Chapter 379: Chapter 364: The Adult World
The moment Gu Xi returned, the black threads that had encircled Qi Xiang and the others began to wither and disappear...
"Is everyone all right?" Gu Xi asked, looking at the group.
"We’re fine. It’s just Qi Xiang..." Qin Yi, her face pale, leaned weakly against Yang Chi. She stared worriedly at Qi Xiang’s hand. If Qi Xiang hadn’t recklessly charged over just now, that black thread would have burrowed into her body instead.
If anything happened to Qi Xiang because of this, Qin Yi would likely blame herself for the rest of her life.
Qin Yi dug her fingers into Yang Chi’s arm, struggling to stand up.
Qi Xiang herself wasn’t nearly as nervous. In fact, she had a faint feeling... that this might even be a blessing in disguise.
’After all, my luck has always been pretty good.’
Gu Xi walked up to Qi Xiang and took her hand. A small green sprout emerged from Gu Xi’s fingertip and entered Qi Xiang’s body, circling around inside her.
Wei Heng and the other two watched nervously, especially Qin Yi. It wasn’t until Yang Chi, who was beside her, couldn’t help but let out a sharp hiss of pain that she realized what she was doing. She quickly looked down and saw that in her anxiety, she had pinched a dark bruise onto Yang Chi’s arm.
"Oh, I’m so sorry," Qin Yi said, quickly letting go.
Yang Chi wanted to say it was nothing, but... while Qin Yi was a girl, the strength of a high-level superpower user was more than a combat novice like him, who usually handled intelligence work in the rear, could handle.
The pain was intense, but Yang Chi had to pretend he was fine. He pressed his lips together, not daring to speak for fear his voice would betray his agony. He could only sneak a wronged, pitiful glance at Gu Xi.
’...Gu Xi knows how to heal.’
Gu Xi: "..."
After sealing a portion of her superpower inside Qi Xiang to let her quietly advance to the next level, Gu Xi led the others aside and treated the injury on Yang Chi’s arm.
Seeing her brow furrowed in concentration, Wei Heng asked, "Is it serious?"
His gaze fell on Yang Chi’s arm, which gave Yang Chi a huge fright. ’No way, it’s not going to be crippled just like that, is it? Even though I looked all brave and decisive when I was about to cut off Qi Xiang’s hand with my dagger, I don’t actually want to be a one-armed man.’
"It can’t be that serious, right?" This made Qin Yi anxious as well. "Yang Chi, I’m so sorry..."
Gu Xi: "..."
Gu Xi’s gaze swept over the three of them, her voice tinged with exhaustion and helplessness. "Yang Chi’s arm is fine. But I want all of you to go to the farm’s medical bay for a full check-up in a little while."
Wei Heng and the other two exchanged confused glances. With Gu Xi’s mysterious and profound healing abilities, did their minor injuries really warrant a trip to the medical bay for a check-up?
Still, they all agreed. "Okay." They knew Gu Xi would never harm them. Her instruction could only mean there was something strange about those black threads.
Thinking of the black threads, Wei Heng looked up at Gu Xi. "Gu Xi, are you all right? In the mountains..."
"I’m fine." Gu Xi gazed into the distance and slowly shook her head. "I just made a deal with an old friend."
’An old friend?’
’Is it him?’
Wei Heng frowned slightly. Anyone could see that Gu Xi and that individual were not on the same path. What kind of deal could they possibly make?
Wei Heng didn’t know if he should ask, his gaze on Gu Xi filled with unspoken questions.
Gu Xi pressed her lips together and said no more.
From the year she first put on the Blood-colored Shura Mask, Li Ming had always tried to make her understand one principle: the adult world wasn’t just about fighting and killing, but also about exchanging benefits.
Take her and Yun Ye, for example. Everyone knew they were destined for a final battle, one that would likely end with one of them dead. But that didn’t mean they couldn’t cooperate for now.
She despised this kind of cooperation, but at the very least, it could ease some of the pressure on Li Ming at the Central Base and make the Liu Family in City A bother Shen Yue less.
As for Yun Ye’s objective... it was nothing more than the Superpower Seed.
Gu Xi retracted her gaze, her eyes slightly downcast.
Wei Heng took a step forward to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with her. "Those mutated beasts in the mountains... have they retreated?"
He could never figure out why that individual had driven those mutated beasts here. ’It couldn’t have just been for show, could it?’
’The moment he left, the mutated beasts retreated with him. Looking at it that way, maybe that really was the reason?’
"Those mutated beasts..." Gu Xi said slowly, "were his show of good faith."
"Good faith?" Wei Heng tilted his head to look at her, frowning slightly. ’What kind of deal would require the other party to bring a horde of mutated beasts as a gesture of sincerity?’
Wei Heng couldn’t make sense of it.
"Do you know..." Gu Xi looked up at him and asked suddenly, "where those black threads came from?"
Wei Heng froze for a second. Then, as a realization dawned, his expression changed drastically. "Are you saying that those mutated beasts..."
Gu Xi nodded.
After a long silence, Wei Heng finally spoke. "Is this also one of the characteristics of the third great mutation?" ’Their bodies can dematerialize? Turning from solid to intangible?’
His voice was soft, yet carried an indescribable weight.
Gu Xi didn’t answer the question.
She knew perfectly well that the appearance of these Mutant Beasts was just Yun Ye’s way of reminding her that someone was already experimenting on mutated beasts on a large scale. By revealing the existence of these Mutant Beasts to her ahead of time, he was showing his "good faith."
He could even influence the situation at the Central Base, making it so Li Ming wouldn’t have to struggle so hard to maintain the status quo.
As long as Gu Xi was willing to help him lure out the Superpower Seed, there was nothing that couldn’t be negotiated.
Of course, all of this was based on the fact that... he looked down on carbon-based lifeforms like humans from the bottom of his heart.
Therefore, the entire future and fate of humanity could be used by him as bargaining chips in his negotiations with Gu Xi.
And he was deeply convinced that Gu Xi would agree.
Because whether it was Li Ming, Xiao Yu, and the others back then, or Wei Heng and the others now, they were all the ties and shackles that bound her to this world.
...
「Late at night, in the farm’s medical bay.」
Huo Changzhou rushed back as soon as he received the news.
At first, he thought Gu Xi’s group had been injured while hunting mutated beasts in the mountains and felt a secret flicker of delight. But when he arrived at the medical bay, he found Gu Xi and the others completely unscathed. They didn’t have a single scratch on them. How could they possibly be injured?
"Miss Gu, what is all this...?" Huo Changzhou was completely baffled.
"Just a routine check-up." Qi Xiang was sitting in front of a machine and looked up. "Mr. Huo, have you forgotten? The base has a rule that all permanent residents must undergo a routine check-up every three months. We’ve been on field missions this whole time and didn’t have the chance..."
The corner of Huo Changzhou’s mouth twitched. He couldn’t be bothered to listen to her nonsense and looked directly at the doctor. "Is my junior sister all right?"
Mr. Wang, the doctor, was also completely in the dark. He had no idea why this group would show up in the middle of the night for a full battery of tests. After all, based on the results, every single one of them was in perfect health.
"Mr. Huo..." Mr. Wang briefly summarized their conditions and sent their medical reports directly to Huo Changzhou’s personal terminal.
Gu Xi and the others saw this but didn’t stop him.
Huo Changzhou opened the Light Screen and quickly scanned through the reports. His eyes suddenly paused on a specific line in Gu Xi’s medical report. "Huh? Miss Gu’s..."
Realizing that Gu Xi and the others were right there and that he had misspoken, Huo Changzhou swallowed the rest of his sentence. His eyes, as he looked at Gu Xi, were filled with shock and uncertainty.
’Looks like coming to the farm’s medical bay was the right decision,’ Gu Xi thought. ’And this Mr. Huo is just as observant as I figured.’
