111: Chapter 111 Encountering Mutant Plants and Animals

The two suddenly looked at each other, both seeing shock and realization in each other's eyes.

Qi Yin understood completely; no wonder the Black-Robed Person would appear here, and no wonder they were protecting Wang Hui, who possessed a space.

Tian Zining was likely one of them as well; their goal was the super weapon hidden away by Chen Jun.

As for simple supplies like fuel, that was just incidental.

So, the big fish was here all along.

The snow was falling harder and harder, and it was getting late, so Qi Yin called over Chen Quan.

"Uncle Chen, Xiao Sinian and I will take Brother Yan Xiu, Qian Dong, and Mu Feng into the mountains. The rest of you stay behind, rest in place, and protect the professors."

Although he knew their strength, Chen Quan was still a bit worried.

"Why not take Tianyu along? With him there, any injuries can be treated in time."

Qi Yin shook her head: "No need. I'll only be at ease if he stays behind."

She insisted on this, so Chen Quan didn't say anything more.

The five of them packed their gear and, when Tian Zining and his group set off again, quietly followed them.

The mountain path became narrower and narrower, mostly covered by snow, with white ice hanging from the dense trees on both sides.

Qi Yin looked at the map Dr. Chen had given her, then compared it to the tracks left by Tian Zining's group, who were faintly visible ahead, her brow furrowing tighter and tighter.

"Something is not right."

She lowered her voice and said to Xiao Sinian beside her.

"The route they are taking is almost identical to the backup route marked on the map."

Xiao Sinian took the map and looked at it carefully; it was indeed exactly as Qi Yin had said.

He was also confused: "Dr. Chen said that only his team knew about this route and that he hadn't told any outsiders."

The two exchanged a look—there was a mole.

Moreover, this mole was very likely within their current team of researchers.

A look of worry flashed across Qi Yin's face, but Xiao Sinian was dismissive.

"Don't worry. If those dozen or so Level 3 Ability Users can't protect the professors, that would be too ridiculous."

Qi Yin wasn't worried about that; wasn't there a saying that it's easy to dodge an open spear but hard to guard against a hidden arrow?

However, they had no way to turn back to verify it now. The urgent matter at hand was to get to the super weapon before Tian Zining and his group did.

"Huh? Wait a second, my shoelace is untied." Lu Yanxiu suddenly squatted down to tie his shoelace.

In that brief moment, they didn't notice that Tian Zining, who had already flashed past a large tree ahead, suddenly turned back and curled his lips toward the direction where they were.

And in his hand, he was shaking something.

After following for another stretch, Qi Yin and Xiao Sinian suddenly stopped at the same time.

Qi Yin's nose twitched: "Did you guys smell anything strange? It's a bit... cloyingly sweet, like rotting flowers."

She had an ominous premonition. The smell was so familiar, and she hoped it wasn't what she imagined.

Xiao Sinian had also noticed. He squatted down, used his fingers to pinch a bit of the soil exposed on the ridge, brought it close to smell it, and his expression changed slightly.

"It's some kind of medicinal powder I can't name. It's very faint, but the scent is very distinct."

He looked at the quiet mountain forest ahead: "Our tracks have likely already been exposed. Tian Zining intentionally lured us here."

No sooner had he finished speaking than an anomaly occurred.

From the snow pile beside Lu Yanxiu, a plant that looked ordinary but had a huge, brightly colored flower suddenly sprang out. It violently opened its "mouth," revealing dense, sharp thorns inside, and bit fiercely toward Lu Yanxiu, who was closest to it.

"Watch out!" Qi Yin shouted sharply.

Lu Yanxiu reacted instantly and hurriedly jumped away: "Damn it, what kind of monster is this?"

Almost at the same time, the ground began to shake. From the snow, huge vines suddenly rose up; their color was not the usual green, but rather a shiny black.

They also carried a pungent, fishy smell and wrapped straight toward Qian Dong and Mu Feng's ankles!

As if it weren't bad enough, a scalp-numbing buzzing sound came from above their heads.

Qi Yin looked up and saw a giant bee, absurdly large in size and entirely dark blue, swooping down, its tail stinger aimed straight at Xiao Sinian.

"There really is an ambush!" Xiao Sinian reacted extremely quickly, side-stepping to avoid the stinger. Purple lightning erupted from his palm, and a bolt of lightning struck the giant bee's wings.

Qi Yin's heart sank. Wasn't there still two months until the time when mutated flora and fauna were supposed to appear?

Mutated flora and fauna were completely different from zombies; they were more cunning, and their attack methods were also more bizarre.

"Don't fight them head-on, find their weak points!" Qi Yin shouted.

"Mu Feng, the man-eating flower is yours. Yan Xiu, Dongzi, find a chance to clear the poisonous vines. Xiao Sinian and I will take on the big one."

Qi Yin spoke very quickly, and her hands were not idle either. Cold air condensed, and several Ice Cones formed instantly, shooting toward the man-eating flower that was preparing to sneak attack.

Mu Feng's figure flickered and disappeared from where he stood.

The next second, he appeared behind the man-eating flower, the dagger in his hand carrying a terrifying afterimage as it fiercely stabbed toward the most fragile connection point between the flower and the stem.

The man-eating flower let out a hoarse, strange cry, twisting its flower disk in an attempt to counterattack.

But Mu Feng's speed was clearly faster than the clumsy big flower; he struck and retreated, never lingering in the fight.

Lu Yanxiu cursed the troublesome things under his breath, his fists igniting with fiery red, scorching flames, and he smashed directly into the poisonous vines entangling his and Qian Dong's ankles.

Fire was the nemesis of wood; when the poisonous vines encountered the fire, they immediately turned charred black, shrank straight back, and emitted waves of foul stench.

"Let me see whose vines are stronger, yours or mine." Qian Dong was even more direct, manifesting thorny poisonous vines all around his body.

His poisonous vines looked even more mutated than the mutated poisonous vines themselves, nearly half as big again.

Qian Dong's poisonous vines directly wrapped around the poisonous vines on the ground, tightened hard, and strangled those vines, simple and brutal.

On Xiao Sinian's side, the giant mutated bee was exceptionally troublesome; not only was its flight path tricky, but it also sprayed toxic mist with paralytic effects from time to time.

Although Xiao Sinian's lightning power was great, its carapace was very hard, so the effect of the lightning was diminished.

"Attack its compound eyes and joints!" Qi Yin reminded him while using an Ice Wall to block the toxic mist spraying at the two of them.

She seized the moment when the giant bee lifted off after a dive and released her cold air with full force, freezing a thick layer of ice onto the giant bee's wings.

Affected by gravity, the giant bee's body suddenly plummeted.

"Now!" A flash of light appeared in Xiao Sinian's eyes, and a solid lightning whip pierced through one of the giant bee's huge compound eyes.

"Buzz!"

The giant bee let out a shrill cry, lost its balance, and crashed around wildly.

At this moment, Qi Yin seized the opportunity, and more Ice Thorns, like a rainstorm, stabbed wildly at the giant bee's joints.

Xiao Sinian seized the opportunity as well, leaping up; the phoenix feather, carrying fierce lightning, directly severed the giant bee's head.

Landing, he curled his lips and high-fived Qi Yin.

On the other side, Mu Feng had already successfully hacked the roots of the man-eating flower into scraps; the big flower withered and fell to the ground, oozing disgusting green juice.

Qian Dong's poisonous vines had also strangled all the surrounding mutated poisonous vines.

Lu Yanxiu was so disgusted that he set a fire to burn these two disgusting things clean.

There were dirty marks all over his clothes.

Turning back, Qi Yin discovered that Tian Zining's group had long since vanished without a trace.

Lu Yanxiu wiped the sweat from his brow: "We lost them."

Qi Yin walked to where the dead man-eating flower had grown and found some residual pink powder on it, the same as what Xiao Sinian had discovered at the beginning.

It seemed the appearance of these mutated flora and fauna had everything to do with this powder.

Tian Zining was just an ordinary Ability User; to be able to produce such medicinal powder, the person behind him must not be simple.

She carefully collected some of the powder in a bottle to take back to Professor Zhou; perhaps they could find some clues.

Mu Feng's figure flickered and vanished from where he stood, and not long after, his voice came from a distance.

"Boss, Captain, over here!"