Wen Lan took a clean fruit knife out of her space.
She first nicked her own fingertip and squeezed out a drop of blood for the mutated Polygonum multiflorum.
Such a tiny wound healed so quickly now that it was becoming harder and harder to squeeze out even a single drop of blood.
After absorbing Wen Lan’s blood, the two tiny white blossoms on the plant gradually turned a soft pink.
It was as though they had been delicately stained with the color of fresh blood.
“I’m only cutting off a tiny piece.”
“Where should I cut you?”
“If I cut here… it won’t hurt too much, right?”
No matter what you raised, after spending so much time together, it was impossible not to grow attached.
One of the Polygonum multiflorum’s vines slowly extended a little.
It seemed to be telling her that she could cut there.
Wen Lan carefully sliced off a thumb—sized piece of the root.
Black sap oozed from the cut, and she quickly wiped it away.
This must be the plant’s blood…
The bitter smell alone was overwhelming.
She scooped up some soil and gently packed it over the wound.
The Polygonum multiflorum didn’t feel pain. It had no pain receptors.
It only possessed the simplest form of awareness.
Wen Lan boiled the small slice into water.
Just that single piece turned an entire bowl of water thick and pitch—black.
It looked almost like black sesame paste.
“Brother, have Zhang Ye drink this.”
“It’s Polygonum multiflorum—it’s also a medicinal herb. Those people who tried to steal it said it could heal injuries.”
She still had no idea how they knew, but it was worth trying.
Wen Che looked at the bowl, then at Zhang Ye.
If they didn’t try to save him, he would die anyway.
“…All right.”
He helped Zhang Ye sit up and slowly poured the thick liquid down his throat.
“The smell alone is unbelievably bitter.”
“I can’t imagine how bitter it must taste.”
The little flowers on the Polygonum multiflorum trembled gently in the pot.
Not a single drop was left. They fed the entire bowl to Zhang Ye.
The rest was up to fate.
“Brother, let me treat your wounds too.”
Wen Che glanced at the cut on his arm and nodded.
“Cough… cough…”
Nearby, Su Han suddenly started coughing.
Only then did Wen Lan notice that Su Han was injured as well.
“Su Han, come over too. I’ll dress both of your wounds.”
“All right.”
Seeing that Su Han had temporarily gone blind, Wen Che didn’t say anything else.
“Su Han, will your eyesight recover?”
“Yes. Once my mental energy recovers.”
If he could find more energy crystals, it would recover even faster.
Wen Lan nodded.
After treating both men’s wounds, she took two clean sets of clothes out of her space.
“These are clean. You two should change into them.”
The next morning, some of Su Han’s vision had returned.
Although everything still looked as blurry as if he had eight hundred degrees of nearsightedness.
He had severely overexerted his psychic power, and it would take another two or three days for the aftereffects to fade.
Early in the morning, Wen Lan was already cooking instant noodles.
She even added ham sausages and eggs.
She almost tossed in a small cucumber as well.
After several days of feeding it with her blood, the mutated cucumber seedling had finally produced a tiny cucumber.
But it was a dark green color.
Su Han had said that most mutated plants tested inside the safe zone weren’t edible.
So she didn’t dare eat the little cucumber.
It had been so long since she’d had fresh vegetables.
She decided to let it keep growing for now.
Later, she’d find someone brave enough to become the first person to taste the mutated cucumber.
Zhang Ye, who had been at death’s door the night before, woke up as soon as he smelled the aroma of instant noodles.
Truth be told, instant noodles weren’t anything extraordinary.
But the smell while they were cooking was irresistibly tempting.
“Zhang Ye, you’re awake? Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?”
“No. Nothing hurts.”
“I’m just starving.”
In the end, Wen Lan cooked eight packets of instant noodles.
Zhang Ye ate four of them by himself.
“What’s going on? Why does my mouth taste so bitter?”
“The noodles smell amazing, so why do they taste this bitter? Do yours taste bitter too?”
Bitter or not, he was too hungry to care.
Wen Lan and Wen Che both shook their heads.
Wen Che recalled that sharp, overpowering smell from the night before.
“Yesterday, we used the Polygonum multiflorum to save you.”
“We made you drink a slice of it, so that’s why everything tastes bitter.”
“The mutated Polygonum multiflorum?”
Zhang Ye exclaimed as he looked toward the plant.
Its flowers had now turned pink.
The entire root was pitch black, looking like something extremely poisonous.
And they had actually made him drink it.
No wonder his mouth was still full of bitterness.
“Yep. We sliced off a piece.”
“Otherwise, you’d already be dead.”
You’d be nothing more than a cold corpse by now.
Zhang Ye could clearly feel that he had recovered more than half his strength.
Apart from his external wounds not having healed yet, he felt much better.
The strange medicine had saved his life.
He walked over to the Polygonum multiflorum.
“Thanks.”
“I’ll water you from now on.”
“No need.”
“My brother can provide all the water you need.”
“I’m more worried you’ll accidentally burn it.”
After all, the plant was rather afraid of fire.
“If you ever find any black energy crystals, you can give them to me.”
“Sure! Absolutely!”
“I never imagined this Polygonum multiflorum actually had healing abilities.”
“I’ve been raising it for so long without discovering that.”
“How did those people know?”
“They’ve been researching all kinds of mutated plants.”
“The equipment we brought back last time was specifically for that research.”
Su Han answered gravely.
Suddenly, Zhou Wen’s body convulsed before his eyes slowly opened.
“Zhou Wen?”
Zhang Ye looked at him excitedly.
He had thought Zhou Wen would remain in a vegetative state forever.
He had actually woken up.
“Did you give him Polygonum multiflorum too?”
Wen Lan shook her head.
After Zhou Wen woke up, his pupils had turned green.
“Zhou Wen?”
Wen Che walked over and patted him on the shoulder.
But Zhou Wen didn’t seem to react.
Wen Lan used her perception ability and found nothing abnormal about him.
Su Han stepped forward and looked directly into Zhou Wen’s eyes.
A faint white light flashed across Su Han’s pupils.
He frowned.
His vision had only just begun recovering, but using his psychic ability weakened it again.
A moment later, life returned to Zhou Wen’s eyes.
“Captain Su…”
“Zhang Ye…”
His eyes reddened.
He had endured inhuman torture there.
Every wood—element ability user had their cerebrospinal fluid extracted.
At first, those wood—element users had simply been responsible for accelerating vegetable growth.
Later, after General Zhang was murdered, the truth was buried.
Now the Jiangyang Safe Zone had completely fallen under Zhou Cong’s control.
After awakening an ability and possessing enormous stockpiles of supplies, Zhou Cong immediately killed General Zhang and used food and resources to seize control of everyone in the safe zone.
He extracted the cerebrospinal fluid of wood—element ability users to stimulate mutated plants and force them to grow faster.
“The Jiangyang Safe Zone is no longer safe.”
“Zhou Cong has essentially become a warlord.”
The apocalypse had erupted.
Power shifted.
Even the government could no longer stop it.
This would become an age of chaos.
An era without nations.
Without laws.
Without order.
Murder was no longer a crime.
Robbery became a fight to the death.
The strongest fist would be the only authority.
“We should find a safe place first.”
Although Zhou Wen had lost his cerebrospinal fluid, the mutated little flower he had raised had fused into his body.
Without the life force that flower provided, he would never have awakened again.
Now his life was permanently bound to it.
After everyone finished eating, they were all still in a weakened state.
Among them, only Wen Lan and Wen Che were still capable of fighting.
They couldn’t find another vehicle.
Zhou Wen remembered that there was a national 5A scenic tourist area nearby.
But Zhou Wen had only just regained consciousness, Su Han’s eyesight hadn’t fully recovered, and although Zhang Ye had survived, he hadn’t regained his strength either.
So everyone decided to remain where they were until they had recovered enough before setting out.
“Miss Wen, there’s something I need to tell you.”
“Hm?”
Without his glasses, Zhou Wen’s green eyes looked strange, almost as if he were wearing colored contact lenses.
“I saw your friend there.”
“I only caught a glimpse of her from the side, but I’m sure I wasn’t mistaken.”
“She’s the one who revealed the existence of your mutated Polygonum multiflorum.”
Wen Lan had already grown suspicious of Xia Mo, so she wasn’t particularly heartbroken to hear it.
Ever since that fever, she had sensed something was wrong with Xia Mo.
Could someone have taken over Xia Mo’s body after the fever?
Before the apocalypse, she would never have believed something so absurd.
But now…
People awakened all kinds of supernatural abilities.
Who could say there weren’t even stranger powers?
She decided to let things take their course.
Right now, her highest priority was taking care of her pregnancy.
The babies were still in her womb.
Once they were born, the energy they fed back to her would increase even more.
Over the next few days, Wen Lan cleared out all the zombies in the surrounding area.
Wen Che distributed the energy crystals they collected, helping everyone recover their strength more quickly.
As for the black and green energy crystals, Wen Lan placed one into the Polygonum multiflorum’s pot and the other into the cucumber seedling.
Since all the books had been lost, Su Han could only tell Wen Lan stories instead.
At first, she worried it wouldn’t have the same effect.
To her surprise, it worked even better than reading.
“Tsk, tsk…”
“Why does this feel like a father giving prenatal education to his child?”
Watching the scene, Zhang Ye couldn’t help commenting.
“If the kid ends up being born without a father…”
“I can be the godfather.”
Wen Che shot Zhang Ye a sidelong glance.
He was convinced his sister knew who the children’s father was.
There was no way she truly had no memory of it.
The most likely explanation was that when the apocalypse first broke out, Wen Lan’s awakened ability had no offensive power.
She had probably fallen into the hands of some scumbag…
The thought alone made Wen Che’s heart ache.
Or perhaps she had been…
Just imagining it filled him with pain.
He no longer dared ask Wen Lan about it.
He was afraid of making her relive something terrible.
Fortunately, Wen Lan genuinely loved the babies.
Wen Che let out a quiet sigh, his eyes clouded with complicated emotions.
As long as she and the children could live well…
That was enough.
Wen Lan also discovered that the cucumber seedling stopped growing whenever it was stored inside her space.
Perhaps because time stood still there.
So she had no choice but to carry it with her.
That way, both babies could continue absorbing its energy.
As a result, Wen Lan now walked around with two flowerpots hanging from her shoulders.
One held the pitch—black mutated Polygonum multiflorum, with two tiny pink blossoms floating above it.
The other contained the dark green cucumber seedling, one of its vines already bearing a small cucumber.
But after only a single day…
The cucumber seedling had suddenly grown much larger.