From Apocalypse Boss to Farmer: My Vegetables Make Me Stronger!-Chapter 177 - 168: Sparring

Gu Xi closed her eyes for a moment.

Beside her, Qi Xiang noticed her expression was off. She bit her lip and ventured, "Is it about Wei Heng...?"

At her words, Shen Yue and Qin Yi also looked over.

Gu Xi suppressed her rage and nodded, her expression calm. "I’m going to the Superpower Union Building."

Wei Heng had been tailing and investigating Chen recently. Now that he had suddenly lost contact, Chen was the first person Gu Xi thought of.

Shen Yue was worried, so he decided to drive her there himself.

Qi Xiang didn’t go with them. Instead, she took Qin Yi back to the Qi Family residence, hoping to pry some information out of Dr. Qi.

The SUV sped toward the Superpower Union Building.

Once they arrived, Gu Xi used her vines to toss aside the guards who tried to block her, then took the elevator straight to Chen Lu’s office on the 37th floor.

Chen Lu’s office must have some sort of special device that could block spiritual power probes.

Inside the elevator, Gu Xi retracted her spiritual power. She and Shen Yue exchanged a look, seeing the same grim seriousness in each other’s eyes.

’Wei Heng’s ability had almost fully recovered, making him one of the top masters in the base, yet he had vanished without a trace... The Chen sisters must have been plotting this for a long time.’

Gu Xi frowned slightly.

In fact, ever since Yang Qiao’s death, she had been waiting for the Chen sisters to strike back. But strangely, aside from Chen showing up at the joint meeting that one time, the sisters had been very quiet recently.

Gu Xi and Li Ming had wondered if their opponents were charging up for a big move.

But Wei Heng had been keeping an eye on them this whole time and hadn’t noticed anything unusual.

And just two hours ago, Gu Xi had been in contact with Wei Heng. He was near the Superpower Union Building at the time, about to head to the airport to meet up with them...

Soon, the elevator reached the 37th floor.

The moment the doors opened, Zhao Kun, who had been tipped off, was already rushing over. "Miss Gu, you..." ’What are you doing here?’

Gu Xi had no time for pleasantries. She bound him with a vine, tossed him aside, and strode toward Chen Lu’s office.

In a panic, Zhao Kun shouted, "Miss Gu! Miss Gu, the President isn’t here...!"

Before he could finish, Gu Xi had already used her ability to violently break down the door.

She kicked the door open...

Inside the office, Lu Ren looked up with a smile. "Miss Gu."

Gu Xi raised her eyes and scanned the room. As expected, Chen Lu wasn’t there. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

"You must be looking for Mr. Chen, aren’t you?" There was nothing unusual about Lu Ren’s attitude. He was even attentive enough to pour Gu Xi a cup of hot water. "Mr. Chen left the Union Building last night. We don’t know where she went either..."

Gu Xi didn’t take the cup he offered. She just looked up at him, her gaze so calm it was almost cold.

"Where did Chen Lu go?" she asked, enunciating every word.

Lu Ren bowed slightly, holding the cup with both hands as his palms grew sweaty with nervousness. He subconsciously avoided Gu Xi’s gaze and said with feigned composure, "Miss Gu, I really don’t know..."

"Are you sure?" Gu Xi interrupted him calmly. "If you don’t know, then tell me, why are you in her office?"

Lu Ren suddenly felt that the cup in his hands was scalding hot.

’But the President said that this Miss Gu has never been one to kill the innocent...’

He put the cup down with feigned composure and sighed in resignation. "Miss Gu, I really don’t know where the President is. Why don’t you try calling her communicator number...?"

Gu Xi’s eyes narrowed slightly. Her little green sprout instantly shot out, transforming into a sharp thorn and pressing against the spot between Lu Ren’s eyebrows.

BANG— The cup hit the floor, splashing hot water everywhere.

A drop flew right toward Lu Ren’s eye.

Lu Ren’s pupils contracted as he scrambled backward.

But the sharp thorn followed him like a shadow, remaining pressed against the spot between his eyebrows.

He couldn’t escape it.

The color drained from Lu Ren’s face.

They were both Wood Element users, yet he couldn’t even take one of Gu Xi’s moves; he didn’t even have the ability to dodge.

Without a doubt, Gu Xi’s ability was even stronger than he had imagined.

What terrified him even more was that when he instinctively tried to counter with his own ability, he found it completely suppressed. His own bonded plant didn’t even have the courage to emerge...

’The gap is too big.’

Caught between life and death, Lu Ren instantly changed his tune, his voice sharp with desperation. "Miss Gu, don’t, don’t! I’ll contact Mr. Chen right now..."

In front of Gu Xi, he lowered his head and dialed Chen Lu’s communicator, over and over, but no one answered.

By now, beads of sweat had broken out all over Lu Ren’s forehead. Even a fool would have figured it out by this point—Mr. Chen hadn’t left him here because she valued him, but because she was using him as a disposable pawn to bear the brunt of Gu Xi’s anger.

His body stiff, he looked up at Gu Xi. "Miss Gu, this... I..."

But Gu Xi suddenly retracted her sproutling, acting surprisingly reasonable. "It’s fine. The signal is probably bad here. How about this: call all the users who are on duty here..."

Lu Ren was completely baffled. He didn’t understand why Gu Xi’s attitude had changed so abruptly.

He hesitated, not daring to move.

Gu Xi glanced at him, then lowered her gaze to fiddle with the two tender leaves on the tip of her little green sprout. "Relax. I’m not one to kill indiscriminately, nor do I involve the innocent. Just call them all here..."

Lu Ren had no idea what she was planning. Although he opened his personal terminal, he hesitated to send out the message.

Gu Xi tilted her head to look at him. "What? You don’t believe me?"

With his life in her hands, how could Lu Ren dare not to believe her?

Soon, the spacious office was packed with superpower users.

One hundred and forty-seven people in total.

’One of them must be a spy Chen Lu left behind.’

’Right now, others might not be able to contact Chen Lu, but her spy here definitely can.’

Gu Xi’s gaze swept slowly over every person in the room...

Some met her gaze fearlessly, some subconsciously avoided her eyes, and others kept their heads lowered from the very beginning...

Zheng Yu stood in the crowd, surreptitiously sizing up the girl at the front. ’Only a level-four ability, yet she pioneered the reverse evolution of plants. No wonder Mr. Chen...’

Just then, a whooshing sound cut through the air. Zheng Yu’s vision blurred... and by the time she came to her senses, she was hanging upside down.

Seeing this, a few nearby Thunder Ability users were about to rush in to save her, but Shen Yue stopped them. "This is an internal matter between Wood Element users, a friendly exchange. It’s not appropriate for outsiders like us to interfere."

The men glanced at the upside-down Zheng Yu, then back at Shen Yue. "..."

’You call this a friendly exchange?’

Shen Yue shrugged, giving them a lazy raise of his eyebrow. ’What else would it be?’

The men exchanged a look, glanced over at Lu Ren, and fell silent. ’Their own Wood Element team captain hasn’t said a word. What right do we outsiders have to step in?’

Zheng Yu, however, had calmed down by now.

"Miss Gu, what is the meaning of this?" She feigned a look of bewildered innocence, panic, and anger. "Did you have Mr. Lu call us here just to vent your dissatisfaction and humiliate us?"

She was obviously trying to stir up a sense of shared indignation among the other users present.

But no one there was a fool.

Besides, Gu Xi was at the height of her power right now... It wasn’t worth offending her for the sake of an irrelevant outsider.

The crowd parted, and Gu Xi walked up to Zheng Yu, calmly sizing up the young woman. "Who is she?"

Lu Ren froze for a second before realizing the question was directed at him.

"Miss Gu," he said, wiping the cold sweat from his forehead, his words evasive. "Her name is Zheng Yu. She’s, she’s..."

But Gu Xi suddenly cut him off. "I see the personal terminal on her wrist is the latest model, isn’t it?"

Lu Ren didn’t understand. He stared blankly for a moment, then saw the vine binding Zheng Yu suddenly tighten. In a flash of movement too quick to follow, a Light Screen lit up in front of Zheng Yu.

The vine binding her immediately loosened. Zheng Yu slumped to the ground, her expression vacant, and mechanically raised her hand to tap the Light Screen...

Lu Ren’s face changed instantly, and he cried out, "Miss Gu, what did you do to her?"

Gu Xi glanced at him sideways. "Are you sure... you want to know?"

Lu Ren’s heart skipped a beat. He opened his mouth, but upon meeting Gu Xi’s unreadable, faintly smiling eyes, he rigidly shut it again.

The surrounding superpower users all watched this scene with a mixture of shock and suspicion.

Just then, Zheng Yu raised her personal terminal and walked woodenly over to Gu Xi.

The Light Screen in front of her showed that a communication request had been sent and was now connecting...