Chapter 31

After the sun rose, the weather grew even hotter. Every half hour, Su Cheng had to unfasten her protective suit and poke her head out to catch her breath and cool off.

After walking on and off for about two hours, Su Cheng spotted a man bent over cutting grass.

The moment she saw someone, she hid behind a tree.

The man was tall and wore green camouflage, with a military canteen hanging at his waist. He cut grass with a sickle, and the grass he cut vanished from his hand.

Su Cheng immediately confirmed that he was also an apartment resident.

As if sensing something, he looked toward Su Cheng. "I can see you."

Author's note:

None.

Chapter 31

After a moment's hesitation, Su Cheng stepped out from behind the tree.

When the man saw the white protective suit Su Cheng wore, which did not belong in this instance, he understood who she was.

He spoke first. "Hello, I'm Lu Heng."

"Su Cheng."

Su Cheng did not give a false name. Names were not particularly important.

Who knew how many people named Lu Heng or Su Cheng there were in the Survival Apartment? As long as he did not know her exact apartment address, he had no way to pinpoint her identity.

Lu Heng smiled. "How long have you been in this instance?"

He did not approach Su Cheng, maintaining a safe distance.

Su Cheng did not answer.

As if only just realizing it, Lu Heng said, "Sorry, I forgot that the person asking should offer their own information first as a show of sincerity."

"I've been in this instance for four days. I can leave in another three."

Lu Heng's instance survival mission actually lasted seven days, while hers was only five.

Su Cheng had always assumed everyone's survival missions lasted the same amount of time. She had not expected otherwise.

"This is my second day."

Lu Heng nodded slightly, showing little emotion. He pointed to the right. "Walk about twenty minutes from here and you can leave the mountains and reach the village where I'm staying."

The village where he was staying?

Su Cheng picked up on that information. "Haven't the natives of your village been infected with the Black Death?"

Or was Lu Heng immune to the Black Death...?

Su Cheng's eyes flickered. If it was the latter, Lu Heng, who possessed such an ability, was definitely formidable. At the very least, he had unlocked the first-stage gene lock.

"It's under control for now. You can join us if you're interested."

Lu Heng neatly cut the last stalk of grass. "This grass repels mosquitoes and insects. You can collect some if you see it."

Then his gaze fell on Su Cheng's protective suit. "Do you have any spare protective suits? Or other epidemic prevention supplies? I could trade with you."

Su Cheng did indeed have nine spare protective suits in her smart bag, along with alcohol and other supplies. "What can you offer?"

Lu Heng thought for a moment. "Food, clothing, and other basic supplies are all fine, but you'd have to come back to the village with me to get them."

Su Cheng frowned. "Then let's leave it for another time."

Following a stranger back to his territory was not a risk Su Cheng would take.

Lu Heng did not mind. "All right. You're welcome to change your mind and come find me in the village anytime."

With that, he turned and left.

Only after watching him walk far away did Su Cheng turn her attention to the surrounding weeds.

Lu Heng probably had not lied about the mosquito-repelling grass. He had no reason to deceive her over something so minor.

He had cut all the grass where he had been standing, but she could search the surrounding area.

Using the mosquito-repelling grass together with insect repellent spray would surely work even better.

As Su Cheng searched for grass, she summoned Mu Ling.

Mu Ling emerged from the bracelet looking as though she had just woken up. "What is it?"

Su Cheng pointed in the direction Lu Heng had gone. "Help me follow that man and see where he goes."

"Okay." Mu Ling stretched. After a night's rest, her soul form had regained the solidity it had when they first entered the instance.

Mu Ling floated in the direction Su Cheng indicated and soon spotted Lu Heng.

Su Cheng cautioned her, "Don't get too close."

She was worried Lu Heng might have some means of sensing Mu Ling.

Mu Ling nodded, keeping five meters away from Lu Heng.

Lu Heng did not hurry back to the village. Instead, he occasionally bent down along the way to gather plants among the grass.

After he finished gathering from each patch, Su Cheng would have Mu Ling go over and take a look, then work out what he had picked from the remaining plants and commit it to memory.

As he neared the village, Lu Heng suddenly stopped and looked around.

Su Cheng's heart tightened, and she instinctively told Mu Ling to hide behind a tree.

Why had Lu Heng suddenly stopped? Had they been discovered?

But immediately afterward, she saw Lu Heng confirm that no one was around, then take a pile of medicinal herbs out of thin air. After he mixed several kinds together, they actually turned into tablets, pills, and liquids.

Lu Heng sorted the tablets and pills into bottles and drew the liquids into syringes...

Only after finishing all this and putting everything away did Lu Heng head toward the village.

Was this Lu Heng's skill?

Turning plants into medicine.

No wonder Lu Heng said the plague in his village was under control. With medicine to treat it, he was practically delivering a dimensional-reduction strike against this instance's medical care.

But as a Survival Apartment resident, why would Lu Heng go to such lengths for the natives of an instance?

Was Lu Heng a saint who could not bear to see suffering in the world, wealthy enough not to care about the medicine he used up, or was there something else behind it...?

Su Cheng said, "Follow him and take a look."

"Okay."

As Lu Heng approached the village, there was actually a simple disinfection chamber at its gate.

Lu Heng seemed to be highly respected by the villagers. The middle-aged man guarding the gate wore a plastic protective suit, and the moment he spotted Lu Heng from afar, he stood up to greet him.

The middle-aged villager raised a disinfectant sprayer and sprayed Lu Heng. The sprayer's hose extended into the village, presumably connected to a bucket of diluted disinfectant.

After the initial disinfection, Lu Heng entered a drying room. When he emerged, he had changed clothes.

It was a white medical protective suit, just like Su Cheng's.

Su Cheng immediately thought of the villagers who had prostrated themselves before her and called her a "divine envoy."

Could Lu Heng have encountered the same situation, only to go along with it and use his identity as a divine envoy to transform the plague-stricken village?

Mu Ling followed Lu Heng into the village.

Unlike the village Su Cheng had seen while following the two plague doctors, this one was much cleaner and tidier. Rats and corpses were hardly anywhere to be seen.

Various insect-repelling plants and spices hung on every household's door.

Most villagers stayed indoors. Those responsible for transporting water and disinfecting the roads wore long-sleeved clothing. Though the fabric was coarse, it was clean, and they all wore blue masks.

There was no need to guess. Those masks must have come from Lu Heng.

Lu Heng seemed to be deeply trusted. Whenever villagers saw him along the way, they would immediately stop their work and greet him.

Mu Ling followed Lu Heng to a building with a wooden sign reading "Quarantine zone." The villagers inside who showed symptoms had all shaved their heads.

Lu Heng handed out tablets to them one by one. For the more serious cases, he used syringes to inject them with medicine...

Lu Heng's "skill" was like a fish in water in this plague instance.

For the moment, Su Cheng could not see why Lu Heng was putting so much effort into treating the villagers. Perhaps he really was a compassionate philanthropist?

After telling Mu Ling to return, Su Cheng cut off their shared senses and continued digging through the grass with her iron shovel. Whenever she found herbs resembling those Lu Heng had picked, she cut them with her dagger.

Perhaps she could take them to Lu Heng for a trade.

Before long, Mu Ling floated back into the bracelet.

Meanwhile, Su Cheng climbed a small slope with her iron shovel and dagger, slowly harvesting grass. If any plants looked too similar to tell apart, she cut them all.

She had plenty of storage slot space anyway.

"Cough, cough, cough..."

Su Cheng's ears twitched slightly as she faintly heard coughing. Her hand stopped cutting, and she listened closely.

"Cough, cough, cough, cough, cough..."

The coughing grew clearer.

She had not misheard. There really were people nearby, and a whole group of them at that.

Why was there a group of people in the mountains?

Su Cheng simply followed the sound closer. Before she had gone far, she spotted a dozen or so people down the slope in the distance. There were men and women, seemingly between twenty and forty years old.

Every one of them wore a sackcloth robe and carried sickles, wood saws, or other farming tools capable of inflicting harm.

Sunlight fell across their red-spotted faces, illuminating their abnormally pale skin...

The young man leading the group spoke. "We should go this way..."

The middle-aged woman he was supporting said weakly, "Danny, will there really be a divine envoy in Bru Village? Can we really last until God forgives us...?"

The others could not help voicing their worries and doubts as well. "Yes... can we really be saved? The divine envoy in Bru Village is only a rumor, after all..."

"If there's no divine envoy in Bru Village, I'm afraid I won't survive the trip home. My poor Xiao Zhi is still waiting for me there..."

Before the young man could speak, a young woman beside him who resembled him stepped forward.

There was a ruthlessness in her eyes that did not match her age. "If the divine envoy in Bru Village is a fake, don't forget we still have weapons. Impostors deserve to die!"

"Danlise is right. We're almost there. Just hold on a little longer!" the young man, Danny, added.

Those who had wavered calmed down again. They could only pin their hopes on truly finding a chance to survive in Bru Village.

"Sigh... that's all we can do..."

"Let's go. Hopefully, there'll be good news..."

Su Cheng's brows knitted tightly. She had a feeling that the Bru Village these people spoke of was the village where Lu Heng was staying.

Lu Heng might have the epidemic in Bru Village well under control now, but if this group barged in, they could instantly upset the village's balance.

All Lu Heng's previous efforts would come to nothing.

Remembering his ability to turn medicinal herbs into tablets, Su Cheng had an idea. She turned and ran toward Bru Village.

She had to see Lu Heng before this group arrived.