Wang Xuezhi was feeling very anxious. He was just an ordinary person without any special abilities, but having experienced the apocalypse, he calmed down in just over a minute.
He and his colleagues hurriedly left the experimental field. After closing the door of the experimental field greenhouse, he said to the people around him, "This 'grass' appeared suddenly. It might be a mutated plant deep underground. Li Yangrui, go and notify the patrol team. Wang Xin, go find a fire extinguisher and some combustible ice. There are still rice seeds inside. We can't use fire; we can only freeze the plants to death. A-Guang, go to the warehouse. I remember there was a chainsaw there before, and the batteries still have some power. Find something else that can be used for attack. I'll stay here and watch over it."
A-Guang and Wang Xuezhi used to be colleagues. This older brother had always been kind to him because he was young, and now that he was staying behind, it seemed he was prepared to make a sacrifice. A-Guang didn't want to leave him to face it alone, and immediately offered to stay instead.
Wang Xuezhi could tell what the boy was about to say just by looking at him. He patted A-Guang on the shoulder and said solemnly, "A-Guang, I'll stay. If anything happens to me, remember to look after your sister-in-law and child occasionally, just occasionally."
Ah Guang's eyes were red. Li Yangrui and Wang Xin knew that now was not the time to waste. Although some mutated plants didn't attack people, others could kill them. However, neither of them were superhumans and couldn't distinguish the plant's abilities or level. They could only save everyone by waiting for the guard team or finding superhumans on the patrol team. So they looked deeply at Wang Xuezhi, their eyes red, and said, "Don't be impulsive, you must wait for us." Then they grabbed Ah Guang and shouted, "Don't waste time, hurry up, find someone first!" Then they dragged Ah Guang and ran desperately outside.
After Wang Xuezhi and the others left, he looked at the mutated "grasses" through the glass door of the greenhouse. These plants were generally quite large, 1-2 meters tall. He hadn't been able to examine them closely when he suddenly stepped back, but now, after looking at them for a while, the large, emerald-green leaves that were half a person's height looked more and more like wild lettuce, and the one that was almost 1.5 meters tall looked more and more like wild taro.
Wang Xuezhi carefully examined it and confirmed that it was indeed a wild taro. The stem was grayish-white, cylindrical, and covered with prickles. It had cylindrical, fleshy roots with annular nodes that were somewhat swollen. The petioles were longer than the leaf blades, and the leaf blades varied in shape. It had an inflorescence with a stalked spathe, a limb, and a spirally twisted upper part. The spadix was cylindrical.
Overall, it has a slightly spiral, slender leaf shape, and all these characteristics match, except that the length and width have increased.
The young leaves of the arrowroot can be eaten as a vegetable. The rhizome is used medicinally to reduce inflammation and pain, aid digestion, and strengthen the stomach. It can be used to treat lymph node tuberculosis, lymphadenitis, gastritis, indigestion, snake bites, bruises, and rheumatoid arthritis.
Veterinarians use it to treat fatigue in cattle and horses and to promote weight gain. It is often planted singly or in groups along streams and ponds.
As Wang Xuezhi looked at it, he muttered to himself. He was a native of Yunnan Province, so he recognized this kind of wild vegetable.
He slowly looked at the others, including water fern, false konjac (also known as konjac, konjac, or pigweed, commonly found in the tropics), and mango, all of which are wild vegetables from the tropics or the Yunnan, Sichuan, and Guizhou provinces. But now these plants were all appearing in the same experimental field at the same time, which was too strange.
Wang Xuezhi's eyes widened, his mind racing. These were all wild vegetables that could be eaten in the countryside. In the past, people would sell them on the street when they were in season. He studied agriculture and often went to the countryside to see rice seeds and had seen some wild vegetables from various places. But how could all of these appear here at once? And more importantly, were they even edible?
After the apocalypse, the official supplies distributed by the authorities were all packaged fast food that was still within its shelf life, collected from the ruins and streets, as well as previously stored food reserves, compressed biscuits, or canned goods. Fresh vegetables and fruits were very expensive and rare. If all of these were edible, wouldn't everyone be able to eat fresh vegetables?
His eyes grew brighter and brighter, as if a wolf had spotted meat.
Just then, the patrol team and the research institute's guard team arrived, along with Li Yangrui, Wang Xin, and A Guang, all carrying a bunch of things and panting as they ran over. They were all relieved to see that Wang Xuezhi was alright and that he was safe.
When Wang Xuezhi saw them coming, he didn't care about anything else and quickly called them over to confirm whether these were wild vegetables.
The four people huddled together, chattering away through a glass window, completely baffling the patrol and guard teams that rushed over.
After discussing it for a while, the group decided to go closer and take a look.
So Wang Xuezhi said to the patrol team leader, Gao Yi, "Captain Gao, we initially suspected that these suddenly appearing strange plants were mutated plants from deep underground. Now they look like mutated wild vegetables, but we're unsure about their aggressiveness and edibility. You're a level 4 mutant, could you take me inside to take a look? If these strange plants are edible, their value is unimaginable."
Gao Yi also realized the importance of the current situation. He was a mutated lightning-type ability user, and his offensive power was among the top in the base. So he simply agreed to let Wang Xuezhi observe him up close.
The two opened the door and went inside. When they were about ten meters away from the mutated wild vegetables, Gao Yi said, "These plants are all at level 2 or 3. Be careful and follow behind me."
Gao Yi then deliberately made some noise, but the wild vegetables didn't react. He then used his tiny, fine lightning energy to condense needles and pierced the nearest plants, but they still didn't react, and their energy fluctuations didn't show any aggression.
Gao Yi then composed himself and said, "We can roughly confirm that they are not aggressive. Alien plants generally have an attack range. Level 2 and 3 alien plants lack intelligence. Usually, aggressive ones will launch an attack if a living thing enters their attack range. These alien plants didn't react to my attacks, so they shouldn't be aggressive. You can observe from the outside. We can confirm further when the captain of the second patrol team with wood-type abilities arrives."
Hearing this, Wang Xuezhi felt relieved. He walked closer to examine the wild vegetables and taro he had just discovered, smelled them, and looked at the stems and leaves. He was now about 80% certain that these were mutated wild vegetables.
After confirming the situation, Wang Xuezhi explained it to Gao Yi and then asked others to bring in tools to slice and test the samples to check their edibility.
After a series of experiments, mice were brought in to feed the vegetables. The level 4 wood-type ability captain of the second team also came over. After confirming that the mutations were all beneficial and non-aggressive, the edibility of the wild vegetables was finally confirmed, and preparations were made to transplant and breed them.
During this time, Wang Xuezhi and the other three were questioned separately, but none of them could explain how the wild vegetables appeared in the experimental field within minutes. In the end, the only explanation was that a high-level superhuman had been there, and the matter was classified as an SS-level secret.
Wang Xuezhi discovered an edible plant, and his departure from the experimental field for a few minutes was not investigated. This incident later became known as one of the "unsolved mysteries of the base."
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