Who says those who retire at the speed of light are not heroes?

She looked at Lizhi's profile, but the expression on Lizhi's face was so calm, as if she was not surprised at all by her appearance, and was not curious at all about who she was.

After combing her hair, Lizhi took out the lipstick from the storage ring and carefully applied it in front of the mirror. Lu Xiaoxiao stood there at a loss, not knowing whether to wake up Lin Cheng first or say something.

Lizhi put on her lipstick before coming to the bed, lying on the bed, and poking Lin Cheng's face with her hand. Lin Cheng slowly opened his eyes, "Lu Xiaoxiao is here to see you."

Lin Cheng sat up suddenly, looking at Lu Xiaoxiao who was standing there...it seemed like she shouldn't be here, but under the car, and scratched his head.

"I'm going to go change clothes next door."

Lizhi stood up and walked to the study next door, changed back into her clothes, and after getting dressed, he returned to Lin Cheng's room, "Let's go, come back and tell me when you're done."

"Yeah." Lin Cheng nodded.

Lizhi turned around and left without looking at Lu Xiaoxiao again. After the door closed, Lu Xiaoxiao looked at Lin Cheng in front of her and spoke slowly, "Who are you..."

“We are very good friends.”

Lu Xiaoxiao looked at the white socks that had been removed from the trash can and tilted her head. "Good friends?"

"Yes, good friends." Lin Cheng nodded with an innocent look on his face.

Lu Xiaoxiao always felt that discussing this topic with him would only make her head hurt more, so she said, "Lizhi is the owner of the fruit shop, right?"

"Well, she is responsible for many things in the fruit shop."

"So what exactly do you do in a fruit shop?"

"Ah, responsible for giving the girls massages, leg massages, cooking and entertaining them."

"have you eaten breakfast?"

"Ate."

"Okay, I'll go downstairs and buy a pancake and then I can go. Xiaoqi, let's go."

The puppy lying in the living room happily ran over and wagged its tail. Lu Xiaoxiao was startled. "We are on a mission, not traveling. It's better not to bring the dog, right? Wait, where did you get the dog..."

"Xiaoqi is not an ordinary dog." Lin Cheng threw the instruction booklet that Lemon handed him last night to Lu Xiaoxiao, then stood up, put on his shoes, and set off.

....................................

The destination is a mountain village in the neighboring city C.

Lu Xiaoxiao was driving an off-road vehicle today. Lin Cheng sat in the passenger seat, holding Lu Xiaoxiao's tablet and carefully looking at the information about this mission. All this information came from the intelligence from the priests and the alliance.

The priest is dead, but there are people in the alliance who can sense the existence of the memories of the people with special abilities through the energy crystal cores left behind after their death, so some information was read from the priest's memory. The priest joined an organization called [Styx] two years ago. [Styx] was not very ostentatious in the past few years, so not many people knew their name. Until recently, many civilian vicious organizations with special abilities in the alliance's statistics seemed to have appeared in Styx, buying and selling organs and selling banned drugs. This organization has unimaginable wealth, but it seems that all of their wealth has been used for some kind of research.

Some time ago, all the clues of the alliance pointed to a laboratory. When the alliance arrived there, a fire had burned down everything in the laboratory. However, in the ashes left by the fire, there were still many monster bodies that looked like humans but were not human. The only remaining information showed that they were conducting some kind of experiment on the humans they had secretly kidnapped.

In the priest's memory, there are some images of that small mountain village, the dark sky, the strange and twisted trees in the village, and the dull and pale faces of the villagers in Qinghe Village.

It takes about six hours to drive from City A to the destination. Lin Cheng doesn't know how to drive, so he had to sit in the passenger seat. After reading the information, he was bored and started to study Xiaoqi's instruction manual. Xiaoqi can also grow bigger and smaller. At this moment, it has turned into a teacup dog, curled up obediently in his arms.

Lemon seemed to have been studying Xiaoqi for a long time. Judging from the thickness of the instruction manual, this should be the alchemical technology that she is most satisfied with at present. After Lin Cheng finished reading the instruction manual, he looked down at the seemingly well-behaved and docile little dog in his arms and didn't know what to say for a moment.

The six-hour journey was a bit long. When Lin Cheng was bored, he would look at Lu Xiaoxiao's profile. Lu Xiaoxiao was wearing a sweatshirt and trousers, with no makeup on her fair cheeks. She was dressed very simply today and did not wear the alliance uniform to avoid being too conspicuous. In fact, her mission was only to explore the relationship between the small mountain village in the priest's memory and the Styx. Once the information was confirmed, she would contact the headquarters of the alliance in City C to take action.

But Lu Lingling specifically asked him to accompany Lu Xiaoxiao, so did she want to capture him as a free laborer, or did she want to sell her daughter to tie him up? Lin Cheng thought about these strange questions. The sky outside the window was gloomy. It started to rain without knowing when. Lin Cheng closed his eyes and fell asleep. When he woke up again, Lu Xiaoxiao's car had stopped.

"We're here." Lin Cheng opened his eyes.

At this moment, Lu Xiaoxiao's car was parked under a tree. The surrounding buildings were no higher than three stories high, and it was raining heavily outside. Lu Xiaoxiao and he looked at each other and got out of the car together.

The car stopped at the market in the town. There were not many people in the market and they were all dressed simply. The mountain they were going to was still two or three kilometers away. Lu Xiaoxiao took out an umbrella and got off the car with Lin Cheng. According to the address located on the mobile phone, they walked towards the small mountain village called Qinghe Village with Lin Cheng.

There is no road accessible to cars in Qinghe Village, but Lin Cheng saw motorcycles passing by occasionally. The ground became a little muddy due to the heavy rain. Lu Xiaoxiao was wearing hiking boots. Lin Cheng held up an umbrella and looked around.

There were rolling mountains and lush green trees all around. At the moment, there was a strong wind, and the branches of the trees were swaying all over the place. The wind was so strong that umbrellas were almost useless. This rainstorm came at an unfortunate time. It took Lin Cheng and Lu Xiaoxiao more than ten minutes before they could see old houses. The old houses were very old and covered with green vines.

Lu Xiaoxiao and Lin Cheng first ran to the eaves of a house that seemed to be empty to hide from the rain. Lu Xiaoxiao glanced at the time. It was five o'clock in the afternoon. She was a little hungry. Just as she was about to say something to Lin Cheng, the door of the house suddenly opened and a middle-aged man in his forties or fifties walked out with a thick rural accent. "It's raining so hard. Where are you from?"

The middle-aged man was still holding the bowl in his hands, looking at the two people in front of him curiously.

Lin Cheng turned his head, a trace of energy fluctuation flashed in his eyes, but at that moment, his pupils suddenly contracted.

105 Willow

"She and I thought the scenery in the mountains was beautiful and wanted to take some photos there, but it started raining, so we decided to take shelter under your house."

Lin Cheng immediately answered the middle-aged man's question. The middle-aged man nodded and quickly said, "Have you eaten? My family is having dinner, why don't you eat together?"

Lin Cheng took out two hundred yuan in cash from his pocket and said softly, "Thank you, uncle."

But the middle-aged man shook his head and smiled honestly, "Why would you need money for a meal? No need."

..............................

There were four people in the middle-aged man's room, an old woman lying on the bed, a woman who looked to be about 37 or 38 years old, and a little girl of three or four years old. On the dining table were some stir-fried vegetables, stewed potatoes, and a plate of old hen soup. The child was holding a bowl, and when she saw Lu Xiaoxiao, her eyes lit up and her voice was soft, "Pretty sister."

Lu Xiaoxiao was stunned for a moment, then chuckled. The middle-aged man brought the bowls and chopsticks and even served them the meal. The meal tasted quite good. After the meal, there was silence at the table. The woman holding the bowl started to clean up the bowls and chopsticks. Lu Xiaoxiao wanted to help clean up, but the woman shook her head, said nothing, and gently moved Lu Xiaoxiao's hand away.

Seeing this, the middle-aged man explained embarrassedly, "She had some problems with her throat a few years ago, and it has never been cured, so she doesn't talk much. My eldest son is preparing to go back to the village to take her to a big hospital for a checkup."

After dinner, Lin Cheng and Lu Xiaoxiao walked back under the eaves. The rain still did not stop, and even formed a stream on the bumpy ground. The middle-aged man walked up to the two of them and looked at the gloomy sky. "It's been a long time since it rained so heavily."

"Yes." Lin Cheng nodded slightly.

The sky had gradually darkened, but the lights in the village had gradually come on. The dim lights made the quiet mountain village look more poetic. The middle-aged man said, "The dirt road is not easy to walk on at night. If it rains again later, you can go to the village chief's place and ask for a place to stay. They have a big house."

"it is good."

The rain still didn't stop. After a while, the middle-aged man looked at the two people with an old umbrella and said, "Let's go. I'll take you to the village chief's house."

Lin Cheng and Lu Xiaoxiao followed the middle-aged man and walked towards a big house in the distance. The house was obviously built just two years ago and looked a bit small. The middle-aged man knocked on the door of the house, and soon an old man in his fifties or sixties came to open the door. After listening to the middle-aged man's words, the old man welcomed Lin Cheng and Lu Xiaoxiao in. The middle-aged man left with an umbrella, while Lin Cheng and Lu Xiaoxiao stayed here.

"The mountain roads are difficult to travel on at night, and there is no car access to Qinghe Village. Let's sleep here tonight."

"Okay, thank you." Lin Cheng nodded. The village chief took them to a room and said, "This was originally my wife's house, but she passed away a while ago... If you mind, you can sleep in my room. I'll sleep here."

"It's okay, it's okay." Lin Cheng shook his head and followed the village chief to fetch a quilt. The lights in the room were a little dim. Lin Cheng stuffed three hundred yuan into the village chief's pocket. The village chief declined for a while but accepted it. Soon the village chief left the room. Lu Xiaoxiao stood by the window of the room, looking at the heavy rain outside. After a while, she turned back to look at Lin Cheng, "Is the rain...too heavy?"

"Yes, it's the elemental turbulence. Something is coming." Lin Cheng calmly explained to Lu Xiaoxiao.

Lu Xiaoxiao was stunned and looked at him with wide eyes. Lin Cheng sat down beside the bed. Before Lu Xiaoxiao had time to ask any more questions, a black figure suddenly jumped in from outside the window.

It’s Xiaoqi.

When Lin Cheng and Lu Xiaoxiao were heading towards Qingshui Village, Lin Cheng called Xiaoqi to search the area of ​​Qingshui Village. Now Xiaoqi ran back, and Lin Cheng lowered his voice, "Xiaoqi, report your findings."

The next moment Xiao Qi jumped up, and then suddenly stuck to the wall. His body melted like liquid and turned into a flat surface like an LCD TV that stuck to the wall. A picture soon appeared on the plane. It was the whole picture of the small village in Xiao Qi's field of vision. Because of the heavy rain, the villagers were hiding in their houses, and almost no one could be seen.

Everything in Qinghe Village was normal, and there didn't seem to be anything strange. If Lu Xiaoxiao hadn't seen the Qinghe Village sign when she came, she would even suspect that she had come to the wrong place.

Xiaoqi had searched almost all of Qingshui Village. The video showed everything it saw. Everything was normal until the end of the video. Xiaoqi looked at a tree for a long time, as if the computer had crashed. The video remained frozen for three minutes. Lu Xiaoxiao frowned slightly, "The dog... is broken?"

"There's no such thing as malfunction in lemon-made things. Xiaoqi, what happened to the tree?"

"Strange energy fluctuations detected."

"After the village chief falls asleep, let's go see the tree together. There is one more very important thing. From the time we came here until now, we have met everyone... they have all..." Lin Cheng said softly, but just a few seconds after he said this, Lu Xiaoxiao and Lin Cheng both heard the sound of the door opening.

Lin Cheng and Lu Xiaoxiao walked out of the room and found that the village chief had already walked out of the door. It was still raining heavily outside. Lin Cheng asked loudly, "Village chief, where are you going in such heavy rain?"

But unexpectedly, the village chief seemed not to have heard it and did not say a word to Lin Cheng. Lin Cheng and Lu Xiaoxiao chased to the door, looked at the heavy rain and darkness in their sight, and were both stunned for a moment.

Because… in the darkness in front of them, people were coming out of every household one after another. They seemed to be heading in the same direction, their bodies were somewhat unnaturally stiff. Lin Cheng and Lu Xiaoxiao looked at each other and whispered, "Follow them."

So they also walked into the rain and caught up with the village chief. Lin Cheng tried to call the village chief a few more times, but the village chief completely ignored him. The ground was a little muddy, and the village chief even accidentally fell once, but he quickly stood up again after the fall and continued to walk forward. Gradually, the crowd in the village gathered together, a full one or two hundred people, densely packed and mighty, like remote-controlled puppets, walking towards the towering ancient tree in the center of the village.

Fifteen minutes later, all the villagers came to the ancient tree. Lin Cheng quietly looked up at their faces. Everyone's eyes were filled with confusion at this moment. They stood here. The heavy rain still did not stop and everyone was soaked.

Lin Cheng gently grabbed Lu Xiaoxiao's hand, signaling her not to act rashly. Lu Xiaoxiao nodded gently. There was a lamp hanging next to the ancient tree, which was illuminating the dense crowd.

About a minute later, the air in front of the ancient tree in front of him suddenly twisted, and then two figures suddenly emerged from it. They were all wearing black robes and used energy to shield the falling rain.

One of the men in black took out a cigarette from his pocket and lit it. He looked at the dense crowd in front of him and sighed, "It's finally time to end. I'm almost suffocating after guarding here these days."

"Let's have a good time after this matter is over."

While they were saying these two sentences, an old man walked out from the crowd. He came to the tree, which was an extremely thick willow tree. A branch of the willow tree wrapped around the old man's neck at this moment, and the willow leaves turned into sharp thorns and pierced into the old man's neck.

Lu Xiaoxiao wanted to rush out at that moment, but Lin Cheng grabbed her hand and covered her lips.

"No need to save them." Lin Cheng lowered his voice and said softly to Lu Xiaoxiao, "Except for the two of us and them, everyone here is dead."

Lu Xiaoxiao turned her head to look at Lin Cheng, who sighed softly, "Well, even if they were still talking to us just now, they were actually dead a long time ago. The reason they are still alive is that the seeds in their bodies are replacing them, living in their memory mode and assimilating them. The seeds are now mature and it's time for them to return to the mother body."

Lu Xiaoxiao's eyes were filled with disbelief, while Lin Cheng's eyes were calm, with a hint of apology. "They are already dead. Even if we stop the process of returning to the mother body, they will become willow trees like the mother body... To be precise, this is not a willow tree, but a plant cultivated by a high-level being in the abyss. The fruit of this plant is edible when it first bears fruit. The fruit has a sweet fragrance and will bring pleasure to weak creatures after consumption, but at the same time... it will also parasitize their bodies with seeds. The mother body is trying to take back the seeds that have matured in them in order to produce a brand new fruit. The brand new fruit contains pure energy."　

While Lin Cheng and Lu Xiaoxiao were explaining quietly, the people in front of them had already walked to the willow tree one by one. Their necks were pierced by willow branches, and then their entire bodies completely melted, leaving not even a trace of bones.

Lin Cheng slowly raised his hand and touched the ear clip, took out two red potions from it, and handed one to Lu Xiaoxiao.

"what is this?"

"It's a potion used to reduce the sense of presence. Lemon made it from Jiang Lingxue's blood. There is a weak creature in the abyss that has evolved a mental ability that makes people subconsciously ignore its existence. The effect is similar to invisibility. Drink it and hide... There are only two S-level creatures in front of you. There is no point in killing them."

Lu Xiaoxiao took the potion given by Lin Cheng and drank it together with Lin Cheng in the crowd. Lin Cheng held his hand and slowly blended into the dark rainstorm behind them. The two men in black robes who were standing by the tree and watching this scene quietly were completely unaware of this. Lin Cheng and Lu Xiaoxiao had retreated behind a tree more than ten meters away. Lu Xiaoxiao stared at the people who were being sacrificed in front of him, biting his lips tightly, his eyes wide open as if they were about to burst.

Lin Cheng gently hugged her from behind and said, "Calm down."

But Lu Xiaoxiao's breathing had become particularly rapid at this moment. She suddenly realized that it was not only the people from Qingshui Village who came to the willow tree. There were even scattered figures walking towards this side in the distance. They gradually gathered together. They were obviously villagers from the neighboring village. There were nearly one or two hundred people. They came to the willow tree one after another and were pierced in the neck by the willow tree, declaring their death in a real sense.

And she could only stand here at the moment, the flame of anger burning wildly in her chest, but her shoulders seemed to be crushed by the heavy feeling of powerlessness and gradually lowered. The heavy rain had soaked her whole body, and it was hard to tell whether the traces on her porcelain white cheeks were tears or water.

106 Art is Explosion

Lin Cheng understood Lu Xiaoxiao's anger, but he was also powerless to do anything.

Justice has come too late. These seeds were planted in the villagers a month ago. It only takes seven days for the seeds to complete assimilation and completely kill the host. The rest of the time is to turn the host into complete nutrients. They are still alive, but the seeds are imitating their life patterns. It has nothing to do with good or evil, but instinct.

Part of Lin Cheng's ability is to directly analyze the origin of the ability, so when he saw the tree with his own eyes, he understood everything.

The sacrifice was proceeding in an orderly manner. The men in black robes standing by the tree had been smoking one cigarette after another. They looked up and saw fruits slowly growing on the thickest branches of the willow tree. The fruits were slowly growing larger as the number of people offering sacrifices increased. All they had to do was wait patiently.

"Xiao Qi, activate the tracking system and follow these two people."

As Lin Cheng whispered, Xiaoqi's tail, which was originally lying on the side, fell off automatically, then melted into liquid. After twisting, it turned into a small sparrow, flew to the branch, and quietly stared at the two people in front of it.

Lin Cheng covered Lu Xiaoxiao's eyes.

He could feel the warmth coming from his palm, which was Lu Xiaoxiao's tears.

The sacrifice lasted for half an hour. When Lin Cheng withdrew his hand, the sacrifice was over. Tears fell from the corners of Lu Xiaoxiao's eyes. "How many people?"

"Three hundred and forty-two. I carefully observed each person. They are all dead. It's too late to save them." There was an indescribable sense of calmness in Lin Cheng's voice. Lu Xiaoxiao could not understand this calmness.

These are more than 300 lives, but Lin Cheng's voice was too calm.

The two people standing under the tree looked at the bright red fruits that had already grown on the tree, took the fruit and put it into the storage ring. The moment the fruit was taken, the tree slowly withered and finally turned into a piece of dead wood. The bodies of the two people merged into the heavy rain and gradually disappeared from the sight of Lin Cheng and Lu Xiaoxiao.

Behind them, Xiaoqi's tail turned into a sparrow, which now quietly followed the two of them.

Lin Cheng took Lu Xiaoxiao's hand and walked under the eaves. At this moment, there was no living person in the village. Lu Xiaoxiao's body was shaking all the time. She was soaked. Lin Cheng didn't know how to comfort her.

He didn't know how to describe his mood. He couldn't even feel the anger in his heart. He couldn't explain it. An SS-level natural disaster had struck. Even if Sima Ming was not there, as long as the alliance controlled it properly, the casualties could be reduced to less than three hundred. However, facing such means of a civilian organization, he was completely powerless.

Human beings defeated the abyss, but lost to their own greed.

But this cannot be blamed on the Alliance's poor performance. The Alliance has tried very hard to maintain order in the turbulent times. They just came a little late. After all, the methods used by the Styx were unheard of, incredible and completely unpredictable to them.

"Change your clothes, Xiaoqi, monitor the footage."

Following Lin Cheng's instructions, Xiaoqi, who had lost his tail, turned into a LCD screen again, showing the scene of the two people who had just left. They had already arrived in the town and drove a car, and the sparrow that Xiaoqi's tail turned into was now on the roof of their car.

Lu Xiaoxiao took off her wet sweatshirt and trousers under the eaves and took out a brand new alliance uniform from the storage ring. Lin Cheng was watching the surveillance footage carefully, and the heavy rain was still not stopping.

"You can drive back by yourself next."

"Where are you going?" Lu Xiaoxiao's eyes were fixed on his face. Lin Cheng answered softly, "This rain is caused by the elemental turbulence. The elemental turbulence means that a space crack above the SS level will slowly open. I have to track their location. The energy fruit will probably be used tonight. Although I don't know what they are planning to do...but, leave it to me."

Lu Xiaoxiao lowered her head slightly, her voice became very soft, with a humble plea, "Can I go with you?"

"you……"

Lin Cheng looked at her pale cheeks and tired eyes, and swallowed back the words "you are too weak" that were about to come out of his mouth. He sighed helplessly, "Okay, if there is any danger, let Xiaoqi use the jet pack mode to take you away."

Lu Xiaoxiao had already changed into the alliance's combat uniform, while Lin Cheng was already soaked through. The T-shirt stuck to his body, making him feel a little uncomfortable, so Lin Cheng simply took off the T-shirt and put it back into his ear clip. In the surveillance footage, the car was heading towards a tourist attraction in City C, which was a mountain.

It was too early to chase after them now. Lu Xiaoxiao took out her cell phone and prepared to call for support from the C City Alliance, but Lin Cheng reached out and grabbed her wrist, shaking his head, "Don't call for help."