Chapter 138: Mutated Vine
The group was purely focused on traveling. They only took a half-hour break at noon to deal with personal matters. Even meals were eaten in the truck.
Among Li Qing’s group, there were three with space abilities, and all thirty people ate compressed biscuits. Compared to them, the six of them felt embarrassed to pull out the various stir-fried dishes and cold noodles they had prepared. They only had simple meat sandwiches and water.
Even so, Li Qing still felt envious. “I’m just curious—how much meat do you guys have stored? Other teams at the base hoard any mutated animals they catch to satisfy their cravings, but you guys have a trading post selling meat every day?”
“After the earthquake, we took over a few farms in Wutong City,” Antonio said with a smile.
Lei Jun gave a thumbs up. “You really had foresight.”
“You’re even greater. I heard that before and after the base was established, it was you who were helping everyone. If not for that, with your abilities, you would have collected all the supplies by now, and there wouldn’t be anyone else showing off,” Lu Xi remarked at the right moment.
The military’s situation at the base was not very good. At first, they were only focused on rescuing people and building a safe base. But by the time they realized what was happening, the various families had already established their power at the base. With insufficient supplies and various other issues, their influence had been steadily weakening.
Li Qing sighed. “Who knows what will happen in the future?” He looked at Lu Weiyi. “Actually, I have a question I’d like to ask you.”
Lu Weiyi was quite curious about Li Qing, especially his relationship with Lin Yimu. But since he had always regarded Lin Yimu as an elder, he never considered asking him directly. Now that the opportunity had presented itself, he decided not to waste it. “Sure, but I’ll answer one of your questions if you answer one of mine.”
Li Qing was taken aback, seemingly not expecting him to say that. After a moment of thought, he nodded. “As long as it’s not a state secret.”
Lu Weiyi nodded. “You go first.”
“Has your space been upgraded?” Once he asked this question, if Lu Weiyi answered, it would directly confirm that he was a space-type ability user. After all, a space jade pendant doesn’t upgrade, its area is fixed.
Lu Weiyi nodded and leaned closer to whisper in his ear, “Do you and Yimu Brother like each other?”
Li Qing seemed surprised by the question. After all, Lu Weiyi had always seemed quite aloof, with an expression of nobility that didn’t seem to fit with gossip.
He paused for a moment, then answered, “…No,” and softly added, “He doesn’t like me.”
How could that be? When Li Qing was injured, Lin Yimu had shown an unprecedented level of concern. If this was just ordinary camaraderie, Lu Weiyi didn’t believe it for a second.
Li Zhuang, who was sitting next to Lu Weiyi, raised the corner of his mouth, pretending not to hear the conversation between the two.
However, Lu Weiyi’s question seemed to have hit a sensitive spot in Li Qing’s heart. Lu Weiyi waited for him to ask more questions, hoping to learn more, but Li Qing didn’t say anything further.
“Don’t you have any more questions?” Lu Weiyi felt that Li Qing wouldn’t ask for no reason, especially since he had brought three people with space abilities, one of whom was a space-type ability user.
Li Qing shook his head. Seeing that Lu Weiyi seemed still unsatisfied, he chuckled. “If you want to know, why not ask the instructor?”
Lu Weiyi gave him an incredulous look. “Would you ask your dad about his dating history?”
“…” Li Qing went silent.
*
The wilderness was desolate, with hardly any signs of life, and they didn’t encounter many zombies along the way.
The next evening, Li Qing held up a map and said to the others, “The next village is where the mutated plants are. It’s about an hour’s journey from here. We’ll rest here tonight and set out at dawn tomorrow.”
While traveling, everyone kept things simple, especially with teammates in a hurry to march. The previous night, they had even slept in the truck in the wilderness.
Lu Weiyi thought that Li Qing must have decided to rest in the village because he wanted to conserve energy for the battle tomorrow morning.
The village was deserted, and the atmosphere was gloomy. Li Qing led them to a small courtyard, which, compared to other places, had clearly been tidied up.
“We rested here on our way back before,” Lei Jun explained to the group. “There are three cave rooms inside. You can take one of them. You won’t need to stand guard tonight. Rest well. We’ll need you tomorrow.”
“Okay,” Antonio responded without hesitation, not picking up on the politeness.
After sending them off, Antonio turned to Lu Weiyi. “Can we have some cooked food tonight? I really don’t want to eat dry biscuits anymore.”
“Do you know,” Lu Xi said with a laugh, “that the phrase ‘cooked food’ sounds really strange coming from your mouth? Aren’t you guys always eating hamburgers, pasta, and steak? You don’t usually have ‘cooked food’.”
“Oh, it’s all Brother Xie’s fault. He introduced me to so many cooked dishes. Now I don’t even crave hamburgers anymore,” Antonio replied. He hadn’t been used to it at first, but after a while, they were all completely won over by Xie Shi’s cooking, and he hadn’t mentioned trading materials for Lu Weiyi’s hamburgers since.
He looked at Lu Weiyi. “We’ve had four whole meals of biscuits. Even instant noodles would be fine. Okay?”
Lu Weiyi took six large bowls of instant noodles from his space. The noodles were still steaming, with homemade meatballs, sausages, and a few fresh vegetables that looked very appetizing.
“Brother Xie is really great, preparing everything for us,” Antonio said as he quickly took a bowl of his favorite curry-flavored noodles and slurped down a big mouthful.
“Space… ability… is… really great… and… still… hot,” Liu Rui said enviously.
“No aggression,” Lu Weiyi commented. If he had been only a space-type ability user, he might have been “forced to carry bricks” by some powerful family.
Xie Shi’s meals were always served in large portions, so there was no possibility of not being full after finishing a bowl. The six of them enjoyed their meal thoroughly, not leaving a drop of soup.
“The whole courtyard smells like instant noodles. You must have prepared it in advance and stored it in your space,” Li Qing said, waiting for the others to finish eating before bringing in the two young boys.
“Let me introduce you. These are our team’s space-type ability users. Zheng Qiu, just a few months into the army. The other one is a mental-type ability user, Xing Zhou. I came to find you, Young Master Lu, to see if you have time to guide them. Zheng Qiu has no idea how to upgrade his space, and Xing Zhou is hoping you can guide your team’s mental-type ability user.”
“Space upgrade?” Lu Weiyi was also puzzled. “I don’t know either.”
Seeing the two of them look at him, he explained, “When the first batch of ability users appeared, my space also showed up. At that time, no one knew it could upgrade. I just kept storing things, and later it felt like an ability upgrade. I don’t know how, but it just upgraded.”
“Do we need to use crystal cores?” Zheng Qiu asked.
“I didn’t have a crystal core when I upgraded,” Lu Weiyi replied.
Li Qing felt a bit disappointed, nodded, and then looked at Lu Xi, “Xing Zhou sensed that you’re a mental-type ability user during the day. He’s always thought his ability is useless, but after seeing how well you use it, he wants to ask you some things. He asked me to introduce you, is that okay?”
Lu Xi’s mental abilities were all taught by Lu Weiyi. His first reaction was to look at Lu Weiyi, and Li Qing also looked at him.
“Go ahead, teach what you know, and if you don’t know, just say so. Don’t mislead them,” Lu Weiyi advised.
“Got it, bro,” Lu Xi said, getting up and walking toward Xing Zhou.
“Thanks, I’ll treat you to a meal when we get back,” Li Qing said to Lu Weiyi.
Though he knew there probably wasn’t much good food, Lu Weiyi had progressed to the point where he occasionally engaged in small talk. He nodded and replied, “Alright.”
*
The next day, as the sun rose, everyone packed up and set off.
On the way, Li Qing recalled the situation from the previous time and explained it to the others in detail.
Forty minutes later, Li Qing’s walkie-talkie crackled with the voice of the scout at the front, “Captain, the vines have appeared. Their range has expanded.”
Li Qing stood up and looked around before ordering, “Stop the car.”
Lu Weiyi and the others also stood up and looked toward the front. Indeed, the area was covered with vines, with only the narrow road cleared. The rest of the area was packed with vines. Compared to the barren mountains and frozen dead grass elsewhere, this area was lush and green, making it quite refreshing.
“It’s expanded by three kilometers since our last visit, in just ten days,” Li Qing said, taking the map and getting out of the vehicle to verify the location.
The group walked closer, and Antonio was the first to throw a throwing knife. With a few swishes, the vine leaves were severed and dropped casually to the ground.
“It seems no different from regular grass?” he asked Li Qing.
Li Qing furrowed his brows, picking up a stone and tossing it at the vines. It didn’t react at all, as if it were just ordinary grass.
As Li Qing was wondering whether to send someone closer to investigate, Lu Weiyi signaled Liu Rui, who threw a fireball into the middle of the vines. Upon contact, the vines immediately recoiled as if they had touched something forbidden, pulling back quickly and completely avoiding the fireball’s range.
“…” Li Qing and the other soldiers exchanged glances. “Can it be burned?”
“Let’s… try it,” Liu Rui said, throwing a few more fireballs.
However, as soon as the fireballs made contact, the vines once again skillfully avoided them, retreating to a safe distance and preventing them from catching fire.
“We had the same issue last time,” Zhang Peng speculated. “I kept thinking about it after we left. Do you think this path was intentionally left open to lure us into their territory?”
“Draw the enemy in?” Lei Jun frowned slightly. “Could it have gained intelligence?”
After Lei Jun spoke, everyone’s expressions darkened. Li Qing’s tone turned serious, “We need to eliminate it. If it continues expanding at this rate, it’ll soon reach Qingyuan City.”
“Do you have any ideas?” Li Qing looked at Antonio and the others.
