Chapter 183: Spore
Shen Ping’an appeared behind them. “We can go now.”
After finishing the breakfast Ao She had prepared in advance, everyone followed him to pack up the food stored at his home and the livestock he raised—seventeen or eighteen ducks, forty to fifty duck eggs that were about to hatch, and two yellow oxen, one big and one small. Ao She released half of the ducks from their pen; they followed behind the group together with the two oxen, not falling behind at all.
In the tiny village with barely anyone left, Ao She was clearly the backbone. He said his goodbyes to the four or five remaining people, leaving them the nearby crops and half of the ducks.
Up front, Lin Mengzhi slung an arm over Wu Heng’s shoulder. “So many ducks—there’s no way we can fit them all in the vehicle. What, are they supposed to fly along with us?”
At some point, Ao She had come up behind them. “I have a vehicle.”
“Even if you do, there’s no way it can hold this many ducks—and there are two cows too.”
“It can,” Ao She said.
Those who doubted him assumed his vehicle would be something like a jeep, a van, or maybe a motorcycle suited for a single rider.
They didn’t expect it to be a light truck.
The moment the ducks saw the truck, they waddled over, flapped their wings, and hopped right on. The two oxen also jumped up on their own. Ao She then placed the basket of duck eggs he was holding onto the truck as well, along with the grain brought from his home. The open cargo bed quickly became crowded.
“Awesome!” Lin Mengzhi gave Ao She a thumbs-up. “This kind of truck isn’t easy to drive. In our team, only Xue Zhi can handle it.” He didn’t forget to praise Xue Zhi, but unfortunately, the other had already climbed into the driver’s seat of their own truck and missed the compliment.
Ao She wasn’t curious about who Xue Zhi was, nor did he have much interest in the rest of the group. He was only doing this to survive—and to fulfill his father’s last wish.
“Where are we heading next?” After getting in the vehicle, Xue Qi took out a hand-drawn map. “Meizhou.”
“Hopefully the roads are easier to travel,” Dou Lu said, sitting at one end of the seat while Ruan Silian sat at the other. “That way we won’t have to camp out in the open.”
Since last night, the two of them hadn’t spoken a word to each other.
Zhou Yi was rather slow to catch on. He got into the vehicle later, saw the empty seat in the middle, and thought it would be better for the two girls to sit together. Pointing at the empty spot, he said, “Which one of you can move over? I’ll take the seat on the side.”
After a long stretch of silence, Zhou Yi resigned himself and sat down in the middle.
As soon as the vehicles hit the road, they began to jolt and bump nonstop. Ao She’s vehicle was the largest, so it moved the slowest and trailed at the very back. Yet the ducks in his truck were so loud that even the people in the lead vehicle could hear them. The frontmost vehicle was driven by Xue Shen, with Shen Ping’an following closely behind, carrying a full load of passengers.
Wu Heng lay sprawled across the seat, his head resting on Xie Chongyi’s lap, sleeping so deeply he seemed oblivious to the world.
His hair had grown long and thick, and it didn’t behave like ordinary hair. Unlike normal body hair, his hair was alive. After Wu Heng fell asleep, some strands coiled around Xie Chongyi’s wrist, some around his waist, and others around his legs. If one looked closely, they could even see tiny leaf-like structures on the strands—extremely small, but clearly noticeable to the touch.
Xie Chongyi didn’t share the drowsiness of plants in spring. Since it wasn’t raining outside, he opened the window. Between the rolling hills, a massive dark shadow leapt from one side to the other.
In the past, anyone witnessing such a sight might have thought it was a tiger or a leopard. But now, it could just as easily be a mantis, a frog—or even something as small as an ant.
Inside a half-collapsed tunnel, a few tattered zombies still wandered aimlessly forward. Hearing the sound of the engine, they turned their heads, only to be run over by the wheels.
Xie Chongyi withdrew his gaze from outside and looked back down at the person on his lap. His eyes paused. After brushing aside the strands of hair near Wu Heng’s ear with his fingers, he slowly lowered his head.
Hidden among the faintly green strands of the boy’s hair were several clusters of buds about to bloom—something that hadn’t been there before.
Xie Chongyi straightened Wu Heng’s tilted head and ran his fingers inch by inch along his scalp, but found nothing alive there apart from the hair itself. Yet the flowers had simply sprouted from the strands. Behind his ear, there was even a black flower as large as a fist, its petals layered like gauze.
Wu Heng still hadn’t woken up. Xie Chongyi reached out and touched the flower’s stamen. Several layers of petals trembled together, then all curled inward at once.
In his dream, Wu Heng bit his lower lip and frowned uncomfortably.
Xie Chongyi watched his expression thoughtfully, then suddenly smiled. A smile born purely from a good mood looked completely different from the one he wore when he was trying to annoy others.
“What’s that up ahead?” From the front, Dou Lu projected her voice into the minds of all the ability users. She leaned against the car window, staring at the road ahead, which was covered in something green, fuzzy, and faintly glowing. It almost completely blanketed the road and even rose several inches above it.
Not knowing what it was, they didn’t dare continue driving. Xue Shen stopped the car and got out.
“I’ll go take a look,” Shen Ping’an said, glancing at the back seat before getting out as well. Shukui jumped down from the passenger seat too—it needed to relieve itself; a dog couldn’t hold it in forever.
The few who got out stood in front of the strange, green-covered stretch of road. Once they saw clearly what it was, they all froze. Then Dou Lu took a big step back, her face full of horror. “I hate caterpillars the most!”
The thing covering the entire road was, unmistakably, caterpillars—green-bodied and covered in green fuzz. Individually, they weren’t especially large; even the biggest ones in sight were less than a meter long. But there were so many of them, layered one over another across the road. When they breathed, the entire surface seemed to rise and fall.
What was strange, though, was that although they were alive, none of them moved at all—as if they were all dead. Even when Shen Ping’an stood just an inch away, not a single caterpillar reacted.
Xue Qi crouched down, peering into the mass of insects covering the road. “Why is it like this?”
But the moment he crouched, his gaze met countless insect eyes beneath the upright, grass-like bristles. He immediately stood up, his face turning pale. “Bro… the ones underneath are dead, the ones on top are alive. That’s disgusting.”
“These are very common mountain caterpillars,” Ao She said as he walked over, glancing up at the trees above. “They fell from the trees.”
Only then did everyone remember to look up.
Towering trees, their branches intertwined, formed a green canopy with only a few gaps. On the surfaces of those branches—thick enough to rival tree trunks—countless large caterpillars crawled slowly, densely packed together.
Looking up from below, one could clearly see the mutated caterpillars rubbing against the bark with four rows of green suction-like pads, their mouthparts opening and closing as they moved.
“Good thing Wu Heng didn’t come down—he hates bugs the most,” Shen Ping’an said calmly.
Xue Shen glanced back. “Careful, someone might take that personally.”
Shen Ping’an paused for a moment, then gave a faint, helpless smile.
Meanwhile, Ao She had already put on a pair of brown leather gloves. He crouched down and, to everyone’s shock, thrust his hand straight into the mass of caterpillars. Slosh, slosh—he stirred them around, and thin, watery insect fluid trickled out onto the ground, making Dou Lu and Xue Qi almost cry out in disgust.
Swish—
Ao She quickly pulled his hand back out. Along with it came a small handful of brownish-yellow, thread-like tubes.
“What is that?” Dou Lu and Xue Qi both leaned in to look.
Before they could get a clear look at the sticky clump, Ao She pushed them back a bit. Without even glancing at them, he said in a low voice, “Don’t get too close.”
The two, though abruptly pushed away, weren’t upset. They stepped back a little and asked again, “So what is it?”
This time, Ao She showed a hint of surprise, though he didn’t voice it and remained focused on the matter at hand.
“It should be some kind of fungal spores.”
“Spore? Like the kind that can be blown everywhere by the wind?”
“Yeah. Before the apocalypse, spores would take root and grow wherever they landed. But some would land on animals and start growing directly on them. These are probably local fungal spores. After mutating, they’re able to grow on caterpillars too.” Ao She stuffed the still-developing spores back into the mass.
“The caterpillars underneath have already had their bodies bored through and turned into nutrients for the spores, so they’re dead. The ones on top just fell from the trees not long ago. The spores got into them immediately, but their bodies haven’t been fully penetrated yet, so they’re still alive for now.”
After hearing Ao She’s explanation, everyone showed different expressions.
“That’s disgusting,” Xue Qi said.
“That’s so vicious,” Dou Lu said.
“How long will it take for them to finish developing?” Xue Shen asked.
Ao She rinsed his gloves in a nearby puddle, then stood up. “They’ll finish developing when the caterpillars stop falling from the trees.”
After saying that, he looked around. There were no other routes. “We’ll just flip the road over and bury them underground. After we pass through, they’ll probably grow back out again soon.”
No one objected.
Ao She made his move. The entire road began to tremble, then suddenly flipped over as if turned upside down. Damp soil and rocks from beneath the surface were instantly exposed.
“Quick! Get through!”
The drivers immediately dashed back into their seats. They didn’t even give the other creatures time to get on board before stepping on the gas and charging forward.
Shukui ran behind the vehicle, barking anxiously. It leapt onto a protruding rock, caught up in a few strides, and squeezed into the car. Unable to close the door, it barked furiously at Shen Ping’an with its neck stretched forward.
“Sorry,” Shen Ping’an said, his eyes fixed on the road ahead. Switching to steering with one hand, he flicked out a vine with the other, helping Shukui shut the passenger-side door.
Meanwhile, Xue Qi jumped straight onto the roof of the vehicle, transforming into a blue spider. Several glowing blue legs clung tightly to the roof. The swollen spider body thumped loudly against the top as the vehicle jolted violently along.
Dou Lu’s ability made teleportation the most convenient for her, but she was so terrified of caterpillars that her aim was off. In a flash, she ended up landing right on Ruan Silian’s lap. As the vehicle jolted upward, her body pitched forward, and Ruan Silian instinctively wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her back.
“…!” Blushing furiously, Dou Lu quickly climbed over Zhou Yi and returned to her own seat.
The stretch of road wasn’t long, but even before the apocalypse, maintaining flat mountain roads had required immense manpower and resources. Now, after earthquakes and flash floods—and with the road itself flipped over—it was no different from driving through an undeveloped primeval forest, if not worse.
The vehicles had to rely on abilities just to avoid being smashed apart by protruding rocks, and also to stay stable enough not to tip over into the valley.
Even so, the violent jolting was unavoidable.
Wu Heng could no longer continue sleeping. With his head now unknowingly covered in blooming flowers, he sat up with a displeased expression.
