Chapter 40

"This is utterly absurd!"

When Liu Xin witnessed Lu Chenzhou's miraculous recovery, his heart felt as if it were being gripped by a giant hand, and fear welled up in the eyes of this old man who had experienced so many trials and tribulations.

This short video has made nearly a thousand years of medical research a joke.

It's like a mortal accidentally witnessing a divine miracle, making them feel even more insignificant than dust.

Is it really possible to survive against such a monster?

Is it really possible to survive in such a world?

Liu Xinqiang braced himself, for when fear shatters courage, humanity is truly utterly defeated!

What are his demands?

"That person said that if the seeds of this tree enter the human body, they can curb the spread of human pollution, and ordinary people can awaken their talents and possess superhuman strength."

"What price will we have to pay?"

"This seed depends on the mother tree to survive, and he asked us to regularly sacrifice people in the 'island nation.' If what he said is true, then we can cultivate a large number of awakened individuals, and even greatly increase the chances of awakening super-level superpowers."

Lu Chenzhou said that when the other party proposed coexisting with pollution, he hesitated for a moment. Pollution is too terrible. Humans in this era face pollution like people in the old days faced a plague. They are facing an invisible enemy, which cannot be solved by killing a few pollutants.

He guessed at Liu Xin's reaction. The other party had raised a train track problem: should they sacrifice fewer acquaintances to save more people or find other solutions?

"That's ridiculous!" Liu Xin rejected the suggestion without any hesitation.

He fears repeating the same mistake, and that using pollutants will eventually backfire on him.

For many years, the Bureau of Supernatural Abilities has adhered to one bottom line—human beings must never coexist with pollution.

Once this bottom line is crossed, humanity ceases to be humanity.

"At all costs—annihilate the church."

Instead of a reply, the Pope received bullets from the operations department.

The bullets were made of a special metal called Minggang, and were further enhanced by an awakened individual, making them extremely lethal.

The church members either died or fled within three hours, not because they were weaker than the authorities, but because—

We're all just working people, why should we risk our lives for our bosses?

The most troublesome thing is not these small fish, but the Class S pollutants that run through the ground.

Xiao Shengyun and his team were among the first to rush into the eighteenth underground level—the location of the mother tree's root system.

"First wave, light artillery barrage!"

A barrage of shells hurtled toward the root system, but the massive roots only twitched slightly and remained almost unharmed.

Then, an awakened individual with the talent "Flame" unleashed a large amount of flames, instantly raising the temperature in the room.

The flames did not harm the mother tree; instead, they caused its branches to grow rapidly, piercing through the bodies of the awakened ones, and then the vines rose up, hanging them in the air.

Having absorbed the energy, the enormous tree grew taller again, penetrating the concrete.

Crack—

The towering building, dozens of stories high, split in two, sending dust and debris falling and raising clouds of dust several meters into the air.

despair.

The rest of the people on the ground watched helplessly as the enormous creature rose from the ground and soared into the sky.

A massive amount of black primordial energy surged from Xiao Shengyun's hand, unable to maintain its human form; his lower body had been completely mutated.

Finding the source core might offer a sliver of hope, he thought, shaking his body toward the deepest part of the root system.

The black waves enveloped him like an ocean.

The cult leader stood atop the trees, his greedy and arrogant gaze stretching into the distance.

"Ye Zi, you can have a buffet now."

"What is a buffet?" a childlike voice asked.

"It means you can have a big meal."

The cult leader touched the rough branches beneath him, where countless vines swirled around him, forming an unbreakable barrier.

Zhang Tianhe, the former name of the cult leader.

Years ago, he studied botany in university. Later, pollution struck, and he unexpectedly awakened his botany talent, naturally leading him to a research institute. At that time, people were still struggling to understand what pollutants were composed of, since all life on Earth is made up of cells.

Through instruments, humans observed black, droplet-shaped objects flowing within pollutants. These substances are extremely active and polluting; they are the source of the pollutants' power.

Later, just like their ancestors thousands of years ago, the research institute began to classify these pollutants and compile maps.

They tested tens of thousands of new substances on pollutants and finally extracted a substance that could inhibit pollution from a different species called "Iris Flower" to create the first generation of antagonists.

The leaf was found by Zhang Tianhe during a field survey. It was just a small piece when he found it. He kept the leaf in the laboratory day and night.

The more humanity knows, the more desperate it becomes.

He happens to be among those who stand at the forefront of human understanding.

Everyone in the Bureau of Supernatural Abilities and the Operations Department felt that humanity still had hope, except for the researchers who were sweating profusely as they held the data, clearly aware of just how terrifying the existence they were facing was.

Realizing that the leaves possessed a powerful vitality, Zhang Tianhe grasped at a glimmer of hope, like a drowning man.

Why do we need to remove pollution? Humans can coexist with the bacteria in their bodies, so why can't they coexist with the source material?

At that time, the leaves were very small, and could only produce one seed per month.

He planted the first seed on one of his colleagues, surnamed Zheng.

On July 11, the planting was successful. Zheng drank the beverage containing the seeds and showed no obvious symptoms.

On August 11th, after observation, Zheng's water intake increased to 5-8 liters per day. He also enjoys sunshine and requested a dormitory exchange.

[On August 25th, unusual changes appeared on my skin]

[Successfully awakened talent on August 30th]

[On October 5th, the leaves can control the pollution within its body, keeping it in a stable state.]

This discovery thrilled Zhang Tianhe; it seemed not to be a curse, but rather an evolution of humanity.

Through seeds, humans can awaken their talents without suffering a backlash.

But it was too slow. Yezi was just a tiny seedling at the time, and it could only produce one seed a month.

While watering the leaves, Zhang Tianhe's hand was accidentally scratched by a leaf, and blood dripped into the soil. It was the first time he had felt a sense of pleasure from a leaf.

"You like my blood?"

"Uh-huh."

With the nourishment of blood, the leaves began to grow rapidly, quickly transforming from a bud into a sapling.

Zhang Tianhe planted it on a piece of land not far from the laboratory.

The lab often had used up fragments of contaminated tissue, which he would secretly take out and bury under the leaves.

However, pollutants are very precious as original experimental materials, and tissue fragments also have strict recycling procedures. These secretly extracted fragments are far from enough.

At that time, a large number of pollutant remains were also sent to the laboratory. Compared with the pollutants, the number of these remains was extremely large. Zhang Tianhe fed the extra remains after the experiment to Ye Zi.

After trying all sorts of materials, he finally discovered that contaminated living people seemed to be the best raw material.

This conclusion was not drawn from experiments, but from speculation.

The leaves needed fresh blood and some kind of polluting substance—at that time, humans had not yet named "source substance," and this discovery terrified Zhang Tianhe.

At that time, he had already tried to infect humans with seeds. A few people awakened their talents, while the rest were able to coexist normally with the pollution.

He seemed to see a glimmer of hope for humanity.

However, Ye Zi's abilities at the time were far from sufficient to control so many people and maintain a balance of pollution within their bodies.

Should we feed them with live people?

Zhang Tianhe had asked himself countless times if there was a wild beast inside him that, once unleashed, would never turn back.

In the third year of the "Great Cataclysm," Zhang Tianhe's colleagues had been replaced four or five times. Due to prolonged exposure to pollutants, these people were quickly infected.

He himself was already a veteran of the laboratory and had been promoted to director of that small research institute.

The person who opened the cage was one of Zhang Tianhe's colleagues.

It was the third year of the "Great Cataclysm." Humanity had no idea when this hopeless catastrophe would end. Everyone was like a prisoner sentenced to life imprisonment, staring at the sky in despair.

The man's surname seemed to be Li.

It was a major experimental accident. A batch of instruments malfunctioned during a mission, and many people were unexpectedly infected.

"When will we be able to see the sun?" Li looked out at the sky the day before he was taken away by the Tribunal.

The sun was high in the sky.

Zhang Tianhe led Li to the area where Ye Zi was. The man's chest was pierced, and pollutants, soaked in blood, began to slowly grow taller.

Ironically, a month after Li's death, the pollutants began to recede on a large scale.

Like a wave, it comes and goes quickly, leaving behind astonished humans on the shore.

I do this so that humanity can survive!

Zhang Tianhe repeatedly comforted himself.

Once you've done something the first time, there's no going back.

He began secretly searching for large numbers of infected people to feed the mother tree, watching it grow taller and taller.

Because of his important position at the research institute, he could easily obtain large quantities of antagonists. He would first pollute the wealthy, and then sell the antagonists to them at high prices, thus accumulating a large fortune and establishing the Shengtian Group.

Many ordinary people gained talent through seeds, and Zhang Tianhe gathered them together and established a church.

Despite all that he has done, he has never forgotten his original intention—to lead all of humanity toward evolution.

What is that...?

The roots continuously absorb fresh blood, and along the veins upwards, green seeds are scattered in the air.

All the pollution monitors flashed red lights frantically at that moment.

"He wants to pollute all the people in the city!"

"Use the long-range laser cannon!"

"Prepare ammunition!"

Countless shells flew into the sky but were stopped by vines.

The awakened ones erected a barrier outside the company. To ordinary people, today was no different from any other day. Seeds fell silently from the sky and landed on ordinary people one by one, without them noticing.

"Found it."

Xiao Shengyun sensed immense power deep within the root system; that was the location of the source core.

It was a green crystal with a shimmering surface.

Like the most expensive gemstone.

A tremendous amount of energy erupted, and Xiao Shengyun made a grasping motion with his right hand, producing a blade formed from the purest power.

The moment the swords collided with the source core, a tremendous tremor was generated, and invisible ripples appeared in the space, quickly spreading throughout the area.