Below the factory building, all the survivors looked up toward the second floor. Flames roared, even gushing out of the windows. Every survivor paled in horror and moved farther away from the building.
After all, the first floor was full of gasoline. If the fire spread down there, the consequences would be unthinkable.
Luo Fan and the others also hurried down from the second floor. Watching the raging flames upstairs, he wondered whether such an intense fire would burn that enormous slug to death.
The slug's immunity to physical attacks was indeed a terrifying ability.
But it feared fire. Its strength was terrifying, but its weakness was equally obvious-its abilities were severely unbalanced.
Niu Dagang said nothing. He simply walked over to the fuel tanker in silence, dug a large pit in the ground with his Fire Axe, and buried Xiao Wang's headless body inside.
In traditional Huaxian thinking, the dead could only rest in peace once buried. He had failed to save him, but he couldn't leave his body exposed in the wilderness, could he?
Seeing what Niu Dagang was doing, Luo Fan came over to the hastily raised little grave and observed a moment of silence.
Overall, they had gotten along quite well during the few days they had spent living together on the bus.
After a moment of silence, Luo Fan patted Niu Dagang on the shoulder. "Brother Niu, death isn't necessarily a bad thing. It might be a release. In this fucking apocalypse, everyone's struggling to survive, and no one knows what the future holds. Those of us still alive have to keep finding ways to stay alive. We don't have much time."
Luo Fan's words of comfort helped Niu Dagang pull himself together. He opened the fuel tanker's door and climbed inside.
Rumble...
Before long, Niu Dagang started the fuel tanker.
Luo Fan's eyes lit up. So, although Xiao Wang had been killed, he really had managed to repair the tanker while lying beneath it.
"Luo Fan, let's go. Head outside and drive that bus," Niu Dagang told him after starting the tanker.
With that, the Hope Convoy had gained another vehicle-a fuel tanker.
"Wait, Brother Niu. How much time do we have left?" Luo Fan asked, in no hurry to leave.
Hearing this, Niu Dagang checked his watch. "Fourteen minutes. We have to leave Jiangxin Town within fourteen minutes."
Since Zhao Chunfeng had given them a one-hour limit, presumably, they would encounter something even more terrifying if they still hadn't left by then.
Both Luo Fan and Niu Dagang had great faith in Zhao Chunfeng's Divination ability.
"I'll take a look upstairs first..." Luo Fan said when he heard that they had only fourteen minutes left.
That eerie little tree was still very much on Luo Fan's mind.
The enormous slug seemed to have had a symbiotic relationship with the Monster Tree, or perhaps one had been raising the other.
When eating people, the slug ate only their bodies, deliberately leaving their heads for the ancient tree. Then petals would drift down from the flowers on the Monster Tree, and the slug would eat them.
Luo Fan instinctively felt that the Monster Tree was no ordinary thing.
If he had time, Luo Fan would naturally have waited for all the flames on the second floor to die out before investigating. But with time running short, he couldn't afford to worry about that.
Besides, while they had been digging Xiao Wang's grave and observing a moment of silence, the fire on the second floor had already subsided considerably.
"All right, then hurry." Hearing Luo Fan's words, Niu Dagang clearly thought of the Monster Tree as well and nodded.
With time running short, Luo Fan didn't even bother with the stairs. He took a deep breath, activated Spirit Void Step, then leaped straight from the ground to a second-floor window.
Flames still raged through the factory's second floor.
Yet when Luo Fan looked toward the Monster Tree, he froze.
The enormous slug was indeed dead, but it didn't look as though it had burned to death. Instead, the Monster Tree had killed it.
Several tentacles had pierced straight into the slug's body, leaving it shriveled.
Looking toward the ancient tree, he saw that its vines had all drawn back. Clearly, the Monster Tree was also deeply afraid of fire.
A figure holding a burning bundle as a torch was approaching the Monster Tree-or, more precisely, its flower.
"Rose?" Luo Fan called out in surprise.
Ever since she had reminded everyone that this was the Black Refinery, neither he nor Niu Dagang and the others had seen Rose again. None of them knew where she had gone.
Luo Fan had thought she had been killed as well. He hadn't expected her to appear now.
More importantly, she actually dared to face the Monster Tree alone?
"Luo Fan, come help! This flower is about to bear fruit!" Rose called urgently, holding up her torch to protect herself.
Luo Fan looked closely. Sure enough, the flower at the top of the Monster Tree glowed with an eerie light. Then its petals fell away one by one, revealing a translucent, blood-red fruit at their very center.
The fruit looked about the size of a fist and resembled a ruby.
Rose held up the torch while collecting the fallen petals with her other hand.
Those petals were treasures, but it stood to reason that the most precious thing would be the fruit.
Seeing this, Luo Fan quickly scanned his surroundings, then threw some burning material toward the Monster Tree, making its vines shrink back in fear.
Then vines lashed toward Luo Fan like snakes writhing wildly.
With his Beast-Fang Dagger in hand, Luo Fan relied on the agility of Spirit Void Step to dodge and weave through the flying vines. At the same time, he slashed again and again with his dagger, severing them.
Bright red sap flowed from the severed vines. It looked like blood and was horrifying.
He was, after all, Lv6 in the assassination sequence, and his short blade was sharp. The Monster Tree could offer little resistance. In moments, Luo Fan severed seven or eight vines, clearing some space around him.
Reaching the flower, which was as large as a washbasin, Luo Fan could see that most of its petals had already fallen away naturally, leaving only the fist-sized, blood-red fruit gleaming.
"Luo Fan, wait! The fruit won't be fully ripe until all these petals have fallen off!" Having collected a dozen or so petals, Rose hurriedly called out when she saw Luo Fan raise his short blade toward the fruit.
Squelch...
But Luo Fan ignored Rose's shout. With one swing, he cut straight through the flower's stem and quickly put it into his storage space.
"We have ten minutes left to escape. There's no time to wait for it to ripen completely." After putting the fruit away, Luo Fan glanced at Rose, then jumped straight out of the window.
Hearing this, Rose knew Luo Fan had a point. She sighed inwardly, quickly stowed her dozen or so petals, and raced downstairs...
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