Chapter 162
Translator: Pluto Editor: WMX
Clumps of dirt were flung into the air . They fell like misty rain behind a sweaty woman forming a small mound behind her . She had been digging for almost an hour . Looking from a distance, there were already about five small mounds scattered around her . Based on her memory, this was certainly the spot where Snow disappeared . Unfortunately, though Lin Sanjiu had dug through a large surface area of soil, revealing the network of tightly packed giant white rhizomes underneath, she could not spot a single person even after much scrutiny .
The fuzzy feeling of hope was dashed abruptly . Lin Sanjiu could feel her blood vessels pulsating . She massaged her throbbing temples, not know what went wrong .
[Should I try another area?] She tried her best to encourage herself . She walked back to the camping ground nervously . She didn’t even dare to take a break to catch her breath . She continued digging for another two hours straight before she finally collapsed and sat down on one of the mounds . She looked at the sweat and dirt all over her and tasted the bitterness in her mouth .
At that moment, a strange sight was before her . The plants which once spotted the landscape had been uprooted and dumped into a pile, along with soil and rocks . White rhizomes, the size of locomotives, were revealed beneath the surface, the intricate network of roots covered a large area . It was just as if someone’s skin had been pried open and instead of blood and flesh, there were only countless white maggots . . .
However, this was only the top-most layer of the ‘white radishes’ . A large part of their main body was hidden underground, and who knows how deep they extended .
"Is it possible that the missing people and animals weren't sucked into this network of radishes?" Lin Sanjiu mumbled to herself . "If it wasn’t their doing, why are there dead people encased within them…"
The alternative was that people coincidentally died in this area . As the ‘white radish’ grew, they gradually wrapped around the corpses . Thinking, Lin Sanjiu felt that this hypothesis was also plausible . After all, she had touched those things many times when she was digging . If the ‘white radishes’ did attack people, there was no reason she was still perfectly fine here .
Actually, the simplest solution was to find a rat or a worm to test her hypothesis . But, Lin Sanjiu noticed that though she had stirred up the ground quite a bit while digging, not a single bug appeared from the soil or the plants .
She remembered that when she first came to Garden of Eden, she saw many hideous, helmet-sized beetles . Their heads were covered with red compound eyes and there was always a couple around, whether she was sleeping, eating or walking . They appeared out of nowhere and occasionally Hui Chuyan would shriek out when she was caught off guard; Xueqin even taunted the girl for that .
The beetles’ nests were equally disgusting . The nests comprised of a few shallow round holes . Typically, each nest held four beetles, which also fitted precisely four human heads . Lin Sanjiu so familiar with this detail because she had already destroyed quite a number of empty nests when she was digging . She wondered when those beetles disappeared from their nests, just like her companions .
While she sat, she stretched her legs out and gazed vacantly at the network of white roots in front of her . She started to count the hours subconsciously . Snow, Bai Xiaoke and Error 517 were the earliest to disappear . It had already been 24 hours . Even though she didn’t know the exact time the others disappeared, it had already been almost 15 hours since she first discovered their disappearance .
As her mind drifted in that direction, Lin Sanjiu quickly slapped herself .
"I don’t care how long they’ve been gone!" She clenched her teeth as she furrowed her brows in resolution . "If they are alive, I want to see them . Even if they’re dead, I need to see their corpses!"
As Lin Sanjiu did not know what those ‘white radish’ were, she was still quite wary about them . She was cautious when she was digging and avoid even scraping the surface of their skin . However, now enraged, she didn’t care anymore . She took out Er Dao’s saber and swiftly struck a ‘white radish’ with it .
The white epidermises of the radishes were as hard as they appeared . Just as the blades of the saber touched the epidermis of that radish, the epidermis suddenly split open by itself even without the saber cutting through its surface . Perhaps, ‘split open’ was the proper term here . It was more like it ‘opened up’, like how a person opens his mouth to eat . The epidermis of the white radish opened up and Lin Sanjiu could see long strands of slime dangling across the opening .
Her saber sunk into the soft, slimy, gelatinous mess without any resistance . Then, the ‘white radish’ instantly sealed its epidermis, swallowing half the saber in its ‘mouth’ . Lin Sanjiu was stunned for a few seconds as she held the hilt of the saber in her hand . She wanted to smash the radish to bits, but now that things deviated so much from her expectations, she didn’t know what to do momentarily .
[Should I pull the knife out? Or should I just slash through?]
Before she could make a decision, the ‘white radish’ reacted again . "Slurp . " The saber was ‘spat out’ from the surface of the epidermis and was now covered with a large amount of slime . The sealed epidermis looked the same as before as if it had never opened up in the first place .
[Huh?]
Lin Sanjiu looked at her damp saber and then at the white radish . "Why? Does it taste bad?" That was indeed her first reaction .
She held the saber closer and examined it . The saber was not only covered by slime, but there were also a few strands of roots on its blade, which had probably been cut off from the main body of the radish . As if fish out of water, those white strands of roots wiggled around for sometime before drooping and becoming motionless .
Lin Sanjiu found those things ineffably disgusting .
Contemplating, Lin Sanjiu wiped her saber with a few leaves . Next, she slowly placed her arm close to the ‘white radish’ . This time, Lin Sanjiu fixed her eyes on it, not wanting to miss seeing anything unusual . When she touched those ‘radishes’ while she was digging, they merely vibrated twice . Lin Sanjiu didn’t take much notice as she thought that it was just a natural biological reaction to an external stimulus . But now that she carefully observed the reaction, she witnessed the full process of that ‘vibration’ .
When her arm was about to touch the epidermis of the radish, a slit appeared . Lin Sanjiu could see the strands of thin roots coiled up in its slime; it looked like the exposed nerves of a dissected brain . A long thin root probed out from the slit, but somehow it swiftly withdrew before the slime hanging from it even fell to the ground . The epidermis was sealed once more, and the white radish vibrated once . Then, it appeared just as before, as though nothing ever happened .
Lin Sanjiu was dumbstruck when she saw the whole process . She used her arm and baited the radishes in a few more areas . The radishes at every spot almost reacted in the same manner . For areas where she had already tested once, the radish gave no response no matter how close she got . They did not move even when she touched them with her hand .
"What the hell is this?" Lin Sanjiu smashed her fist on one of the radishes . The impact caused the radish to open up a small slit . Lin Sanjiu looked around her, feeling at a loss for some time . Although there weren’t any bugs for her to test her hypothesis, she was very sure that these radishes had snatched the humans and animals from the surface . However, she did not know why they did not attack her .
It would be great if there were someone who could test her hypothesis . If she was around, accidents weren’t quite likely to happen…
Lin Sanjiu knew that wasn’t really possible . The invisible boundary line she could detect through the geographic marker of her [Dog’s Frisbee] had extended far beyond their campgrounds . Lin Sanjiu was certain that if she ran to the new boundary and started digging . She would find the same ‘white radishes’ underground .
Those things seemed to be growing steadily and rapidly .
"Should I call Gong Daoyi over?" Lin Sanjiu thought of the only person she could contact now . "He is quite formidable, so he should at least be able to defend himself…" She faced the patch of white radish and took out the paper crane . She rubbed it in her palms a few times, not knowing why she was feeling hesitant .
The radioactive clouds weren’t that thick today . The sun hung high in the sky, basking the strange landscape below with its warm sun rays, even the ‘white radishes’ looking like they looked ‘fresh and juicy’ .
Under this sunlight, it would be relatively obvious if a few long shadows suddenly appear beside her . Lin Sanjiu immediately leaped up . When she turned to look around, she was already armed with her saber . No matter who they were, with the capabilities to approach her silently, she knew that they were not going to be easy to deal with . Yet, the instant she saw the uninvited visitors, she let out a sigh of relief . Lin Sanjiu did not expect that she would actually recognize them . It was no wonder they made no sound nor greeting when they approached her .
"Why are you guys here?" Lin Sanjiu had no ill will against them, but she had no choice but to keep her guard up . "Did Nüwa sent you guys to attack me again?"
The two figures, two-meters tall, had two additional pairs of arms sticking from their torsos and almond-shaped heads . They were two of the Neuhumes that Nüwa had created, Montesquieu and Aristotle .
Montesquieu seemed to understand what she meant, so he shook his head lightly but clearly delivered his meaning . Under the sun, his greyish green skin shone with a luster, which reminded Lin Sanjiu of a dolphin . Perhaps, she had endured too much stress alone . When she first saw the sages, it was surprising for her that felt some sense of closeness to them . "Then, why are you here? If other posthumans see you, they will think that you are duoluozhongs and attack you . "
Judging from Nüwa’s past action, she was evidently hiding them at the top of the black tower . It wasn’t clear why the sages could walk openly outside now .
Aristotle nodded his head as he listened, Lin Sanjiu was not sure if he was agreeing with her or showing appreciation for her concern . After that, Montesquieu drew out a folded piece of paper from his belt pocket and handed it to Lin Sanjiu .
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