Black Pine

Ren Wuyang was incompetent and embarrassed himself when he entered the Zuo Household, but Ren Wuyang's strength was not in climbing over walls, but in his extremely keen sense of danger.

After Ren Wuyang sensed danger, he fell into the trap while climbing over the wall, a fact that left Zhang Xuezhou speechless with astonishment.

After leaping over the wall, Ren Wuyang felt less apprehensive.

He looked at the Zuo Household, which he had visited twice before, and kept assessing the differences between the situation and his memory.

"Sis, you're so familiar with Zuo Teng, how come you're no different from me once you're inside the Zuo Household?"

"When I entered the Zuo Household, I took the park shuttle bus. I only knew about the villa where Zuo Teng lived; I knew nothing about the rest of the place!"

Ren Wuyang asked Ren Anran a question, but Ren Anran shook her head.

Zhang Xuezhou used Zuo Teng's key and key to wander around the Zuo Household. Ren Anran and the others did not enter the house last night, but only observed it with a telescope. This was the first time they had observed the Zuo Household's area in detail.

Just as Zhang Xuezhou felt unfamiliar during his investigation yesterday, Ren Anran was equally uncomfortable with the quiet and deserted Zuo Household, glancing left and right from time to time.

"Does Zuo Teng live with Zuo Jin?" Zhang Xuezhou asked.

"He lives in a third-generation villa, not in the second-generation villa area on the Zuo Jin. His house is on the outer edge; it should be one of those!"

Ren Anran pointed in the direction of the Zuo Household's residence, and then took out a communicator to contact Zuo Teng.

Zuo Teng's sickly voice came through the communicator, which confirmed that Ren Anran's direction was correct.

"Teng, who else lives in your house?" Zhang Xuezhou asked.

"My butler Zuo Zhong," Zuo Teng replied breathlessly, "I haven't allowed anyone else into my house except him!"

"Then you have to give me permission now, I need to go in and investigate!" Zhang Xuezhou said.

"Do whatever you want!"

Zuo Teng gasped for breath and kept nagging Zhang Xuezhou not to rummage through things, as he still had some personal privacy that needed to be kept secret.

"Look at your face, you must have been writing some kind of youth diary, right?"

Zhang Xuezhou casually replied, which made Zuo Teng extremely embarrassed, and his deep voice immediately seemed to be cut off.

He made a few sarcastic remarks to Zuo Teng, which eased the tense atmosphere among the group somewhat.

"I got Zuo Teng's key and key. It's easier to get into his house; otherwise, I'll have to smash things up!" Zhang Xuezhou said, raising the key and key in his hand.

"Smashing and vandalizing will definitely trigger the alarm in the Zuo Household's villa area," Zhou Rihui said. "It's one thing for those Zuo Household members who have disappeared, but I heard that they've deployed a lot of rocket launchers against Zuo Lianguang in the past. Once those things are controlled, one shot from them can be quite devastating!"

"I don't like being bombarded by rockets either!"

Zhang Xuezhou waved his hands repeatedly.

He was just thinking about using rocket launchers to bombard Huang Daoxian, little did he know that he would soon face such a situation himself.

Although it was necessary to investigate Zuo Jin, who was involved in the source issue, Zhang Xuezhou did not act recklessly, but made a judgment step by step.

Purple light swirled in his hand, and another beam of purple light, guided by him, fell into Zuo Teng's villa.

Zuo Teng said, there was only one butler named Zuo Zhong in Zuo Teng's villa, and the Yin Entity Tracking Technique also determined that there was only one object belonging to the Yin Object in this villa.

The group continued running and eventually entered the villa where Zuo Teng lived.

Just like Zuo Teng's perfectionist mindset, Zuo Teng's villa was kept in perfect order. Even the grass in the villa garden was kept to the same size, showing that everything was carefully cared for and organized, even when Zuo Teng was not in Western Capital City.

Zhang Xuezhou took the key and swiped it on the villa's gate.

The villa door opened.

Just as they had sensed before, the villa in Zuo Teng was completely empty, and no one could be seen in the surrounding area.

Zhang Xuezhou, wielding his Yin Entity Tracking Technique, continued his search forward.

"The technique is in this living room, why can't we find it yet? Do we have to wait until tonight?"

The purple light of the Yin Entity Tracking Technique located the villa, but after entering the villa, Zhang Xuezhou felt that the Yin Entity Tracking Technique was like a headless fly, bumping around aimlessly and not fixing on any Yin object.

He pondered for a few seconds, then had everyone draw the blackout curtains and close off as much of the area that could let in light as possible.

The light in the living room quickly dimmed.

Later, Zhang Xuezhou stopped using his Yin Entity Tracking Technique.

In the almost completely dark living room, only the soft, long breaths of everyone could be heard.

The silence in the darkness didn't last long; a low voice echoed in the living room.

"It's getting late. Young Master won't feel comfortable going home without lights. It's time to turn on the lights!"

As he muttered to himself, Zhang Xuezhou sensed a strange movement coming from the corner of the wall.

Before he could even get up, Zhou Rihui had already leaped out and grabbed directly at the source of the sound.

A muffled cry, like the cry of someone on the verge of death, was heard. The living room lights were quickly turned on, and everyone realized that Zhou Rihui was holding an elegant black pine tree in the corner of the living room.

Unlike normal black pines, the upper part of this black pine is in the shape of a pine tree, while the root part that Zhou Rihui pulled out is completely white and twists and struggles like an octopus, as if trying to break free from Zhou Rihui's grasp.

What is this?

Zhou Rihui's face showed horror as he uprooted the black pine tree.

He thought he had grabbed a person, but the moment the light was turned on, he turned into a tree.

The tree's roots were strangely lifelike; even Zhou Rihui, who had seen much, had never encountered anything like it.

Even though the sound originated from this tree, Zhou Rihui couldn't find the mouth part that made the sound no matter how hard he looked.

He grabbed the black pine and snapped it in two. The half-person-high black pine tree made a crisp sound, and its roots curled up as if dead, twisting and turning like a ball. Countless bits of soil from the bonsai fell down with a soft rustling sound.

"What I sensed at the time was someone who suddenly appeared!"

Ren Anran whispered something.

She looked at the broken black pine tree and pondered Zuo Zhong's appearance, feeling that the two were completely incompatible.

"It's somewhat like a spiritual connection being placed in a pine tree, or perhaps it's like the tree taking on a physical form!"

Zhang Xuezhou also expressed his views rather cautiously.

"What does 'transformation' mean? Can a tree turn into a person?" Zhou Rihui asked incredulously.

"You've already seen white elephants, giant rhinoceroses, eight-legged spiders, and deer transform into tigers, so it's not surprising that trees can turn into humans," Zhang Xuezhou said.

"But... but those are animals that can disguise themselves. Can plants disguise themselves as humans and even talk?" Zhou Rihui asked in surprise.

The transformation that Zhang Xuezhou mentioned was previously understood by many as the camouflage of living beings.

Zhou Rihui could understand the camouflage characteristics brought about by genetic evolution, but he couldn't understand how a tree could genetically evolve into a human form, or even possess the ability to speak.

In the Zuo Household area, Zhou Rihui felt that the biodiversity was so complex that it exceeded the comprehension of the human brain.

Zhang Xuezhou and Ren Anran had solemn expressions and exchanged several words in hushed tones.

Ren Wuyang felt a chill run down his spine, as if a sense of crisis was closing in, and a great disaster was about to befall him.