[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-above-the-mage":3,"chapter-above-the-mage-above-the-mage-chapter-69":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Above the Mage!",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2257073,4404,"Chapter 69: Symbiosis","above-the-mage-chapter-69",69,"\u003Cp>At night, just after ten.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>By this hour, Hogen City had already fallen into deep slumber.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Aside from a few drunks and certain specialists who only moved at night, most people had long since fallen into heavy sleep indoors and would not wander outside.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The night was utterly silent, broken only by occasional bird calls, insect chirps, or the noise of drunken men.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gao De slipped quietly out of the herb garden’s back yard, moving with extreme lightness and speed toward the city center.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He crossed the filthy, chaotic slum district, occasionally spotting a few shadowy figures.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There were plenty of restless souls in the slums at night.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Soon, Gao De reached the civilian residential area, far safer and cleaner by comparison.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had wandered through Hogen City after every sale of his herbs.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thus, compared to when he first arrived in this world, Gao De now knew Hogen City quite well.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So he quickly found his target.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A sewer entrance located in the civilian district.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gao De scanned the surroundings and soon found a suitable position.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Directly opposite the sewer entrance stood a large, leafy street tree.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He swiftly approached the tree, pulled out childhood climbing skills, and scrambled up in a few quick motions, hiding his figure within its shadows.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only after confirming that the tree’s branches completely concealed him—no trace, not even a shadow, leaked out—did Gao De carefully part the leaves and fix his gaze on the sewer entrance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His purpose was obvious: to finally verify his suspicion and attempt to uncover the true identity behind the city’s strange occurrences.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The city had no shortage of sewer entrances, but neither were they numerous.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thus, waiting by the stump was still partly a matter of luck.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Gao De could think of no better plan.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He crouched on the tree for over an hour.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The moon hung above the willow branches.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just as Gao De began to feel drowsy, a faint rustling sound reached his ears.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It jolted him awake; all drowsiness vanished instantly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He widened his eyes, staring toward the source—the sewer entrance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In Gao De’s horrified gaze, a flood of black rats poured out from the dark, narrow opening barely wide enough for one person.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>These rats were of normal size—not the horrifying, monstrous wolf-rats that had attacked the herb garden—and looked no different from the most common rats.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet their mass appearance at night was itself an eerie phenomenon.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After leaving the sewer entrance, the rats surged forward in a tide toward a single direction.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In moments, the entire swarm vanished from Gao De’s sight, swallowed by the night.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gao De silently waited, having witnessed this horrifying scene firsthand.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Another half-hour passed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Under the moonlight, countless dark dots reappeared, surging back toward this sewer entrance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As the dark dots grew larger in Gao De’s vision until he could clearly make out the rats’ forms—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Hss!” Gao De involuntarily drew in a sharp breath.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Moonlight pierced thin clouds, illuminating the grotesque sight before him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The rats moved in a single file, perfectly synchronized, collectively carrying three humans who appeared unconscious or deeply asleep.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“One, two, three.” Gao De counted the humans carried by the strange rat swarm.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Despite the violent motion, the three showed no sign of waking.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The rat swarm, with clear purpose, carried the three to the sewer entrance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“And then?” Gao De could not imagine what the rats would do next.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Drag the three into the sewer? What purpose could that serve? The next moment, his question was answered.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A sharp hiss.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A streak of crimson light shot out from the dark sewer entrance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>By moonlight, Gao De saw the true nature of that crimson light.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was a blood-red vine.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The blood-red vine extended from the sewer, coiling around one of the three humans carried by the rats.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Covered in sharp thorns, the vine now bit into the human’s skin like teeth, and blood gushed from the man like a stream, rapidly absorbed by the vine.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Correspondingly, the man’s body withered visibly before Gao De’s eyes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A chill surged from Gao De’s soles, flooding his entire body.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His breathing grew heavy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In mere minutes, a living man turned into a pale, shriveled corpse right before Gao De’s eyes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The vine, having drunk its fill, stretched its leaves and tendrils.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was merely a vine, yet Gao De felt as if it was radiating a sense of pleasure and contentment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Simultaneously, a faint red mist rose from the vine’s foliage, spreading and flowing into the rats’ bodies.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The next instant, a familiar and horrifying scene unfolded before Gao De.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Under the red mist’s nourishment, the rats’ eyes turned a strange deep red, glowing like burning rubies, flickering with ominous light in the darkness.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Exactly the same deep red he had glimpsed once before when leaving the sewer.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the night, so many deep red eyes glittering densely sent a shiver down his spine.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Symbiosis.” Gao De whispered to himself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Clearly, the rat swarm and this strange plant shared a classic symbiotic relationship.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The strange plant, possessing typical plant traits, could not move and relied on the rats to hunt for it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The rats, in turn, needed the strange red mist released by the plant after it fed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though its exact function was unknown, it was undoubtedly beneficial to them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing the vine temporarily “satiated” and the red-eyed rats having consumed the mist, a small group of rats bit into the corpse’s clothing and dragged it toward the sewer.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Soon, the corpse slid straight into the sewer entrance and vanished.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The killer, the method of murder, the fate of the bodies—all details of the missing persons mystery—Gao De now knew the truth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He even corrected his earlier assumptions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Why had the city’s elite failed so long to solve the missing persons case?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It wasn’t necessarily that they’d never considered the sewers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Unless one had witnessed the rats’ red-eyed form firsthand,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>how could normal city guards, even if they inspected the sewers and saw these rats, possibly link such harmless, ordinary-looking rodents to the killer? Rats in sewers were perfectly normal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The disguise was too natural.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And on the scene, the “feeding” was not yet over.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After a brief pause, the vine, as if digested its meal, began moving again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Its target, without doubt, was one of the two remaining humans.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shh! At the instant the vine moved—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A streak of blazing light erupted in the night, slicing through the heavy air and striking the cluster of rats gathered near the vine.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was an arrow-shaped flame.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The flame arrow exploded upon impact, releasing a burst of blinding light; fire rapidly spread, engulfing a small group of red-eyed rats at the center.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The red-eyed rat swarm scattered in panic under the sudden inferno.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Screams intertwined with the crackling of flames.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The air filled with the acrid stench of burning fur.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What was that sound!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It came from over there—go check!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Tap-tap-tap! Rapid, chaotic but forceful footsteps approached.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The sudden explosion and brilliant light, echoing through the silent night, had drawn the attention of a patrol squad stationed just one street away.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hearing the city guards’ commotion, the red-eyed rats abandoned everything else, squealing frantically as they darted back into the sewer entrance and vanished.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The charred corpses of the dead rats were snatched up by the living red-eyed rats and dragged into the sewer.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The strange vine moved even faster—swoosh!—slipping back into the sewer entrance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Simultaneously, a shadow leapt down from the tree opposite the entrance and vanished swiftly into the night.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Scatter like birds and beasts.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of Chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",1266,"2026-06-19T14:28:48.629Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","61103c5d82624954dd11c7efac220bbaf8e3f5be4b628d593e46488f37c37c39","above-the-mage-chapter-70","above-the-mage-chapter-68",529,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fabove-the-mage-cover.jpg"]