The deep purple vines twisted in the sandstorm, and the old woman lay in the shadow of the dune, her ankle where thorns had pierced her ankle, now congealed into a dark red scab.

When Xi Zhongcang smelled the blood, the setting sun was tinged with orange-red blood. Xi Yunchen, who was standing next to him, was so frightened that he covered his head and trembled. He could hear Luo Qian sobbing in his ears.

He charged into the thicket of thorns, gripping a not-so-sharp steel knife. The thorny branches suddenly twitched, like living things whose blood vessels had been cut, spurting out thick, purple sap from the broken ends.

"Mom!" Sparks flew as the steel knife struck the thorny trunk. Xi's father saw his mother's gray hair hanging down in the cage woven from thorns.

The sharp spikes embedded in her carotid artery were throbbing rhythmically, and she was like an empty blood bag, with only the coral beads on her wrist casting tiny red shadows on the sand.

In the end, Xi's father was unable to save the old lady, and the blood-sucking vines devoured her completely.

"Quick...go..." came a faint murmur from inside the cage. These were the last words the old woman spoke before she died.

As the steel knife slashed at the thorns around his mother's neck, Xi Zhongcang tasted the metallic rust in his throat. The vines that had pierced his arteries suddenly burst open, spraying out a mist of blood mixed with tiny purple spores.

The old woman's limp body resembled a puppet with its strings pulled out, and traces of dried blood still clung to the wrinkles on her forehead.

A sharp pain shot through his left foot, but Xi Zhongcang held his mother's still-warm body and couldn't care less about anything else.

Thorns pierced through his clothes and embedded themselves in his calves. He could clearly feel the barbed stems spinning inside his muscles, writhing merrily like maggots burrowing into an apple.

Pain, pain that penetrates to the bone marrow.

The neurotoxins from the thorns flowed through my blood vessels like molten lead, gradually consuming the sensation in my left lower limb. As if smelling blood, the surrounding thorns suddenly twisted and spread to this spot.

The sound of the steel knife slicing into the knee was much duller than Xi's father had imagined. The first cut only severed the tendon, and dark red blood spurted onto the sand, where it was immediately sucked up by the greedy roots of the thorns.

To save his life, he had no choice but to sever his own left lower leg...

This is the whole process of Xi Xi's grandmother's death, and the root cause of the fact that Xi's father's left leg was empty.

As for the severe injury to his right leg, it was sustained while hiding from giant rats in the tunnel. Since then, Mr. Xi, who used to rely on crutches, has completely lost the ability to walk.

Without a wheelchair, he could only use his meager survival points to exchange for a dilapidated shopping cart on the public screen, making do with what he had to get by.

Tears streamed down Chu Zhiqin's face as she turned away, deliberately trying to hide her disheveled state.

Xi Xi and her grandmother rarely saw each other, but they were not without feelings for each other. She was naturally very heavy-hearted, but more than that, she was secretly speculating about the whole matter.

Firstly, in such a harsh environment, why did Grandma get off the bus, and why did she accidentally wander into the thicket of thorns after getting off?

Secondly, it is highly suspicious that the three members of the younger brother's family failed to take good care of their grandmother, and that they were the biggest beneficiaries after the incident.

“I’ve thought about all of what you’ve said.” Xi Zhongcang frowned. “Their answer to me was that your grandmother needed to urinate, so only your aunt accompanied her. Suddenly, a sandstorm came and she lost her footing and rolled to the side of the thorns. As soon as she stood up, the vines dragged her into the thicket of thorns.”

The reasons are sound, the logic is complete, and it seems quite possible.

But Xi Xi rubbed her fingers together and shook her head: "That's not right."

"Even if you were to urinate, you would logically choose a safe location and wouldn't go to a place very close to thorn bushes."

"Furthermore, to 'roll' in the desert, you have to be on a high place like a sand dune," Xi Xi said with certainty, recalling her experience of carrying a skateboard around and sliding on the sand every day during her desert survival journey.

Chu Zhiqin came to her senses at this moment: "Yes, most people would find a shady, low-lying place to relieve themselves, why would they go to a sand dune where the sun is shining directly?"

“And I’ve seen this deep purple vampire thorn you described before.” Xi Xi clearly remembered that she had once struggled to drag a camel that had been completely drained of its life force from the vampire thorn in that desolate desert.

Even the details of cleaning the camel meat and making cat food for Aura are still vivid in my mind.

“That purple bloodsucking thorn does indeed wriggle when it smells blood, but it doesn’t have the ability to drag people or extend its branches like the Mirror Willow,” Xi Xi said with great certainty.

Therefore, it can be concluded that the uncle's family is 100% lying. As for why they would use "Jing" to commit murder, that's self-evident.

Xi's parents fell silent, feeling a chill in the world. Chu Zhiqin looked at Xi Zhongcang's empty left calf and choked up again.

"No matter what... Dad, you should focus on getting better first, don't worry about the rest! Take it one step at a time." Xi Xi stood up, took a brand new set of toiletries from the cabinet, and handed it to her mother.

Chu Zhiqin nodded and pushed Xi's father into the washroom.

"Sorry, my stupid relatives are being disgusting again. I'm sorry to have wasted your time." Xi Xi breathed a sigh of relief and sent private messages to Cheng Xu and Liu Yunyan. Then she found some various bean products that her mother had made by hand and sent them over as gifts to express her gratitude.

Liu Yunyan seemed to be driving and didn't reply to the message immediately, but Cheng Xu replied to Xi Xi with a smiley face in a second and then connected via video link.

On the other end of the line, Cheng's mother urged Cheng's father to stop the car and then switch drivers. Cheng Xu walked a little further away and began to explain why he had urged everyone to leave earlier.

"The Yamato Guard?" Xi Xi frowned and repeated the term she had never heard of before.

According to Cheng Xu, this server merger brought in an extraordinary island nation's civilian organization—the Yamato Guard.

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!