August 20.
Pinglu City, a mobile team made up of Ascendants was patrolling along its assigned route.
Each member of the mobile team carried an official-issued heavy flamethrower designed specifically for clearing plants.
The flamethrower consisted of a thick nozzle and a drum of fuel, weighing nearly two hundred jin in total. Although called "individual equipment," this "individual" did not refer to ordinary people, but to Ascendants.
Indeed, many Ascendants have average abilities or ordinary exclusive items, but the physical improvements granted by Mind Power are real and substantial.
When Zhang Minglu first organized the Ascendant mobile teams, he positioned this type of Ascendant as "super-physically enhanced special soldiers."
They did not need to use their abilities or items; combining their far-superior physical traits with specialized combat gear greatly boosted their combat effectiveness.
For example, the current two-hundred-jin personal flamethrower set, and even heavier full exoskeleton combat armor. Equipment that ordinary soldiers could never carry, Ascendants—even those with modest Mind Power—could handle with ease.
"Plant growth detected ahead!"
The mobile team saw a large patch of wild grass sprouting from a crack by the roadside. They immediately raised their flamethrowers, pulled the triggers, and a dozen tongues of flame instantly devoured the grass.
After seven or eight seconds of flame, the huge clump of grass turned to ash. One member clicked his tongue, "This grass seems more fire-resistant than yesterday!"
"It’s growing faster too. We clearly cleared this road yesterday, and a day later this much has already grown back."
"No wonder the higher-ups want daily patrols. If this keeps up, we might need to patrol several times a day."
"I heard in a couple of days the whole city will be sprayed with a plant growth inhibitor urgently developed by the Countermeasures Research Office. Maybe that’ll help a bit."
"Enough." The captain cut off the chatter, "Keep patrolling."
The squad proceeded along the designated route and soon reached the end of their sector.
There stood a large abandoned shopping mall. One member, tired, took out a bottle of water and leaned against the mall's exterior wall to rest.
He tilted his head back and drank, then noticed a flicker of green crawling out from a broken window on the third floor. Before he could react, something yanked his neck hard!
"Ah!!"
The other mobile team members turned at the sound, horrified. A vine had dropped from the third-floor window of the abandoned mall and was wrapping around their comrade’s neck, pulling him upward.
"Damn it, let him go!"
"Quick! Burn the vine!"
"Aim upward, don’t hurt him!"
The team hurriedly raised their nozzles and fired at the third-floor window.
Clusters of flame spewed at the vine.
But that vine was far tougher than the roadside grass; the flames could not sever it immediately.
Worse, as the vine burned, more vines slithered out of the window. Some headed for the man it had ensnared, others surged toward the mobile team.
"Everyone fall back!" the captain shouted. They continued spraying while retreating. When the vines finally retracted, the team had backed about seventy meters from the mall.
The man pinned by the wall, however, already had a purple face, drool at the corner of his mouth, his head cocked to the side; the vine had strangled him to death.
"Damn!" The team pounded the ground, cursing.
"How are there so many vines in the mall? We saw some poking out of the windows a few days ago on patrol!"
"Maybe some vine species has been growing inside for a long time, and today it finally extended enough to reach out..."
They all stared at the abandoned mall, hearts chilled.
The mall’s windows were much higher than residential ones; the third-floor windows equated to the fourth or fifth floor of a house. If vines could stretch out that far, what on earth must be inside?
The captain realized the gravity of the situation and grabbed the radio: "Mobile Team 17 requests support. We suspect a large plant cluster inside an abandoned mall. One team member has been killed. Requesting higher-level assistance!"
A reply crackled back: "Situation received. Support is en route."
Two minutes later an armored vehicle roared up and braked to a halt.
A man and a woman in combat uniforms with rank insignia stepped out.
They were both well-known figures from Beixing, made globally famous by the Battle of the Ascendants show.
They were Bai Xuewu and Yang Ran.
"It’s Captain Bai and Second Lieutenant Yang, we're saved!" Some mobile team members who were their fans whispered excitedly.
The mobile team captain saluted: "Captain Bai, Second Lieutenant Yang."
Because Bai Xuewu had served with the Human Consortium’s joint forces against the parasitized forms, she had earned a military rank and was promoted to captain after the operation.
Yang Ran had similarly earned a rank, though his contributions were less than Bai Xuewu’s, so he was only a second lieutenant.
But unlike Dragon Soul, Silver Fox, and others, they weren’t career military, so despite the ranks they did not actually command troops.
Bai Xuewu glanced toward the mall several dozen meters away. "In there?"
"Yes." The mobile team captain said, "One of our members has been killed, his head was... wrapped and dragged in by vines from a window."
"I’ll handle it..." Yang Ran scratched his head, "This is only Day Five of the Rules, and the plants have mutated to start eating people?"
Bai Xuewu shot him a warning look. "Less chatter."
She walked toward the mall. Halfway there, a silver flash crossed her eyes.
"Snow Traces."
Boom!
A heavy mech descended from above and Bai Xuewu entered it automatically.
The mobile team erupted. Many had seen the mech on the show, but none had seen it in person before.
And seeing it up close, it seemed different from the broadcast.
"Has the mech grown again?"
"It looks several meters taller than on the show!"
"Probably Captain Bai keeps upgrading it. She hasn’t been on the show in a long time; she must have improved it."
While they talked, the cannon on Snow Traces’ back powered up.
"What kind of cannon is that?" someone asked. "I don’t remember seeing it on the show."
Yang Ran answered, "I think she mentioned it once—called the Thunder God’s Hammer heavy mortar."
"..."
Boom!
A high-explosive round was lobbed in an arcing trajectory and then plunged down as if guided, striking the mall.
Ka-thoom!!!
The explosive round detonated with terrifying force, collapsing the building. Amid falling bricks and swirling dust, a giant mass of shadow emerged.
When the dust cleared enough for them to see, everyone gasped.
In the rubble, hundreds of vines writhed together like a cluster of snakes, gathered into the mall's "nest."
The most horrifying sight was the mobile team member who had been dragged into the window—he lay among the vines, countless tendrils embedded in him like a patient in an intensive care ward hooked up to tubes.
But whereas those tubes deliver fluids, these dense vines were doing the opposite: siphoning blood and life from the human body!
"Ugh—"
Several team members vomited on the spot, unable to stomach it.
Yang Ran’s scalp tingled. Through his comm he told Bai Xuewu, "Let me handle it. Your weapons might not be as efficient against these loose vines as my flames."
Bai Xuewu: "Fine. Hurry, don’t let them escape."
To her, these man-eating vines were unquestionably monsters, and their flexibility made mech weaponry less effective than Yang Ran’s fire.
"You vine fiends, grandpa will send you off!" Yang Ran stepped forward, raised both hands, and activated his Mind Power.
"Flying Fire Meteors!"
Whoosh whoosh whoosh! Whoosh whoosh whoosh! Whoosh whoosh whoosh!
Clusters of fireballs formed in the air and rained down like meteors.
The fire Yang Ran produced was a Mind Power construct, fundamentally different from fuel-based flames. Although both looked like fire, his had far greater destructive power.
Ordinary flames would take time to incinerate the vines, but these vines sizzled and turned to ash the moment the meteors touched them.
Over a hundred vines were engulfed and burned to powder instantly, leaving only white ash on the ground.
Yang Ran ceased his ability and turned apologetic toward the stunned mobile team: "Sorry, my flames couldn't spare your colleague. His... head was entangled with those vines, so I had no choice."
His firepower was so intense that not only were the vines destroyed, the crewman’s skull and bones were gone as well—everything incinerated to ash.
"It’s fine, Second Lieutenant Yang." The mobile team captain shook his head. "If he knows peace in the next world, he’ll be glad you avenged him. And it’s better that nothing was left behind."
The others nodded in agreement. They would rather be burned to ash than leave behind a corpse riddled with vines.
Second Lieutenant Yang retracted his mech and returned beneath the armored vehicle. "Yang Ran, you should head out. There are no more requests here."
"Understood. Farewell everyone!"
"Thanks for the assistance, Captain Bai and Second Lieutenant Yang!"
The armored vehicle departed with the two inside, and the mobile team watched, filled with envy.
Even among Ascendants, strength determined who could be dispatched to aid elsewhere; the weaker ones like themselves were confined to patrol routes.
But as mobile team members, they still received official preferential treatment many longed for.
Just as they envied Bai Xuewu and Yang Ran, ordinary people envied them, and Bai Xuewu and Yang Ran probably envied even stronger figures.
"Resume patrols!"
After the armored vehicle left, the captain ordered, and the mobile team immediately returned to work.
Across the city tens of mobile teams and hundreds of armored patrol units made up of ordinary soldiers were searching. Many had encountered danger and requested aid.
Strong official Ascendants like Bai Xuewu and Yang Ran were dispatched in pairs to support requested locations under Zhang Minglu’s coordination.
This divided forces into three groups: armed units of ordinary people, mobile teams of weaker Ascendants, and support teams of powerful Ascendants.
With coordination among the three, they could eliminate plant threats quickly and efficiently without wasting resources.
Meanwhile, in Banzhen City, Sakura Prayer.
At the Serpent Hair Society stronghold factory, in a conference room converted from the original factory director’s office, Guan Tong, Uenoshi, and Adam sat together.
A large screen was in front of them. Adam had plugged in a portable hard drive to show the photos he had filtered.
Uenoshi stared at the skinny, freckled boy on the screen—gaunt as a straw, eyes darting—and was surprised.
"Could this boy be the mastermind behind the Fire Thief Cult, the so-called True Your Holiness?"
Adam said, "I carefully reviewed the information Wenban gave me and filtered the neighborhood residents’ records multiple times. I believe this boy is very likely the True Your Holiness."
Guan Tong folded his arms and looked at the boy on the screen.
From the photo the boy appeared to have an insecure personality. Considering the True Your Holiness’ habit of hiding and only showing a stand-in, it fit.
"Is there more concrete evidence?" Uenoshi asked.
"There is." Ye Dang switched to the next image: a scene from the protests in Liruo'an City when people marched against the Fire Thief Cult. A young man in a black robe was waving his arms.
"This is Pierre. He was one of the organizers of the anti-cult protests, but later became a believer in the Fire Thief Cult," Adam said seriously. "And our 'protagonist,' that freckled boy, happens to be Pierre’s neighbor... I don’t believe this is a coincidence."