Chapter Twenty-One: No Way Back

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Chapter Twenty-One

"I—I didn't take—didn't take anything, just—just a gem, those snakes weren't brought by me!" the man who had been thrown out stammered. Trembling, he pulled from his chest an egg-sized, white, oval stone.

Yang Hao took the stone and examined it, finding nothing remarkable. He asked again, "Is this all? You didn't take anything else?"

"No, nothing else! I just found this one in the middle of the snake eggs, thought it looked nice so I took it!" The short man waved his hands repeatedly.

"Is there anyone else who took something they shouldn't have? Hurry up, while those snakes are still wary; if you hand it over now, we might figure something out. If we push those snakes too far, we'll all end up as snake food!" Yang Hao addressed the crowd once more.

This time, no one else admitted to anything.

Could it really be this thing?

Yang Hao looked at the stone in his hand, pondering silently.

"Everyone, take a look—are you sure this is just a stone?" Yang Hao handed the stone to Ye Jingxuan, who was closest to him, hoping someone else might discover something about it.

Ye Jingxuan took the stone and examined it carefully, then suddenly said, "It's alive!"

"Alive? What do you mean, alive? This stone is alive?" Yang Hao was confused and asked.

Ye Jingxuan didn't respond, instead passing the stone to Mo Chen.

Mo Chen took the stone curiously, found nothing unusual, then tried scanning the stone's interior with his spiritual power. However, a layer of energy blocked him, still revealing nothing.

Shaking his head, Mo Chen placed the stone in Mei's left hand. "You try."

The moment Mei took the stone, she felt a pulse of life from within. Surprised, she glanced at Ye Jingxuan—his spiritual power was even stronger than Mo Chen's!

"It's alive!" Mei handed the item back to Yang Hao. "This isn't a gem at all; it's an egg!"

"An egg? A snake egg?" Nearly everyone looked at the thing in surprise.

Though its shape and size matched people's idea of an egg, because they'd seen many eggs much larger before, no one had recognized its true identity!

But since it's a snake egg, the snakes' behavior now made sense.

After all, so many eggs were gone and only this one remained. Although it seemed somewhat underdeveloped, it was better than none, wasn't it? Naturally, the snakes would do everything to retrieve it!

"So what should we do now? Return the egg?" someone asked hesitantly.

"If we return it, won't the snakes lose their restraint? They'd seize the chance to kill us all for revenge!" someone immediately objected.

"But if we keep it, the snakes will keep chasing us!"

"I say, let's lure the snakes back home. With a crowd and guns, if we can't blow them up, we'll wear them down!"

"But if bombs don't work and the snakes get into the city, won't everyone there be doomed?"

"Dead is dead. In times like these, everyone's living with their head tied to their belt, never knowing when it'll end. Dying in a zombie's mouth or a snake's—what's the difference? At least it's quicker!"

"Exactly!"

...

The crowd argued endlessly. After facing death and being oppressed, their nerves snapped, and they were ready to drag others down with them even in their last moments.

"Did I ever tell you—you can't go back?" At that moment, Mei suddenly spoke to those around her.

"Can't go back? What happened?" Yang Hao asked in alarm.

"When you received the mission, didn't you send anyone to scout ahead?" Mei replied with a question, one she'd wanted to ask for a while.

Normally, Devil Vine would be discovered if someone stayed overnight near the valley's entrance. Yet Yang Hao and his group seemed unaware, which was odd.

"Scout? Of course! Both we and the Huang family sent people to investigate near the valley entrance, but they found nothing. Did something go wrong? Or did the Huang family tamper with the entrance?" Yang Hao's mind raced.

"The Huang family didn't tamper with anything—they didn't need to! On the night you entered the valley, the stones on both sides of the entrance sprouted dense, dark green vines overnight. If anyone approached within five meters, the plants attacked. I saw two speed-type mutants get wrapped up, and within minutes, not even bone fragments remained." Mei, now too lazy to pretend innocence, leaned lazily against Mo Chen as she spoke.

Such terrifying plants—why hadn't the scouts noticed?

Yang Hao was horrified.

"Do those things have any weak points? How did you get in?" Yang Hao forced himself to stay calm.

If the plants really attacked within five meters, as Mei said, she shouldn't have been able to enter—the entrance wasn't even ten meters wide.

"I could get in, but that doesn't mean you can get out! Those plants only react to the vital aura of living beings. I can use my abilities to isolate all my aura; can you? As for weaknesses, Huang Shiqi tried every attack he could think of and didn't even knock off a single leaf."

"But why didn't we notice anything when we came in?" someone couldn't help but ask.

"Supposedly, as long as they can't sense the aura of living beings, the plants slowly retreat. Huang Shiqi has decided to guard the entrance for ten days, vowing not to abandon a single comrade. If you don't believe me, go see for yourself. Then you'll know if I'm lying."

"So that's why that Huang guy is so active this time—he's playing this game. At least half the soldiers were sent here to die, and the rest who don't know the truth will feel grateful to him. Without losing a single soldier, he can seize control of the base—old Huang really is cunning!" Yang Hao couldn't help but curse.

He'd never seen the scouts sent out—the report came from Captain Li, who was probably already in league with the Huang family!

If Huang Shiqi really guarded the entrance for ten days, even if they escaped the snakes, they'd still be too late!

"Ah Chen, I'm hungry. Can you grill some snake meat for me?" No matter how worried, frustrated, or uneasy the others felt, Mei believed she'd done all she could. She had no interest in other matters now.

She desperately needed to replenish her strength—after two days of eating rations, she'd had enough! With fresh ingredients around, she refused to keep chewing dry food.

She wanted meat.

Lots and lots of meat.

"Is this meat edible?" Mo Chen was surprised—weren't the pythons infected with death energy?

"Why not? Not all humans turned into zombies!"

If humans could mutate, so could animals.

"That's true!" Mo Chen agreed, nodding. He drew his Tang Dao, infused it with some recently recovered ability, and swung at the giant python.

A metallic clang rang out—he only managed to strike a few scales.

Mo Chen looked helplessly at Mei—he couldn't manage the snake; if she wanted meat, she'd have to do it herself.

Mei rolled her eyes at him. His strength was at least equivalent to a second-tier mage, yet his control over ability through spiritual power was so crude!

"Watch carefully—control your ability, condense it into a solid form!" Mei summoned what little energy she had, gathering light elements into a small white blade. With a few swift cuts, the blade sliced easily through the snake's skin, exposing the flesh inside.

"Grill it!" Mei sat back down, waiting for Mo Chen to cook her meat.

Mo Chen glanced at her, resigned, took out a clean carving knife, cut off a few chunks of meat, skewered them on sticks from nearby, and placed them over the fire.

Ye Jingxuan saw this and walked over to the giant python. Using his ability, he formed a golden dagger in his hand and tried to cut through the snake's skin.

Mei watched his movements. Judging by the dagger's shape, his control over ability was stronger than Mo Chen's. The dagger was clearly formed, though the energy was still too dispersed and its gleam was dazzling.

He sliced at the snake's skin, breaking a layer, but still couldn't reach the meat.

Ye Jingxuan tried again, making the dagger smaller and more solid. He cut again, but the results were still unsatisfactory.

He kept refining his approach, trying repeatedly, until Mo Chen finished grilling the meat. Mei finally withdrew her gaze. Mo Chen sliced the meat into thin pieces and placed them in a dish for Mei to eat with a fork.

"The meat's a bit salty!" Mei tasted a piece and couldn't help but pout.

"Just deal with it!" Mo Chen glared at her—this was his first attempt. If she hadn't made something completely inedible, he wouldn't even bother!

"But it really doesn't taste good—the meat's burnt, all the juices are gone, it's just salty and nothing else." Mei looked at him innocently.

She truly wasn't being picky!

"So what now?" Mo Chen put down the grill and looked at her.

Mei didn't answer, just stared at him pitifully.

"Pfft, who knew the little girl's taste was so fussy? Let me grill it for you!" Yang Hao finally laughed, seeing the pair's expressions. The gloom that had weighed on his heart was eased by that laugh.

"Brother Yang, you can grill meat?" Mei immediately turned her gaze to Yang Hao, her big eyes full of anticipation for food.

"Your Brother Yang can't cook much, but grilling meat is his specialty. Wait and see!" Yang Hao rolled up his sleeves, taking Mo Chen's place.

Mo Chen was glad to hand over the task, took out the seasonings Yang Hao needed, and went to the giant snake to keep experimenting with solidifying his ability.

Driven by both their longing for food and their desire to improve their powers, the other ability-users also approached the python, trying to use their abilities to break its skin.

The non-ability-users were tempted by the aroma of the grilled snake meat. The piece of skin Mei had peeled off was quite large; someone tried taking meat from the exposed snake flesh, and seeing that Mei only glanced at them without comment, more people went up to cut meat.

The little man who had stolen the snake egg was craving, but by the time he got close, all the meat from the exposed area had been cut away.

He looked around, saw that the other ability-users hadn't managed to break through the skin, and shifted his gaze to Mei.

"Mei, could I borrow your little skinning knife?" Afu asked, rubbing his hands together and grinning.

Mei was caught off guard and choked on her own saliva.

"What did you call me?" Mei widened her eyes at him, full of curiosity.

Both before and now, her appearance had always leaned toward the cute, so everyone called her "little sister," and she was used to it. Now someone was calling her "big sister," and he was older than her—this was a fresh experience.

"Mei—big sister Mei?" Afu, flustered by her reaction, tried again.

"For calling me 'big sister,' I'll lend you the knife!" Mei flashed a bright smile, patted his shoulder, gathered light elements into another small blade, and tossed it to him.