Prince and His Fool

Rong Zian's delight was short-lived when he realised the vines were like a bottomless pit with infinite regeneration and at this rate, both Wu Yange and Ying Tie would eventually deplete all their strength but the vines would keep growing and capture them at the most vulnerable moment.

Just as he was grasping this gut-wrenching discovery, a sudden surge in paralyses struck his whole body making him as stiff as a corpse. For a moment, he was stupefied, unable to make sense of his current predicament before he had an epiphany. 'Fuck it must be the stupid pollen,' he thought panic-stricken but unable to move. His legs immediately gave in tumbling to the ground but were caught mid-air by crooked vines that wrapped themselves around his waist and silently carried him into the thick hedge. It opened up just enough for his body to fit and instantly interlinked with each other covering up its tracks. Rong Zian simply vanished into the hedge without a trace. The thorny vines lacerated his skin strangling his entire body that he could barely breathe feeling as though he was drowning.

Amidst the chaos, Wu Yange finally noticed his absence as he frantically searched around for him not seizing his attacks. "Ying Tie where's Rong Zian!" he yelled as his voice drowned in the surrounding commotion but Ying Tie seemed to not have heard him as he slashed through the vicious vines. After a brief hysterical search, he finally found him but his heart sank when he realised where the idiot was.

Within the heart of the hedge, a human-shaped lump of vines coiled like a bower constrictor strangling its prey.

Blood rushing into his brain in a frenzy, Wu Yange commanded his dragons, "Houyan and Huore protect!" and the twin dragons obediently swirled around where the lump was preventing any further vines from sprouting by burning them with the heat emanating from their bodies.

"Li Wei assist!" he said, issuing a command to his flaming sword. The sword obediently fought alongside Ying Tie as the prince hurriedly made his way to the lump in haste. With surgical precision, he carefully burned the vines around Rong Zian but it was pointless because the vines were regenerating at an even faster rate as though unwilling to hand over its prey.

Rong Zian still couldn't move a single muscle, he couldn't even scream in pain as the thorns dug deep into his flesh. His eyes couldn't see through the vines but he would sense the blazing furnace all around him. The vines had completely cut off his air supply and he was bleeding everywhere on his body, suddenly everything went dark with his heart rate fading away.

Wu Yange, on the other hand, was still frantically burning the relentless creeping plant when his dragons suddenly halted sensing imminent danger, they looked at each other for a split second before Houyan promptly grabbed his master and ascended to the sky. At that moment, Wu Yange's divine sense was murky with emotions that he couldn't even sense a sudden surge in explosive energy.

Still, in a state of confusion, Wu Yange was about to reprimand his dragon when he felt some of his essence being drawn out and everything around him. He watched in bewilderment as the soul-sucking forest was robbed of its spiritual energy leaving behind shrivelled up fragile trunks that would crumble to dust with a light touch.

As though satiated, the energy absorption abruptly stopped with Tūnshì zhě in its entirety, was sucked dry like Taklimakan desert with flaky trunks as remnants. The calm before the storm was tremendously nerve-wracking as they stood in the eye of the hurricane and couldn't save themselves from the impending threat.

Both Wu Yange and Ying Tie were startled when a formidable white beam cannon violently shot up from the lump with howling wind hurling them further away. Though they were unharmed, you wouldn't say the same for the pathetic vines surrounding Rong Zian. They were instantly dispelled and the ones that survived retreated in a frenzy recognising a more terrifying predator.

The scene was spectacular as though a god had descended and demonstrated his unchallenged potency to assert his supremacy. Wu Yange was well acquainted with Rong Zian's spiritual power as he had fallen victim of it once but he hadn't fathomed that it would be this powerful.

Consumed in awe of Rong Zian's majestic divine aura, Wu Yange witnessed him arise from the ground resembling a phoenix rising from the ashes. Though there weren't any physical change in Rong Zian, his temperament had undergone a massive change seemingly possessed by a celestial being.

Wu Yange furrowed his brows as his lips twitched when he recognised the discrepancy. This Rong Zian seemed nonchalant with a posture of a well-refined young master lacking fear nor restraint. Ostensibly sensing prying eyes, Rong Zian turned meeting his gaze and at the flick of a finger, he appeared right in front of Wu Yange in an instant.

The prince was stupefied as they hovered in the sky, their foreheads touching and gazing into each other's eyes. Rong Zian's phoenix eyes were glowing staring right at him as though searching in the depths of his soul making him feel vulnerable as though all his secrets had been aired out. A malicious grin on Rong Zian's as he mysteriously vanished only to reappear on the ground as he walked through the hedge heading into the giant territory.

The vines created a path for him in terror and as he stretched his hands, his delicate fingertips vaporised whatever came into contact with them. Wu Yange attempted to follow but was grabbed by unruly vines as they resumed their assault.