As Guan Tong's Shadow burrowed into the rainforest, the first thing he heard through the shared senses was a dense, overwhelming sound of branches and leaves dragging across the ground.
It was the sound of plants moving.
Through the Shadow's vision, Guan Tong saw that all the plants in the rainforest had proliferated to an insane degree. The canopies of the towering trees completely blocked out the sky, letting almost no sunlight through. Flowers of all strange colors swayed in the wind, some blooming and withering simultaneously, as if the world had suffered some kind of operating error. Vines, of course, were even worse—compared to the city, this rainforest was their true home, their paradise.
Everywhere Guan Tong's sight reached was filled with thick, long vines. Some coiled around massive trees, others curled on the ground. The shortest among them were over ten meters long, while the longest stretched hundreds or even thousands of meters. The most terrifying thing was that these plants, mutated by the power of the Doomsday Rules, were still growing relentlessly and spreading toward the city.
Just as the Hidden Rule had revealed, these mutant plants wouldn't be satisfied with the energy from sunlight and rain—they would actively hunt for more. And all kinds of animals, including humans, were their targets.
Guan Tong listened carefully. Ever since the Shadow entered the rainforest, aside from the sounds of plant growth and movement, he hadn't heard a single insect chirp or bird call.
Think about it—in a natural rainforest, hearing no insects or birds at all was an incredibly bizarre phenomenon. Anyone encountering this would suspect they were dreaming. But this was now happening in reality, and the reason was clear: the insects, birds, and all other forest animals had been devoured by the plants.
Guan Tong thought to himself that this likely wasn't limited to this one rainforest. Globally, any area with lush vegetation would probably see similar situations.
He thought of Pinglu in Beixing and couldn't feel optimistic. Pinglu was itself a mountain city. The earthquake and tsunami had nearly destroyed the original capital, Yong'an, forcing a large number of official institutions to relocate to Pinglu, making this mountain city a sort of new capital. Now that this Doomsday Rule was in effect, if the city's official forces could manage the cleanup inside the city, that was fine—but what about the countless valleys outside the city, filled with forests large and small? How could they possibly be cleaned up?
If left to grow unchecked under the Doomsday Rules, they would soon threaten the city itself.
...Maybe the officials would launch large-scale incendiary shells to burn down the forests around the city?
Guan Tong didn't dwell on it further. He prioritized handling the matter at hand. The Shadow surveyed the rainforest and confirmed one conclusion.
The vines spreading into Antu did indeed originate from the plants in the rainforest. If he wanted to stop this invasion, eliminating the source plants seemed like a good option, but...
Guan Tong didn't act rashly. He closed the Shadow's vision and looked back toward the tall building where the crowd was taking refuge.
In just a short while, Uenoshi had already cleared the vines that had been clinging to the building, primarily the long tendrils. Her methods were straightforward and brutal—either she tore the vines apart with her raw physical strength, or she used her petrified bloodline power to forcibly twist the plants' genes, turning them as rigid as stone before shattering them with a punch.
Meanwhile, the plants were completely unable to harm her because of the scales blocking them. The thorns were stopped dead by the scales, unable to pierce her body. Binding and constriction also failed—the long vines could wrap around Uenoshi's neck, but no matter how hard they squeezed, they couldn't make the scales on her neck contract, so they couldn't harm her through strangulation. Some flowers and plants could emit poisonous or hallucinogenic gases, but those gases were also blocked by the scales, making her nearly immune to any toxin attack. This was one of Uenoshi's most formidable abilities: an all-around defense impervious to blades, bullets, poison, and fire.
After she cleared the plants around the building, she didn't go upstairs to talk with the refugees inside. Instead, she simply left, as if she had just done a trivial matter.
But the people in the building didn't see it that way. They gathered by the windows on the upper floors, applauding and cheering.
"Incredible! Serpent Hair Society President!"
"Thank you!!!"
"Thanks to you, we're saved! Please, stay with us until the Doomsday Rules are over! We're begging you!"
Uenoshi didn't respond. She returned to the rooftop where Guan Tong was waiting. She told the few Serpent Hair Society members to enter the shelter building and report to her if anything happened.
Then she asked Guan Tong, "Troupe Leader, did you find anything?"
She knew that while she was clearing the plants, Guan Tong hadn't been idle—he must have been doing something.
"Yeah, the rainforest outside the city is indeed the source of the root and vine plants spreading in. And inside it, only plants remain—the animals have all been absorbed as nutrients."
"...So destroying the rainforest would be a permanent solution for Antu?"
Guan Tong raised an eyebrow at that. "Destroy the rainforest? That won't be easy. That rainforest is enormous, with countless plants. You wouldn't be able to destroy them faster than they grow."
"I know I can't do it. Can you, Troupe Leader?"
"Me... it would be difficult."
Although Guan Tong could activate his Domain and use his Nano Decomposition ability to clear plants on a massive scale in a short time, the mental power cost was far too high. To wipe out an entire rainforest, he would need his current mind power reserves multiplied by ten or even twenty times, and even that wouldn't be enough. And even if it were enough, he wouldn't waste all his mind power on such a task.
"Uenoshi, don't think about destroying the entire rainforest. That's not realistic. If you want to protect these people, you can assign someone to constantly monitor the spread of the plants and issue early warnings to intercept them."
Guan Tong paused. "But keep in mind, every day the Doomsday Rules period goes on, the plants will mutate even more. From the looks of it, there might be further changes ahead—even we need to be careful."
He didn't think that just because he, Uenoshi, Adam, and others were powerful, they could ignore the Doomsday Rules. In reality, no matter how strong someone was, they could still capsize in a gutter in this era. Guan Tong hadn't come back from the brink of death just once. In recent times alone, he had nearly died twice—once from the high-energy laser, and once from the Ancient Gamble with the Life-Hunting Demon. These two experiences had driven home the realization that people die easily—both ordinary people and Ascendants who thought themselves powerful.
In fact, sometimes Ascendants died even more easily than ordinary people.
As the saying goes, "Only swimmers drown." Ordinary people knew their limits and stayed put in shelters, rarely encountering dangers other than those posed by each Doomsday Rule. But Ascendants always wanted to grow stronger, earn more Ascension Coins, so some traded frequently, others took jobs for hire, and some even formed bandit groups to plunder everywhere... To be honest, the risks of these activities weren't necessarily much less than facing the Doomsday Rules themselves.
That was why Guan Tong was more cautious now than before, and he hoped his friends understood that.
Uenoshi could feel Guan Tong's concern for her. She nodded and asked, "Troupe Leader, what are you going to do next? Do you have a plan?"
Guan Tong said, "I'll go back to Pinglu first to see some people, then I'll head to Suroma."
Uenoshi's pupils contracted. "Going to Suroma... Will it be dangerous?"
"Sooner or later, I have to go there. I might as well take advantage of this Doomsday Rules period to scout ahead and prepare for future plans."
Guan Tong wasn't going to drag out his revenge forever. And given everything that had happened recently, combined with Adam's experiences, he had a vague premonition that some people in Suroma, led by Bruce, were secretly plotting something. Whatever the conspiracy, it would definitely harm those outside their circle, and he needed to find out what it was.
Uenoshi then said, "Troupe Leader, when you decide to start your revenge, I want to go with you to fight the enemies."
"...Of course." Guan Tong agreed. "When the time comes, it won't just be you. I'll have everyone in the Troupe contribute. Facing the enemy together is one of the three rules of the Troupe."
He then asked, "Do you still remember the rules of the Troupe?"
"Of course I do." Uenoshi didn't spend half a second thinking. "'Be each other's light, watch over one another'—that's the first rule of the Troupe."