But it was also probably due to Zhou Qi’s self-sacrifice that this could be pulled off. If he had not held on for so long and made so many of the vines wither, the creeper vine would not have gotten so furious it concentrated its attack on them. In turn, Ren Xiaosu would not have successfully found their position.
The group was fleeing without knowing where they were heading. There were no other survivors that could be seen in the stronghold anymore. This stronghold had been completely occupied by the plant now.
Before this, they could never have expected the plants in this era would be so terrifying.
While everyone was escaping, the feelers of the creeper vine were still chasing them. It did not attack, but neither did it give up on chasing after them.
“What about Ren Xiaosu?” Luo Lan shouted while panting breathlessly.
Zhou Yingxue turned around and glanced behind her. Ren Xiaosu was in his armor and withstanding the creeper vine’s attacks as he became its only target in this entire stronghold.
The creeper vine seemed like it wanted to unleash all its anger on him as countless vines swept over to his position.
The vines enclosed Ren Xiaosu like a ball of wool, while the spikes on the feelers tried to cut through the armor!
There was no movement within the vines anymore, and it appeared that Ren Xiaosu was also helpless against so many vines.
Luo Lan shouted, “Let’s head back and save him! We can’t leave him here alone!”
However, Zhou Yingxue snapped, “Take care of yourself first! Those vines aren’t enough to trouble my master!”
Luo Lan nearly burst into tears at this insult. How did Ren Xiaosu gain a maid superhuman in this short period that Luo Lan had not seen him? Why did all the supernatural beings like congregating around Ren Xiaosu so much?!
As though to confirm Zhou Yingxue’s words, when all of those vines finally enclosed Ren Xiaosu, Luo Lan saw a black saber piercing through the vines from inside. Following, the extremely tough-looking vines were cut apart like they were dry twigs!
The metallic beast leaped out from within, and Luo Lan heard Ren Xiaosu say, “Why’re y’all still standing there? Hurry up and flee!”
Luo Lan thought, ‘Alright, this guy really doesn’t need anyone to save him.’
Everyone started fleeing again while Ren Xiaosu quickly caught up to them as the vines did not slow him down at all.
When Ren Xiaosu came to Li Ran’s side, he deactivated the armor and returned the nanomachines into his bloodstream. Once those cute nanomachines were back inside his body, they immediately retracted their robotic arms and curled up into tiny balls to recharge while waiting for their master to summon them again.
But just as the nanomachines fully returned to his body, a vine stabbed for Ren Xiaosu’s left arm.
In an instant, Ren Xiaosu mobilized the nanomachines once again to form a shield on the surface of his arm to block the attack. The price of blocking the attack was a small piece of the defensive armor constructed from the nanomachines chipping off and falling to the ground.
After all, Ren Xiaosu had activated those nanomachines in a rush. He didn’t feel like it would be a big problem if he lost some. Luo Lan had mentioned the Qing Consortium had fully mastered the nanomachine technology. Since the nanomachine researchers were now in their employment, if Ren Xiaosu wanted to replenish his nanomachines, he could just approach the Qing Consortium anytime.
Or maybe based on his relationship with the Qing Consortium, it wouldn’t even be unreasonable to say they might send him some replacement nanomachines.
But this was no time to be pondering about that. Ren Xiaosu put on his glove again and held Li Ran’s hand. Zhou Yingxue secretly smirked when she saw this. Even while escaping, she could still think about how her master was equally fair in his treatment towards others. But it was just that at a critical moment like this, why would anyone still think about putting on a glove again?
When Ren Xiaosu grabbed Li Ran’s hand, Li Ran could feel her sense of happiness soaring. However, she immediately realized the hand she was holding felt a little fuzzy.
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The creeper vine immediately stopped attacking Ren Xiaosu again. However, Ren Xiaosu’s direct confrontation with it this time was simply too intense. No matter how low its intelligence was, it could still detect that something was not right.
All of the vines started pointing towards Ren Xiaosu, and while it did not make a move, it seemed to be “thinking” about something.
“Hurry up and run!” Ren Xiaosu noticed that something was off. “Let’s just hope that it has the memory of a goldfish. If it forgets about us after seven seconds, that would be perfect.”
Luo Lan was thinking as he ran. This escape had a totally different feeling to it. Everyone was holding hands as they ran away with long strides. There was even a hint of joy amid their nervousness and fear, as though they were fleeing towards a field of hope.
But no one noticed that when the nanomachines on Ren Xiaosu’s arm fell off, a surveillance camera on the street suddenly turned and focused on the nanomachines.
Usually, when a part of the armor was chipped off, it would immediately turn into a dull gray color. But this time, when it landed on the ground, it returned to its silvery liquid form again. The little guys turned idle, and it was as though a program had been inputted into them and started wrestling for control of them with Ren Xiaosu.
But no matter how hard the program tried, it could not seize control of the nanomachines that had fallen off. It was only after Ren Xiaosu had gotten farther away that it managed to get a chance.
After rebooting, the little guys became active again. Then the silvery liquid metal started streaming towards the surveillance camera.
When this small cluster of liquid metal nanomachines got near a lamp post installed with surveillance cameras, it instantly merged into the lamp post and disappeared.
At this moment, Ren Xiaosu frowned as he realized something. Although those nanomachines had fallen off, he could still perceive them.
But now they had completely been cut off from Ren Xiaosu.
Ren Xiaosu thought he had probably gotten too far away from the nanomachines, or that they might have run out of power, so he did not take this matter to heart.
He had not lost too many nanomachines anyway, and Ren Xiaosu thought he would not even have to look for the Qing Consortium to replenish them. This tiny loss had almost no effect on the armor.
Amid the creeper vine tracking them, Ren Xiaosu and the others managed to flee more than ten kilometers from their initial position. Luo Lan was so exhausted he was about to collapse. In the end, it was Zhou Yingxue and Zhou Qi who had to carry him as they ran. Being able to “fly” with his feet off the ground for the rest of the way, Fatty Luo suddenly felt this escape had become even more enjoyable.
Gradually, the creeper vines started closing in and gaining on them. Ren Xiaosu got an ominous feeling. As expected, a second later, the creeper vines started trying to attack them. It was Ren Xiaosu who was the first to bear the brunt.
“Master, what should I do? My power isn’t working anymore!” Zhou Yingxue started getting anxious. If her power became ineffective, wouldn’t it mean that everyone would die here?
Luo Lan no longer felt like they were fleeing towards a field of hope. “Comrade, can you please think of some other idea?”
However, when Zhou Yingxue tried to communicate with the creeper vine, all she could feel was a violent emotion flowing freely through its vines.
Zhou Yingxue was also helpless in such a situation!
Zhou Qi wanted to use his powers again to drain the water from the nearby vines, but there were just too many of them. As such, the backlash from using his power caused him to spit out a mouthful of blood!
Ren Xiaosu started examining their surroundings while continuing to slash the vines that were coming at him with his black saber.
Luo Lan sighed. “Surviving until now makes us luckier than the few hundred thousand others in this stronghold.”
But at this moment, Li Ran realized the hand she was holding had pulled away.
Instead of running forward, Ren Xiaosu retreated towards the plant by himself. Luo Lan turned around and looked at Ren Xiaosu in surprise, but Ren Xiaosu’s face was hidden under his hood.
Ren Xiaosu said, “I’m the one that this plant hates the most right now. All y’all, keep running away.”