As a mutated plant, it lacked complex reasoning but had an instinctual drive to seek advantage and avoid harm. It knew it couldn't kill Park Su, so the only option was to continue competing with him for the energy from the stone in hopes of also breaking through. Only then would it have a chance to fight.
If it attacked Park Su now, who knows if he would choose to engage in battle? Even when Park Su was at a lower level, he had managed to injure it. Now, with Park Su stronger, it was clear that it was no longer a match.
So, it ceased its offensive, not wanting to provoke this opponent further, and instead endured the pain to continue absorbing the energy from the stone at its roots. Park Su, who had been keeping an eye on the pothos, finally breathed a sigh of relief when he saw it stop attacking him.
Although his abilities had improved, his mental energy was greatly depleted, leaving him somewhat drained. Moreover, he had to maintain control over his mental strength to absorb the energy and circulate it through his meridians, while also repairing the cracks in his meridians caused by the forced breakthrough. He simply didn't have the energy to deal with the pothos.
Now that the pothos had given up attacking him and was instead focusing on absorbing the energy from the stone, it was actually a good thing for Park Su. He could now devote all his attention to absorbing the energy. After advancing to the second stage, the wood energy circulated through his meridians, attracting even more wood energy from the surroundings. From a distance, one could only see a faint green light enveloping both the human and the plant in a large cocoon, with the light growing brighter, indicating the purity of the wood energy within.
Although the pothos was in great pain, it could feel that with its constant efforts, its own barrier to the second stage was also beginning to loosen, which excited it. Despite the pain causing it to droop, it kept pushing, seeing this as its only hope for survival.
Furthermore, it believed that once it broke through to the second stage as a plant, its energy absorption would surely outpace that of the human in front of it.
However, what the pothos didn't know was that Park Su's wood-based energy was quietly undergoing a change. In fact, Park Su had noticed this issue. After his abilities reached the mid-second stage, he felt his wood-based energy becoming more aggressive, almost beyond his control.
He tried to control his mental strength to slow down the absorption, but found his efforts in vain; instead of slowing down, it seemed to accelerate. This worried him, as he had just experienced the agony of a forced breakthrough.
If the energy from the stone was sufficient, it might even push him to the peak of the second stage or even break through to the third. Breaking through to the second stage had been both a joy and a pain, and he didn't think his current mental strength was sufficient to support another breakthrough from the second to the third stage.
Although he was worried and wanted to withdraw his mental strength, he discovered that his abilities were becoming less and less under his control, causing him some panic. Soon, he realized that these wood energies were flowing through his meridians and beginning to gather in his dantian.
He didn't understand what was happening, but at least the situation wasn't like before, where his meridians were nearly bursting. However, the ever-growing energy ball in his dantian still didn't put him at ease. Such a situation had never occurred before; what was wrong with him?
Now, he was in a passive state, able only to feel the wood energy in his meridians and the external wood energy merging and circulating on their own, constantly flowing into his dantian. Although he couldn't control it, he could feel a sense of total relaxation throughout his body.
At this point, he was powerless to change the situation and could only silently pray that this wasn't a bad thing. What he didn't know was that from the outside perspective, his entire body now looked like a black hole. The once cocoon-like green energy mass, which had been glowing brightly, was now spiraling into his body.
What Park Su didn't realize was that the one who was truly in a panic was not him but the pothos, which had been competing with him for the energy from the stone. It didn't understand why, despite having already broken through to the second stage, the surrounding energy was not diminishing but gathering even more.
Even more terrifying, this gathered energy wasn't flowing into its body but was constantly being drawn into the human's body.
The pothos could feel a powerful suction force as if it was being pulled into the human's body. Having just barely managed to advance through pain, the pothos hadn't even had the chance to adjust when it now had to struggle against the suction force emanating from Park Su.
However, the already weakened pothos felt its resistance becoming increasingly ineffective, and it began to panic. But with the growing suction force, it didn't even have time for panic. By the time everything settled, only Park Su was left in the side chamber.
Park Su felt as though his entire being was filled with wood energy. The physical and mental exhaustion from his earlier breakthrough seemed to have been restored in an instant.
He lay on the ground, the museum's piercing alarm still ringing in his ears. After all this time without anyone coming to check, it seemed the apocalypse had indeed arrived, and no one had the heart to investigate what was happening inside the museum.
Sitting up, he looked at his torn clothes and the bloodstains all over his body. He couldn't help but smirk slightly; at least he was alive. Then his gaze fell to where the pothos had been, but now it was just an empty space, void of anything. He furrowed his brows in confusion; how could this be?
Could it be that the pothos, seeing that its ability was inferior, had hidden away? Regardless, what concerned him most now was his own physical condition, as the earlier situation was indeed quite bizarre.
After examining his body, Park Su was startled. The pothos that had disappeared was now firmly rooted in his dantian. How could this thing be inside his body?
He was immediately worried about potential issues with the pothos being in his dantian. With that thought, he instinctively tried to eject it, and just as he willed it, the pothos appeared in front of him. He jumped back in shock, assuming a defensive stance!
But the pothos merely shook its leaves, showing no sign of attack, which surprised Park Su. He tentatively tried to strike it, but then a child's voice rang out, "Don't hit me!"
Park Su paused his attack and asked, "Who are you?"
The child's voice replied with some grievance, "Who else could it be but the green pothos in front of you?"
After spending so much time in the apocalypse, this was the first time Park Su encountered a talking plant, and he was taken aback. "You say you're the pothos? How can you speak?"
The pothos, somewhat depressed, explained, "I'm not really speaking; I'm just communicating with you through mental strength."
"Mental strength communication?" Park Su was puzzled. "I didn't know that was possible."
"I didn't know either," the child's voice sounded somewhat wronged. "I was just anxious, and then I realized I could communicate with you. You were really too much!"
Park Su was confused but could now sense that the pothos no longer harbored hostility towards him, so he continued to ask, "How was I too much? It's you who mysteriously ended up in my dantian. By the way, what's going on with this?"
"I don't know either. All I know is that you somehow absorbed me into your body, and now I can communicate with you." Of course, it didn't mention that it could also draw energy from Park Su's dantian when he circulated his energy, as it was an instinctual action.
Park Su furrowed his brow at what it said. "You mean, you can't leave my dantian now?"
"It seems that way." The pothos was also quite helpless; who would want to lose their freedom just like that, especially to be bound to a human?
Park Su's eyes lit up. "So, you're now dependent on me?"
The pothos, sensing Park Su's ill intentions, shook its leaves. "What do you want to do?"
"Nothing," Park Su said as he stood up. "Since you can only rely on me now, you naturally have to obey me." With the pothos no longer a threat, he didn't need to worry about it further.
If it could be made to listen, he might gain an additional combat force. Although he didn't understand why it had been absorbed into his dantian, now wasn't the time for research. Not only was the incessant alarm causing a headache, but the extended time he had spent breaking through meant the outside world was likely in chaos. If he delayed any longer, he risked being trapped.
The pothos wanted to resist; after all, it was now a second-stage mutated plant. How could it just be subdued by a human? However, from the moment it entered Park Su's dantian, it had understood that they were now in a symbiotic relationship. If Park Su advanced quickly, it would gain more energy, and it could also advance. If Park Su died, it wouldn't gain freedom but would likely disappear along with him.
So, when Park Su told it to obey, it had no power to refute, only weakly saying, "I can help you, but you can't bully me anymore!"