67 Cambrian Consciousness
Cong Xia’s eyes widened and he exclaimed excitedly, “Tianbi!”
Tianbi glanced at him, his eyes slightly reddened. He raised his hand and fired a shot at Cheng Ge. Suddenly, Cheng Ge’s obese body transformed into something like willow catkins. His flesh and limbs turned into numerous dense bundles of dark brown roots, covered in thorns. The roots supported Cheng Ge’s large head, appearing eerie and nauseating. Tianbi’s bullet passed through the gaps in the roots, breaking a few of them, but it didn’t cause any harm to Cheng Ge.
This was the first time they saw a plant-type mutant besides Liu Fengyu. However, this plant was too bizarre. Even Cong Xia, who had read encyclopedias as fairy tales when he was a child, couldn’t identify what kind of plant it was.
Cheng Ge extended his hand, and hundreds of intertwining root tendrils formed into a wriggling arm, reaching out towards the two of them. Tianbi pushed Cong Xia aside, drew his Jungle King military knife, and charged towards Cheng Ge. With the assistance of the wind, he ran at an incredible speed. To an ordinary person’s eyes, it seemed as if he was truly a speed-enhanced mutant. He grabbed the complex network of roots, ignoring the thorns that had pierced his hand, and swung the knife. As the blade made contact with the roots, a gust of wind gathered on its edge, instantly extending the blade’s length by several centimeters. With one swift stroke, he severed Cheng Ge’s hand, or rather, the mass of roots!
Cheng Ge howled in pain and recoiled his arm. Blood spattered from the hundreds of root tendrils, causing a chilling sensation. However, the roots began visibly regenerating at a rapid pace.
Tianbi didn’t give him time to regenerate. He swiftly charged towards Cheng Ge’s main body. Another twisted root tendril reached towards Tianbi’s neck, but he ducked, rolling to Cheng Ge’s feet. With a swing of his knife, he severed the two root tendrils once again!
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Tang Yanqiu was far away and couldn’t see Cheng Ge’s eyes clearly, but Cheng Tianbi was right by his feet, completely visible. In the instant Tang Yanqiu’s arrow reached Cheng Ge’s face, Cheng Tianbi generated numerous invisible wind cones on the right side of Cheng Ge’s face, all stabbing toward his right cheek. Most of the wind cones missed, piercing through the gaps between the roots and stems, but one wind cone fiercely penetrated Cheng Ge’s right eye.
With a soft “puchi” sound, his eyeball instantly burst! However, from the perspective of the people beside and behind him, it clearly appeared that Tang Yanqiu’s arrow had pierced Cheng Ge.
Cheng Ge let out a scream of agony, falling to the ground. His body was severely injured, unable to sustain the energy required for his plant-like form, gradually returning to his human form. Tang Yanqiu followed up with another arrow, directly ending Cheng Ge’s life.
On the other hand, Liu Fengyu had also taken care of several members of the Hongwei Gang. Few dared to approach his body, as they would be overwhelmed by the fumes and nearly faint. If they made contact, they would be corroded by digestive fluids. Long-range weapons were ineffective, as they would simply get stuck in the enormous petals like needles in the sea. Coupled with the threat of Tang Yanqiu’s bow and arrows, the Hongwei Gang suffered heavy casualties and lost the will to fight, fleeing altogether.
Cheng Tianbi sat down next to Cheng Ge’s lifeless body, looking menacingly at the members of the Qingyan Gang.
Cong Xia ran to his side, grabbing his hand. Cheng Tianbi’s hand was riddled with bloody holes from Cheng Ge’s attacks. Cong Xia absorbed Cheng Ge’s energy while simultaneously healing Cheng Tianbi’s wounds.
Tang Yanqiu and Liu Fengyu also approached, standing behind the two of them, coldly staring at the Qingyan Gang.
From a distance, Abu walked over with Zhuang Yao on his back, seemingly carrying something else as well.
The tall and thin man stood with his hands behind his back and calmly said, “It has nothing to do with us. Let’s go.” With that, he led the members of the Qingyan Gang and left.
Cheng Tianbi’s face turned pale, and he suddenly fell into Cong Xia’s arms.
Cong Xia exclaimed, “Tianbi! What’s wrong with you?” He looked down and only then noticed that Cheng Tianbi’s clothes were soaked in blood from his chest!
Tang Yanqiu also sat down on the ground. “He is seriously injured. Hurry and treat him.”
Trembling, Cong Xia unbuttoned Cheng Tianbi’s outer garment, revealing a massive wound on his left ribs, as if something had forcefully smashed into it. Four ribs were broken, and his internal organs were faintly visible.
Cong Xia’s hand couldn’t help but tremble.
Cheng Tianbi half-squinted his eyes, looked at him and softly said, “Your neck…”
Cong Xia bit his lips, drawing blood. He gently handed Cheng Tianbi over to Liu Fengyu, despite his legs feeling weak, and struggled to get up from the ground. He absorbed all the energy from the bodies of the deceased in front of the villa into his own body.
Abu approached him, and Zhuang Yao suddenly pulled a rope, causing several bodies to roll off Abu. He said, “There are still these. Unfortunately, Zhao Jin’s body was taken by them.”
Cong Xia didn’t have time to think much. Greedily, he absorbed all the energy from the people into his own body and then rushed back to Cheng Tianbi’s side, frantically pouring the energy from his body into Cheng Tianbi’s body.
Cheng Tianbi held his hand. “Take it easy…”
Cong Xia turned a deaf ear, his eyes fixed firmly on the wound, which was nearly half the size of his face. As the wound healed in the next second before his eyes, he couldn’t imagine how Cheng Tianbi, with such a severe injury, came to save him and fought fiercely with Cheng Ge. What kind of determination was needed to stay standing?
Cong Xia’s eyes became teary, and he clenched his teeth tightly. Instantly, half of the abundant energy in his body was consumed. It was his first time treating bone injuries, and the energy consumption was much more intense compared to mere flesh wounds. He almost depleted the energy in his body, finally repairing the four broken ribs and reducing the extent of the wound. However, the wound still couldn’t fully heal, and Cong Xia couldn’t hold on any longer.
Cheng Tianbi noticed his condition and suddenly let go of his hand. Cong Xia looked at him deeply and softly called out, “Tianbi…” before fainting.
When Cong Xia woke up again, it was already a day later.
As he opened his eyes, he found himself in an unfamiliar place—pale patterned wallpaper, simple furniture, and tacky decorations—resembling the cheap budget hotels he had stayed in before.
This should be the building that was purchased in the industrial park, right?
He sat up abruptly from the bed, lifting the covers, ready to get up.
“Hey, what are you doing?” Liu Fengyu, who was dozing off by the bedside, was startled awake and grabbed him. “You’re still weak, lie down.”
Cong Xia grabbed Liu Fengyu’s arm. “Liu Ge, where’s Tianbi? Where’s Tianbi?”
Furrowing his brows, Liu Fengyu said, “Ouch, be gentle…”
Cong Xia shouted, “Where’s Tianbi?”
“He’s not dead!” Liu Fengyu shouted back. “He’s alive!”
Cong Xia took a deep breath and then exhaled slowly, calming down a bit. “Where is he? I want to go see him.”
“Don’t go there. To prevent infection in his wound, he has been isolated. The doctor doesn’t allow anyone to enter.”
“Doctor? Where did the doctor come from? Mutants?”
“They were sent by the Qingyan Gang, those cunning double-dealers. They’re either mutants or genuine doctors. They even brought medicine.”
Cong Xia anxiously asked, “Medicine? Most of the medicines from before are ineffective, especially for wounds like this. Does he have an infection?”
“It’s effective. It’s a new type of medicine developed by a research institute in the military. It can suppress bacterial growth in this era. Combined with timely treatment, he’ll be fine. But he needs to rest for a while. Once your energy recovers, he won’t need to lie down anymore.”
Cong Xia finally breathed a sigh of relief. “What does the Qingyan Gang mean? They were the ones who handed me over to the Hongwei Gang.”
“There are no permanent enemies. The boss of Frost Society wanted to see us, and the Qingyan Gang immediately stepped forward. They sent doctors, medicine, and even fresh fruits. They made it seem like we were under their protection, hmph.” Liu Fengyu sneered. “Hey, do you want grapes? They’re real grapes, not canned ones, not raisins.”
Cong Xia shook his head. “Save them for Tianbi.”
“Oh, there will be more when he wakes up. Can’t let them go to waste. Wait for me, I’ll go get them.”
Cong Xia grabbed him and sighed. “Liu Ge, no rush. Tell me what happened that day.”
“That day, after I left, I hurried back to find Cheng Tianbi and the others. I was afraid they couldn’t handle it, but I couldn’t find them, so I returned to the city. When I came back here, they had already returned, both injured. Cheng Tianbi was more seriously wounded. Just as I arrived, the allocator came and said you had been captured by the Hongwei Gang. So we rushed to rescue you. Zhuang Yao knew that your energy wasn’t enough to treat Cheng Tianbi, so he went and brought back the bodies of several Hongwei Gang members from outside the city. However, the body of Zhao Jin was taken by the research institute. If we had Zhao Jin’s body, maybe we wouldn’t have needed a doctor. Just by looking at Cheng Tianbi and Tang Yanqiu’s injuries, I could tell how formidable that person is.”
It was almost the same as Cong Xia had guessed. There was only one uncertain point that made him hesitant. He looked at Liu Fengyu and asked, “Liu Ge, Zhuang Yao’s plan was so perfect. Although we all got injured, the mission was successfully completed. We almost wiped out the Hongwei Gang, and the strength of the Qingyan Gang was weakened. Yet, they still want to win us over. This situation is like killing three birds with one stone, achieving maximum results with minimum effort.”
Liu Fengyu nodded. “What are you trying to say?”
“Zhuang Yao thought of everything. Tell me, did he anticipate that Chen Shao would expose our plan and harm me?”
Liu Fengyu’s face changed slightly.
Cong Xia sighed, “I think he anticipated it. He’s a cerebral domain evolver, and his analytical and reasoning abilities surpass ours by countless times. To give an analogy, while I can consider the next five or ten steps in a chess game, he can consider the next fifty or a hundred steps and even predict the entire game. Even among ordinary people, I consider myself quite clever, but his scheming is beyond our prediction.”
Liu Fengyu spoke in a deep voice, “You make a valid point. Although his arrangements seem very reasonable, he didn’t calculate your safety into the equation. Everyone here has the ability to protect themselves, even the weakest in terms of combat strength, thanks to Abu. But only you can provide support, and yet he made you directly interact with the Qingyan Gang and even engage in a direct confrontation with the Hongwei Gang. Such conflicts have too many variables. With his intelligence, he should have considered all the variables and shouldn’t have failed to anticipate the danger you might face.”
Cong Xia shook his head. “We rely on him too much. We wouldn’t even know if he sold us out one day. Regarding his decision to send Tianbi and Xiao Tang to besiege Zhao Jin, we didn’t raise any objections. In fact, we had no knowledge of Zhao Jin’s true strength. I only found out from their conversation that Zhao Jin’s combat power ranks among the top two among the surviving population of over 700,000 in Chongqing. With such strength, he couldn’t be eliminated easily. The fact that they both survived is already a miracle.”
“He didn’t give us time to understand, or rather, if we had understood, we wouldn’t have allowed them to go, and they might not have gone willingly themselves.”
Cong Xia nodded. “That’s right. He did think of this, which is why he didn’t conduct any investigation. Given his character, he wouldn’t act without analyzing the overall situation. Take the gecko incident, for example. He prepared for a week, but this time, he launched the operation on the second day of our arrival, forcing us to accept the mission in a short period without any time for investigation and reflection.”
“That guy… I really dislike overly intelligent people.”
Cong Xia clenched his fist. “He acts based solely on self-interest, and I don’t object to that. But if he causes the death of any one of us, I will never forgive him!”
Over the past six months, they had participated in various battles, big and small. Although each one was perilous, no one suffered severe injuries. In Cong Xia’s perception, Tianbi was incredibly powerful. He was not only a well-trained special forces soldier before the apocalypse but had also evolved the legendary and rare ability to manipulate natural forces. With Tianbi’s abilities, he hadn’t failed in any of the battles, nor had he sustained significant injuries. So Cong Xia had grown arrogant. He subconsciously believed that Tianbi couldn’t be defeated by an atavistic person, but Tianbi had almost lost his life.
Zhuang Yao’s chess game probably never considered comforting the chess pieces, or even if he did, he would make sacrifices if it meant achieving overall victory in the game. If something truly happened to Tianbi this time, he wouldn’t forgive Zhuang Yao, and he himself would be to blame.
Cong Xia didn’t want to speculate on others with the deepest malice, but whenever he thought of Tianbi’s injuries, he couldn’t help but feel dissatisfied with Zhuang Yao. He didn’t care about the situation Zhuang Yao put him in. After all, as long as he was alive, the plan was not wrong. But he couldn’t bear to see Tianbi severely injured, and it hurt him more than his own injuries.
Liu Fengyu spoke in a low voice, “We need to be more cautious with that kid in the future. Who knows, one day he might play with our lives.”
Cong Xia nodded, tiredly saying, “His appearance has ingrained a fixed mindset in us, making us easily lower our guard against him. Tang Yanqiu probably still can’t get rid of the impression that Zhuang Yao is just a child. In reality, he is the one in the entire team who should make us increase our vigilance the most.”
They cared about each other, but Zhuang Yao, perhaps, only cared about Abu.
Liu Fengyu patted Cong Xia’s shoulder. “Forget about it, don’t dwell on it. Are you hungry? Let’s eat something.”
“Yeah.” Cong Xia got off the bed and touched his neck. His injury had already healed. Such a shallow wound shouldn’t have wasted his energy; it would be better to save it all for Tianbi.
Liu Fengyu handed him a gauze bandage. “Wrap it around your neck so that no one can notice.”
Cong Xia wrapped the gauze around his neck.
Just as Tianbi chose to conceal his status as a natural force manipulator at the expense of getting injured, Cong Xia also had to hide his own abilities. Tianbi’s natural force, Zhuang Yao’s cerebral domain evolution, and his own attributeless energy were the three trump cards of their team. They mustn’t let others know about them easily.
Team… Cong Xia sighed inwardly. Was Zhuang Yao really a part of their team?
He followed Liu Fengyu downstairs to the lobby where many people were discussing matters. When they saw him, they warmly inquired about his injuries.
The people in the industrial park benefited from their association and received many good things sent by the Qingyan Gang. They treated their group as if they were gods, filled with gratitude.
Zhang Gong quickly brought steaming hot food and even a small bowl of emerald green grapes. “Please eat. They’re all good things, fresh too.”
Cong Xia smiled and indeed felt hungry. He unabashedly finished all the food.
After he finished eating, he asked, “Where are Xiao Tang and Zhuang Yao?”
Liu Fengyu replied, “Xiao Tang has a leg injury and is also resting. Zhuang Yao, I have no idea where he went.”
Cong Xia finished his meal and said, “I want to go and see Tianbi, even just from outside the door.”
Liu Fengyu shrugged. “Sure, I’ll take you there.”
****
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