Chapter 120: Rabbits—So Many Rabbits!

“Your Highness, it seems the rabbits are not afraid of you.”

The mynah circled overhead and looked down. “Something seems wrong with them.”

Su Miao gripped her umbrella sword. According to her original plan, she had intended to capture a rabbit alive. But as more and more rabbits emerged from beneath the snow, they simply stared straight at her.

She disliked the feeling of being watched. Su Miao sensed danger.

The rabbits probably regarded her as prey.

In the blink of an eye, more than a hundred rabbits appeared between the tree stumps.

They had not attacked earlier because all the surrounding trees had been chopped down by Su Miao. If she had not felled so many of them, the rabbits would never have dared to come out like this.

Seeing more and more rabbits emerge, Su Miao knew she could wait no longer.

She raised her hand and hurled down a huge red fireball.

With a thunderous explosion, the rabbits before her were blown apart. The air filled with the smell of singed fur.

“Your Highness, they are coming!”

The mynah let out a terrified shriek from the sky.

The rabbits gave off eerie cries and suddenly leapt into the air, launching a surprise attack from every direction.

“Greater Water Sphere!”

Su Miao swung her umbrella sword and enveloped herself in a gigantic hollow sphere of water.

The next second, she saw fifty or sixty rabbits plunge into the sphere and struggle desperately toward her.

“Compress!”

In an instant, the water inside the sphere contracted violently, crushing the rabbits that had entered until their blood burst out. Some even had their eyeballs forced from their sockets.

The rabbits that charged in afterward could hardly break through the water sphere at all.

“Greater Water Sphere!”

Su Miao dispersed the hollow sphere she had formed and conjured another one.

In an instant, the disintegrating water sphere carried the rabbit corpses down to the ground, where they froze into rabbit-shaped blocks of ice almost immediately.

The remaining rabbits continued to charge forward madly, making the newly formed sphere look utterly terrifying.

Anyone standing close enough could tell that the creatures struggling inside were rabbits.

But to someone farther away with poor eyesight, it might look as though some ancient god had escaped from its prison.

“Compress!”

Su Miao repeated the same trick, crushing the rabbits that rushed into the sphere until their blood burst from them. The sight was horrifying.

After several repetitions, the ground around her was covered with frozen rabbits.

Yet the rabbits on the mountain seemed endless.

“We can’t keep wasting time like this. I need to think of something.”

Su Miao thought of the blue fireball in her magical space.

But rabbits were attacking from every direction. Even if she bombed one side, there would still be another side.

Besides, the blue fireball’s explosive power was far too terrifying. It would scare her to tears. If a rabbit attacked her from behind in the middle of it, what would she do?

“Mynah, catch the rabbits!” Su Miao called.

“Your Highness, I don’t dare! Just look at them!”

The mynah flew nearby.

Su Miao looked over and saw that several rabbits had already piled themselves into a small mountain and were leaping toward the mynah in the sky.

“Your Highness, these wretched rabbits want to eat me! Help me!”

The mynah alternated between flying lower and higher.

Although it claimed that the rabbits wanted to eat it, it was actually provoking them nonstop. Otherwise, the rabbits would never have gathered into such a mountain.

Su Miao was speechless.

She had to find a way to survive the crisis.

Then she saw the muddy ground where the fireball had exploded and suddenly thought of an excellent idea.

While the hollow water sphere could still hold, she took a growth potion containing a trace amount of toxin from her magical space. Then she took out a highly poisonous hallucinogenic potion and poured both into a beaker, mixing them together.

Next, she casually grabbed a handful of vegetable seeds from her magical space and dropped them into the beaker.

Instantly, the mixed liquid began to bubble. The vegetable seeds swelled and sprouted at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Without hesitation, Su Miao controlled the water sphere surrounding her and moved forward, scattering the potion and seeds from the beaker across the muddy ground.

When she had finished, she dispelled the hollow water sphere around herself and formed a new one, retreating backward inside it.

The rabbits nearby had originally intended to continue attacking Su Miao.

But the sight of entirely new food drew their attention.

On the muddy ground, tender green vegetable shoots slowly emerged. They grew rapidly, reaching more than an inch in height in the blink of an eye and looking extremely appetizing.

When the rabbits discovered the fresh vegetable sprouts, they seemed to have witnessed a miracle.

They gathered around, crowding together to observe the newborn vegetables. Strangely, not one rabbit took the initiative to bite them.

Some rabbits were so hungry that they began chewing on the frozen rabbits Su Miao had killed instead.

Crunch, crunch.

The water sphere around Su Miao was no longer being struck by many rabbits.

Even the mountain of rabbits surrounding the mynah dispersed.

“Hey, little rabbits! Come on, bite me again! What’s wrong? You don’t want to bite me anymore?”

With no rabbits leaping up to bite it, the mynah began acting obnoxiously again.

But no matter how much it provoked them this time, the rabbits continued gathering around the sprouting vegetables.

They were filled with anticipation for the fresh greens.

Su Miao blinked.

She felt a little reluctant.

There were so many rabbits. If they had not been poisoned, she could have eaten them for a very long time.

But the rabbits were too frightening. For the moment, she could not think of any better solution.

Even though most of the rabbits’ attention had been drawn to the vegetables, many still kept their eyes fixed on her. Su Miao had no choice but to maintain the hollow water sphere to protect herself from attack.

Wretched rabbits. They would not even give her time to rest.

The two sides remained locked in a stalemate.

Perhaps an hour passed. Perhaps two. Darkness had already begun to descend.

At last, the vegetables grew to more than thirty centimeters in height, forming a dense patch.

Under Su Miao’s watchful gaze, the rabbits actually lined up. Each rabbit went forward, took one bite from a vegetable leaf, and left.

“This is absurd…”

Su Miao stared at them in disbelief.

The rabbits that had bitten off leaves did not eat them immediately. Instead, each occupied a separate place and waited quietly.

Five minutes later, the rabbits began eating the leaves in unison. The rustling sound was exceptionally clear.

Before long, blood began to flow from their mouths and noses, and they collapsed in perfect unison onto the snow.

Three minutes later, their body heat vanished, and they became poisonous frozen rabbits.

Around the vegetables, the rabbits that had not yet eaten continued lining up to bite off leaves, then died in orderly succession.

After nearly an hour, there was not a single living rabbit left within Su Miao’s field of vision.

“Your Highness, the rabbits are all dead,” the mynah said as it flew down.

“Yes.”

Su Miao dispersed the water sphere and looked at the corpses covering the ground, still shaken. “Find their nest. There should be baby rabbits inside.”

The mynah looked around. “Your Highness, it’s too dark. It won’t be easy.”

That was true.

Su Miao raised her hand and released a large fireball, instantly illuminating everything around them.

These rabbits could not have appeared for no reason.

Their nest had to be nearby.

“Your Highness, here! Over here!”

The mynah stood on a tree stump and shouted, “The rabbit nest is underneath. I can already smell their stink.”

Su Miao walked over and looked. There was indeed a large ice cavern here.

She dispelled the fireball, took a flashlight from her magical space and hung it nearby, then found an iron shovel and began digging by hand.

It took nearly half an hour before Su Miao reached the underground chamber of the rabbit nest.

The cavern was far larger than she had imagined, and much warmer as well.

The enormous passage was more than a meter high, large enough for a person to walk through.

For safety’s sake, Su Miao immediately deployed a magical-space formation and proceeded inside.

The cavern branched in every direction. From time to time, she saw fine holes in the walls, which were probably connected to the mutated trees.

“Your Highness, it’s just ahead,” the mynah said excitedly.

Several minutes later, Su Miao discovered a side passage. It was covered with a thick layer of dry grass, and many snow-white baby rabbits slept within it.

Perhaps because of the cold, the little rabbits were trembling. They looked very easy to catch.

Su Miao immediately took out a crate, stuffed it with foam, cotton, and similar materials, then used a pair of tongs to place the rabbits inside one by one.

Suddenly, an extremely faint sound came from a passage not far away.

Could there be an even larger rabbit?

“More than twenty. That should be enough.”

Su Miao glanced at the crate and immediately sealed it. She then used a water spell to carry it away from the cavern.

Just as she was about to leave, she vaguely saw a pair of red eyes, each as large as a lantern, staring at her from inside the cavern. The sight sent a chill through her.

However, after she left the cavern, the red eyes did not follow.

“Time to get out of here.”

Once outside, Su Miao casually tossed a large fireball at the vegetables the rabbits had left behind, destroying them.

Although some of the rabbits had been vicious, exterminating the entire species would have been too cruel.

She might need to return and catch another nest of rabbits someday.

Su Miao placed the insulated crate on the snowmobile, added a little magic to create a protective covering, and drove home.

Although it was night, the snow reflected the light, and once her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she could see the road ahead.

Three hours later, Su Miao returned to the villa. The temperature inside had already fallen dangerously low.

“Oh no!”

Su Miao hurried upstairs and added wood to the fireplace, then ignited it with a fireball spell.

Fortunately, she had made the mynah return home twice along the way to add more wood to the fireplace. Otherwise, the heating pipes in the villa would eventually have failed under the effects of thermal expansion and contraction.

Su Miao returned to the first floor and arranged a room for the rabbits.

For safety’s sake, she took several iron cages from her magical space and placed the baby rabbits inside them.

She put dry grass in every cage so that the rabbits would not be unable to adapt to their surroundings.

After all, the nest she had taken today belonged to mutated rabbits. Su Miao could not be sure whether these young rabbits were mutated as well.

If they were, it would be extremely dangerous.

She only wanted to conduct experiments. She did not want the baby rabbits to tear the villa apart, much less be eaten by them.

After eating a simple dinner, Su Miao went to bed.

Whatever needed to be done could wait until tomorrow.

The next day, Su Miao fed some grain to the field mice and rabbits and checked on their condition. They all seemed to be doing quite well.

She went outside. The vegetables in Plot A were growing exceptionally well, while the vegetables in Plot B were just ready for harvest.

The greens and cabbages were much shorter than those in Plot A.

The tomatoes, however, were the same size. Most of them still had a hint of green, clearly making them unsuitable for eating raw. They appeared to need more time to ripen.

“Your Highness, we’ve come to harvest the vegetables.”

Sun Rong, Chu Zekai, Luo Zhengyi, Guo Yixing, and Yu Feng had arrived.

Su Miao pointed toward Plot B. “You may harvest the vegetables over there. Do not harvest anything from this plot.”

Sun Rong looked at the vegetables in both plots. Although he did not understand why Her Highness the Witch had given such an order, he immediately agreed.

“Thank you, Your Highness!”

The group went to Plot B and began carefully harvesting the vegetables, which were visibly shorter.

While working, however, they kept stealing glances at the vegetables in Plot A.

No matter how many questions they had, they did not dare voice them at that moment. Whatever the problem was, they could discuss it after returning home.

“Your Highness, we’ve finished harvesting.”

Sun Rong thanked Su Miao once again and led the others away.

There were fewer vegetables this time, so they could transport everything in a single trip.

“Your Highness, may I pick one tomato? From this side?”

For some reason, Luo Zhengyi suddenly stepped forward and asked.

Su Miao glanced at him. “You may, but I cannot guarantee that the tomatoes here are not poisonous. You can try one.”

Luo Zhengyi stared at the bright red tomatoes in Plot A. He seemed to make up his mind and picked one.

“Thank you, Your Highness.”

Su Miao watched them leave with an icy gaze.

There was never any way to stop someone determined to die.

She could only hope he was lucky.

Su Miao harvested some vegetables from both Plot A and Plot B and brought them back to the villa to feed the field mice and baby rabbits.

If all went efficiently, she would have results in a few days.

…

The Five-Man Villa.

Sun Rong and the others unloaded the freshly harvested vegetables.

With so many vegetables, they would be able to eat for quite some time.

“Why do you think the witch wouldn’t let us harvest the vegetables from this plot? Do you think they’re really poisonous?”

Luo Zhengyi looked at the bright red tomato in his hand.

He gave it a sniff. It smelled wonderfully fragrant.

Chu Zekai said half-jokingly, “You could eat it and test the poison for us.”

Luo Zhengyi was somewhat surprised. In the past, Chu Zekai had always been the first to volunteer for such things. Had he changed his ways this time?

Sun Rong said, “Her Highness the Witch owes us nothing. The fact that she gives us food is already a great kindness. In my opinion, whether or not the vegetables in that plot are poisonous, if Her Highness did not tell us to pick them, we should not touch them.”

“But she agreed to it,” Luo Zhengyi replied.

Chu Zekai smiled. “Don’t worry. No one will take that tomato away from you.”

“Let’s cook,” Guo Yixing said. “We’ve all been freezing outside for half the day.”

The group took out a pot and washed it clean with snow. They put in some more snow, added the washed vegetables, then sealed the pot with a lid and placed it over the fire to simmer. This allowed them to imitate the effect of a pressure cooker and cook the food as thoroughly as possible.

The only pity was that they had no meat.

But in the apocalypse, having fresh vegetables to eat was already an enormous blessing.

Just as they watched the iron pot with anticipation, listening to the sizzling sounds coming from within, a sudden clang startled them all.

“What happened?”

They turned around and saw Luo Zhengyi lying on the floor, the tomato in his hand, blood flowing from all seven orifices.

“It’s poisonous. It’s poisonous. It really is poisonous…”

“Save me…”