Chapter 74 - Erode

Chapter 74: Erode
After failing to break through the defense of the Bloodvine Lotus after several attempts, the mutated tigers finally realised the severity of the situation. As they continued to fruitlessly struggle, Zhang Mu summoned the Bloodvine Lotus to constrict their throats before the mutated tigers could make a sound.
However, there was a reason why the mutated tigers were famous. They were indeed impressive. It didn’t take long before they used their claws and sliced off the vines of the Bloodvine Lotus, which were hard and durable.
However, even after they ignored the injuries to the soles of their feet and sliced the vines off, a new vine would grow and continue to choke them. It was to make sure that they couldn’t make any sound at all.
At this moment, the mutated wolfdog threw away the body of a mutated tiger and circled to Zhang Mu’s side. It barked sadly a few times, as though complaining about Zhang Mu’s delay in lending a helping hand.
Zhang Mu shrugged and helplessly said,
There were over ninety-plus tigers left, and also the White Tiger. Why don’t you take care of it? You seem very confident.

Hearing Zhang Mu’s reply, the mutated wolfdog immediately shook his head and stopped barking. Even if it managed to kill that mutated tiger, it was because the mutated tiger slacked off and underestimated it, hence resulting in the chance for it to deal a killing blow. Under normal circumstances, the chances of defeating each other in a confrontation would be equal. This time, it suffered due to the natural attributes of a wolfdog as well as the sneak attack, which left the mutated tiger in shock.
Hence, forget about the ninety mutated tigers, it might not even be able to defeat the four that were imprisoned by Zhang Mu if the tigers attacked it together. Thus, the mutated wolfdog whimpered near Zhang Mu’s feet, appearing rather pitiful.
On the other hand, Zhang Mu was looking interestingly at the mutated wolfdog cleaning the mutated tiger’s blood off its body. He never imagined that the mutated wolfdog would single-handedly kill a mutated tiger. Seems like it still has some ferocity,
Tsk tsk tsk, this time your performance was not bad. You will have some rewards when we go back.

The mutated wolfdog immediately lifted his head up upon hearing Zhang Mu’s compliment. It looked at Zhang Mu excitedly, shaking its tail.
The fact that it was able to its use its earth-type energy to form a sharp spike to injure the mutated tiger must be because of the ten earth-type beast-cores that Zhang Mu gave it last time. Without these pure earth-type energies to refine its beast-core, the mutated wolfdog would not be confident to form a sharp spike that would be strong enough to withstand the claw by the mutated tiger.
Before evolving, the spike of the mutated wolfdog would not be able to withstand the heavy blows of the mutated tiger and it would definitely shatter, leaving the mutated wolfdog vulnerable. Even if the mutated wolfdog withstood this blow, it may still lead to a fatal end. When faced with a life and death situation, even a rabbit would bite a person. What about a tiger? Zhang Mu shifted his gaze from the wolfdog that was rubbing his head against him and analysed the situation inside the cage through the Bloodvine Lotus.
By now, the mutated tigers had almost stopped resisting. They kept cutting the vines that were grabbing their throats, only to have new vines growing out and continuing the task. They couldn’t move an inch.
Zhang Mu felt that it was about time to end all this. He controlled the Bloodvine Lotus and dragged the four mutated tigers onto the inner walls of the cage made of vines. Short vines immediately grew out and pierced into their bodies. The truth was, the Bloodvine Lotus only had a limited amount of vines. Controlling the four mutated tigers and maintaining the structure of the cage had almost depleted all the resources it could use. Hence, it could only rely on shorter vines to cut through their bodies and suck their blood.
The Bloodvine Lotus was like a bottomless pit, its vines ceaselessly piercing into their bodies one by one, sucking their blood. If anyone saw this scene, they would have goosebumps all over their body. The scene wasn’t gory, but the death was slow and painful.
The mutated tigers were losing their vitality. Their feet had stopped moving, even starting to lose the strength to support themselves. Zhang Mu saw that they had no intention of putting up resistance and immediately withdrew the vines that were binding them, instead focusing on draining their blood.
However, just as Zhang Mu changed his intention, the eyes of the four mutated tigers opened in sync. Zhang Mu got a bad feeling. Thats right, until now, the mutated tigers have not shown their true powers.
Sure enough, the event took a turn for the worse. The mutated tigers took advantage of the looser vines and managed to create a small gap.
But, this was enough!
The four mutated tigers simultaneously spurted flames from their mouth. The flames engulfed the inner walls of the cage made by the Bloodvine Lotus. The defense of the Bloodvine lotus seemed to be breaking soon.
Oh no! He got careless and didn’t realise that the mutated tigers were fire-types, which could subdue the Bloodvine Lotus. This is bad, Zhang Mu thought. Any one of the mutated tigers could bring out all the other mutated tigers in the village if their throat is fully opened.
The mutated tigers watched as the vines which grabbed their throats burned. With almost half the vines burnt, they would be able to give a warning to their comrades soon. Their comrades would definitely avenge them by killing this treacherous man and dog.
The mutated tigers actually had some intelligence. Their eyes filled with delight as though their plan had worked out, as though, in the end, Zhang Mu would still lose to them. Through the thin outer wall, the foremost tiger could see Zhang Mu. Their eyes met.
Zhang Mu had no idea what to do now. The minute these mutated tigers roared, they could only run. The White Tiger gave him a very dangerous feeling. If there was a choice, he wouldn’t want to confront the White Tiger that seemed close to evolving to the second rank.
As he was thinking about this, Zhang Mu had already prepared to run. He was calculating how long the other mutated tigers would take to get here after hearing the roars of these trapped tigers, in order to decide if he could safely retrieve the beast-cores of these five mutated tigers. He was not prepared to leave empty-handed after using so much effort to fight the mutated tigers.
However, the long awaited roars never came. He turned around in surprise, only to realise that the mutated tigers were in shock as well. The vines that were burnt had regrown back with new vines which constricted the throats of the mutated tigers even tighter.
Zhang Mu eyes lit up as he realised what had happened.
The Bloodvine Lotus had undergone a fiery baptism in the hands of Era merchant No. 35. Hence, the healing power it received from its mutation allowed it to gain a resistance to fire. The power of the mutated tigers was much weaker compared to the fiery hell of Era merchant No. 35.
This meant that one of the few weaknesses of the Bloodvine Lotus – fire – was no longer relevant.