In the tense atmosphere, Qi Xiang suddenly pulled off her hair tie, letting her long hair cascade down.
The surrounding mutant plants continued to sway as if in a breeze, like a great green tide rolling before her eyes.
Qi Xiang took a deep breath and raised a hand to the side of her hair.
’Good. It’s not a hallucination.’
Not a single strand of her hair was moving.
After swiftly tying her loose hair back into a bun, Qi Xiang looked around, her lovely features now etched with a grim severity.
There was no wind, yet every plant she could see was moving!
This unnatural and bizarre scene made everyone’s heart leap into their throats.
Even the normally aloof and composed Ye Junhan now had a hint of cold gravity in his eyes.
’He had made a mistake, a critical assumption.’
He’d seen the plants swaying and had naturally assud the wind was blowing. But...
The drones had been recalled, and chanical failure had been ruled out.
Yang Liu would swear that there was nothing wrong with his drones, yet the real-ti images transmitted back by the crafts were still completely black.
The surrounding mutant plants were as tall as mountains, their dense foliage casting vast shadows under the sun. It felt as if the shadow of death itself had fallen over them.
The sun was shining brightly in a clear, cloudless sky.
And yet, Qi Xiang suddenly felt cold, the kind of chill that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.
She instinctively looked up at Ye Junhan.
At so point, Ye Junhan had put on his tactical mask, leaving only a pair of deep, dark eyes visible.
He narrowed his eyes slightly and raised his left hand. The next mont, a bolt of lightning as thick as a wrist snaked out like a dragon, lashing into the surrounding mutant plants.
In the blink of an eye, a large swath of the mutant plants was blasted to smithereens by the thunderous strike.
However, the mutant plants farther away continued to sway gently, showing no reaction at all. It was as if... they really were just swaying in the wind.
"Mr. Ye," Zhou Qian said, looking up at Ye Junhan. "This is strange. We’ve got a ssage from South City. They’re asking if we need ard support."
"Ignore them." Ye Junhan’s narrow eyes swept over the area, and his fingertips, resting on the scabbard at his waist, tapped once. "Keep going."
The team followed the path from the satellite images, heading for the last known location of the mobile mutant plant.
The ruins were overgrown with countless wild mutant plants sprouting from the rubble and crumbling walls, leaving no clear path.
Ye Junhan led the way, clearing a path. He strode forward in his military boots, and wherever he passed, arcs of lightning flashed silently, leaving a winding, grey trail of ash.
Qi Xiang watched his feet for a mont before discreetly pulling her finger back from her personal terminal.
「About half an hour later.」
"Mr. Ye, this should be the area." In front of the Light Screen, Zhou Qian’s fingers flew. After running a technical comparison to confirm their surroundings, he looked up at Ye Junhan.
Ye Junhan halted and raised his left hand, signaling for the team to spread out and search the area.
The team mbers split into pairs and began to explore.
Left on her own, Qi Xiang naturally fell in behind Ye Junhan.
Ye Junhan stood still. Qi Xiang walked up beside him, her gaze sweeping over the Xidao at his waist before finally settling on his face. "Ye Junhan, how about you let give it a try?"
Her ability was unique. ’When it cos to finding things,’ she thought, ’I’m not just bragging. No one is better than .’
With that, Qi Xiang cocked an eyebrow at him and started to walk forward. Before she’d taken more than a few steps, a finger-thick bolt of purple lightning suddenly struck the ground near her feet.
"Mr. Ye?" Qi Xiang turned back, frowning slightly. "What’s the aning of this?"
Ye Junhan strode past her without a word of explanation, crouching before a crumbling wall with a slight frown.
Qi Xiang walked over and asked curiously, "What are you looking at?"
Just then, a loud CRACK echoed from beneath their feet. Gripping his Xidao, Ye Junhan shot to his feet.
At the sa ti, a purple Thunder Net spread out from his feet.
Without a second thought, Qi Xiang leaped onto a nearby, waist-high section of a broken wall.
But the thing from the crater below had already burst out.
"Watch your feet—" Dongfang Yu yelled from a short distance away.
Qi Xiang glanced down to see a blackish-green vine already coiled around her ankle.
Countless maws at the vine’s tip gaped open, preparing to suck her flesh and blood.
Alard, Qi Xiang was about to draw her own blade when a flash of white light blazed before her eyes.
An arc of silvery-white light flashed by her ankle and vanished. The vine coiled around her leg instantly went slack and fell away, dropping below the wall.
Qi Xiang let out a sharp breath of relief, her heart pounding with lingering fear.
She instinctively pressed a hand to her chest. Looking up, she saw that Ye Junhan had already drawn his Xidao.
The arc of its light radiated a relentless ferocity. Together with the purple lightning at his feet, it forced back the countless mutant plants that had been lying in ambush, waiting for a chance to strike.
Qi Xiang opened her mouth to speak, but then she saw them—more mutant plants in the distance, surging toward them like a tidal wave.
They thrashed wildly, crazed with bloodlust.
Watching the horrifying scene, Qi Xiang froze, her limbs stiff and her face pale. She swallowed hard and whispered, "...Malignant Mutation!"
’This is definitely a Malignant Mutation!’
’And it’s not just one mutant plant that’s undergone it!’
’But research has shown that Malignant Mutation requires a massive amount of energy to sustain itself, and that the process is extrely predatory!’
’The few previously discovered cases of Malignant Mutation all confird this—once a mutated plant appeared in an area, all other mutant plants around it would wither and die in a short amount of ti.’
’But now, right before my eyes, a mass Malignant Mutation event was happening!’
’This was no small matter.’
Qi Xiang looked at the countless mutant plants covering the landscape, all undergoing the Malignant Mutation, and instinctively glanced up at Ye Junhan.
Ye Junhan clearly knew what this ant, too.
Arcs of lightning flashed from the purple Thunder Net at his feet, blasting countless mutated plants to ash with its thunderous wrath. But in the distance, an endless stream of them surged forward, one wave after another.
’This can’t go on.’
Ye Junhan quickly turned his head. "Yang Liu! Zhao Qingxiao!"
The words had barely left his mouth when the two of them were speeding toward him.
Before Qi Xiang could react, Zhao Qingxiao had grabbed her by the collar, hauled her off the broken wall, and was pulling her back in a swift retreat.
anwhile, Yang Liu was deploying combat drones ard with Superpower Bullets as he ran back with them, his pack slung over his shoulder. At the sa ti, he opened his personal terminal, his fingers flying across the screen as he controlled so unknown program.
The other mbers of the Special Service Team were also fighting as they fell back, with only Ye Junhan remaining behind to cover their retreat.
Soon, Qi Xiang found herself surrounded by several team mbers, protected in the center of their formation.
She watched the endless tide of mutated plants surging toward them, gasping for breath, but she was already quickly regaining her composure after the initial shock and confusion.
’The Malignant Mutation of the plants is no longer an isolated incident. If this mass mutation event is allowed to spread, the consequences will be unimaginable!’
Qi Xiang quietly took a step back. She glanced up at the Special Service Team mbers fighting the mutant plants around them, her fingertips discreetly finding their way to her personal terminal...
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