As the first light of dawn appeared on the horizon, smoke began to rise from the chimneys of farmhouses at the edge of the forest. Mao Xiaofei sat behind the stove, yawning, his gaze fixed blankly on the dancing flames.

In the cool morning breeze of the courtyard, Jiang Le closed his eyes to sense the faint energy fluctuations around him. Among them was a distinct, sharper anomaly, but just as he tried to pinpoint its exact location, the energy wave vanished.

Any creature capable of emitting such energy fluctuations must be either a highly promising mutant animal or a highly promising mutant plant. For Jiang Le, this was the perfect opportunity to capture one. Over the past two days, he had frequently used his senses to scan the surroundings, intending to investigate the source of the energy as soon as he pinpointed its location.

Back inside the house, Mao Xiaofei was carrying a bowl of freshly cooked white congee out of the kitchen. He placed the bowl in a basin of well water to cool it down, then turned to scoop some fresh pickles from the pickle jar by the wall in the main room. He returned to the kitchen to quickly stir-fry them in vegetable oil. The tangy aroma of the pickles, combined with the delicate fragrance of the rapeseed oil, filled the air with an appetizing scent.

The steamer basket held steamed buns, dumplings, and eggs that had been cooked while the congee was simmering; all were placed on the table.

“…A chain-reaction collision occurred on the Duan Expressway, affecting over a hundred vehicles and sending more than a hundred people to the hospital for treatment.”

“Outbreaks of an unknown virus have suddenly emerged in multiple regions worldwide! Healthcare systems in many countries are under extreme strain, and the source remains unknown… Please stay home as much as possible and avoid going out.”

“There’s a rush to buy rice. Experts remind us that China’s grain reserves are currently sufficient; please do not panic.”

Mao Xiaofei was devouring buns while scrolling through short videos. Although the host in the video urged everyone to remain rational, the comments section was a chaotic mess. Panic is invisible and intangible, but once it takes hold, it snowballs out of control.

“There’s hardly any produce left at our local market, and prices are sky-high! Aren’t they supposed to be controlling prices?”

“How are they supposed to control them? Pigs are dying in droves at the pig farms around here, and some are even going berserk. I heard a farm owner went to check on some noise in the pigpen in the middle of the night and got mauled to death by a breeding boar… I can’t even post the pictures.”

Mao Xiaofei looked up at Jiang Le across the table. His expression was calm, his pale fingertips peeling the shell off an egg, while he hesitated to take big bites of the steamed bun in his own hand.

Noticing Mao Xiaofei’s gaze, Jiang Le looked up.

Mao Xiaofei said, “Brother Jiang, I’d like to go home today to bring some grain over. We still have quite a bit of millet at home.” In years past, when his grandfather was in good health, they’d planted rice every year.

“Sure, but don’t take too long. Message me on WeChat if anything comes up,” Jiang Le said.

Maojia village didn’t have many residents; those left in the mountains were mostly elderly people and children. Although some obvious signs of mutation had already appeared, a young man as strong and healthy as Mao Xiaofei shouldn’t run into any situations he couldn’t handle.

Mao Xiaofei assumed Jiang Le was reminding him to return to the farm as soon as possible, so he quickly nodded. “I know. I’ll head straight to work as soon as I’ve gathered my things.”

Jiang Le was also about to head out. He planned to go down the mountain to buy some farming tools to clear the wasteland and continue expanding the farm’s cultivable area. Because the weeds and wild plants affected by the mutation were tougher and harder to deal with than ordinary plants, they also wore out ordinary tools much faster.

Although he could purchase them directly from the farm system using gold coins, it was still more cost-effective to buy them in the real world whenever possible.

Over the past couple of days, aside from completing the farm’s daily tasks, he and Mao Xiaofei had spent most of their time clearing the nearby wasteland. During the day, they removed weeds and tree roots from the wasteland; at night, Jiang Le would log into the farm system to incorporate the cleared plots into the farm, making it convenient to start planting the very next day.

The electric car and the electric scooter headed in different directions along the mountain road.

Jiang Le parked his vehicle in the lot at the town entrance. At this time of day, the morning market was usually bustling, with the parking lot packed to the brim and electric scooters crammed together.

But at this moment, only five or six vehicles were scattered across the lot.

Walking along the town’s main street toward the morning market on Old Street, Jiang Le finally spotted a few people and some vendors setting up their stalls.

However, many of the shops along the street remained closed, and the teahouse—which should have been filled with elderly men—was nearly empty, the steam rising from the teapots now much fainter.

Jiang Le knew exactly where he was going and turned directly into the old department store on the historic street.

The lights were on inside early in the morning, but even with the lights on, the lighting was still insufficient; a dim, yellow glow mixed with an air of antiquity washed over him. A middle-aged man sat on a recliner inside the store, his hands resting on his knees, his head slightly bowed, motionless like a statue.

Jiang Le habitually kept his footsteps quiet as he walked; it wasn’t until he reached the man and called out “Sir” that the man belatedly realized someone had entered the store and raised his head in a daze.

A pale, withered face—one that didn’t match his apparent age—came into view. The man’s lips were chapped, his eyes cloudy, with almost no light in them. With a face like that, no one would suspect a thing if he were dragged straight into a morgue.

But the man was indeed still alive—albeit only temporarily.

The aura of decay emanating from him was impossible to conceal; in two days at most, he would likely become nothing more than a mindless, walking corpse.

Yet for now, after fixing his gaze on Jiang Le for a few seconds, the man used what little sanity remained to recognize the visitor. He opened his mouth and asked in a hoarse voice, “What are you here to buy?”

Jiang Le pointed to the farming tools inside the shop: “I’ll take all of these. How much?”

The man got up, went behind the counter to fetch a calculator, and after fiddling with it for quite some time, finally showed Jiang Le a figure. Jiang Le aimed his phone at the old QR code on the wall, scanned it, and after a beep, held up his phone screen to the man.

The man sat back down, as if his briefly restored consciousness had snapped shut again. He didn’t even notice when Jiang Le turned his back and stowed the farming tools directly into his system space.

Soon, most people would walk down this path of ignorance and oblivion, becoming chaotic beings that craved flesh and blood yet lacked consciousness, using their ignorance to crush the existing social order.

On the way back, Jiang Le once again sensed that unusual energy fluctuation. Unlike the previous instances, this sensation was clearer and more intense, allowing him to pinpoint the general direction.

Following this intermittent sensation, after driving for over thirty minutes, Jiang Le finally reached a dead end where neither vehicles nor roads could go any further.

The dark barrier formed by boulders and giant trees seemed to express its unwelcome to outsiders, while the deep red glow served as a warning of the hidden dangers within.

Jiang Le abandoned the car without hesitation. His hiking boots sank into the thick layer of humus as he entered the forest.

Even before the anomaly occurred, this was a remote, ancient forest that even ordinary mountain dwellers rarely ventured into. The moment he stepped into the forest’s edge, the air changed abruptly. It was no longer the fresh scent of ordinary plants, but a mixture of a thick, greasy stench, decaying vegetation, and some indescribable, nauseating murkiness.

The branches of trees that should have grown straight now crisscrossed one another, one piercing through another. Though the leaves still swayed only in the gentle breeze, they gave the illusion that they would twist into motion the moment one’s gaze shifted.

Thick layers of moss and fungi had accumulated on the tree trunks, emitting a deep green glow even in broad daylight, like another layer of wrinkled skin on the tree. Yet from a different angle, one could see that the tree’s interior was already stuffed with moss, the explosive growth of which seemed to writhe gently as if breathing.

Even beneath the seemingly harmless layer of humus under Jiang Le’s feet, there came a subtle vibration impossible to ignore. Countless tiny roots clung greedily to the soles of his shoes, radiating a spine-chilling vitality.

He hadn’t gone fifty meters before Jiang Le sensed something eerie.

The entire forest was eerily silent—no chirping insects, no birdsong. All the tiny creatures that should have filled the woods had vanished. Yet to call it quiet would not be entirely accurate, for the surroundings were filled with countless faint, malevolent rustling sounds—the claws and fangs of the mutated plants, stirring with anticipation after sensing the scent of flesh and blood.

However, since Jiang Le’s level far surpassed that of these newly mutated creatures, they dared not actually attack him. Instead, they could only drool with envy as their branches stealthily extended to follow Jiang Le’s footsteps until they could no longer reach him.

This was the most brutal law of the post-apocalyptic jungle: they craved flesh and blood, yet feared even more being easily crushed by higher-tier beings.

The energy fluctuation that had drawn Jiang Le here had never faded, yet the deeper he ventured, the more pervasive it became.

A barely perceptible rustling sound came from beneath Jiang Le’s feet. Sensing something amiss, he used a nearby rock to leap up, effortlessly landing on the branches of a giant tree. From his vantage point high above, he looked down. Only then did he see that the spot where he had been standing moments ago was now instantly overrun by countless green vines sprouting from the ground. They writhed like snakes, and some even stood upright, gazing at Jiang Le.

It was actually a Level 2 blood vine. For a Level 2 blood vine to have emerged so early in the post-apocalyptic era, this mountain forest must have been the site of a direct meteorite impact. Jiang Le frowned. No wonder energy fluctuations were everywhere—this was clearly a bait set by the surging blood vines to attract high-level mutated creatures.

Blood vines were notorious even in Jiang Le’s previous life; they were extremely troublesome, high-level mutated creatures. Unlike ordinary plants that compete with one another, blood vines feed only on flesh and blood and do not fear creatures of higher levels. Luring, encircling, and dragging down creatures stronger than themselves is what blood vines excel at. Cutting its vines won’t kill it; only by locating its core can the blood vine be truly destroyed.

But how could one easily find its core beneath those countless vines? In a game of attrition, the blood vine holds a far greater advantage than superpower users; Jiang Le had witnessed countless squads sent to hunt the blood vine being wiped out.

Going up against the blood vine alone is not a good idea.

The blood vine’s ambush had just failed, and it had lost the advantage of stealth. If Jiang Le wanted to, it wouldn’t be difficult to simply leave from here.

Yet, after shifting his feet slightly, Jiang Le paused. Beneath the layers of blood vine, he spotted a small, grayish-black creature lying weakly on the ground.

It was a Level 2 mutated wolf cub.

Even though it was surrounded by blood vines and facing certain death, the cub still wore a fierce expression, as if determined to fight the blood vines to the bitter end.