Chapter 44: 44 Fleeing Overnight
The sparks that burst from the car battery immediately set the pooled gasoline on fire, and in an instant, flames roared and spread throughout the entire parking lot at an incredibly rapid pace.
Su Han dashed beyond the boundary of the parking lot. The speed of the fire's spread hadn't caught up to him, but the Four-armed Corpse and the vines that were entangled were right at the center of the parking lot.
In an instant, the fire engulfed them, with flames reaching three to four meters high, almost completely submerging the Four-armed Corpse. Heat waves rolled out continuously, and under the high temperature, the batteries of the other electric cars began to emit even more black smoke.
"Boom"
One explosion after another resounded, and the Four-armed Corpse, surrounded by fire, felt its body scorched by the intense heat. However, even more helplessly tangled than it were the vines of the Human-faced Tree.
Just as the flames had sprung up, they had tried to pull the Four-armed Corpse out, but under Su Han's control, it swung its Pu knives, slashing the vines apart.
As soon as the temperature from the flames rose, the vines could no longer bear it. Those drenched in gasoline caught fire immediately and burned fiercely.
Under such burning, the vines withdrew quickly, like startled birds, disappearing back into the original lawn, to extinguish the flames on them and avoid the raging inferno of the parking lot.
"Four-armed Corpse, come back!"
Once the Four-armed Corpse was free, Su Han immediately controlled it to turn around and bolt from the blaze. As it rushed forward, its body already ablaze with roaring flames, the Black Armor faintly glowed red, clearly very hot, and it sizzled as it moved.
In the fight that had just occurred, its body was already covered in gasoline, and now ignited by the massive fire, it couldn't escape being burned.
However, thanks to the protection of Iron Skin and Black Armor, it wouldn't be charred by the flames in a short amount of time, but the high heat continued to scorch its flesh.
Without hesitation, Su Han immediately made the Four-armed Corpse roll onto the distant lawn, smothering its body with soil and sand, which finally put out the flames.
By this time, the parking lot had turned into a spreading sea of flames, which completely separated Su Han from the Human-faced Tree, as they looked at each other from across the distance.
The Human-faced Tree, fearing the fire, slowly retreated to the vicinity of the fourth building, its form vanishing into the mist.
The disappearance of the Human-faced Tree didn't make Su Han breathe a sigh of relief; his expression remained grave.
'This monster is at least of the Second Order in strength. It has taken the whole Happiness Community as its hunting ground.'
He shuddered at the thought. The Human-faced Tree had been silently wandering within the community—it wasn't that it couldn't break into the seventh building, it simply hadn't reached this area yet.
Or perhaps, the bodies that Cheng Zhenyong had thrown out of the building saved everyone's lives.
The bodies temporarily sated the Human-faced Tree that passed by.
But now, the mist was thinning, and the chances of encountering this monster within the community were exponentially greater. It wasn't safe to stay here any longer.
He immediately controlled the Four-armed Corpse and quickly retraced the original path, heading straight to the base of Building Seven.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
He knocked on the large iron door of Building Seven, and Zhang Fu soon opened it, his expression just as grave, "Su Han, what happened?"
"Let's go inside and talk; the situation isn't good."
The look on Su Han's face made Zhang Fu feel that something was amiss. By that time, the hall was already not just occupied by the two security guards; almost everyone had been awakened by the explosion and now gathered in the hall.
When Su Han walked in, everyone was startled. Su Han's face and clothes were soot-blackened, and the Four-armed Corpse wasn't in much better shape, with scorch marks on its body and emitting a strong smell of gasoline.
Their sorry states filled everyone with unsettling doubts—Su Han was already so powerful, what could possibly have happened to leave him in such a state?
"Su Han, what happened?"
Captain Cheng's expression was serious as he looked towards Su Han, his heart hanging in suspense.
"There's a monster in Happiness Community, at least of the Second Order. The Four-armed Corpse and I are no match for it. Everyone in Building Four is gone."
"What!"
Shock appeared on everyone's faces, followed by an indescribable terror. There was such a creature in the community all this time.
And the distance between Building Four and Building Seven wasn't far at all.
"I set a fire to temporarily block it, but it definitely won't hold for too long, if we want to survive, we'd better leave tonight."
Su Han conveyed the message to everyone, then immediately turned to Zhu Xiong and said, "Load all the supplies onto the truck, we're leaving tonight."
"Okay, everything's ready to go, it'll be done in ten minutes."
Zhu Xiong, understanding the gravity of the situation, immediately responded and then summoned Gan Xinglei, saying, "Old Gan, come help me."
"I'll help too."
Zhao Yimin was also in the crowd. Knowing that the situation was dire, he immediately started to help and followed Zhu Xiong to Su Han's room to begin moving the supplies onto the vehicles.
As Su Han's people sprang into action, Yan Meiyu took the initiative and said, "I'll organize the folks who are with us."
Su Han nodded and said, "Be quick."
He hurried to recover his strength, and as they all started to move, the whole assembly point became chaotic with everyone immediately packing up their things.
In just over ten minutes, the hall was crowded with people, and Zhu Xiong and his team had all the supplies loaded onto the truck.
"Su Han, we don't have enough vehicles."
In the midst of the pandemonium, Yan Meiyu found Su Han in private and said, "We only have seven vehicles in total. There are 49 people at the assembly point. There are 20 of us and 29 with Captain Cheng's group, and they don't have enough vehicles."
Su Han's side, including Zhao Yimin, had a total of five vehicles—three private cars and two trucks. Even though one had the Spider Monster and other monster corpses, and another was loaded with supplies, fitting 20 people wasn't a problem at all.
The problem was with Cheng Zhenyong's group. They only had two vehicles, both SUVs with decent capacity, but even squeezed tight they couldn't fit that many people.
"We'll leave the community first, and figure it out on the road."
With Su Han's order, everyone squeezed into the vehicles. Some people wanted to bring more belongings, but apart from food and the essentials, everything was left behind.
"Old Zhu and I will lead the way."
Su Han and Zhu Xiong boarded the first truck, slammed on the accelerator, and charged out of the back gate of the community, not caring for the checkpoint, as this was the only way to bypass Building Four.
Following right behind them was another truck, along with Zhao Yimin, Gan Xinglei, and their lot.
Cheng Zhenyong's group trailed behind, silently rushing out of the community. After a long drive, circling around to Lihua Supermarket, Su Han eventually stopped.
The supermarket had been cleared in the morning, but now there were a few monsters wandering about. A Four-armed Corpse wielding Pu knives stepped forward and after a bout of clearing, finally made a safe area.
"Everyone, get out of the vehicles and rest up in the supermarket."
After a night's rush, dawn was gradually breaking, and everyone, dragging their weary bodies, entered the supermarket.
Cheng Zhenyong had Zhang Fu block the door with shelving units, and, not minding the dirty floor, they all found places to lean against and sit down to rest.
"That monster won't be able to follow us here, right?"
Su Han, Cheng Zhenyong, and a few others gathered together, and Cheng Zhenyong's question carried a tone of worry.
Su Han shook his head and said, "It shouldn't. That monster is a tree with a human face, it doesn't move very fast, but its vines are very powerful."
With those words, everyone let out a sigh of relief.
"Between spiders and man-eating plants, this damn world."
Zhu Xiong, frustrated, lit a cigarette, puffing smoke. He even shared one with Zhang Fu beside him.
"We'll come back to deal with that thing later."
Nobody takes a beating from a monster and lets it go just like that, especially now that they can fuse with the entire monster. It's about time they gave that Human-faced Tree a visit.
What goes around comes around; don't mess with an Angel Envoy when he's down.
Su Han made a note of it in his little book, then turned to Cheng Zhenyong and asked, "Captain Cheng, do you want to rest up in the supermarket for a bit, or should we leave immediately?"