A powerful gust of air directly flipped a minivan parked nearby.
At the same time, the surrounding vines instantly became dry and withered, shrinking into a pile of dead branches and leaves in a moment.
This wilting momentum continued unabated, extending along the vines all the way to the large red flower.
The red flower quickly bloomed and then withered.
Soon, it turned into a mass of white mist and dissipated.
*Ding!* Auto-collection successful. Eliminated mutated plant [Miying Vine Flower] *10. Obtained: [Energy Gathering Crystal Core] *10, [Delicious Honey] *33, [Withered Vine] *22.
[Delicious Honey]: Honey containing a large amount of biological energy, providing 100 times more energy than regular cane sugar.
[Withered Vine]: Can be used for fire starting, an excellent easily ignitable and flame-retardant material.
The crowd, having just been ambushed by the mutated plants, thought they were doomed.
Unexpectedly, Zhang Chen descended from the sky!
He truly descended from the heavens!
And without doing anything, just by standing there, the surrounding [Miying Vine Flowers] quickly withered and died...
This man is so strong!
So strong it was suffocating!
"Daddy, you're here!"
Xiao Bai happily rushed over and threw herself into Zhang Chen's arms.
"Hmm, were these the people who abducted you?"
Zhang Chen asked gently.
"Woof!"
Er Pang barked from the side, as if saying, "Yes, it was them, I can testify!"
Zhang Chen's icy gaze slowly swept over everyone present, finally resting on Xiao Guanghan.
Such a gaze made everyone's spines chill.
If such a powerful individual wanted to kill them, no one present would be able to escape.
The burly man who had thought Zhang Chen was showing off was now trembling and sitting on the ground.
This wasn't showing off; this was genuine power!
With Zhang Chen's formidable combat strength, the Mother Worm had probably already been killed by him!
It turned out Zhang Chen jumping into the desert wasn't a suicide attempt, but him going to raid the burrowing worm's nest...
*Hiss...* The more he thought about it, the more chilling it became!
"This Uncle Xiao also taught me to draw and biology, he's a good person!"
Xiao Bai said seriously.
"You're still young, you don't know what a truly good person or a bad person is!"
Zhang Chen gently rubbed Xiao Bai's hair and said.
This seemingly ordinary sentence made everyone fall silent in fear.
They were afraid Zhang Chen would kill them all before he could say anything else.
"I... I had good intentions. I thought you had an accident... and I was afraid Xiao Bai would be in danger by herself..."
"That's why we risked coming to save her..."
Xiao Guanghan explained with a slight tremor in his voice.
Everyone fears death.
Especially an unjust death?!
To have done a good deed and then be treated as a villain, dying would be truly unfair.
Moreover, Xiao Guanghan had a dream: to go to Tengxiang Country and search for remnants of indigenous technology to strengthen humanity's arms.
Even, if the opportunity arose, to restart human civilization using the city walls of Tengxiang Country!
This was the only contribution a scientist in the apocalypse could make for humanity.
Xiao Guanghan did not want his dream to be shattered in this way.
That's why he explained in such a submissive manner.
"That big worm just now was so cute! If I see it again next time, I want to play with it!"
"Daddy always plays by himself, it's so boring!"
"This Uncle Xiao knows interesting things, Xiao Bai wants to learn, can you let them go?!"
Xiao Bai pouted and said.
Xiao Bai being able to see the burrowing worm mother and now being in the convoy...
It indicated that Xiao Guanghan was not lying; he had indeed risked danger to save Xiao Bai.
At least his intentions were good.
"Alright, since you're pleading for them, I'll let them live for now!"
Zhang Chen nodded and said.
"That's great! Oh, right, Daddy, Uncle Xiao and the others are going to a city surrounded by walls on all four sides!"
Xiao Bai found it very interesting. "Can we go together to see it?"
Xiao Bai continued to ask.
"Hmm? You're going to Tengxiang Country?"
Zhang Chen was slightly taken aback and asked.
"You... you know about Tengxiang Country too?"
Xiao Guanghan looked astonished.
"Do you have a map to Tengxiang Country?"
Zhang Chen continued to press.
"I only have a large map, which shows that Tengxiang Country is to our southwest!"
Xiao Guanghan answered all questions and quickly took out the map from his storage ring.
This was a map of Qimu Country, where Zhang Chen and his group were currently located.
It was as crude as it could be, only marking cities and counties, and the main roads between them.
Cities were marked as small black dots, with no specific information inside.
On the edge of the map, a small portion of Tengxiang Country was marked in a large box.
A gulf separated Qimu Country and Tengxiang Country.
Going directly to Tengxiang Country by sea was the shortest route.
If they were to travel by land, they would have to take a large detour and then turn back.
The distance would be seven or eight times longer.
Previously, Zhang Chen had only traveled between cities.
Now, involving another country, the travel distance increased more than tenfold.
To successfully reach the six major walled cities of Tengxiang Country before the next suppression was lifted...
They had to take the waterway, provided there were no more terrifying creatures in the sea!
Zhang Chen looked at the nearby port cities.
The closest one was marked: Zhong'an City!
"Alright, you take us to Zhong'an City, and our business will be settled!"
Zhang Chen said lightly.
"Ah? Okay... okay!"
Xiao Guanghan was greatly relieved.
He quickly gave his RV to Zhang Chen and Er Pang, leaving a female driver to take care of the driving.
He moved to another slightly smaller RV.
The female student asked Xiao Guanghan with confusion:
"Professor Xiao, we clearly saved his daughter. Not only did he not thank us, but he also asked us to take him to Zhong'an City?"
"And he said it was settled? Isn't this guy too arrogant!"
Xiao Guanghan nervously put his index finger to his lips and said quietly:
"Don't talk nonsense. What if he hears you!"
"For ourselves, whether what we do is right or wrong depends on our intentions!"
"But for the person involved, only if the outcome is good is it considered good. If the outcome is bad, then it's bad!"
"Haven't you heard of good intentions leading to bad results? It doesn't change the outcome of a bad deed!"
"Besides... he just saved our lives too. Although his original intention wasn't to save us, the result was indeed beneficial to us!"
"So from his perspective, we abducted his daughter. From our perspective, we had good intentions but messed up, and we were also saved!"
"Therefore, it's only natural that we owe him!"
"What's more... with a strong person accompanying us, we'll be safer on the way!"
Hearing Xiao Guanghan's words, the female student nodded as if she understood, yet didn't quite grasp it.
On the other side, Zhang Chen administered a subjugation potion to Xiao Bai.
Xiao Bai once again fell into a state of slumber.
[Time until awakening: 3 hours 59 minutes 45 seconds...]