Chapter 908: Parasitic Wyrmwood
*Bing-Bong*
Wait a minute…
|Oh, what now?|
Did you mess up the order of when the Zhen Clan was supposed to show up to save their grandpa? Because I swore you had a time table of arrivals.
|Time is relative in both reality and for the purpose of plot progression. I mean…deadlines do exist in reality, but I try not to think about them.|
That explains our placeholder texts…
|Silence.|
*Bing-Bong*
_______________________
As the two groups of Zhen Clan warriors debated on what to do in this situation, due to absolutely none of them having any deep knowledge in regards to aether plant life, the one person in their family that did have any relevant knowledge had finally shown up.
“Why are y’all just standing around?”
“Oh thank the gods, you’re here.”
“Really? Not gonna ask about the giant mammoth ride?”
“I mean…”
Zhen Jin, Zhen Xing, Zhen Ye and Zhen Tai had arrived via the power of Zhen Liu’s mammoth puppet viking.
…
[Hey, Frosttusk.]
[Hey, Frosttusk.]
[Y’all haven’t left yet?]
[Nah, we still got outta escort these guys to the exit.]
[They were waiting for your passengers to show up before doing anything.]
[Why?]
[Just watch.]
…
“Xiao Jin, shot in the dark, please tell me you recognize what kind of weird tree is currently draining the aether from our father and guest elder.”
“Probably. Let me see.”
The fifth elder of the Zhen Clan proceeded to dismount from his spot on Frosttusk’s back in order to get closer to the aforementioned trees. As for the rest of his group, they dismounted as well but did so in order to converse with the others. In their experience, it was better to stay quiet so that the experts had time to work and figure things out.
On a side note, this also gave Frosttusk an opportunity to gather alongside Screamira and Hurricroak.
“Hmm….”
Thankfully, it didn’t take the elder too long to identify what was going on…
“…oh shit…”
Unfortunately, it didn’t sound like it was a good thing to the ears of the others.
“…okay.”
Once Elder Zhen Jin finished his identification work, he turned to the gathered elders and scions of the Zhen Clan. A flat expression was plain on his face as he did.
“Well, there’s good news and bad news. Good news is that we technically touch the tree and rescue the patriarch and hermit.”
“Oh. I guess that means we can go and cut them out then,” Zhen Long concluded, prompting Zhen Xi and Zhen Lao to walk over to the trees.
“The bad news is that if we do try to remove them here, the trees will react and actively drain them both into dried out husks,” Zhen Jin said as a follow-up, causing his two older brothers to stop in their tracks and look at him with bewildered expressions of shock.
“What the fuck?!”
“Open with that, next time!”
With the momentum of the moment effectively murdered by Zhen Jin’s words, the elders and scions looked at Elder Zhen Jin to provide an explanation that was a bit more elaborate than, “drained to a dried out husk”.
Picking up on this feeling, Zhen Jin proceeded to spill the metaphorical beans.
“I’m not sure exactly what did this, but they’re entangled in [Parasitic Wyrmwood]. It’s a type of parasitic tree that has been infused with dragon force, if it wasn’t completely obvious by the name. One wrong move on our end and we’re going to be dealing with a pair of angry Root Wyrms with the powers of both our father and whatever the hell Hermit Zhong Wei knows.”
“That’s…bad,” Zhen Ye
“Incredibly so.”
“Trees can be parasites?”
“Any living thing can technically be a parasite under the right conditions.”
“Including people.”
“Y-yeah,” Zhen Jin nodded while ignoring the weird conversational flow happening amongst the scions.
…
[Alright, we gotta stop influencing the people we possess so much.]
[But it’s funny!]
…
“Anyways, I know of a way to treat and extract father and the hermit elder from the trees without causing the draining effect to occur. The only problem is that all the stuff I would need in order to do so, is back home. Meaning-”
“We’re going to have to lug these trees back home ourselves.”
“Yup.”
“Great…”
It should be noted that the reason for the mild griping about having to lug an entire tree out of the gate wasn’t necessarily because the thing was heavy or because it would drain them of their aether, it was due to the sheer size of the damn things.
It was going to take two people at minimum to carry each one, and a whole lot of effort to just get even one out of the ground to-
SOUND OF ROOTS BEING TORN FROM THE GROUND, LIKE THE CHAINS OF BONDAGE THAT DARE TO HOLD BACK THE PROLETARIAT MASSES.
____________________
*Bing-Bong*
Uh…what the fuck was that sound effect?
|My normal machine broke and I had to use a back-up one.|
From what era?
|I don’t know, I got it from a garage sale. But it has this cool star symbol on it…alongside a hammer and sickle-ooh! Maybe We can give-|
Stop. Stop that now.
|What?|
Just…just stop…
*Bing-Bong*
____________________
“We got it!”
“Ey yo, what?”
“Xiao Hai, what the fuck?!”
In the moment of time it took the elders to try and come up with something on how to transport these two trees, Zhen Hai had decided to take action.
Well, not just Zhen Hai.
The boxing primates that had opted to follow Zhen Hai after he had defeated their champion had noticed that he and his family troop were busy trying to figure out how to transport a pair of funny looking trees, so they figured they’d be proactive and help to move it for them.
A decision that entailed a pair of the biggest gorilla-like aether beasts among them to walk up to the [Parasitic Wyrmwood] trees and just…yank them out of the ground like turnips.
Surprisingly, the two apes made sure to be as careful as possible in their extraction in order to not jostle or hurt the two old people trapped inside them.
“OOK, OOK!”
Once the two old warriors were secured, the two gorilla-like aether beasts gave a pair of thumbs up.
“Huh…alright, fuck it,” Zhen Long shrugged in acceptance of the strange situational aid, “Zhen Clan, let’s move out and get grandfather and the hermit to safety!”
As the second-in-command and eldest son of Zhen Shi, Zhen Long was used to the others following his lead when he said so.
Which is why it came to a mild surprise when he heard the following sentences.
“Wait, what?”
“What about the Seventh Elder?”
“What about Xiao Liu?”
“They’re still in danger!”
“Not to mention the princess.”
“Guys, come on…”
It wasn’t that Zhen Long was heartless or didn’t care that his nephew was risking life and limb, he just understood two important things.
Firstly, it was better for the Zhen Clan as a whole for a majority of them to get out of the wandering ruins alive with whatever gains they’ve gotten so far with them. While it would be preferred for everyone to make it out alive, the nature of the world was cold and cruel. Only the fittest could survive its many trials and tribulations.
Secondly, and most importantly, Zhen Long had developed a suspicion that Zhen Liu and his youngest brother would be just fine. After all, it wasn’t just them that were fighting that weird dragon monkey.
…
[Man, how much longer are we going to have to stand around here like this?]
[I don’t know, but I’m starting to lose heat.]
[I think they’re almost…wait a minute…why is the eldest of the lost walking towards us with a determined look on his face?]
[Oh shit, did we finally get caught?]
…
Zhen Long walked over to the gathered group of Zhen Liu’s eclectic “puppets” with a grim yet determined look on his face.
Despite all of the good fortune that Zhen Liu’s sudden revival and talents had brought with him, he still couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something deeper and possibly more sinister to his nephew’s abilities.
But alas, he couldn’t really do anything about it anyways at this point, so he might as well go along for the ride.
“Alright…I ‘m probably making myself look and sound crazy,” Zhen Long suddenly said in a direct address to the “puppets”. “But I get the feeling that there is a lot more to you lot than what Xiao Liu has been telling us, so please…go and help my nephew and brother in dealing with whatever the hell they’re dealing with. We can handle the rest from here.”
The trio of “puppets” that were assigned to the Zhen Clan warriors looked at Zhen Long with blank expressions, after all that was the role they were meant to play.
However, seeing the determination and assuredness in not only his eyes, but in the eyes of everyone else…they decided to act.
Without saying a word, the trio of “puppets” immediately made their way to Zhen Liu’s direction, hearing the faintest murmur of a thank-you from the Zhen Clan elders.
…
[Huh…I guess they don’t know that we’re completely loyal to the maestro then…]
[Looks like it.]
[…we should convince the producer to tell the truth at some point.]
[Agreed.]
