Chapter 93: Midnight Schemes (Part 2)

In the wild woods, a figure suddenly appeared out of thin air, a gun gripped in her right hand, her left half-raised, ready to strike at any moment. But when she took in the scene before her, she froze in surprise.

She realized that all the trees had vanished. The ground was covered in large patches of old scorch marks, but it seemed quite some time had passed—lush wild grass now grew exuberantly, reaching up to her knees.

What’s going on...?

She had arrived somewhere else? Impossible. Wherever she entered the farm, she’d always exit at the same spot. That never changed.

Looking around, she saw that ahead was still a stretch of grassland, but the main group was nowhere to be seen. The once withered grass was now green and tall, scattered with abandoned vehicles, tents, and other debris.

In the distance stood that same dairy farm.

It was definitely the same place.

How long had she been unconscious? Why did it feel as if the world had changed in the blink of an eye?

She started walking through the tall wild grass. Every now and then, a fist-sized grasshopper would leap out, or a giant bee would buzz past. A warty toad, belly puffed up, glared at her from the grass with eyes as big as steamed buns.

Bian Changxi felt as if she’d stepped into a prehistoric prairie.

She’d seen these creatures in her previous life, but encountering them so suddenly now felt surreal. The change was just too abrupt.

Suddenly, something darted through the grass. She instinctively thought it was an animal and, in a flash, a Tang sword with a purple-red scabbard appeared in her hand. The blade flashed, brighter and more dazzling than the midday sun, as she swung it backhanded. Something snapped with a crisp sound. She bent down and picked it up—it was the stem of a plant, as thick as her finger.

A mutated plant?

She tossed the stem aside and waited a moment, but nothing else stirred.

All she could see was wild grass. As far as she knew, the most dangerous mutated plants in the apocalypse were usually trees or shrubs, sometimes strange flowers. This place didn’t seem particularly threatening.

She continued forward, gripping her Tang sword warily.

The Tang sword was one of the cold weapons she’d collected along with the firearms. Honestly, she’d picked up quite a haul beneath that 4S dealership. She hadn’t used it before because it was hard to explain suddenly having such a weapon, but now, with no one else around and her old straight sword lost, nothing suited her better than this blade.

The sword was over eighty centimeters long, with a scabbard and hilt made of hard wood tinged red and purple, inlaid with gold patterns—antique and weighty. There were no other special markings.

Compared to her old straight sword, this blade was longer, heavier, with a thicker spine and sharper edge, made of far superior materials. The craftsmanship was exquisite. It felt solid and powerful in her hand.

She’d loved it at first sight.

She sheathed the blade and advanced, parting the grass as if wading through water, soon arriving at the dairy farm.

She’d come here because it was the only place she couldn’t see into from the outside—maybe there were still people inside, or something else. She wanted to know the exact date, what had happened, and where the main group had gone.

But who knew? It seemed unlikely she’d find answers here.

The place that had once withstood endless zombie attacks was now in ruins. The outer grounds were trampled beyond recognition. Only the last factory building remained standing, thanks to its reinforced steel walls, but now it was covered in vines. The lush green creepers clung tightly to the building, climbing halfway up the walls and blooming with delicate, elegant flowers. Before the apocalypse, it would have been a lovely sight. But now, such rampant plant growth usually meant danger.

Bian Changxi stopped and closed her eyes to sense her surroundings.

She was a wood-type ability user, only just at the second tier, but her sensitivity to plants far surpassed ordinary people. Where others saw only appearances and caught faint scents, she could sense a plant’s life force—its strength, its intent, whether it was benign or hostile.

Though for now, it was only a vague impression.

She opened her eyes. The vines ahead didn’t seem dangerous, just mutated to grow and reproduce rapidly after the apocalypse.

And the plants around the dairy farm didn’t give off any sense of malice.

She moved on. The place had surely been thoroughly scavenged when people evacuated—nothing of value remained, not even a shovel for feed, just piles of junk nearly buried by wild grass.

She approached the mostly intact factory building. The door was unlocked. Inside, two rows of cattle pens lined the floor, which was stained with blood and scattered with cow skeletons. She remembered cattle being slaughtered here—was this the scene?

No people, no clocks or calendars. She sighed and turned to leave, when she suddenly heard a faint, weak mooing.

Cows!

She followed the sound to a corner, where a small feed cart was parked. Steel plates and corrugated cardboard were laid underneath, and the sound was coming from below.

Listening closely, the mooing was very weak.

Bian Changxi thought for a moment, set down her sword, pushed aside the cart and coverings, and found a cramped space underneath. Inside, a large and small cow, both black-and-white, lay huddled together, emaciated and listless.

The big cow licked the little one, occasionally letting out hoarse, desperate cries. It had dug a hole in the corner, where the vines from outside had grown in. The branches and leaves had been gnawed down to the stems—clearly the cows’ only food source.

Hearing movement above, the big cow looked up at Bian Changxi and mooed anxiously, trying to stand but collapsing again and again.

Bian Changxi was amazed. She hadn’t expected to find two cows hidden here—if it were two people, that would have made more sense. She examined them closely and was delighted to find both were alive and unmutated. The big one was a cow; the little one’s gender was unclear.

Dairy cows! A farm without cows wasn’t a real farm. She’d always wanted to keep this species.

Someone must have hidden them here on purpose.

She recalled hearing someone shout “Hurry, go!” at the dairy farm that night, and there had been a dispute. Maybe a cow lover couldn’t bear to see them die and hid them away?

As she pondered, she sent out a vine to touch the cows, and with a thought, stored them in her farm space. Only then did she notice a tattered feed bag below—whoever hid the cows must have tossed it down to keep them from starving. When the feed ran out, the big cow had started eating plants.

In high spirits, she clapped her hands and released the two cows back onto the ground. The farm was small, and with the cows taking up space, the old mouse would probably protest.

She checked them over—both were starving, especially the calf, which looked newly born, tiny and wrinkled, barely able to open its eyes. Imagining the idyllic scene of cows strolling leisurely around her farm, Bian Changxi’s heart swelled with warmth. She poured some water for them, went out to cut armfuls of edible grass, and searched everywhere for feed. She found plenty in a dilapidated shed, left one bag for the cows, and stored the rest.

She also found some milking and raw milk processing equipment. Raw milk couldn’t be drunk directly; it needed sterilizing. With these tools, she wouldn’t have to boil it in a big pot anymore. She happily collected everything she could find—she could always study the manuals later.

By the time she finished, it was nearly noon. The sun was high, golden light blazing down. She figured the convoy must have headed for Sucheng, but there were two possible routes: straight through Longyue Town, or, if the crisis there wasn’t resolved, they might have been forced to take the mountain road, just like in her previous life. Either way, she’d probably missed them. Traveling alone, she’d have to check Longyue Town first.

But her injuries hadn’t fully healed, and now she had two cows to care for. She’d need to recover and expand her farm before setting out. Though this was a remote area, it was open and seemed safe enough. Why not stay here for a while?

Decision made, she went out to gather straw and other materials from the dairy farm, laid them out in the sun to dry, and planned to make beds for the cows that night. Once they’d eaten, she led them into the sunshine to bask and perk up, fetched two buckets of water to warm in the sun for their bath.

Luckily, although the creek had turned into a water tank, it was inexhaustible—though the poor fish and shrimp inside were so crowded they could barely move.

Bian Changxi scrubbed the cows from head to hoof—they were filthy with mud and manure.

For the sake of her future pastoral paradise, she was willing to put in the hard work.

After cleaning them up, she thought of the little mouse alone in the farm all morning, probably bored out of its mind, so she brought it out with its blanket and set it by the window.

The little thing was still asleep. It had been sleeping since morning and hadn’t woken up yet.

She stroked it, sat down to eat something, and took out a second-tier green core.

She’d already used up her first-tier green cores, and the third-tier one Gu Xu gave her had long since turned to dust. Only this second-tier core, traded from Chen Haitao, remained.

Cores were precious, but recovery was more important. She couldn’t wait for slow, natural healing.

She closed her eyes and began absorbing the energy.

After reaching the second tier, absorbing this unfinished second-tier core was effortless—almost not enough to satisfy her. The energy flowed into her body, thickening her internal streams, gentle and natural. In the midst of the glowing green energy, red light surged at the center, wrapped in a layer of white mist. The red was fiery, the white icy, but under the green’s harmonizing influence, they became nourishing energy, slowly repairing her injuries.

She sat quietly, time stretching on until the sun dipped westward. When she finally opened her eyes, she felt completely refreshed.

But a thoughtful look crossed her face.

What exactly were the red and white energies?"