Chapter 282 - 279: This Thing’s Intelligence Is Definitely Not Low.

Chapter 282: Chapter 279: This Thing’s Intelligence Is Definitely Not Low.

"What’s wrong?" Chen Xing looked closer and saw Yu Heng’s expression shifting erratically.

’From terror to disbelief?’

’Is he being controlled?’

Chen Xing immediately grabbed Yu Heng’s arm to support him. "Someone’s trying to control you, right?"

Yu Heng was clearly in agony, but he still managed a difficult nod.

"You said your parents aren’t dead?"

Yu Heng nodded again.

Chen Xing wanted to do something more, but Yu Heng shoved her away with all his might, shouting, "Run!"

He had already lost control of his body as some kind of power awakened within him.

It was a power he had always feared, one he never dared to even think about.

He knew that once this power was unleashed, the only outcome was death.

Using his last ounce of conscious will to push Chen Xing away, his body began to emit a white mist.

Wherever the white mist touched, everything was scorched black—the grass, the rocks, the very ground itself.

Just as the white mist reached her, she gave Yu Heng one last look before pulling Meng Hu into the Jiezhi Space with her.

The white mist lingered for a long time, incinerating everything within a several-hundred-meter radius, leaving the area looking as if it had suffered a great cataclysm.

And within that mist, Chen Xing saw Yu Hang slowly melt into a pool of blood.

His ID tag was on his foot.

Only after all the white mist had dissipated did Chen Xing emerge from the Jiezhi Space.

She picked up ID tag number 00129 from the ground.

Judging from the ID tag, she and Yu Hang might have been in the same Research Institute and even crossed paths.

After placing the ID tag in her space, Chen Xing glanced at the scorched earth.

She realized the powers awakened within all these "lab rats" were devastatingly lethal.

The destructive potential of each one was staggering.

If the Research Institute managed to control all these people, the entire world would fall under Xu Anguo’s dominion.

Xu Anguo’s ambition had never been just the Lu Family!

The Lu Family was merely a stepping stone for him.

Pushing aside the grief of losing another companion, Chen Xing got in her vehicle and drove off.

She was in no mood to linger in the area.

Braving the scorching heat, she drove south for an entire afternoon.

As night approached, the vehicle was suddenly snagged. The force of the jolt nearly threw her out the window.

But she was wearing her seatbelt, so she was mostly fine.

Meng Hu had it a little worse.

It was flung from the middle of the RV all the way to the gearshift up front.

It whimpered in pain, looking at Chen Xing with a pitiful, aggrieved expression.

Chen Xing had no time to coddle it. A glance in the rearview mirror showed long vines already scrambling up the vehicle’s body, poised to engulf the entire RV.

She leaped out of the vehicle and took a heavy swing at the long vine with her machete.

The vine recoiled instantly, only to strike at the RV’s body from another direction.

Chen Xing had no choice but to run to the other side and slash away that vine as well.

But then another vine appeared on a different side and attacked the vehicle.

Chen Xing: "..."

’This is just insulting!’

She could have just hidden in the Jiezhi Space, but not anymore!

’I’m going to rip this thing out by the roots.’

She stored the RV away to prevent it from taking any more damage.

With only Meng Hu by her side, she followed the retracting vine in pursuit.

As the vine retreated deep into the mountains, Chen Xing noticed it was much darker here than outside, so dark she could hardly see a thing.

Meng Hu, nearly blind in the dark, almost crashed into trees several times.

It couldn’t be helped.

Chen Xing had no choice but to store Meng Hu in her space for now.

Alone, she followed the vine all the way to the base of a large tree.

It was pitch-black here, as if ink had been spilled across the world.

Even Chen Xing’s eyes, exceptionally adapted to the dark, were nearly useless here.

However, she had already felt her way to the tree trunk.

The trunk was incredibly rough and coated with a sticky liquid.

Not wanting to waste time, Chen Xing pulled out a grenade and blasted the base of the tree.

In the instant the grenade detonated, Chen Xing saw it.

Embedded in the trunk she had just touched were human faces, all seemingly squeezed together.

The faces were disturbingly vivid, their eyes appearing to move.

As the explosion tore into the tree’s roots, the faces twitched in agony.

Chen Xing felt her skin crawl.

The blast had lit up the base of the tree, blowing away a small portion of it.

But what flowed out wasn’t green sap. It was crimson blood.

’So...’

She aimed a spotlight at the tree trunk.

’Are these... real human faces?’

’Were they absorbed by the tree, becoming one with it?’

Heavily damaged, the great tree furiously lashed out at Chen Xing with several vines at once.

Chen Xing dodged several attacks in a row, but one vine finally managed to wrap around her ankle.

Having caught its prey, the vine retracted rapidly, trying to pull her in and merge her with the great tree.

The other vines immediately moved in to support it, attempting to pin Chen Xing down.

The vines seemed to have a mind of their own, coordinating their attack perfectly.

’Is it because it has merged with human intelligence?’

’If I don’t get rid of this tree, it will remain a scourge!’

As she was dragged toward the trunk, Chen Xing immediately tossed out another grenade.

At the same time, she vanished from the vine’s grasp and into the Jiezhi Space.

Every time she had to hide from danger, Chen Xing felt especially grateful to nightingale.

Without the Jiezhi Space, she would have died countless times by now.

The tree really did seem to have a mind of its own. Seeing Chen Xing vanish, its vines stopped moving.

After the explosion, the great tree was on the verge of collapse.

The human faces on its trunk were also fading away one by one.

Chen Xing didn’t even bother to come out. Instead, she tossed another grenade at the base of the tree from within her space.

That grenade was the final blow. The upper part of the great tree withered completely, and the faces rapidly dissipated.

It took Chen Xing some time to walk out of the pitch-black mountains and back to the main road.

But this area, too, was plunged into darkness.

Chen Xing looked up at the sky, but couldn’t see any stars at all.

As far as she could see, the sky above was blotted out by a dense canopy of trees, obscuring any light.

She was now surrounded by great trees, trapped on all sides—front, back, left, right, and even above.

’Unbelievable!’

Chen Xing realized she had underestimated this forest.

This thing was clearly highly intelligent.

But she wasn’t worried.

She entered the Jiezhi Space to check her special attributes.

Hmm.

She had a special Wood Attribute superpower.

This power could control all trees and plants.

Chen Xing immediately used her Wood Attribute to try and control the trees.

Most of the trees showed signs of falling under her control, but some remained completely unaffected.

’Could it be? Have some of the plants here evolved to a level higher than the Wood Attribute superpower I absorbed?’

Soon, Chen Xing discovered that even the trees and plants she had just brought under her influence were no longer in her grasp.

They had been wrested away by a plant monster whose power surpassed her own.

This forest was a veritable Devil Mountain.

’Wouldn’t any ordinary person who wandered in here be doomed to die?’

Chen Xing tried to move forward, but the forest seemed intent on wearing her down. It no longer attacked, but simply moved with her, its canopy shifting to keep her trapped.

She was like someone trapped under a massive umbrella, completely unable to break free.

Front, back, left, right, above—not a single direction offered an escape.

’Fine!’

Chen Xing’s fighting spirit was ignited.

’Well, I’ve got nothing better to do. Let’s see who can outlast who.’