That same night, Yan Hanqing’s body started to rapidly transform. It wasn’t known whether the transformation was because of that lightning elemental crystal, so although the wounds on his body started to heal, it didn’t head towards the putrefying state of a zombie. Instead his skin became more and more pale. So much that it was possible to see some of the veins underneath his skin, which would occasionally have flashes of lightning.
After Shao Qing came down from her shower, she looked at Yan Hanqing who was lying quietly and Er Dai who was slowly recovering from his wounds. Shao Tong was huddled up on the couch, sleeping soundly. It was only the waves of spiritual power that told Shao Qing that she was also recovering from her injuries still.
Shao Qing was originally planning on carrying Shao Tong inside, but was afraid to disturb something and hinder her recuperation, thus she gave up and quietly returned to her room.
Back in her room, Shao Qing sat down on the bed and released her vines. Originally it was a deep, verdant green with thorns all over, but now if you looked closer you could see on top of the vines there was a greenish black veiner pattern, particularly the peak. A faint green with a tinge of black, it seemed especially terrifying.
This was because of her protecting herself before. Using the vines to stop the contact between her and the monster, the vines had appeared to have evolved. It seemed as if the interaction between the vines and that monster was so much that it appeared to be infected with toxins.
Being the vines master, Shao Qing could sense the vines evolution. Before her vines had already had a tiny bit of an anesthesia effect, but it was rather trivial. It was more often used as a rope to bind people. Now that she was a rank two superhuman, she was going to subdue another plant, but she was given a delightful surprise from her vines.
Now her vines had two extra abilities. The first one was its rapid regeneration although it consumed her power and the second one was parasitism.
She previously did have parasitic like ability, like planting seeds within the Mediterranean man, but the parasites that have been mutated this time were of much better use. The tiny seeds were just like bacteria, extremely hard to discover. In fact after being parasitized on humans, instead of waiting for it to germinate as before, now it will be controlled by Shao Qing. Furthermore, these seeds could be held dormant within the body for a long time.
In the case when Shao Qing directed the seeds to ‘wake’, the seeds would grow at high-speed and would inject poison within the host’s body causing their internal organs to corrode, ending up with their stomach left with a ball of vines.
This was no doubt a terrifying ability.
The most crucial point was the poison attribute. The vines have evolved after being contaminated by the toxins from the monster. Although the toxins weren’t at the same level as the monster where it could cause others to completely lose control of their body, it did inherit the monster’s physical toxicity that were particularly corrosive. There was even some anesthetic effects.
Shao Qing immediately decided that before she was a rank three, she wouldn’t find another vegetation to replace the vines. Moreover, Shao Qing had already decided on a name for it, Ghost Vine, in short Xiao Gui*.
* Gui = Ghost
This battle, although it made them hover between the edge of life and death, almost causing them to lose their lives, the harvest was huge. Shao Qing felt that she could break through rank three at any time.
As long as she absorbed a few more crystals, she would smoothly break through.
However, currently by her side was a bunch of wounded people. Shao Qing didn’t dare to try to break through. Otherwise if some accident occurred during her advancement, wouldn’t that be another out?
Waiting until she recovered a bit and investigating the vines use a little further, Shao Qing fed Xiao Baozi and left her room.
Yan Hanqing had still not woken up. She suspected that the toxin from the corpse and the thunder energy within his body were resisting each other. If the lightning power was able to come out as the victor, it would be less frightening than the zombie infection. Yan Hanqing had a high likelihood of being able to control this source energy and become a lightning elemental superhuman. And everyone is aware that superhumans don’t get infected.
That would obviously be the best result.
However if the zombie infection won out, Yan Hanqing would become a zombie. If he was lucky, then he would be like Shao Qing and would still retain his prior intellect and thought. If he was unlucky, then he would become an ordinary zombie, only understanding the concept of hunger and eating flesh.
Shao Qing was ready for the worst case scenario. Even if Yan Hanqing was turned into a zombie, Shao Qing would still take care of him. Using crystals to feed him, it would hopefully help him evolve to a higher rank and eventually restoring his rationality.
At the base she had heard from some investigation teams that superhumans were categorized into nine ranks while zombies were also categorized into nine ranks. The higher ranked the zombie, the more agile and the more smart they’ll be.
Rank 2 or 3 zombies were already able to lead their companions to attack humanity. If they figured out they couldn’t win, they knew to retreat and they also knew how to lay in wait to ambush people. So what if they advanced to rank nine? Wouldn’t they become just like human?
Shao Qing knew that if zombies were really capable of evolving to the highest rank, it would be a catastrophe to humans. Even if they had intellect, the zombies would just use their intelligence to hunt down humans instead of befriending humans. It was like how humans would raise livestock, their goal was to eat them.
If high ranked zombies were able to have a disguise and infiltrate the base, it would just be like Shao Qing. If that isn’t a disaster, what is?
But Shao Qing wasn’t willing to think about these matters so far in the future. Right now she just hoped that Yan Hanqing would have a good development.
Gradually Shao Tong was restored and even Er Dai was able to hang from Shao Qing’s body and act spoiled. Including the Gu siblings that healed the quickest, there was only Yan Hanqing who still wasn’t awale.
Waiting until the third morning, when several people came out to eat, Yan Hanqing had slowly sat up. Several people immediately became vigilant. If Yan Hanqing became a zombie, they all had to restrain Yan Hanqing immediately to prevent him from hurting others.
However, the first word that Yan Hanqing said when he sat up was: “I’m….. not dead?”
Everyone immediately relaxed. After all, zombies can’t speak, but Shao Qing still had to verify he was okay. She looked at Yan Hanqing and noticed that Yan Hanqing’s skin still had an air of death. But looking at him, he was no different from other people. His eyes and hands were not changed at all.
Shao Qing touched Yan Hanqing’s chest and felt the beat of his heart as it pounded against Shao Qing’s hand. The warmth of his flesh told Shao Qing that Yan Hanqing had not turned into a zombie.
The unspeakable excitement echoed in Shao Qing’s heart. She raised her head wanting to say something. Then she saw Yan Hanqing’s entire face up to his ear lobe was bright red. He was frozen, taking him half a day before reacting and hiding his naked body within the blankets.
Shao Qing didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Yan Hanqing’s clothes were full of blood and tattered. He definitely couldn’t wear them. Finally, Gu Chuan provided a set of clothes for Yan Hanqing to wear.
In comparison to Yan Hanqing, Gu Chuan was a bit thinner. His clothes worn on Yan Hanqing was tightly stretched out revealing the outlines of his muscles, making Yan Hanqing at a loss of what to do.
Shao Qing couldn’t help but burst out laughing. After laughing, her heart was also content. Them being all well was the best result.
Comments