Chapter 52 Unfilial Father and Son

Lex suddenly felt a sharp pain in his left leg. Looking down, he saw that his jeans were torn at the knee.

Instinctively reaching out to touch the sore spot, a slippery sensation immediately coated his fingers!

Before he could recover from the pain, the rustling sound from the bushes to his rear stimulated his nerves once again.

Realizing he could not simply sit and wait for death, Lex gathered all his strength to scramble up, enduring the pain in his leg as he continued running forward.

He laboriously climbed over a fallen tree trunk and scrambled down a steep slope while panting heavily.

However, the rustling sound behind him not only failed to disappear, but instead gave him the impression of growing closer and closer.

This feeling was deeply ominous, and he accelerated his pace once more.

Running past wild, overgrown brush all around, his nose was filled with the earthy scent of damp leaves.

Soon, he heard the murmuring sound of water flowing over stones.

Straining his eyes, he saw a steadily flowing stream not far ahead.

Suddenly, a dark shadow flashed past his side, knocking him completely to the ground and sending his head spinning.

Enduring the intense pain throughout his body, Lex struggled to prop himself up, desperate to know what had attacked him.

He forced himself to look forward, and his pupils constricted sharply, widening even further from sheer terror!

A pair of eyes radiating an evil aura and glowing with a purple light emerged from the brush ahead.

Lex felt as though his entire body was freezing solid, his mind turning completely blank.

Paralyzed by fright, Lex wanted to stand up and flee.

Yet, with his heart utterly consumed by fear, he found his legs trembling incessantly and refusing to obey his commands.

Just when he thought he was about to be devoured by the monster lurking in the dark, footsteps suddenly echoed from behind.

"Splash!"

The next second.

The tall grass was parted, and Peter looked in astonishment at the little bald boy sprawled out in the stream, frozen in shock.

Driving back from the Kent farm, he had heard hurried footsteps and heavy panting nearby, so he had stepped out of the vehicle to investigate, never expecting to encounter a bald kid.

"Are you all right?"

Peter looked at the bald-headed Lex and extended a hand toward him.

He assumed the boy was just some mischievous neighborhood child.

Lex stared at Peter's outstretched hand and grabbed it tightly.

The sensation of having cheated death made him almost weep with emotional relief.

Clinging to Peter's hand, Lex pointed shakily ahead and cried, "Monster! Uncle, there's a monster over there!"

Hearing this, Peter raised his head and looked in the direction the boy was pointing.

The space ahead was merely a patch of bushes, completely devoid of anything suspicious.

He frowned slightly and cast his gaze further into the distance.

This place... truly carried an aura of strangeness.

...

Padrik Farm.

Clark was holding a copy of the *Funk & Wagnalls Standard English Dictionary*, looking up English words.

The "man-eating bugs" mentioned by the Martian Manhunter that evening weighed heavily on his mind.

"Haunted, meaning frequently visited by ghosts."

Holding the dictionary, Clark read out the definition of the word: "Haunting, meaning continuously appearing in one's mind and difficult to forget."

Hearing Clark muttering to himself, Homelander walked over and asked out of curiosity, "Clark, are you studying vocabulary?"

"No, I just discovered some interesting English words."

Clark read the third word from the dictionary, "To haunt."

"All three of these words are related to haunt. When haunt is treated as a noun, there is one definition: an animal's feeding ground."

As he spoke, he laid the dictionary down. "Detective Jones said that what has descended upon the town is not an alien, but an alien parasite. Is this place of ours—a feeding ground?"

Homelander shook his head. "I don't know. But no matter what that bug is, I'm going to deal with it. So don't worry, Clark. I'll protect Dad and you."

Clark was not as optimistic as Homelander, especially after Don's death; he constantly carried a lingering sense of guilt.

"Do you feel scared, Homelander?"

"Not at all. Haven't you ever heard the saying, Clark, 'If you fall into a story yourself, everyone knows you're supposed to feel scared at the end, not right now'?"

Homelander picked up a chocolate chip cookie and stuffed it into his mouth. "Dad said that."

Just as he mentioned Peter, the sound of a car engine rang out outside, and Peter drove back to the farm.

Along the way, Peter had already figured out that the little bald boy was none other than Lex Luthor.

He had hardly expected to randomly pick up Superman's future archenemy—Lex Luthor—by the roadside.

Glancing at the boy's smooth, hairless head, Peter instantly understood why this kid would grow up to be "one of the smartest men on Earth."

Possessing such a "powerhouse hairstyle" from childhood meant he was bound to achieve great things in the future.

Moreover, although this kid was destined to be Clark's nemesis, if their relationship could be turned around—

Perhaps the boy would become an asset for both him and Clark in the future.

Stepping out of the car, Lex had no idea Peter was roasting his bald head in his thoughts, and he curiously surveyed the farm.

Gazing at the "run-down" farm before him, he secretly made up his mind to ask his father to help pay for an even larger farm to give to Uncle Peter as a gift.

Hearing the commotion, Homelander and Clark emerged from the living room, only to see a little bald boy stepping out of the car with Peter.

Homelander stepped forward warily and asked, "Dad, who is this...?"

He somehow felt that the little bald kid in front of him gave off a strong vibe of not being a good person.

"This is Lex Luthor. You guys can get acquainted."

Peter introduced Lex to the two boys.

He patted Lex, who appeared somewhat stiff and reserved, on the shoulder. "Go inside and play with John and Clark. I've already called your father; he'll be here shortly."

Lex nodded and thanked Peter once more. "Thank you, Uncle Peter."

Half an hour later, Lionel Luthor hurried to the farm. Seeing that his son was safe and sound, he let out a long breath of relief.

After expressing his gratitude to Peter, he drove away from the farm with Lex.

Once the Luthor father and son had departed, Homelander told him about John Jones.

"John Jones?"

Peter fell into deep thought as he heard the name.

He remembered the Martian Manhunter had once used that alias.

The image of a green-skinned, bald man in blue trunks (and trunks worn without compression pants underneath) flashed through his mind.

The Martian Manhunter's superpowers were quite similar to Clark's, yet far more versatile, encompassing telepathy, shapeshifting, and invisibility.

Despite his formidable abilities, he also possessed fatal weaknesses, and coupled with an appearance less bright and handsome than Clark's, his popularity had languished. He had even heard that in later years, the hero tried transitioning to behind-the-scenes work as a babysitter.

He himself happened to be lacking a babysitter; he wondered if this superhero might be interested.

At this moment, the Martian Manhunter could never have imagined that neither father nor son was a good person.

One wanted to make him a plantation slave on the farm, while the other wanted to hire him as a nanny.

Shaking his head, Peter cast the thought of employing the Martian Manhunter as a babysitter out of his mind and refocused his attention on the alien parasite.

Was Don's death also caused by this kind of alien parasite?

He raised his head, his gaze piercing through the window into the pitch-black night.

Within the darkness, a wandering devourer seemed to be concealed, quietly lying in wait for its prey.

...

The next morning, at dawn.

No sooner had Peter gotten out of bed than he received a call from Jonathan. "Peter, something's happened!"