The helicopter soon came to a hover over a patch of mountain forest outside the camp.
This was the exact spot where Gu Xi had sensed something amiss just moments ago.
Gu Xi lowered her gaze, forcibly converting the energy she had just plundered from the wild mutant plants into spiritual power.
Then, she silently extended her spiritual power out toward the area beyond the camp.
At the same time, the hovering helicopter opened its cabin door.
A team of men in black combat gear, holding Energy Guns in one hand and gripping soft ropes dangling from the helicopter with the other, rappelled down to the ground one by one with extreme speed.
Gu Xi was very interested in the Energy Guns in their hands. Just as she began to focus her spiritual power for a closer look, the last man to jump from the helicopter landed. The moment his long, straight legs in combat boots touched the ground, he abruptly looked up toward the camp.
Gu Xi only managed to see a pair of sharp, cold, dark eyes before a sharp pain suddenly stabbed through her mind.
She decisively cut off her extended spiritual power, her face instantly turning deathly pale.
'Was I discovered?'
'Just as I thought. My powers are still too weak right now.'
Her left thumb subconsciously pressed down hard on the bone of her index finger. As Gu Xi was lost in thought, Wei Heng, who had been panting heavily for a long while, finally managed to catch his breath.
"Gu Xi? What's wrong?" Wei Heng stood up. Seeing her exceptionally pale face, he assumed she was frightened by the spectacle, this being her first time seeing something like it, and couldn't help but ask with concern.
Gu Xi looked up at the pale, nervous man, pointed to the hovering helicopter in the distance, and slowly asked, "...What's that?"
Just now, upon seeing that familiar logo, something had flashed through her mind.
Gu Xi wanted to confirm something.
Wei Heng leaned against the wall, still breathing shallowly. He followed her finger and looked up. "That's a helicopter from the Central Base Superpower Research Institute, but the people who came are probably from the military's Superpower Special Team..."
As he said this, Wei Heng suddenly realized something. "...Fuck!"
The place they were in now was still twelve hundred *li* from South City, and a world away from the Central Base. How could a helicopter from the Central Base arrive so quickly?
'Something's not right!'
Seeing that Gu Xi hadn't reacted yet, Wei Heng grabbed her arm. "Come on! Let's go check it out."
"Where are we going?" Gu Xi went along with his pull and took a step, but her entire body immediately went limp, and she fell helplessly toward Wei Heng.
"Gu Xi?!" Wei Heng fumbled to support most of her weight, his brows knitting together. "You're too weak. I should take you to the infirmary first..."
Gu Xi: "..."
The reason she was now limp and powerless was due to the aftereffects of having her power forcibly severed.
'In the end, I'm just too weak right now.'
'If it were like before...'
Gu Xi lowered her eyes, habitually pressing her thumb against the bone of her left index finger as she was half-dragged, half-supported by Wei Heng to the medical room in silence.
Before entering, she seemed to feel something and suddenly turned her head to look in the direction of the helicopter.
In the next moment, Gu Xi's expression changed drastically.
In the distance, beneath the helicopter, an abnormally tall and thick mutant plant suddenly shot up from the ground. Its long, dark-green stem, covered in sharp leaves, thrashed wildly in the air like a thorny whip, lashing out at the helicopter.
At the same time, several blinding white lights shot toward the mutant plant from all directions.
'Are those Superpower Bullets?'
'But they're a little different from the Superpower Bullets in my memory.'
After being hit, the terrifying-looking mutant plant quickly went still.
Gu Xi watched the giant plant's stiff, unmoving "corpse" from afar, her brow furrowed slightly. 'Aren't mutant plants supposed to be non-aggressive now? Then how...'
Wei Heng, beside her, also saw the horrifying scene and clenched his fists tightly.
The next second, he made a split-second decision, pulling Gu Xi through the door of the medical room ahead. As he turned to shut the door, he also swiftly activated the room's energy shield.
Inside the medical room, Ye Lin was sweating with anxiety over the camp's dwindling energy reserves. When she suddenly heard the mechanical sound of the energy shield activating, she shot to her feet, ready to lash out.
But then she looked up and saw the young woman who had just left that morning being brought back, half-dragged and looking incredibly weak. Her face instantly darkened.
"What happened?" she asked with a stern face, directing Wei Heng to place the pale and feeble Gu Xi on an examination table while she began to administer first aid.
Wei Heng glanced at Ye Lin and quickly recounted what had happened outside in a low voice.
At the end, he added breathlessly, "Gu Xi, she... she's not in good health to begin with. She was probably scared by what she saw..."
Gu Xi, the true post-apocalyptic powerhouse being treated for the first time in her life as a delicate, frail damsel in distress who needed protection: "..."
'I really wasn't scared.'
'And I'm not *that* frail.'
But to avoid causing trouble for others, Gu Xi cooperatively went through with the examination.
While waiting for the examination results, Gu Xi asked Wei Heng in a low voice, "What... was that just now?" 'Aren't mutant plants supposed to be non-aggressive these days?'
"It was a malignant mutation," Wei Heng replied, his gaze darkening as he recalled the scene.
He ran a hand through his messy hair, suppressing his irritation, and looked up with a deep glance at the distant helicopter.
Beneath the helicopter, the exceptionally fierce and tall mutant plant from just moments ago was gone. For an instant, Wei Heng's expression became incredibly complex.
But after only a moment, he returned to normal. He turned, sat down next to Gu Xi, and said quickly in a low voice, almost through gritted teeth:
"Everyone knows that ever since the second mass mutation of plants in the twenty-ninth year of the apocalypse, they haven't been aggressive..."
"But in the last six months, there have been several incidents across the country of mutant plants undergoing malignant mutation and harming people. After mutating, they become highly aggressive again..."
"But those bastards at the Central Base Superpower Research Institute deliberately hid this news from the public..."
Gu Xi became thoughtful.
'Right now, the entire country is focused on developing agricultural production, encouraging everyone to leave the safe zones to actively reclaim wasteland for farming and solve the food crisis. If this news were to break now, it would inevitably cause a panic.'
'At that point, the people who had just barely worked up the courage to leave the bases and farm would probably scurry right back inside the safe zones in an instant.'
'With the entire country facing a severe food crisis, the Abnormal Ability Research Institute's decision to suppress the news and hide it from the public, while somewhat cruel, isn't entirely incomprehensible.'
'But... once the malignant mutations of mutant plants have started, can this really be kept a secret forever?'
'And also...'
"If the higher-ups suppressed this news, then how do you know about it?" Gu Xi looked up and asked Wei Heng.
Wei Heng looked down at his own hands, a desolate look in his eyes.
'Six months ago, if I'd encountered a situation like that, I definitely would have rushed to the front lines without a second thought... not like now, where all I can do is helplessly run away with a young woman in tow.'
Wei Heng closed his eyes. When he looked up at Gu Xi again, he smiled and said, "That's because I've got connections upstairs. Let me tell you, this is top-secret information. Just keep it to yourself and don't you dare tell anyone else..."
"I imagine the camp will be calling us over to sign non-disclosure agreements soon enough," he added, winking at Gu Xi.
Gu Xi glanced at him and gave a noncommittal smile, saying nothing.
Her gaze, however, fell on the patch of skin exposed at his wrist, pausing there for a fraction of a second.
'Under normal circumstances, an ordinary person seeing that horrifying scene would have broken out in goosebumps from sheer terror, or even had their hair stand on end.'
'But Wei Heng didn't.'
'Even though he looked pale and his steps were unsteady... appearing completely weak.'
Gu Xi lowered her eyes.
'Looks like this is a man with a story, too.'