The scholar tree stood right in the centre of the living area. Beside it, there was also a pavilion and a covered corridor. Before the apocalypse, this place had been a good spot for B University students to chat idly or date during the summer.
But now, the place was covered in dust. No one had come here for a very long time.
Only the scholar tree in the middle still stood firmly in place. Its branches and leaves were even denser than before, and it looked as though it had not been affected at all by the harsh post-apocalyptic environment.
Earlier, Ruan Ning had rested in place for half an hour, easing the weakness left behind from using her healing ability. Now, her energy had recovered quite a bit too. Her face no longer looked so pale, as if she might collapse from a single gust of wind.
But when Gu Yicheng saw her frail body, he still could not help frowning several times. In his heart, he began calculating how he could get her the corresponding crystal nuclei to raise the level of her ability and thereby strengthen her physique.
Under Ruan Ning’s treatment, Jiang Jingyang’s leg had also improved significantly. He no longer needed someone to support him in order to walk. With no severely injured person holding them back, the group’s combat strength increased greatly.
“I’ve lived this long, but I’ve never seen such a huge scholar tree before,” Ruan Ning said.
Ruan Ning had grown up in a big city since childhood, let alone seen such a towering tree with a trunk thicker than several of her put together. Such trees were rare to begin with. Perhaps now they could only be seen more often deep in remote mountains and ancient forests.
She did not know whether this scholar tree had originally been so tall and majestic, or whether it had only mutated into this form after the apocalypse.
But no matter how she looked at it, the latter seemed more likely, right? Ruan Ning thought.
As a B University student, Xi Chen had more authority to speak on this. He explained, “This scholar tree was transplanted here from the provincial botanical garden by our school. Even the pavilion we’re standing in now was named after it. But originally, this scholar tree was less than ten years old, and its size wasn’t even half of what we’re seeing now. It was only one week after the apocalypse broke out that it suddenly grew into this overnight.”
Jiang Jingyang, who was standing to the side, also added a few words in agreement. The survivors in the living area had long since been terrified by the plants spread across the entire area. Usually, whenever they saw plants, they would avoid them, so naturally, even fewer people dared to come to the territory where this scholar tree stood.
This was also Jiang Jingyang’s first time coming to this pavilion after the apocalypse.
Even during the operation three days ago, everyone had spent almost half a month clearing a safe route by detouring around the edge.
Thinking of that group of treacherous people, Jiang Jingyang’s mood immediately worsened. After saying some information about the scholar tree, he did not continue the topic any further.
The Tier Three wood-type zombie wandering around B University’s living area had already been killed by Gu Yicheng, but the plants growing around them were still just as active and troublesome as before. This further confirmed Gu Yicheng’s suspicion.
Although that Tier Three wood-type zombie had posed a great threat, the real reason this place had turned into a hell on earth was probably still the scholar tree before them.
They had suffered quite a few attacks on their way here, but ever since Ruan Ning and the others arrived at this pavilion, the vines and zombies that had been chasing them from behind all shrank back one by one. It was as if something here affected them, making them afraid to approach this place.
The closer they got to the scholar tree, the better the plants grew. It was as though the nutrients from the entire living area had been absorbed here to supply the plants’ growth.
To ensure everyone else’s safety, Gu Yicheng had them wait at the pavilion while he continued walking alone toward the covered corridor. Although the surroundings were extremely quiet and did not look dangerous at all, and although his pace was neither hurried nor slow, in truth, Gu Yicheng had not relaxed his guard for a single moment. The lightning ability in his hand was ready to be unleashed. At the slightest disturbance, he would immediately attack.
However, until he reached the scholar tree, nothing jumped out to attack him.
Everything went so smoothly that it felt like a dream.
The scholar tree’s lush branches and leaves blocked almost all the sunlight, making the shade beneath the tree particularly dim. However, Gu Yicheng had excellent night vision and could clearly see what was hidden under the tree.
There were two corpses.
To be precise, it should be one male and one female corpse. Both had already been dead for a long time. The bodies were highly decomposed, and their torsos were joined together, facing each other, so the original appearance of their faces could no longer be seen at all. The white roots at the base of the scholar tree were tangled around the two bodies. He believed that before long, these two corpses would merge completely with the tree trunk.
Seeing such a scene all of a sudden, one that could rival a horror film, might have scared someone with weaker psychological endurance so badly that their legs went weak on the spot.
Gu Yicheng’s expression remained cold. He merely frowned slightly, without much fluctuation in his eyes. He took a long stick out of his space and expressionlessly used it to turn over the two corpses.
He had already tried attacking the trunk of the scholar tree. With his current Tier Three lightning ability, he could not harm it or shake it at all. Although this scholar tree had no offensive power, its defensive ability was the strongest existence he had seen so far.
For the time being, Gu Yicheng had no way to deal with it, so he shifted his attention to these two unusual corpses.
After searching for a while, he made a major discovery.
There was nothing special about the male corpse. The special one was the female corpse. There was a crystal nucleus in her head, and its colour was very strange. Brown and green intertwined together, making it look like an earth-type crystal nucleus and also like a wood-type one. Gu Yicheng could not tell exactly what kind of crystal nucleus it was.
But the level of this crystal nucleus was already close to Tier Four.
This was also the highest-level crystal nucleus Gu Yicheng had seen in the more than one month since his rebirth.
A Tier Four crystal nucleus…
Gu Yicheng remembered that in his previous life, the first time he had seen a Tier Four crystal nucleus had been nearly half a year into the apocalypse.
At that time, he had only just upgraded to Tier Four himself. He had led his team to search for supplies in a villa district on the outskirts of the Imperial Capital, and there, they had encountered a Tier Four speed-type mutated zombie. The person who had attended the same university as him, been his classmate for four years, and later schemed against him in his previous life, had displayed his ability during that operation. It was because of that that Gu Yicheng had noticed this person’s existence. He had felt that the person had ability and ambition, making him a promising talent, so he had taken him from another team and promoted him from an ordinary member to vice-captain.
Only, even Gu Yicheng had not expected that this person’s ambition was actually to force him out of the captain’s position, seize the Gu family’s influence after his death, and even go so far as to drug him for that purpose.
And in this life, he did not know whether it was due to the butterfly effect, but the speed of zombie evolution seemed to have advanced.
Even though what had appeared now was only a crystal nucleus close to Tier Four, not a true Tier Four yet, the impact it brought Gu Yicheng was still considerable.
Gu Yicheng pondered for a moment, then put away the crystal nucleus.
After the crystal nucleus was taken away, the two corpses beneath the tree began to rot rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye. In just a few minutes, a foul stench began spreading from the corpses, and the smell was extremely unpleasant.
Gu Yicheng had not planned to stay here for long anyway. Obtaining an extra crystal nucleus was also an unexpected joy for him. They had found Jiang Jingyang, obtained three Tier Three crystal nuclei, and on this trip to B University, it could be said that their gains were quite substantial.
Gu Yicheng raised his head and glanced at the towering tree. A trace of indifference and coldness flashed through his eyes. He took a barrel of gasoline out of his space and poured it over the trunk, then placed many flammable materials around it.
Only after he had finished all this did he walk a little farther away, light a lighter, and throw it beneath the tree.
The fire touched the flammable materials and gasoline, and quickly began to burn.
“Brother, what exactly is going on? Why did it suddenly catch fire?” Ruan Ning looked in confusion toward the direction of the scholar tree, only to see a blaze there even larger than the one from when Gu Yicheng had gone to kill the zombie earlier.
The moment the flames suddenly burst out, Ruan Ning, Lin Yang, and the others waiting in the pavilion for Gu Yicheng’s return were all startled. They thought something had happened to him inside and were about to ignore his instructions and rush in by force to save him.
Gu Yicheng lowered his eyes slightly and explained, “The situation with this scholar tree is unusual. We can’t let it stay in this living area and continue growing. It’s better to burn it. The flames will soon spread to the pavilion, so we need to leave here quickly.”
“Okay.”
The surrounding fire did indeed show signs of growing larger. Seeing this, everyone no longer delayed. They quickly jogged out of the pavilion and moved away from the living area.
However, in the central area of the living district, where the scholar tree was located at the point where the fire had started, the flames that had filled the sky began to show signs of growing smaller after burning there for a while, forming a stark contrast with the situation outside.
All the flowers and grass around the scholar tree were burned away. Immediately afterward, the fire slowly began to die out. The scholar tree’s scorched black branches, burned by the flames, began to grow fresh green leaves again under the many emerald-green halos rising from its roots.
After Ruan Ning and the others left the living area, they did not plan to return the way they had come and climb over the wall near the west gate to leave the school.
The closest gate to the eastern side of the living area was B University’s south gate. Gu Yicheng planned to go that way, as it would be faster.
After all, the sky was almost dark. They had to leave the school as soon as possible. Any distance they could shorten was worth shortening.
“My god! You actually came out of there safely! How did you do it?!”
When Ruan Ning and the other seven passed beneath a teaching building, they ran into a team of around ten people.
This team clearly recognised them. However, Ruan Ning did not recognise who they were at first. Only after carefully thinking back did she realise that they looked somewhat familiar.
Weren’t these the people who had insisted on following them on the way to the living area, but after hearing that they were going there to rescue someone, had become terrified one by one and shaken their heads like rattles?
This was… they still had not left, and had been waiting for them?
They had definitely spent two or three hours inside. So these people had been waiting here the whole time?
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