"Invisible!" Song Kexin exclaimed in a hushed voice. "An invisibility superpower."
Xie Ning was also startled. She reached out and felt around; the piglet’s physical body was still pressed against her stomach, huddled in a small ball.
But its form had well and truly vanished from everyone’s sight.
Xie Ning blinked, poked the little piglet to make it reappear, and said expressionlessly to the group, "This superpower is acceptable, I suppose. We’ll keep it."
Everyone: ...
’It felt like Ningning was... acting coy after getting a good deal!’
Xie Ning took out a carrot for the little piglet to eat.
The little piglet must have been starving. It wasn’t picky at all, devouring the whole thing in a few quick bites.
The group could hardly bear to look at the pitiful little pig.
Xie Ning glanced at everyone and offered a reluctant explanation. "It’s been locked in that vehicle for at least a month."
"The fact that it didn’t die after so many days without food or water proves its digestive system is much stronger than ours."
Song You’ai glanced at her daughter in silence. "What are you trying to say?"
’After its mutation, this pig is likely very resistant to hunger and thirst,’ Xie Ning wanted to say. ’It would probably be fine even if we don’t feed it regularly.’
But upon seeing the scornful looks from her family, she silently pulled a sweet potato from her pocket and tossed it to the little piglet to gnaw on.
’I’m not stingy,’ she thought, ’it’s just an unnecessary waste...’
Feeling sorry for the pitiful little piglet, Song You’ai found a stainless steel food bowl and filled it with some clean water for it to drink.
The little piglet was quite well-behaved. It ate when given food and drank when given water, never making a fuss if it received nothing.
In less than an hour, it had won the affection of everyone in the family, young and old—with the exception of Xie Ning and Yu Tianfeng...
After driving for another half-hour, Zhu Yong announced that the engine was overheating. They couldn’t continue; the bus needed a break.
Everyone quickly piled out of the vehicle.
Xie Ning had Ji Erhuo stand in the middle of the road and wave his arms while she secretly stored the minibus in her underground garage.
When Zheng Heng, Li Dawei, and the others saw this, they simply assumed Ji Taixian had a very large Space. They said nothing aloud, but inside, Li Xiang and his group were incredibly envious.
Li Dawei sent one of his men to ask what was going on. The man returned and reported that the other group intended to walk for a while to let their vehicle cool down.
Zheng Heng hurried forward to speak with Xie Ning. "Sorry to bother you, but our team doesn’t have a Space Ability User. Could I ask Miss Xie to help us out and have the Space Ability User on your team store our van for us?"
In truth, they were already very close to the highway exit. Zheng Heng was worried that if they continued driving under the blazing sun, the van’s engine would start to smoke, leaving them without any vehicle at all.
It was a small favor, so Xie Ning didn’t mind, but she felt some people in Zheng Heng’s group didn’t seem very reliable.
So she nodded. "In that case, take stock of everything in your van, lock it, and hand it over to my teammate. I don’t want any unnecessary disputes or trouble later."
’Like trying to pull a scam, claiming things from the van went missing.’
’I wouldn’t compensate them,’ Xie Ning thought. ’I’d probably just kill anyone who made a fuss.’
"We definitely won’t cause any trouble for Miss Xie," Zheng Heng said with a smile and a nod.
Xie Ning called over a stone-faced Ji Taixian and had him continue to stand in the middle of the road, waving his arms, while she silently stored the van in her underground garage for them.
By now, Ji Taixian’s expression was completely numb.
’Ms. Ning clearly said her Space was just a little bit smaller than his. So how could she keep storing vehicle after vehicle?’
In the end, Li Dawei also came forward shamelessly to beg Xie Ning to store his vehicle.
Her underground garage was over a hundred square meters, so taking in a few more vehicles was no problem at all.
The three teams, nearly fifty people in total, walked quickly down the highway under the scorching sun, their sweat pouring like rain.
The delicate Xu Ling, Zhuang Xinyi, and Zhao Yanran felt blisters forming on their feet after less than twenty minutes of walking.
Zhuang Xinyi, in particular, was wearing pumps and crying pitifully as she walked.
Unable to bear the sight, Zha Peng volunteered to carry Zhuang Xinyi on his back.
As a Power Ability User, carrying Zhuang Xinyi, who weighed just over ninety pounds, was like carrying a feather to him.
But Zhuang Xinyi still felt terribly wronged, her skin scorching under the hot sun.
She felt like the most miserable person in the world and couldn’t stop crying.
Xie Ning and her group, on the other hand, were well-prepared with full sets of sun-protective clothing and sunglasses. The elderly and children even had UV-protection umbrellas.
Even so, walking on an exposed highway under a sun approaching sixty degrees Celsius truly felt like a cruel form of torture for an ordinary person.
Fortunately, everyone wore high-top sneakers with thick, sturdy soles, which offered some protection even as the ground scalded their feet.
Every five minutes, Song You’ai handed out ice to the group.
Everyone put the ice into ice packs, and as it melted, they drank the water. Sipping water continuously as they walked, they managed to hold out for a full half-hour until they reached the highway exit.
"A small horde of five or six hundred zombies ahead," Cres suddenly announced. "They’ll be here in two minutes. Also, I’m hungry! I want to eat cake!"
Xie Ning checked her phone. It was 12:30 in the afternoon. Having used up their energy all morning, it was indeed time to find a place to settle down and let her grandparents rest.
Two minutes later, two large trucks came barreling toward them from across the road, a large pack of howling zombies chasing after them.
At Xie Ning’s command, Song Shijun’s Second Order Wind Vortex was the first to slam into the zombie horde.
Song Kexin’s Fireball followed immediately after. The flames plunged into the horde and, fanned by the wind, roared into a massive blaze.
The two of them were clearly focused on ranged attacks, leaving the closer zombies to their other teammates, who blocked them with earth walls and beheaded them with Metal Knives.
By the time an exhausted Li Dawei and his teammates ran up, looking like they’d been run ragged, the battle was already winding down.
The young and old of Xie Ning’s team were already proactively harvesting Zombie Crystal Cores. The others moved in an orderly fashion, double-tapping the zombies on the ground to prevent any from getting back up.
The small woven basket was over half-full of sparkling, cleaned, common Crystal Cores. Su Xiyue happily handed the basket to Xie Ning.
Xie Ning walked over to Ji Taixian and, when no one was looking, dumped all the Crystal Cores onto her terrace. She had just picked up the empty basket and turned back when she heard the RUMBLE of the large trucks.
The two large trucks that had just driven past had actually turned around.
Several burly men in black tank tops jumped down from the trucks. They flashed a grin at the group. "Hey, survivors. Where are you from?"
"Oasis Base welcomes you. Come on, head back with us!" one of the large men said with a laugh as he stepped forward. Acting as if they were old friends, he reached out to grab Song Kexin’s arm.
Song Kexin’s expression turned cold. A Fireball successfully halted the man in his tracks, making him retract his hand.
The other burly men in black tank tops immediately started exchanging looks and winks.
"What survivor group are you? Not a small number of Superpower Users, either! Haha." One of the big men sneakily reached for his waist, then suddenly pulled out a bottle and, with a PSSST, sprayed its contents toward Song Kexin.
A wall of ice instantly shot up from the ground.