Chapter 143
A dementia plant is blue, their leaves are large, the flower's stem is pure white, and the flowers were as small as rice grains yet they exuded an intoxicating scent. When they were in full bloom, the scene was beautiful, making one forget what was so dangerous about them.
In the apocalyptic days, the more beautiful the flowers were, the more poisonous it was. The scent of the dementia plant smelled fresh and elegant, but had int fact, some kind of neurotoxin. When someone breathed in the scent of the flowers, they would lose consciousness after 10 minutes. The plant would secret blue juices then. These juices would not melt the flesh, but would absorb the body's energy through the pores of the person before dripping that energy into the soil, turning it into nourishment for its roots. Those who had been captivated and captured by these flowers would slowly die from having their energy sucked out.
Because of this eating behaviour, dementia plants were only interested in the bodies of ability users who had plenty of energy, it was not harmful to zombies or ordinary people without the energy of an ability user. The zombies themselves were poisonous, so they were not afraid of the neurotoxins in the flower's scent. As for ordinary people, smelling the floral scent would make them unconscious for a few days. However, once they became unconscious, they would often be eaten by zombies wandering around the dementia flower, looking for food. It was a strange symbiotic relationship.
Therefore, the dementia was an extremely dangerous plant species. But now, for the people of Long Snake Island, who had become even more poisonous that zombies, inhaling these neurotoxins became harmless to them. Whenever they went on a mission, they would be cautious when encountering this kind of plant. They would dig out the roots and stems and move them to the farmland on the island that had been deserted for a long time. When the white flowers withered and produced black seeds, wood ability users would sprinkle the seeds in that farmland and quickly made them grow into a sea of flowers.
However, in just half a month, the large area of farmland on Long Snake Island had become a swaying flower field that looked beautiful from a distance. The rich floral fragrance was everywhere in the air, making the fire crow and pythons inhale the neurotoxins and faint, unable to move anymore.
Contrary to the animals on the island, the people on Long Snake Island were very awake and excited. When the flower field matured, they put on their plastic gloves and couldn't wait to harvest all the thick leaves and send them to Jin Shangyu's laboratory, so that she can squeeze out its juice. Of course, this dangerous job was undertaken by ordinary people without any ability.
This not only made ordinary people feel important, but also enabled ability users to see their importance. Whether someone was an ordinary person or an ability user, they were an indispensable part of the base. On the island of Long Snake Island, an unseen state of harmony emerged. After having suffered together again and again, they have gradually become close to each other, regardless if they were ordinary people or ability users.
The Song family's base's concept of the so-called "optimal seed" was scoffed at by them.
In half a month, Jin Shangyu convinced everyone to safely take the antidote drug before rushing to produce a large number of blue potions. Jin Shangyu felt exhausted, but she still felt very satisfied. Her current life was thousands of times better than quietly taking care of her brother and helping her brother brutally kill the same kind of living being as her. Although the little pride in her heart hated to admit it, but Jin Shangyu still had to admit that Gong Lixin was her and her brother's saviour.
Today was the day that they had originally planned to leave Long Snake Island and head towards Ningcheng. When Gong Lixin entered Jin Shangyu's laboratory, the laboratory was bustling with people.
"Do you need my help?" Gong Lixin walked over to Jin Shangyu who was moving around all over the place until her hair was scattered and she was sweating, helping people in her group pack the laboratory equipment. Jin Shanghui, on the other hand, squatted in the corner and played with a pile of bottles.
"Yes, look after my brother. Don't let him mess things up. There are many unsaturated blue liquids that have been purified and have not had crystal nuclei soaked into them. If it breaks and splashes all over, we'll all be miserable." Jin Shangyu quickly pulled Gong Lixin's sleeves and asked anxiously.
Last time, a bottle of unsaturated blue liquid splashed onto an ability user, causing his energy to spill out of his body very quickly. The person became soft like mud and fell on the spot. This incident had also inspired Jin Shangyu and she deliberately left a lot of unsaturated blue liquid as poison to deal with hostile ability users as well as distribute some to the members of the Self Defense Force. After hearing this piece of news, the ability users on the island didn't dare bully them in the slightest. If the blue liquid was accidentally thrown at them, they could only lie on the ground and wait to be slaughtered.
Of course, Long Snake Island was now united wherever they went. This kind of infighting would certainly not occur, so Jin Shangyu also generously distributed a few bottles to ability users to defend against hostile ability users on the road. When they couldn't beat the other party, they could use this blue liquid on them.
Since the meeting, Jin Shangyu's laboratory had become the liveliest place on Long Snake Island. There was a constant flow of medicine every day. The cheerful and a little arrogant woman had also become the most popular person on the island. On the day of the move, there were many who spontaneously showed up to help.
If there were more people, Jin Shangyu was afraid that they would damage her equipment with their hands and feet and she wouldn't dare move her eyes away from their every movement then. Even then, she didn’t have time to take care of Jin Shanghui. Of course, even if she did have time to take care of him, Jin Shanghui didn't listen to her much. She was so worried, when finally, her saviour came.
Gong Lixin nodded to her request, beckoning Jin Shanghui in the corner, "Xiaohui, come and follow me."
Hearing the call of the teenager, Jin Shanghui immediately threw aside the bottles that had him very interested and quickly ran to the teenager. He carefully fiddled with the smooth and silky hair of the teenager with his sharp nails before leaning in and sniffing him with a happy expression on his face. As long as he smelled the scent of the young man, he felt happy. Of course, it would be better if the young man could feed him a few crystal cores.
Jin Shanghui was greedy and Gong Lixin tacitly inserted a third-level high-grade gold crystal nucleus into his mouth. Gong Lixin then hooked his finger and said, "Follow me out, let's not get in the way."
Nodding obediently, Jin Shanghui grabbed the youth's wrist, stuck out his tongue and licked the youth's jade white fingers, as if there was still the taste of the crystal nucleus still remaining. Seeing the teenager's lips smiling, he let out a few grunts from his throat and took the initiative to hook the corner of the teenager's clothes with his nails as the other took him out of the laboratory.
When she saw Gong Lixin with her older brother, who was no better than a little sheep in front of the other, Jin Shangyu ground her sore teeth and turned back to continue directing everyone to help her move things.
When Gong Xiangyi came, all kinds of experimental equipment had been packed and piled in the open space in front of the death row building. Gong Lixin and Jin Shanghui stood side by side and watched over them.
"Brother, these things, I'll help Little Demon to store it away." Putting on smile, Gong Xiangyi walked over and said so warmly.
"No, Li Dongsheng was already told to take care of these things." Gong Lixin waved his hand as he refused bluntly, Gong Xiangyi recently showed good behaviour towards him, but he didn't respond to it. Some things, once broken can never be restored.
Gong Xiangyi's eyes were bleak, the smile on her lips faded and she stopped talking. Seeing that there were enough hands there and there was nothing to help with, she stayed for a while before slowly walking away.
It took half a day to pack all the luggage and check the equipment on everyone's body to make sure nothing was missing. Turning back to see Long Snake Island lying on the surface of the sea, many eyes showed their reluctance, but then they thought of how Ningcheng waited for them just up ahead and they quickly became rejuvenated.
Wearing python skin armor that was invulnerable to water and fire and because they had taken the antidote drug, there was no need to fear zombies or mutant beasts. Ordinary people, because of the existence of the blue potion, could instantly become Spartan warrior, thus the people from Long Snake Island was unbelievably energetic and advanced quickly every day.
In the past, ability users would only pick high-level zombies to fight in order to level up. So, when they encountered hordes of first-level zombies, most of them chose to retreat. However, after the creation of the blue potion, the first-level zombie crystal nuclei had also become valuable, especially for the Self-Defense Force who needed the blue potion the most. Whenever they passed a certain town, the members of the Self-Defense Force would go into town to sweep it, wiping out all the first-level zombies in the town and then digging out the crystal nuclei to give to Jin Shangyu to make the blue potion. The ability users would always accompany the team to help them and take care of higher-level zombies.
Wherever they passed, it was as if a swarm of locust crossed, leaving thousands of miles of red behind. If the lower-level zombies had their wisdom, they would've escaped like the wind by now, but unfortunately, they did not. So the team's daily harvest were very rich.
This evening, two days away from Ningcheng, the team chose a barren forest by the national road to put up camp.
The tents were quickly set up and the members of the base gathered in twos and threes for dinner. Unintentionally, they stuffed their mouths with dry food to appease their hunger while others set up a pot over the fire to cook.
As everyone knows, Young Master Gong was a foodie. Therefore, the members of his team were very serious about the three meals a day. They've already taken out an entire set of cooking utensils to prepare a hearty dinner.
Taking out a bag of earthworms from his pocket, Gong Lixin first handed some to Father Gong and Grandpa Lin, waiting for them to take a bite, before distributing them to his team member. Now, dried earthworms, slugs, grasshoppers, chrysalis, and even maggots have become part of their daily food. Having experienced the torture known as hunger, their stomachs had grown very strong.
Gong Xiangyi and Lin Wenbo were in charge of logistics and taking care of the camp was within their jurisdiction. When everything was settled, the two came over. Lin Wenbo naturally sat next to Gong Lixin while Gong Xiangyi, with her brows raised, sat next to Father Gong. She saw the dried earthworm in Father Gong's hand and asked in surprise, "Wh-where did Dad come out with this beef strip?"
"This is dried earthworm, not beef strip." Father Gong shook his head and smiled.
"How's that possible? Although it tastes a little bit different, it's obviously a beef strip!" Gong Xiangyi took a dried earthworm and chewed it. She remembered this weird taste. In her last life, Lin Wenbo often ate this spoiled beef jerky, saying that the base specially distributed this to supplement the physical strength of ability users and only ability users. She was hungry at the time and ate one, and almost spat it out. The dry and earthy taste made her recall that memory easily.
"Look at the links in the circle, look at the texture, it's an earthworm. Who told you it's beef strips? Where can we find any beef strips in this world now?" Father Gong put a whole earthworm in front of her daughter as he explained with a smile.
Gong Xiangyi looked at it blankly for a while. She suddenly covered her mouth and vomited. After she vomited, she turned to stare at Lin Wenbo with two lines of shed tears.
This was not beef, but a disgusting earthworm. No wonder the Wenbo from her past life, who always gave her good things, never let her eat this, but left her with rice and biscuits that the base distributed to ability users. Because she had a space, she never lacked in food and therefore, she didn't care what the base people ate. She always thought that this dried earthworm was a good thing which could give Wenbo a boost of energy. Now that she thought about it, how much did she owe Wenbo from her past and how much did she misunderstand him? In her last life, except for that one time, he never let her suffer a hint of bitterness, but she, because of an imaginary rival, willfully left.
"Wenbo~" The tears fell more quickly. Gong Xiangyi caught Lin Wenbo off guard and hugged his neck tightly as she wept.
Lin Wenbo stiffened and tried to push her away, but failed several times. He immediately nervously looked at the teenager.
Cao Yanan, who understood the relationship between the three, threw her fist up in excitement and thought there was a good show up ahead!
CrazedCookies: Aaaannndd we’re entering the final arc! We’re approaching the end soon! There’s gonna be some old, VERY old faces (trust, you’ve most likely forgotten them), some new faces that were only ever mentioned and some very new faces.
Also, thank you Phorn Hem and royann White for the Ko-Fis!