Chapter 72 Why didn't I realize this before...?

Sheng Hui didn't speak, and neither did Liang You. The only sounds in the car were the voices of the other people, all discussing Professor Lin.

They drove in the direction of Big Black Finger for a while, but still couldn't find Professor Lin.

"Could it be that they were taken back to base by another team of superpowered individuals?" Tao Min asked doubtfully.

Liang You's expression was grave. "If that's really the case, at least they would have released the news."

“But what if they are intentionally concealing Professor Lin’s whereabouts?” Hu Lai, who had been mostly silent, asked.

When their base received the news, it was already very late. By the time they set off, other bases had already set out to search for Professor Lin's whereabouts. Unless the bases made a special effort to contact each other, they might not have been able to get this news.

"Then we can only return empty-handed," Liang You sighed.

The other party didn't want them to know about Professor Lin, so naturally they had no way of finding out.

Now I just hope Professor Lin is safe and sound.

Sheng Hui looked at Su Xi and asked, "Don't you have any students in your lab who have awakened supernatural abilities? Or rather, doesn't Professor Lin have awakened supernatural abilities?"

According to Su Xi, Professor Lin took several students with him when he left; they were researchers who had always followed Professor Lin in the laboratory.

"You're Professor Lin's student, you should know something, right?" Tao Min asked, looking at Su Xi.

Su Xi's eyes reddened. "I've only been in the lab for a short time, so I haven't had much contact with anyone. Because I'm not very familiar with them, the senior students usually ignore me."

Everyone was somewhat disappointed, but they could only follow Big Black's instructions and drive there.

As night fell, they parked their car and found a place to rest.

"There seems to be someone ahead," Zhang Jian said, noticing the light coming from the house ahead.

If it's a zombie, there wouldn't be any light; zombies don't need those things.

"Shall we go take a look?"

Liang You pondered for a moment. Unbeknownst to them, the zombies had already begun to evolve, and it was hard to say whether this was a trap set by the zombies.

But it's quite dangerous to be outside late at night. If there are any mutated plants or animals nearby, it would be terrible if they surrounded us at night.

After thinking for a while, Liang You nodded and said, "Let's go take a look."

After all, this is the only intact building here; the others are severely damaged and uninhabitable.

At this point, it's possible that it's just passing by superhumans exchanging greetings, since superhumans aren't enemies.

Sheng Hui and Su Xi walked at the very back. Ever since they brought Su Xi along, Sheng Hui had been by her side the whole time.

Reaching the front of the house, Liang You looked at the team members and said, "You guys stay behind me. If anything goes wrong, run away immediately."

[Inside is Yan Ji's squad.]

Xiang Bei reminded Sheng Hui.

Looking at the floating words, Sheng Hui pursed her lips, but she wasn't too surprised.

As long as they're not dead, it's only a matter of time before we run into them.

Su Xi leaned closer, smiling innocently, "What were you looking at just now?"

Sheng Hui looked over, squinted at the other person, and made sure that she couldn't possibly see those words. A smile appeared on her lips. "Look inside the house, just in case there are zombies."

"I'd rather be a zombie. Humans are the real problem, Sheng Hui, don't you think?"

"Humans can be good or bad, but zombies are a different story. Who knows what kind of shape the zombies can evolve into now? Sometimes you might not even know if the person standing next to you is a human or a zombie."

The two refused to back down during their exchange.

Liang You stood at the door and listened for a while. When she heard what sounded like people talking inside, she breathed a slight sigh of relief, but she still prepared a wind blade in her hand.

She looked up and knocked on the door. "Is anyone home?"

"who?"

“We’re a superpowered team that’s just passing by. Are you a superpowered team too?” Liang You asked.

The door opened a crack, and Liang You took a step back warily.

Sheng Hui also looked over, and what was revealed was a face that she recognized very well.

Unfortunately, the other party was not Yan Ji.

The man saw a group of people standing outside, turned his head and said into the house, "Brother Yan, it's a team of superhumans."

Yan Ji and the rest of his team walked over, their expressions instantly becoming wary.

Sheng Hui, holding Dahei, stood behind Liang You and the others with her head down, and the group conveniently blocked her view.

"You seem to know them?" Su Xi tilted her head and looked at Sheng Hui, saying in a very low voice.

"Of course, I plan to give these old friends I haven't seen in a long time a surprise."

Su Xi responded and lowered her head to cover her eyes and eyebrows.

When Yan Ji and the others saw Liang You's attire, they knew that she was also a superhuman, but they still did not let their guard down.

It would be terrible if the other side launched a sneak attack and stole their things; this has happened before.

Both sides were somewhat wary as they faced each other.

Liang You was worried that the other party would steal their team's belongings. If there hadn't been nowhere else nearby, they wouldn't have come all the way here.

Another point is that their Sheng Hui has a space, but there's nothing on the surface, so they're not afraid of being robbed.

That's why I felt confident and bold enough to come and negotiate.

Sheng Hui took out the sun mask and put it on. She didn't have any feelings for Yan Ji. Anyway, she had already taken the sun mask in her hand when she heard that Yan Ji was inside.

Then, to Su Xi's surprise, it appeared on her face.

She doesn't care what others think anymore; she just doesn't want Yan Ji to recognize her.

I meant it when I said I wanted to give a surprise, but there will definitely be a surprise. Whether there will be a happy surprise or not is up to opinion.

Liang You and Yan Ji talked for a while, only saying that they were out on a mission and hoped to stay there for the night, without saying anything else.

Yan Ji looked them over, and finally his gaze fell on Sheng Hui, who was wearing a sun visor.

His breath hitched; the person really did feel like Sheng Hui.

When Liang You and the others turned around, they also saw Sheng Hui wearing a mask and were startled. It was indeed a bit scary to see her like that so late at night.

Sheng Hui lowered her voice, "It's inconvenient."

Liang You and the others exchanged glances, clearly indicating that they knew each other.

Remembering what Sheng Hui had said about being bullied in her former team, she guessed that Yan Ji was from the team Sheng Hui had been in before, and for a moment she didn't have a good impression of Yan Ji and his group.

However, since we've already met, it wouldn't be appropriate to leave suddenly at this point, and there's no need to make things too awkward. I'll be leaving first thing tomorrow morning.

The main reason was that Sheng Hui clearly didn't want to cause trouble, otherwise she wouldn't have put on a mask, so Liang You didn't say much.

Yan Ji and his group didn't want to agree at first, and Li Lulu was about to refuse when she opened her mouth. There were so many of them, who knew if they would try to steal their supplies.

"Come in." Yan Ji replied, his gaze sweeping over the masked woman.

"Brother Yan." Li Lulu looked at Yan Ji in disbelief.

“We’re all superhumans, so we can look out for each other when we’re out and about,” Yan Ji said.

When Liang You and the others entered the house, they could still smell the aroma of instant noodles.

The two superpowered teams clearly divided their territories; Yan Ji's team arrived first and occupied most of the territory.

The remaining small portion of the territory belonged to Liang You and his group.

Liang You and the others had no objections to this, they just reinforced the doors and windows a little more.

Yan Ji's gaze kept falling on Sheng Hui; he always felt that the person resembled Sheng Hui.

He regretted his impulsive decision to throw Sheng Hui into the zombie horde after she went missing.

Everything was fine before, but then she suddenly disappeared.

Even after Sheng Hui disappeared, his superpowers not only failed to improve as smoothly as before, but instead kept declining, eventually dropping to level four. If he hadn't absorbed many crystal cores, they probably would have continued to decline.

That's how it's only now that my superpower has stabilized at level six.

He was almost a level eight ability user, and now it's not easy for him to improve his abilities.

Yan Ji recalled everything that had happened before, after, and around him. Although he didn't want to think about it in that direction, the biggest change in all of this was Sheng Hui.

He suspected that his superpowers were related to Sheng Hui.

Although Sheng Hui doesn't have any special abilities, her blood can resist the zombie virus, so it's possible she has other abilities as well.

When Yan Ji realized this, he was furious. The people in the team had been mocking Sheng Hui for not being able to live without him. Although he didn't say anything, he did agree with them in his heart.

In the apocalypse, who else but him would be willing to travel around with a burden? He always thought that a good man like himself was hard to find in the entire apocalypse.

It was Sheng Hui's good fortune to meet him.

But when Yan Ji realized that he had improved his superpowers with Sheng Hui's help, he felt as if he had been slapped hard across the face.

He only felt ashamed.

When I came to my senses, I was filled with endless panic.

Ultimately, he still couldn't lose Sheng Hui.

He went to the nearby Base No. 7, but there was no news of Sheng Hui. His superpower had inexplicably developed into this situation, and Yan Ji dared not confront the zombies head-on again. He comforted himself that this was just an accident.

He led everyone to the base, hoping to find Sheng Hui. Since Sheng Hui disappeared, everyone had become hesitant when fighting zombies.

Previously, everyone would drink Sheng Hui's blood to resist the zombie virus, so they weren't afraid of being hurt by zombies at all, and they fought without restraint.

But after suddenly becoming hesitant, the strength in their fights was not as great as before.

Although he couldn't find Sheng Hui, Yan Ji remained convinced that Sheng Hui was still alive. He didn't know why he had this premonition, but he had a strange sense of certainty.

They were out on a mission this time as well.

Aside from exchanging a few words at the beginning, the two teams haven't had any further communication.

After everyone finished eating, they prepared to rest.

Yan Ji couldn't help but keep his gaze fixed on Sheng Hui; he didn't know why he was so focused on that woman.

Seeing that the masked woman hadn't even eaten dinner, Yan Ji felt something was off.

He thought it was Sheng Hui, but the dog she was holding was clearly a mutant dog. Sheng Hui was just a useless person, how could she make a mutant dog so obedient?

Seeing that Sheng Hui hadn't eaten much, Liang You didn't say much, but simply stuffed a piece of bread into Sheng Hui's hand, saying, "Eat when you're hungry."

Sheng Hui nodded and whispered a thank you.

But the night was not as peaceful as they had imagined.

More zombies are coming outside.

Everyone immediately snapped out of their daze and became wary of their surroundings.

There weren't many zombies. Liang You looked at Sheng Hui and said, "You stay with Su Xi and be careful."

"I know, you all need to be careful too."

After watching Liang You leave, Sheng Hui remained silent.

Liang You, who was able to become the captain of the superpowered team and escape death multiple times, how could he not see that Su Xi was extraordinary?

When she said to be careful, she was also implying that she should be careful of Su Xi.

Similarly, Liang You knew that Sheng Hui had noticed something was wrong with Su Xi, which was why Sheng Hui had been staying by Su Xi's side.

Sheng Hui stood beside Da Hei, holding him in her arms, while Su Xi sat there yawning, looking very sleepy but trying to stay awake.

Looking at Su Xi, Sheng Hui also sensed the fluctuations of the underground supernatural power, confirming that those things were heading in her direction. Sheng Hui stood there holding Da Hei without moving.

"Oh no, there are mutated plants down there."

Someone shouted outside, but the next second, the floor beneath Sheng Hui's feet cracked open, and something bulged up from underneath.

As the cracks in the floor grew larger, the mutated root system sprouted out, separating Sheng Hui and Su Xi.

Sheng Hui suddenly realized that she could no longer sense Su Xi's presence.

But through the gaps in the roots, Su Xi was clearly sitting there, and she could vaguely see Su Xi smiling at her.

She saw Su Xi and said, "You really are special."

“You’re no ordinary person either, managing to hide your zombie identity,” Sheng Hui said, looking at Su Xi.

The roots danced in the room, completely blocking the door.

"Sheng Hui, are you alright?" It was Tao Min's voice.

Sheng Hui pulled off her mask. "I'm fine, don't worry. Be careful, I can handle things here."

As Sheng Hui finished speaking, the roots suddenly flew towards her, seemingly trying to strangle her. However, they stopped abruptly just before hitting Sheng Hui, then abruptly changed direction and attacked Su Xi instead.

"I really underestimated you."

As Su Xi spoke, the roots suddenly parted to create a path, allowing Su Xi to walk steadily across.

"You're much more capable than I thought. Just who are you?"

Sheng Hui didn't answer Su Xi's question. She untied the silk ribbon from her wrist and threw it down. "Coincidentally, I have one too. Let's see who's better."

Behind Su Xi, the roots suddenly grew thicker and more aggressive.

She stretched out her foot and stepped on the tendrils that were winding towards the roots. "It's just a mutated dodder, why are you treating it like a treasure?"

As Su Xi crushed her forcefully, Sisi instantly seemed to have her spirit drained, collapsing limply to the ground.

Dahei jumped out of Sheng Hui's arms and pounced on her. Su Xi waved her hand to try to slap Dahei aside, but Dahei bit her wrist instead.

She couldn't shake him off no matter what she did. Her eyes turned red, her skin turned pale blue, and she smelled strongly of rotting flesh. Su Xi cursed at Da Hei, "You damned beast!"

"You're a superhuman?" Sheng Hui immediately grasped the most crucial point.

This Su Xi is actually a superhuman who was bitten by a zombie.

She must be a wood-type ability user, which is why she can both attract zombies and control mutated plants.

"Oh, you found out." Su Xi said, feigning surprise.

"I noticed something was off about you a while ago."

Sheng Hui found it strange that Su Xi said she would look for food when the zombies were not around, but the laboratory was too clean and there was not a single food scrap.

And then there's the most crucial issue: water resources.

Zombies don't need to drink water or eat; thinking about it this way makes a lot of things clear.

For example, Su Xi might have deliberately waited there for the other superhumans to come, but they might have all been killed by Su Xi.

"You're about to die, so don't ask so many questions." Su Xi ignored the big black dog biting her arm, since she didn't feel any pain anyway.

The roots flew towards Sheng Hui again, but just as they were about to reach her, they stopped, withered rapidly, and finally collapsed limply to the ground.

When Su Xi turned around, she realized that the dodder that she had almost trampled to death had somehow become entangled in the root system and absorbed all the power of the mutated root system.

Realizing something was wrong, Su Xi discovered that she had underestimated Sheng Hui.

This person is far more dangerous than she realized.

Seeing the withered roots of the plants, she instinctively wanted to run away. Unable to shake off Dahei, she raised her hand and cut off her own arm, then prepared to jump down.

As a result, he found himself frozen in place, unable to move at all, and even turned around and walked towards Sheng Hui uncontrollably.

"Did you do this?" Su Xi then realized that Sheng Hui had actually been hiding her strength.

Her power was more terrifying than she had imagined.

The dodder absorbed power from the roots and climbed up Su Xi's feet, wrapping itself tightly around her body.

Su Xi felt her power draining away, and even her wood-based superpowers, which she should have been able to unleash, were no longer effective. She was very unwilling to accept this, as such techniques had been very useful before. She enjoyed seeing the surprised expressions on the faces of those superpowered individuals as they learned the truth before they died.

She thought she had the power over these superhumans, but little did she know that this Sheng Hui had already figured her out.

Her skin turned a true zombie's bluish-gray, and the bite marks gradually revealed rotting skin. The smell of rotting flesh on her body grew stronger, filling the entire room with a putrid stench.

Sisi absorbed Su Xi's power, then raised its leaves and dug out her crystal core.

Su Xi's crystal core is milky white, just like the legendary Zombie King's crystal core is also milky white.

But she is not the zombie king; she is merely a powerful mutated zombie capable of controlling a certain number of zombies.

Just as Sheng Hui picked up the crystal core and put it away, she heard the sound of the door being slammed.

The silk threads immediately wrapped back around her wrist.

Big Black also retreated.

The door was suddenly kicked open, and everyone was somewhat surprised by what they saw inside.

"Is Su Xi a zombie?" Yuan Wu, with his sharp eyes, noticed that the zombie lying dead on the ground was wearing Su Xi's clothes.

Just as Liang You was about to enter the house, someone pushed her aside and pounced on Sheng Hui.

Just as Yan Ji was about to hug Sheng Hui, Da Hei rushed out, knocked him aside, and pounced on him. If Yan Ji hadn't dodged quickly, Da Hei would have torn off one of his arms.

Big Black knew that its owner disliked this person, and it disliked him too.

Sisi's leaves also became extremely sharp, giving off a sense of lurking. If Yan Ji dared to come over, Sisi could use her leaves to cut him.

Yan Ji's expression was rather unpleasant; he hadn't expected that a dog could knock him aside and almost injure him.

But this isn't just about a dog. Yan Ji looked at Sheng Hui with disbelief in his eyes.

"Huihui, it really is you. Do you know how hard I searched for you? How could you be so heartless as to leave me all alone?"

To be honest, Sheng Hui was indeed a little reluctant to part with Yan Ji when he first left, but now, seeing Yan Ji's self-righteous and affectionate appearance, Sheng Hui felt disgusted no matter how she looked at him.

Why didn't I think this person was fake before?

Perhaps I was blind in the past and failed to see this person's true colors.

"One person? Aren't your teammates human? Don't try to act all pitiful, Yan Ji. Have you forgotten what you did to me back then?"

“Huihui,” Yan Ji looked at Sheng Hui disapprovingly, “How could you say that to me? If you hadn’t been so jealous, I would never have done that. Everyone was worried about you because you disappeared. Do you know how much trouble you’ve caused us? But it’s okay, we’ve already forgiven you. Only we can truly protect you. Come on, come back with me.”

Yan Ji confidently reached out his hand to Sheng Hui.