This snake was extremely bizarre. For some reason, two deer-like horns grew on its head. The scales on its face were silvery-white like fish scales, and its expression was exceptionally human-like.
The group of people and the animal stood in a silent standoff. Liu Xu led her team of superpowered individuals, standing in front of the ordinary people.
A foul stench filled the air, and the hearts of Liu Xu and the others sank to the bottom of the ocean. There were many mutated animals after the apocalypse, and though Liu Xu and her team had seen quite a few, a snake this massive and long was still a rare sight.
Encountering it now likely meant impending doom for them. The ordinary people behind them tacitly retreated, leaving the superpowered individuals enough space to use their abilities and ensuring they wouldn't get in their way.
The snake coiled in the sky, looking down condescendingly at the ants below. Its gaze shifted from the ordinary people in the back to Liu Xu and her team at the very front.
They wore green camouflage uniforms, and despite a day of exhausting travel, their valiant and heroic bearing was still evident. The ordinary people in the back kept a close eye on the battle ahead; a few had even prepared themselves to act as human shields for the superpowered fighters.
Two ordinary people had already slipped away quietly, taking a detour in the opposite direction to run back to the base.
Feng Qingqing did not care about those who ran away; her entire attention was focused on Liu Xu.
Speaking of which, Liu Xu and her team were truly dazzling—so dazzling that Shangguan Xu was full of praise whenever he talked about the women's superpower squad.
The snake parasitizing Feng Qingqing's body felt insanely jealous at the thought.
Not even Feng Qingqing herself knew that when the snake was just born, Shangguan Xu had bought it as a pet. In its ignorant understanding, Shangguan Xu was its master and its entire world. They were inseparable day and night.
But it was not a pet snake after all. As it grew larger and larger, it couldn't even leave the house, because its appearance would cause public panic.
It was locked in a pet cage all day long. Every day when Shangguan Xu came home from school, he would keep it company by the cage.
Later, it grew so massive that Shangguan Xu's family became terrified of it, so it was taken to the mountain forests of Southeast Asia and released into the wild.
Having been raised as a pet since childhood, it couldn't compete with other species in the unforgiving jungle. It was so weak that it didn't even dare to harm creatures many times smaller than itself.
When it was starving to death, people from Qingfeng Biological Company found it and captured it. What awaited it next were all kinds of biological experiments.
It was the most successful animal at the Qingfeng Biological Research Institute, even developing its own sapience. Later, a virus leaked in the lab, and countless test subjects died during that time. When the crisis struck, it broke out of its tank and first killed the people who had caused it so much agony.
Just as it was about to kill Feng Qingqing, it saw Shangguan Xu's name and photo on her phone. In that moment, it was overjoyed. It immediately wanted to become human and go to Shangguan Xu's side.
With that thought, it successfully possessed Feng Qingqing's body and took over her entire consciousness. It finally reached Shangguan Xu's side, and it successfully made Shangguan Xu fall in love with it.
It should have been happy, but a snake is never satisfied. Today, it only wanted Shangguan Xu to become its exclusive possession, to be with it alone, just as it had once been kept by him.
However, because it wore Feng Qingqing's skin, it could never do so. Moreover, as a man, even if it felt that Shangguan Xu deeply loved her, his gaze could never linger solely on her!
Thinking of Shangguan Xu's frequent praises for these women recently, a violent urge rose in its chest. Its tail twitched with its mood, and its massive body advanced toward Liu Xu and the others.
Seeing that it was about to sweep over them, Liu Xu quickly took a paper packet from her breast pocket and threw it into the air.
Seeing this, the team members beside her tacitly raised their guns and shot the oiled paper packet, scattering yellow powder into the sky.
The wind-element superpowered fighter, Huang Fengling, immediately followed up. A gentle gust of wind blew all the realgar powder toward the giant snake.
The ordinary people held their breath at the sight. Everyone in the world knew that snakes were afraid of realgar, a deeply ingrained piece of common sense.
But in reality, realgar powder and realgar wine did not work on every kind of snake. Feng Qingqing was not afraid of realgar powder.
For Feng Qingqing, who had merged with the genes of dozens of other animals and plants, the effect of realgar powder was probably less lethal than the dust blown up by a strong wind.
Facing such a cheap trick from Liu Xu and her team, and seeing the joy on the faces of the ordinary people, Feng Qingqing's huge triangular mouth couldn't help but curl into a smile. It looked incredibly bizarre. Out of sheer delight, its scarlet forked tongue flicked rapidly.
It forcefully swept its tail toward the annoying group of humans, holding its head high, anticipating the scene of flying blood and gore. So what if these humans had superpowers? In the face of absolute power, all superpowers were just paper tigers!
A flash of disdain crossed Feng Qingqing's eyes. Just then, the wind finally carried the realgar powder to its face. Feng Qingqing made no attempt to protect itself, nor did it dodge. Had it not been in the form of a snake unable to speak human words, it would have thoroughly mocked the ignorant humans before it!
But soon, Feng Qingqing paid the price for its arrogance. Ordinary realgar powder in this world indeed had no effect on it, but this realgar powder was specially given to Jiang Ying by Chu Qianmo. An item produced in the cultivation world was simply a dimensional strike against anything else.
Feng Qingqing inhaled a large amount of realgar, which caused immense damage to its stomach and respiratory system. It felt as if its neck and esophagus were being burned by raging fire.
The most painful part was its stomach; it felt like someone had poured a cup of sulfuric acid into its belly. Its entire stomach was rotting and festering at a visible rate.
The agony continued. It rolled on the ground uncontrollably, going mad with pain. The surrounding forest was smashed to pieces by its thrashing tail, sending rocks flying.
Liu Xu looked pleasantly surprised. She made a hand signal, and the members of the superpower squad immediately ran backward.
Feng Qingqing was in no mood to deal with them now. At this moment, the pain had spread from its stomach to the rest of its abdomen, churning with excruciating agony.
It couldn't help but let out a human-like scream. Instinctively, the giant snake slithered toward the mountain forest behind it, thrashing and crashing blindly as trees and rocks flew in all directions.
Just as it left, the reinforcements from the base finally arrived, with the base commander leading the way. He possessed a metal-element superpower and had already upgraded to level five. In the Sunrise Base, and even across the entire country, he was considered a powerhouse.
This was also why the status of superpowered individuals at the Sunrise Base wasn't overwhelmingly high. Those superpowered people who refused to be treated as equals with ordinary people had already left.
When they arrived, they only caught a glimpse of a segment of a snake's tail disappearing into the forest.
Compared to mutant animals, the mutant plants in the forest were much more peaceful. Under normal circumstances, as long as they were not provoked, they would not go berserk.
This was also why Liu Xu and her team dared to walk through the forest. However, this was their first time realizing that these mutant plants—which usually followed the principle of leave me alone and I will leave you alone, but provoke me and I will hunt you to the ends of the earth—also knew how to seek an advantage and avoid danger.
Normally, whether it was a human or a mutant animal, breaking even a single one of their branches would trigger a frenzied retaliation. Yet now, with their branches completely smashed and scattered by the snake, they did not even dare to make a peep.
"Liu Xu, are you all right?" The base commander glanced at the forest but did not order the superpowered individuals he had brought to give chase. When they left the base, they had already seen the giant python rearing up as high as half a mountain.
A snake of this size was incredibly rare. It was best to avoid a fight to the death if possible. If they chased after it and such a massive mutant animal decided to self-destruct, it would likely affect the nearby Sunrise Base.
"Reporting to the Brigade Commander, we are fine." Liu Xu addressed the base commander by his pre-apocalypse military rank.
It had been two years since the apocalypse began, but former soldiers like Liu Xu still habitually called him Brigade Commander.
"That is good. Fall in! Let's move out." This was not a place to stay for long.
"Yes, sir!" The all-female superpowered squad immediately stood at attention and saluted. Then, they moved to the rear, taking the initiative to protect the ordinary civilians.
A portion of the soldiers brought by the base commander cleared the way at the front, some guarded the middle, and the rest followed behind the women's squad.
The entire team marched double-time, returning to the base in less than half an hour. The people inside the base had also seen that giant mutant snake. Whether adults, elders, or children, everyone was gathered in the base plaza—sitting, standing, and waiting.
Jiang Xiaoxin, Jiang Ying, Uncle Xu, and others were among them.
When Jiang Xiaoxin saw that massive snake, her entire body went weak. If Jiang Ying had not arrived in time, she would have collapsed onto the ground.
The two of them supported each other as they stood next to Uncle Xu. When they saw the snake get hit by the realgar powder and thrash about in the air, a massive cheer erupted from the base. Even after the giant snake retreated, the crowd was reluctant to leave.
As the base commander brought Liu Xu and the others back, everyone felt a genuine, heartfelt joy. This was especially true for the families of the ordinary people who had gone out with the women's squad today. The moment they spotted their loved ones, they ran forward and hugged their returning family members in overwhelming excitement.
Only Shangguan Xu scanned the team from the first person to the last. After checking back and forth four or five times without seeing Feng Qingqing, his face instantly turned deathly pale.
Seeing that Liu Xu was about to leave with an excited Feng Xinyue, he hurriedly walked up to her. "Captain Liu, why hasn't Qingqing returned?"
Liu Xu initially had a smile on her face, but upon hearing this, her smile vanished instantly. "Captain Shangguan, shouldn't I be the one asking you that? Feng Qingqing was scheduled to go out with our squad. We waited for her starting at four o'clock today and waited until half-past four. Seeing that the sun was about to rise, we couldn't wait for her any longer and left on our own."
"Captain Shangguan, even though it is the apocalypse, I think you all still need to have some concept of time. I hope this kind of thing doesn't happen again." After saying this, Liu Xu pulled Feng Xinyue along and walked away.
Shangguan Xu stood frozen in place. Listening to the gossip about Feng Qingqing from the people who had gone on today's mission, his face turned a mixture of green and pale white, his heart filled with worry.
If Feng Qingqing had not gone on the mission with the superpowered squad, then where did she go?
The sun had not completely set yet, and its dazzling golden rays spilled over him. In a daze, Shangguan Xu's mind seemed to drift back to the day he came home from school at the age of eighteen, only to find that his pet, Xiao Qing, had been given away.
That mixture of worry, sorrow, bewilderment, and odd relief tangled together in an incredibly complex emotion. His gaze finally focused, landing on Jiang Ying, who was being pulled toward the training room by Feng Xinyue.
His eyes carried a sense of nostalgia that even he himself was unaware of.
