Lu Chengran moved before Tang Li Yue could.
The root came down like a whip, tearing through the air with a wet, horrible hiss. It smashed into the concrete where Tang Li Yue had been standing half a breath ago, sending broken chunks of pavement flying.
Tang Li Yue stumbled backward, more from Lu Chengran yanking her by the arm than from fear.
"Hey!"
Lu Chengran did not let go despite her protest.
Another root burst from the ground, curling toward her ankle with frightening speed. He pulled her behind him and brought the crowbar down with both hands. The metal struck the root with a heavy clang, but instead of breaking, the root only recoiled slightly.
Dark sap splattered onto the ground.
Tang Li Yue stared at it and then at the crowbar. And back at the root, which was already writhing back into position.
"Excuse me?" she said, deeply offended. "It didn't even break?"
Lu Chengran's expression darkened. "It's tougher than normal wood."
"That is not wood anymore. That is metal wearing bark."
The mutated tree shuddered as though it understood her words. Its leaves rustled despite the absence of wind, producing a sound that reminded Tang Li Yue of ghostly whispers behind silk curtains.
She hated it immediately.
The trunk split wider, revealing a dark, pulsing hollow within. It looked almost like a mouth.
Nope.
Absolutely not.
Tang Li Yue had limits. She had tolerated zombies. She had tolerated a chihuahua returning from death with the stubbornness of an unpaid debt. She had tolerated sleeping on cardboard and drooling.
But she would not tolerate a tree developing a mouth. Especially if that mouth had a mish-mash of unidentifiable corpses that almost looked like flesh smoothie.
"Burn it," she said scathingly.
Lu Chengran glanced at the fuel spreading across the ground. "That would be too dangerous."
"It is standing in a gas station. Of course, it is dangerous. That is why fire will be satisfying."
"We are also standing in a gas station," he reminded.
She argued, "That is a minor inconvenience."
"What you want to happen is a major explosion."
Tang Li Yue clicked her tongue. "You logistics people have no imagination."
A root snapped toward them again.
Lu Chengran shoved her aside and intercepted it, but the force pushed him back several steps. His boots scraped against the ground. The crowbar bent slightly under the impact.
Tang Li Yue's eyes narrowed.
The tree was strong, far stronger than the ordinary zombies by far.
Li Yue's journal had warned about mutated plants and animals, but reading about danger and seeing it in front of her were two very different things. One was ink on paper. The other was a murderous tree trying to turn her into fertilizer.
How utterly impolite.
The mutated chihuahua launched itself toward one of the roots with a shrill bark. Its small black body flashed across the pavement, red veins glowing faintly beneath its fur. It bit into the root and shook its head violently.
For one glorious second, Tang Li Yue almost approved of it.
Then the tree flicked the root and the chihuahua flew.
It hit the side of a parked van with a metallic thud, slid down, and immediately got back up.
Tang Li Yue stared in amazement.
"That thing really refuses to die."
Lu Chengran took the shotgun from his shoulder and fired at the trunk.
Bang!
The sound cracked through the gas station. The shot tore into the bark, sending splinters and dark sap outward. The tree jerked, but the wound began closing almost instantly.
Tang Li Yue's scalp prickled.
"Damn, it heals."
"I can see that."
She furrowed her brows. "I hate things that heal when I haven't given them permission."
Lu Chengran fired again.
The second shot struck near the pulsing hollow. The mutated tree screeched.
It was a sound like wood splitting and bones grinding together. Tang Li Yue flinched despite herself. Sir Edmund hissed from inside the RV, his fluffy form visible through the window, eyes wide and tail puffed.
"Even Sir Edmund thinks it's ugly," Tang Li Yue muttered.
The tree went wild.
Roots tore out of the ground in all directions. One wrapped around the motorcycle lying near the convenience store and hurled it toward them.
Lu Chengran grabbed Tang Li Yue around the waist and threw them both aside.
They hit the ground hard.
Tang Li Yue's shoulder smacked against the pavement.
For a second, her vision flashed white.
This damn weak body!
Then her brain caught up.
She was on the ground.
The ground was dirty.
The apocalypse had once again personally insulted her, this Saintess.
Tang Li Yue sucked in a breath through gritted teeth. A sense of deja vú welling up in her heart.
"Lu Chengran," she whispered.
"Yes?"
"If there is anything wet beneath me, lie."
"There is nothing wet beneath you."
She paused.
"Was that true?"
"No."
She nearly screamed.
Before she could claw herself upright, Lu Chengran was already pulling her up. His hand moved to her wrist, his gaze dropping to the small scrape on her palm where the pavement had torn skin.
It was shallow.
Barely a scratch.
But a bead of blood had surfaced.
Lu Chengran's expression changed.
Tang Li Yue noticed it immediately.
"What? What is it?" She asked, bewildered.
He wiped the blood away with a cloth before it could fall.
His movement was fast.
Tang Li Yue blinked, her eyes narrowing dangerously.
"Did you just steal my blood?"
"I prevented it from touching anything."
"Why?"
The tree slammed a root into the roof of the convenience store, sending glass raining down behind them.
Lu Chengran's jaw tightened. "Because the last two times your bodily fluids touched something infected, impossible things happened."
Tang Li Yue froze.
Right. She forgot that teensy bit of detail.
Lu Chengran.
The chihuahua.
Her gaze flicked toward the mutated tree.
Then toward her injured palm.
Then back toward the tree.
A horrifying thought crawled into her mind with eight filthy legs.
If her blood touched that thing…
Tang Li Yue imagined the tree suddenly turning into an intelligent, loyal, horrifyingly mutated plant beast that followed her around like the chihuahua.
Her soul recoiled at the thought.
"No," she said firmly. Her head shaking frantically.
Lu Chengran looked at her.
"No. Absolutely not. I refuse to collect strange pets in the apocalypse."
"Then stay behind me."
"I am not some porcelain vase." Tang Li Yue still found the energy to protest.
"I know."
His voice remained calm, but his grip on her wrist tightened slightly.
"That's why I'm more cautious."
Tang Li Yue's anger caught strangely in her throat.
She cursed the man in her head.
This suspicious, irritatingly handsome, logistics-lying man.
He wasn't simply protecting her from injury.
He was protecting the world from whatever nonsense her blood might trigger next.
Fine. It's me. I'm the threat.
Well, that's fair. Very fair. So much so that Tang Li Yue couldn't even find a counter-argument for it.
It didn't change the fact that she found it annoying.
Then another root came.
This damned tree is persistent!
Tang Li Yue twisted her wrist free and flicked two needles into its path. The needles buried into the bark, coated with a paralysis poison she had secretly and hastily prepared before leaving the warehouse, for contingency purposes.
The root slowed, only slightly.
"Tsk. Even poison works poorly on a tree."
"You poisoned a tree?"
"I poison everything when given enough time."
Lu Chengran had no proper response to that.
The mutated tree advanced, dragging itself forward by its roots. The pavement cracked beneath it. Fuel continued to spread in shining puddles across the ground, reflecting the ugly movement of its branches.
Lu Chengran looked at the RV, then at the tree and the surrounding pumps.
"We're leaving. Now."
Tang Li Yue looked at him in disbelief. "We haven't defeated it yet."
"We don't need to." He firmly said.
"It wasted my gasoline."
"I assure you it will waste our lives next."
She opened her mouth.
Another root punched through a nearby car, lifting it off the ground like a toy.
Tang Li Yue closed her mouth.
Fine.
A strategic retreat was not cowardice. It was wisdom wrapped in humiliation. Even the Sichuan Tang Clan Elders would agree.
Still, when Lu Chengran grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the RV, she went with visible resentment.
"I want it on record that I am leaving under protest."
"Recorded."
"I could have dealt with it."
"Possibly."
"Do not use that tone."
"It is a realistic tone."
"I hate realistic tones the most."
The chihuahua darted ahead of them and leaped into the RV. Sir Edmund retreated to the highest cushion available, as though sharing space with the dog was a personal insult.
Lu Chengran shoved Tang Li Yue through the passenger door and climbed into the driver's seat. A root struck the rear of the RV just as he started the engine.
The whole vehicle rocked.
Tang Li Yue grabbed the seatbelt with one hand and Sir Edmund with the other.
"My RV!"
Lu Chengran slammed his foot down, the RV surged forward.
A root scraped along the side, metal shrieking as it tore a line across the exterior.
Tang Li Yue looked devastated.
"That was expensive!"
"Don't worry. I'll compensate you." Lu Chengran said in an attempt to comfort her.
"You better."