The sun spared no effort, pouring its dazzling light over the heads of every ‘person’ below.

The creatures caught between humans and trees held their arms high as they knelt prostrate on the ground, their arms and shoulders forming an eerie 180-degree angle.

From inside the vehicle, the tops of their heads were clearly visible.

There was no hair, only smooth, fleshy domes. From the very centre, tender shoots sprouted and trembled in the breeze.

“They look bizarre,” Chi Zhou remarked. “They don’t even have heads.”

Xia Ye studied them closely. Moss was growing from their cracked, dark-brown skin, slowly devouring the indistinct flesh beneath.

Xia Ye let out a barely audible sigh. “They can’t really be considered human anymore.”

Chi Zhou withdrew his gaze from the human-faced trees and looked at Xia Ye.

Xia Ye unconsciously stroked his knuckles. The joints hidden beneath his skin protruded slightly, making his fingers look exceptionally slender.

This was his first mission, yet he showed none of the nervousness or terror typical of a newcomer.

It was as if he had witnessed scenes like this countless times and had long since grown accustomed to them.

Amid the thunderous, wave-like cries of worship, Chi Zhou asked him, “Are you scared?”

Xia Ye shook his head. His eyes were remarkably calm. He even turned to ask him, “Are you scared?”

“I’m not.” Chi Zhou was drinking water when the question made him choke, and he coughed twice. “Is that the kind of person you think I am?”

Xia Ye lowered his head, hiding the smile in his eyes.

“How could I possibly say that about a senior like you?” Xia Ye replied.

Jian Feiyang chimed in, “You really are the only one who’d dare say that to the captain. I’ve never seen anyone else ask the captain if he’s afraid of a mutated creature.”

Laughter rippled through the vehicle, and the atmosphere suddenly relaxed.

Chi Zhou said helplessly, “I’m not that terrifying, am I?”

“You have to experience the atmosphere of our squad firsthand to understand it,” Jian Feiyang said. “Xia Ye, you’ll find out soon enough. When the captain is on a mission, that aura of his… Well, all I can say is, if a god blocks his way, he kills the god; if a Buddha blocks his way, he kills the Buddha.”

Xia Ye said nothing. He kept his head down, intently fiddling with the gun Chi Zhou had given him.

His heart was beating a little faster than usual.

He realised he really seemed to enjoy joking around with Chi Zhou.

It made him feel closer to them—no longer just an orphan in District Twelve waiting for someone else to save him.

—

After howling and wailing at the sun for a while, the human-faced trees stood up in unison.

Hundreds of arms made a series of clicking sounds as they returned to their original positions.

Xia Ye asked quietly, “Will they charge at us?”

“They won’t. The ritual is over.”

Clearly experienced with this sort of thing, Chi Zhou gestured to Jian Feiyang. “Follow them.”

“By the way, have you memorised the field manual?” Chi Zhou turned to Xia Ye and made several dazzlingly complicated hand signals. “Do you remember all the codes?”

Xia Ye nodded. Although he could not claim to have a photographic memory, he had an extraordinary sensitivity to remembering important information in books.

“You were pretty quick,” Chi Zhou said in surprise. “Back then, Jian Feiyang spent a full two months memorising it. He was still reading the manual in the car when we went on missions.”

Jian Feiyang grumbled, “It was so long. Who could remember all that? Captain, give me a break.”

Chi Zhou never swore. He was famous in the Special Operations Department for his ‘good temper’.

Jian Feiyang had once believed that was genuinely true, until he discovered that while Chi Zhou never cursed, he would simply smile coldly at you whenever you failed to do something properly.

That oppressive feeling was enough to make anyone’s scalp tingle.

“Xia Ye remembered it, didn’t he?” Chi Zhou pointed toward the highway. “You’re the one who talks too much. If you lose them later, what are you going to use to make it up to me?”

On the highway, which had previously been packed shoulder to shoulder, the human-faced trees were now receding like a tide. They moved incredibly fast, but they did not walk on two legs. Instead, they used the countless branches growing from their bodies.

One branch after another stretched out like spider legs, extending endlessly across the highway and dragging along bodies that still retained a human form. They moved at a speed of five or six meters per second.

Witnessing this scene, Xia Ye finally understood how these things had appeared so suddenly.

Using the black rain that blotted out the sky as cover, the human-faced trees had raced along the highway, silently and unnoticed, surrounding the off-road vehicle.

They had not come looking for people.

They had simply done what they were supposed to do—waiting for the sun.

—

As they drew closer and closer to the highway exit, the human-faced trees began to slow down.

The branches growing from their bodies gradually retracted into their limbs, and their human legs began functioning again.

“Holy shit, what are they doing?”

Jian Feiyang slammed on the brakes, narrowly avoiding a child who had suddenly appeared in front of them. “How the hell are there children in this godforsaken place?”

“Because the night is over.”

Chi Zhou held up his phone, snapped several pictures, and uploaded them to the Special Operations Department’s mission system.

“Look carefully. They’ve regressed.”

The human-faced trees, which had previously seemed almost indistinguishable from extraterrestrial creatures, gradually changed form, returning to their human appearance.

Several of the more severely affected ones still had tender shoots growing from the tops of their heads, but they no longer looked quite as terrifying.

Many people pulled out hats and gloves, instinctively covering the mutated parts of their bodies.

“They’re conscious,” Xia Ye murmured.

An hour ago, these things had barely looked human.

Now, they had already begun chatting with one another.

Through his Mental Domain, Xia Ye heard their conversation.

“I’m so full today. What about you?”

“I don’t really like this flavour. I always feel like it’s too sweet.”

“Really? I thought yesterday’s was too bland. It wasn’t interesting at all.”

Chi Zhou noticed his reaction and asked, “What are they talking about?”

Xia Ye frowned slightly. “They’re discussing breakfast.”

“Breakfast? Don’t scare me. These things have been squatting here all night. What could they possibly have for breakfast?” Jian Feiyang looked around. “Don’t tell me the breakfast is us?”

“No,” Xia Ye said. “They’ve already eaten. They’re discussing the flavour. I think they’re talking about the sun.”

“The sun?” Jian Feiyang asked, puzzled. “That whole thing earlier was them eating breakfast?”

“Yes. They worship the sun. The sun bestows its blessings upon them and gives them energy,” Chi Zhou said. “They’ve completely mutated toward a plant-like state.”

He pointed toward those people. “The more severe the mutation, the less self-awareness they have.”

Chewing gum, Ying Jiawei pulled out the stack of documents again.

“Their report says that all severely ill patients have already been admitted to the town hospital, while patients with mild symptoms are currently being screened. If anyone discovers someone at home growing tender shoots, they need to seek medical attention immediately.”

Xia Ye said coldly, “Then they’re avoiding the screening.”

On that sweltering summer day, most people on the highway wore long sleeves, covering the brownish skin faintly visible beneath.

“That’s strange.” Ying Jiawei observed the people on the road. “They’ve caused such a huge commotion. How has no one noticed?”

“Mm.” Chi Zhou gestured toward the highway exit. “It’s simple. They have an insider.”

Jian Feiyang slowed down at the exit. His StarNet card beeped as the toll was automatically deducted.

A pale hand reached out through the toll booth window and handed him a receipt.

From the cuff of that sleeve, Xia Ye caught a glimpse of a cluster of tender green shoots.

He rolled down the window and smiled gently at the person inside.

“Thank you, but we don’t need the receipt.”

The person inside did not look up. Xia Ye could not see his face clearly. He could only hear a dry, raspy voice. “Hello. We must provide you with a receipt. This is the regulation of the highway toll station.”

Xia Ye’s Mental Domain enveloped the off-road vehicle, cutting off that voice from the outside.

Chi Zhou could only hear him ask the person, “What if I don’t take it?”

It was a rather strange feeling.

Using his Mental Domain to protect his teammates had always been his job.

Yet Xia Ye needed no reminder. He had already conscientiously taken on the responsibilities of a guide.

—

Outside the car window, the summer breeze blew gently, carrying a sticky, stifling heat.

Longgu Town seemed hotter than other places.

“I’m sorry. This is the regulation of our highway toll station.” The dry, raspy voice was tinged with anger as it rigidly repeated the so-called rule. “You must accept it.”

From inside the sleeve, the slender tender shoot seemed to have become fuller, silently creeping toward Xia Ye.

“Is that so?”

Xia Ye did not become angry at the man’s poor attitude. Instead, a hint of amusement entered his voice.

“If I don’t accept it, you wouldn’t happen to kill me, would you?”

Inside the vehicle, Chi Zhou’s hand was already resting on the grip of his gun. The moment the human-faced tree attempted to harm Xia Ye, he would shoot it dead.

“If you do not accept the receipt, you cannot pass through the toll station.”

The voice sounded as though it had been programmed in advance. It was not listening to what Xia Ye was saying at all, merely repeating its lines mechanically.

The hand stubbornly stretched farther, holding the receipt covered in printed words right in front of Xia Ye.

The car window was approximately three meters from the toll booth, far beyond the natural length of a human arm.

“All right,” Xia Ye said, sounding almost helpless. “You really are stubborn.”

He reached out, preparing to take the receipt.

The instant Xia Ye’s fingers touched the paper, the tender shoot inside the sleeve suddenly surged in growth.

The shoot transformed into a vine topped with a small, pale-yellow flower. Its central stamen was tinged with a vivid crimson, resembling the tongue of a venomous snake.

The slender green vine shot straight toward Xia Ye like a snake, attempting to coil around his wrist. The small, pale-yellow flower swayed with the vine, looking particularly excited, as though it were itching to make a move.

A crystal-clear drop of liquid secreted from its stamen, seemingly some kind of seed.

“You picked the wrong person,” Xia Ye said calmly. “I’m not your petri dish.”

At the same time, Xia Ye drew the dagger from its sheath and instantly severed the stamen.

The delicate stamen immediately withered, losing its eerie crimson colour as it fell limply toward the ground.

The vine was enraged. It surged out of the sleeve all at once, trying to coil around the man who had dared to defy it.

But Xia Ye had already withdrawn his hand and tossed the receipt into the protective pouch.

As the off-road vehicle sped away, the vine stretched for more than ten meters behind it, almost pulling itself into a straight line.

Dark currents stirred in the air. The wind carried scorching heat and grew sharper.

A mechanical, rigid voice drifted from far behind them, its hoarse tone concealing a trace of resentment.

“Thank you for your cooperation. Longgu Town welcomes you.”

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