Chapter 298 - 285: Sinful or Not?
Yabao shot out abruptly.
In an instant, its soft tendrils were covered in sharp barbs.
The next second, the men who had been lying on the ground unconscious all opened their eyes, which were filled with terror. The sharp barbs on the vine were less than a centimeter from their eyes.
"Well, look at that. So you guys were awake after all," Liu Hao said with a laugh as he walked over and checked their condition. "What, you enjoy lying on the ground?"
Zhao Qingxiao glanced at his captain. Seeing Ye Junhan nod, he stood up and walked over. "Let me handle this." Interrogation was his specialty.
’Besides, we have to show Miss Gu the value of our Special Service Team, right?’ he thought. ’Otherwise, how could we have the nerve to keep mooching meals off her in the future?’
After Zhao Qingxiao and Liu Hao took the men from the Guard Team into the stone hut, Ye Junhan looked up at Gu Xi and said after a moment, "If we don’t hear from the higher-ups in an hour, I want to send Wei Heng to A City Base."
Even though they just went through a massive earthquake, A City Base still has at least several hundred thousand survivors. If he goes there, he should be able to contact the outside world and get more information.
Ye Junhan wasn’t worried about other things; his main concern was Li Ming...
Although Li Ming had always presented himself as a wise old man over the years, Ye Junhan knew that Gu Xi’s disappearance had long since changed him, making him paranoid and crazed.
If he continued to receive no news of Gu Xi, he was worried Li Ming would lose his mind.
And when that happened, there was no telling what he might do.
Gu Xi thought for a moment, poked at the campfire, and nodded. "Okay."
She, on the other hand, wasn’t worried about Li Ming.
’Even though the higher-ups cut off our information source, there’s still Zhou Jing, isn’t there?’
’I just solved such a huge problem for Zhou Jing and gave her such a generous gift. I’m sure she’ll be more than willing to help pass a message for me.’
’Li Ming is so smart. Once the Chens’ side makes a move, he’ll be able to guess my next plan even if Zhou Jing doesn’t get a message through.’
With Li Ming holding down the fort at the Central Base, Gu Xi wasn’t worried.
The fire crackled as it burned, its wind-swept flames dancing across their faces. Gu Xi calmly pulled a roasted sweet potato from the embers and pushed it toward Ye Junhan.
Ye Junhan didn’t move.
Separated by the sweet potato, which gave off a fragrant aroma in the rainy night, the two of them sat in silence.
Just then, "SQUEAK SQUEAK SQUEAK!" The Mutated Rat King suddenly darted out from somewhere.
At the same time, an arc of purple lightning shot from Ye Junhan’s fingertips, only to be intercepted mid-air by a suddenly appearing Yabao, which redirected the current into the ground.
The shock, however, made the Mutated Rat King slam on the brakes in mid-air. All its soft fur stood on end, making it look like a large, golden hedgehog.
Ye Junhan frowned slightly and looked at Gu Xi.
"It’s fine, it’s here for me," Gu Xi said, tapping her finger. Yabao had already picked up the bristling Mutated Rat King and brought it back.
With a PLOP, the Mutated Rat King was dropped beside Gu Xi.
Ye Junhan’s gaze fell upon the Mutated Rat King.
Though it was only a faint glance, the Mutated Rat King tensed up and subconsciously scooted closer to Gu Xi. It felt that the man’s gaze was somewhat hostile.
Gu Xi noticed Ye Junhan’s gaze as well. After a moment’s thought, she explained, "An old friend sent it to me."
When they were setting up camp earlier, Gu Xi had let the little rat go out to forage for itself and had forgotten to tell Ye Junhan.
Ye Junhan stared at the Mutated Rat King thoughtfully. It was a well-known fact that mutated animals, especially high-level ones that had developed intelligence, were generally unwilling to be ordered around by humans.
Even Beast Tamers could only communicate with them; taming them... was very difficult.
But this one in Gu Xi’s possession... seemed exceptionally intelligent. You could tell just by the shifty-eyed way it kept rubbing up against her.
After pushing the sweet potato to Ye Junhan, Gu Xi turned and nudged the half-bowl of eight-treasure porridge that Qin Yi had set aside earlier toward the Mutated Rat King.
The Mutated Rat King looked up at Gu Xi, its beady red eyes rolling with intelligence. "Squeak?" ’For me?’
Gu Xi nodded.
A sycophantic smile appeared on the Mutated Rat King’s face. It glanced furtively back at Ye Junhan. It had porridge, while the man opposite only had a sweet potato. Their respective statuses in the master’s eyes were clear at a glance.
Ye Junhan: "..."
The little creature then held the edge of the bowl with its front paws in a very human-like manner and buried its head, which was about the same size as the bowl, right into it.
It looked like it was gratefully gobbling it down.
But the next second...
The Mutated Rat King abruptly lifted its head with an expression of disbelief, looking at Gu Xi in shock. "Squeak!" ’What the hell is this?’
Gu Xi poked the bowl in front of it with the stick in her hand. She didn’t speak, just watched it with a smile.
The Mutated Rat King immediately took on an expression of utter despair, as if its rat-life had lost all meaning.
"Squeak..." ’Damn it all! What the hell did I do wrong? Just tell me and I’ll fix it! Why do you have to put me through this?’
’Isn’t this just torture?!’
The Mutated Rat King shot Gu Xi a shifty glance. Seeing she was still just smiling at it, it finally had no choice but to pick up the large earthenware bowl, silently turn around, and present its round, furry butt to her.
Gu Xi couldn’t help but smile.
Nearby, Ye Junhan, who had witnessed the entire exchange while holding his roasted sweet potato, couldn’t help but give Gu Xi another look. ’She seems different than before,’ he thought. ’A little... livelier?’
An hour later, Wei Heng, Yuan You, and Zhao Qingxiao departed for A City Base, taking the men from the Guard Team with them.
The rest of the group stayed behind to rest, planning to set out for the A City Reservoir after the rain stopped.
Gu Xi lay down in the stone hut, pulled the blanket that Qi Xiang had kicked aside back over her, and slowly closed her eyes.
She began to contact the mature, evolved form of Unknown No. 1.
’I know a good place,’ she projected. ’One where you can eat your fill.’
But the entity, which was usually boisterous in her perception, took a while to give her any feedback this time.
It was a strange sensation. It took Gu Xi a while to figure out that, described in human terms, the feeling was probably a mix of arrogance and petulance.
’...It’s probably unhappy that Yabao devoured the parasite inside Ye Junhan’s body today.’
But Gu Xi didn’t care.
’If you don’t want to, then forget it.’
’It’s just a slightly larger Miasma Forest. If Yabao tries hard enough, it can devour it completely too.’
This time, the entity’s response was much faster.
’Who said I’m not going? I’m going right now.’
Gu Xi’s spiritual power followed the entity’s presence, and soon, an image of the current landscape of the A City Reservoir formed in her mind.
The area had turned into a swamp in a low-lying basin.
But unlike an ordinary swamp, the ecosystem here was incredibly complex and diverse. Besides aquatic plants taller than a person, there were also many towering trees that blotted out the sun.
Under the dense cover of aquatic plants, Gu Xi discovered many mutated animals.
For some reason, however, the mutated animals here seemed reluctant to move. Even when she deliberately provoked them with her spiritual power, they just lazed in their pools of water, looking completely unconcerned.
Gu Xi found this very strange.
An idea struck her. She used her spiritual power to crush several mutated sharp-beaked crocodiles on the spot. The scent of blood spread through the air, but it was quickly absorbed into the surrounding miasma and vanished.
The other mutated animals nearby saw their companions being killed, but they merely lifted their eyelids for a faint glance before lying back down in the water, concealing themselves among the lush aquatic plants.
’This isn’t right.’
Gu Xi rose silently and walked out of the stone hut.
Soon, her figure melted completely into the darkness.
Inside Car One, Ye Junhan, who had been resting with his eyes closed, suddenly opened them. He glanced in the direction she had disappeared, then closed his eyes again.
But the hand resting on the sheath of the blade at his waist slowly caressed it.