After Apocalypse, I Got Rich With Superpower

They were all acquaintances; the journey was filled with light-hearted chit-chat and laughter, making it very relaxing.

Xinghai Base was quite far; it took three days of driving to get there, which was quite exhausting. That’s why they arranged for a big bus equipped with several beds so people could rest when tired. The drivers also rotated in three shifts to avoid fatigue driving.

On the second day, they were already far from their own base. Li Pan had brought plenty of food, vegetables, and fruits, ensuring there was no issue with the supply—all of which were delicious meals Gu Ye had prepared in advance.

That evening they switched drivers to continue on the journey, as the injured waiting at Xinghai Base needed treatment, and they couldn’t rest. The only option was to keep driving towards their destination without stopping for breaks.

Li Pan was sleepy, so she lay down on the bed and fell asleep. The mobile signal was not very reliable once they left the base, often fluctuating, and sometimes even phone calls would get interrupted. There wasn’t much else to do but sleep.

Just as she was dozing off, a loud explosion jolted the car into an abrupt stop and a sharp turn, causing everyone on the beds to fly up and hit the vehicle’s walls.

"Ouch!"

"What’s happening?"

"Danger."

The driver, wiping the blood from his face, loudly warned everyone.

Before Li Pan could get up, she was thrown to the floor and shouted, "Kong Kong, activate the Domain."

She wasn’t a fighter, but her Domain Barrier was exceptionally strong. Once activated, it was very difficult to break through. At her current level, unless you were a Zhenhua level expert, and even then it would take at least two hours to penetrate her Domain.

Struggling to get up, she was tall and thin, and the fall from the bed had caused her to hit her shoulder, which was now slightly immobile.

With the Domain unfolded, Li Pan looked carefully and noticed two people inside the Domain attacking the bus, while outside, eight others took turns attacking the Barrier with various powers, their colorful lights quite beautiful.

"Who are they?"

"Doesn’t matter who, just kill them."

Liu Hu, Qian Xi, and other teammates jumped out of the bus to deal with the two bandits who had attacked the driver.

One of the bandits had hit the driver. The suddenness of the attack caught the driver off-guard, and since he had to protect everyone in the bus, a vehicle flip would mean injuries for the team. That’s why he had taken the blow himself.

Li Pan hurried to the front of the bus and healed the driver’s wounds with her Wood Element vines—it would take just two minutes to fully recover, which was a trivial matter for her.

"You go hide in the back and don’t come out."

The driver, also a High-level Combat Superpower user, immediately got out of the bus to fight after being healed.

Only then did Li Pan open the Domain Barrier, and everyone engaged in combat together.

She didn’t stand idle, but got out of the bus as well. The space on the bus was too cramped to dodge effectively, and it was easier to move freely on the ground.

"Capture one alive."

The opponents seemed to be High-level superpower users as well; the fact that the fight was evenly matched was evidence of their comparable strength.

Li Pan thought they couldn’t keep this stalemate going, as it would waste everyone’s physical strength and superpower. If another party joined the fray, it would complicate things.

The bandits kept attacking their position with frenzy. It was clear they were targeting her.

Li Pan’s gaze gradually turned cold. Although I may not be a fighter, I’m not someone who can be bullied by just anyone. You really underestimate a High-level Wood Power User.

With a wave of her hand, she moved the Star Tree out.

The Star Tree had already grown into a towering giant so thick that two people couldn’t wrap their arms around its trunk.

"Kong Kong, hang those people up and whip them."

Li Pan was enraged, gritting her teeth. To think they wanted to kill me—Who could it be? They’re really giving me a lot of ’respect’.

Almost in an instant, countless vines whipped around, like agile snakes, binding all the bandits attacking them, hanging them upside down on the branches, and whipping them back and forth with the vines.

"Ahh!"

"Dammit, I’ll kill you!"

"First think about how you’re going to die."

"Talk, who sent you to kill me? You’ve really gone to great lengths."

Li Pan might not be good at scheming, but she was no fool. How could she not realize that they were targeting her?

"Bullshit, we’re here to hijack the supplies."

"Not telling the truth, huh? Kong Kong, drain him."

Li Pan’s expression turned cold, and she gave the order without hesitation.

In almost an instant, the high-level superpower user bandits who had just been cursing were drained of their blood by the tendrils of the Star Tree, turning into withered corpses.

"Does anyone else want to confess? I’m really curious as to why you think I’m easy to bully. I’ve always been kind to others, but that doesn’t mean I’m a pushover. If you don’t tell the truth, I’ll feed them all to my precious to give it a bit more nutrition."

The Star Tree itself was also a mutant Spirit Plant, one that fed on blood and absorbed energy.

Qian Xi and the others retreated, taking up positions in front of Li Pan to guard her.

No one questioned Li Pan’s killings, as far as they were concerned, they had been bullied to their faces. If they didn’t fight back, they really would look down on Li Pan.

"Speak up, I’ll count to three, and for every count, one person dies."

"One."

"Two."

"Three."

"I’ll talk!"

A female bandit was the first to break, not wanting to be drained into a desiccated husk by the Spirit Plant.

"Shut up, you traitor!"

A teammate shouted angrily at her.

"I don’t want to die."

The female team member’s psychological defenses collapsed first; faced with death, no one could remain unfearful, especially when a teammate had been alive moments ago and now was a dried-up corpse – who wouldn’t be scared?

"My patience is limited; talk."

Li Pan stood in front of the Star Tree with her arms folded, flanked by the towering, lush trees, feeling a strong sense of security granted by the Star Tree.

"Someone hired us to take your life, claiming you had a grudge with them. We genuinely don’t know who the main client is – we never ask such secrets, we just do the job for the money. It’s the rule of the underworld."

The female team member began to speak, crying.

"What else is there?"

"I don’t know anything else. The one who died just now was our leader. He was always the one dealing with clients, and we just did the work and split the money."

"How long have you been doing this?"

"Four or five years now. We’ve leveled up by doing this, just scraping by. When we’re idle, we do odd jobs at the base."

"How come you weren’t discovered?"

High-level superpower users were rare; they couldn’t possibly go unnoticed.

"We have backers. Usually, it’s the rich who vouch for us. They need us to do work for them. Most of the time, we do transportation work for them."

"It’s usually several families banding together for backing. We can’t rely on just one. The rich district and the rich districts of other bases have unions as well. They too are a force to be reckoned with, a bit complex, but we always have work every year, handling cleanup for them, getting rid of some disobedient people. The Base Commander from two years ago died while out on business. It was done by an old hand from another district. The Base Commander himself was a high-level combat superpower user and had protection, yet he was killed, and someone else took over."

Qian Xi stepped forward and looked at Li Pan, "Sister, can I handle the rest?"

"Okay."

"I’ll definitely explain things to you."

Asking any further might leak secrets that would not be good for Li Pan to know. It was safer for her not to know and remain uninvolved.

"What about these people?"

"Don’t kill me, please."

The female team member begged, crying.

"Can you make them lose their powers? Just ensure they don’t die. Snow Mountain Base isn’t far ahead. We’ll take them there to be detained and wait for the base to send someone to transfer them."

"Alright."

These people had committed no small number of murders and robberies; Li Pan had no sympathy. She let the Star Tree leave them with a sliver of life to be taken back for interrogation, but as for their abilities, the Star Tree drained them dry. They’d be less useful than ordinary people from now on.

"Ah!"

A group of people let out pitiful howls as they hung from the tree, their Spirit Cores devoured by the Star Tree. They would no longer be superpower users but invalids.