Chapter 635: Chapter 635: The Highly Anticipated Zhang Xiaohong
"I’ll give it a try,"
Su Jin was a Wood Element Special Ability User. She had tried to control that man-eating Mutated Moss before, and now felt it was worth another shot.
"Could it affect you in any way?"
Lu Hao seemed reluctant to agree, thinking it would be better to just set fire to it and keep burning until it dared not emerge.
"No, it won’t. I’ll only use my Special Ability, and besides, we’ll still need to take this road when we come back. If we don’t deal with it thoroughly, it could harm even more people,"
Su Jin said, merely using her Wood Element Special Ability alongside Xiao Cui, which shouldn’t cause any issues, but she couldn’t be certain of success.
So, under the nervous "protection" of her family, Su Jin walked over to the charred ground and slowly extended her Wood Element Special Ability onto the road ahead.
To everyone else, this action didn’t seem noticeable, but only Su Jin could sense what was going on beneath this segment of the road.
"Found it,"
Su Jin’s lips curved into a smile; her Wood Element Special Ability had located the wriggling Mutated Tree Root - indeed, its main body was slowly repairing the injured part.
Unintentionally, Su Jin allowed her Wood Element Special Ability to seep into a section of the injured root, then followed its meridians slowly upwards. Since it was the same type of energy, the plant felt no rejection and remained unaware of this energy rampaging inside it.
To be precise, it was Xiao Cui running wild; it seemed to sense something calling out to it and was rushing so fast that Su Jin’s consciousness almost couldn’t keep up.
Finally, even Su Jin could feel a force; amidst the dark Wood Element Energy, there seemed to be a faint green glow flickering up ahead.
Was that... the plant’s Crystal Core?!
No wonder Xiao Cui was running so fast; it had discovered a treasure.
The Mutated Plant’s main body seemed to have realized the danger and quickly erected a Wood Element barrier to protect its Crystal Core. But Su Jin wouldn’t give up so easily; she wielded a stronger Wood Element Special Ability and instantly broke through that barrier.
This is it, Xiao Cui, go for it!
Su Jin was somewhat excited; such a large Wood Element plant crystal core was no wonder it could control such extensive roots.
The moment Xiao Cui bit into that Crystal Core, a scream and wave of resistance reached them, and Su Jin immediately suppressed it with her Wood Element Special Ability. Even the family standing close by felt something surging underground.
"What’s happening?"
Lu Guanhai asked. Was that thing coming out again?
A moment later, Su Jin stood up, relaxed, and announced, "It’s done."
It was a Mutated Banyan Tree growing at the foot of North Mountain. The banyan tree was known for its extensive root system, and after mutation, to absorb more nutrients, it had stretched its roots across the road.
"Xiao Jin has dealt with it, so can I start paving the road again?"
Lin Cheng asked eagerly, feeling he was about to level up.
With all his might, Lin Cheng repaved the road, and then he joined Su Jin in entering the Space; it was time for him to prepare for his promotion!
-------------------------------------
In the rugged outskirts of A City, Xiao Zhen leaned in the car, aimlessly gazing out of the window.
Their day of zombie extermination was over, and now they were heading back to the industrial park, which was their new base—the same industrial park as before. However, many of the roads had turned into waterways, so they had to take detours to reach their destination.
Cai Jianbin and his group had more than once internally expressed their gratitude to Zhang Xiaohong and the others.
Less than a month after Zhang Xiaohong and her team had left, a sudden snowstorm swept in. What they initially thought would be a regular heavy snowfall turned out to persist for an entire winter.
Fortunately, the industrial park had excellent sealing capabilities. Despite the outside world being engulfed in ice and snow, the inside remained quite warm. Had they stayed in the scattered small places they used to live in, they would most likely have ended up frozen or starved to death.
They also managed to survive the winter safely, relying on the supplies sold to them by Zhang Xiaohong and Chen Daming, even though a zombie tide came after the snow ceased. The survivors, who had not killed a single zombie all winter, collectively resolved the threat.
In the time after the blizzard stopped, they discovered, while out killing zombies, that the former A-city base had become a vast ocean.
A-city, being a region densely forested with mountains, had its base situated in a basin. The melting snow from the surroundings directly flooded into the A-city base. However, it wasn’t that big a loss since the place had already been deserted due to the mutated plants.
They just felt fortunate that Zhang Xiaohong had appeared at just the right moment, seemingly a gift from heaven.
The vehicle arrived at the industrial park base before dark, and Xiao Zhen was the first to jump out of the car and run inside.
"Is Xiao Zhen back?"
Auntie Zhang asked warmly.
"Yes, Grandma Zhang, I’m back. My dad and the others killed a lot of zombies today,"
Xiao Zhen said as she ran into the house.
"As long as you’re not hurt, that’s good. We’ve already cooked dinner; go wash up so we can start eating,"
Auntie Zhang urged the group of men who had returned late.
They had now formed a mutually supportive routine. The special ability users and strong men from the group would go out to kill zombies, while the older women in the industrial park would take care of laundry and cooking. Therefore, Cai Jianbin and the others could always come back to hot meals awaiting them.
Of course, there were also women in good health and even children who would join the group on outings. Xiao Zhen was one of the children Cai Jianbin was focusing on training. She had a high fever once during the blizzard and miraculously awakened her wood element ability.
Although everyone regretted that the child had awakened to a rather useless wood element special ability, Cai Jianbin didn’t think so. He had witnessed Zhang Xiaohong’s wood element special ability, albeit only for a moment. He had never mentioned this to anyone, but that brief instance was enough to amaze him.
He wanted to train his child because one day he knew he would be gone before her. No matter whether man or woman, everyone needed skills to establish themselves and survive in these chaotic times.
"Xiao Zhen, what day is it today?"
Qi Liangliang asked as usual.
"Day 120,"
Xiao Zhen answered.
"It’s almost been four months, huh? Our supplies won’t last much longer,"
A man with a face still wet from washing said while scraping his bowl of rice. He had just washed his face and hadn’t even bothered to dry it before coming to eat.
"They wouldn’t just stop coming, would they?"
Qi Liangliang said, looking at the faces of his teammates.
"Impossible, I believe in them,"
Cai Jianbin immediately objected. He dared not, nor wanted to disbelieve them. Without the sustained supply of resources from Zhang Xiaohong and her team, they really had no way to survive.