Lin Yuan and Ni Ji searched along the deserted streets.
There are two rows of two-story stilt houses on the roadside, and every room in the long corridor is empty.
Not the neat, empty kind.
Messy bed sheets, overturned perfume bottles, half-eaten lunch boxes, clothes scattered all over the floor and all kinds of traces of filth.
The buildings that still held the breath of life are now deserted.
Although this contaminated area has been around for hundreds of years, every house here looks like it was inhabited last night, but those people just left.
Squeak—
Lin Yuan pushed open a shabby wooden door, and several empty buckets fell into the room with a clatter. A bucket that fell on the ground rolled on the ground and rolled out of the door.
The room was dimly lit, cluttered and filled with a fishy smell.
Ni Ji made a gesture to her to keep quiet.
The two men found a secluded place and squatted down. After a while, someone came over from the other end of the long wooden corridor.
"I seemed to hear some noise here just now. It turned out that the bucket was blown over by the wind."
"This place stinks. It's probably the servants' quarters. I don't think there's anything to be found."
They were two sentinels, wearing very sturdy combat protective suits, and their strong bodies were hung with various advanced weapons.
Sentinels are creatures with powerful five senses, and with their keen senses they can easily detect people lurking nearby.
But one of the lurkers is Ni Ji.
The soldier king lurking in the dark restrained all his breath and emotional fluctuations, as if he was not even breathing, like a lifeless stone.
The other one was Lin Yuan. Lin Yuan squatted behind Ni Ji, looking at the two sentinels with his eyes open. The tentacles underground kept giving hints.
[Can't see][Can't see][No one][No one][No one here]…
The two sentries were very close to them, but they didn't notice the two of them. They even stopped and started chatting.
"Where is the thing the Queen wants? I've searched everywhere but can't find it."
"Is it really true that it can only be found in the dark?"
"Did you see what happened last night? That Ni Ji was too aggressive. Ji Xuan, that fox, I don't know where he got this person from."
"He's a tough guy. Don't let him get the stuff. Otherwise, we won't be able to get the huge reward."
At this moment, in the darkness underground, the tentacle that had not yet fully grown discovered that the small fish around it had disappeared.
No, he was still there, huddled together with the main body. But I couldn't feel him anymore.
It was as if a sweet candy suddenly turned into a stone, a wooden stake, a completely lifeless object.
This reminded it of some good memories. In a dark and narrow pipe, the little fish also turned into a stone like this and hid there.
I was the first one to discover him.
People usually call the big killer whale "big fish" and the smaller one "little fish". Of course, some people are stupid and don't understand the situation, so they just mix up the names.
Big fish are sweet, sucking big fish can heal wounds. But it thinks small fish are also sweet, and it also likes to cuddle with small fish.
The tentacle hooked Ni Ji's wrist that was pressed to the ground, and used the new pink tip to drill into his black glove, trying to take the glove off.
It's just a glove, I'm not being rude.
Ni Ji glanced at it and silently looked away. His palms pressed on the ground, but he didn't move.
The tentacle keenly discovered that since it was injured, the little fish has been more indulgent towards it. If it had done this, he might have moved his hands and feet away, or gently pushed it away.
Now, he acquiesced.
The injured are privileged and can escalate.
The two sentinels were still talking, they took out their water bottles, drank water and chatted, mentioned Ni Ji, mentioned the queen.
Lin Yuan was stunned when he heard it, and he didn't realize that one of his tentacles had wandered out and was doing some bad things to the people around him.
After all, she has hundreds of tentacles.
The newly formed tentacles were very tender and had little strength. After struggling for a long time, they finally peeled the glove off the wrist a little, revealing a scarred palm.
Xiaoyu was also injured. He rubbed his scabbed wound, and the veins on his palm became tense.
Real and cute reaction.
"There are actually servants here. A group of criminals who were sent to serve the army are actually being served." One of the sentries kicked the toilet brush off the ground.
"I really don't understand how people in such a place have the nerve to survive. They have committed crimes and ended up in this situation. They should have committed suicide long ago. They are so spineless."
"I have found this Rose Camp for two or three days. Every night the tree screams. The sound is so scary that we cannot get close to it. But other places are very safe."
"I've always found it strange. The night at the Golden Tree is a deadly situation. I don't know how many people died outside, but after entering the Rose Camp, nothing happened. Just don't get close to the tree." The sentry lowered his voice and asked his companion, "You've been here for so many days. Have you found anything at night?"
The man being questioned looked away for a moment, as if he didn't want to talk.
Under Lin Yuan's command, a tentacle quietly moved out from underground and interfered with his subconsciousness.
[Speak up, speak up, and let us hear it.]
The sentry, who suddenly felt full of desire to express himself, coughed.
"I didn't find anything. But in every room, something was going on... Hehe. It made me angry."
"It's very safe here at night, you can do whatever you want. There's food and drinks, and those guys react just like real people." He lowered his voice, with a perverted smile, "No matter what you do to them, they won't resist."
His companion laughed along, "You bastard, you can't be in such a mood in a place like this."
"It's the same everywhere, for people like us, there's no tomorrow after today. The weirder it is, the more exciting it is."
It seemed as if he was telling his companions something he was particularly proud of, and he became more and more excited as he spoke.
"They were originally criminals used as labor for the army. When they were alive, they were just animals that were manipulated by others."
"I'm meeting a woman. If you can't find your keys at night, I'll take you to see her."
The two sentinels laughed and the content of their conversation changed from the information that Lin Yuan was interested in to uncomfortable obscene topics.
Fortunately, they finally walked away.
Ni Ji stood up faster than Lin Yuan. He took two steps back, stood up straight, and adjusted his gloves.
The glove on his left hand had come loose at some point, hanging only slightly on the fingertips. He quickly pulled up the elastic black glove, which covered the exposed skin of his hand perfectly.
"You seem to be wearing gloves all the time?" Lin Yuan, who didn't notice what happened secretly just now, looked at his movements and asked a question.
Ni Ji was silent for a moment, then pulled out his sword and showed it to Lin Yuan. The sword that had not absorbed blood was now just a short white dagger.
"I got this knife from a contaminated area a long time ago."
"This thing is always thirsty for my blood. It's easy to be cut by it if I hold the knife bare-handed. So I've gotten used to wearing gloves all these years."
A thin strange sound came from the handle of the knife. "Hehe, see you again, Kraken. This kid has been... woooooing since you took off his gloves once."
The handle of the knife was pinched and Ni Ji ruthlessly pulled it back into the blade.
Lin Yuan showed Ni Ji her knife, which was a gift Ni Ji sent her after she returned to Kyoto.
Her wrist was very thin, as smooth as jade, and the black and white bracelets were connected at the end and wrapped around her wrist. The black lines flowed beautifully, making her skin look even whiter.
"This one of mine is very useful." said Lin Yuan.
Her words were concise and to the point; her love and gratitude were all expressed in these few words.
Ni Ji's black fingers tightened slightly.
He wore gloves all year round, and it had become a physical habit for him. When he was not in combat, taking off the gloves was something he felt a little uncomfortable with.
He originally wanted to explain this matter carefully to Lin Yuan.
He knew that Lin Yuan was a very pure person who respected him very much. After he said that, she would definitely notice the mischief of those spirits and stop them.
I don't know why, but the words rolled around in my throat and I swallowed them back quietly.
He didn't even want to think about why he didn't say it out loud.
The two walked along the wooden corridor.
Just as the two sentinels said, this row of houses might be where servants lived, and it was even damper and darker than the two-story stilt house.
Lin Yuan pushed open each door and looked inside. She remembered the girl she met last night.
The girl's name was Windsor, she sang beautifully and was very gentle. She probably lived in these houses.
I just don't know which one.
A terrified cry came from the alley around the corner. It sounded like one of the two sentries who had just left.
Soon, a sentry rolled out of the alley. He lost the strength and composure that a sentry should have, and retreated tremblingly while holding the long knife in his hand tightly, pointing at the dark and damp alley.
After a while, his companion, the sentry who claimed to have been in the Rose Camp for three days, slowly followed out of the alley.
The man asked him with a puzzled look, "What's wrong with you? Why are you so scared?"
The sentry's face looked normal from the side, still the tall, muscular man.
But if you change the angle slightly, you will find that his whole body was split in half by a knife from the middle of his legs.
Half a face, half a body, one hand, one leg.
The sentinel, who was left with only half of his body, walked forward in a strange posture, not realizing the terrible changes in himself. He walked towards his companion with a puzzled look on his face and asked him what happened.
There was no blood or internal organs in the body that was smoothly split by the blade. Countless strange golden eyes opened like parasites in the body that should have been flesh and bones.
The golden eyes blinked and stared at the other frightened sentry on the ground.
The sentry waved the long knife in his hand wildly, and was so scared that he kept retreating, and finally ran away in a panic.
The sentry who was left behind stood blankly at the entrance of the alley on his lone leg for a while, then turned his only remaining eye and looked in the direction of Ni Ji and Lin Yuan.
"Ni Ji?" The man recognized Ni Ji and spoke.
His mouth was neatly cut in the middle, leaving only half of his lip. The way he spoke was extremely strange.
"I recognize you, you are Ni Ji." The strange half-human looked at Ni Ji with dull eyes, "What's wrong with me? Why are you looking at me like this?"
Inside his body, golden eyes blinked and crowded together.
"You are deformed." Ni Ji said, pulling out the pistol he carried with him and pointing it in the direction of his head.
“Distortion?” The man’s eyes moved back and forth abnormally on his face. “No, no, no, how is that possible? Distortion? That’s impossible. I’m obviously fine.”
"I will complete the Queen's mission. I will get money, lots of money. I will go back to live a life of luxury and debauchery."
He kept muttering, tears and snot flowing down the tilted half of his face, and with trembling hands he tried to touch the half of his body that no longer existed.
He touched the golden eyes growing in the cross-section of the body, and the eye sockets curved and started laughing.
"Kill...kill me," the sentry, with only half of his body left, cried to Ni Ji.
His eyebrows were crooked, and his body began to dissolve and twist like a candle.
"Kill me now. While I'm still human."
This is what almost all Sentinels would request to their companions before turning into monsters.
Ni Ji raised his hand and shot him in the head.
The powerful explosive bomb did not blow up the man's head, as the bullet was blocked by a thin wing.
The bullet head rotated, making a sharp sound that made one's teeth ache, but it could not break the thin wings like those of an insect.
The bullet fell to the ground, the wings dropped down, and behind the wings, a pair of compound eyes and antennae grew on the man's head.
That strange half of the mouth was twisted and deformed, protruding forward, infinitely stretched, and finally stretched into a long piercing and sucking mouthpart.
His abdomen was bulging and dragging behind him, and a pair of thin, narrow wings were spread out on his back, with golden veins, unfolding against the wind.
Like a giant blood-sucking mosquito.
Ni Ji drew out his long sword and attacked the man who had turned into a monster.
A giant, huge mutant flew up with its golden wings buzzing.
Ni Ji's speed was so fast that it was almost impossible to catch with the naked eye. In just a moment, the cold knife appeared in front of the changing monster.
The deformed sentinel accurately used its new mouthparts to block Ni Ji's knife.
"Actually, distortion is not as terrible as I imagined." The man's voice came from the mosquito's abdomen. "I feel very comfortable, as if I have been liberated."
Ni Ji pulled back his knife without saying a word. The mosquito's sharp mouthparts left an afterimage in the air. In the space of a breath, both sides exchanged dozens of moves in mid-air.
"I thought you were scary last night. Now it seems that you are nothing special." The strange mutant flew in the air, vibrating its wings and making a loud buzzing sound.
It pointed at Ni Ji with its sharp and strong beak and said, "You don't know your own ignorance. After the transformation, I finally understood everything in this world."
"Hehehe, in fact, you are the real enslaved livestock. Poor sentinel, you are as stupid as I used to be."
"Your blood smells good. I'm intrigued."
"Why not join us? Just endure a little bit of pain and you will get eternal happiness like me."
(End of this chapter)