I Conquered the Villain Boss Chapter 40
Translated by Digitalian (ko-fi)
Chapter 40: It’s All Thanks To You
After the vines spread out in all directions, the oppressive feeling that was looming over Jiang Ran like a shadow and making her breathless disappeared.
Being held in Si Xu's embrace with one arm, Jiang Ran felt that her head was still a little dizzy – what was going on now? What was it that had been staring at her just now? Did the sense of dissonance she felt come from those vines?
"It's a mutated plant with psychic-type abilities." Si Xu reminded Gu Yunqing, "Be careful."
"Got it!"
There was a constant rustling in her ears. From the corner of her eye, Jiang Ran saw the vines shaking their leaves crazily and climbing along the parking lot, trapping them in the middle.
"Jiang Ran, get in the car." Si Xu took two steps back, opened the car door with one hand, and put Jiang Ran into the car. "Don't look. Wait until I tell you to come out."
"Okay."
Although Si Xu told her not to look, Jiang Ran still observed the situation outside through the car window.
Unlike ordinary ivy, the leaves of the mutated vines were as hard as iron. There were sharp saw-toothed objects around the leaves, which destroyed everything in their path.
Being unprepared, the superhuman guarding the outermost area immediately sustained several wounds that were so deep that the bones could be seen.
"Burn it with fire!" Gu Yunqing jumped on the roof of a car, unleashed a wind blade to block the vines that were aiming at him, and shouted, "It has psychic-type abilities. Those whose superpower level is below three, stay back!"
With Gu Yunqing in charge, the team that was in panic due to the sudden attack quickly regained their composure.
Like what Gu Yunqing determined, even if the plant had mutated, it still retained the characteristic of being afraid of fire.
After being hit with fire by the superhumans with fire-type abilities, the malicious-looking vines that had been attacking resolutely retracted their leaves and retreated.
Si Xu did not join the battlefield. He stood by the car with his sword in one hand. His eyes scanned the vines outside and stopped at a certain spot.
The parking lot was surrounded by green vines. After all, the number of superhumans with fire-type abilities was limited. Even if a section of the vines was forced to retreat because of the fire, the vines would continue to attack from another direction.
However, it was still a plant after all. No matter how smart it became after mutation, it couldn’t survive without its roots.
Si Xu held his sword and walked in a certain direction.
Under the collapsed wall was where the vines had gathered the corpses –human bodies were stored there to provide nutrients.
Therefore...
When Si Xu moved, the vines seemed to be aware of it.
The green leaves suddenly stood upright and quivered slightly in the wind.
Si Xu frowned. Was this... psychic control?
Sensing something was wrong, the white figure moved forward in a flash, jumped over the shriveled bodies on the ground, and landed lightly on the collapsed wall.
The vines swarmed over and slashed at Si Xu with their sharp leaves.
"Si Xu!" Jiang Ran, who had been watching Si Xu, exclaimed in a low voice. Then, she quickly raised her hand to cover her mouth, fearing that she would distract him.
Around the parking lot, the vines that had not retreated were still quivering with their leaves facing the sky. Su Qin and Gu Yunqing looked at each other and took action at the same time with a tacit understanding.
The two of them used all their strength to cut down the low-level vines as easily as cutting fruits. However, before they could finish off all the vines, a scream came from the people surrounded at the innermost of the circle.
Song Rong turned around and saw He Ru pouncing on Jiang Yu and biting his ear fiercely.
The woman's mouth was full of blood, but she was unaware of what she was doing. She was no different from a zombie.
"It's psychic control. Knock her out!" Su Qin grabbed a vine with her bare hands and gave Song Rong an order while she was busy tackling the vine, "Knock out all low-level superhumans and ordinary people."
"Okay!"
Outside, the superhumans with fire-type abilities and the two captains were tackling the vines, while Song Rong led the others to knock out their peers who were affected by the psychic-type abilities one by one.
Ordinary people posed minimal threat because even if they were aggressive, they were no match for the superhumans. However, it was a little tricky to deal with those low-level superhumans who had been controlled.
They began to cast their superpowers non-stop, attacking everyone present indiscriminately.
The scene was chaotic all at once.
……
A silver stream of light suddenly rose up, exploding like fireworks, and the scattered strands were filled with a lethal aura.
Wherever the stream of light went, the hard leaves were cut off together with the stems and fell to the ground, withering in an instant.
Swinging his sword to cut down the vines that attacked him, Si Xu drew his sword and leaned over, stabbing the ground hard.
Snap.
The sword enveloped in a space blade penetrated the rubble of the wall, pierced into the soil, and continued downward, cutting off the solid roots of the vines precisely.
The menacing vines froze on the spot as though the pause button had been pressed. After a momentary pause, starting from the roots where Si Xu was, the withered yellow color of decay spread rapidly.
"Is it dead?" Tossing away the vine she was holding, Su Qin retreated to Gu Yunqing’s side and whispered, "Seventh Brother cut off its roots."
"Phew, fortunately, Seventh Brother was powerful." Gu Yunqing wiped the sweat off his face. "Otherwise, I wonder when all this would end." As he said that, he couldn't help cursing, "Darn it, I've been really unlucky lately. I encounter things with psychic-type abilities everywhere."
Amused by the way her boyfriend was flying into a rage, Su Qin patted the top of his head. "You’ll definitely encounter these again in the future. Calm down~"
After the vines withered, the people who were controlled gradually returned to their senses.
Knowing that she almost bit off Jiang Yu's ear, He Ru pushed aside Yi Xi who was supporting her, squatted and retched.
"Why are you vomiting? I was the one who was bitten, okay? I haven't even said anything yet!" Covering his ear with a handkerchief, Jiang Yu said angrily, "I should be the one vomiting instead!"
"I-I'm sorry..." The girl's voice was hoarse. She said in a choked voice, "Are you okay?"
"I'm okay." Jiang Yu rolled his eyes. "Don't worry. I won't die."
How unlucky of him. Seeing that He Ru was attractive, Jiang Yu wanted to impress her during the mutated plant’s attack. Who would have thought that this woman would behave like a zombie after being controlled?
Fortunately, his teammates knocked her out in time. Otherwise, she would have bitten off his ear.
What tough luck he had, indeed.
……
After using his sword to cut off the roots of the mutated plant, Si Xu put away his sword and jumped down from the ruins. He said to Gu Yunqing who came up to him, "Dig out the roots and burn them."
If the roots weren’t destroyed, the thing might come back alive again.
What the plant encountered today were them – a team composed of superhumans with fire-type abilities and high-level superpowers – if it hadn't been for Jiang Ran's reminder, even they would have been caught off guard, let alone those teams with ordinary people.
At the thought of that, Si Xu looked in the girl’s direction.
She was lying by the car window, biting her lip nervously. Her almond-shaped eyes were wide and round, and she was looking at him eagerly.
His cold eyes were tinged with a hint of softness. Si Xu stretched out his hand toward Jiang Ran. Jiang Ran understood his gesture. She immediately opened the car door and ran toward him.
Catching the running girl with one arm, Si Xu wrapped his arm around her waist. His eyes were gentle, and he praised her candidly, "Jiang Ran, it's all thanks to you that everyone is safe today."
"Yes, that’s right!" Thinking of the incident, Gu Yunqing said, "Sister Ranran, thank goodness you were alert and discovered something was amiss in time. Otherwise, when that thing cast its psychic superpowers full-on, we would all be captured and maybe even end up just like those corpses."
Those vines were a mutated plant with psychic-type abilities, and the psychic superpowers they released would affect the normal senses of human beings.
Those vines were very smart and sensed that there were higher-level superhumans in the team. They did not attack directly. Instead, they quietly released their psychic superpowers – which was a kind of psychic pollution.
The strange sense of dissonance Jiang Ran felt was due to the influence of the psychic superpowers they released.
"So, Sister Ranran, look, you’ve saved so many of us. I want to commend you on behalf of the team!" After Gu Yunqing explained the reason, he began to praise Jiang Ran. "What do you want? As long as it’s available in the team's supplies, I'll make the decision and give it to you as a reward!"
"I see." After being praised again, Jiang Ran waved her hands hurriedly. "No need – it’s fine as long as I didn't cause any trouble to you..."
She knew that ever since she started being with Si Xu, everyone had regarded her as Si Xu's possession. They were polite to her and took care of her all because of Si Xu.
She knew this very well, so she tried her best to not cause trouble to Si Xu.
In fact, when those vines started to attack, she felt a little relieved.
She did hear what Zhou Jian and the others said – something strange did occur here, which at least meant that she wasn't being unreasonable.
"That won't do. I must give you a reward!" Gu Yunqing also remembered what those people had said about her before. He smiled and said, "Sister Ranran, being too low-key will make people think you’re a pushover – you have to trample on some people hard so that they know their place, and who they can or can’t provoke."
Knowing the implication of Gu Yunqing's words, Jiang Ran shook her head decisively. "Thank you, Captain Gu, for your kind intentions. But those people don't matter to me – for those people, I think that as long as I live a good life, it's enough to infuriate them."
"Haha, what you said makes sense." Gu Yunqing did not force her. "Nonetheless, the reward must still be given – well," he raised his eyebrows at Si Xu, "I'll leave it to you to think about how to reward Sister Ranran. I'll deal with the remains of that thing first."
Gu Yunqing summoned the team members to dig up the roots of the vines, while Su Qin led some people to bury those killed by the mutated plant.
Jiang Ran looked at the corpses on the ground with a sad expression before looking away.
She could almost imagine the despair of these people who were bound to the wall by the vines, watching their lives being sucked away but unable to do anything.
"Those vines lived by eating human flesh and blood. If anyone was caught, they wouldn’t die immediately." After a pause, Si Xu added, "How pitiful."
Si Xu used the word “pitiful” to describe their plight. Jiang Ran guessed that these people must have gone through excruciating pain before they died.
"Jiang Ran, if it weren’t for your reminder today, many people here would have become like those corpses." After they were caught by the vines, they would turn into shriveled bodies as time passed.
"..."
After listening to his explanation, Jiang Ran had two questions in her mind. Out of instinctive vigilance, she only asked one, "Si Xu, are the superpowers of these vines highly evolved?"
She remembered that Gu Yunqing said psychic superpowers only worked on people whose superpower level was lower or similar.
"No." Si Xu said, "They only had second-level superpowers."
"Then..." Jiang Ran was even more puzzled, "Why couldn't you sense them?"
"Well, their psychic interference was blocked by me."
Jiang Ran, "..." Oh, he meant that the superpower level of those vines was too low and had no effect on him, so he didn't feel it at all... Was that what he meant?
No wonder those vines seemed to be wary of and avoided Si Xu. When she stood next to Si Xu, she didn't feel threatened by them.
Come to think of it, if Si Xu was the only one passing by here today, those vines would definitely not have attacked rashly.
……
After finally cleaning up the aftermath, Gu Yunqing told the team members to have a good rest so that they could hurry to the next destination before dark.
Jiang Ran was alone in the car with Si Xu, so she asked her second question.
"Si Xu, why was I able to feel the psychic superpower released by that thing?"