76: Chapter 76 Yu Wenyu's Worries

These thorns gained life in Yu Wenyu's hands, bursting out from the ground.

With a few swishing sounds, they nimbly wrapped around the ankles and calves of the three men lunging forward.

"Holy crap, it hurts! There are thorns!"

"What the hell is this monster?"

"Quick, run!"

The three men let out shrill screams, unable to move.

The thorns tightened rapidly, their sharp spikes piercing deep into their flesh.

Blood stained the expanse of white snow beneath them.

This scene terrified Triangle Eyes and the remaining survivors, causing them to retreat one after another.

They looked at Yu Wenyu and those hideously writhing vines as if they had seen a ghost.

"Still not leaving?"

Yu Wenyu retracted the vines, his hand hidden in his sleeve trembling slightly; controlling the thorns had consumed a lot of his strength.

He coldly swept his gaze over the three wailing men and the terrified Triangle Eyes, then ignored them.

Adjusting his backpack, he walked toward the cave where his team was stationed without looking back.

As he passed the residential area's main gate, he caught a glimpse of Qi Yin's group nearby from the corner of his eye.

Yu Wenyu knew they had clearly seen everything.

His steps paused for a moment; he adjusted his glasses and simply gave a slight nod in Qi Yin's direction.

This served as a greeting, after which he quickened his pace and left.

He only wanted to find a safe place for his team to survive and didn't want to get involved in more complex power struggles.

Qi Yin watched the direction Yu Wenyu left, then glanced at the wailing survivors at the villa entrance, her index finger lightly tapping her temple.

"Wood Element Ability... so it can be used like this?"

But then again, it didn't seem that strange.

After all, her Water Element Ability could also attack in her previous life, though its power was slightly weaker.

This Yu Wenyu is quite interesting.

Her voice was very low, and neither Xu Yongning nor Mu Feng heard her clearly.

"Sister Yin, let's go. It's too cold; these two little girls won't last much longer," Xu Yongning urged.

Qi Yin nodded, and the group resumed their walk toward the hilltop villa.

As they passed the gate, the survivors led by Triangle Eyes were covering the three corpses—who had died from the cold after being injured—with the last handfuls of snow.

Seeing them approach, the survivors retreated as if they had seen a death god.

It wasn't until Qi Yin's group was far away that they poked their heads out from behind a large tree.

The icy wind lashed against them again, freezing them until they were stiff.

"What... what should we do now?"

Everyone looked at each other; had they known this would happen, they wouldn't have targeted the Li family.

Triangle Eyes spat at the speaker, his gaze fierce.

"What should we do? I'd damn well like to know too!"

Their team no longer had any Ability Users, which meant they had lost the ability to compete with others.

And Yu Wenyu, who was closest to them, refused to take them in.

Their only option now was to wait for the next wave of survivor teams to come up the mountain and seek shelter again.

The group crowded into the small security booth, huddling together in a simple but better-than-nothing attempt to stay warm.

Their stomachs, which had been filled not long ago, rumbled in protest again; they could only press down hard with their hands and lick their lips as if they had eaten.

On Yu Wenyu's side, several Old Professors were stomping their feet in anxiety as he hadn't returned.

"Could Wenyu have run into danger? No, I have to go find him."

The only female professor in the group, Moran—the one who had half a bottle of water stolen earlier—pulled aside the branches covering the cave entrance, wanting to rush out.

Unexpectedly, with her frail frame, she was blown back inside by a gust of wind mixed with a blizzard before she could even step out of the entrance.

She even landed flat on her backside.

Moran was stunned. How... how could her body be so useless?

She was simply a burden.

Seeing this, Tan Zexi, who was adding wood to the fire in the corner, hurried over to help her up. He looked around and sighed in relief after confirming she was okay.

"Oh, Professor Mo, Brother Wenyu is so capable, nothing could have happened to him. Besides, even if someone needs to look for him, it should be me."

He was the second Ability User in the team, and it was thanks to his Water Element Ability ensuring their water supply that the team could travel light.

"No, you need to protect these old fogies. I should go..."

Tan Zexi: ...

Just as the two were arguing, Yu Wenyu appeared at the cave entrance.

Aside from looking a bit pale and his clothes being slightly disheveled, he was otherwise fine.

This immediately made everyone breathe a sigh of relief.

Moran patted her chest. "It's good you're okay, it's good you're okay."

Yu Wenyu was her most prized student. Having completed his bachelor's, master's, and doctorate consecutively, he became the youngest professor in the Botany Department of Kyoto University at just 25 years old.

Before the Apocalypse, she would brag about this to anyone she met.

Yu Wenyu handed the backpack to Tan Zexi, "Distribute this to everyone."

Sitting down, he felt a bit better as the warmth of the fire reached him.

Looking up and seeing everyone sharing wild fruits with water, he felt extremely anxious.

There wasn't much food left in the supply bags. How much longer could they hold out?

For a moment, a face appeared in Yu Wenyu's mind...

At this time.

The cliff face on the shady side of Xianhe Mountain.

Xiao Lang—the man who had been peeking from Villa No. 19—was using a military bayonet to chisel shallow pits into the frozen earth.

His fingers, clad in combat gloves, gripped the rock crevices tightly, his knuckles turning white from the effort. Every step was a struggle.

The freezing rock felt like it was peeling a layer of skin off him. Below was a bottomless abyss that one didn't dare look into.

At this moment, Xiao Lang had only one thought in his mind.

To climb up, find that woman from earlier, and save his mother.

Previously, his impression of Qi Yin was still that of a young girl renovating a luxury mansion at the hilltop villa.

Through his binoculars, he could see the Solar panels on her roof.

Now, only Qi Yin's place had a way to get electricity.

His mother needed Nutrient solutions to stay alive; the generator's fuel had run out, and several bottles of the Nutrient solution had already frozen and spoiled.

He didn't dare think about what would happen if this continued.

Sweat mixed with melted snow slid into his eyes, but Xiao Lang didn't dare relax, climbing up steadily step by step.

Just as he climbed onto a relatively open snowy patch, only a few hundred meters from the two villas at the summit!

"Zzzt...!"

Several sharp alarm sounds suddenly went off.

The noise was like stepping on a bomb on a battlefield, making Xiao Lang afraid to make any sudden moves for a moment.

Then, Jiang Yao's emotionless voice came through a hidden speaker, echoing clearly through the mountains.

"Warning, warning. You have entered a restricted area."

"Please leave immediately, or face the consequences."

Xiao Lang's heart pounded wildly; he had been discovered the moment he reached the top.

However, this also made him more certain that Qi Yin definitely had a way to solve the electricity problem.

He forced himself to calm down, raised his hands high, and shouted loudly.

"I mean no harm! My name is Xiao Lang, a resident of Villa No. 19 on the mountainside! My mother is seriously ill and urgently needs electricity to keep her medication stable!"