The soldier fired a few shots before realizing he wasn’t needed and walked over to Lu Chen’s side, his voice laced with awe, "Admiral Lu?"
On hearing this, the man glanced over at him, nodded slightly, and then followed Su Mo.
It really was him; seeing the man in person! Not daring to disturb further, the soldier stepped back two paces, visibly excited.
Not far behind Su Mo, Mo Yan, seeing their team letting her have all the kills, couldn’t help but ask, "Su Mo, what do you need all these Crystal Stones for?"
She couldn’t be bothered with him and merely activated her superpower, weaving through the zombies.
As they were all Level 2 Zombies and the five of them were deliberately hiding their true strength, they cleared through them exceptionally fast, at a speed unreachable for Mo Yan and the others.
Ai Yang said with a grimace, "Our trip today has been a waste, most of the loot’s ended up in that woman’s hands."
Mo Yan shot a glance at him, suppressing his discomfort, "No worries, there are plenty of missions, no rush."
The deeper they went, the fewer zombies there were inside.
Surrounded by corpses on the outskirts of the village, Su Mo, now inside, was covered in black bloodstains on her blade as she stopped in front of an ancient towering tree, looking up.
The dense green foliage swayed with the wind, and the golden sunlight streamed through the leaves. The tree was large; probably three people couldn’t encircle it with their arms.
The brick floor here was very clean, with no traces of blood, nor any signs of zombie activities.
Those who followed couldn’t help but have their gazes drawn to the robustly growing tree.
"That must be a tree of over a hundred years," Jianxiong exclaimed.
"Yeah, let’s go," Su Mo retreated two steps, always feeling that this tree was growing too lush and vigorous, considering it hadn’t rained in so long. It was indeed strange.
She had just walked a few steps with her teammates when an excited voice came from behind them.
"It’s a Crystal Stone!" exclaimed the Gold Element Superpower User next to Mo Yan.
Su Mo turned back to find that a Crystal Stone had somehow fallen beneath the big tree, and her sense of crisis surged, "Let’s get away from here."
As for Crystal Stones falling from the tree, Su Mo didn’t think it was the same as pies falling from the sky.
"Captain! It really is a Crystal Stone," the Gold Element Superpower User shouted excitedly after rushing under the tree and picking up the stone.
Several more stones fell from near the thick roots.
Even Ai Yang couldn’t resist going in to pick them up. Su Mo looked up again, her pupils contracting as she keenly noticed the trembling branches shaking off Crystal Cores.
It was as if it was deliberate.
She yelled at the people beside her, "Run!"
She grabbed Lu Chen and ran, and in the blink of an eye, the Gold Element Superpower User looked confusedly at them as they ran off.
Above the ancient tree, the branches began to shake more densely, and the thick branches, with their sharp leaves, dove down at a speed too fast to cover one’s ears, stabbing into the Gold Element Superpower User’s body with their blade-like green leaves and hoisting him off the ground.
Unprepared, the man was impaled and about to be dragged into the thick foliage.
"What is that!" Ai Yang scrambled out, all the Crystal Stones he had pocketed spilling onto the ground.
Mo Yan’s fireballs flew toward the tree limb hooking the superpower user, shouting, "Quick, pull him back!"
When Su Mo and the others turned back around, the scene unfolded into a frenzy of tree branches whipping around like tentacles.
"This mutated tree even knows how to hunt," Li Qian adjusted his glasses, which had slipped down due to running, his eyes gleaming with an exploratory light.
The soldiers, who were all ready to wrap things up, were stunned. His fingers danced quickly over the electronic board and soon provided an answer, "Level 3 Mutated Tree, we need to support them."
"Ah~" Zhao Changsheng sighed heavily, her tone displeased, "Can we opt out of rescuing them?"
The soldier glanced at her, put away his tablet, and said, "According to the base agreement, you’ve already established a cooperative relationship, so you must rescue them."
Having finished speaking, he raised his gun and unleashed a barrage of bullets at the mutated tree, attempting to buy time for the Gold Element Superpower User.
"It seems we can only rescue them," Li Qian said gently.
"Let’s go, just pretend we’re Bodhisattvas this time," Su Mo, holding her knife ready to turn back, was stopped when Lu Chen grabbed her wrist and said calmly, "I can go alone."
Unaware that Lu Chen had already reached Level 4, Su Mo immediately protested, "How can we allow that?"
"Let him go. That thing is no match for him," Li Qian urged her warmly once again.
Su Mo felt a pressure from Lu Chen, even stronger than her own, and finally understood, "Alright, then."
The injuries on Mo Yan were multiplying. One careless move, and a sharp leaf could slash his major arteries or slit his throat.
The Gold Element Superpower User had already become completely motionless, hanging like a dead fish on a tree branch, his skin turning an unhealthy pallor, his entire body beginning to shrink.
Zhao Xiweng could do nothing but shoot a few Water Arrows from a distance to buy time; she saw Lu Chen return and hope ignited in her eyes.
Her Water Arrows changed direction, shooting towards the space in front of Lu Chen, seemingly wanting to clear his path to the base of the tree, although the arrows could not even pierce the tree’s coarse bark.
Lu Chen’s Level 4 pressure was fully unleashed, surging towards the ancient tree. Its branches, once tangled with Mo Yan and the others, quivered and shifted their target to attack Lu Chen instead.
Su Mo moved a couple of steps forward, concern in her eyes, ready to rush out and offer support at any moment.
Ice Shields rapidly formed around the man, like a giant protective dome that blocked the external attacks, and countless branches and leaves could not shatter that thick shield.
Zhao Xiweng couldn’t help but be stunned, love mingling with the hope in her eyes.
The man she had always admired was always so dazzling, no matter the situation.
With the branches no longer entangling him, Mo Yan and Ai Yang quickly lowered the superpower user and started to carry him out.
Lu Chen approached the ancient tree unhindered, its attacks becoming more frenzied, even pulling up its roots from the ground, causing the surface to crack open inch by inch.
Several roots surged underground towards the group with ferocious force.
Su Mo immediately led the others to retreat a few steps and climb onto the low rooftops of the village, watching Lu Chen in the center of the action.
Those roots trying to entangle Lu Chen’s legs hadn’t even reached him before they were frozen by the frost and crushed into bloody slush beneath his foot.
Below the wooden surface, shattered blood and ice were revealed.
One Level is an insurmountable suppression.
The ancient tree seemed to become frightened, and as its roots started to retract, it was already too late.
The man, akin to an unsolvable enigma, walked into the ancient tree, his superpowers whirling rapidly, dozens of Ice Blades slicing towards the roots, severing all the vital foundations.
In everyone’s eyes, all the flailing branches came to a sudden halt, the massive ancient tree collapsing in an instant, simply resolved by one man.
Su Mo jumped down from the rooftop as Lu Chen, holding a Crystal Core, walked towards her.
Zhao Xiweng, limping, reached him first and gave him a military salute, "Thank you, Admiral Lu, for saving our lives."