When Lin Yuan recovered, he found himself placed in a dry corner, covered with a sentry's coat.
In that short period of time when she was in a daze, the sentry seemed to have completed countless small tasks.
They went deep into the maze, avoiding the large numbers of monsters roaming outside the nest.
Ni Ji lit a bonfire again in the dark passage.
At this moment, he was sitting by the fire with his upper body naked, and was assembling a complex metal instrument with his head down.
The firelight illuminated the profile of his face, he lowered his eyelashes, and looked focused.
Extremely fine metal wires and fragmentary accessories were pieced together in an orderly manner between his dexterous fingers.
Next to him, a makeshift iron frame was placed over the bonfire.
He transformed a cylindrical metal that he had dismantled from somewhere into a container, filled it with water, and hung it over the flame to boil.
There was a very sweet smell in the air.
He is really an all-round fighter, Lin Yuan thought. It seems that he can be meticulous and methodical in any adverse conditions.
Make careful plans, create conditions for survival, and protect your teammates.
He is a partner you can trust with everything.
At the end of the fire, at the fork in a passage, lay the corpse of a giant mutant.
It lay on its back, looking very similar to a human, except that the places where its eyes should have been had atrophied and were covered with a flesh-colored film.
His red lips were wide open, and blood was flowing down from the corners of his mouth, flowing through his huge ears and seeping into the cracks in the bricks on the ground.
His head and face were visible in the light, but his body was hidden in the darkness. He looked like he had been dead for some time.
"I don't want to eat the meat of mutants." said Lin Yuan.
She moved her body under the sentry uniform and stuck half of her head out. The uniform was very loose and carried her body temperature, so it was really warm to curl up inside.
She was very hungry, but she didn't want to eat the mutants.
I always feel that they are transformed from humans, and cannibalism is unacceptable to humans.
When Ni Ji saw that she was awake, he put down the metal instrument in his hand and turned to check on her condition.
"It's not a mutant, it's snake meat." He found a clean metal can, filled it with milky white broth for Lin Yuan, and showed it to Lin Yuan a peeled snake skin.
"Drink slowly, don't drink too fast."
The soup was milky white, and the snake meat was very firm. It tasted rich and slightly bitter. It was perfect for Lin Yuan, who had been hungry for many days.
Lin Yuan drank it in small sips. All the pores on his body were warmed and he felt like he had returned from the gates of hell.
She stretched out her fingers and pressed her forehead. It didn't hurt anymore, but the feeling of being invaded by a powerful will still remained there.
I vaguely remember that a silent and fierce battle took place in a magnificent and huge temple.
A powerful mental force is coldly invading, corroding, and attempting to forcibly annex Lin Yuan's mental picture.
They struggled for a long time and the battle was stalemate.
Eventually her personal consciousness awakened, and that consciousness died.
I want to find that temple and explore it. That is the key to the entire Pupilless Land. Lin Yuan thought to himself as he held the pot of warm soup.
His fingers were still trembling, but his dark eyes had become firm again.
Physical injuries could not make a strong warrior succumb, and mental injuries would not make a guide like her weak.
She was once again the guide, focused on her goal and fearless.
Ni Ji finally assembled the metal parts in his hand and showed the small screen with a simple shape and exposed lines to Lin Yuan.
Most of the contaminated areas were formed in the old days, and the contaminated areas are littered with various high-tech products from the most prosperous period of mankind.
Any veteran who frequently goes in and out of contaminated areas has almost mastered this skill - being able to fully utilize and modify the weapons and equipment here anytime and anywhere on the battlefield.
"Positioning and mapping device." Ni Ji tapped the screen with his finger, and a small triangle icon lit up. "The terrain here is too complicated. I can use this to simply record the route."
"I think we should explore that temple." He looked over and looked at Lin Yuan.
Lin Yuan's gaze met Ni Ji's.
Explore that temple. The two people were thinking the same thing.
Lin Yuan opened his mouth, wanting to say something to Ni Ji, but felt that there was no need to say more.
Accustomed to being on the battlefield, the two people's spiritual powers naturally touched each other. It would take a long time to say it in words, but in the spiritual world, they understood each other in an instant.
In the dark underground world, there is a temple hidden deep in this maze.
There is the ultimate secret of the entire Pupilless Land. The road to explore is dangerous and difficult.
But the two people have the same goal and both want to do this.
Every time Lin Yuan went deep into the contaminated area, he went there alone.
One person makes up his mind and goes into the dangerous area alone.
She knew the danger of her actions and was determined to never return.
She didn't want another person to risk his or her life just to accompany her or to protect her.
But Ni Ji is different.
Like her, Ni Ji has the desire to explore the truth and uncover the true face of this world.
For this reason, I am not afraid of danger and want to go to the temple deep inside.
Not just to protect and accommodate yourself.
But he has the same goal as her.
Lin Yuan looked at the sentry beside the campfire.
His eyes were amber, beautifully colored by the bonfire, as if they were smiling.
With a kind of tenderness that is willing to live and die together.
Why does he love to laugh so much? When he laughs, he looks like thick honey.
Lin Yuan felt that a part of his cold heart seemed to warm up slightly, and the snow that had condensed for many years was slowly melting.
It made her want to smile back at the sentry.
This world may be twisted and crazy, full of man-eating monsters and despair.
But it always retains a gentle corner, a little sweetness that gives people courage, and one or two people who make you feel that it is good to be alive.
There was a slight noise in the corner.
A mutant that is about the size of a human baby, very fast, and has weak attack and defense capabilities.
Ni Ji remembered him, as he had attacked them when they entered the maze not long ago, and they were split in half by his sword.
Obviously, although this mutant is not very strong in all aspects, it has a strong regenerative ability.
He was not dead, his body had been split into two halves and had been glued together again. On his small bald head there was still a long scar from being split in two by the demon sword, and he could even move, track, and follow them all the way here.
A bloody little head poked out from the darkness, and a thin, soft white arm clung to the wall. Since it was not easy to die, it didn't seem too scared of Ni Ji.
He pointed with his thin, fingerless arm to the snake soup on the campfire.
"Well, can you share some with me?" He could speak, and his voice sounded very weak, like the tone of a human baby.
Ni Ji looked at him without saying anything, and refilled the jar in Lin Yuan's hand.
Then he found an empty earthenware jar, poured out the remaining snake meat, and pushed it away.
He is a sentinel who is very good at fighting, but he is not actually a belligerent. There are many ways to avoid fighting in the contaminated area. He used to be a sentinel captain who was able to skillfully use various props, potions, food and other conditions to avoid fighting.
The little mutant quickly ran out, hugged the hot tin can and dragged it all the way back.
He was too small and not very strong, so it was difficult for him to carry the heavy metal can. He dragged it along with a lot of grunts, and a lot of soup and water splashed out.
"Where are you taking it?" Lin Yuan asked curiously.
The little mutant seemed to want to take the food away and had no intention of eating it right away.
"This smells good." The little mutant continued to carry the tin. "My mother is sick. I want to give her some to try. Maybe she can get better like that human."
The thin white hands were burned by the outer wall of the iron can and grimaced, but the burns healed immediately.
The little mutant was very persistent. He shook his arms from time to time, refusing to let go, and worked hard to carry the tin full of hot soup.
The person who got better after drinking the soup was referring to Lin Yuan.
He looked forward to bringing such food back to cure his mother's illness.
"So they have mothers too? Can mutants reproduce?"
This was the first time Lin Yuan heard about this.
Humans who are polluted will become distorted, and Sentinels whose mental powers are in turmoil will become distorted.
As for how they continue to live and how they extend their lives after becoming another creature, most humans do not know and are not interested.
In the White Tower, no one seemed to care about the species and habits of these deformed creatures, their life forms, or the reasons why they attacked humans.
They are uniformly classified as man-eating monsters and the natural enemies of mankind.
"Only in polluted areas that have been mature and stable for many years will the deformed creatures reproduce." Ni Ji told Lin Yuan what he saw and knew, "It's just that the habits of each race are different."
He hesitated for a moment, "You may find it difficult to adapt to what you see sometimes."
The little mutant who was trying to carry food to his mother dragged the tin can and hummed as he walked.
"I love my mother very much and hope she can live longer. If she really can't live anymore, I will eat her whole." He said seriously and devoutly, "It won't cause any waste."
After the little mutant left.
Ni Ji reached out and took the hand of Lin Yuan, who could barely walk slowly, and extinguished the campfire. The two of them walked slowly together in the dark passage.
While walking, I used the makeshift surveying device to record and identify directions.
There was the sound of dripping water in the passage, and some strange whimpering sounds of the wind.
Occasionally you will need to deal with one or two monsters that suddenly appear.
Lin Yuan even saw a centralized "nurturing" place in the intricate maze, where five or six tiny deformed creature cubs gathered in a small cave.
Two huge mothers were guarding outside the cave, sticking out their eyeless heads and staring warily at Ni Ji and Lin Yuan who were passing by, making threatening sounds to drive them away, but did not take the initiative to attack.
Ni Ji avoided them and walked through quickly in silence.
During this process, both sides stared at each other vigilantly, and no fighting broke out in the end.
The cubs even curiously stretched their heads out from behind their aunt and mother, sniffling and asking in baby voices,
"what is that?"
"They are humans. They are not good and are very dangerous." The mothers pushed their heads back and whispered, "Remember their smell and stay away from these beasts."
There are many strange sculptures on both sides of the passage, which look like a mixture of humans and various creatures, perched high up and looking down from above.
In the darkness, the dim light of a flashlight flickered on their lifelike faces, like ferocious spirits that could wake up at any moment.
Delicate and beautiful murals appear on the walls between the statues.
It was a high-tech product of the old days. The light of the metal wire sculpture would automatically light up when pedestrians passed by.
Those pictures were not carved by anyone, but they were recorded independently and increased slowly with the changes of history.
The two people held hands and walked forward in the darkness, as if they were walking through a long historical scroll in a dark corridor.
Lin Yuan's fingers stroked the wall, and the murals kept lighting up at her fingertips.
The flickering images gradually overlapped with the fragmented memories that had appeared in my mind.
Every time I fought with powerful spiritual beings in the contaminated area.
In that vast spiritual universe, when the spiritual forces of the strong collided with each other, Lin Yuan was often able to read each other's memory fragments.
The memory images of the columns constantly overlap with the murals on the walls.
Lin Yuan saw many stories about the catastrophe of mankind. The advent of evil creatures, the desperate resistance of mankind, the emergence of sentinels and guides, and the joint fight against the inhuman monsters.
Polluted areas rise up on the earth like spores, spread, grow, and occasionally disappear.
She even saw a familiar golden tree in a painting.
I saw that Xunhua's mental power was polluted and became the pillar supporting the entire Golden Tree pollution area.
Having lost its human will, it continuously absorbed and devoured spiritual energy in order to hatch the scarlet egg.
Lin Yuan's finger stopped on a bright totem.
It was a totem of a bug jade and a powerful spiritual being invading each other.
The huge egg and the column merged into each other. The column supported the sky and the earth, and the egg was the pollution area itself.
The mutants are the people and bloodlines, living in a small world supported by pillars and eggs.
(End of this chapter)