The farm’s livestock station was still under construction, leaving Lu Shiliu with no outlet for his skills. He’d grown incredibly bored lately, so he ca over every few days to walk Da Hong and the little chicks.
With Da Hong going out more frequently, murmurs of dissatisfaction gradually arose from the direction of the experintal fields.
Soon, soone reported the issue to the farm. However, the farm explained that it was a personal pilot program run by the military, and the higher-ups had already approved it.
The matter caused quite a stir on the farm. So even began to speculate that the higher-ups were planning to relax their policies and allow private livestock farming.
Throughout this period, however, things on the South City Base front remained quiet. Who knew if those sweet potatoes Huang Er had carted back last ti were having an effect?
In short, while everything appeared calm on the surface, turbulent undercurrents were surging beneath.
The end of the month arrived in the blink of an eye, and Shen Yue ca to Gu Xi for more grain.
Gu Xi agreed.
On the way, she asked Shen Yue, "Didn’t we already send two shipnts this month? I feel like you’ve been asking for grain more frequently lately."
Shen Yue explained, "The last two shipnts were diverted to allied units..."
"Which allied units?" Gu Xi asked, feigning curiosity.
Shen Yue stared at her through the rearview mirror for a mont before replying, "The troops on the Southwest border. The mountains there are high and the forests dense. Conditions are even tougher than here at Heng Mountain, so my old man made the call to divert so of our rations over there..."
Gu Xi nodded and tilted her head. "The military doesn’t have any Space Ability users right now, does it? It can’t be easy to transport so much grain over such long distances and through the mountains. Have you never considered having go over and provide support directly?"
Shen Yue’s reaction was swift. He slamd his foot on the brake.
He turned to stare intently at Gu Xi for a long mont. Then, his eyes flickered open wider as he let out a lazy chuckle and raised an eyebrow. "You want to use the military’s channels to get to the Southwest?"
"That’s right." Gu Xi didn’t deny it, calmly letting him scrutinize her.
Shen Yue lifted his hand and tapped his fingers on the steering wheel a few tis. "It’s not out of the question. However, the situation in the Southwest is rather complicated. It isn’t entirely under the control of the military and the governnt..."
The Southwest Region, with its high mountains and dense forests, had always been ho to a hardy and fiercely independent populace.
After the apocalypse, many small private bases had sprung up one after another. Although these bases, large and small, had nominally submitted to the governnt in recent years, the reality of the situation was far more complex.
This created opportunities for certain people to fish in troubled waters.
Otherwise, the legendary secret laboratory belonging to the Abnormal Ability Research Institute would never have been built there.
Gu Xi nodded. "I know."
Back in the day, she had led her team on missions to the Southwest Region more than once, so she had so understanding of the situation there.
In fact, just outside Rongcheng Base, she had even fought a famous bandit leader of that era, Wang Datou.
That Wang Datou was the head of a private base and a Level 9 Thunder Ability User. He was so unbelievably arrogant that he actually led a gang of high-level ability users to target Rong City, a major A-rank base with hundreds of thousands of survivors.
And the governnt wasn’t about to let him run wild, was it?
And so, he ran into Gu Xi’s Doomsday Squad.
That year, Gu Xi was only thirteen and had yet to don the Blood-colored Asura Mask.
Wang Datou, seeing her youth and baby face, was exceedingly arrogant at first. Later...
"Gu Xiaoxi, what are you thinking about?" Shen Yue waved a hand in front of her face, his brow furrowing slightly.
Gu Xi snapped back to reality and glanced out the window. "Nothing. Just suddenly rembered sothing from the past."
At first, she and Wang Datou had been evenly matched. Later, when he saw he was losing, he fled into the mountains, attempting to use the familiar terrain to shake her. Gu Xi had chased him for three days and three nights. Several tis, just as she was about to catch him, soone would intervene from the shadows to hinder her...
In the end, Gu Xi had to get ruthless. Risking the rupture of her Superpower Core, she had Yabao connect with the plants across the entire mountain to finally capture him.
Under orders, Gu Xi handed him over to Rongcheng Base before leading her team to their next objective. Later, however, she heard faint rumors that Wang Datou had been secretly taken away by a mysterious group...
’One could only imagine. If the situation in the Southwest was that complicated back then, now it’s probably...’
Gu Xi lowered her gaze, her fingertip poking the two tender leaves on the little sprout’s tip.
’Sproutling, we’re about to revisit old haunts. Are you... ready?’
The little sprout twirled obediently around her fingertip.
Beside her, Shen Yue glanced over, said nothing, and stepped on the accelerator.
...
「Three days later.」
Gu Xi was on a helicopter dispatched by the military.
This was the first ti Gu Xi had been in an aircraft since waking up. Gazing through the window at the mountains below the clouds and listening to the distinctive military radio chatter, for a split second, she felt as if she had returned to thirty years ago.
So many tis in the past, she had sat in a military helicopter just like this, heading off to missions in different places.
Gu Xi retracted her gaze and discreetly pushed the little sprout, which had secretly snuck out to see the sights, back into hiding.
"Miss Gu, are you all right?" a young soldier beside her yelled over the deafening roar. "Don’t be nervous. The chances of us running into mutant birds up here aren’t actually that high..."
’Nervous?’
Only then did Gu Xi realize that, aside from her, the other two soldiers and the pilot all seed extrely tense.
On both sides of the helicopter, a strange device was slowly deploying.
Gu Xi guessed it was probably a bird repellent. This gadget, however, was completely different from the ones thirty years ago.
’I wonder if it’s effective?’
Gu Xi looked up and smiled at the two young soldiers beside her, gesturing that she was fine, but she secretly raised her guard and released her Spirit Barrier.
These two young soldiers didn’t look very old. One was a Seventh-level High-rank Gold Ability User, and the other was a Level 8 Middle Wind Ability User. A team like this shouldn’t have much trouble dealing with ordinary mutant birds in the air.
But the Southwest Region had high mountains and dense forests; who knew what powerful flying creatures might be lurking within...
Gu Xi didn’t dare to let her guard down. These two young soldiers and the pilot were only on this mission because of her.
She had to be responsible for their lives.
An hour later, Gu Xi’s senses picked up a sudden, intense energy fluctuation. Imdiately after, she "saw" a blurry black dot rapidly approaching the helicopter.
Gu Xi condensed her spiritual power into a net. As it drew closer, she realized what it was. ’A peak Level 9 mutant owl?’
’But this owl’s mutation is a bit strange. Why is it so small...?’
But now wasn’t the ti to ponder that. Seeing the owl was now only a few kiloters from the helicopter, Gu Xi abruptly withdrew her spiritual power.
With her current abilities, it would be difficult to instantly annihilate the owl.
After all, they were in mid-air, with no mountains full of mutant plants to provide her with energy.
Fortunately, Gu Xi was prepared for such a situation.
She leaned back slightly, her hands resting inconspicuously on the bench beneath her. The little sprout quietly vanished from her fingertip, reappearing in her personal space an instant later...
In an instant, the vast swaths of mutant plants stored in Gu Xi’s space began to wither rapidly.
At the sa ti, the Wind Ability User seed to have spotted the mutant owl as well, and his expression changed abruptly.
Just then, Gu Xi suddenly asked him, "Are we almost there?"
The young soldier froze. He was about to speak but frowned instead. ’How did that mutant owl just vanish?’
He thought for a mont that his senses were failing him and instinctively leaned over to look out the window.
Outside the helicopter, green mountains stretched on endlessly under a clear, cloudless sky.
There was no sign of any mutant owl.
’Did I just sense it wrong? Or did the mutant owl retreat on its own?’
The Wind Ability User frowned slightly.
Gu Xi feigned curiosity and followed his gaze, asking calmly, "What is it? Is sothing wrong?"
The Wind Ability User pulled his gaze back and slowly shook his head. "It’s nothing."
But then he noticed that Gu Xi’s face was unusually pale. The young soldier instantly recalled her earlier question and quickly said, "Miss Gu, are you all right? We still have about 40 minutes until we reach our destination. You..."
"I’m fine." Gu Xi glanced at the faint reflection of her pale, weak face in the window and nonchalantly cracked her knuckles. "It’s just my first ti in an aircraft. I’m a little airsick."
’Oh, I see...’
The two young soldiers exchanged a glance. One handed her a bottle of water while the other offered her a few mint candies. "Miss Gu, please hang in there. There’s nowhere suitable to land for a break around here..."
Very few people got to fly these days, but airsickness wasn’t unheard of. So the two young soldiers didn’t give it much thought.
Gu Xi thanked them and took a sip of water.
She lowered her gaze to the mints in her hand, her brow furrowing almost imperceptibly.
’In my current condition, instantly annihilating a peak Level 9 owl is still a bit of a stretch... I managed to brush it off with the airsickness excuse just now.’
’But... I still showed my hand.’
’If that falls into the wrong hands, it’ll be more trouble...’
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