Everyone thought that as long as Lan Jin was around, no danger could truly threaten them. But when it came to the forest, Lao Gao wasn't any less useful. What's a tree most afraid of? Fire. And he wasn't just a fire ability user, he could also gather explosive orbs that detonated on impact. Strong as they came, he was actually the perfect choice for this mission.
Once Captain Zhang stopped hesitating, he left the shop with Lao Gao and Xiao Huang.
After they were gone, Ling Jiang kept feeling that Captain Zhang had wanted to say something. "It seemed like he had something on his mind, but he didn't say it."
Lan Jin wasn't bothered. "If it were urgent, he would've spoken up. Since he didn't, it means it can wait. No need for us to stick our noses in."
With Lao Gao and Xiao Huang sent off, the two women carried on as usual. Picking up Qiao Qiao from school, locking up the shop on time, finishing work like always. Their daily rhythm didn't shift at all.
Meanwhile, Captain Zhou and Captain Zhang led their squads out and soon arrived at the spot where the tentacle monster had taken root. They linked up with the two teams that had been left behind earlier.
The trees growing there now were nothing like what they'd seen before. "We've been watching," one soldier reported. "The growth rate's insane. It's already thicker than the old trees, and it keeps spreading outward. But it hasn't formed a border like other forests. It just keeps expanding."
If it stopped at a certain range, that'd be fine. But if it never stopped, growing without end… that was terrifying.
"Captain Zhou, what do we do now?"
"Orders from above," Captain Zhou said. "We blow it up."
Blow it up?
It was doable, sure, but this forest felt way too strange. Could they really just blast it to pieces?
"We haven't even stepped inside, but the vines haven't calmed down once. They've been thrashing around in the air nonstop. How are we supposed to get explosives in there?"
Nobody doubted whether they could destroy it. What worried them was that if they tossed bombs in, the vines might just throw them right back out. Who knew if they'd blow up the forest or themselves.
Lao Gao stepped forward. "Leave it to me. My energy orbs explode the instant they hit something. They won't get thrown back. But we'll need to get closer."
"Then let's go," he added with a deep frown. "The sooner we finish this, the sooner we can leave. This place feels wrong to me. Not safe at all."
Huang Jinghe narrowed his eyes. "You noticed something?"
"Not exactly. Just my instincts. Beast-like instincts. This place reeks of danger. So the earlier we finish, the better." He climbed back into the truck.
The convoy followed his lead until they reached the edge of the fresh forest. Lao Gao asked, "Want me to do it directly, or should we step inside and use the base's bombs?"
Captain Zhang hesitated a moment, then shook his head. "You do it. We'll cover you. There's nothing inside worth checking."
"Alright. Starting now."
He leapt onto the roof of the truck, raised his binoculars for a closer look, then hurled an orb into the trees. A deafening boom tore through the forest, blasting a whole section apart.
The trees weren't ordinary though. They had a strange life of their own. When they were destroyed, they let out eerie rustling cries, like wounded creatures in pain. The sound crawled under everyone's skin.
Nobody dared stop. Lao Gao pressed on, throwing orb after orb. Explosions rippled through the half-grown forest.
The roots were still shallow, so the plants writhed desperately in place. One after another, their "companions" were destroyed, which only made them struggle harder. With no outer barrier to contain them, the vines lashed out wildly, striking toward the squad even when they couldn't quite reach.
They couldn't just stand there. So the soldiers joined in, attacking the closest vines until none of them could move again.
The bombardment roared on for nearly an hour before finally dying down.
Huang Jinghe groaned, covering his ears. "Thank god it's over. Any longer and I'd be deaf."
At least the blasts hadn't been nonstop, or his hearing really would've been gone.
After a short rest, Captain Zhang said, "To be safe, let's circle the area in the trucks. Check thoroughly. Once that's done, we'll walk inside, confirm it's finished, then leave."
"Got it."
Thick smoke still lingered, but it was thinning. One by one, the trucks drove around the perimeter.
By the time they'd finished, the entire forest was reduced to wreckage. Then Captain Zhang and Captain Zhou led ability users inside for a final sweep, making sure nothing could regenerate.
The vines had been blasted into ash. No way they were coming back. With the inspection complete, the team prepared to return.
Captain Zhou gave a rare smile. "Well done. Let's head home."
But the return trip wasn't nearly as smooth.
Everyone knew that where there was forest, there were mutated beasts. But this forest had only just appeared. So where would the beasts come from?
The answer came quick. The destruction had drawn them in.
The convoy hadn't gotten far before the first horde appeared.
They weren't strong, but there were a lot of them. "Let's try to avoid them," Captain Zhang suggested. "It's not toward the base anyway. We can ignore them for now."
The trucks turned aside, but dodging one horde only led them straight into another. And so it went. Skirting and dodging again and again, until finally they had no choice but to fight. The road back became a drawn-out struggle. By the time they made it to the base, they'd spent more time fighting the beasts than they had blowing up the forest.
Exhausted soldiers collapsed where they stood. Captain Zhang sighed. "Get disinfected first. Then answer questions and go rest."
"Yeah."
As soon as this batch dispersed, Captain Zhou called in two more squads to guard the base gate. "We ran into a massive swarm of beasts on the way back. I don't want any surprises. Hold this position."