American comics: Praising the sun, starting from Gotham!

Ivy didn't respond, but the children were very excited.

They all gathered around.

Xiu En swallowed back the sweet, metallic taste that welled up in his throat.

His fingers deftly made a grab from another wisp of golden mist that had not yet dissipated.

"Look, this is the moment to witness a miracle!"

Golden dust danced on his fingertips.

With a flick of Xiu En's finger, the golden mist began to stretch and deform.

Ding--!

One, two, countless luminous gold coins fell from his hand like raindrops, each engraved with a comical cartoon smiley face, while the reverse side bore the shameful inscription of Xiu En's dominance.

Not finished yet.

The last bit of powder spun in his palm, transforming into tiny golden birds fluttering their wings.

The little bird has no life, it is shaped by pure light, but it flies with great spirit.

They bypassed Solomon, who was so frightened he tried to pick him up, and tossed a few gold coins into the children's gaping mouths in surprise.

"Wow! It's gold!"

Jerami was the first to react and rushed over to pick up the money.

"Is it real gold?!"

Jenny and the other children chased after the golden birds, which even changed direction, and squealed with delight.

"Oh."

A cold snort.

Pamela Ivy's sunflower clone caught a golden bird that tried to land on her head, and disgustedly crushed it into a pile of gold dust, but there was no smile on her face.

"Is this all you've got?"

"Not bad, right?"

Xiu En wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.

"As long as I'm fast enough, pain can't catch me!"

Ivy did not answer.

The sunflower disintegrated in the air without warning.

Countless green lights followed the roots on the ground and retreated at an alarming speed into the glass greenhouse deep inside the welfare home.

The hairs on Xiu En's back stood on end.

"Uh, I have a bad feeling..."

My intuition has never been this accurate.

The children were still cheering.

Solomon was still grinning foolishly as he tried to stick a gold coin on his forehead.

Earth.

Specifically, it was the earth beneath Xiu'en's feet that was enraged.

The once neatly trimmed lawn suddenly looked like a raging sea.

Six dark green vines, as thick as an adult's waist, burst forth from the ground! The surface of the vines was covered with sharp barbs, the tips of which were carefully wrapped with leaves to prevent them from piercing some bastard.

"I'm not going!"

Hugh attempted a strategic retreat, but he immediately realized that his feet were off the ground.

"Ahem, I still have one last closing pose to strike!"

The vines completely ignored his protests, locking him in place except for his head, turning him from Gotham's messenger of light into a giant caterpillar entangled in seaweed.

"Given that some idiot tried to set himself off like a self-propelled firework."

"It's time for mandatory pruning now."

After that, Xiu En felt a tremendous pulling force that made him want to vomit.

He remained in his mummy-like form, dragged along by vines, hurtling low over the grass as he sped toward the greenhouse door, where Ivy's true form was.

"Jerami! Keep an eye on the others!"

"Alvin! Keep an eye on the door and don't let anyone in!"

"Solomon!"

Shuen shouted as he passed the gray giant who hadn't yet reacted.

"This is—an exit effect! I'm fine!"

Solomon stared blankly as his newly recognized leader was "eaten" by that flower.

He scratched his head, looked at the children around him who had started climbing on him, and then looked at the gold coin.

"The boss said...that's cool..."

The giant nodded to himself, trying to calm himself down and suppressing the urge to cry.

"Solomon...I trust the boss..."

Behind the rapidly closing glass door of the greenhouse, Ivy, wearing a simple white coat, looked angrily at Xiu En, who had been thrown beside the medical pool.

Judging from his expression, he was probably about to say something strange again, but this time Ivy didn't give Xiu En the chance.

"Shut up!"

She held a test tube filled with green liquid in one hand, preparing to pour it into the medicine pool, while using her other hand to cover Xiu En's mouth.

"If you cough up even one more grain of gold dust, I'll let you experience photosynthesis."

"Sizzle."

Xiu En was thrown into the medicine pool.

This is definitely not the sound a person should make when soaking in a hot spring, unless that person is a piece of red-hot iron and the hot spring is a pool of high-concentration vitamins, chlorophyll, extracts, and some kind of still-wriggling active algae.

In Hugh's words, vegetable soup?

"Cough cough, that feels good!"

Xiu En was tied up like a dumpling, with only his head above water, but he still stubbornly let out a long sigh, which, though trembling, sounded like he was enjoying himself even though he was about to die.

"This green, this texture! Is this the kind of high-end spa only the most elite can enjoy?"

He tried to ignore the burning sensation in his lungs and looked up at Ivy, who was rapidly tapping her fingers on the holographic projection console above.

At this moment, she did not use any vines to cover herself; her red hair was casually coiled behind her head, with a few unruly strands hanging down beside her pale neck.

The white coat looked very dangerous on her, especially when she expressionlessly picked up a syringe as thick as her upper arm.

"Shut up."

Ivy didn't even glance at him, and filled the syringe in her hand with a tube full of a strangely purple liquid.

"This isn't a spa treatment; it's the formaldehyde I use to preserve large pests in preparation for specimens. You're pretty much the same."

She walked to the edge of the pool and tapped the scorching hot pool wall with her slender fingers: "Your body is like a boiler about to explode right now. If I didn't have some skills, you would have performed a real head-exploding magic trick in front of those kids just now."

"Exaggeration, artistic embellishment, I don't believe it!"

Because of the steam, Xiu En's face looked much healthier than before, which had been sickly pale.

"I did that to make everyone happy."

"And what did you just say? That you wanted me to experience photosynthesis?"

He shook his head in the pool, creating a shimmering ripple.

"That would be wonderful! Ever since I was cursed to end up in this godforsaken place where even the sun is blurred out, I haven't had a single real ray of sunshine. If you could let me photosynthesize, wouldn't I be able to survive without food? Think of how much I could save on food expenses!"

Ivy paused for a moment.

She really wanted to stick a needle into his still-talking mouth.

"Are you a plant? You idiot."

"Theoretically speaking, it's possible if you have chloroplasts."

Xiu En boasts shamelessly.

"Maybe adding a module will turn it into a sunflower... wait, what's this?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Xiu En suddenly felt that the algae in the medicine, which had been behaving normally, suddenly began to multiply wildly as if they had been given a stimulant.

A warm, comforting current flowed into his body through every pore and began to be released.

The metal energy that had been blocking his lungs was cleared up by the specially made nutrient solution, and the entire greenhouse lit up.

Centered on Xiuen, a dazzling golden-green light burst forth, even penetrating the special light-blocking glass and shooting straight into the gloomy sky.