The ark's forward speed was not slow; after all, it was an escape tool specially manufactured by the former high echelons of the Supreme Union.
Therefore, Xia Yu only rested briefly, and the ark had already arrived at the outskirts of Jiayan Sand City. Of course, his rest was merely closing his eyes to meditate, as zombies no longer required sleep.
Whenever he felt tired and needed rest after a battle, he would recover his energy through meditation.
Jiayan Sand City was true to its name; the terrain resembled a desert, with vast expanses of golden sand visible everywhere. A massive city was built upon this sea of sand.
However, the city was currently devoid of human activity, with only the shadows of some demonic creatures wandering within.
After arriving at Jiayan Sand City, naike quickly transferred her digital consciousness via the network to a new supercomputer, successfully separating herself from A Xiang.
After a brief discussion, everyone decided to split up. The two artificial intelligence units would stay on the ark with the uninjured companions to look after the wounded ones, while the rest would go together to the City Hall building to search for the True Ancestor's Secret Demon Creature Recipe.
Naturally, the remaining people were Ximi, Tangerine, and Xia Yu. Only the three of them possessed combat strength and could also hunt some demonic creatures for ingredients along the way.
However, they hadn't walked far before a group of plants appeared before them—plants and vegetables that had developed facial features on their skins.
The purple Sweet Potato leading the group was wearing a military uniform and whipping the Pineapple in front of him with its tentacles, roaring, "Hurry up and move! The higher-ups ordered me to build ten statues before tonight. Anyone who makes things difficult for me won't live to see tomorrow."
Hearing this, the Pineapple chiseling stone sighed faintly, "I thought overthrowing the King of the Forest was meant to break the chains that bound us, but it turns out we are just building our own prisons."
"Know your place! The only reason the higher-ups sent us to manage you is because I am superior to you! If you can't stand where I stand, blame yourselves for not working hard enough!" the Sweet Potato sneered from the side.
"Or perhaps, you prefer the King of the Forest's style of rule? Throwing you to the demonic creatures as food? As long as I report what you just said to the superiors, you can relive your past life as fodder."
Xia Yu and his group, who were approaching, heard these words. Ximi immediately exaggeratedly said to Tangerine, "Wow, how pathetic! King of the Forest, look at those poor plants being bullied. What should we do?"
Tangerine: "..."
Tangerine felt exhausted by Ximi's mockery; the current state of the Plant race was indeed partly her fault.
The emergence of self-awareness in plants and the First World Destruction Crisis were actually linked; the cause was the appearance of self-awareness in beings that should not have possessed it.
The trajectory of this world was originally no different from that of an ordinary world, but one day, a mysterious energy appeared. This energy affected some humans, allowing them to use magic.
This led to the outbreak of the Third World War, where magic, like technology, gradually integrated into human life.
This energy that allowed people to master magic was called Ascension Energy, but its effects went beyond that.
After the World War, under the influence of the Ascension Energy, the Sun suddenly awakened its own consciousness and chose to give humanity five years before leaving the Solar System.
Following this was the establishment of the Underground City and the struggle for power. During this period, the animals and plants, originally used as food, also began to be gradually altered by the Ascension Energy.
Animals were warped into demonic creatures, while plants, like the Sun, developed self-awareness, and the Plant race began to emerge.
After the Second World Destruction Crisis ended, Tangerine, who had been converted into an undead by Ximi, was the first to awaken. Realizing that everything had been destroyed and unsure of the meaning of her own survival, she chose to maintain the ecology of the Underground City.
At that time, apart from all humans being wiped out in the Underground City, the rest of the organisms were safe and sound. Herbivorous demonic creatures hunted the Plant race, and carnivorous demonic creatures hunted the herbivorous demonic creatures. It seemed no different from the former surface ecology.
But as the bottom layer of the food chain, the Plant race was dissatisfied. Having gained self-awareness, they intended to resist the persecution by the demonic creatures.
But Tangerine did not give them this opportunity, because her choice was to protect the Underground City's ecology, and animals eating plants was inherently a part of the biological chain.
Therefore, the plants chose to overthrow her, the King of the Forest, even though they were the ones who had previously installed Tangerine, who maintained the ecosystem, into that position.
Although Xia Yu ultimately defeated Tangerine, the plants managed to capitalize on the opportunity and successfully overthrew the rule of the King of the Forest.
However, it was also because Ximi woke up and resolved the conflict with Tangerine, revealing the truth that the Underground City was destined for destruction, that Tangerine abandoned her choice to continue maintaining the Underground City's ecology... Xia Yu and his group had no intention of interacting with the Plant race. With the Otherworldly Evil God about to destroy the world, they had no time to worry about these matters.
Although they had no such intention, the plants approached them.
A humanoid Cactus stood before them and stated seriously, "You have invaded our Protein Demon Creature Farm. The President has ordered that if you do not choose to leave, we will drive you out regardless of the cost!"
"Wow, plants are starting to raise demonic creatures in captivity. How rare," Ximi exclaimed dramatically.
These words made the Cactus's expression extremely ugly. Its already green face immediately turned deep green.
The Cactus stopped speaking, waved its hand, and squad after squad of Pumpkin and Sweet Potato soldiers suddenly appeared. They held various weapons once used by humans and aimed them at Ximi and her group.
"Apprentice, we'll hold them off. Hurry into the City Hall to find the True Ancestor's Secret Demon Creature Recipe. Don't worry, we'll be fine!"
As she spoke, Ximi's chef uniform suddenly turned into a mosaic pattern. When the mosaic disappeared, the chef uniform had transformed into a gallant military uniform.
She drew a blue Soul Blade and pointed it at the group of plants; battle was imminent.
But Xia Yu merely narrowed his eyes, glanced at both sides, and asked suspiciously, "Ximi, you're not planning to stay here just to slack off, are you?"
"Ahem, how could that be!"
The initially gallant Ximi broke character instantly. She pointed exasperatedly at the plant army.
"There are so many of those plant soldiers! How could I possibly be trying to slack off? What kind of terrible image do you have of me?"
This conversation seemed to make the Cactus feel ignored. It angrily twisted its face, and the thorns covering it trembled.
"Enough! You humans dare to ignore our Plant Army? Attack!"
The Cactus Officer pointed a hand, and in an instant, the dense plant army behind it charged forward.
Ximi stopped arguing with Xia Yu, waved her hand to summon her Skeleton Army, and confronted the Plant Army.
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