged. A long lash cut opened the skin on his back, but he didn’t slow down. When he finally drove the knife deep into the thickest root he could find and ripped it sideways, the whole field spasmed.

As the root got ripped out, the vines started dropping down, flowers were clamping shut and rhe sweet scent soured and thinned. In a few heartbeats the beautiful open space looked half dead,trampled, cut, leaking dark sap into the dirt.

Lin Feng stayed in a low stance until he was sure nothing else was reaching for him. Then his legs decided they were done and he dropped to one knee.

The residual hostility in the air was thick and sharp. Perfect. He forced himself into a sitting position right there among the ruined flowers, ignored the stinging cuts, and pulled the local qi in while the field’s anger was still fresh.

The same dense energy that had felt so gentle when he first arrived now poured into his meridians with far less resistance. The residual hate acted like a whetstone. The stuck places in his foundation loosened and his cultivation edged forward in a clea way, better than any quiet meditation session he had managed in the outer channels. He kept the cycle going until the thickest of the hostility began to fade, then stopped before it disappeared completely.

The system updated while he caught his breath.

[Non human hostility source resolved]

[Rage Value +520]

[Current Rage Points : 2953]

[Milestone Progress: 2/3]

Lin Feng wiped sap off the knife onto a torn flower petal and checked his body. The wound were nothing that would kill him today. The numbness from the sap was already fading. He drank from the waterskin, jammed a piece of leftover meat into his mouth, and forced himself to stand.

The ruined field felt completely dead and quiet now. Never believe anything that you see in this swamp. He wouldn’t forget that from now on.

"But still... Carnivorous flowers? How cliche can it get?"

And yet i fell for it. Ling Feng thought.

The exit marker in his satchel stayed silent. He was still inside its range, but the fog ahead looked heavier than anything he had walked through so far. The middle channels were close and the qi pressure coming from that direction felt denser ans wilder

Lin Feng adjusted the satchel, spat residual sweetness out of his mouth, and started walking again. As he gone further he realised that surprisingly, the middle channels did not look like a nightmare or an aesthetic field.That was the first thing that threw Lin Feng off. After the flower field, he had been ready for more tricks. Instead the swamp simply became denser and muddier. Dark water sat between thick root islands and mist hung heavy. The qi was richer and more turbulent, pressing against his skin with every step, but it wasn’t actively trying to crush him.

Animals moved here too. Small shapes slipped into the water or under roots the moment they noticed him. Most of them were avoidant and not aggressive. A few larger ones watched from a distance with flat curiosity, then went back to whatever they had been doing. He felt no killing or hostile intent from them but Lin Feng kept the knife in hand anyway.

He had learned his lesson about things that looked harmless.After another stretch of careful walking, he saw a shelter. It sat against a massive knot of roots that rose like a natural wall. With woven branches, packed mud and a slanted covering of broad leaves and bark.

A simple fire pit was out front, cold. Someone had built it on purpose.He stopped cold and scanned the area for any lurking danger. He shifted his weight, ready to Dash, eyes moving across every shadow. If something was going to drop on him or burst out of the water, this was the moment.

"You’re too loud," suddenly a voice said from behind.