Ye Huizhou turned around, intending to help Ye Xihe remove it.
At that moment—
The vine that had been loosely wrapped around her calf suddenly tightened. Sharp thorns the length of finger joints sprouted from its surface and viciously pierced into Ye Xihe’s skin!
“Ah!”
Ye Xihe cried out in pain, losing her balance and falling backward.
Gu Zhuoye caught her with one arm. At the same time, he launched a fireball at the vine wrapped around her leg.
The smell of burning instantly filled their noses.
The vine loosened briefly.
Then it tightened around her fair calf once more and began sucking her blood!
Leaning against Gu Zhuoye’s chest, Ye Xihe’s face turned pale, cold sweat forming on her forehead.
“Xihe!”
Ye Huizhou infused his dagger with energy. The muscles in his forearm tensed as he drove the blade down at the vine with all his strength.
But the thing was completely impervious to blades.
“Don’t panic! Calm down and try your ability.”
Gu Zhuoye’s deep voice sounded beside her ear.
Enduring the pain, Ye Xihe gathered white light in her palm and aimed it toward her leg.
“Not there. Try its root system.”
Gu Zhuoye pointed toward a towering ancient tree on the left. The vine’s roots were located there, and at their center was a black-red point of light.
Ye Xihe threw the ball of light toward it.
The black-red light flickered twice before completely going out.
The vine immediately withered away, turning into little more than dry firewood.
Although blood was still seeping from Ye Xihe’s calf and ankle, the wounds were visibly healing on their own.
She covered them with her ability once more, but nothing happened.
“Your ability doesn’t work on yourself? You can only rely on natural regeneration?”
Su Nian handed her a bottle of water.
“Looks like that’s the case.”
“Fortunately, your self-healing is pretty strong.”
“Take a break.”
Gu Zhuoye pulled a chocolate bar from his pocket and handed it to her.
“Restore your energy.”
Ye Huizhou walked over to the ancient tree and examined the withered vine.
There was a hollow cavity in the center of its roots, likely where the black-red light had been.
Ye Xihe only broke off a small piece of chocolate and put it into her mouth. She carefully wrapped the rest and returned it to her pocket.
“The Apocalypse only started a few days ago. How are there already Mutated Animals and Plants?”
“Humans mutate, and animals and plants mutate too. In the face of disaster, all life is the same.”
Gu Zhuoye crouched beside Ye Huizhou.
“Mutated plants have cores. That light we saw earlier was one. I wonder how large a plant Xihe’s ability can purify.”
“There are so many plants in these mountains. That certainly isn’t the only mutated one. And they seem able to sense that Xihe is special, which is why they targeted her first.”
Su Nian’s voice was strained.
“Then what should we do…?”
Ye Huizhou withdrew his hand from the vine and rested it on his knee.
“Turning back isn’t realistic. The gray mist around Huxi Town is already too dense for survival. The mountains are safer than that. Since only Xihe’s ability works on these things, we’ll keep her in the center when we move.”
Ye Xihe sat quietly, her small face serious as she drifted into thought.
So far, only a few days had passed since the Apocalypse began, yet three major events had already deviated significantly from the original novel.
The first was Gu Zhuoye, who had never appeared in the story.
The second was Huxi Town, which should have been safe but was now engulfed in dense gray mist.
The third was the appearance of mutated plants, which shouldn’t have emerged until two months later.
There was no way all of this could be explained by the butterfly effect of her Transmigration.
She took out her notebook and recorded everything.
“You don’t need to write that down. As long as I’m here, you won’t lose your way.”
Ye Xihe turned around and found Gu Zhuoye’s handsome face suddenly very close to hers.
With a snap, she closed the notebook.
Expressionless, she said, “So Brother Zhuoye has a hobby of peeking into other people’s privacy?”
Hearing that, Ye Huizhou glanced over.
Gu Zhuoye simply chuckled lazily.
After a short rest, they continued onward.
This time, they changed their formation.
Su Nian led the way.
Ye Huizhou and Gu Zhuoye positioned themselves on either side, forming a triangle with Su Nian.
Ye Xihe walked safely in the center.
Fortunately, they did not encounter any additional mutated plants for quite some time.
As darkness gradually fell, traveling at night would only become more dangerous, so they cleared a patch of open ground and prepared to camp there.
“Gu Zhuoye and I have already cleared the surrounding area. There’s nothing unusual for now. Tonight we’ll take shifts in pairs. Su Nian and Xihe will handle the first half of the night, while Gu Zhuoye and I will take the second half.”
Everyone nodded, having no objections to Ye Huizhou’s arrangement.
“We caught a rabbit while clearing the area.”
Gu Zhuoye held up a rabbit by the scruff and gave it a shake.
“We can roast it.”
Ye Xihe immediately raised her hand.
“I saw fish in the stream earlier!”
The campsite was located in an open area, with a crystal-clear stream flowing about ten meters away.
Gu Zhuoye raised an eyebrow.
“Do you know how to catch fish?”
Ye Xihe turned toward her brother.
“Do you?”
Ye Huizhou: …
With a sigh, he handed the task of starting the fire to Su Nian and resignedly headed to the stream to catch fish.
Su Nian pressed her lips together, smiling as she quickly got the fire going.
Meanwhile, Gu Zhuoye efficiently cleaned and prepared the rabbit.
Before long, Ye Huizhou returned carrying three fish.
Ye Xihe’s eyes sparkled.
“Big Brother is amazing!”
The corners of Ye Huizhou’s lips lifted slightly.
“Just wait and eat.”
Soon, the rich aroma of roasting meat filled the air.
The group enjoyed a satisfying meal and spent a peaceful night.
…
“We’ve been hiking through the mountains for two days now. We should be halfway through, right?”
Ye Xihe asked weakly, her legs feeling like jelly.
“Yeah! There’s only a little farther to the center.”
Walking at the front with the map in hand, Su Nian could hear the exhaustion in her voice and reassured her.
“Hang in there a little longer, Xihe. We’ll be there very so—”
Su Nian’s voice abruptly stopped.
The distracted Ye Xihe nearly bumped into her. She looked up, and her voice instantly changed pitch.
“What… happened?!”
Not far ahead, three bodies were hanging in the air.
Green vines had tightly bound them.
One looked relatively fresh, while the other two had already become dried corpses.
The scene was profoundly eerie.
In the fog-shrouded primeval forest, beneath a gigantic ancient tree, corpses hung suspended like something out of a nightmare.
The group froze.
Then, before their eyes, the freshest-looking “corpse” moved.
“Help… me…”
Ye Xihe’s eyes widened.
“He’s still alive!”
Gu Zhuoye grabbed her before she could rush forward. With a wave of his hand, seven or eight fireballs shot outward, nearly dispersing the surrounding gray mist.
Only then did everyone get a clear look at their surroundings.
Directly beneath the hanging bodies was an enormous brown flower.
Its stem and leaves were intertwined with the vines, as though the two plants shared a symbiotic relationship.
By now, Ye Xihe was very familiar with the process.
She located the vine’s black-red core and threw a sphere of light at it.
The vine seemed completely unprepared and was struck directly.
“I feel like…” Su Nian swallowed hard. “This vine was sleeping after stuffing itself full…”
“…”
Ye Xihe felt her sanity plummeting. Goosebumps rose all over her body.
The withered vine could no longer support its captives.
The three hanging figures dropped to the ground with loud thuds.
The survivor coughed violently from the impact.
Ye Huizhou and Su Nian stepped forward to check on them.
But suddenly, Ye Xihe’s scream rang out from behind.
“Watch out!”