Farming In The Eastern Cultivation World-Chapter 49: The Hunter Vine and the One Flower Sect’s Burden

As they walked, Bok Taejin looked at the bird sleeping soundly in his cupped hands, feeling slightly more at ease.

He then asked Im Beomhyeon, "Brother Im, what kind of bird is this? It looks a lot like a species I know called a myna bird. Do you think it could be one?"

"It is a myna bird," Im Beomhyeon confirmed. "They’re great at mimicking the calls of other birds—and they can even learn to talk like humans!"

Bok Taejin asked again, "I remember they live in flocks, right? Was this the only one you found?"

Hearing this, Im Beomhyeon’s expression darkened.

Im Beomhyeon snorted, "As for what happened to the rest of its flock, I have no idea. Maybe they’re still alive. It’s probably just because this one is young and weak that it couldn’t escape fast enough when avoiding the Hunter Vine and ended up getting caught. When we found the Hunter Vine and this bird, we only saw it—none of the others."

The more Im Beomhyeon spoke, the angrier he became. "That damn Hunter Vine! It roamed around here hunting in early spring, but I led some people up the mountain and cut down a good portion of its vines, so it disappeared for a while. I thought it had finally learned its lesson and realized our village wasn’t easy to mess with, so it wouldn’t dare return. But who knew it would show up again now?"

Bok Taejin was even more confused. "You’re talking about the Hunter Vine... but isn’t that a plant?"

"Obviously! What else would it be, an animal?"

"But you said it ’came back’?" Bok Taejin couldn’t imagine what kind of plant could match Im Beomhyeon’s description. "And you said it learned to be smarter? That sounds like you’re talking about a demonic beast!"

Im Beomhyeon rolled his eyes. "You’ve never heard of the Hunter Vine? Are you really from the Jade Blossom Mountain Range?"

Bok Taejin nodded firmly. "I am!"

Their gazes met, and Im Beomhyeon suddenly reached out and knocked Bok Taejin on the head. "Then how have you never heard of the Hunter Vine?"

Bok Taejin grimaced, nearly dropping the myna bird in his hands as he instinctively reached up to rub the sore spot.

Now he finally understood how Seo Sowoo felt when Im Beomhyeon knocked him on the head that morning.

Im Beomhyeon raised his hand again as if to strike.

Bok Taejin was about to dodge when Im Beomhyeon shot him a glare. "Do you want to drop the bird?" freewёbn૦νeɭ.com

Bok Taejin froze.

In that split second, Im Beomhyeon had already reached out and roughly rubbed the spot he had hit earlier.

His movements were rough, but they did ease the pain a little.

Bok Taejin was still feeling awkward when Im Beomhyeon strode ahead. "Hurry up! I can already smell the aroma coming from the kitchen. They found some mushrooms in the mountains today—the soup is going to be delicious!"

Bok Taejin watched his back, chuckled, and quickly picked up his pace.

"Brother Im, don’t rush. Tell me more about the Hunter Vine. I really don’t know anything about it. When I was little, my master took me into the mountains, but I barely remember anything from back then. After we settled, he mostly just taught me meditation. The most I learned about the outside world was from overhearing his conversations with others. What exactly is the Hunter Vine?"

Im Beomhyeon didn’t slow down at all, but he still answered Bok Taejin’s question.

"The Hunter Vine is a plant, sure, but do plants not sense changes in their environment and adapt to survive? Otherwise, why do trees have denser leaves on one side than the other? The Hunter Vine grew in this area and was cut down by people. Why wouldn’t it recognize that this place is dangerous and try to avoid it?"

Bok Taejin wanted to argue but found that Im Beomhyeon’s words actually made some sense.

Im Beomhyeon continued, "Originally, the Hunter Vines only grew in the territory of a great vine demon called ’Creeping Vine Overlord’ on the outskirts of the Jade Blossom Mountain Range. They were just ordinary vines—albeit a bit thicker, tougher, and more resilient than others."

"But ever since the Creeping Vine Overlord accidentally awakened its intelligence and started cultivating, the ordinary vines in its territory were exposed to the aura it emitted during cultivation. Over time, they mutated into a new kind of vine—the Hunter Vine."

"You said the Hunter Vine is a plant, and that’s true. It still needs to root in the soil to survive. But unlike ordinary plants, it can pull its roots out and move to another place."

"I’ve heard that some Hunter Vines don’t even need to take root in the ground after moving. They can cling to other plants and embed their roots inside them to survive for a while."

"And they eat meat. They hunt, which is how they got their name. They use their vines to capture animals, then wrap the dead prey near their roots and absorb it."

Bok Taejin felt a chill creep up his spine.

Dead animals take time to decompose in the soil, yet this Hunter Vine could directly make use of the corpses?

He had heard of carnivorous plants before, such as Venus flytraps, pitcher plants, and cobra lilies.

They attracted insects with scent and trapped them.

There was also another plant similar to Hunter Vine in its way of "eating" animals—sheep-eating grass.

It could lure livestock when it first bloomed.

Its flower clusters could reach over three meters in height, with razor-sharp spines on the petals and along its entire body.

It would capture animals with its spines and starve them to death, eventually absorbing their nutrients.

But Hunter Vine’s hunting methods were far more flexible.

It could even move!

"Brother Im, can’t you kill the Hunter Vines instead of just driving them away?"

Im Beomhyeon muttered, "Hunter Vine’s vines can grow very long. What we encountered wasn’t even its main body. Otherwise, with the few people we had, we wouldn’t have even been enough for it to eat. Luckily, there aren’t many Hunter Vines, and their main bodies can only stay in the Creeping Vine Overlord territory. Otherwise, who knows what would happen to this world."

Bok Taejin had just started to relax.