Chapter155

After Xu Nuo made such a statement, Zhu Xiao sensed something was wrong. He instinctively stepped back, frowning as he asked, "What do you mean by that? No cooperation?"

As he spoke, he was already condensing a spatial blade in his palm, clearly intending to act if Xu Nuo refused.

Xu Nuo, though he saw Zhu Xiao's action, acted as if he hadn't, giving a cold laugh, "At the moment, I have no intention of cooperating."

Zhu Xiao had anticipated this outcome from Xu Nuo's previous words, but he was still disappointed. Finding a third-tier wood-type ability user and someone with control abilities of the same rank wasn't easy.

However, more important than that was keeping the secret of his mutated plant. No matter how regrettable, these two had to die.

With a cold laugh, he said, "Since you're unwilling to cooperate and have seen our village's secrets, you won't be leaving here today. So, I'll give you one last chance: death or cooperation, choose one."

Park Su, hearing this, knew Zhu Xiao was ready to use force since soft persuasion didn't work. He immediately straightened up, preparing for battle. The tiny pothos that had been lurking near Zhu Xiao flashed with a faint blue light, ready to strike at any moment.

Xu Nuo, not surprised by Zhu Xiao's words, responded with a cold laugh, "Unfortunately, I choose neither. But since you've given me a choice, I'll give you two: die or submit to us."

Zhu Xiao almost laughed in anger at this. Without hesitation, he shot his spatial blade towards Park Su and Xu Nuo, intending to teach them a lesson since they didn't know their place.

He thought his strike, while not lethal, would at least injure them, making them less arrogant and more compliant. However, to his shock, the one injured wasn't them but himself. He looked down at the significant cut blossoming on his abdomen, momentarily stunned.

He couldn't fathom how he got injured or how his attack on Xu Nuo had missed. He was sure of his speed, and with their abilities supposedly suppressed, how could Xu Nuo dodge so effortlessly? The spatial blade hit the opposite wall instead.

What was even more distressing was that he hadn't even seen the movement when Xu Nuo and Park Su flanked him, a dagger now pressed against his throat.

This speed made him doubt if their abilities had been suppressed at all; it was comparable to a first-tier speed ability user or higher.

But how could that be? His men clearly saw them get hit by the serum. Could they be resistant to it?

However, Zhu Xiao wasn't one to just sit there; although he had told them he was a space ability user, few knew how to use such abilities. His powers were not as common as those of the natural element users, and in all his years of robbing ability user teams, he had never encountered another space ability user.

They likely do not know that I can still perform brief spatial shifts; thus, even with their blades at my throat, a slight movement could change my position, sparing me from an immediate fatal strike.

This is perhaps my most crucial means of survival, though with my current ability tier, I can only manage four short-range shifts at best.

Under normal circumstances, I would have escaped by now, but given the extraordinary situation before me, I couldn't help but probe, "You were deceiving me earlier, weren't you? Your abilities weren't sealed at all?

Did you feign being hit by the serum for my men to see, or perhaps one of you is a dual-ability user with illusion as the hidden power?

You created an illusion to mislead them into giving me false reports, lowering my guard from the start. Your aim was this mutated vine all along, wasn't it?"

Xu Nuo, seeing through his thoughts, gave a cold laugh, "I haven't the patience for your speculative chatter. Think what you will.

As the saying goes, 'to the victor go the spoils.' Your life is in my hands now, and since you refuse to cooperate, then die."

With that, Xu Nuo's dagger moved swiftly towards Zhu Xiao's major artery without hesitation. Zhu Xiao hadn't anticipated such decisiveness; he used his displacement skill without a second thought.

Once out of the dagger's reach, he felt a cold sweat on his back, realizing that one more moment's hesitation could have meant his end.

This man was indeed more ruthless than he'd imagined, but before he could catch his breath, Xu Nuo's next attack was already upon him.

Zhu Xiao was forced into a desperate defense, throwing one spatial blade after another, yet none touched Park Su. Instead, thanks to Xu Nuo's guiding, most of his blades struck the vine behind him.

At first, Park Su didn't grasp Xu Nuo's intent, but after seeing the third blade hit the vine, he understood.

Xu Nuo wanted to test the nature and aggression of this mutated plant. Judging by its appearance, it was undoubtedly a plant with strong offensive capabilities.

However, since they had entered, the vine had remained still, almost as if dead, hanging limply. Park Su speculated that Zhu Xiao might have used some method to put the plant into a dormant state or perhaps it was weakened from excessive harvesting.

Alternatively, Zhu Xiao might bring people here often, conditioning the vine to appear harmless to keep wood-type ability users here for healing or other tasks.

If this last speculation were true, then the fate of those wood-type ability users Zhu Xiao spoke of was a grave concern.

Indeed, under the repeated assault of Zhu Xiao's spatial blades, the vine finally stirred, initially with just a slight tremor, but Park Su, aware of Xu Nuo's plan, kept his eyes on it.

Seeing the vine move, Park Su immediately edged towards the door. There was nothing friendly about this vine; it was far from the cute allure of his little pothos.

All the zombies killed by the pothos: "Where's the cuteness in your pothos? Can you stop being so blatantly biased?"

Not long after Park Su moved to the door, the vine began to shake violently, and Zhu Xiao, witnessing this, turned pale in an instant.

While fending off Xu Nuo, he urgently said, "Let's negotiate a truce. If we keep fighting like this, we'll both end up dead here. It's awake and very aggressive; it's not easily dealt with.

More importantly, it attacks indiscriminately. It won't care if you're here to observe or harm it; in its eyes, we're just fertilizer. If we stay here, none of us will leave."

Seeing Zhu Xiao's genuine fear of the vine, Xu Nuo's lips curled into a sinister smile, "You can leave, but you must submit to me. Otherwise, you're not leaving through this door.

But don't worry about my safety; I can protect myself against this vine. However, I can't guarantee your safety if you hesitate too long."

As he spoke, Xu Nuo's attacks grew more fierce, though, in reality, he was only using less than twenty percent of his strength.

Zhu Xiao, struggling to cope, gritted his teeth, "This is outright taking advantage! Isn't that a bit shameless?"

Xu Nuo found this accusation hilariously ironic and laughed coldly, "You, a highway robber, talking about taking advantage? If we didn't have our countermeasures, we'd be the ones lying dead.

So, there's no 'taking advantage' here. Make your choice; that big fellow seems to be getting more excited by the minute."

As if to confirm Xu Nuo's words, the vine whipped its thorny tendrils towards them with alarming speed and force, startling Park Su, who took a couple of steps back, worried about Xu Nuo getting hurt.

Fortunately, Xu Nuo handled it with ease, but Zhu Xiao wasn't so lucky. The vine's movement was too swift, covering too wide an area. He used another displacement, his third one.

He only had one more chance; if he couldn't use it to escape, he wouldn't make it out of here. Seeing how effortlessly Xu Nuo dodged the vine, Zhu Xiao realized the vast gap in their abilities. Xu Nuo had been holding back, probably to make him submit.

With this in mind, he glanced towards the exit and saw Park Su looking worriedly at Xu Nuo, which gave him an idea.

Since Xu Nuo cared so much about Park Su, and Park Su was standing by the door, wouldn't capturing him solve both their attacks at once?