Chen Jia was clearly curious about the "strange friend" Gu Xi had mentioned and wanted to ask a few more questions.

She was quite open about it.

But unfortunately, Gu Xi didn’t give her the chance.

She looked at the experimental data on the Light Screen before her and immediately changed the subject. "Mr. Chen, I just thought of something."

Seeing the look on her face, Chen Jia frowned slightly. "What is it?"

Gu Xi tapped her fingers on the lab bench, pondering for a moment before she spoke. "Do you remember those patients in the vegetative state from the underground lab at that factory?"

After a pause, she turned to Chen Jia. "Do you think the experiments on those patients in the underground lab might have been inspired by these mutated fish?"

Gu Xi’s voice was soft, carrying a subtle, hidden meaning.

Chen Jia followed her gaze to the dissected mutated fish on the lab bench. Her eyes landed on the plant-like roots under its abdomen... After a moment of thought, she shook her head and said earnestly, "I don’t know."

When Gu Xi looked at her, she pushed up the cold frames of her glasses, her words carrying a veiled implication. "However, as far as I know, this swamp used to be called the Land of Death. Other than our convoy, no team has ever ventured deep inside before."

"Not a single team?" Gu Xi seemed fixated on this point, frowning as she pressed on. "What about the military or the research institutes? For a place as massive as the Land of Death, it’s impossible that the higher-ups wouldn’t send people to investigate, right? Even if they couldn’t go deep inside, what about monitoring the perimeter?"

’They couldn’t possibly know a place like this exists and just ignore it.’

’Gu Xi has never been a talkative person, but has she been talking a lot more these past few days because of these mutated fish?’

Miss Chen lowered her eyes. Her glasses caught the sunlight slanting in from the window, reflecting an inadvertent, cold glint of light.

"I’m not too clear on military matters." She slowly shook her head, her expression open and her tone meticulously precise. "But as far as I know, there have been no research teams."

This was an indirect denial of any connection between the patients in the underground lab and the strange fish from the swamp.

Gu Xi gave her a long, hard look but didn’t press the matter further.

Her probing today was only meant to startle the snake in the grass.

’She had to let them know that she was on to them...’

’As for what the startled snake would do next?’

’Gu Xi was looking forward to finding out.’

After asking Chen Jia a few more questions about the data on the mutated fish, Gu Xi glanced at the sky and returned to the small camp in the Miasma Forest with Qi Xiang.

Dinner was Water Vine Vegetable and sweet potato porridge again.

It smelled nice enough, and the taste was all right, but... how to put it? Because of the fishing expedition a few days ago, Gu Xi had grown far too much Water Vine Vegetable, and it didn’t last long once harvested.

To avoid wasting food, Ouyang had decided that for the past few days, the entire convoy would eat this for all three meals, every single day.

After eating nothing but vegetarian food for so many days straight, forget about the men like Shen Yue—even young women like Gu Xi and Qi Xiang were starting to lose their enthusiasm for it.

Gu Xi barely touched her dinner. Beside her, Qi Xiang held up her half-eaten bowl of vegetable porridge and lamented, "It truly is easy to go from rags to riches, but hard to go from riches to rags."

Just two years ago, a bowl of clean vegetable porridge, completely free of X Energy, was something she wouldn’t have even dared to dream of.

But now... Qi Xiang grimaced, forcing down the rest of the porridge in her bowl. ’Braised pork is so much better,’ she thought.

Gu Xi was thinking about this problem, too.

Before, when humanity faced the food crisis—the single greatest obstacle to its survival—the human race at least appeared to be united, at least on the surface.

Even if a few individuals had other ideas, they were limited to making small moves in private at most. Nothing more.

After all, if the problem of X Energy wasn’t solved, everyone would be dead sooner or later—in as little as three to five years, or as many as thirty to fifty. So what was the point of fighting over a distant future?

It was better to focus one’s energy on the present and make life a little more comfortable for now.

But things were different now.

According to the latest news Ye Junhan had received from City A, the plant reverse-evolution experimental program, spearheaded by the military, had been a great success.

With clean seeds and the heaven-defying growth-accelerating abilities of Wood Element users, humanity could completely solve the food crisis within five years at most.

With that, weren’t some people’s ambitions starting to stir again?

’Before, there was no future, so people didn’t contend for power. There was no point.’

’But now, with a promising future on the horizon, they naturally had to look at the long term... and there were far too many things to fight over.’

Li Ming once said that most people can’t handle the "big picture" or play the "long game." As for those who could... whether or not they were deep thinkers was a separate issue, but their hearts were undoubtedly filled with wild ambition and madness.

These kinds of people, deep down, always craved far more than the average person!

But certain things—power, wealth, fame—are finite. If everyone wants a piece, what happens then?

Then they can only fight for it, seize it, and use every trick in the book to do so!

’So, with more to fight and seize, wouldn’t certain matters suddenly become much more urgent?’

Gu Xi thought back to the things Li Ming had taught her and suddenly realized he had probably been worried about her future situation for a long time. That was why, when they were still young, Li Ming had started deliberately instilling certain ideas in her...

Back then, those people had just moved too fast. She and her friends had just finished dealing with the Zombie Emperor, but at the victory banquet that very same night, Gu Xi had collapsed after a single glass of wine...

No wonder Li Ming and the others had been wracked with regret and self-blame all these years. Back then, they had all been far too careless.

But who could have imagined someone would discard them the moment their purpose was served?

Gu Xi lowered her gaze and poked the tiny green sprout on her fingertip.

Beside her, Qi Xiang handed her empty porridge bowl to Wei Heng, then sat down next to Gu Xi. She nudged her arm and looked out beyond the trees. "Gu Xi, do you think anyone will take the bait?"

"They will," Gu Xi said with conviction, her gaze firm as she looked into the distance.

’There were only two things stopping people from entering this swamp.’

’First, the dangerous mutated creatures. Second, the deadly miasma that enveloped the area.’

’Now, both of those threats were gone.’

’And for the ambitious and the conspirators, whatever in this swamp was causing those two threats represented an opportunity that far outweighed the risk.’

’They would definitely come.’

’And if they didn’t... well, she would just have to fan the flames a little.’ 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Gu Xi lowered her eyes and tossed the dry branch in her hand into the fire, hiding all emotion.

But not even Gu Xi expected the flames to be fanned so soon...

Early the next morning, Gu Xi was woken by a furtive SQUEAK SQUEAK SQUEAK.

She opened her eyes to see the mud-caked mutated rat frantically digging holes all over the camp. It was ridiculously fast, popping up one hole after another with no discernible pattern...

And standing in a circle around it were several members of the Special Service Team.

The scene... to an uninformed observer, it looked like a live-action game of Whac-A-Mole.

"You guys think this rat... maybe its evolution failed and it went berserk?" Liu Hao said, cradling his Superpower Gun as he stared at the rat still digging frantically in the distance. He clicked his tongue twice.

The others all chimed in, but Ye Junhan didn’t join the discussion. Instead, he turned to look at Gu Xi as she approached.