Chapter Fifty-Three: The Battle of the Plants

Ling Mo’s gloating voice drifted over. “Well? Regretting your impulsiveness now? The flowers that attacked you are the advanced form of the Naked Man Orchid, called ‘Iron Hammer Orchid.’ Those purple-black fruits are, to put it plainly, the result of the Naked Man Orchid’s blooms withering and bearing fruit. Not bad, right?”

Katherine dashed forward two more steps, finally escaping the area illuminated by that eerie violet vertical pupil. Once she was out from under the spotlight, the Iron Hammer Orchids seemed to lose their target all at once. Their previously poised, ready-to-throw stance slackened; they glanced at each other in confusion and froze in place.

That bizarre, giant eyeball hovered slowly over the cluster of Iron Hammer Orchids. The crack at its center began to close, and soon the purple-black vertical pupil vanished altogether. The disc at its base crumbled apart, dissolving into countless fragments that fluttered down, settling softly atop the Iron Hammer Orchids.

The Iron Hammer Orchids all raised their purple-black fruits high, as if eager to catch more of the falling fragments. Once the eyeball disappeared completely, the orchids formed a wide circle, as if gathered for a bonfire. Each flower began to dance an unknown, jubilant dance, tossing their fruits up and down in delight. Their anthropomorphic faces bloomed with laughter.

Panting, Katherine plopped onto the ground, frustration etched in her voice. “Master, didn’t you say the Naked Man Orchid is only a level-one magical beast? The things these Iron Hammer Orchids threw at me—those were at least level-four in power!”

“A newborn red dragon is only a level-two magical beast, but when it grows up it becomes level seven, doesn’t it? You stomped on their babies for no reason. If someone did that to your child, wouldn’t you want to smash them too?”

Katherine was left speechless. She snorted, fuming, “Even if I had to do it again, I wouldn’t let those disgusting little flowers go! What kind of shameless flower acts like this? And what was with that purple-black eye? If it hadn’t been locking onto me the whole time, those Iron Hammer Orchids would’ve missed entirely, and I wouldn’t have ended up in such a sorry state!”

“You should count yourself lucky,” Ling Mo replied with a chuckle. “You only trampled a small patch of Naked Man Orchids. The vertical pupil that formed after their death was weak and couldn’t open a spatial rift. It could only summon nearby Iron Hammer Orchids to bombard you. If the eye had been any bigger—heh—it would have called forth the fully evolved Catapult Orchids from the Hell Dimension. Those flowers use leftover animal skulls as ammunition, hurling them like catapults. Each shot packs about the punch of a level-five spell!”

“Yikes!” Katherine sucked in a breath, picturing herself being bombarded by a hail of level-five spells, a chill running down her spine. “Enough, Master—this place is evil. Can we please leave?”

“We can’t. Or rather, you can’t.” Ling Mo patted Katherine’s shoulder, motioning for her to look around. “With all that heavy breathing just now, didn’t you smell something particularly foul?”

She hadn’t noticed before, but now Katherine sniffed the air and immediately caught a nauseating stench. Instinctively, she looked around and discovered that, at some point, several fruits had split open on the ground. Beneath each one, two oversized serrated leaves formed a base, while the split fruit resembled a gaping, blood-red maw ready to devour anything in its path.

At the very center of each mouth, a floral stamen protruded, uncannily like the tongue of a mammal. This grotesque tongue pointed skyward, its base a vivid crimson, slick with unknown mucous that dripped slowly downward, exuding a powerful stench—not unlike that of a rotting corpse.

Katherine clamped her hand over her nose and grumbled, “At last, something I recognize! This is a Corpse Stench Arum, isn’t it? I’ve seen these in the Sumatran rainforest. But those should be actual, physical plants—how did they become semi-ethereal beings in the Monster Beast Jungle?”

“You’re half right. This is indeed Corpse Stench Arum, but it’s an evolved form: the Voodoo Lily,” Ling Mo said gravely. “Whatever you do, don’t make any sudden moves. The name ‘Voodoo Lily’ comes from the original language of the Murloc tribes among the Orcs. It means ‘venomous spirit lily.’ Ordinary Corpse Stench Arum lures carrion insects or small animals with its stench, enticing them to lick its ‘tongue,’ where they become stuck, paralyzed, and digested. The Voodoo Lily, though, sweeps its giant tongue in a wide arc. Anything living within three meters is sucked in and swallowed whole. It’s extremely dangerous.”

“And that’s not even the most perilous part,” Ling Mo paused, then continued. “The most terrifying thing is that, when Voodoo Lilies gather in groups, they unconsciously cast ‘spirit channeling,’ summoning dangerous creatures from mysterious planes into the real world. Disasters often follow.”

“Spirit channeling…” Katherine mouthed the words, surprised. “Isn’t that a Druidic spell? How did these revolting plants learn it?”

“The Druidic path originated with the high priests of the Elves, who intended it as a means to communicate with nature and live in harmony with the world. But when the spell passed to the primitive Orc tribes, their shamans twisted it for darker purposes. After all, beasts and magical creatures are simple-minded—once you can communicate with them, commanding them becomes easy,” Ling Mo’s voice was low and tinged with sadness as he recounted these ancient stories. “Still, you can’t entirely blame the shamans. Back then, the Orcs were destitute and starving—nothing like the powerful northern Orc Empire today. Being able to talk with plants and animals meant more food and fewer deaths. But human greed knows no bounds. Communication wasn’t enough; soon they sought to control magical beasts’ minds, and then to experiment, to bioengineer… It’s no wonder monsters capable of spirit channeling appeared.”

Katherine lapsed into silence, forcing a wan smile. “Those days… are so long ago. Maybe we should leave it at that. If we talk too much, we’ll lose our audience. Why don’t we focus on the Voodoo Lilies? Master, what do you think they’ll summon?”

“I have no idea.” Ling Mo scanned the area. The Voodoo Lilies had appeared at just the right moment, encircling the Iron Hammer Orchids. The Iron Hammer Orchids, who had been singing and dancing moments before, now found themselves ensnared by the Voodoo Lilies’ sickening tongues, being plucked out roots and all, and swallowed into those blood-red maws.

The Iron Hammer Orchids soon fought back, hurling their purple-black, hammer-shaped fruits. Explosions rocked the battlefield, sending Voodoo Lilies reeling. Some unlucky ones were blown to pieces. The Voodoo Lilies seemed enraged—their crimson tongues swept ever more violently, sticky mucus flying everywhere. Faint, pale-white poisonous mist began to seep from their gaping maws, quickly thickening into a cloud that engulfed the entire battlefield, shrouding the scene in a dense, unseeable fog.

“It’s coming!” Ling Mo whispered. Katherine’s eyes widened. Within the pallid poisonous fog, a massive tentacle whipped out like lightning, sweeping across the battlefield, smashing both Iron Hammer Orchids and Voodoo Lilies to pieces.