Nan Yuan shifted the barrel of his gun, aiming it in Cheng Feimao’s direction.

Cheng Feimao instinctively leapt up and, in the blink of an eye, darted more than ten meters away.

Tao Shushu let out a startled cry.

Right behind where Cheng Feimao had just been standing, a small green blade of grass poked up from the ground.

And with Nan Yuan’s gun trained on it, that blade of grass actually crept forward a little more.

If Cheng Feimao hadn’t been fast enough, he might have been caught.

The lighting underground was dim, and the grass’s movements were extremely subtle—only Nan Yuan, whose hearing and vision had both been enhanced, had noticed it.

Cheng Feimao ran back again and, seeing that the blade of grass had come within an arm’s reach of touching him, he felt a wave of lingering fear.

“Nan Yuan, thank you for saving me again,” Cheng Feimao said.

Tao Shushu no longer doubted Cheng Feimao’s reaction—she too had been startled by the rapidly growing bloodthirsty grass.

She quickly rushed to the entrance to take a look.

The scorched earth from the explosion was still emitting black smoke. A long strand of grass had stretched across the charred ground, like a green whip, and had plunged deep into the underground entrance.

Aside from that single blade, many of the surrounding grasses had withered, as if all their nutrients had been drained away.

Tao Shushu felt a chill run down her spine.

She tapped to investigate the patch of grass.

An information screen popped up with the details of the bloodthirsty grass:

Plant Name: Bloodthirsty Grass

Coverage Area: 57 mu (approximately 9.4 acres)

Socialization Level: Level 3 (Equivalent to the intelligence of an 8-year-old child)

Upon seeing the socialization level, Tao Shushu couldn’t help but sigh in amazement—a patch of grass had developed social skills comparable to an 8-year-old human child.

No wonder they could detect human intent and even coordinate to grow a single stalk to track them.

More and more of the surrounding grass was withering, while that one long stalk grew increasingly vibrant and green.

The others were still funneling nutrients to it.

Tao Shushu scratched her head—this was getting tricky. Even if they managed to temporarily kill one stalk, the rest of the grass would just keep sending more in its place.

Nan Yuan continued to keep the grass at bay with his presence.

He, Cheng Feimao, and two other ability users had been the first to enter. Cheng Feimao was a speed-type, the fastest among them—best suited for scouting.

Nan Yuan, on the other hand, had the sharpest vision, and more importantly, the calmest judgment.

The problem was, the other two ability users weren’t particularly strong—their powers might not be enough to handle the bloodthirsty grass if it came to a direct confrontation.

Tao Shushu thought for a moment and said, “Cub, I can shut the entrance door now.” That could at least block the bloodthirsty grass for the time being—everything else could be dealt with later.

Nan Yuan and the others worked together to repel the over ten-meter-long stalk of bloodthirsty grass, using up a significant amount of firepower. Nan Yuan even collected the severed stem and leaves of the grass and stored them in his backpack.

Immediately after, Tao Shushu reacted quickly and sealed the entrance with a steel plate.

Nan Yuan took the lead and walked ahead.

As expected, the underground chamber was massive—just the main hall alone was the size of a football field.

Inside, they also spotted some shimmering minerals that hadn’t been taken away in time—

—and several gruesome corpses.

After walking for a while, Nan Yuan spoke up, “The place is heavily fortified, but the oxygen level is low.”

Tao Shushu was still wondering why they hadn’t received a mission completion prompt despite already entering the base. Hearing the Cub’s comment, she started to suspect that perhaps they needed to resolve the air supply issue first.

Nan Yuan no longer let Cheng Feimao sprint ahead.

They stood inside what used to be the control room. Because of the power outage, the control panels were no longer lit. With Nan Yuan’s night vision ability, he searched the room for construction blueprints.

Tao Shushu thought for a moment and spent 1 gold coin to explore further.

Immediately, a schematic of the entire base appeared on the screen. One area flashed a red warning symbol, indicating a ventilation duct malfunction.

There was also a repair icon. After checking, Tao Shushu found out that the repair would cost 50 gold coins. Seeing her remaining balance was only in the single digits, she reluctantly gave up.

“Cub, the ventilation duct is on the right side of the second floor. Go check it out,” Tao Shushu called out to Nan Yuan.

Nan Yuan never doubted Tao Shushu’s information source. He acknowledged her with a nod and led the group toward the second floor.

Sure enough, they found the ventilation duct there.

The pipe was about a meter in diameter; it was quite large.

Nan Yuan crawled inside to take a look. “The other end is blocked by stones.”

Tao Shushu let out a slight breath of relief—stones were definitely better than bloodthirsty grass. She had been worried the ventilation duct might also be within the grass’s territory.

Luckily, it wasn’t.

With one hand, Tao Shushu quickly cleared out the rubble blocking the duct.

When she returned downstairs, she saw Nan Yuan holding a towel.

“Dust?” she asked.

Nan Yuan nodded and replied, “Yeah.”

Tao Shushu suddenly got the feeling of “One works, the other wipes the sweat.” She moved the towel and wiped Nan Yuan’s fair face as she responded, “I’m not dusty!”

Nan Yuan paused for a moment—he had meant to take care of her, but somehow ended up being cared for instead.

Finally, everyone could breathe more easily.

Still, no mission prompt appeared on Tao Shushu’s screen. She figured maybe they needed to bring everyone else over for the task to be considered complete.

Tao Shushu then opened the main gate wider. “Cub, I’m going to move the other vehicles. You stay here and keep watch.”

Nan Yuan shook his head. “I’ll go with you.” He trusted her abilities but still worried about her facing danger alone.

He could only hear her voice and feel her touch.

But he couldn’t see her figure, couldn’t smell her scent, and sometimes he couldn’t even clearly hear her movements.

Nan Yuan realized he had become greedy.

Before, just being able to communicate with her was enough.

But now, he found himself wanting more.

Nan Yuan suppressed his expression and said, “Someone has to stay and communicate with the others.”

Tao Shushu agreed—if she suddenly dragged an entire group of people away like that, they would probably be terrified.

They had to bring the vehicles into the passage as fast as possible.

Nan Yuan handed most of the firearms and a few energy orbs to the other three, instructing, “You three hold the line. Don’t let the bloodthirsty grass get in. If anything happens, fire a signal flare.”

After thinking for a moment, he started a small fire and took off his protective suit.

“If your firepower can’t hold, get inside the circle of fire while still wearing your clothes. This suit is heat-resistant.”

Moved, Cheng Feimao eagerly responded, “Boss Nan Yuan, we’ll hold this place down and make sure you land safely.”

Among the Slaughterers, even though they were all survivors from the wastelands, the internal hierarchy was strict. Ability users like Cheng Feimao and the other two—who weren’t strong enough and couldn’t stomach Lin Wei’s decadent lifestyle—were often treated like regular laborers, doing all the dangerous and exhausting tasks. The best supplies never reached their hands.

They had long been used to charging into deadly situations, but now, Nan Yuan had handed them top-tier equipment.

Nan Yuan paused for a moment, then said firmly, “We’re teammates now.”

“Hold the line.” With those words, Nan Yuan was lifted away by Tao Shushu.

Tao Shushu watched as Nan Yuan’s influence stat ticked up again. She was starting to realize that, even with his usual cold expression, he was naturally suited to be a leader—others trusted and followed him without hesitation. She probably didn’t need to worry anymore about how her cub got along with people.

She was currently supporting him with one finger under his leg, while also gripping his collar with one hand for extra safety.

After a moment of silence, Nan Yuan asked,

“Exactly what position are you using to move me right now?”

Earlier, when they were in the vehicle, it hadn’t felt strange—but now…

Now, with his leg being supported and his collar held tight, Nan Yuan tried to imagine what kind of physique someone would need to carry him like this.

But no matter how he pictured it, he just couldn’t make sense of it.

“Just one hand on your collar, one hand under your leg,” Tao Shushu answered honestly. “Is it pinching your neck?”

She found that the support was pretty stable, so she let go of his collar. Instead, she formed a loop with her thumb and index finger on her right hand and gently pinched him there to hold him up.

Nan Yuan: !!!

A startled symbol popped up over Nan Yuan’s head, gradually morphing into a question mark. And then, quite suddenly, the tips of his ears turned red.

Tao Shushu asked, “Cub, what’s wrong? If you’re scared, just don’t look down.”

Nan Yuan replied with a strangely stiff, “Mm.”

Just now, he had suddenly felt both his chest and back being enclosed—as if someone had pulled him into a full embrace. His mind short-circuited on the spot, convinced for a second that she was holding him in her arms.

His brain even flashed an image of a fancy princess carry.

Thankfully, a second later, he realized his feet still felt stable. He wasn’t actually being hugged—just… pinched and carried in a way that confused all his senses.

Nan Yuan couldn’t quite explain what he was feeling at the moment.

Trying to cover it up, he casually rubbed his ear—though it only made the redness more obvious.

He tried to distract himself by analyzing her posture again: supporting him… and pinching him?

Then, all of a sudden, a thought struck him—like those bizarre novels he’d once skimmed through.

The kind where some ancient creature, having slumbered for a thousand years, awakened with a massive, towering body…

And now, he couldn’t unsee it.

Was she—was she a giant mythical being ?

And he… a tiny, clueless human in her grasp?

Nan Yuan’s expression stiffened. The mental image was both absurd and unsettlingly vivid.

Nan Yuan froze for a moment. She could easily lift vehicles and clear boulders off the road—so she must be huge, right?

But then again, she could crawl into ventilation ducts and fit into the truck’s driver seat… which meant she was also small?

Before he could dwell on it too long, they arrived back at the original camp.

As soon as they did, someone cried out in surprise, “Nan Yuan’s back! They didn’t abandon us!”

Nan Yuan frowned. “What’s going on?”

He quickly noticed that one of the vehicles carrying supplies had been moved slightly.

Nan Yuan’s gaze locked sharply onto the person sitting in the driver’s seat.

A tall, thin man awkwardly stepped down from the vehicle. “I just thought… just in case you couldn’t make it back… I thought maybe…” Under Nan Yuan’s intense stare, his voice trailed off, unable to finish.

The others quickly jumped in to fill the silence, voices overlapping.

“These two have been talking doom and gloom the whole time, saying the bloodthirsty grass is too dangerous, that you guys were never coming back.”

“They said… said you planned to get everyone killed in the grass patch and take the supplies to survive on your own.”

Nan Yuan said coldly, “If I want to kill you, I don’t need to rely on the blood-eating grass.”

His tone was extremely contemptuous, but no one could refute it. Indeed, even Lin Wei and his elites couldn’t stop Nan Yuan. If he wanted to deal with them, he wouldn’t need to spend any effort.

“We don’t believe it either. But the two of them have been trying to sow discord.”

“They also robbed supplies and wanted to return.”

It was just that the two men were unlucky. As soon as they stepped on the accelerator, they saw Nan Yuan flying over the blood-eating grass. They were so scared that they quickly braked.

The two men stepped out of the vehicle, trembling.

“We—we just got scared for a moment and lost our heads. That bloodthirsty grass field is terrifying…”

“Yeah! Even Lin Wei brought in heavy weapons before and couldn’t deal with it. We panicked…”

Someone nearby snapped,

“Even if you were scared, you took the vehicle and supplies—what were the rest of us supposed to do? Did you not care if they lived or died?”

“They… they’re just a bunch of ordinary people—ah!”

Before he could finish his excuse, he let out a cry.

Nan Yuan had already grabbed him by the throat.

“Ordinary people?” he said coldly. “I thought that by bringing the supplies with me last night, you had all accepted that even ordinary people deserve to live as humans.”

“On this desolate planet, these are the only fellow humans we have left,” Nan Yuan said coldly.

He didn’t hurt the two men—just confiscated their weapons.

But now that the so-called ordinary people had Nan Yuan backing them, the balance of power shifted. When they hauled the two traitors onto the transport, they didn’t hold back—grabbing, shoving, a few well-placed elbows and knees.

And off to the side, Tao Shushu gave them a discreet clap—serves you right for bullying my cub.

---

TN:

Nan Yuan is sooo cute. I’m backkkk