# Chapter 206: Red Red Little Man-Eating Flower
Although his hands and face were squeezed together by the heavy pressure, and his head and legs were welded shut, unable to move, fortunately the mucus wrapping him was not as sticky as spider silk. Instead, it formed a hard shell on the outside like hardened glue.
He spat out the axe fragments, pinched them between his fingers, and gently rubbed them against the outer shell, quickly carving out a small space for his wrist to move.
Once his wrist could barely move, he took out a prop dagger and chiseled an opening forward.
When the force dragging him pulled him out of the ventilation duct and flung him upward, Xu Huo had already broken through the membrane. He grabbed the shell that hadn't fully fallen off and slid toward the ground.
He and the shell beside him arced through the air and plummeted downward, finally stopping about one or two meters above the ground.
Cutting open the mucus membrane shell wrapped around his legs, Xu Huo jumped to the ground and looked back to see the remaining half of the membrane shell bounce upward, swaying up and down in midair. Only then did he realize that what had wrapped him was a huge plant leaf.
It hung about ten meters above the ground, curved in the air. At its tip hung the membrane shell, with a tubular stem connecting the top of the shell to the white veins in the center of the leaf. And this white vein connected to the main body of this enormous plant.
Walking along the weed-covered ground out of the leaf's shadow, Xu Huo looked from the side and discovered that the center of this giant plant was a huge flower pitcher, shaped like the man-eating flower he'd seen in the elevator shaft, but ten times larger.
At the center of the flower pitcher bloomed several large flesh-colored corollas, surrounded by green leaves. Those drooping leaves hung at different heights, covered with white membrane shells. Some shells were already empty, but others still contained human bones, and even some people whose skin and flesh were half-melted.
Inside, he saw the people who had gone missing from the elevator.
All of these people were dead.
"Chi chi!" A faint sound came from not far away. Xu Huo quickly walked over and found the sound coming from a human-shaped membrane shell. The bottom of this shell had been corroded through by acidic liquid, creating a hole. Inside, Dai Wenqian, eyes wide open, had blood on his right hand and was holding a glass bottle.
The person was still alive.
Xu Huo used his sword to break open the outer shell. When the bent leaf lifted, Dai Wenqian slid out. As soon as he landed, he took deep breaths. Without the strength to speak, he nodded to Xu Huo in thanks.
The two didn't say much and immediately went to find the others.
They first discovered Zheng Liang and Jiang Yihua nearby. After rescuing them, the four split into two groups to search in different directions.
But this man-eating flower was simply too huge. At least a hundred cocoon-like membrane shells hung from the leaves of various sizes. With poor visibility, the search wasn't fast. By the time they found most of the people, six had already died from suffocation, including one player.
Looking at the bodies laid on the ground, Zheng Liang gritted his teeth and said, "Burn this damn thing!"
"Burn it with what?" Jiang Yihua whispered. "You've seen the size of this man-eating flower. Without auxiliary materials, it's impossible to burn it all."
"Besides, it's in a dormant state right now. If we wake it up, we'll all be in danger."
Zheng Liang looked at Xu Huo. "Can't you set fires?"
"Fire can't burn everything either." Xu Huo surveyed the surroundings and suddenly spotted a bit of golden powder not far away.
"This is the poison powder that appeared on the thirteenth floor." Wei Bin followed him over, caught a glimpse of the golden powder in the faint light, and traced it back, exclaiming in surprise, "This is the root of the man-eating flower."
Zheng Liang took out a knife to cut off a piece, but Xu Huo stopped him. "Don't move recklessly. These roots might be alive."
Zheng Liang stepped back and asked, "The little man-eating flowers in the elevator shaft didn't seem to have poison powder. How did the poison powder here appear on the thirteenth floor?"
"Pipes," Dai Wenqian said. "The Little Flower Red Red Building has been abandoned for five years. This giant man-eating flower has been raised in a semi-enclosed huge glass greenhouse. With poor management, it's not strange for the roots to enter the building through the ventilation ducts."
"From the fifteenth floor to the ninth floor, only the thirteenth floor has special ventilation equipment. The other floors don't."
"So the poison powder only appeared on the thirteenth floor." Jiang Yihua suddenly understood, then added, "But I don't understand. Does this man-eating flower have intelligence? How does it judge whether there are many or few people in the elevator?"
"Electronic sensing equipment," Xu Huo said. "There should be sensing equipment on the floors and in the elevators to judge the number of people. As long as they go up to the fifteenth floor, the people in the elevator naturally become nutrients for the man-eating flowers in the pipes."
"If that's the case, wouldn't destroying the electronic equipment solve the problem?" Zheng Liang said. "We've escaped the elevator game now, so we should be safe."
They had escaped the elevator game, but that didn't necessarily mean they were safe.
Xu Huo looked at the glass greenhouse walls, already covered with a dense tangle of roots from who knows what kind of plants. The poison powder on the thirteenth floor came from the giant man-eating flower.
But near the roots they had just discovered, there were no traces of poison powder spraying. So it was very possible that the man-eating flower didn't actively spray poison powder.
If that were the case, eliminating this trouble would make the thirteenth floor safer than the other floors.
"I have an idea," Jiang Yihua said. "If the man-eating flower catches people from the elevator again, we can directly rescue them. That way, no one has to die."
The several players remained silent.
After a few seconds, Jiang Yihua said, "Am I wrong? Isn't this place safer than inside the building?"
No sooner had she finished speaking than the trembling rich little girl suddenly said in a tearful voice, "It seems like someone is missing..."
Xu Huo and the others abruptly turned around to count the people. Sure enough, one person was missing.
"How did they disappear without any of us noticing?" Zheng Liang said in shock. "Even if attacked, there should have been some sound... How did you discover it?"
He asked the rich little girl.
The little girl sobbed, "That woman was holding my clothes just now. I just felt my clothes being tugged, and when I turned around, she was gone."
The several players became alert. Xu Huo said, "Let's go back to the building first."
Although the glass greenhouse was large, the view was mostly occupied by dense plants, but it wasn't hard to identify the direction. Xu Huo went up once and came back down, and the group headed back toward the elevator building.
The seven players walked in front and back, with the rich little girl and the middle-aged woman and her group in the middle.
But even with sufficient caution, someone still disappeared, and right next to Xu Huo.
He, one of the two players summoned by Gu Yu, and Dai Wenqian's companion were bringing up the rear. A few seconds ago, they had heard the footsteps of both people. But the moment they shifted their gaze, the player summoned by Gu Yu vanished!
Refresh once more. ^_^
(Chapter End)