201: Chapter 201 Mutation

As the convoy slowly advanced toward the Rift Valley Nest, the wasteland landscape began to undergo drastic changes.

One kilometer, five kilometers, ten kilometers...

The ground, which should have been scorched yellow and bare from the acid rain, began to show a 'green mutation' unseen before along the way.

But this green—was not life, but danger.

The first batch of plants by the roadside resembled shrubs, but their main stems were straight as spears, with a silvery-green hue, and their tops were symmetrically forked, shaped like pincers.

Zhang Tianjin had just tried to approach with a probe when the plant suddenly snapped shut with a 'click,' cleanly shearing off the tip of the probe.

The cut was as smooth as if made by a blade; one could even see the texture left by high-frequency vibration cutting.

"...This isn't a vine, it's a blade," he gasped, inhaling sharply. "Like a living pair of scissors."

The further they went, the more black lines appeared on the ground.

At first, they looked like charred cracks, until Zhao Wei stepped on one in a patch of dirt, and the 'crack' under his foot suddenly contracted—wrapping around his boot sole like a snake!

He leaped back immediately, and Zhou Cheng, quick-witted, fired a shot of thermal plasma, scorching a section of the vine.

Shen Qingyan immediately checked the reaction data, her expression grave:

"It has thermal-sensing neurons."

"This is an actively hunting plant."

"It is 'learning' how to approach heat sources."

Ye Nanxing’s gaze turned cold: "Continue forward, everyone watch your step."

Half an hour ago, the convoy passed through an abandoned mining factory area, which they had initially assumed was just barren ruins.

But the footage transmitted back by the high-altitude drone showed dozens of giant vine-like plants rooted across the wasteland. Their branches shone with a deep brownish-red luster, and some parts were embedded with crystalline structures, looking like the product of some 'mineral growth mid-process mixed with plant genes.'

When one of the vines flashed in the lightning, its skin reflected a faint electric arc.

Zhou Cheng looked at the biological identification data and said in a deep voice:

"This thing no longer belongs to the category of pure plants."

"It is reconstructing its surface structure... from the metal salts carried by the acid rain."

"It’s like it’s using industrial waste to 'upgrade' itself."

Zhang Tianjin: "Damn, this place isn't a wild zone; it's... a biological foundry."

Ye Nanxing didn't speak, but her movements were extremely fast.

She opened the spatial interface in the vehicle while simultaneously pulling out a [Low-Temperature Protective Shield] and a [Spirit Flame Suppression Module] from the storage reservoir.

She reached out and took the remnant stem of the first 'Silver Spear Vine,' quickly placing it into the sample processing chamber. The lingering fire breath left by Flame Born maintained a constant, gentle heat beneath the vessel, ensuring the mutated plant wouldn't collapse from the loss of a heat source.

She then separated the most intact roots and nerve nodes from the 'Black Thermal-Sensing Vine' and wrapped them in exclusive refrigerated bandages from the spatial storage—to preserve its bio-electrical signal samples.

"Don't look at these as just 'plants'."

She said softly to Zhou Cheng:

"Every part of their structure... is not evolution."

"But—devouring, assimilation, and reorganization."

"They are not 'plants growing on the wasteland'."

"They are 'biological weapon candidates' that regrew after absorbing human industry, technology, toxins, and weapon debris."

Zhou Cheng’s expression was grave, his tone strained:

"...This land is not a natural mutation."

"It is the corpse of civilization, which, after being eaten—turned into new monsters."

The night was heavy, and the wind sounded like a dull blade cutting against iron, whimpering and low.

The convoy slowly drove onto a dilapidated overpass, slowed down, and came to a stop.

Ahead, the earth was a completely torn abyss, as if the crust had been forcibly ripped open. An entire mountain ridge seemed to have been licked through by tongues of fire, constantly exhaling humid heat waves and trace amounts of black smoke, mixed with a strange odor—like scorched earth, like fungal decay, and like blood.

That was the 'Rift Valley Nest'.

No one approached.

But it seemed to be approaching this world.

Setting out from Tianlang Mountain Base, the journey was unsettlingly desolate.

The road was completely deserted; even traces of 'trying to survive' were shockingly scarce.

Abandoned vehicles were overturned by the roadside, their steel plates rusted and windows shattered; faded household buckets and plastic crates still hung from the roofs, indicating that people had once fled in despair.

A child's shoe lay alone in the middle of the road.

A backpack with its luggage zipper torn open, scattered old photos, canned food, an unfinished water bottle... all dried out and covered in dust, as if 'someone had suddenly evaporated while they were still alive'.

Shen Qingyan sat in the passenger seat, looking at the scattered remains outside the window, and said, enunciating every word:

"People have truly disappeared."

"Not relocated, not fled, but—failed to make it through."

"The edges of cities, the ends of towns, are now all dead silent."

"Individuals... have been completely excluded from the survival landscape."

Flame Born was curled up in his Spirit Domain, still recovering.

But he was not in a deep sleep; he gently opened his eyes for a moment, sensing the 'silence' of the outside world.

No human voices.

No animals.

Even the rustling of the wind and natural movements were pressed down by the thick fog, making them impossible to hear clearly.

He muttered:

"The fire is not yet dead."

"But... humanity is almost burned out."

When the convoy turned a corner at a broken slope, Zhao Wei hit the brakes and exclaimed in a low voice:

"...There's something there."

Not far away, a dilapidated electric tricycle lay across the roadside, covered with a tarp.

Zhang Tianjin and Chu Yunting got out of the car and approached slowly.

Under the tarp was the corpse of a young man, curled up, clutching the backpack in his arms tightly before he died.

The backpack was open, containing cracked, moldy compressed biscuits and a bottle of water with the cap screwed on tightly.

There was no suicide note, only an old photograph.

The photo showed him and his wife smiling brightly at their wedding, and on the back, six words were written in crooked handwriting:

"Wait for me to come back, okay?"

Zhang Tianjin didn't speak; he quietly covered the tarp back up.

Zhao Wei leaned against the car door and said softly:

"Not everyone died at the hands of monsters."

"Some people died because—civilization 'wasn't big enough'."

Ahead, the outline of the Rift Valley Nest became clearer and clearer.

The ground temperature rose significantly, the dashboard data soared, and the plants were no longer sporadic but swarmed over the rock layers like a tide.

Those giant mutated vines twisted like spinal cords, growing up and down around the fault line, some already deep into the valley floor, with no end in sight.

Tiny spore particles floated in the air, glowing with pale blue dots—like fireflies, or like some unnamed virus.

Zhou Cheng turned on the filtration device, his brow furrowed tightly:

"The air around here has already begun to 'hetero-structure'."

"It is no longer the 'air' we know."

"It’s like... something is rewriting the ecology."