Chapter 74 The Truth 2

Cheng Sinian and Luo Zhenzhen both gasped when they heard this.

Qiao Yu's face also looked a little ugly.

Although after the end of the world, the number of deaths will be far higher than this number.

But whenever Qiao Yu thought about the tens of thousands of lives that were lost overnight in the village where they were, he still felt a little bit reluctant.

"Then why are those villagers okay?" Qiao Yu continued to ask, "Did Dr. Yu help them?"

"Well, I guess so." Yu Qingchuan sighed softly and began to tell his story...

"When the apocalypse just began, I was still on the front lines of treatment in H City. It was a chaotic time, and I was worried about my parents. But there was nothing I could do. The hospital had established a research institute, and I couldn't leave."

"The situation became increasingly dire. One day, the hospital director told me that a search and rescue team seemed to have heard news of my father over the radio. They knew he was still alive and wanted to ask him to come back to help. So the hospital requested a military escort, and I took advantage of this opportunity to do everything I could to follow them back from H City."

"The journey was extremely dangerous. There were alien species everywhere, and we even experienced plant mutations. Many people in the team were killed, and I almost died several times. But along the way, we rescued many survivors who were calling for help. Later, we met a search and rescue team that was traveling the same way, and we all went together."

"By the time we finally arrived at the village, more than half a month had already passed. We thought the village might have been occupied by alien species long ago, and I even prepared for the worst. But unexpectedly, after entering the village, we didn't see a single alien species, and there were nearly eighty villagers who survived! Everyone was shocked."

"Later, I heard from the villagers that at the beginning of the apocalypse, my father and several villagers found a way to capture a villager who had turned into an alien species and conducted research. They found out that they could kill the alien species by cutting off its neck, so they led everyone to kill the alien species. They also extracted the alien species' brain matter, added other medicinal herbs, and made a powder to reduce the odor of living people, which greatly increased the survival rate of the villagers." When Yu Qingchuan said this, his face was full of undisguised admiration.

"It was already evening when we arrived at the village. Fog was gathering around us, making it difficult to travel. So the team decided to camp in the village for one night and wait until the fog cleared the next day before setting off again."

"My father is a mutant with enhanced sense of smell. At that time, he had already noticed that the smell of the plant was problematic and might cause hallucinations, but he didn't know it could eat people. He originally didn't want to agree to the team staying, but by then, everyone in the team was exhausted, and many were injured."

"Also, there's a large granary on the back mountain, with a lot of food stored in it. After the apocalypse, food is very valuable, and everyone wants to take it all away, so we need time to load the food. We definitely won't be able to leave at night."

"My father had no choice but to agree. But he told the team not to go near the circular area surrounded by trees in the center of the village at night. Then my father took my mother and me to the back mountain to help the villagers load food."

"There used to be some caves on the back mountain, but after the apocalypse, they were converted into safe houses. Later, when the plants mutated and the villagers whose houses were destroyed lived there. We worked until midnight, and it was dark and foggy, making it difficult to go down the mountain, so we rested in the safe house. By the time we got down the mountain the next day, it was too late..."

Yu Qingchuan lowered his eyes, a look of pity on his face. "Everyone who was resting in the village was killed."

"That plant blooms every two days. The scent it emits during bloom contains hallucinogenic ingredients, tempting people to eat its fruits as if they were flesh. However, after ingesting them, the body will rapidly decay until it dissolves into a pool of blood. Even if someone resists the temptation and doesn't eat the fruits, the gas will still affect their mind. The more they inhale, the more violent they become, and the more likely they are to lose their mind. Ultimately, they will kill each other in the illusion."

"These were all discovered by my father later in his research, but he was unaware of them at the time."

"Father originally thought that since the area was surrounded by mutant plants, there shouldn't be any problems. But for some reason, when we ran to the circular area, all the plants that were originally surrounding it fell down, and the ground was covered with blood."

"Everyone was shocked, but at that moment, we discovered that more than ten large water balls had grown from the plant's flower stem. They were filled with a transparent liquid that looked like water. Red powder was also precipitating from the petals and leaves."

"My father was heartbroken and wanted to take the villagers away immediately. But everyone was no longer willing to face the aliens. They felt that without the army's protection, leaving would mean death, so it was better to stay here."

"They begged my father to study the flower plant and see if there was any way to delay them until the next batch of troops arrived."

"My father didn't agree with them. He thought there wouldn't be any more troops coming. But he really wanted to know the cause of so many deaths, so he risked his life to study the plant."

"Later, my father discovered that the liquid in the water ball was indeed drinkable water. It just had a slightly salty taste. My father didn't find out where the water came from, but he speculated that it must be the plant absorbing human blood and excreting the water that was originally in the body."

"And that red powder, after being purified and refined, can be applied to the philtrum to resist the odor emitted by the plant to a certain extent."

Qiao Yu suddenly realized that this must be the "medicine" the villagers were talking about.

"Then how did you become a mutant?" Qiao Yu frowned. "And you just said... these villagers kidnapped your mother?"

"Yes." Yu Qingchuan sighed again. "While studying that plant, my father also studied some other mutant plants. After making some discoveries, my father felt that these things might be important for the study of the end of the world, so he wanted to leave Dama Village and return to the research institute in H City with me."

"My father told the villagers about this idea and said he would take them with him. But they once again strongly objected. They had been living in comfort here for too long and had completely lost their sense of crisis. They thought they could rest easy as long as they stayed here."

"When my father saw he couldn't persuade them, he decided to take my mother and me and leave secretly."

Yu Qingchuan took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "That night, we packed everything and drove out of the village in a military truck left behind by the army. But not long after leaving the village, we encountered a mutant eagle."

"That eagle was very powerful and overturned our car. My mother injured her foot and couldn't walk anymore. I found a way to lure the eagle away and asked my father to go back to the village to call for help."

"I hid here and there in the woods outside the village, trying to lure it back to the mountains. But the eagle was much faster than me and quickly caught me."

Yu Qingchuan pursed his lips, as if recalling the pain at that time. "It bit me in half at the waist and swallowed me directly. After that, I lost consciousness. I don't know how I mutated, but I only know that when I woke up again, I was on a tree on a mountain."

"My hands turned into wings, my feet into claws, and my mouth grew a long hooked beak. I was terrified. But I soon discovered that I could turn back into a human whenever I wanted."

Yu Qingchuan seemed to feel his mouth was a little dry, and he licked his lips gently before continuing, "When I returned to the village to find my father again, he told me that five days had passed since we fled the village. To prevent my father from escaping again, my mother was placed under house arrest the moment she was rescued."

"And just two days before I returned, another group of survivors arrived in the village, thirty-two people in total. It happened to be blooming that day, and the villagers tricked all of them into the mutated flower plant, where they were devoured..."

"Father said that by the time he realized someone had come in, it was already too late. They had been starving for so long that they ate the fruit as soon as they entered, and there was no way to stop them..."