Starting Off Survival With A Small Treehouse
Chapter 146 - 145: Breaking Through the Red Mist

Chapter 146: Chapter 145: Breaking Through the Red Mist

After all this effort and the risk of venturing into the Red Mist, all Xu Xin got was a broken little windmill, leaving him feeling both helpless and amused.

But at least, he didn’t encounter any danger.

Let’s head back; there doesn’t seem to be anything else here.

Mounting the Silver King, Xu Xin looked around and his face changed.

"... I was careless."

All the surrounding hills were already shrouded in dense Red Mist, and he could no longer find a spot where the mist was thin.

Without a thin area of Red Mist, it meant he could no longer safely exit.

Riding on the Silver King, Xu Xin approached the salt mine cave.

The Red Mist was densest here, with the smell becoming gradually pungent, transitioning into a stench. This was a stench he was all too familiar with, the very stench at the entrance of the underground world.

His previous suspicion was indeed correct: this Red Mist was the same red stench from those iron passages.

After observing the salt mine cave for a long while, Xu Xin breathed a sigh of relief.

Once the Red Mist completely engulfed the surrounding hills, the cave had ceased to spew forth red gases. The entire Red Mist seemed as if it was being sucked into something, only swirling and surging near the hills, showing no tendency to spread outward.

Xu Xin remained unhurried.

Previously, he didn’t dare to charge into the Red Mist because he wasn’t sure how much of the region was shrouded in it. He thought the entire internal resource area was covered.

Now it was different; he knew the Red Mist only enveloped this circle of hills, making it much easier to handle.

The Silver King, after several days of enhancement, had broken through a speed of 100 km/h. Although slower than Mimi and unable to burst into extreme speed instantly as Mimi could, with some distance to accelerate, it could sustain a speed of 100 km/h.

At a speed of 100 km/h, it’s enough to avoid the vines that need to emerge from unknown depths underground.

Though the vines were numerous and incredibly powerful, as long as they didn’t engage directly with a pack of them, there shouldn’t be much problem.

This means, as long as the Silver King runs headlong, it could directly escort Xu Xin and Keke through the several hundred meters thick Red Mist wall.

As for Mimi and the bat, they were nothing to worry about. Mimi could take a few laps in the Red Mist, using its speed to tease those strange vines before exiting without issue, and the bat simply wouldn’t be targeted as an enemy.

"Little bat... let’s give you a name. Hmm, we’ll call you Afu." Xu Xin clapped his hands, deciding on the bat’s name.

The bat... no, Afu flapped its wings twice on Mimi’s back, letting out a sharp cry, seemingly expressing dissatisfaction.

"Eep..." Keke covered her mouth with her little paw, as if laughing, and even the Silver King and Mimi turned their heads, appearing to regret their owner’s naming ability.

However, Xu Xin felt fine, nodding satisfactorily: "Afu, do you want to go into my bracelet, or fly out first?"

If Afu didn’t want to enter the bracelet, it would have to fly out first, as they might attract underground creatures, potentially harming Afu by mistake.

Afu let out a sharp cry, not considering much, it flapped its wings and flew into the Red Mist.

It seemed it genuinely didn’t want to enter the bracelet, perhaps the bracelet was just a silent, dark space akin to a prison.

The Red Mist was thick, and in the blink of an eye, Afu vanished from sight.

After waiting for a while, Afu’s call came from the other side of the Red Mist, indicating to Xu Xin that it had already passed through.

He immediately had the Silver King back up a few hundred meters, instructing it to charge through at maximum speed.

As for Mimi, it just needed to avoid running ahead of the Silver King. Otherwise, if vines appeared both in front and behind the Silver King, attacking from both sides, their speed might slow down, causing vines nearby to surround them, and then they would be done for.

"Keke, hold tight! Silver King, go!" Xu Xin commanded as he held a crossbow.

"Awooo—" Accompanied by a howl, the Silver King accelerated towards the Red Mist. Mimi synchronized with the Silver King’s speed, running side by side with it.

Xu Xin took out his crossbow, gripping it in hand. He dared not use a pike, fearing the resistance from such attacks would slow the Silver King down.

The Red Mist drew closer, and the Silver King reached its maximum speed. Xu Xin took a deep breath, holding it, and together with the Silver King and Keke, plunged into the Red Mist!

Their vision was instantly dominated by a sea of red.

Their sight in the Red Mist was severely limited, only seeing a few meters ahead.

As soon as the Silver King set foot in the Red Mist, after only a couple of strides, sounds of cracking ground and emerging vines echoed from behind.

Xu Xin turned back, his pupils shrinking.

In the swirling Red Mist, at least seven or eight vines burst forth, the Red Mist swirling around them, and the blood patterns on these vines radiated an eerie red light!

In the split second they emerged, they twisted and entangled together, forming into a giant drill, piercing towards Xu Xin!

This attack method! It was the attack style of the Copper Treasure Chest guardian beast!

Xu Xin raised his hand and shot a bolt towards the cluster of vines.

The crossbow bolt pierced the tip of the drill, only slightly hindering the vine’s attack.

The Silver King, who had already reached its speed limit, suddenly accelerated, narrowly avoiding the vine that brushed past its tail.

"Crack!" The vine drilled into the ground, creating a large hole and even collided head-on with its kind that was supposed to emerge from that spot!

The drill head instantly lifted, as Xu Xin glanced over, he saw a few unfortunate vines attempting to emerge from the pit had been broken, and the remaining half was retreating dejectedly.

... How pitiful.

In the blink of an eye, countless vines emerged from behind him, as blood-thorn vines lashed towards the Silver King’s body and legs, and Blood Patterned Vines mostly gathered together, attacking Xu Xin!

At this moment, Mimi took action, letting out an angry cry, and turned to slash its paw at the incoming blood-thorn vine.

The vine was instantly torn to shreds by its mutated cheetah claws, but this action caused Mimi to lag behind the Silver King by a step.

The newly emerged vines from behind the Silver King, along with the earlier ones, surrounded Mimi.

"Mimi!" Xu Xin shot another bolt towards them.

It turns out he was overly worried, as a bolt of orange lightning swiftly shot through the gaps between the vines, even shattering several vines nearby.

However, a few blood marks also appeared on Mimi’s body.

At that instant, Xu Xin noticed that the blood patterns on Mimi’s body, like those vines emerging from underground, were glowing with a blood-red light!

Xu Xin immediately looked at the Silver King, which was sprinting with all its might beneath him, and saw that the blood patterns on the Silver King were also glowing red!

No wonder, no wonder the Silver King, which had already been running at full speed, suddenly accelerated and dodged the vine’s attack.

This Red Mist can actually enhance the abilities of mutated beasts!

All of this happened in a matter of seconds, and by this time, the Silver King had already sprinted over a hundred meters.

With experience, and both the Silver King and Mimi’s abilities amplified, the remaining half of the journey was quite manageable.

The Silver King only needed to charge ahead, while Mimi was responsible for handling the vines that might attack Xu Xin and the Silver King, and dodge the vine barrage with its extremely high burst speed.

"Poof!" The trio emerged from the Red Mist, running another few dozen meters before coming to a halt.

The Silver King was hardly affected, its stamina was strong, and running these few hundred meters didn’t even count as a warm-up.

However, Mimi, who had just dealt with the vines behind them, was gasping for air, with several blood lines across its body.

In those few seconds, it had burst its extreme speed five times or more to evade the vine encirclement. Despite this, it wasn’t easy to evade the encirclement of dozens or hundreds of vines, and the blood-thorn vines had left trails of blood on its body.

Simultaneously, it had to use its claws to slay vines that might harm Xu Xin, sparking attacks while bursting with extreme speed, leaving it utterly exhausted, panting like a little dog with its tongue out, its chest heavily heaving.

"Mimi!" Xu Xin quickly dismounted from the Silver King’s back, walked to Mimi, parted its fur, and checked the depth of the wounds.

Fortunately, at least they hadn’t hit bones or internal organs, they were fairly severe flesh wounds. Blood was slowly seeping from the wounds and needed to be stopped quickly.

This time, Mimi didn’t avoid Xu Xin’s touch, whether because it was too tired to move, or had finally accepted him, allowing Xu Xin to touch the big cat for the first time as he wished.

Mimi’s fur was really smooth and soft... No, better quickly treat its wounds!

Xu Xin immediately took out a blue-grade hemostatic herb, ground it with two stones, and gently applied it to Mimi’s wounds.

The bat landed on one side, and the Silver King came up and started licking the wounds on Mimi that hadn’t been coated with the herb yet. Keke stood in front of Mimi’s head, using its little paw to touch Mimi’s head, which was larger than its own body.

The hemostatic herb worked instantly, and the wounds coated with it started to heal visibly, with Mimi letting out a comfortable purring sound.

Several very deep wounds healed quickly under the effect of the herb, leaving only a few patches of missing fur that would take time to grow back.

The rest of the wounds were shallow, basically skin-deep, and Mimi’s self-healing ability was quite strong, already showing signs of scabbing and self-healing, so Xu Xin used a green-grade hemostatic herb, applying it gently.

Mimi, whose wounds were mostly healed, propped itself off the ground and stood up, though it still looked very tired and needed a rest.

"Alright, Mimi, you should lie down for a while, we won’t go anywhere for now, I have something else to do." Xu Xin tentatively patted Mimi’s head, and as it slightly tilted its head, it didn’t dodge.

It really let him pat it!

Mimi sat by a tree, while Xu Xin looked towards the Red Mist.

The vines showed no sign of retracting, instead thrashing wildly in the Red Mist, some even attacking each other, resembling a miniature version of the underworld.

As Mimi was slaying the vines, a notification of score increase kept ringing in his ears.

[Killed a Blood Patterned Vine, earned points: 20]

[Killed a blood-thorn vine, earned points: 25]

Now these vines are not retracting, and there are so many, plus they won’t come out of the Red Mist to attack...

Isn’t this a perfect place to farm points!