Very quickly, Xiao Liu, Xiaobai, and Treant turned into extremely fine branches, lying flat and blending into the dense forest floor as they headed toward a few fruit trees in the center of the courtyard.

Once they reached the center of the valley, they quickly wrapped themselves around the roots of several fruit trees.

After hearing what they said, all the fruit trees fell into confusion. Picking their own mutated fruits, leaving their root systems behind, and following others — no matter how they thought about it, it just didn’t sound reliable.

The Level 3 Little Yellow Fruit Tree didn’t believe it: without roots, plants would die.

The Level 4 Little Purple Fruit Tree said: “I’m scared too, I don’t dare to go.”

Xiao Liu replied: “Are you more scared than being transplanted by humans? Those humans are bad people. In the future, they might even use you as firewood.”

The Level 3 Little Pink Fruit Tree said: “But our bodies have no strength left. We can’t move at all.”

Xiao Liu said: “I have vitality. I can give you some. Once you’re with Ranran, you won’t have to be afraid anymore.”

The Level 5 Little Green Fruit Tree asked: “Who’s Ranran? A human?”

It wasn’t unusual for mutated plants to form contracts with plant-type ability users, and they were aware of that.

Treant explained: “Yes, Ranran is a very powerful human, and also a very good one.”

Xiaobai added: “Ranran even has a mountain, a big one. You can take your fruits and re-root there. There are Tank, Da Fu, Tianlang — they’ll protect you. You won’t be dug up like now.”

The Level 3 Little Yellow Fruit Tree said: “I want to go. I have eleven fruits.”

The Level 4 Little Purple Fruit Tree said: “But I don’t want to go…”

Xiao Liu threatened: “If you don’t go, I’ll dig up your golden treasure.”

The Level 4 Little Purple Fruit Tree cried: “Wuwuwu, you’re a bad plant! You’re trying to steal my treasure!”

Xiao Liu said seriously: “I promised Ranran — disobedient plants will have their treasures dug up. Treant agreed too.”

Treant said: “Ranran is a good human, but she doesn’t like disobedient plants.”

Xiao Liu added: “She’s very fierce. If you don’t listen, she might even eat you all.”

Xiaobai chimed in: “Hurry up and pick your own fruits! Or are you waiting to get eaten?”

Listening to their back-and-forth, the four little trees were all badly frightened. The strongest among them was just the newly advanced Level 5 Little Green Fruit Tree, and even its powers had been sealed.

Now they were being threatened by two Level 7 mutant plants — what else could they do? If they really got their treasures dug up, they would die completely.

Besides, they said that the human had a mountain, and it would be very safe.

From afar on the mountain, Nan Muran clearly heard what Xiao Liu and Treant said, and she couldn’t help but sweat in embarrassment. How did she end up sounding so evil in the mouths of these three little guys?

After confirming that the four fruit trees would follow Nan Muran and her group, Xiao Liu began transferring vitality into them.

Feeling the force of vitality, the four trees were extremely excited. Was this the power from that human’s body? So abundant and majestic — even stronger than the soil.

All of their fears disappeared in an instant. The four little cuties began diligently harvesting their fruits.

It was right around dinnertime, and the crowd that had been gathered at the center started heading in groups toward the dining halls on either side.

Because mutated fruit trees were so precious, to prevent anyone from having improper thoughts, a security perimeter had been set up around the trees. Even the armed patrol teams could only stand some distance away from the fruit trees, with their backs to them, constantly keeping watch for external threats.

For a time, no one noticed that the fruits on a few large fruit trees were gradually decreasing. It helped that the trees hadn’t had that many fruits to begin with — even all four trees together didn’t have as many fruits as Treant alone.

Inside the main cafeteria, a girl of about fifteen or sixteen years old was eating with her head down.

Suddenly, she began hearing the voices of plants, and then she heard them talking about picking their own fruits.

She was indeed a plant-type ability user, but only at the late stage of Level 1, and had never been able to hear plants before. At first, she thought she had misheard, but the more she listened, the more wrong it felt.

She hurriedly stood up and said, “The plants outside—”

But before she could finish her sentence, sharp pains began stabbing at her temples in waves.

“Xiaoya, what’s wrong?” the slightly older girl sitting at the same table quickly rushed over, worried.

Other people nearby also stood up one after another and crowded around the girl.

A healer-type ability user even tried to heal her, but it was useless. The girl collapsed painfully to the ground, writhing and struggling.

Far up the mountain, Nan Muran finally breathed a sigh of relief. From the start, she had been worried that something would go wrong when she discovered that some of the ability users below were plant-types. As expected, they had come dangerously close to being exposed.

But just stopping this one girl wasn’t enough — she had to stir up chaos across the whole area.

Soon, the ability users in the cafeteria started experiencing headaches — not just the girl.

Suddenly, some people began losing control and attacking the nearest people with their abilities.

First one, then two, then three — it was a chain reaction. Some people were injured, others fought back. In just a moment, the entire cafeteria descended into chaos.

Nan Muran, while using her spiritual power to incite internal fighting among the ability users, signaled Xiao Liu, Xiaobai, and Treant to speed up.

“What’s going on over there?” In another room, Chen Shuhan’s face changed.

Ouyang Yun also found it strange: “It looks like they’re fighting each other.”

At the main table, a man in military uniform, about fifty years old, frowned deeply when he heard the commotion: “Something’s very wrong.”

“I’ll go check it out,” Chen Shuhan said, putting down his chopsticks, a sense of unease rising in him.

The old man put down his chopsticks too: “I’ll come along.”

A group of nine people quickly left the house and headed toward the ability users’ dining hall.

“It’s him,” Si Ye said, almost disbelieving, when he saw the old man in military uniform walking at the front.

Han Yingtian was equally shocked: “That’s… Elder Lin?”

“How could it be him?” Eagle couldn’t believe it either. “How could such an upright elder be mixed up with the people from the underground lab?”

Si Ye felt the same way. This man’s status was extremely special — he had gone through many wars and made great contributions to the country. Why would he show up here?

Nan Muran also frowned. In her past life, her impression of this old man had been that he was definitely not a bad person.

Down the mountain, Elder Lin, leading Chen Shuhan, Ouyang Yun, and a few others, arrived at the ability users’ dining hall.

They were greeted by a scene of utter devastation — food, tables, chairs, and people were strewn everywhere.

Water blades, ice blades, fireballs, earth shields — all kinds of attack and defense abilities were being used wildly across the space, as if the entire building was about to be torn apart.