Chapter 14: Rapid Growth Vine Technique

"Watch out!" Zhou Wan shouted a warning. Drawing her compound bow to its limit, she released a sharp arrow that tore through the air, aiming straight for the Giant Crocodile Lizard's eye.

The beast merely jerked its head to the side.

With a sharp CLANG, the arrow grazed its rough, thick eyelid, sending a shower of sparks into the air without even piercing its scale armor. And the relentless momentum of its long tail didn't slow down in the slightest.

Lu Minghu was incredibly fast. The moment Zhou Wan called out, he was already dodging, narrowly evading the tail sweep. Twisting mid-air, he pushed his speed to the absolute limit, blurring into a series of afterimages as he leaped right next to the Giant Crocodile Lizard.

"Die!" Lu Minghu's eyes bulged with fury. He raised his roaring oil saw and swung it horizontally at the monster's head.

The Giant Crocodile Lizard hadn't expected this strange creature to move so quickly. It could only watch helplessly as the high-speed oil saw grew larger and larger in its vision.

SQUELCH!

Dark red blood sprayed through the air. The oil saw, wielding terrifying cutting power, ground its way through the top layer of the creature's scale armor, leaving a gash of raw crimson.

BUZZ!

Lu Minghu gritted his teeth, forcing the oil saw deeper into the Giant Crocodile Lizard's head with all his might. However, the flesh and blood of the creature's skull were so incredibly tough that the blade became lodged. For a moment, he couldn't push it any further.

Fortunately, Lu Minghu reacted quickly. Realizing he couldn't continue the attack, he instantly released the oil saw. Kicking off the air, he attempted to retreat. By then, the Giant Crocodile Lizard had finally recovered its wits.

"ROAR!"

The injury only ignited its feral rage. It violently thrashed its head, opened its foul-smelling maw, and forcefully spat something toward Lu Minghu's path of retreat.

SWISH!

A glob of murky slime shot from its mouth, striking Lu Minghu with a speed no less than that of a flying arrow.

"Ugh!" The hazy slime pierced cleanly through Lu Minghu's right shoulder. He crashed hard into a pile of shattered, scattered tables and chairs, lying motionless in the debris. All of this happened in a flash, over in the blink of an eye.

The enraged Giant Crocodile Lizard wanted to chase after him and completely tear the human who had hurt it to shreds. But ten vines arrived just in time, narrowly binding its limbs and temporarily suppressing its frenzied momentum.

Yet, right as Han Ning manipulated his vines to restrict the Giant Crocodile Lizard's movements, a dark shadow leaped out from the direction of the staircase. It was slightly smaller than the Giant Crocodile Lizard, but its size was still comparable to a full-grown adult. Its target wasn't Han Ning or Lu Minghu. It was Zhou Wan, who was standing at the very back!

"Zhou Wan!" Liu Feng's eyes nearly split open in panic. He unleashed the full force of his mind.

The scattered tables, chairs, cups, and plate fragments across the hall were swept up as if by an invisible storm, whistling through the air to smash into the smaller Crocodile Lizard pouncing toward Zhou Wan. However, the little beast was exceptionally cunning and blindingly fast. It executed a bizarre mid-air twist, causing most of the debris to harmlessly graze past its scale-covered body. Only a single heavy, solid wood chair crashed squarely into its back.

BANG!

The Crocodile Lizard stumbled from the hit, though the blunt force impact was largely absorbed by its tough leather armor. Its speed only dipped slightly; its pouncing momentum remained unbroken. Its massive jaw, lined with razor-sharp teeth, was already yawning open, exhaling a foul, hot breath right into her face.

Zhou Wan's reaction was equally fast. The moment Liu Feng made his move, she was already retreating rapidly, nocking another arrow onto her string. However, the space on the restaurant's second floor was limited. She had backed herself into a corner with nowhere left to run. The gaping maw was right in front of her eyes, and there was simply no time to draw her bow!

The situation had taken a drastic turn for the worse. One person was heavily injured, another was disarmed and wounded, and their core scout was facing a lethal threat. The terrifying power displayed by the two Crocodile Lizards filled the five of them with deep despair.

Han Ning thought, "These monsters... are just too strong." His heart felt as though it were being squeezed by an icy hand, the immense sense of crisis nearly suffocating him.

Chen Yan's miserable state, Lu Minghu's defeat, Zhou Wan's life hanging by a thread... all of this had happened in less than three seconds. Even the Intermediate Vine Technique seemed inadequate in the face of such ferocious monsters. The binds on the smaller Crocodile Lizard had been broken, and it was struggling to inflict any effective damage on the Giant Crocodile Lizard.

Han Ning's heart raced. "What do I do? What do I do? If this keeps up, we're all going to die!" A bizarre, electric numbness brought on by the life-and-death crisis continuously prickled across the surface of his skin.

He wondered, "Vine Technique, Rapid Growth, Animal Companion, Rejuvenation Technique... Which one can be of use?"

His brain worked at lightning speed.

"Vine Technique, Rapid Growth?"

Suddenly, an idea flashed like lightning in the dark, striking Han Ning's mind just as he was about to be swallowed by despair.

He reasoned, "Rapid Growth accelerates the growth cycle of plants, and the vines from the Vine Technique are plants, too! If... if I combine them, using Rapid Growth to catalyze the Vine Technique, can I make the vines instantly gain power and scale far beyond their limits?"

There was no time to consider its feasibility, let alone hesitate. Despite Liu Feng's desperate attempts to block it, the Crocodile Lizard's fangs were now less than half a meter away from Zhou Wan's throat.

Acting almost entirely on instinct, Han Ning frantically split the remaining Spiritual Power in his body into two. One portion surged toward his hands as he struggled to drive the Vine Technique to hold back the Giant Crocodile Lizard. The other portion was used to cast Rapid Growth.

His target—his own Vine Technique.

"Rapid Growth, grow for me!"

Han Ning roared in his heart, bright green light repeatedly flashing from the palms of his hands. As Rapid Growth was unleashed onto the Vine Technique, everything changed in an instant.

Centered around Han Ning, more than twenty green vines—each as thick as three fingers—burst out from the cracks in the floorboards, walls, and ceiling in front of him, beside him, and even behind him. These new vines were nearly a third thicker than before. The sharp wooden thorns covering the surface of each vine gleamed with a dull, heavy luster.

Even more astonishingly, the moment they appeared, they began to frantically twist, expand, interweave, and entangle at a speed visible to the naked eye, as if they were overdrawing their last drop of life force.

Casting two abilities simultaneously made Han Ning's vision go black. His brain felt like it had been hollowed out, and a powerful wave of dizziness and weakness rushed over him. His legs gave out, leaving him barely able to stand.

But the results were highly impressive.

The Crocodile Lizard lunging at Zhou Wan was met head-on and bound by seven or eight wildly dancing vines. Its tough scale armor was squeezed tighter and tighter by the barbed tendrils, emitting a teeth-aching CREAK.

"SCREECH!"

The Crocodile Lizard let out a shrill, miserable cry. It thrashed and squirmed relentlessly, its sharp claws tearing at the vines, but it simply couldn't break free from the steel-like cage of restraints. The immense force even lifted it straight into the air before slamming it brutally against the adjacent wall.

Meanwhile, the diameter of the vines still binding the Giant Crocodile Lizard rapidly swelled. Like creeping ivy, they swiftly spread across its entire body. The newly grown vines surrounding Han Ning shot out one after another, coiling tightly around the beast.

In just a few short seconds, the ten vines had multiplied into dozens!

Its massive torso, thick neck, muscular limbs, sweeping long tail, and even its ferocious head were caught in a death grip by the greenery.

"ROAR!"

The Giant Crocodile Lizard felt an unprecedented, colossal restraining force. Its gargantuan body erupted with utterly terrifying power as it thrashed wildly. Under its berserk strength, the restaurant's tables, chairs, and partitions were shredded like wet paper.

The vines coiled around its body were pulled taut, emitting overloaded, groaning CREAKS. Yet, for every vine that snapped, three or four thicker ones immediately surged forward to take its place.

Everyone was completely dumbfounded by the sight before them.

"What are you still standing there for? Get the oil saw and cut off their heads!"

It wasn't until Han Ning's weak voice rang out that they were finally snapped out of their momentary stupor.