Chapter 77: Do You Dare Not Listen to My Brother?

Chapter 77: Do You Dare Not Listen to My Brother?

Early the next morning, Chu Ya informed Rong Chen that his mental domain was recovering. Overjoyed, Rong Chen immediately waved his hand, and everyone hurriedly finished their breakfast and set off.

The forest appeared flatter than the snow mountain, but the ground was covered with wild grass and vines. Therefore, the junior students all sat in carts, which were pushed forward by the senior students and the administrators. The intermediate students held hands in the middle of the group, also holding onto long ropes on their sides to prevent getting lost along the way.

Dense thickets could hide Mutants, so Chu Ya walked at the front of the group, constantly releasing his mental power to patrol the route. Black Wolf would occasionally dart into the depths of the forest, driving away those lurking Mutants.

The temperature in the forest was quite high, and the students, feeling hot from walking, took off their cotton jackets. Although they no longer suffered from the cold, mosquitoes began to multiply.

The mosquitoes in this forest were large and venomous, leaving red, itchy welts with each bite. The administrators held homemade snake repellent sticks, wooden rods wrapped in medicinal herbs that emitted smoke when lit, which could drive away snakes and insects but not these mosquitoes. Everyone then used their jackets to cover their heads, leaving only their eyes exposed.

The students had been instructed by Rong Chen and Chu Ya not to speak until they exited the forest, so they tried to keep their mouths shut, only whispering softly if necessary.

"This trip is too much like an escape, doesn't feel like a vacation at all."

"I've never been on a vacation either, how would I know?"

"I really want to go back, I don't want to go any further."

"Me too."

The senior students who knew the situation said, "Vacations are like this. On TV, vacations still involve escaping in a car, just letting you get out to pee, then quickly getting back in to continue the escape."

Shen Juanjuan, sitting in a cart with his head covered, heard the senior students muttering beside him and quickly said, "My brother said you're not allowed to talk."

The senior students didn't take him seriously and continued chatting.

"Don't talk, Chief Administrator Chen and Brother Chu Ya said talking will attract Mutants," Tang Yuanyuan whispered.

"Yes, yes, those Mutants are very fierce, they'll eat us all."

"Don't talk, they can hear us."

"We'll just say a couple of words," a senior student said.

Shen Juanjuan refused, "No, my brother said you can't talk, so you can't."

The senior students didn't take the juniors seriously and kept talking.

Shen Juanjuan felt they were defying Chu Ya's orders and challenging his authority. He usually didn't follow Chu Ya's instructions, but when others didn't, it made him very angry.

One senior student was still talking when he suddenly turned to look at the cart. Another asked, "What's wrong?"

The senior student replied curiously, "This junior student is hitting me."

The other senior students around the cart turned to see the child with his hand raised, his entire head covered by clothing, only his large, fiery eyes visible.

"Oh, you're hitting people?" the senior student said.

Shen Juanjuan hit him again, "If you keep talking, I'll hit you more."

"So what if I talk? Can you hurt me?"

Shen Juanjuan tried to reach out again, but Tang Yuanyuan pulled him back, whispering, "Report him!"

Shen Juanjuan then raised his hand and called out softly, "Chief Administrator Chen, Chief Administrator Chen, look at them, look at them not listening to my brother."

The senior students had to shut up, "These juniors report everything, they're so annoying."

"All juniors are tattletales."

"Look, he's rolling his eyes at us."

"Forget it, let's stop talking, we don't want to really attract the Mutants."

Chu Ya had been using his mental power to scan the surrounding forest. When his mental power probed to the right, he suddenly sensed something unusual. Moving forward, he indeed saw a group of Hyena Mutants approaching. They moved swiftly and cautiously, their eyes excited and frenzied, clearly preparing to attack the group entering the forest.

He immediately divided his mental power into several beams, like steel needles piercing down, each one passing through the brains of the Mutants, executing them cleanly and silently, making the group of Mutants disappear quietly into the jungle.

"It seems pretty quiet in this forest, except for the mosquitoes," Chief Administrator Chen swatted at his neck, looking relaxed.

Chu Ya looked to the right, "I've already killed a group of Hyena Mutants, about twenty of them, and three Python Mutants, each as thick as a bucket. Also five Wild Boar Mutants, ten or so Wolf Mutants, and a group of Mutants so ugly you can't tell what species they are."

With each sentence Chu Ya spoke, Rong Chen's mouth opened wider, finally coming to his senses after a while, "Thank goodness you're here, thank goodness you're here."

After walking for an hour, many of the intermediate students were exhausted. Seeing a relatively flat area, Rong Chen let everyone stop to rest for half an hour.

"Finally, we can rest."

"My hand has a mosquito bite, it itches so much."

"Just lie down for a while, it's okay to itch."

This area was filled with tall trees, their trunks entwined with vines, and the ground covered with lush green grass. The students lay scattered on the ground, too tired to speak, only raising their hands to scratch the bites.

Chu Ya sat leaning against a tree, removing the jacket covering Shen Juanjuan's head to check the mosquito bites on his neck.

"It itches so much, scratch it for me, it itches." Chu Ya wouldn't let Shen Juanjuan scratch himself, so he whined, almost crying, rubbing his neck against his shoulder.

"Covering my head didn't work, they, they dig holes." Shen Juanjuan made a digging motion, "They dug through my clothes and bit me."

"That's because you didn't cover your neck properly, so the mosquitoes bit you."

Chu Ya remembered seeing a type of wild herb earlier, one that the combat instructor had mentioned could be applied to the skin to reduce inflammation and itching. But he had been busy killing Mutants and hadn't had time to pick it. Now, he should be able to find it.

Wang Chengcai and Lin Duozhi were sitting nearby. Lin Duozhi had a mosquito bite on his wrist, and Wang Chengcai licked his finger and applied his saliva to the red bump.

Chu Ya's gaze lingered on them for two seconds before quickly turning away. Shen Juanjuan, however, whined, "Apply saliva to me too, apply it to me."

"Endure a bit longer, don't be so anxious; I'll find the medicine right away."

"Find medicine, find medicine, find medicine—won't even give me some saliva to soothe it, just obsessed with finding medicine!" Shen Juanjuan growled in frustration, grabbing a few blades of grass nearby and yanking them fiercely: "Ah!" He then glared at Chu Ya, slowly opening his hand to let the broken grass fall to the ground.

"How terrifying." Chu Ya said.

"Do you know fear now?" Shen Juanjuan demanded.

"Fear! But there's no need to apply saliva; it won't help much." Chu Ya waved away a mosquito from his face, then wrapped his clothes around Shen Juanjuan's head again: "I'll go gather it now; it can relieve the itching quickly. Just hold on for two more minutes."

He got up and walked to the side, soon finding the wild herbs behind a tree. He squeezed out the juice and applied it to Shen Juanjuan. The cool, soothing juice worked immediately, and Shen Juanjuan felt much better almost instantly.

Seeing that it was effective, Chu Ya gathered more and distributed them to the children who had been bitten by mosquitoes. Several managers also collected a large bunch, crushing them to extract the juice, which they applied to the children's heads and faces. Surprisingly, the mosquitoes stopped biting.

With the mosquito problem resolved, everyone stopped scratching their heads and faces. They had been whispering while traveling, but now that there were no Mutants nearby, Rong Chen allowed them to talk. However, everyone was too exhausted and lay on the ground, too lazy to speak.

The forest was unusually quiet, not even the sound of wind through the leaves. It was as if time had stopped. The warm air made both the managers and the children drowsy. Shen Juanjuan lay in Chu Ya's arms with his eyes closed, while Chu Ya, with his hands on Shen Juanjuan's shoulders, felt his eyelids growing heavy. Yet, a sense of unease lingered in his mind, feeling that something dangerous might be lurking nearby.

What could it be?

It was clearly safe here, with no Mutants around, so why did he have this sense of danger?

Black Wolf also seemed to sense something amiss, patrolling the area alertly with its ears perked up.

A breeze blew past, and Chu Ya brushed a strand of hair from Shen Juanjuan's face. A sudden thought flashed through his mind.

Right, he realized what was wrong.

There was a breeze, and the branches above were lush, yet there was no sound of wind rustling through the leaves.

Plant Mutants?!

Chu Ya's eyes snapped open just as he saw the vines on the trees curling forward like snakes, slithering down toward the students lying beneath.

The students and managers were completely unaware of the impending danger, either leaning against trees or lying on the ground resting.

"Be careful!"

As Chu Ya shouted, several waves of mental energy shot out in all directions, and he rolled forward with Shen Juanjuan in his arms. At the same moment, the vines lunged, wrapping around the students who hadn't reacted in time and pulling them back quickly.

"Aaaaah!" Panic-stricken screams finally erupted.

Just as Chu Ya stood up, he felt an emptiness in his arms as Shen Juanjuan was dragged into the air by a vine wrapped around his neck. He leaped up, grabbing the vine with his left hand and slashing it with his dagger in his right.

The vine moved too fast, and by the time it was cut, Shen Juanjuan had already been lifted three meters high. As he fell, a black shadow flashed by, and Black Wolf bit into Shen Juanjuan's clothes, gently placing him on the ground.

"Cough, cough, cough." Shen Juanjuan lay on the ground, clutching his throat and coughing loudly. Seeing that he was unharmed, Chu Ya didn't stop to check on him and continued to rescue the other students.

More than half of the students on the grass had been ensnared by the vines, being dragged into the treetops. The students struggled in the air, crying out for help, while some, with their necks wrapped, couldn't make a sound, only kicking their legs frantically.

Chu Ya released wave after wave of mental energy, cutting the vines, but before the students could hit the ground, new vines would wrap around them again.

Black Wolf kept leaping up the trees, tearing and clawing at the vines, prioritizing those who had their necks wrapped and quickly bringing them to the ground. However, too many had been taken, and some were already dragged into the treetops, leaving only their feet flailing desperately.

"What is this? What the hell is this?"

A manager held a gun but didn't know where to aim, eventually discarding it and pulling out a dagger. He climbed up a tree, intending to cut the vines and save the students above.

"What do we do? So many vines, the kids are all being taken. What do we do?" Rong Chen was pale with worry, her lips trembling as she jumped up and grabbed the leg of a student hanging in mid-air, pulling him down with all her strength.

After releasing another wave of mental energy, Chu Ya realized this approach wouldn't work. Even though he had cut many vines, piling them thickly on the ground, countless more were still flying around, intercepting the students who had just fallen.

"I'll beat you, release them, I'll beat you." Shen Juanjuan kicked and punched a large tree, holding a rock and smashing it. Hanging from the treetops were several children, including Tang Yuanyuan and Chen Hongliang, crying loudly.

Chu Ya directed his mental energy at the vines around their waists and tried to pull Shen Juanjuan away. His gaze swept over the tree trunk, and he noticed some scratches on the bark where Shen Juanjuan had hit it, with red spots seeping through the white bark, like blood beads from a human scrape.

Chu Ya's heart raced as he followed the tree trunk upward, noticing that the roots of the vines were connected to the tree trunks. He immediately understood that the vines were not parasitic plants but part of the trees themselves.

These massive trees were also Plant Mutants.

Chu Ya immediately changed his target, transforming his mental energy into sharp axes and chopping deep grooves into the tree trunks.

One, two...

Red liquid gushed from the tree trunks, like blood from a wound. The trees began to tremble, as if in unbearable pain, causing the treetops to shake violently.

Three, four...

A tree as thick as two people embracing was cut in half, and the vines holding the children dropped like dead snakes. Two children screamed as they fell from the sky, caught by a manager and Black Wolf, respectively.

The tree crashed to the ground, spewing a large amount of red liquid from the cut. The other Plant Mutant trees, seemingly shocked or unable to bear the pain, retracted their vines, and the children rained down.

"Quick, catch them, catch them." The managers looked up, spreading their arms wide, but there were too many children, and they couldn't catch them all. Chu Ya transformed his mental energy into an invisible net, spreading it across the area.

"Aaaaaah."

"Help!"

"Aaaaa... Ouch, it doesn't hurt?"

"It doesn't hurt."

"I didn't fall to the ground; I'm floating above the lawn."

"Ah, I'm also floating above the lawn."

Seeing that the children had all landed safely on the net, Chu Ya withdrew his mental energy.

The ground was covered with severed vines, piled thickly. Although the Plant Mutant trees were still bleeding, they dared not move further. The managers, however, were too afraid to stay and ran around, urging the children to leave quickly.

"Hurry up, get up, let’s go, we need to leave this place quickly."

Chu Ya carried Shen Juanjuan on his back and followed Rong Chen who was leading the way, with the children stumbling behind them. The caretakers hurriedly pushed the carts, lifting those who couldn’t walk onto the carts and dragging them along, then quickly counted heads to ensure no one was missing.

The children gradually came to their senses, realizing the danger they had just faced. The younger and middle-aged children were terrified, unable to speak, crying softly as they walked. The older children fared slightly better, their faces pale, but a few of the braver ones were recounting their experiences.

Ahead lay more of these tree mutants, forming dense forests. Everyone moved cautiously across the open ground, fearing that vines might suddenly shoot out from the trees and ensnare them. Even the sound of someone stepping on a twig would trigger a chorus of screams.

"Don’t be afraid, it’s okay. I can use mental attacks; I killed a tree just now. My brother is even stronger; he’s the one who killed all those trees!" Shen Juanjuan clung to Chu Ya's shoulders, furrowing his brow and pointing at the nearest tree: "Thick-skinned! If you dare to hang anyone, I’ll kick you down again! Are you scared? Go look at the tree I kicked to death in the back, ask if it’s scared! What about the other trees? The other thick-skinned ones? Are you afraid my brother will kill all of you?"

Sitting on the cart behind him, Tang Yuanyuan cried and shouted: "Thick-skinned! Don’t come out! Thick-skinned! I’ll beat you!"

"Thick-skinned!!!!" Chen Hongliang roared, causing the leaves, which not even the wind could move, to rustle.

More and more children joined in the shouting, the cries of "thick-skinned" echoing continuously. They walked and shouted, their voices fierce, cursing the tree mutants, and indeed, they felt less afraid, their courage growing.

Shen Juanjuan grew bolder with each shout, wielding a stick and leaning forward from Chu Ya's back to strike the nearest tree: "You thick-skinned, thick-skinned, thick-skinned, what do you want by growing so close? Tell me! What do you want? Back off! Back off!"

"That’s enough, ignore it, let’s keep moving."

Chu Ya pulled his hand back and continued forward with him on his back. Black Wolf followed closely, silently approaching the tree Shen Juanjuan had just hit, then suddenly raised its paw and swiped swiftly.

Rip!

Deep claw marks appeared on the trunk, red liquid gushing out, but Black Wolf didn’t even glance back as it walked ahead.

Although these tree mutants seemed to have calmed down, Chu Ya remained cautious, releasing his mental energy to slice a shallow cut into their trunks, like a blade.

This act served both as a warning and a display of strength. The tree mutants indeed became more disciplined, even the vines entwined around the trunks slowly retracting.

Exiting the area of tree mutants, they found an open field covered in wild grass, with a babbling stream at the edge. Rong Chen quickly asked Chu Ya: "Are there any mutants here?"

Chu Ya had already checked: "Not for now."

"What about the grass? Is it a mutant?"

Chu Ya: "No."

"Then, what about the river?"

"… No."

Rong Chen clapped her hands and shouted to the group: "Come, come, everyone, come rest here, hurry up and rest."

Amidst the chaos earlier, no one knew the condition of the children, unsure if anyone was injured. Now they could stop and check properly.

Shen Juanjuan slid off Chu Ya's back and went to find Tang Yuanyuan and the others.

"I was hanging upside down, I saw Shen Juanjuan hitting the tree with a rock," Tang Yuanyuan said.

Chen Hongliang sounded a bit aggrieved: "You were also kicking wildly while hanging. I was right next to you, and you kept kicking me, hurting me. I told you to stop kicking me, wouldn’t it be better to hang quietly?"

"I didn’t mean to," Tang Yuanyuan said.

Shen Juanjuan stroked Wang Xiaoxi's face and hugged Tang Yuanyuan's shoulder: "Don’t be afraid, my brother is here, he’s very strong, much stronger than Lin Duozhi’s brother." He looked around: "Where are Lin Duozhi and Liu Sijin?"

"Lin Duozhi and his brother are over there."

"I saw Liu Sijin too."

Shen Juanjuan finally felt relieved and turned to look for Chu Ya.