Chapter 139: Taming the Mutated Ivy
The group exchanged looks and silently turned to Lu Weiyi.
At this moment, Gu Qingji furrowed his brows and pressed his temples, uncertain, “I think I hear… screaming.”
Lu Weiyi looked at him in surprise. To be able to sense the emotions of plants was a very powerful ability. It seemed that capturing this plant was quite possible.
Finding a mutated plant was a rare opportunity, and Lu Weiyi certainly hoped that Gu Qingji could use it. If it didn’t work out, they could always extract the crystal core. He glanced at Li Zhuang beside him. “Can you find where the roots are?”
Li Zhuang nodded and approached. After a moment, he frowned. “There are roots everywhere, including… the ones Antonio just cut off.”
The group was surprised. Upon closer inspection, the branches Antonio had cut off earlier were still in their broken state, but they could now see that the sections close to the ground had already started embedding themselves into the soil. Lu Weiyi moved forward.
“Hey, don’t…” Li Qing started to stop him, but when he saw that the leaves Lu Weiyi stepped on barely reacted, and there was no sign of the vast vine trap they encountered before, he fell silent and merely watched.
Under everyone’s watchful eyes, Lu Weiyi reached the branches that Antonio had cut off and pulled on them. The branches twisted like they were alive, and soon, he pulled up a chunk of earth, revealing a root about the length of his palm.
“Wow…” Antonio said in disbelief, looking at the roots that had grown this long in less than two minutes since Antonio’s strike.
“Can it be killed?” Antonio asked.
“…” The fact that it couldn’t be killed meant that even if it was cut off, it could still take root anywhere, anytime…
Lu Weiyi lifted the broken vines, and just before he could return for further analysis, a small green twig on his wrist shot out rapidly, like a sharp knife, and cleanly severed the vines in his hand.
Lu Weiyi had never seen the small green twig act so decisively. After all, it had barely been able to penetrate bones when fighting zombies, needing to slip through gaps.
It was a fair distance away, and many of the others didn’t quite understand what ability Lu Weiyi was using. They watched in shock as the vines in his hand turned to dust in a few swift motions.
Lu Weiyi wasn’t interested in continuing further. He turned around and faced the others, “Antonio and Li Zhuang, work together. One cuts, and the other ensures they don’t regrow. Liu Rui, burn the severed ones.”
The three immediately began cooperating. Though they were all Grade B ability users, their strengths varied. After trying twice, they worked seamlessly.
In Li Qing’s team, some of the fire-type users tried to help by throwing fireballs at the vines, but when they hit, there was no reaction at all.
“It looks like only B-grade fire types can do it,” Li Qing remarked, looking at the vines all around. “At this rate, it might take a long time.”
Lu Weiyi certainly wasn’t expecting them to destroy the vines just by doing this; it was merely to draw the vines’ attention for a while. Seeing that they had already started working well together, he continued, “I’ll take Gu Qingji inside to look for the main root. You stay here and keep working. Lu Xi will keep watch for you, and if you need support, I’ll contact you.”
“Be careful,” Li Zhuang said.
Lu Weiyi left them a hundred crystal cores, each in a pack, and looked at Gu Qingji, “Stay close to me.”
With his mental power covering both of them, Lu Weiyi led Gu Qingji along the specially cleared path. “Focus your abilities in your feet.”
With the enhancement of their abilities, the two of them sprinted off and quickly disappeared from sight.
Li Qing and the thirty-odd soldiers around him exchanged glances, incredulously asking, “They… just went in like that?”
“They didn’t get attacked?”
“Then, what happened to us last time…?”
A young soldier, not easily deterred, took a few steps forward along the path.
“Come back,” Li Qing ordered.
“Captain, it’s fine,” the young soldier turned back and smiled at Li Qing, then took a few more steps. In an instant, the vines on both sides of the road lashed out at him. Before he could react, he was already wrapped up.
Antonio quickly threw a flying knife, severing the vines that had wrapped around the young soldier. Liu Rui followed up with a fireball that circled the soldier, and other soldiers immediately rushed forward to pull him back.
The fireball from Liu Rui had a very high temperature, and even though it didn’t touch the soldier’s skin, there were visible burn marks. Combined with the bloodstains from Antonio’s knife, the young soldier looked quite disheveled.
Li Qing was furious and wanted to scold him, but seeing his condition, he couldn’t bring himself to say anything too harsh. He knew that, given the current situation, even if they were carrying heavy loads and running cross-country, there was no place to escape, so he was at a loss for how to punish him.
The path left open was the only one. Lu Weiyi and Gu Qingji soon arrived at the place where Li Qing had been attacked last time, and naturally, they spotted the mutated fruit hanging from the distant trees.
“So it really is a peach tree,” Gu Qingji said, “What’s that other one?”
“I’m not sure of its scientific name, but I’ve heard some villagers call it ‘papaya,’ though it’s not the kind we eat. It’s more like a coconut, with a thick outer skin and small ball-like seeds inside. When you peel it and eat it, the taste is like a tender walnut,” Lu Weiyi explained, having seen this thing in his previous life. He had also heard an old farmer in his team talk about it. “After we’re done, we’ll just dig up the roots.”
“Can we eat these off-season fruits?” Gu Qingji asked.
“These are mutated fruits. Usually, they’re either mutated trees on their own or influenced by the energy from nearby mutated plants. Their internal energy is quite mild and actually very good for ordinary people,” Lu Weiyi said. “We can take them back and everyone can try.”
The two walked a little further, and the number of mutated plants in their line of sight increased. There were seasonal jujubes and hawthorns, as well as apricots that were already out of season. Lu Weiyi slowed down. “Pay attention to the wood-type energy around us. The strongest energy should be where the crystal core is.”
“All places?” Gu Qingji, who hadn’t even reached the late stages of his abilities, could only sense a limited area. But now, they were facing a vast, sprawling field.
“Yes, my abilities are limited, so you need to hurry. Otherwise, we’ll be surrounded, and I’m not good at dealing with mutated plants,” Lu Weiyi said calmly, as if he was merely talking about what he had for breakfast.
This put some pressure on Gu Qingji, knowing that not only was his life at stake, but someone else’s as well, especially since he didn’t want to die. He nodded and, while continuing to observe the surroundings, the two of them picked up the pace and kept running.
With Lu Weiyi’s mental power supporting them, the vines around them seemed to ignore their presence.
The two continued to run for several kilometers, using their crystal cores to replenish their energy, but still hadn’t found anything. They retraced their steps.
“My abilities are depleted. We’ll continue in the afternoon,” Lu Weiyi said before Li Qing could ask. He remembered the increasing number of mutated fruits and confirmed again, “There are still many fruits further on, and they’re all mine, right?”
Li Qing paused for a moment, then replied, “Yes,” since they clearly couldn’t be of any help.
Lu Weiyi immediately smiled, his eyes sparkling, and his pale skin seemed to glow more brightly. “I’ll save some for you to try later.”
The other four looked at Lu Weiyi, thinking how lucky he was, especially since he had taken so many supplies from Li Ji before without showing much reaction. That proved those fruits were probably valuable.
After getting confirmation, Lu Weiyi and Gu Qingji, whose abilities were also exhausted, returned to the truck to rest.
In the afternoon, around four o’clock, Lu Weiyi and Gu Qingji set out again. This time, they finally reached a small village, where Gu Qingji felt a vague sensation.
It was a small farmhouse, and vines had climbed up to the roof, obscuring the view of the courtyard. “Let’s check it out, but try not to step on anything.”
The two carefully walked toward the courtyard and soon saw what was hidden by the vines. Inside, there were vegetables and fruits growing everywhere, even a few orange trees planted in flowerpots, all bearing abundant fruit. The place was full of vitality, indicating they were very close to mutated plants.
Bending down to enter the courtyard, the vines overhead had woven a net, but this was a living net. Whenever small flying insects touched it, the vines would extend and whip them away, resembling a cow swatting flies with its tail.
Gu Qingji held his breath and followed Lu Weiyi, pointing toward a certain spot.
There, a trellis had been set up, with a vine as thick as a wrist growing next to it. The vine followed the trellis, clearly arranged as a shaded area.
“This is the place,” Lu Weiyi asked, pointing at the root system.
Gu Qingji nodded.
It seemed that the level wouldn’t exceed Grade A. The higher the mutation level of a plant, the more it would hide its crystal core, and it wasn’t necessarily in the roots. Sometimes, it could be hidden in an inconspicuous leaf.
Lu Weiyi took out two knives from his space and handed one to Gu Qingji, keeping the other for himself. “Channel your abilities into the blade. We’ll strike from both the top and bottom to cut off the part with the crystal core. Once it’s cut, channel your abilities into it. I’m not sure exactly how it feels, but just keep inputting until you can control it. That’s when it becomes your mutated plant.”
Lu Weiyi handed Gu Qingji several packs of crystal cores. “On credit,” he said while reminding him, “If you can’t subdue a powerful mutated plant, it might turn around and control you. Be careful. If you feel like you can’t handle it, immediately dig out the crystal core.”
“I understand,” Gu Qingji said, gripping the knife and taking a deep breath. “Let’s begin.”
With his mental power isolating them, the ivy plants around them didn’t detect their presence at all.
Both of them released their abilities simultaneously, their knives cutting through the air in perfect coordination. The surrounding vines suddenly went wild, charging toward the root system. In an instant, the section with the crystal core was severed, and the vines immediately dropped limply to the ground.
Lu Weiyi used a small green branch to clear a small area for Gu Qingji. He then put away all the plants in the courtyard, including even the wild grass, into his space.
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