Chapter 73 - Dodder
Chapter 73 Dodder
Dodder = parasitic vine with seeds used in medicine
Sharp nails moving rhythmically, it was Shao Qing’s first time multitasking. On one hand she kept the vines wrapped around the zombie on the other hand she was rushing over to assist Er Dai in battling the zombie.
When they were fighting, Shao Qing kept on trying to attack it’s throat, head, all life threatening areas. But only received a mock smile, until she finally attacked the zombies eyes. Finally his first time dodging.
Shao Qing’s eyes brightened. Exchanging communication without speaking they both worked together to attack the eyes. Finally when it was going round and round they were able to blind one of its eyes.
On the spot, the giant zombie began to howl. Before Shao Qing could take a breather, she could hear rustling sounds from outside.
Lifting her head, she saw 5-6 baby zombies with umbilical cords still attached crawling over like monkeys.
Their eyes were massive. The way they stared at people was especially terrifying, only emitting a crying sound.
Shao Qing suddenly understood why there were holes on the stomachs of the women. These monsters must have crawled out of their bodies.
Since they had all crawled out of their wombs, why weren’t they adorable like her Xiao Baozi? So, they might as well go die.
The monkey like babies continued to wail as they advanced forward, then as soon as they came close to Shao Qing they would be captured by a vine and fed to the man eating flower….
The man eating flower lazily spread out its massive leaves. Taking the babies that were attempting to approach Shao Qing it would either swat it aside or bring it towards it and swallow it whole. This made Shao Qing a bit worried that it might have indigestion.
It’s appetite especially good, the man eating flower swallowed quite a few. As soon as they entered its mouth, the man eating flower would automatically ooze out venom and paralysis quickly dissolving them. The man eating flower hadn’t been able to eat this well in ages, so after digesting them it happily twisted and turned.
The giant zombie seeing that its final helpers were being swatted like balls or picked up and eaten attempted to run away.
But Shao Qing’s vines did not overlook him. Every torn vine was replaced by a new one causing the giant zombie to go crazy. Opening its mouth, it spat out a cotton like object towards Shao Qing and Er Dai’s body.
Although Shao Qing had her guard up, she wasn’t able to completely block it. Biting her teeth, she threw herself onto the zombies back and held on like her vines. Even Er Dai jumped on holding onto the zombie.
Holding on to her military knife she savagely stabbed it towards the zombies eye. One stab after another, black blood was sputtering out causing the zombie to scream like mad.
Shao Qing already sensed that within her body, something was expanding. It was like when she had placed a seed within someone else’s body. That instant that it exploded and they turned into a vegetative state, that kind of feeling.
She knew that she couldn’t delay it for even a minute longer. Thus she began to fiercely stab at the eye socket, so strongly she pierced through the zombies skull. One blade after another, soon his skull had become like a hive nest.
Finally the zombie was dead, but it was still tightly fasten in place by the vines and Er Dai with it’s skull punctured through over and over while it was alive by Shao Qing.
After, Shao Qing kicked its body aside. She pulled Er Dai over and inserted her hand into Er Dais abdominal cavity.
Er Dai did not put up a resistance at all. Confused, it just looked at Shao Qing innocently and allowed Shao Qing to feel about his abdominal cavity. After groping around for a bit, she abruptly drew out her hand. When she finally withdrew, there was a fine dodder.
That kind of plant was like vines that would exploit other structures and creep up other plants. Moreover upon contact, this vegetation would extend sharp thorns to puncture the epidermis to absorb nutrients to supply itself.
Finally the things that they would climb due to deficiency of nourishment would gradually die. Afterwards these dodders would go look for other nearby living things.
In brief, this was a hateful vegetation.
After taking out the dodder, there was still another dodder on Er Dais body that had grown. Shao Qing clenched her teeth, using a military knife to make a wound on her body, she once again reached into Er Dai’s abdominal cavity.
Sure enough, that dodder followed Shao Qing’s wound and climbed into her body. Er Dai suddenly grabbed onto Shao Qing’s arm trying to pull it out. He probably was aware of Shao Qing’s intentions.
Conversely, Shao Qing grabbed Er Dai’s hand: “Don’t move, I’m a wood elemental. I have a plan on how to take care of them. You just obediently behave yourself…. I’m hurt…”
Er Dai instantly became motionless, at a loss of what to do, he didn’t dare move an inch. It seemed as if he didn’t realize that a hole was made on his stomach, the only thing he could think about was Shao Qing’s wound on her arm.
When Er Dai’s body finally didn’t contain any dodder, Shao Qing thenlet out a sigh of relief. Taking her arm out, she pushed Er Dai: “Go take a look at Cheng Jiao, I’m going to see if I can get rid of it.”
Er Dai didn’t move. Without blinking he squatted down beside Shao Qing to watch her. He was rather stubborn, this was especially the case for instances of leaving Shao Qing. Stubborn as an ox, even if it was Shao Qing, there was still nothing that can be done to convince him.
Shao Qing could only give up. Ignoring the stabbing pains caused by the dodder, she began to use her wood elemental energies to link up with those dodders.
Since those dodders had lost their master, they completely lacked any misgivings to multiply and grow. While Shao Qing’s wood elemental energy was all plant vegetations favourite, the dodder was no exception. Except for the beginning, once they made an investigative contact, they would absolutely throw themselves towards the wood elemental energy.
Waiting until they had been wrapped around by the wood elemental energy, then did Shao Qing urge the energy to attack the dodder within it.
Originally Shao Qing wanted to eliminate these dodders upon initial contact, but discovered that they were rather tenacious, growing continuously. With that speed of growth, it would’ve taken Shao Qing a month to get rid of them.
Finally giving up on that approach, she subdued the dodder. She was increasing ranks later anyways and still hadn’t find her third vegetation yet.
Although dodders weren’t that effective in dealing with zombies, dealing with humans on the contrary they were extremely useful. One or two dodder seeds were so minute that they wouldn’t even realize they had been affected.
This was a good item that can have her practically living at their house but able to kill everyone.
After subduing the dodder, Shao Qing’s face paled substantially into a terrifying state. Walking towards Cheng Jiao, Cheng jiao had already expressionlessly used her fractured right arm to reconnect her left arm into place.
The snapping sound was especially terrifying.
“Are you okay?” Shao Qing gently asked.
Cheng Jiao replied with a raspy voice: “Lend me knife.”