Chapter 223: Reencounter with Li Qing
After a day of rest, everyone was full of energy.
With an S-level ability user on their side, the group decided to confront the mutated plants again. If they couldn’t be tamed, they’d be destroyed—and the crystal nuclei from those plants were precious resources.
“Did anyone get a good look at what kind of plant it was?” Ning Yuan marked their previous location on a map and estimated the possible range.
“It looked like a peony,” Zhuang Mingxu said. He had been in the carriage, with a small window directly facing down, and hadn’t participated in the battle, making his view clearer. “The peony bud… looked like a Venus flytrap.”
“Yes! That thing was alive and moving,” Xu Sa, who had gotten close to it, still looked spooked. He gestured, “It was this close—like a mouth opening. I saw the bits of flesh inside, and it smelled like rot.”
“The leaves could wrap around people and were incredibly strong,” Bai Miao suddenly added. As everyone turned to look, she scratched the back of her head and said sheepishly, “It wrapped around me like a cocoon. I think I instinctively released some energy… and it just let go.”
“How exactly did you release it? What kind of energy was it?” Ning Yuan asked.
“Plant-based abilities promote plant growth. Unless they’re wildly violent, they rarely get attacked,” Lu Weiyi stepped in to explain when Bai Miao didn’t know how to answer.
“We can try releasing calming energy—it may help soothe the mutated plants,” Lu Weiyi said, glancing at the plant-based ability users in the team.
“I can do that,” Gu Qingji volunteered. He had a mutated plant of his own that he often used for practice.
“I’ll teach the rest of you later,” Lu Weiyi offered to the other two.
“Have you figured out how to find the plant’s crystal nuclei?” he asked them again.
“Brother Qingji mentioned it before, but we’ve never tried it ourselves,” Bai Miao replied. Li Dongsheng nodded in agreement.
“You’re in charge,” Lu Weiyi said, looking to Gu Qingji. It was the most basic skill for plant-type ability users, but the team’s focus had mostly been on combat due to their mixed abilities.
Gu Qingji nodded.
“Half-leg tall, mobile, leaves can wrap people, flower buds eat people, size unknown,” Ning Yuan summarized and looked around, wanting to see if anyone had anything to add.
“This time the captain will provide rear support. The rest of us will gain hands-on experience fighting a mutant plant,” Lu Weiyi said. His abilities let them attack like cheaters, going straight for the final boss, which made it easy for others to become overly reliant. Ning Yuan and Li Zhuang had discussed it and agreed to increase everyone’s direct involvement.
“First, we need to locate the area of the core crystal. You three will be in charge,” Ning Yuan said, looking at the three plant-type ability users. “The tentative plan is: earth-type users will loosen the soil, plant-types will pull the rooted mutant plants together, water-types will assist, and fire-type users will incinerate the plants, advancing toward the main root until it’s destroyed.”
After that, Ning Yuan divided everyone into smaller teams, carefully confirming each person’s ability range to ensure maximum cooperation and efficiency.
Lu Weiyi, sitting off to the side with nothing to do, immediately lit up.
Looks like he could be a couch potato again.
*
The vehicle drove for quite a while without spotting any mutant plants. If not for the zombie corpses scattered around, they might have thought they had taken the wrong road.
“This is the place from yesterday—see, isn’t that scorched ground from Little Stutter’s fire?” Xu Sa pointed to a circle of charred land.
Wu Yue pointed at freshly turned earth on the ground. “They left not long ago.”
Gu Qingji focused for a moment and then pointed east. “That way. I can feel the excited aura of mutant plants.”
The village road snaked along the mountains, and they needed to circle halfway up to see what was on the other side.
“Wanna check it out? It’s on the way,” Ning Yuan asked Lu Weiyi.
Before Lu Weiyi could answer, a burst of gunfire erupted from the east.
They were clearly fighting people, which raised a question—should they intervene? Helping might lead to accusations of trying to steal the crystal core.
“Let’s go. We can check their team’s strength and ask about the surrounding base conditions,” Zhuang Mingxu suggested.
The car sped toward the sound of gunfire.
“Whoa, it’s a human vs. tentacle-monster battle!” Xu Sa, watching from the roof of the car through binoculars, gave a live report. “Looks like a thousand people, but not many ability users.”
“Most of the normal people are tied up. No contest here—tsk, tsk, tsk… hey, that fire-type looks pretty good…”
“Oh! There’s a lightning-type too,” Xu Sa’s interested voice suddenly turned serious. “Wait—it’s Lei Zi and… Li Qing!”
As soon as he said it, the car swerved sharply. Lin Yimu in the driver’s seat shouted, “Who did you say?”
“It’s Li Qing. Fire-type. No mistake,” Xu Sa repeated, then called out to Lu Weiyi.
Lu Weiyi was already climbing onto the roof of the car. He took the binoculars from Xu Sa and looked through them.
Sure enough…
“Aren’t they supposed to be in Qingyuan? What are they doing here?” Lu Weiyi muttered.
“Young Master, something must’ve happened in Qingyuan. I told Li Qing where we were heading,” Lin Yimu said. The only direction they could be coming from was toward Half Moon Bay.
No need for more words—Lin Yimu floored it, driving straight toward the other group.
The mutant plant’s range wasn’t large. Most of its roots and leaves had been diverted to attack Li Qing’s group.
They passed the river village road and reached a stretch of open plains.
Knee-high green plants were everywhere, their unevenly sized leaves writhing as they tried to ensnare people. Buds, once pink, now soaked in blood, had turned crimson.
Gunfire mixed with shouts of anger rang out without pause. There was nowhere to retreat.
“It’s… it’s Ning Yuan!”
“Captain—it’s Ning Yuan’s team!”
“We’re saved!”
“Captain…”
Lei Jun saw the approaching car and shouted to his exhausted comrades, “Hang on, everyone! Reinforcements are here—just a little longer!”
Lin Yimu drove the vehicle directly into the mutant plant zone. With Lu Weiyi’s mental shield in place, it was like no resistance existed.
An invisible blade of mental energy carved a circle around the crowd, severing the mutant plants from their main root. Before they could reconnect, a mental barrier enveloped everyone.
Without support from the main root, the mutant plants became like ordinary flora, easily wiped out. The survivors looked at each other in disbelief.
Ragged and gaunt, they were covered in wounds. They looked worse than refugees.
A small green vine gathered all the broken mutant plant remains and tossed them aside. Liu Rui lit them on fire, burning everything to ashes.
“Go ahead,” Lu Weiyi told Ning Yuan.
With a wave of his hand, Ning Yuan led the team—already divided into groups—toward the remaining plants outside the mental barrier.
“Dean?” Lu Weiyi called out to Dean, who was tending to the severely wounded Antonio. “Time to work!”
“Got it!” Dean responded loudly, gave Antonio a kiss, and ran out.
Lu Xi in the passenger seat slid into the driver’s position while Lin Yimu jumped out and rushed to Li Qing, who had collapsed on the ground.
In just a few months, Li Qing looked weathered and worn, with visible scars, including a finger-length one on his chin. He was still in shock from the near-death experience.
Seeing Lin Yimu, his lips trembled for a long time before tears suddenly gushed out. “Captain…” His voice was hoarse, like sandpaper. “My dad is gone…”
Lin Yimu froze, then pulled him up and into a tight embrace. Li Qing clung to his shirt and broke down crying.
Around them, sporadic sobs echoed. Lei Jun wiped his face, looked up at Lu Weiyi standing on the roof of the car, and thanked him before turning to help check on the wounded and dead.
Dean followed, offering healing abilities to stabilize the seriously injured.
In the distance, Gu Qingji had already identified the root system’s range. Ning Yuan led the team step by step toward the main root, with all powers working in sync. Occasional slip-ups were quickly covered by support members.
The mutant plant that had overwhelmed hundreds of people was dismantled as if it were a walk in the park. The other onlookers watched with envy, suddenly feeling completely useless in comparison.
“Young Master Lu, do you have any medicine we could borrow?” Behind Lei Jun was a familiar military doctor, Sun Cheng—both of them looked battered and worn out.
Lu Weiyi waved his hand, and two shelves filled with trauma medicine appeared. His gaze remained fixed on his own teammates.
“Thank you, thank you. We… we’ll pay you back,” Lei Jun bowed and motioned for Sun Cheng to gather the necessary supplies.
About twenty minutes later, Ning Yuan returned with his team, satisfied. He held a beautiful crystal core and handed it to Lu Weiyi, speaking discreetly, “It wouldn’t submit.”
Meaning it couldn’t be tamed.
Lu Weiyi nodded and withdrew the mental barrier. His eyes shifted to the busy people across the plain.
“I told them to scavenge and see if there’s anything edible,” Ning Yuan said. The last time Lu Weiyi encountered a mutated evergreen ivy, it nearly stripped the earth clean. This time, his team had no intention of letting anything go to waste.
After speaking, Ning Yuan scanned the group of seated survivors and approached a familiar face, Zhang Peng. “Weren’t you guys building a base in Qingyuan? Why are you all the way out here?”
“The Qingyuan base… was attacked,” Zhang Peng said.
After Lu Weiyi and his team left, Qingyuan entered a period of intense reconstruction. All factions were reshuffled; there were frequent small skirmishes, but no major conflicts—until a sudden outbreak occurred.
“There was no warning. Strange plant-like growths started appearing on people—coral-like nodes emerging directly from the skin, in clusters,” Zhang Peng explained, sorrow heavy in his tone. “It started with pain—unbearable pain—until the victims died from it. And even after death, the growths kept spreading.” A man, the kind not easily brought to tears, trembled and fell silent.
Lu Weiyi was about to press for more, but Zhuang Mingxu gently stopped him with a hand.
Li Qing, having calmed somewhat, picked up the thread. “Eventually, their entire internal organs would be overtaken by the plant. Then their bodies would explode, and anything the fragments touched… would start a new cycle of growth.”
There wasn’t time to investigate the source. Panic overtook the base. With no cure in sight, rumors spiraled out of control. Some people even started believing it was a curse.
Driven by various factions and ulterior motives, the first infected—mostly soldiers—became everyone’s scapegoat.
“They said the apocalypse was the gods punishing the country’s regime—and that we, as soldiers, were its dogs. This was our divine punishment…” Lei Jun spoke through tears, with a bitter laugh.
