Volume 2 Chapter 15.2 Deep in the Forest

Happy new year everyone!! I hope everyone had an awesome countdown and have a few new year resolutions they will aim for, mine will be to finish translating one of the two novels this year!!

The place they were at was a forest. The thing that Qiao Mo was searching for was related to Yan Qiyue. Yan Qiyue was currently researching on something that could temporarily replace crystals to replenish supernatural powers. Like the blue potion from an online game, they were missing one ingredient so they were here to look for it.
The forest naturally didn’t have zombies. But there was a high number of variation vegetation and animals. Its level of danger wasn’t inferior to a city filled with zombies at all.

In fact, the killing power of a variation vegetation or animal was even bigger than a zombie, especially variation animals. They were often quite nimble and no matter if it was power or speed, they were a lot stronger than a zombie.

Adding onto the growth rate of a variation vegetation, the dangers in this forest was enormous.

Just entering the forest, they already encountered two variation animals. One variation animal resembled a stray dog with incredible speed, while the other resembled a wild boar with powerful defense and strength.

Luckily the squad that Qiao Mo brought had a strong tacit understanding of each other and was able to deal with the two animals without much effort.

However, during the journey, they encountered another thing that was more troublesome: a tree. Even though they didn’t know what it was originally, but after going through the transformation, they realized that the tree’s rattan could restrict people and drag them to it’s tree trunk. The branch and leaves would also secrete a fragrance that would cause drowsiness. Once people were asleep and lost their ability to fight back, they would be dragged to the tree where it had thorns to stab the people. The thorns resembled Shao Qing’s vines that had venom. It would corrode the body until it was left with a body of liquid then it would slowly absorb it.

Nearby the tree there were countless of other small variation animals. They would help assist the tree in attracting and murdering people and bigger animals. Later it would be given a portion to feed on, mutually benefiting from each other.

Shao Qing and them were nearly sneak attacked by it. Luckily Shao Qing as a wood elemental was able to discover it earlier and not absorb the tree’s fragrant smell or else they would have been eliminated in one swoop.

They wiped out the tree and the nearby variation animals. Variation animals had a nucleus in their brain similar to a zombie, same for variation vegetation except the location was not necessarily there. Besides reaping quite a few crystals, Yan Qiyue was also able to extract some poison and juice from the tree, most likely for research.

“This jungle really does have everything.” a superhuman let out a breath: “Today, I really increased my knowledge and experience.”

“Luckily Di Mei* was vigilant or else we wouldn’t have discovered it.” Qiao Mo expressed his good will. Having Qiao Mo use the words Di Mei to curry favour with him, Yan Qiyue didn’t even realize that Qiao Mo had claimed to be the older brother.

* = younger brother’s wife

Qiao Mo had discovered this point. As long as it related to Shao Qing, Yan Qiyue would lose all rationale and would turn into a completely different person.

In fact the crucial point was as long as he praised their relationship, then everything would go as he wanted.

He had just gotten a useful skill.

“The forest does have everything. What is with this weather and there’s so many mosquitos.” Another superhuman said as waved his hand to drive away a swarm of mosquitoes.

He was a bit envious that none of the mosquitoes would bite Shao Qing. In fact they stayed far away while they attracted the mosquitoes like no tomorrow and was completely surrounded by them. Could it be that even mosquitoes judge by looking at face?

Or not the face but the gender.

“There’s something wrong.” Yan Qiyue frowned and extended his hand, grabbing the void in front, a mosquito was suddenly held in place. Everyone could clearly see the mosquitoes appearance.

This mosquito was bigger than the average one by a lot. It’s mouth was long and looked like a thick steel needle which was already as long as half the average mosquito. It’s wings had spots that looked especially odd.

“Did anyone get bitten?” Yan Qiyue calmly asked. Immediately a few hands raised: “I was bitten on the back of the hand.”

When he lifted his hand up, he looked distracted. On his hand was a large red swell that constantly had pus stream out. The crucial point was that he didn’t even realize!

With that big of a swell, he normally would have already noticed it. As for his skin and flesh, it was only when it had started to decompose did he discover it.

Another key point was that he just got bit, yet the back of his hand has already turned into this state.

This person was completely alarmed. Everyone else immediately rushed to look at where they were bitten. Just as expected, while they were unaware, all the places where they were bitten had swollen up.

Like a festering boil constantly pussing, it looked horrifying and they had not noticed at all.

If it weren’t for Yan Qiyue asking, they would not have noticed the bites have become like this.

The other two who weren’t bite, immediately used their superpowers to clear the surrounding area of the mosquitoes.

One of the superhumans was a fire elemental user. Stretching out his hand, the mosquitoes cleverly flew away. As for the other people, they immediately began studying the wounds.

All the bitten spots looked like they were infected as it continuously pussed. Puffing out, some even began to rot.

One superhuman ruthlessly grabbed a dagger and directly sliced off the bulge. But, where the pus touched, it immediately became infected.

The places the blood touched began rotting. Having no choice, he began scooping out the rotting flesh. Finally that chestnut sized swell ended up causing him to chop off a large chunk of meat.

Seeing the results, a few others also started to imitate him.

Some of the wounds were on the neck or back. They could only have someone help. Finally each and every one of them carried a wound.

“It seems that these mosquitoes are afraid of fire. If they come close again, fire elemental users will be in charge of expelling them. This forest is full of danger, everyone needs to make sure they don’t drop their guard.” Qiao Mo’s tone was downcast. They were able to overcome large variation animals, but in the end it was the tiny dangers that had sunk their boat. They were ambushed by the variation mosquitoes.

One only learns from one’s mistake. Now these people definitely wouldn’t underestimate any of the variation animals and plants. Only god knows if the grass by the side had the ability to put one to death, but there is always a possibility.

Even a tiny mosquito was able to cause them so much trouble. How could they not become more careful?

Yan Qiyue silently placed the mosquito he was restraining into a bottle, preparing to bring it back for research. Watching the bottle carefully, although Shao Qing knew that everything is fine, she still had the urge to pinch it to death.

Yan Qiyue understood it completely differently. He had thought that she was curious about his strength and quickly said: “My power is different from the rest. I’m able to control air. I can compress the atmosphere into a ball and also for a split second create a vacuum in space. But that would require a lot of my power.”

Shao Qing nodded her head. This ability was indeed useful whether if it was for fighting or during normal times. In particular, it would be able to keep the freshness of the vegetables making it rather effective.

If produces were conserved in a vacuum, it should be able to last for quite a long time right?

Yan Qiyue didn’t know that Shao Qing had already begin pondering the everyday use for his power like preserving produces.

Even if he knew, Yan Qiyue would still be happy. After all, in his wife’s heart he would be useful. Just that thought would be enough to make him ecstatic.

“Our destination is just ahead, everyone be careful. We are already deep in the forest. The deeper we are, the more dangerous it is. Just like earlier the smallest mosquito could bring about a great danger, not to mention the other things here. Everyone must be cautious.” Qiao Mo calmly stated.

Everyone agreed and raised their vigilance as they continued on. After boring their way through the underbrush, they could see an ocean of flower. Clusters of red, pink unknown flowers were in full bloom, particularly alluring.

This ocean of flower should be naturally grown, yet it seemed irregular. Because it grew densely, you could only see a bunch at a time. The heavy petals pressed down on the stem caused them to crowd even closer. Then they began emitting a sweet fragrance.

After falling into the trap earlier, the group of superhumans immediately increased their alertness and one by one held their breath.