When Chu Liuyue finally caught up with the giant plant, she discovered that another person was entangled in its vines.
Looking closely, she realized who it was.
It was none other than Commander Gu!
It turned out that after taking the lead to escape earlier, he had been hiding in the shadows, observing the situation.
He wanted to confirm whether Chu Liuyue and her companions were truly eaten.
Unexpectedly, their strength was formidable. This was especially true for this girl, who could still use her fire ability even after supposedly losing her powers—or at least, what he assumed was a fire ability.
He even watched with his own eyes as the giant plant fled.
Realizing the situation was dire, he knew he had to leave through the secret passage and return to the surface as quickly as possible.
He needed the guards to protect him.
Unfortunately, man proposes, but God disposes.
The escape route he had arranged happened to be directly in the giant plant's path of retreat. Although the giant plant had no eyes, its vines and various organs could naturally sense living creatures.
In one swift motion, it swept Commander Gu up.
It was injured now and desperately needed to eat something to replenish its strength.
"Save me! Save me!" Wrapped tightly in the vines, Commander Gu felt true fear for the first time.
He called out to Chu Liuyue,
"As long as you save me, I can give you whatever you want."
"It's the apocalypse now, and order needs to be rebuilt. If you want, I can make you the supreme queen of this world."
Chu Liuyue scoffed.
"Commander Gu, aren't you taking yourself a bit too seriously?"
"Do you really think I can't achieve that without you?"
Before, she had merely been hiding her strength. The gap between a true immortal cultivator who practiced spiritual energy and these newly awakened ability users was like the difference between a small creek and the vast ocean.
Commander Gu hurriedly spoke again,
"I've hoarded a lot of food and building resources in the survivor base. I can give all of that to you."
"I can even give you the position of the base's supreme commander."
"Please, save me!"
Chu Liuyue looked at him with an expression of sheer indifference.
She asked in return,
"What about those people you treated as food?"
"Did they beg you too?"
"Did you agree to spare them?"
Commander Gu was too confident, too arrogant.
He knew that even ability users would lose their powers in front of this giant plant, so he wasn't at all worried about how much combat power the other party would have left after taking off the black bracelet.
He also relied on the fact that he had fed the giant plant countless times.
He thought the giant plant wouldn't attack him.
But the giant plant was not a simple plant, much less a human. It only followed the most primal biological instinct: to feed.
It suddenly snapped its "mouth" shut.
With a loud crunch, it bit off half of Commander Gu's leg, and blood splattered everywhere.
Commander Gu howled in agony, struggling desperately.
But the vines were wrapped dead tight, tightening further the more he struggled, firmly pinning him in front of the giant plant.
As the giant plant chewed the human flesh, the mouths on those human faces also opened and closed along with it, as if gleefully enjoying this bloody feast. They made bizarre crunching sounds that made one's scalp tingle with dread.
Chu Liuyue watched this scene quietly.
After the giant plant completely devoured Commander Gu, a new human face appeared right in the middle of its massive head.
Shockingly, it was the face of the recently eaten Commander Gu.
"How many people did he kill?"
"All these faces on its head are the people he murdered."
"Gu Man's uncle was even more cruel and inhuman than Gu Man!"
As her words fell,
The giant plant, now full, tried to continue its escape.
A surging pillar of ghostly blue fire swept toward it once again.
This time, it was aimed directly at its head.
Agonized howls rang out. It was hard to tell if it was the giant plant screaming or the human faces it had devoured.
Amidst the flames,
The giant plant unexpectedly began to bloom a dark green flower.
Then it quickly withered.
Immediately after, countless seeds fell to the ground.
Before long, the giant plant's massive body was completely engulfed by the flames. Within the ghostly blue fire, it gradually turned into a pile of charred remains, emitting a pungent burnt smell.
Li Xichen raised his hand and suddenly felt his ability had returned.
He was just happily about to tell Chu Liuyue.
Turning his head slightly,
He found that she had grown pale and collapsed, completely drained of energy.
...
When she woke up again,
It was already five days later.
The medical staff in front of Chu Liuyue took her temperature and checked her vitals, finding everything completely normal.
Only then did they say to the men waiting outside,
"You can go in and see her now."
Chu Liuyue watched as the three men walked in one after another.
They had already changed into the uniforms of the security guards.
Just as she felt confused,
Zhou Yu'an explained,
"This is the Kyoto Survivor Base."
"It is also your base."
Chu Liuyue was slightly taken aback.
"Mine?"
Yan Qingdu slowly recounted what had happened after she fainted that day.
After the giant plant was completely burned to death, or rather, just before it died, it completed a round of reproduction, planting countless seeds.
The research lab above ground collapsed.
Over a dozen mutants escaped from their glass enclosures. Everyone died, including Secretary Liu and the guards stationed outside.
When they came up to the surface,
They saw the zombie black cat, Mimi, locked in combat with a mutant.
The rest of the mutants must have fled to other areas. Working together, the few of them managed to kill that mutant.
A search squad from the Kyoto Survivor Base discovered the commotion at the research institute. They detained the severely injured Chu Liuyue, along with Zhou Yu'an and the others who pretended to be injured.
"They thought I killed Commander Gu, so they wanted to put me on trial?" Chu Liuyue found it amusing after hearing the story.
Yan Qingdu nodded. This happened on their third day of confinement.
The survivor base was never a united front to begin with. Everyone had their own hidden agendas, merely maintaining a temporary peace under Commander Gu's oppressive rule.
After Commander Gu died, they began fighting for power and profit.
No one expected that on the day of the trial, they would tie Chu Liuyue to a pillar and try to burn her to death.
"Do you remember those seeds the giant plant spat out before it died?"
"I warned them to go to the research institute and deal with those things as soon as possible, but they were too busy fighting for power. No one cared at all."
"So those seeds began to take root and sprout underground, causing the entire city of Kyoto to shake."
"What does that have to do with me?" Chu Liuyue was puzzled. She should have still been in a coma at that time.
Those newborn plants attacked the survivor base.
Right on the day of the trial.
Many people died in the survivor base, but notably, not a single plant dared to approach Chu Liuyue.
Perhaps the fear she instilled in the giant plant before its death was so intense that these newborn plants retained a deep-seated fear of her in their genes.
"They think you are the savior!"
"You are the only hope in this apocalypse who can lead ordinary people to survive. So they killed off all the management and unanimously decided to crown you as the leader of the survivor base."
"You are the queen of this apocalypse!"
