Starting Off Survival With A Small Treehouse-Chapter 166 - 161: Blast! (4400 words!)

Under Xu Xin’s watchful gaze, layer upon layer of mutant vines wrapped around the heart’s exterior began to peel away from the outermost layer. Dozens of vines flickered with red light in rhythm with the heartbeat, swaying gently.

"Damn it!" Xu Xin cursed under his breath, then turned to the four beasts and whispered, "In a moment, I’ll fire the burning arrow. Once the vines catch fire, we’ll run to the ground as fast as possible, got it?"

The beasts all nodded in response.

He steadied himself and loaded a burning arrow onto the crossbow.

Looking into the underground space, dozens of vines swayed around the vine ball, covering it like a row of guardians standing by the "heart."

Xu Xin squinted, aiming at the gaps between the vines, and pulled the trigger.

"Woosh——" With the enhancement of the blue-grade crossbow, the speed of the burning arrow was incredibly fast. Sparks flew from the arrow as it rubbed against the air, tracing a streak of light in the sky.

As long as it’s not obstructed, it can pass through the gaps of the outer vines and hit the inner vine ball!

But things didn’t go as planned. In the instant the burning arrow lit up, the outer dozen vines suddenly became agitated!

A few blood-thorned vines lashed at the incoming burning arrow, moving so fast that they directly swatted the arrow aside, while the other vines all attacked Xu Xin.

"Shit!" Xu Xin dodged back around the corner in an instant. Several blood-patterned vines stabbed in, grazing his armor and embedding straight into the walls of the passage.

The walls were not rock but dry clay, into which the blood-thorned vines buried themselves several meters deep!

Just as they were about to pull out and continue their attack, Mimi leaped up, several silver streaks flashing, shredding the few vines in the passage into pieces.

Meanwhile, a sudden blaze ignited in the underground space!

Xu Xin peeked out and found that it was caused by the burning arrow. Though it hadn’t hit the inner vine ball, it had struck the base of a blood-patterned vine on the edge, sparking an instant fire!

Nice! With the vines packed so densely in here, lighting one on fire meant the others couldn’t escape!

However, the next scene left Xu Xin wide-eyed in amazement.

All the surrounding vines abandoned their attack on Xu Xin and launched a savage assault on the burning blood-patterned vine!

Under countless whips and stabs, the vine was shredded to pieces, and the flames on it were extinguished by the blows, without any chance to spread.

The vines could actually prevent a fire from happening!

This all happened within a few seconds, and Xu Xin’s hands didn’t stop, having already loaded an explosive bolt.

"Cover your ears, everyone!" he said, then pulled the trigger.

"Boom!"

Although the explosive bolt was hit by the blood-thorned vines, at the moment of impact, the bolt erupted with a violent roar, blasting all the vines reaching for it into halves!

He’s going to blast open a gap with the explosive bolt to send in a burning arrow and ignite that vine ball!

Amidst the swirling smoke, Xu Xin fired another explosive bolt at the opening he created.

The several intact vines guarding the perimeter again lashed at the incoming explosive bolt, while the other vines all attacked Xu Xin!

Xu Xin dodged back into the corner once more, as blood-thorned vines lashed continuously at the entrance to the underground space, with several blood-patterned vines piercing the walls at the corner.

Suddenly, Afu let out a piercing scream, causing the vines that had finished attacking and were about to withdraw to freeze. Xu Xin’s keen eyesight caught the fine cracks on their branches caused by Afu’s sonic attack.

Afu’s attack was quite effective in the cave! Moreover, it didn’t affect him at all!

At the same time, Mimi and Silver King sprang up together, attacking the frozen vines and tearing them into shreds in an instant.

Xu Xin didn’t stop his actions, loading another explosive arrow and continuing to bombard the same spot.

The few remaining vines on the perimeter all lashed at the explosive arrow. With a "boom," these vines were blown halfway to bits, and the remaining halves flickered faintly in the heart’s pulse.

They could have avoided being hit; given their speed, the vines could have dodged, but the vines’ true task was to protect the heart behind them. Xu Xin saw through their determination to defend the "heart" at all costs, striking where they had to guard, which resulted in them now only half-intact.

Suddenly, the heart’s beating grew more intense, and the halved branches swaying on the ground started glowing intensely red, rapidly beginning to regenerate and grow!

The second layer of the vine ball also started to stir, showing signs of loosening. Once they became active, more vines would join the attack, making it nearly impossible to harm the blood-red beating heart with these endlessly regenerating and attacking vines!

Now’s the time!

Xu Xin quickly loaded and fired a burning arrow!

This was just as the first batch of vines hadn’t fully regrown, and the second batch hadn’t fully activated. The burning arrow accurately struck the vine ball, and instantly, a part of the vine ball started burning.

Due to the chaotic distribution of vines on the vine ball, the flames quickly ignited many vines and began to spread.

Xu Xin didn’t stop there; he continued to rapidly nock and shoot until, upon firing the fourth burning arrow, it was struck aside by the newly-grown first batch of vines.