Chapter 120: Strange Phenomenon
Translator: TYZ Editor: - -
Fatty was very experienced. The moment Ai Hui finished speaking, Fatty was already moving towards him. He put up his guard, like an alerted cat.
The main reason why he could survive the many dangers of the Wilderness was because every time Ai Hui gave a warning, Fatty would immediately react to it.
Other people would question Ai Hui’s intuition, causing a slight delay in their reaction.
Fatty, however, would not doubt him, and that was why he managed to survive.
Fatty felt that Ai Hui was much more powerful than himself. Ai Hui was the abnormal laborer who had the highest chance of leaving the Wilderness alive. He trusted Ai Hui unconditionally.
Complete obedience!
Whatever Ai Hui wanted him to do, he knew that it would be necessary. Whatever reaction Ai Hui had, he knew that Ai Hui must have discovered something of importance.
When Ai Hui asked him if he had heard anything, he knew right away that Ai Hui must have heard something.
Hence, without any hesitation, he moved closer to Ai Hui. The closer he was to Ai Hui, the safer he would be. Whatever Ai Hui did, he would follow suit.
As swift as the wind, Ai Hui’s sword brushed past Fatty’s face and penetrated the underbrush behind him.
Swoosh!
Possessing the sword embryo, Ai Hui’s senses were extremely acute. Even though the sound was very soft, he could still hear it. It might be hard to sense something through the tip of his sword, but he could still sense what he had struck.
Deep down, Ai Hui quickly confirmed that the thing he had hit had a very small surface area.
The first time he entered the Garden of Life, he had heard a faintly discernible noise at night. At that time, he had still thought that it was a misperception caused by his long absence from the wild; however, today he heard the same noise again.
He withdrew the Sawtooth Grass Sword and positioned its tip right in front of his own face.
“You shocked me!” Fatty came over. “What’s that? Eh, there is some blood on the tip of your sword.”
Fatty moved nimbly into the underbrush. After a while, he returned with a dead mosquito that had its wings shattered and body cut in half. “It’s a mosquito.”
Ai Hui saw the blood stain Fatty was talking about. It was a very small drop of blood. When the mosquito was struck by the grass sword, its body exploded and this small drop of blood stained the sword.
Ai Hui was surprised as well. He did not expect it to be a mosquito.
He did not feel relieved just because it was only a mosquito. In reality, the mosquitoes in the Wilderness were rather dangerous, as many of them were extremely poisonous. Once you were stung by a mosquito, you would be in dire straits.
As such, he did not put his guard down just because it was only a mosquito. The thing that surprised him was that faintly discernable sound; he did not expect a mosquito to produce such a weird sound.
“There’s something odd with this mosquito.” The dead mosquito on Fatty’s hand only had half of its body remaining. Its wing was, oddly, dark red in colour. For some reason, even Fatty, who had been through many life-and-death situations, felt a shiver go down his spine. He mumbled to himself, “Why am I afraid?”
Even though Fatty was scared, he still checked the dead mosquito carefully.
In the Wilderness, one could not stand there and do nothing.
Fatty might hide behind Ai Hui when they were engaged in combat, but he would not be sloppy when there was a need for him to do some work.
Ai Hui pulled the tip of the sword close to his nose and took a sniff. There was an odd, sweet smell to it.
He suddenly had an urge to lick it.
“There’s something wrong with this blood.” Ai Hui’s eyes were ice-cold as he put down the sword.
“There’s definitely a problem,” Fatty replied. “Such a small amount of blood should have dried up by now, but take a look, it hasn’t dried up at all. Look at its wing, what do you think of when you see this color?”
Fatty bent down to pull a stalk of grass from the ground, then placed it beside the mosquito’s wing. “Look at this root, isn’t its color similar?”
Ai Hui nodded. The two colors were slightly similar. It was just that the mosquito wing’s color was a bit darker.
“Look at the grass.” Fatty’s eyes were flickering. “The roots are the most red. The color becomes fainter as it goes up the grass and the top half of the grass is dark green. What do you think?”
“The soil!” Ai Hui replied without the slightest hesitation.
The two of them looked at each other before squatting down to begin looking through the underbrush. Ai Hui used the tip of his sword to dig up the roots of the grass. Indeed, he saw red-colored soil, so he did not stop and continued digging. The deeper he dug, the redder the soil became. The soil was so red that it looked like cinnabar.
Suddenly, red-coloured, muddy water gushed out from beneath Ai Hui’s sword. It resembled gurgling blood.
Ai Hui froze and the air seemed to freeze with him. Both Fatty and Ai Hui could see the fear in each other’s eyes. The two of them had seen many scary things before in the Wilderness, but this sight still managed to make their blood run cold.
“Didn’t they say this damned place is safe?” Fatty gulped.
Ai Hui moved the tip of the sword in front of his face. The sword’s tip was dark red, completely stained by the muddy water. He took a careful sniff. It did not smell like mud; instead, it had a faint aroma.
This aroma smelled somewhat similar to the aroma from the mosquito’s blood; however, this one was milder.
They had seen red-colored soil before, but the red color of the soil before them now resembled the color of blood. Could there be a cinnabar mine here? No, that couldn’t be right, cinnabar would not have such a weird aroma. Furthermore, if there was really a cinnabar mine here, the surrounding vegetation would be red in color. Right now, only the roots of the grass were dyed red.
Apparently, this phenomenon had begun quite recently.
This might be the reason why everyone, including Ai Hui, did not notice it at first. From afar, everything looked lush and green.
Ai Hui walked for another ten steps until he came to an area where there was no vegetation, then started digging again.
Fatty trembled in fear and quickly hurried over.
The soil Ai Hui dug up was ash gray in color. Where had the red color disappeared to?
Could it be...
Fatty’s face turned ugly.
Without saying anything, Ai Hui walked under a tree and started digging again. Within seconds, blood-like muddy water gushed out from the ground. He then hacked open the tree and found that, within one meter from the ground, the core had turned completely red in color. From the outside, no one would be able to see it.
Fatty and Ai Hui clearly understood that this could not have happened naturally.
“Maybe it’s a kind of blood poison?” Fatty’s trembling voice contained a hint of uncertainty. “It’s cross-contamination. The contaminated plant must have been eaten by a herbivore, contaminating the herbivore in the process. That herbivore was then stung by a mosquito, causing the mosquito to be contaminated as well. What kind of poison is this? This… this is too scary…”
Knowing that there was a sea of blood beneath the boundless, lush vegetation surrounding them, the two trembled in fear.
“We had better get the teachers and Instructor Zhou to come and take a look,” Fatty warned, “because this place is too bizarre.”
Without any hesitation, Ai Hui nodded. “Let’s go!”
The two of them were feeling extremely uneasy.
Suddenly, there was an amazed exclamation coming from up ahead.
“Rabbit, ahh, there’s a rabbit!”
“It’s really a rabbit!”
“Even more so, it’s a rare red-haired rabbit!”
“Woah, such beautiful eyes, they look like rubies! Oh my god, it’s so cute!”
Red hair...
At the same time, Ai Hui and Fatty thought of the red-colored weeds, dark-red mosquito, and the seeping blood-colored muddy water.
“Be careful!”