Four days have passed since Lang Hua destroyed the ghost man's lair. During this period, Lang Hua traveled to every corner of the central city of Shasha, just to find the "commanding heights" mentioned by Zhang Cheng in his memory.
If Lang Hua remembered correctly, Zhang Cheng mentioned after a dinner in the last four years that he had also stayed in Shashi before the disaster. It is said that Zhang Cheng and several colleagues were trapped in the office building for two months at that time, relying only on food stored in a canteen downstairs.
After that, Ke Meng received a distress signal and rushed in time, only to find that only three people survived. In sixty days, more than a dozen living people died in cannibalism. The only survivors were a young man and a girl who followed Zhang Cheng and remained neutral.
Then they and the soldiers fled Shashi all the way, but missed the rescue helicopter. Finally, Zhang Cheng proposed to risk returning to the city, to the tallest landmark building in the city center, the "Tianyin Building". Only then did the second wave of attacks from the Nanqi Military Region arrive. rescue.
Tianyin Building is one of the places Zhang Cheng is most familiar with. The Institute of Physics, where he worked before the disaster, is located on the top floor of this building. Lang Hua wanted to bet that Zhang Cheng would come back here in this life, or that he would not leave at all.
Along the way, he went from near to far, first exploring several possible commanding heights, but he came back disappointed. Now he only hopes to find some clues in Tianyin Building. Tianyin Building is on the east side of the central city, and Lang Hua can already see the tall spire from a distance.
"Tap tap tap... tap..."
The footsteps paused, and Lang Hua gradually stopped, staring at a lush park in front of him. It is less than 100 meters away from Tianyin Building. Behind the wall is the Fuhua Botanical Garden, the largest botanical garden scenic spot in Shashi.
Shashi is located in the lower reaches of the Yellow River. It was a key ecological protection area fifty years ago, and several national-level wetland parks are located here. Although the central city of Shasha is far away from the estuary and has no access to these wetlands, there are botanical gardens and parks of various sizes along the riverside with abundant water systems, making it a good place for people to go out and play before the disaster.
In this life, Lang Hua possesses the evolutionary ability "Crystal Core Field", and his sensitivity to black mist energy is several times greater than in his previous life. When he got here, he felt a vague energy fluctuation. This energy seemed to have the same source as the crystal core in the body, oscillating outwards in waves. If Lang Hua hadn't been in the late third level, if Lang Hua hadn't happened to pass by here, he might not have noticed the strange movement here.
To go or not to go?
Lang Hua hesitated for a moment, then took off and accelerated. He jumped in the air, held up his hands, and easily climbed into the three-meter-high wall. From the moment it was decided to rely on the Fengwei Mountain base for development, Shashi was regarded by Lang Hua as a winner. Since it is your own thing, how can you not see it clearly and defend it clearly?
After landing on the ground and rolling, Lang Hua hid the dagger in the grass and observed what was going on around him.
It was very quiet, with no expected attacks or other disturbances. Lang Hua stood up and released his field perception again. The energy fluctuation appeared again, and its source pointed directly to the deepest part of the botanical garden.
There are a lot of weeds here, and the yellow lawn is soft and thick. If you walk among it, your feet will get stuck if you are not careful. The earth's world after the disaster has long been very different. Both animals and plants have mutated due to the spore black mist.
In order to distinguish them from the ordinary species before the disaster, the mutated animals belong to the "Black Mist Mutant Beasts", which are commonly known as "Black Beasts". Mutated plants should also continue this rule and are called "black plants". But in the more than ten years since the disaster, people still tend to use common names like "plants" or "mutated plants."
The reason is that compared to the very harmful black beasts, mutated plants are too inconspicuous.
Even mutated plants will not refuse energy-rich flesh and blood. In previous lives, some people liked to feed black plants with animal blood to accelerate the development of their aggressiveness. But in fact, most mutant plants do not actively participate in predation.
For the billions of years since life began on Earth, plants have always been at the bottom of the food chain, the prey link, and seem to have an innate disadvantage compared to animals during evolution. After the cataclysm, some of them changed from annual to perennial, while others evolved spikes, vines and developed root systems. It's just that under the stimulation of the black mist energy, the vitality has become more tenacious, but other than that, there is almost no progress.
If it were the summer after the disaster, the vegetation here would definitely be lush, and the weeds would have to grow to half a person's height before they stop. Unfortunately, the disaster happened in late autumn. Before these plants could fully enjoy the benefits brought by the black mist energy, they were hit hard by the cold weather and ended in a hurry after growing one foot tall. However, Lang Hua knew that these weeds were not dead, but just dormant. Their roots were buried deep in the ground, waiting for another spring to bloom.
After walking for a while, a bush half as tall as a man appeared in front of him. Lang Hua didn't want to go around it, so he decisively took out his seedling knife to clear the way. The dry branches and leaves were like pieces of paper in front of the precision-forged titanium alloy blade, and they shattered and scattered with a little force.
Mutated plants are much less aggressive than black beasts. This is the consensus of every survivor after the disaster.
Until this moment, Lang Hua still thought this way.
"Click."
In the midst of lightning and flint, Miao's sword unsheathed and flashed, cutting off a vine that wanted to attack Lang Hua. There was more than one vine, but it seemed to hesitate after being injured, advancing and retreating in the air like a poisonous snake with its head and neck raised. Lang Hua took the opportunity to cut off several branches again, and then these guys stopped and hurriedly retreated.
He knelt down and picked up a piece of vine. After being cut off, the stem twisted a few more times, and then gradually became quiet in Lang Hua's hands. Now it looks like an ordinary tree vine, as if the twist just now was just Lang Hua's fantasy.
After throwing away this piece of vine, Lang Hua moved his gaze elsewhere, but couldn't help but frown.
There is still some green here, and many linseed vines have entangled the tree in front of us tightly. Although the branches and leaves of the oleifera vine are unhealthy yellow-green, they are no longer better than those wild trees and weeds that withered early. Lang Hua looked carefully and saw that these canes were covered with sharp barbed thorns, and one of the main stems had its "aerial roots" deeply penetrated into the trunk. These organs, which were originally used to penetrate into wall cracks and attach themselves to growth, are now becoming the main tools for the vine to absorb nutrients.
Suddenly, Lang Hua felt that the green was very dazzling. Green is a symbol of life, but it never matters whether this vitality is your own or stolen.
A black-green sweet potato-like thing appeared at his feet, with two green sprouts growing on it. But why does the sweet potato have arms, legs and a tail? When I jumped up with the tip of the knife, I saw that it was a dead and stiff rat, with seeds of mutated plants taking root and sprouting on it.
There is also a very beautiful little flower in the lawn, with slender and delicate green leaves, blue petals and red heart, bright yellow stamens standing tall, and emitting a pleasant fragrance. But as soon as the tip of the knife touched it, the green leaves showed a fierce look, and the sharp thorns stood up and wrapped tightly around the tip of the knife, making them want to be crushed alive. It is conceivable that if what is wrapped up at this moment is a finger, it may only pierce the flesh and blood in an instant.
As expected by Lang Hua, the root of the flower stuck on a toad. The toad had long since died and was buried deep in the soil, colorless. It was unclear whether it was parasitized after death or killed by predation.
"With so much aggression, is there something driving the evolution here?" Lang Hua was puzzled and unknowingly reached the deepest part of the botanical garden.
This is the southern part of the Botanical Garden, and there is a natural lake. Although it is small, it is the product of a tributary of the Yellow River. Surrounding the lake are tall greenhouses lined with seasonal vegetation and flowers. The greenhouse is three stories high, with brick walls on both sides covered with a roof made of bamboo poles and membranes. In the open space between the greenhouses, there are many strange-shaped landscape trees scattered at random, as if they have been deliberately pruned into human-shaped sculptures. These landscape trees are now also covered with dense and half-dead vines, which look lifelike from a distance. Those who don’t know it might think they are people coming here for autumn outings.
Lang Hua didn't take a second look at these trees. His attention was entirely on the lake at the moment. It was as if something was calling him, tempting him to get closer. This kind of call is at the level of life. It has neither sound nor light and shadow. It cannot be explained or understood. It is just a call from the subconscious.
Walk to the lake, lift and wade, one step, two steps, three steps. The surface of the lake is sparkling, and the bottom of the lake is full of shadows. Suddenly Lang Hua's eyes widened. What did he see? There were actually figures lying in the water!
No, it’s not a human, it’s a black corpse. The bottom of the lake was filled with densely packed black corpses, thousands of them! Necromorphs don't need oxygen, and they won't drown in water, but these black corpses died in patches at the bottom of the lake! Finally, Lang Hua also felt something was wrong. It was a suction force that came from under his feet, slowly absorbing the evolutionary energy in his body. Just for a moment, Lang Hua felt that all the energy in his body was involuntarily flowing to his feet. Even the energy crystal core in his brain showed signs of instability, almost breaking through his control!
"Re-engraved-Feng Cheng!"
Lang Hua snorted coldly and flew into the air, and the feeling of peeling off the crystal core energy also dissipated. He was sure that it was the lake's problem. Something in the lake attracted the black corpses and affected the evolution of nearby plants.
When Lang Hua was thinking about how to get into the water to find out, the water surface suddenly fluctuated violently, and a big mouth full of sharp teeth broke through the water and rushed up. Lang Hua's reaction was not slow. He immediately raised his body as soon as the monster emerged from the water. At this time, he happened to pass by the mouth full of fangs.
The monster fell into the water and disappeared again, but Lang Hua couldn't help but sink his face. He saw it. It was a giant worm, as thick as two people and of unknown length. It had circles of red wrinkles on its body and three rows of hook-like teeth in its mouth.
The lake has affected animal evolution, and that's not good news.
Back on the shore, as soon as Lang Hua's feet touched the ground, he noticed an extremely violent tremor on the ground, as if something huge was about to break out of the ground. The best way at this time is to escape quickly, but Lang Hua doesn't want to just let it go. He bowed his body and lowered his center of gravity, motionless like a cheetah before preying on prey. He held the handle of the knife tightly with one hand, and lowered his hand to his waist. His eyes were fixed firmly on his feet.
In the first second, water ripples rippled. The next second, the sand and gravel trembled. The longer the time passes, the stronger the vibration becomes. Slowly, after passing a peak, this vibration gradually weakened. Seeing this, Lang Hua cheered up even more. He narrowed his eyes, opened his field of vision, and felt the movement around him.
For survivors struggling to survive in the apocalypse, "survival" has always been a luxurious term. Because no good hunter would ever give up halfway while hunting. Lang Hua has always felt that since he has become a prey, he must have the consciousness of being a prey.
I don't know how long it took, but at the moment when the shaking gradually subsided and returned to silence, something suddenly pierced the ground under Lang Hua's feet with lightning speed.
At the same time, Lang Hua, who had long been ready to go, bounced straight up. One thing and one person are chasing each other, and the relative distance remains unchanged. At first glance, it seems that they have been discussed long ago. Lang Hua, who was attacked by surprise, should be angry, but at this moment he laughed uncharacteristically.
"Okay, very good. I'm not afraid that you won't take action, but I'm afraid that you are a faceless bastard!"
"Re-engraved-Ice Shield."
As the words fell to the ground, a circular ice mirror formed in the air. Lang Hua tiptoed, used the force in the air to twist his body, and fell towards the guy. When he turned around, he saw clearly that this thing was actually a strange vine. No, it should be said to be a yellow-brown rhizome. Its skin is earthy and brown, the top is as thin as a thorn, and the vine body is as straight as an arrow. If it were not for the hook, people would suspect that it is a scorpion tail.
The strange vines came quickly and fiercely, but Lang Hua refused to let up, and decided to stab him with his sword. The Miao knife was long and slender, so he used the back of the knife as a wrap, and used the knife to follow the vines. When the strange vines wrapped around the blade of the blade, he pulled back and violently rotated the blade and pulled it out. The dual-phase titanium alloy refined by Wu Ke is extremely sharp, and the tough strange vines are simply too fragile in front of it. The purple-red blade just passed by the strange vine and cut it into four pieces in the blink of an eye!
As a result, the entire strange vine fell to the ground as if it had lost its life. Lang Hua was still in mid-air. When he turned around, he couldn't help but take a breath of cold air. I saw the dead vines peeling off the surface of the "landscape trees" on the lawn, revealing human faces one after another.
Only then did he realize that this was not a man-made human shape. There were clearly people inside! The tall ones are adults, the smaller ones are children, they are in groups, with teeth and claws showing, and their expressions may be ferocious or painful... But regardless of whether they are men, women, old or young, these people are all skinny and skinny without exception, as if they were covered with human skin. The skeleton was tightly bound by vines and stood in place, so it looked like an artificial landscape.
Now these vines are withdrawing from the corpse, climbing down the body like a snake, and coming to the ground to form a dense mass. Those corpses also fell to the ground one after another because they lost support. Some were so fragile that they fell into two or three pieces when they touched the ground. Just now, Lang Hua's attention was entirely on the strange root vine at his feet. When he discovered it, he was already surrounded by these "snake vines".
Looking at these hundreds of snake vines, even Lang Hua couldn't help but feel his scalp numb. He no longer hesitated and hurriedly flew into the air. But those snake vines seemed to have eyes, flying up into the air after him, and their speed was not slower than him!
Moreover, these snake vines seem to have infinite length. Even if they have soared more than ten meters into the air, the remaining parts are still flowing out among the dead branches and leaves on the surface. In just an instant, the fastest hundred or ten snake vines had already surpassed Lang Hua and formed a fishnet-like cover over his head. The rest of the snake vines chased around Lang Hua, blocking all directions.
"I'm going to suffer!"
Before he finished speaking, these snake vines suddenly tightened into a ball, completely trapping Lang Hua inside!
