It was pouring outside, and the sky was still shrouded in darkness.
Wen Lan and Wang Hui had no way of leaving, so they could only wait there for the time being.
As a traditional Chinese medicine doctor, Wang Hui was perfectly capable of treating her own minor injuries.
But Wen Lan couldn’t sit still.
“You’re going out?”
Seeing Wen Lan preparing to leave, Wang Hui instinctively grew tense.
Perhaps she was afraid of being abandoned.
“Yeah. I’m going to look for my brother and my friends.”
Hearing that Wen Lan wasn’t leaving her behind, Wang Hui finally let out a sigh of relief.
“It’s still raining heavily outside. There was an earthquake, and zombies are everywhere. It’s too dangerous.”
“My brother’s strong. He’ll be fine.”
“I still have friends to find.”
Wen Lan answered quietly.
Wang Hui froze.
Friends?
Could anyone still have friends in the apocalypse?
Wasn’t everyone selfish, willing to do anything just to survive?
Even teammates would choose their own lives when it came down to it.
But…
Wen Lan had saved her, hadn’t she?
The more she had looked down on Wen Lan before, the more guilty she felt now.
Without another word, Wen Lan disappeared into the rainy night.
Left behind alone, Wang Hui felt strangely moved.
Having a friend like Wen Lan…
That didn’t sound bad at all.
Deep down, she longed for a best friend who would face life and death with her.
But ever since childhood, between her parents and her younger brother…
When had she ever had the chance to make friends?
For the first time in her life, Wang Hui wanted a friend because of Wen Lan.
Being alone all the time wasn’t as comfortable as she’d always believed.
She had looked down on Wen Lan so much before…
But why was Wen Lan so strong?
She could cut off a zombie’s head with a single slash. Even Wang Hui couldn’t do that.
Now that zombie necks had become dried and incredibly tough, only someone with Ji Feng’s level of strength could sever one cleanly in a single strike.
Yet Wen Lan had absorbed the fewest energy crystals.
Wang Hui simply couldn’t make sense of it.
…
In the darkness, Wen Lan’s perception ability gave her a crystal—clear awareness of everything around her.
She gripped her military dagger, while a water bottle hung across her chest. Inside it were soil and the mutated fleeceflower root.
Her perception radius remained at fifty meters.
Although its range hadn’t increased lately, its effectiveness had grown significantly stronger.
She headed toward the place where the earthquake had struck.
When the fog erupted and the ground split apart, that was where everyone had become separated.
Many zombies had been crushed beneath the collapsing earth.
Rainwater mixed with the zombies’ foul green blood flowed through the streets and seeped into the ground.
Her perception picked up several uncollected energy crystals.
Just as Wen Lan was about to retrieve them herself, the fleeceflower root inside the bottle suddenly stirred.
The bottle cap was pushed open.
Two vines shot out, burrowed into the zombie corpses, extracted the energy crystals, and hung them neatly from the vines.
Sparkling red energy crystals.
Wen Lan hadn’t expected the fleeceflower root to enjoy collecting them.
From then on, she barely had to do anything herself.
After drinking her blood, the mutated fleeceflower root had established a connection with her.
Through her perception ability, she could communicate simple intentions to it.
Likewise, whenever there were energy crystals nearby, it could sense them through that connection.
Wen Lan began to suspect that the true nature of her ability might actually lie in her blood.
Once the fleeceflower root had absorbed it, the two of them became linked.
A rough hypothesis gradually formed in her mind.
All the while, she kept searching for her brother.
She couldn’t sense Wen Che.
Instead…
She sensed another man.
“Su Han?”
The moment Su Han entered the range of her perception, she found him.
“Mm.”
“Where’s my brother? Is he with you?”
Wen Lan asked anxiously.
“I’m looking for him too.”
Su Han shook his head.
Zhang Ye had already taken Zhang Meng back to the safe zone.
Zhou Wen and Ji Feng had also become separated.
The massive zombie horde that had suddenly appeared had scattered all of them.
“Our deal still stands, right?”
Wen Lan naturally knew what he meant.
“Of course it does.”
Su Han’s psychic detection covered a much larger area than Wen Lan’s perception, especially now that his ability had grown stronger.
His search radius had expanded considerably.
Wen Lan was becoming increasingly worried.
She had no idea what had happened to Wen Che.
Finally, they found Wen Che and Xia Mo inside the ruins of a shattered storefront.
“Lan Lan!”
The moment Wen Che saw that Wen Lan was unharmed, much of the worry weighing on his heart finally disappeared.
“What’s wrong with Xia Mo?”
“She has a fever. She fainted.”
“Let’s take her to Wang Hui. She might know what to do.”
After all, Wang Hui was a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine.
“Okay.”
Wen Che carried Xia Mo on his back while Wen Lan led the way back to their temporary shelter.
…
Hearing footsteps outside, Wang Hui looked up.
Seeing everyone return safely, she finally breathed a long sigh of relief.
She hadn’t been able to sleep at all while waiting there alone.
“Wang Hui, could you take a look at Xia Mo? She’s been running a fever and still won’t wake up.”
“Of course.”
Wang Hui performed a thorough examination.
“It should just be an ordinary fever.”
For the time being, everyone stayed there.
There was still rice and millet stored inside Wen Lan’s space.
She decided to cook some millet porridge, since Xia Mo was still weak.
Only then did Wang Hui notice something unusual.
Wen Lan was taking items out of thin air.
In an instant, Wang Hui realized the truth.
Wen Lan actually possessed a spatial ability!
A dual—ability user?
How was that even possible?
She was stunned.
Yet, to her own surprise, she didn’t ask a single question.
Instead, she quietly pretended she hadn’t noticed anything.
The next day, Xia Mo finally regained consciousness.
Wen Lan was the first to sense it.
And she immediately felt that something about Xia Mo had changed.
“Xia Mo?”
Xia Mo slowly opened her eyes.
Looking at the woman before her, a strange emotion flashed across them.
…Rejection?
Why was that emotion coming from Xia Mo?
Whatever she was thinking…
Wen Lan could clearly sense the fluctuation in her emotions.
This was another improvement brought about by her upgraded perception ability.
Wen Lan frowned slightly.
Why did the emotions of the person who had just awakened feel completely different from Xia Mo’s before?
Could the fever have damaged her brain?
Xia Mo glanced around before her gaze settled on Su Han in the distance.
Her eyes lit up.
A complicated emotion flickered within them.
She had actually returned to the past.
Her eyes immediately locked onto Su Han.
The strongest human in the world.
The man who would unify the post—apocalyptic world and establish humanity’s greatest civilization.
Su Han.
The legendary man recorded in history.
The owner of the supreme SSS—rank ability.
He had remained unmarried his entire life.
Rumor had it that Su Han had once loved someone deeply.
No one had ever discovered who that woman was.
Now that she had traveled back in time…
She would seize Su Han and make him her greatest support.
She would stand on the shoulders of a giant.
Her gaze slowly shifted before finally landing on the beautiful Wen Lan.
Having only just entered this body, she still instinctively rejected her.
“I’m still a little sleepy.”
After saying that, Xia Mo closed her eyes and fell asleep again.
She needed to absorb the soul still remaining inside this body as quickly as possible.
This body’s ability was far too weak.
But with her here, she could naturally strengthen it.
“Alright.”
Wen Lan nodded and didn’t disturb Xia Mo’s rest any further.
Still…
Something felt different.
The brief feeling of rejection had vanished, yet an inexplicable uneasiness welled up inside Wen Lan.
She knitted her brows.
Maybe it was just because of the fever.
Xia Mo was still Xia Mo…
Wasn’t she?
Even so, her heightened perception had planted a seed of doubt deep within her heart.
…
It wasn’t until noon the following day that Xia Mo woke up again.
The original Xia Mo’s soul still hadn’t been completely absorbed.
However, she had already inherited most of Xia Mo’s memories.
Only a portion remained tightly sealed away.
To obtain those memories, she would first have to completely devour Xia Mo’s soul.
Early that morning, Wen Lan had already left with Su Han to search for supplies.
After all, they had made an agreement.
Ten square meters of Wen Lan’s storage space belonged to Su Han.
Wen Che had wanted to go too.
But one person was injured, and another was still recovering from a fever.
So he stayed behind.
The first person Xia Mo saw upon waking was Wen Che.
According to the original Xia Mo’s memories…
She had secretly been in love with him.
But the one living in this body now was someone else.
She only admired powerful men.
As for the name Wen Che…
She didn’t remember ever hearing it in the future.
“Xia Mo, you’re awake.”
“Mm. Brother Che, I’m feeling much better now. Thank you for saving me.”
“Where’s Lan Lan?”
“She went out with Su Han to gather supplies. They should be back soon.”
Wen Che explained casually, completely unaware that the woman before him was no longer the same person.
To Wen Che…
Aside from his little sister, everyone else was more or less the same.
A trace of coldness flashed through Xia Mo’s eyes.
…
Meanwhile, Su Han and Wen Lan had collected a huge amount of supplies from a large shopping mall.
“That’s about enough. My storage space is full.”
Naturally, it wasn’t actually full.
Wen Lan always reserved some space for herself.
“Alright.”
“When you need anything later, just ask me.”
“So… when are you going to start today’s story?”
“When we get back.”
“Okay.”
Wen Lan realized that although Su Han appeared cold, he wasn’t actually indifferent.
Getting along with him felt surprisingly natural.
The mutated fleeceflower root hanging from her chest was now covered with sparkling energy crystals.
“These are yours. Sorry… this mutated fleeceflower root really likes collecting these.”
It didn’t care whether Wen Lan or Su Han had killed the zombies.
As long as it detected an energy crystal, it would snatch it up and proudly hang it from its vines.
Afterward, Wen Lan would pick them off one by one.
She handed all the transparent energy crystals to Su Han.
The rest she stored away in her own space.
As for the black energy crystals…
The fleeceflower root simply absorbed those itself.
After a full night of heavy rain, combined with the constant washing of zombie blood…
Changes began appearing everywhere.
Tiny blades of grass sprouted from cracks in the streets and between the walls.
But they weren’t bright green.
They were pitch black.
Their leaves had no visible veins, and upon closer inspection, their edges were lined with fine serrations.
Wen Lan activated her perception ability.
“These plants have mutated.”
Not only that—
Dark crimson roses had also bloomed from cracks in the walls, beautiful yet strangely sinister.
The mutated plants released an overwhelmingly rich fragrance.
At that moment, the fleeceflower root suddenly pushed the bottle cap open again.
Two tiny white flowers popped out.
Seeing this, Wen Lan didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Perhaps even plants cared about status.
As soon as the little white flowers appeared, the blossoms of the surrounding mutated plants all drooped as though bowing.
The fleeceflower root’s two white flowers swayed proudly.
Sensing its smug emotions through their connection, Wen Lan could only smile helplessly.
“This mutated plant of yours is rather unusual.”
Su Han looked at it thoughtfully.
“It has developed a faint consciousness.”
As a psychic ability user, he could naturally sense conscious beings.
“That’s extremely rare.”
“Mm.”
Wen Lan gently stroked the two tiny white flowers.
It had only begun developing awareness after drinking her blood.
Even she found that astonishing.
Before this, she had only ever sensed emotions from humans.
Yet now…
She could clearly sense emotions coming from a mutated fleeceflower root.
“This rain has caused plants to mutate. Gathering supplies is only going to become harder.”
Wen Lan sighed softly.
Fortunately, she had already stockpiled plenty of supplies inside her space.
She also stored away all the energy crystals they had just collected.
Through the storage space, the baby would absorb them on its own.