Deities: Rulers of Nature

I ate a few green-backed carp and rested for a while.

Chi Hong saw Jin Sha summon two snake-men who dragged away the carcass of the thick-skinned brown bear before turning around and continuing their exploration northward.

Jinsha certainly couldn't personally deliver the crimson spoils back, as he still needed to protect Jinsha's safety.

The temple trial is scheduled to end at midnight tonight. It's around 2 PM now, so there are about ten hours left until it ends.

At first glance, time seems plentiful, but even young snake people know that the Qingling Mountains are far more dangerous at night than during the day.

Not only is visibility reduced, but nocturnal beasts will also come out in groups to hunt for food, and Crimson is not confident that he can complete his hunting target under these conditions.

Crimson must find a bronze-tier wild beast before it gets completely dark.

The further north they went, the thicker the trees in the forest became. Chi Hong felt that the thickest tree was so big that he couldn't even wrap his arms around it.

As the dominant creatures of the Qingling Mountains, the Bronze-tier wild beasts must live in a much more fertile area than the thick-skinned brown bears.

During this time, Crimson saw a Snowwing Eagle with a wingspan of over eight meters fly over the treetops, leaving a large shadow on the ground.

Whether it was a misperception or not, Crimson felt that the Snow Feather Eagle's gaze lingered on him for a moment.

Fortunately, it didn't seem to be interested in the crimson color and flew away.

Flying beasts are the most troublesome, and Crimson has no way to deal with them.

However, if they were to encounter each other in the forest, Crimson wouldn't be without a chance of winning. After all, the forest is dense with trees, and there isn't much space for the Snow Feather Eagle to fly and maneuver.

Crimson withdrew its gaze and continued its exploration.

Time passed slowly, the sun gradually slanted westward, and the afterglow filtered through the branches, leaving golden spots of light on the ground.

After passing through a thicket of bushes, Crimson felt a sense of openness once again.

What appeared before Chi Hong's eyes was a boundless sea of ​​flowers.

All kinds of flowers bloom here in competition, layer upon layer, a breathtaking sight. The setting sun shines on the petals, giving the entire sea of ​​flowers a golden edge. The rich fragrance of flowers fills the red nasal cavity, so sweet it's almost cloying.

His crimson tail slid forward unconsciously. In a daze, he seemed to see a familiar red figure standing in the middle of the sea of ​​flowers, waving to him with a gentle expression. It was his mother.

"Mother……"

The snake's tail moved even faster, but then Crimson realized that his mother couldn't possibly be here.

Chi Hong immediately closed his eyes, mobilized his spiritual power and circulated it in his mind. When he opened his eyes again, his mother was nowhere to be seen. Instead, there was an exceptionally beautiful and enormous flower growing there.

Its petals are a gradient from red to white, with a faint golden sheen at the edges, while the stamens are pitch black. It stands out gracefully against the backdrop of a few green leaves.

But Crimson felt a chill run through her body. It was too quiet here. There wasn't a single bird chirping, not even a bee or butterfly, and not even the chirping of insects. This was too abnormal.

The source of all this strangeness is undoubtedly that one extraordinary flower in the middle of the sea of ​​flowers.

Just as Crimson broke free from the illusion, the flower moved. The white petals gradually closed up, forming a mouth with the black stamen.

It was only then that Chi Hong realized that what it was wasn't a flower stamen at all, but an esophagus.

More than ten vines covered with black thorns sprouted from the ground, like agile venomous snakes, and quickly attacked the crimson figure.

Sensing the unrestrained aura, Crimson realized it was undoubtedly a bronze-tier wild beast.

【Phantom Flower】

[Rank: Bronze]

[Skills: Vine Whip, Enchanting Floral Fragrance]

[Information: A rare plant-based beast, mutated from an ordinary flower. It grows to five meters tall, its vibrant blossoms concealing sharp teeth—a perfect example of the more alluring, the more dangerous.]

Fortunately, Crimson was highly focused. He pushed off the ground with his snake tail and quickly retreated. Several vines grazed his body and crashed to the ground. Crimson could even see the eerie light shimmering on the thorns of the vines.

If you were to accidentally get stabbed, it certainly wouldn't be a pleasant experience.

Before Crimson could regain its footing, more vines sprouted from the ground, waving and intertwining, and soon all that remained before Crimson's eyes was a dense, impenetrable net of vines.

It was no longer possible to squeeze through the mesh, so Crimson didn't hesitate any longer and extended its claws, slashing at the weakest point of the vines.

The vines weren't very resilient, and Crimson tore several of them apart, splashing pink sap, some of which even landed on Crimson. In an instant, an even stronger fragrance wafted over.

Crimson was momentarily disoriented when the illusion reappeared before her eyes.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, several vines lashed out at Crimson, their sharp thorns tearing through his scales and leaving bloody wounds.

A sharp pain struck, and then his bloodshot vision cleared, causing him to stagger.

Several more vines wrapped around Crimson, tightly binding his arms and waist. As the vines tightened, sharp thorns pierced his body, and more illusions appeared before Crimson's eyes.

He successfully defeated the Bronze-ranked Brown Rock Wild Tiger and became the top scorer in this temple trial.

His mother held him with a look of relief, her face beaming with pride;

Seido and Seiraku praised him...

Crimson gradually lost all feeling of pain in his body, and a voice kept telling him in his mind, "Sleep, sleep, everything you see when you wake up will come true."

Jinsha, watching from afar as Chihong gradually stopped struggling, was debating whether to intervene when he saw Chihong wave her hand, which was pointing directly at him.

Crimson did not completely succumb; the mental energy swirling in his mind allowed him to retain a last shred of clarity.

He knew he was at a disadvantage against the overwhelming vines, but as long as he could get close to its body, he was confident he could tear it apart in a one-on-one situation.

At this moment, more than a dozen wounds had been cut on Chi Hong's body by the vines, and blood flowed down the vines, making the sharp thorns on the vines look even more bizarre.

As time went by, the crimson vines coiled closer and closer to the main body, and the crimson vines could even faintly smell a putrid odor hidden beneath the sweet floral fragrance.

Right now, Crimson gritted his teeth and exerted all his strength, the muscles in his arms bulging. With a mighty struggle, he seized the moment when the vines loosened and his claws shot out, tearing the vines that were binding him apart.

His speed increased, and he eventually passed through the vines and arrived in front of the Illusion Flower itself.

The Illusion Flower also sensed that something was wrong. It immediately retracted its vines from a distance, and at the same time, its stamens opened, revealing a mouth covered with dense, white, sharp teeth in front of Crimson.

Crimson held its breath, dodging the giant mouth's bite, and tore off several vines with its claws before flashing behind the Illusion Flower.

The venom of the burning blood snake was released, and its claws pierced the stem of the Illusion Flower. The rich fragrance of the flower wafted over, but it could not shake the crimson color in the slightest.

The crimson figure gathered all its strength into its claws and ripped them apart violently.

Sensing danger, the Illusionary Flower unleashed a furious barrage of vines at Crimson, leaving bloody welts on his back.

"Go to hell!"

Despite the excruciating pain, the crimson claws continued to exert force, and finally, with a snap, the stem of the Illusionary Flower was torn in two.

All the vines instantly lost their vitality and drooped limply.

Crimson retracted its claws and collapsed to the ground, panting heavily.

At this moment, his body was covered in wounds, and every part of his body was aching from the extreme exertion. His strength was almost completely exhausted, and even though his back stung when it touched the ground, he did not want to get up.

"Impressive! I didn't expect you to actually solve it." Jinsha praised from a distance. He hadn't expected that the flower was actually a bronze-level wild beast.

Their hunting party had been hunting near Xishan for so long, and they had never encountered any plant-type wild beasts.

Jinsha curiously nudged the limp vines with its hand, and then poked the large mouth full of sharp teeth of the Illusion Flower with the tip of its tail.

"Its defense isn't very good. Even a Black Iron-tier Thick-skinned Brown Bear has better defense than it," Jinsha concluded.

"Never mind that for now, brother, can you check on me first?" Chi Hong said with a helpless expression.

If he weren't familiar with Jinsha, he would definitely have thought Jinsha did it on purpose.

"You're not in any serious trouble. The wounds look gruesome, but they're all superficial. They haven't damaged your internal organs or bones. It's bound to hurt. Just sit and rest for a while. When we get back to the tribe, those guys who received the mild healing spell from our lord will treat you, and you'll be fine," Jinsha replied nonchalantly.

Jinsha assessed Chihong's physical condition immediately upon arriving, and he actually felt that he was quite reliable.

Moreover, strictly speaking, the trial is not over yet. He can help Crimson transport the prey back, but he cannot help Crimson directly, otherwise it will affect Crimson's performance.

"The main attack method of this flower is its hallucinogenic fragrance. If I hadn't been able to mobilize my mental power, I might have been completely trapped without any resistance." A trace of lingering fear appeared on his crimson face.

He was indeed overconfident. If he hadn't been able to mobilize his mental energy, the outcome would have been hard to predict.

While Chi Hong rested, Jin Sha was also busy digging up the roots of the Illusion Flower, as the saying goes, "to cut weeds, you must remove the roots."

It was at this moment that the two discovered that beneath this beautiful sea of ​​flowers lay piles of white bones, some belonging to wild beasts, others to wild animals, one of which appeared to be a snow eagle.

This isn't a sea of ​​flowers; it's clearly a giant tomb.

"This guy is pretty impressive," Jinsha said, raising an eyebrow. "You can't judge a book by its cover."

I don't know how many years this flower has existed, but judging from the thickness of these bones, it must have been quite a long time ago. If it hadn't been dealt with by Crimson today, I really don't know what it would have been like if it had grown up in the future.

"Alright, get up, we should go back." Carrying the corpse of Huanluohua, Jinsha glanced at the sky and said.

The sun was almost completely setting, with only a faint red glow remaining on the horizon.

"Let's go, we can ask Brother Qinglu when we get back if he knows what kind of flower this is." Chihong said as he got up. By this time, he had recovered some of his strength. He couldn't withstand the battle, but walking back to the tribe wouldn't be a problem.

After taking one last look at the sea of ​​flowers, Crimson and Golden Sand turned and left together.

The wind blows through the sea of ​​flowers, swirling up petals one by one. It seems as if something has changed, yet nothing has changed at all.