Chapter 58

Lin Tantan froze when she saw that rootlike thing. She'd heard how terrifying mutated plants could be in the apocalypse, but this was her first real sighting. The last mutated grass didn't count, the roots back then were still within an acceptable range, and Ye Xiao had cut them all immediately.
But the thing before her really did look like a snake!
The thing in front kept writhing. It seemed soft, yet when the car hit it, it felt like striking a pillar.
The vehicle jolted again; just as it settled they felt something else pushing up from beneath the ground. Lin Tantan reacted and looked out. They were on the road toward the base's center, which wasn't central at all but toward the rear of the base by the mountain. The administrative area, the barracks, and that mysteriously named Academy of Sciences, so far with nothing useful to show, were all there.
Because it bordered the mountain and was important, there were fewer buildings here. Lin Tantan only saw a utility pole not far off. She quickly sent out a wooden tether, used it to knock the pole, opened the car door, grabbed Bai Cheng, and pulled them both out. The next instant, a similar root thrust up through the car's chassis, seats, and roof where they'd been sitting, piercing the vehicle straight through.
Clinging to the pole, Lin Tantan and Bai Cheng both sucked in cold breaths at the sight.
Seeing the driver Huang Jianquan still in the seat, Lin Tantan sent out another strap accompanied by two slashes of golden light. The strap bound Huang Jianquan while the light sliced off the car door, and she yanked him out.
The roots at the front and the one that had pierced the car wound around it like leaves wrapping a bundle, tightening the entire vehicle. Metal groaned and creaked under the pressure, a sound that made their skin crawl.
Not satisfied with merely coiling the car, the roots began lifting it. Squinting, Lin Tantan saw two roots emerging from the soil and, on impulse, sent out two golden blades.
With a swish, the golden light swept across the bases of the two roots and cut them clean. Sap splattered; beneath the hard outer layer they were full of a viscous tangle of twigs and foliage.
The severed roots writhed once and quickly burrowed back into the soil. The aboveground portions, including the bits that had been holding the car, collapsed as the vehicle thudded back down and soon went stiff and lifeless.
The three of them looked at each other, climbed down from the pole, and though they stood on solid ground they felt unnerved, always expecting something else to thrust up from beneath their feet the next moment.
"W-what was that?" Huang Jianquan's teeth chattered.
Bai Cheng didn't answer; he glanced at a unit approaching in the distance and said, "Let's go, back."
They'd come by car and walked back, unwilling to linger. On the way Bai Cheng said to Lin Tantan, "Sorry, I didn't expect this to happen."
"No need to apologize; it was impossible to predict," Lin Tantan said, frowning. "It looks like the root of a mutated plant. Where's the plant itself?"
Once the presence of mutated plants was known, the Ning City Base had cleared out every removable plant. Even though that area had few buildings and large open dirt roads, there wasn't a single tree nearby. So what on earth did those roots belong to?
Bai Cheng looked back toward the distant mountain. Lin Tantan asked, "You mean up on the mountain?"
"Hard to say, but it's the most likely."
"Then the buildings closest to the mountain..." Lin Tantan looked at the cluster of key structures forming the core functional area and thought they must have assumed the mountain was protection, only to find they were adjacent to something far more dangerous.
Bai Cheng pulled another walkie-talkie from storage and called Ye Xiao. Ye Xiao's anxious voice came through at once: "Bai Cheng, Tantan, are you all right?!"
"We're fine. There was a little incident," Bai Cheng recounted what had happened. "We've already left that area."
Ye Xiao: "You head back first. We'll be back on our end soon too."
When the call ended, Bai Cheng contacted Lu Jianping and repeated the story, telling him they wouldn't be attending the New Year's Eve dinner. Lu Jianping wasn't thinking about dinner anyway; upon hearing there was trouble on the road leading to his area, he didn't know the details until Bai Cheng's call, his heart sank when he heard it might be mutated plants. He asked several careful questions, then hastily hung up.
Bai Cheng told Lin Tantan, "Qinan's prophecy came true, not only did we miss our family New Year's Eve dinner, but tonight's big New Year's feast is ruined too."
He'd also warned that the base was riddled with danger, that threats could suddenly rise up from beneath the ground, isn't that exactly what he meant by lurking perils everywhere?
They sent Huang Jianquan back to his own quarters; he lived on the fourth floor of the residential block, well above ground, so he seemed safe for now. Lin Tantan and Bai Cheng returned to the villa. Xu Qin, surprised, asked why they'd come back so soon. When they explained, Xu Qin's face darkened. The three of them looked at the gleaming marble tiles, now spotless, and felt uneasy.
Beneath those tiles lay cement and foundation, cold, hard things that inspire more confidence than plain earth, but if that thing could pierce a car in one strike, who could say it couldn't puncture cement?
They walked around the yard and circled the villa front and back. Fortunately, they found nothing suspicious.
Not long after, a tire squealed across the yard; a car had just stopped and Ye Xiao jumped out alone, clearly he'd rushed back ahead of the others.
He burst inside, and when he saw both of them unharmed he let out a breath. He pressed them again, frowning, "When that thing came out, did you notice anything? Any smell? Any other oddities?"
Bai Cheng said no. Lin Tantan thought it over and shook her head too. She was fairly sensitive to supernatural powers and related phenomena, but she wasn't a human radar, at that moment she hadn't sensed anything.
"So it hides underground and suddenly bursts out to strike, leaving no trace, impossible to guard against?" Ye Xiao considered, then said calmly, "But since it's a plant, even if its roots burrow, they can't wriggle about like earthworms; there should be a limit. The incident happened far from here, so this place should be safe. Right now the important thing is to find out what it actually is: where its core is, how many such roots there are, what area they cover, their habits, destructive power, weaknesses..."
He thought it over. Lin Tantan, holding a cup of hot water, stood nearby; when he paused she handed it to him. He took it. "Thanks."
Lin Tantan's eyes curved in a smile. "It's nothing." She sat down beside him. "If you think about it, that thing, though fierce and powerful, is easy to cut. After getting cut it retreats immediately, it's probably not formidable yet. What worries me is if it hides and quietly grows stronger, then strikes us by surprise."
Ye Xiao laughed at her assessment. "True enough. The sooner we root it out, the better. I'll go take a look in a bit, see if I can find any clues."
He meant he'd go to the scene, but he clearly didn't intend to leave right away; others hadn't returned yet and he wasn't comfortable going off alone.
Bai Cheng asked if today's operation had gone smoothly.
"Pretty smooth. Shortly after we arrived, Li Qun's people showed up too. We didn't clash; they headed for the vehicles Xing Guoliang left behind," Ye Xiao said. "We just spent time clearing zombies along the way, and many vehicles had been rained on for weeks, some wouldn't start. Repairs took a while."
"Were the things on the vehicles okay?"
"Most of it stayed dry, we had good waterproofing." Ye Xiao checked the time. "It's about time to enter the base."
Bai Cheng said he'd go along and refill his space stash; they'd been using a lot lately, and although they'd replenished some, the goods on the supply trucks suited him better.
Ye Xiao thought for a moment and agreed, asking Xu Qin to come too, he didn't like leaving anyone alone.
As they approached, supply trucks were rolling through the base gate one after another, each splattered with mud. Some still had remnants of zombies aboard; a severed arm or half a leg might even be lodged in the tires. But with truck after truck arriving, everyone nearby's eyes lit up with greed.
The supply trucks parked in the lot. Bai Cheng pulled empty fuel cans he'd prepared from his space and had people transfer fuel from the tanker into them, while also taking several truckloads of rice and flour.
The vehicles' waterproofing had indeed been well done. When they lifted the tarps, most of the cargo was dry. Bai Cheng climbed onto a truck, and in a few quick motions the trailer was empty.
Lin Tantan sighed in admiration, of course, spatial powers were so convenient. She was envious, wishing she could swap one of her abilities for spatial power, even trade two for it if she had to.
According to Bai Cheng, his space now measured forty to fifty square meters with ceilings four to five meters high, more than double the original size. With good organization he could store a lot.
But he hadn't gone overboard. Besides loading several truckloads of grain and some important supplies, he stopped, though he did take a lot of fuel.
At that moment another convoy pulled in. Ye Xiao pulled Lin Tantan aside and whispered, "They're Li Qun's people."
So these were the ones trying to snatch the supply trucks before them?
There were only twenty or thirty vehicles in all, several packed with people. When they climbed down and saw the sight of over a hundred trucks here, their expressions grew complicated, almost gnashing their teeth, as if it were our side that had stolen from them.
Lin Tantan watched them for a long while, amused by their expressions of foiled greed. Then she spotted Zhou Li among them.
So he'd indeed thrown in with the military, eager to win merit, sticking his hand even into something like this. She shook her head silently; she had no strong feelings, only one wish for Zhou Li: don't get killed by your own brother.
Just then, "Brother." A voice suddenly called out and a man ran up to Zhou Li. Lin Tantan's eyes widened. Looking at the young man, her first thought was that the photo must have been retouched, in person he looked a lot worse than the flattering picture.
This is the future president? Lin Tantan felt a peculiar itch in her fingers, this man was full of flaws, and with a flick of her hand she could kill him.
She narrowed her eyes slightly, tamped down the anger in her chest, and turned her head. A warm hand then came to rest on the top of her head. Looking up, she met Ye Xiao’s concerned, worried gaze.