Early the next morning, Gu Xi and Wei Heng headed out in a large truck toward the wilderness, some thirty miles northeast of the camp.
With no money to spare, Gu Xi had to reluctantly part with her tomatoes. The two of them only collected the free farming equipment, a bag of sweet potato seedlings, and a few large shipping containers to use as a temporary home before setting out with their rations.
The journey was only about thirty miles, but the road was so overgrown with weeds and in such terrible condition that the truck bounced along for over two hours before finally reaching their destination.
When they arrived, Gu Xi leaped from the truck. She gazed at the mutant plants blanketing the surrounding landscape and took a deep, satisfied breath.
'From now on, this whole mountain is mine!'
Gu Xi found it to be a wonderful place. It was sparsely populated, with mountains, water, and the sixteen-and-a-half acres of land the state had allotted her.
Clearly, she was very pleased with her new surroundings.
Wei Heng glanced at her slender arms and legs, then silently began to unload the truck.
'She's too delicate. This kind of rough, tiring work is up to me...'
While Wei Heng took on the task of choosing a site and setting up their home, Gu Xi accepted the cloth sack and large machete he handed her. After a moment's thought, she headed toward a small, nearby hill.
Amidst the wild mutant plants covering the hillside, Gu Xi quickly selected a target.
She had often been on missions in the wilderness before, so she had a wealth of survival experience.
The mutant plant she chose this time was a species that had been an edible wild vegetable before the apocalypse.
Gu Xi raised her hand. A tiny green sprout trembled as it emerged from her fingertip, then shot out with incredible speed to connect with the mutant plant she had chosen.
The entire absorption process went smoothly. The strange, violent energy was quickly converted into her own power.
But Gu Xi didn't absorb all the energy from the mutant plant at once; she deliberately left more than half behind.
Then, she plucked a tender leaf and placed it in her mouth. After sensing it carefully for a moment, she began to chew slowly.
Sure enough, the bizarre energy lurking within the tender leaf showed no signs of activity at first.
But as she chewed and broke down the leaf, the unknown, bizarre energy—which had been almost docile when she was absorbing it directly—sprang to life. It began to attack Gu Xi, attempting to contaminate and corrupt her own power.
As Gu Xi circulated her power to suppress the bizarre, violent energy, she gazed at the mutant plants covering the mountainside, lost in thought.
'Perhaps the great mutation of plants and animals thirty years ago wasn't a chaotic mutation, but some kind of... orderly evolution?
'Just as pre-apocalypse plants converted carbon dioxide into oxygen through photosynthesis, were these mutated plants now suppressing this unknown, bizarre, and violent energy through some special means?
'Or perhaps... sealing it away?
'In short, as long as these mutant plants are alive—or rather, still in a state of growth—this bizarre, violent energy is sealed within their bodies, thereby losing some of its activity.
'But once these mutant plants die and lose their life force, they also lose this suppressive—or sealing—effect. Then, the bizarre energy latent within them will fully awaken.
'And once this energy awakens, it becomes aggressive upon entering a human body.
'Ability users have their own power for protection and are physically stronger, so when this bizarre energy enters their bodies, it attacks their power first... which is why Mr. Zhou's ability seems so strange.
'Ordinary people, however, have no power to protect them. The bizarre energy directly attacks their bodily functions... which is why almost every ordinary person in the camp is sallow and emaciated, looking as though they're malnourished or poisoned.
'Of course, this damage is likely gradual and requires a certain amount of accumulation.
'But once that damage accumulates to a critical point and erupts, a person will completely lose their sanity and turn into a bloodthirsty monster.
'As for the mutant plants themselves, once some kind of balance is broken and they can no longer suppress or seal that bizarre energy... then a malignant transformation occurs.'
The theory seemed both bold and absurd, yet a strange sense of conviction grew in Gu Xi's heart.
But she would need more evidence to prove her theory.