As Demon Flames appeared in Tang Xiu’s hands, the excessive temperature instantly caused layers of heatwaves in the whole nursery garden area. Even at the moment when the Demon Flames in Tang Xiu’s hands appeared, the tens of thousands of sentient plants in the nursery garden were as though seeing the most terrible nemesis, the very bane of their existence, and they fled to avoid it.

“An interesting sight.”

Tang Xiu could clearly sense fluctuations of intense thoughts of fear even if they couldn’t transmit it to him. In order to fully intimidate them, Tang Xiu grinned with mockery and continued, “The weapons system in this vestige is completely under my control. I only need to use the laser cannon and acid poison. It’s so easy if I want to kill all of you.

“Also, if I think you’re not worth wasting my resources, I don’t even need to use the weapons system. I just need to shut down the photosynthesis device in this nursery garden, destroy the nutrient generator, and completely cut off the nutrient extraction pipe to make you constantly use up your energy. I’m hella sure you’ll gradually wither away and I will completely cut off any possibility of your survival!”

In that instant, the moment Tang Xiu’s voice faded away, countless emotional fluctuations filled with fear came along, accompanied by horrifying thoughts and screams:

“Submit, we’re willing to submit.”

“Have mercy. We’re willing to serve you as our Master.”

“Please don’t kill us.”

“We choose the second option!”

“…”

Tang Xiu nodded with satisfaction. What he had to do was coerce and tempt. Now that he had intimidated and threatened them, gentle and amiable treatment came next in the form of benefits he could give them. “I can tell you clearly. You chose to submit to me, and it will only benefit you with no downsides whatsoever, as I can teach you some Immortal techniques. You will not only be able to transform your shape, but also have a high chance to have peerless magical power under the heavens in the future.”

Immortal techniques? As well as changing form?

In that instant, the tens of thousands of sentient plants turned deadly quiet, using their special means to ‘watch’ Tang Xiu. Back when they became sentient beings and had wisdom, they didn’t know what Immortal techniques were. They hadn’t had such high intelligence that long so they were simply clueless of what Immortal techniques meant.

However, ever since the Luminous Vine suddenly came to visit and had some exchanges with them tens of thousands of years ago, only then did they find out what the Immortal arts meant.

In their view, the Luminous Vine was an extreme existence and the energy it had stored was nearly ten times stronger than theirs. But even the Luminous Vine was yearning, eager to obtain such Immortal arts, meaning that it was something very precious.

An imposing aura suddenly erupted from Tang Xiu as he shouted, “Release your energy nucleus for I need to cast a seal on them. Once the seal is cast on your nuclei, your lives will be under my control and whoever dares to betray me will die with a mere thought!”

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Energy nuclei came flashing from these sentient plants. The cores were numerous and filled with dense energy, causing turbulence inside this space.

Tang Xiu used his perception to sweep over the surroundings and was immediately dumbstruck. After counting, the energy nuclei that flew toward him numbered 35,680 in total; that even made him somewhat chilled and his heart beat rapidly inside. If these sentient plants were to use their energy cores to attack him, he would perhaps be blasted away and die in an instant. After all, these beings were all freaking bizarre monsters that had lived for a million years!

Sealing Art!

No longer wasting any time in hesitation, Tang Xiu frantically began to cast a seal on these energy nuclei. But with 35,680 in total, it was practically a huge undertaking for him.

Inside another spacious hall in the vestige.

The four Chinese ability users had obtained a full haul of harvests. Each of them carried a military bag full of weapons with a relaxed mood. Various types of weapons even hung on their bodies. Zhu Long, Firedevil, and Electrolady grinned ear to ear, whereas the rarely talking Aquababe also had a small smile.

“I don’t know how Tang Xiu’s doing right now. We encountered quite a lot of dangers right as we entered the vestige, and there may be more in the interior. But I think he should be fine!” said Zhu Long with a smile after entering the hall.

“Well, he went a separate was, Zhu Long Capt. That man surnamed Tang just boarded our team, but we and he are not on the same boat, like at all. Hence, whether he’s alive or dead has nothing to do with us. There’s no need to be concerned about him.”

“I think Firedevil makes sense, though I still hope that he can survive.” Electrolady smilingly said, “At least, that guy is so handsome and he’s my type. It’d be very regretful if he were to die here.”

The smile on Aquababe’s face receded, and she coldly glanced at Firedevil and Electrolady before speaking, “You all don’t forget that we’d have never obtained such a big harvest if Tang Xiu wasn’t with us. Even we might’ve died in the previous crisis.”

“Hmph. There’s no need for you to put him on a pedestal to undermine ourselves, Aquababe,” sneered Firedevil. “Who said we couldn’t have safely come inside without him?”

“If we didn’t have Tang Xiu with us, could you easily destroy the robots in the outermost passage? Could you have smoothly passed through the maze formation in the statuary hall and opened its gate without him? Could you make sure we didn’t need to fight with other countries’ ability users without him? Or make sure all of us survive if we had to fight them?” questioned Aquababe.

Getting barraged with the sharp questions that Aquababe shot at him left Firedevil rendered speechless. His face turned a bit ugly as he flung his face to the side and no longer spoke.

Zhu Long raised his brows. He did feel a bit dissatisfied due to Tang Xiu’s departure from the team even though his impression towards him had changed a lot. Yet, the arguments from Aquababe were undoubtedly true and he couldn’t refute them. He then spoke his mind, “Pipe down, you two! Tang Xiu is still our Chinese national comrade. No matter the benefits he obtains here, they will still be handed over to the country. At the very least, he would never let those foreigners obtain them cheaply. As long as we are still in this vestige, we are comrades-in-arms and will never become enemies!”

“Hey, nobody said that he’s an enemy!” Firedevil retorted without holding back.

Right as Firedevil’s voice fading away, however, a laser pulse instantly beamed forward from the secluded corner of the hall and unexpectedly shot through Firedevil’s arm.

“What the heck is happening?”

The complexions of Zhu Long and the rest significantly changed as they threw their military bags to the side. They even quickly put down all the heavy weapons they carried on the alert.

Firedevils’ arm was shot through but the shot didn’t hurt his bones, though the bad wound was still severe. As he unleashed his Fire attribute ability, he quickly used the fire to burn the wound as scabs began to grow at a slow rate which stopped the bleeding.

Pew! Pew! Pew! Pew!

Four laser beams were shot from the four corners of the hall and were aimed at the cautious team of four. The target of the laser beam, however, wasn’t on their vital points.

“AVOID IT FAST!”

Zhu Long’s countenance changed as he instantly pushed Firedevil while he took a dash to the side himself. With their fast speed, they were able to avoid the danger posed by the laser beams.

“Zhu Long Capt. We passed this place previously but no laser attack targeted us! What’s going on here?” shouted Electrolady with disbelief pervading her eyes.

“I don’t know, but if my guess is correct, we should’ve triggered some mechanisms here by accident,” cautiously said Zhu Long with eyes sweeping to the four corners of the hall. “Be careful, everyone. Carry these high-tech weapons and leave this place immediately if the laser beams start shooting out again.”

Pew! Pew! Pew!

Laser beams were shot from various locations in a gap of just a few seconds. This time, there were eight laser beams and despite the four people’s strength, they were nearly hit by the laser beams.

“Fuck. Dash out quickly!”

Zhu Long was keenly aware that the number of laser beams was doubling and they may not be able to leave this place alive if they were to stay here too long. The wind blew as he flashed to reach out and grab two military bags on the floor, then he dashed out towards the end of the hall lightning fast.

The three others also picked up the military bags and heavy weapons that they previously put down and then rushed toward the front. Unfortunately, their calculation was shattered by the next wave of laser attacks as 16 laser beams formed crisscrossing lines that came head-on in front of them.

“DISCARD THE HEAVY WEAPONS!”

Zhu Long roared, but when he had yet to avoid the 16 interlaced lasers, he looked back and found the laser grid quickly following their movements. His sharp eyes instantly judged the gap between the laser grid which could only be passed through by one person. He angrily threw the two military bags he carried full of vexed unwillingness.

Behind him, Firedevil, Electrolady, and Aquababe likewise found the situation in front and similarly discarded their military bags and heavy weapons like Zhu Long, following suit to sprint forward quickly.

Zzzt! Zzzt! Zzzz!

In ten seconds, all four people passed through the hall but the weapons in the four military bags they brought from the arsenal were all discarded. The cutting lasers in the hall even ruined those weapons. The most heart-wrenching thing was that some of the small weapons they carried along were also badly damaged by the lasers they passed by.

The four people stood side by side outside the hall at the entrance. Seeing that there were no longer lasers shooting everywhere, Firedevil furiously cursed, “This is FUCKING HELL!”

Aquababe looked at Zhu Long and asked, “What do we do next? Go back to the arsenal and get some weapons, or just leave like this?”

Zhu Long was silent for a moment before shaking his head. “No. We didn’t encounter danger in this place when we went in, but it appeared when we came out. This means that we were lucky when we went in, and our luck went down the drain the moment we came out. We still got some weapons, so that’s it! Let’s just look elsewhere, I think.”

“What if there’s also danger lurking elsewhere?” asked Aquababe again.

“We’ll evacuate at once if we encounter them,” replied Zhu Long in a deep voice.