As time passed, the people infected in Xiaoxia City also increased.
In less than two minutes after it had leveled up to silver-level, a shockwave came from its body and it upgraded to silver-level rank-2 and with that, its body color brightened.
Charcoal continuously attacked it but the blood-colored vine retaliated forcefully. A loud bang echoed and this time, Charcoal was blown away by the hit, smashing its head on the rock wall. Lin Huang could hear Charcoal's growl of anger though he was unable to witness what was happening.
"Xiao Hei, how long more do you need?" Lin Huang was panicked but Xiao Hei did not answer him.
After blowing Charcoal away, the blood-colored vine went back to attacking the ground and Lin Huang underneath it. Soon, the ground collapsed. The energy sphere protected Lin Huang who was hiding right at the bottom of it.
Lin Huang was extremely nervous because he was afraid that the ground would collapse any moment.
Fortunately, the blood-colored vine stopped attacking after a short while because Charcoal attacked it after recovering from its previous attack.
Knowing that his power was reduced to absolute inferiority, Charcoal decided not to launch a frontal attack but to wrestle it instead.
Flapping his wings, Charcoal spewed fire at the blood-colored vine continuously while dodging its attacks.
The dragon flames had no effect on the blood-colored vine but the burning sensation in its body annoyed it even more. It swung its vines to stop the flames but missed.
Seemingly, the blood-colored vine had noticed that Charcoal was there to distract it from attacking the ground. It decided not to bother with Charcoal and turned the tip of its vine into a drill bit to drill into the ground.
Underground, Lin Huang was still in his Specter form. There were changes to his vision that he experienced; he was able to see through the soil as if it was semi-transparent. He was initially in an upright direction and now he was lying down, with his body adhered firmly to the base of the energy sphere.
The tip of the drill was less than one meter away from him. Lin Huang's back was drenched in sweat. It would certainly wound him badly if he was struck by the blood-colored vine since its combat abilities were now silver-level rank-2.
Charcoal needed to get the blood-colored vine's attention. Charcoal pounced on the blood-colored vine once again with a close attack.
Although the combat abilities of the blood-colored vine had become stronger in addition to a substantial increase in its defensive power, Charcoal's attack was no longer as effective as it used to be. However, wounds still appeared on its body right after it was attacked by Charcoal's sharp claws and mouth claw.
Charcoal had triggered the blood-colored vine again and it was angry. It gave up attacking Lin Huang and fought Charcoal instead.
The blood-colored vine wrapped its vines around Charcoal's neck. Its force was now beyond what Charcoal could handle. Charcoal could not get rid of it at all and struggled using its mouth and claws at the same time.
"Warning: Charcoal encountered a fatal attack. Please recall it immediately!" A notification suddenly popped up in front of Lin Huang.
"Recall Charcoal!" Lin Huang instructed because if Charcoal died, its monster card would disappear as well. It was not easy to obtain an Epic dragonkin.
Once the instruction to recall it was given, Charcoal instantly turned into a card and returned to Lin Huang's body.
The vines with the circumference of an adult arm transformed into a drill bit and penetrated the ground repeatedly.
"Xiao Hei, how long more do you still need? Please answer me!"
Lin Huang felt that he could not withstand the force anymore. The vine's attack had swept away most of the ground close to him. The closest attack it made was less than 20 centimeters away from the back of his head. If the vines twisted upward a little more, it would have drilled a hole in Lin Huang's head.
"Done!" Lin Huang could sense the warmth on his palm vanish.
The blood-colored vine growled loudly. One of its vines fell right on Lin Huang's head. It was so fast that Lin Huang could not avoid it. At this moment, Charcoal was summoned once again and it covered Lin Huang as he ran.
The blood-colored vine's fatal attack struck Charcoal's on its left wing and dragon blood splattered all over the place.
Lin Huang turned back and saw the scene.
"Summon Bai!" Lin Huang ordered.
The next moment, Bai appeared in the underground cavern too.
"Upgrade him the second time!" Lin Huang instructed again. The reason why he summoned and upgraded Bai was so that they could attack the parasite together.
"Are you sure you would like to use two Advance Cards to upgrade Bai?"
"I'm sure!"
Two beams of golden light filled the air, enveloping Bai. Soon, it had completely morphed into a big golden cocoon with Bai wrapped inside.
The strange aura Bai exuded caught the blood-colored vine's attention. As it saw a big golden cocoon on the ground, it sensed something alarming and immediately attacked the cocoon, stopping the mutation of the monster that appeared all of a sudden.
If this was an ordinary monster mutation, perhaps its attack could hinder the mutation. However, with the Advancement Card, the process would not be interrupted. Even if it was attacked by a demigod, the outcome could not be altered. The blood-colored vine's attack was useless.
In less than one minute, the golden cocoon disappeared.
A young man with white hair appeared again in front of Lin Huang, his aura was even more deadly and dangerous. However, there was a mask on his face that covered half of his face.
"Congratulations! You have gained an Epic Monster Card – Four-Winged Blood Baron (God's Servant)."
At this moment, the blood-colored vine launched an attack again.
All of a sudden, Bai's eyes turned bloody and he extended four of his crimson-colored wings, turning into a stream of blood and disappeared from the ground.
He acted so fast that Lin Huang could not capture it at all.
"Charcoal, you will assist Bai to kill the parasite!" Lin Huang ordered.
The wound on Charcoal's wing was recovering. He was born with extremely fast healing abilities.
He fluttered his wings again and spat dragon flames on the blood-colored vine repeatedly and it no longer had the recovery ability from the energy sphere.
On the other hand, four of the crimson-colored wings behind Bai had turned into four bloody, sharp blades that cut the blood-colored vine at a terribly fast speed. His body resembled a beam of bloody light, shuttling back and forth underground, cutting up multiple parts of the parasite's body.
Although the blood-colored vine defense was astonishing, Bai's sharp wings were more powerful than gold-rank equipment.
There were too many wounds on the vine's body because of Bai’s wings and Charcoal attacked it from the other side. Soon, it was exhausted.
Lin Huang then noticed that the aura of the blood-colored vine rising again.
He did not know that there were more than 100,000 people infected in Xiaoxia City. Furthermore, many of them were bronze-level hunters and some were even silver-hunters.
The silver glow was constantly gushing out of the blood-colored vine's body. This was a sign that it was going to breakthrough once again to silver-level rank-3.
When he was underneath the blood-colored vine, he emerged from the ground and transformed back into himself. He grabbed a Sword Relic and used Thunder Sword on the wound caused by Bai earlier.
Lin Huang's lightning-fast action caught the blood-colored vine off guard. Its gigantic body was cut in half by the sharp relic but it did not die. A vine that was transformed into a drill bit fiercely penetrated Lin Huang's stomach and came out from his waist. This strike had blown his body away causing him to hang in mid-air, making him look like bacon hanging on a hook.
Lin Huang spat out a mouthful of blood. Before he lost his consciousness, he was able to say, "Use the Healing Card..."
As soon as Lin Huang regained his consciousness, he saw that Bai and Charcoal were beside him.
"Where is the parasite?" He saw that the blood-colored vine was no longer moving.
"It’s dead?!" Lin Huang could not believe his eyes.
"Congratulations. You have gained an Epic Parasite Species Card. The parasite belongs to a new species of monster. It does not have a name. You may name it."
"Then I'll name it the Demonic Dandelion Vine." Lin Huang recalled the demonic dandelion tree that he read from a novel. It was a parasitic monster too. He chose this name.