Chapter 22: Dragon Blood Vine

  It's really irritating! I had to quickly cover my eyes with my sleeves to reduce the stimulation of the chili gas. As I retreated backwards, the spicy smell in the air also slowly dissipated. At this time, Tiantian suddenly told me a frightening thing - that the wasp had retreated back into the tree.

  I forced my eyes open, tears streaming down, and shone the flashlight. The dragon blood vine I had just cut was indeed gone. Driven by curiosity, I shone the flashlight up at the tree again, wondering how the vine had shrunk back or if there was something on the tree that had pulled it up.

  However, I didn't see anything on the tree, maybe because the leaves were too dense, but I hope it was a monkey or something. I asked Tiantian to take a look, and she couldn't see anything either, just that after the vine retreated back into the tree, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

  I'm growing sensitive plants at home, and when you touch their leaves, they shrink together. I wonder if the dragon blood vine has this function too? It's unknown, and even if it did, I wouldn't have time to dig some up to study now - I came here to catch those little ghosts and tree spirits.

  There's nothing strange on the tree, I changed direction with Tóng Tóng to search, I asked Tóng Tóng if you can't feel their breath? Tóng Tóng shook her head, seemingly she herself didn't know the reason, at this moment she was no different from an ordinary little girl, except that her feet were not touching the ground and it could be seen that she was a ghost.

  We didn't walk far, and it seemed like we heard the sound of running water. Tongtong asked me if I heard the sound of running water, and I nodded my head, saying that the sound of water seemed to be just ahead. It's not strange for this place to have a small stream, after all, it's a mountain valley, and the water on the mountain must flow here. We can go take a look if the tree spirit and little ghost are hiding in the stream.

  We walked along the sound of water, but didn't see the expected small stream. Instead, we saw a stone about neck-high. This stone was no different from the surrounding stones, but what was different was that there was a spring on top of it. The water coming out of this spring was only as big as a fist, and the height of the water jet was about 10 centimeters.

  But what's amazing is that the water flowing out of the spring on top of this rock doesn't flow down to the ground, but instead flows back into the interior of the rock. Why? Because in the middle of this rock there's a hole about the size of a basketball, and the water from the spring on top of the rock flows along a crack in the rock's surface into the hole at the rock's waist.

  If it's man-made, there's nothing special about it, but if it's natural, then it's truly a rare and extraordinary work of art! On such a small stone, water can come to life.

  I asked Tiantian if she could dive into the spring to take a look, she pouted and said no need to go in, just touch it with her hand. After saying that, Tiantian stretched one of her hands into the water, only to see her face change suddenly, as if scalded, and immediately withdrew her hand.

  I anxiously asked her what was wrong and if everything was okay. All I saw was Tongtong turning around with a surprised look on her face, her mouth agape in an "O" shape.

  I anxiously asked her: "Are those two disgusting things no longer hiding inside?"

  Tong Tong shook his head and said: "This spring water is very strange, it's neither running water nor stagnant water, because the water flow doesn't even reach the ground."

  "Ah! What's going on? Is it neither living water nor dead water?" I asked in puzzlement.

  The little boy saw that I didn't quite understand, and said that the water flowing out of the spring on top of the stone flowed into a hole in the waist of the stone, but this hole did not lead to underground, but rather led back to the spring on top of the stone, and the water kept circulating like this.

  This is simply too unbelievable! Is there a mechanism inside this stone that I'm not aware of? I expressed my skepticism and picked up a few leaves from the side, putting them into the water. Those leaves flowed with the current into the hole in the waist of the stone, and sure enough, after a while, several leaves were spat out from the spring on top of the stone. This is just too damn magical!

  If this stone is dug up and suspended, will the water flow continuously? I don't know what principle this is, but unfortunately, such a large piece of stone can't be taken away even if I dig it up, and there's no time to dig now.

  Time is pressing, we also have a heart to surround this stone and study it carefully. We must catch the little ghost as soon as possible, this pagoda tree forest is too strange. I took Tongtong's hand and said let's go! Find the little ghost quickly and leave here immediately! This stone will be dug back home when we have the chance.

  For safety and to save the flashlight battery, I picked up some fallen branches from the ground, piled them up, lit a fire, and the flames rose up to two meters high, illuminating a large area.

  After lighting the fire, I felt much safer. Although it's better to search for the little ghosts, there are also drawbacks. If the ghostly old man really comes, then this fire will expose that someone is here. But we can't think about that too much. With the firelight, we can find them more conveniently and also block their escape routes before the ghostly old man arrives. However, it's uncertain whether he'll come or not.

  I and Tóng Tóng checked every tree hole, and finally came to the largest old Huaishu tree in this mountain valley. This old Huaishu tree is estimated to be the mother tree of all the Huaishu trees in this forest, with a trunk that four adults can barely hug around. The branches spread out to cover a large area, and the dragon blood vines hanging from the tree looked like tentacles, while the trunk was also wrapped with vines.

  As I walked under the old locust tree, I felt the temperature around me drop suddenly by several degrees, making me shiver involuntarily. Tiantian didn't seem to notice; she walked around the tree with her hands clasped behind her back, even knocking on the trunk a few times. I shone my flashlight up at the tree, and what I saw made me almost jump for joy - a thick vine was tied around a black baby corpse about the size of a finger. We'd finally found it! I was afraid I might be seeing things, so I asked Tiantian to confirm, and her answer was affirmative.

  The place where the little ghost was tied up wasn't very high, only about three or four meters. For me, a skilled tree climber, it would be easy to climb up. I rubbed my hands together and grabbed onto a vine on the trunk of the tree, just about to start climbing when suddenly I felt like something was off, but it was already too late.

  The dragon blood vine I caught suddenly came to life, like a snake, twisting and wrapping me up in three or four circles. At the same time, two vines beside it stretched out and wrapped around my body, then pulled me towards the tree.

  This sudden change made me extremely panicked, the flashlight fell to the ground, I struggled with all my might, my throat was hoarse from shouting, and the echo reverberated in the valley for several times.

  Tongtong was also scared and pulled at my clothes, but didn't

  It had no effect at all, and Tengteng pulled me and Tongtong up the tree together. However, to my surprise, after being pulled up the tree, I was only tied up by Tengteng, but nothing happened.

  It's okay, I was only tied up, my hands were still free to move around. I tried to pull out the small copper knife from the cloth bag on my body, but found that the bag was stuck to my body and the knife was also stuck by the rattan.

  Tongtong released my clothes and fell to the ground, picked up the flashlight, floated in front of me and placed it on a tree branch, shining directly at me.

  The child stretched out her hand and touched the dragon blood vine wrapped around me, but there was no way to get it off. I suddenly had an idea and asked her to bring a torch over.

  Dare to tie me up, watch me burn you into ashes. Tongtong immediately brought a fire over and I told her to burn the three rattan roots that tied me up.

  Tong Tong grunted and raised the torch, floating to Teng Teng who immediately caught fire. In less than half a second, Teng Teng let go, and I fell from three or four meters high to the ground, almost breaking my waist.

  Tongtong dropped the flashlight, and I caught it and shone it on the vines that had just bound me. They had already retreated back up into the tree. Meanwhile, Tongtong was burning the vines that had tied up Xiaogui. Before long, a small black corpse fell from the tree.

  This disgusting little monster doesn't know how it was tied up by the rattan, maybe it ran to the tree and bumped into these rattans. What makes me extremely puzzled is that these dragon blood rattans can move? Are they plants or animals after all?

  I got up, picked up the small black body and put it back in the bag. At this time, Tongtong also came down from the tree. She was just a projected human figure and didn't have a physical body, so the vines couldn't bind her.

  I'm a person who holds grudges, I picked up a pile of withered branches on the ground and piled them up at the foot of an old locust tree, lit it on fire. Suddenly, the dragon blood vines hanging down from the old locust tree like tentacles started flailing wildly, then all retreated back into the tree.

  Damn it's scary, fortunately I'm clever enough to know that except for water, all monsters and ghosts are afraid of fire. Since the little devil was caught, this old tree is also quite old, can't burn it to death, so I dug up the firewood from under the roots and stomped it out.

  I caught the little ghost, and Tongtong and I were about to leave the pagoda tree forest when she suddenly asked me if we weren't going to catch that tree spirit? It was only then that I remembered, there's still a tree spirit we haven't seen!

  This tree spirit has been hindering me from doing my business under the ancient camphor tree next to the grave mound at the foot of the mountain, and then it followed me up the mountain and released a little ghost that killed Grandma, how can I let it off?

  In the woods of this mountain pass, every locust tree has many dragon blood vines hanging down from it. To avoid being tied up by the vines like before, I made a torch and held it in my hand.

  Holding a torch in my hand, not only can it illuminate the way, but also protect myself from harm. When I was young and mischievous, wherever I went, as long as I saw a vine nearby, I would stretch out the flame to burn it, and those vines would shrink back up into the tree. These frightening vines have now become amusing toys, what a huge transformation!

  We walked for five or six minutes, and unknowingly arrived at the edge of the forest. Tiantian suddenly said that someone was coming. I immediately threw the torch to the ground, stomped it out with a few kicks, and hid behind a tree, looking up at the mountain slope. Indeed, before long, I vaguely saw five black shadows, whose bodies seemed to be four men and one woman, and they were no more than fifty meters away from me.