From Apocalypse Boss to Farmer: My Vegetables Make Me Stronger!-Chapter 221 - 212: Plant People

Yang Liu didn’t see anything unusual, but when she thought of Qi Xiang’s bizarre ability, she stopped the drone. Staring at the screen, she asked, "Where?"

Qi Xiang leaned in, stared at the screen, and gave directions. "Fly a little lower. Pan the camera back. A little more to the left. Yes, that’s it... Stop."

Following her instructions, Yang Liu maneuvered the drone. She flew it in a wide arc, practically hugging the cave entrance. After staring at the feed for a long while, she finally spotted a faint indentation about half a foot down the cave wall.

It was very shallow.

It was impossible to see without looking closely.

Yang Liu praised her, "You’ve got some sharp eyes, Young Miss." They were almost on par with some of the visually evolved.

Right then, Qi Xiang’s eyes were practically glued to the Light Screen. She had Yang Liu zoom the drone’s camera in as far as it would go and then adjust the angle.

"Don’t you think this looks a lot like a fingerprint?" she asked Yang Liu, her brow furrowed.

At first, Yang Liu didn’t see it, but after Qi Xiang mentioned it, the more she looked, the more it seemed to be true.

Nearby, Wei Heng overheard them and came over to take a look. He nodded. "It does look a bit like one."

Finding something that resembled a fingerprint at the entrance to an underground passage was clearly no small matter.

Yang Liu quickly reported the discovery to Ye Junhan over the radio.

Ye Junhan had already led his team deep underground but hadn’t found anything yet. Since the people from the research institute and the Guard Team were unwilling to leave, he thought for a moment and told Feng Xiao, who was on standby at the surface, to go check it out.

Feng Xiao was the team’s mechanic. He quickly arrived at the entrance and spent a long time studying the fingerprint-like indentation.

He tried all sorts of detection methods and even used his diagnostic machines, but found no abnormalities.

He squatted by the entrance, stroking his chin, and spoke to Yang Liu over the radio. "Hey, Liu, you think there’s any chance this was just left by accident, by one of the workers who built this entrance?"

Yang Liu nodded while operating the drone. "That’s not impossible."

Qi Xiang was squatting beside him. After staring at the drone footage for a moment, she turned and asked Yang Liu, "Can I go to the site to have a look?"

Yang Liu didn’t dare make that call on her own, so she requested instructions from the captain.

Soon, Ye Junhan’s voice came over the radio. "She can."

Qi Xiang took a roasted sweet potato she’d secretly stashed last night from Wei Heng, then quickly went over to Feng Xiao’s side. She stuffed the remaining half of the potato into her mouth in one bite and, using Feng Xiao’s clothes, wiped the ash from her hands.

Feng Xiao: "..."

He glanced down at the two very obvious ashy streaks on his clothes. Just as he was about to protest, he saw the young miss casually press her hand against the wall.

Her pinky finger landed right on the spot that looked like a fingerprint.

Immediately, a faint rumble echoed from deep underground.

As a mechanic, Feng Xiao instantly realized what was happening. That was the sound of an underground switch being triggered.

He turned to Qi Xiang, his face a mask of shock. "That actually worked?" ’This young miss’s Golden Carp Luck ability really is as good as they say.’

"What’s the big deal?" Qi Xiang stood up, patted his shoulder, and lifted her chin smugly. "You’re forgetting who I am!"

"Impressive." Feng Xiao’s gaze landed on the new ashy mark on his shoulder, and his expression darkened. "But next time, could you please not use my clothes as a napkin?"

Although their black combat uniforms were good at hiding dirt, washing clothes during a field mission was a real pain.

Qi Xiang decided to ignore that topic and looked down at the ground. "Huh..."

The original underground entrance had now been sealed shut, and right next to it, a new one had appeared.

The new entrance was extremely bizarre. It looked like... a transparent coffin.

Qi Xiang peeked inside and immediately made up her mind. "I want to go in and take a look." ’Over the years, not many people could have gotten my fingerprint. The one most likely to use it for a mechanism like this could only be... Dr. Qi.’

Feng Xiao looked at her and raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

He had, of course, arrived at the same conclusion she had.

In fact, Feng Xiao’s thoughts went even deeper.

On her end, Yang Liu had already sent the drone down into the new entrance. After a full sweep, she reported no immediate danger.

However, perhaps because the drone wasn’t heavy enough, the transparent coffin didn’t move after the drone entered.

Feng Xiao decided to go down and see for himself.

After getting approval from Ye Junhan, he jumped down first. Looking up at Qi Xiang, he held out a hand. "Come on."

Qi Xiang took his hand, and as soon as she jumped in, the mechanism activated. The coffin began to descend at a steady speed.

"Be careful, the oxygen concentration inside is rising sharply," Yang Liu called out from the surface, her eyes fixed on the data on her screen.

Feng Xiao was prepared. He opened the toolkit he carried, pulled out two devices that resembled gas masks, and tossed one to Qi Xiang. "Don’t worry. Our gear can sustain us in a pure oxygen environment for over ten hours."

The other members of the Special Service Team were nearby. Even if they ran into trouble, ten hours was more than enough time to hold out for rescue.

"Relax." Qi Xiang caught the gear and declared confidently, "With me around, we probably won’t need these."

Sure enough, no sooner had the words left her mouth than the coffin’s descent came to a halt.

A moment later, the transparent wall in front of them slid open silently, revealing an enclosed, curving, silver-white corridor that stretched into the unknown.

"Is that a door over there?" Qi Xiang’s eyes were sharp; she had just stepped into the curving corridor when she spotted a hidden door around a bend.

The two of them hurried over.

Feng Xiao took out a palm-sized device and fiddled with it for a moment. A Light Screen materialized in front of the hidden door. Feng Xiao tried several methods, but he couldn’t get the door to open.

Suddenly, he thought of something. He looked up at Qi Xiang with a questioning glint in his eye.

Qi Xiang strode forward confidently. ’Fine, I’ll give it a shot.’

As it turned out, an ability like Golden Carp Luck was something that simply couldn’t be explained by science.

Qi Xiang walked up to the Light Screen, raised a hand, and randomly pressed a few keys. A transparent glass window slid open above the hidden door.

Peering through the glass window, the two of them saw the scene inside and gasped in unison.

It was a room filled with dozens of enormous glass laboratory pods.

"What the fuck are these things!" Feng Xiao stared at the contents of the pods, his grip tightening on his weapon as he couldn’t stop himself from swearing.

Qi Xiang rubbed the goosebumps that had broken out on her arms. It was her first time seeing... monsters like these. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

They possessed human facial features—the faces of men and women, young and old. Just looking at their faces, nothing seemed wrong. But from the neck down, their bodies had taken on the characteristics of various plants, twisted into bizarre and horrifying shapes.

This was far more unnerving than the forms mutated humans took after beast-morphing.

Because these monsters were clearly specimens from some sort of scientific experiment. On the Light Screens next to the glass pods, there were even serial numbers and detailed files for each specimen.

Qi Xiang lowered her voice. "Are they... still human?"

Feng Xiao slowly shook his head, his expression growing exceptionally grim.

He didn’t know if these "plant-people" could still be considered human, but he did know how tenacious and destructive plant life could be.

If the plant-people inside were to wake up... The two exchanged a look and began to back away on tiptoe.

Just then, Yang Liu’s voice crackled over the radio. "Wait."

They both froze. Yang Liu’s tense voice came over the radio again. "The one on the far right, serial number SDC003... look at his face..."

The two of them exchanged a glance and immediately peered back through the window.