Escape map, Tree People, and the opposite direction

The next day.

Su Chen woke to his alarm.

Early morning.

5:00.

Yesterday, they had arrived at Banyan Tree Village at 6:47 p.m.

They could stay for twelve hours.

Even leaving at six would give them enough time.

Su Chen did not dare gamble on whether the time in the intelligence was the absolute limit.

So he planned to leave early.

Last night.

Yang Defa had installed all the solar panels, but not the battery bank.

There was still some finishing up to do.

Su Chen wondered whether that had been deliberate, out of fear that he would slip away alone.

In fact.

After eating that meal last night, he could no longer abandon Yang Defa.

He was somewhat cold on the outside but warm at heart.

Yang Defa was smart. Having him along would certainly be useful.

Su Chen glanced at his younger sister again.

His sister was still asleep and had not woken from awakening her sequence.

That worried him a little.

He had no idea.

When would she wake up?

Su Chen intended to use the Intelligence System to check his sister's condition.

Just then, he discovered that the intelligence had already updated.

[Today's intelligence updated]

[1. You are advised to flee toward the far end of the village, roughly north. Do not look back.]

[Attachment: escape map, with routes provided.]

[2. At the gas station beside the national highway fifteen kilometers away, there are petroleum supplies.]

[Note: marked on the escape map.]

[3. In Xintang Town, thirty kilometers away, there is an Anomalous Object that can assist with awakening a sequence.]

[Note: marked on the escape map.]

[4. In Xintang Town, one person has awakened a sequence.]

[5. Your auras have already been marked by some strange entities. Only by fleeing far enough can you avoid being tracked.]

[6. Someone got too close to the Banyan Tree and has already been assimilated by it, becoming a Weird Entity disguised as a normal person.]

[7. Weird Entities can fuse with Weird Entities, Weird Entities with Anomalous Objects, and Anomalous Objects with Anomalous Objects.]

[8. One hundred kilometers away, someone has awakened the Prophet Sequence and organized a group of escapees.]

An escape map?

As Su Chen read that piece of intelligence, he clenched his fists, trembling slightly.

He had been wondering which way to run.

With an escape map, things would undoubtedly be much easier.

The second piece of intelligence?

A gas station?

That was important too.

Su Chen remembered that there were still several empty fuel cans in the refrigerated truck.

The third and fourth pieces of intelligence concerned locations.

They were connected, too.

In fact, all these pieces of intelligence were related to the escape map.

He had to visit Xintang Town.

There was someone with a sequence there.

His sister and Huang Wei were both awakening their sequences, and he still had no idea how things were going.

He urgently wanted to learn more about awakening sequences.

As for awakening a sequence himself?

He might have to leave that to chance.

The fifth piece of intelligence.

Like the intelligence about sunlight, this one concerned a rule.

It seemed.

Once they fled, stopping would be difficult. Weird Entities would keep following them.

The sixth piece of intelligence.

A person had turned into a tree?

And could still disguise themselves as human?

They definitely needed to be more cautious.

The seventh piece of intelligence.

"???"

Su Chen recalled his deductions from last night.

He had actually deduced a piece of intelligence himself.

But that was not good news.

It meant the danger would keep escalating. If they did not improve, they would only be eliminated.

The Prophet Sequence.

Su Chen committed the name of that sequence to memory.

In the future, he would pretend to have that sequence.

It would be just the cover he needed for the Intelligence System.

Su Chen had just finished reading the intelligence when he noticed Old Yang approaching.

He was about to knock on the truck window.

"You're awake?"

Old Yang greeted Su Chen as he got out.

"I'm awake!"

"Didn't you sleep last night?"

Su Chen asked with concern.

"I'm old. Had a little trouble sleeping."

"She's making breakfast. I'll go into the village to call people again. Have breakfast before you leave!"

By "she," Old Yang meant Yang Defa's mother.

He and Yang Defa's mother had timed things, and it was about time to start making breakfast.

"Did you see something last night?"

Su Chen suddenly asked.

Last night.

Old Yang had been acting strange since returning.

After reading the intelligence this morning, Su Chen felt it even more clearly.

Old Yang had become even more anxious than he was for them to leave the village.

"It's nothing."

"Just leave early with Defa later."

"I'll be here in the village."

Old Yang forced a smile, then turned and headed into the village to call people again.

"Be careful!"

"Some people aren't human anymore. They might be trees."

Su Chen gave him a warning.

"Mm-hmm."

Old Yang nodded.

Watching Old Yang walk away, Su Chen grew increasingly certain that there was something eerie to be seen near the Banyan Tree.

What exactly was it?

Old Yang refused to speak of it.

Curious though Su Chen was, there was no way he would go take a look.

Su Chen went to the Yang family's home and woke Yang Defa.

"There might be Tree People among the crowd. Be careful."

Su Chen explained the situation.

"Understood!"

Yang Defa nodded.

At that moment.

Huang Wei was still unconscious, and the policewoman, Zhang Xiaomeng, did not know what to do.

Su Chen and Yang Defa got Huang Wei into the police car and told Zhang Xiaomeng to drive behind them later.

But Zhang Xiaomeng was not very good at driving.

She had a license, but had barely used it since graduating.

With no other choice.

Yang Defa had Wang Xiumei share a car with Zhang Xiaomeng, to take Huang Wei along later.

Breakfast was soon ready.

Quite a few people arrived outside the Yang family's home-middle-aged and young villagers.

Some rode motorcycles.

Some rode three-wheelers.

They all came to gather at the Yang family's home.

There were not many of them, just a dozen or so, fewer than twenty.

After all, most people from the village worked away from home.

There were also several unfamiliar cars.

Those were the cars that had turned off the national highway yesterday and followed them onto the rural road.

They had not left the village yet.

All these people had come over to have breakfast together before leaving together.

He had no idea.

How exactly had Old Yang persuaded so many villagers to leave?

That was no easy feat.

Inside the car.

Gao Yue and Fan Hui felt deeply awkward.

The two had angered everyone last night, so naturally no one paid them any attention.

"They're having breakfast. Why don't we go eat too?"

Seeing so many people, Fan Hui wanted to blend in and get a meal.

Why should everyone else get to eat?

And not her?

"I'm not going."

"If you want to go, go yourself!"

"I don't know why, but I haven't seen Officer Huang."

Gao Yue could not swallow her pride.

That old man had passed their car several times without doing anything.

His meaning was quite clear.

They were not welcome.

Gao Yue was still thinking about Huang Wei.

Hadn't she seen Huang Wei still asleep just now?

That made Gao Yue increasingly uneasy.

She wanted to rely on that policeman, but he seemed unreliable now.

Fan Hui, meanwhile, watched the others eat breakfast with longing.

She was hungry again.

She had not been this hungry in a long time!

Yang Defa knew the villagers and exchanged a few pleasantries with them.

She also introduced Su Chen to everyone.

Su Chen merely nodded.

Remembering the system's notification, he had been observing them in secret.

What was the difference between Tree People and ordinary people?

Was anyone particularly unusual?

Even the system's detection had little effect.

Perhaps they were concealed.

A possibility occurred to Su Chen.

The biggest difference with Tree People was not their flesh, but their bones.

The walking corpse from yesterday had been crushed into pulp.

Everyone had focused only on the pulp.

But even if a normal corpse were crushed, it was impossible for there to be no trace of bone.

That walking corpse had had no bones at all!

Perhaps some Tree People did not even realize they were Tree People.

Su Chen wanted to judge them by their habits.

However, he was not from the village and was completely unfamiliar with the villagers' habits.

Besides, there were strangers among them.

Everyone was eating breakfast normally.

There was simply no way to tell from how they ate breakfast.

Su Chen kept observing, but unfortunately found nothing.

He could only finish his breakfast quickly.

Moreover.

Su Chen could not quite understand why the Tree People were not making a move.

For now, he could only take things one step at a time.

Time to go!

Su Chen did not dawdle.

Rather than dealing with the Tree People in the crowd, leaving was more urgent.

Since the Tree People had chosen to disguise themselves.

That meant they had weaknesses.

And limitations to their strength.

When the time came, he might obtain useful information that would make the Tree People easier to deal with.

Su Chen's car took the lead.

He looked at the escape map in the intelligence and began to leave Banyan Tree Village.

Zhang Xiaomeng followed closely behind, with Wang Xiumei teaching her to drive on the spot.

Zhang Xiaomeng was a quick learner.

Or perhaps her memories of learning to drive had returned.

She drove well.

Yang Defa's truck was third.

The truck had been covered with a waterproof tarp, and half of what it carried was supplies collected in the village.

Blackie was on it too.

Old Yang said the black dog was too noisy and insisted that the dog go with Yang Defa.

An elderly father's love was always stubborn and forceful.

There was nothing to be done about it.

He could only go along!

Behind them came some motorcycles and three-wheelers.

However, not everyone followed Su Chen.

Some people said they would follow him.

In reality, they drove toward the village entrance, still wanting to head for the national highway.

Gao Yue and Fan Hui froze as they watched the convoy leave.

Huang Wei was unreliable.

Zhang Xiaomeng was already driving the police car behind Su Chen.

They were somewhat afraid of Su Chen.

They did not really want to follow him.

As it happened, there were now two options.

One direction meant following Su Chen.

The other was the opposite direction.

Heading toward the village entrance and retracing their route to the national highway.

"Why don't we go back to the national highway?"

"We can also get closer to Changcheng and see what's happening."

"There's no one left in the city."

"From now on, all the good stuff in there will belong to us."

Fan Hui urged Gao Yue to take a different direction.

As it happened, some vehicles had gone in the opposite direction from Su Chen, bolstering Fan Hui's courage.

Those people must have been thinking the same thing.

"All right!"

Gao Yue hesitated for a while, then drove toward the village entrance.