Chapter 166: The Prison Warden and The Tree Roots
Translator: Pluto Editor: Vermillion
Imperceptibly, the proliferation of the ‘white radishes’ had far exceeded Lin Sanjiu's imagination.
After running multiple 250-meters distances, she was already very far from the initial campsite. If Lin Sanjiu had to turn back now, she probably couldn’t even find the right direction.
She did not meet a single living creature within this vast area. Even posthumans with their remarkable abilities were nowhere to be seen. They were probably caught off guard and had all fell into the radishes’ snare.
Lin Sanjiu couldn’t help feeling a little worried. Even if Gong Daoyi was powerful, he couldn’t fly. After she had sent out that paper crane, she had yet to receive a reply and she couldn’t help wondering how he was now.
"Hey, I think my pants are going to fall off soon. Can you think of a way to let me adjust them?"
She heard a sentence coming from the back of her head, and it immediately extinguished her anxious thoughts. She waved her hand, and her [Bubbles Blowing Girl] landed on the ground with a thud, stirring up a cloud of dust. "Climb up there to adjust your pants," she grumbled.
The numerous tiny roots which probed out from the soil touched the [Bubbles Blowing Girl] for a mere second before rapidly withdrawing back into the soil. If Qian Zhengguan didn’t take note of them specifically, they would have been overlooked, especially under the cover of night.
With his forehead drenched in cold sweat, he clung onto the large robotic doll. After he climbed up the doll and adjusted his pants, which were actually in shreds, he turned his attention to the doll. "Ah, the design of this item is pretty intriguing, what does it do?"
"Let’s keep the nonsense for later. Is that person in this area?" Lin Sanjiu asked as she grabbed her ‘digging board’.
"Um, let me think. Which direction does the slime flow?"
Lin Sanjiu curbed her anxiety and waited wordlessly.
"I think it moves in that direction…" After he corrected himself a few times hesitantly, he finally confirmed the direction. "But then again, isn’t it incredible that the slime flows around like that..."
Lin Sanjiu ignored what he had to say. According to the direction he provided, she thrust the board into the ground and flung a clump of soil behind her. The white radishes here were even more prolific than those back at the campground. The number of thin roots was, at the very least, a few times greater. Once Lin Sanjiu broke through the surface of the ground, those rampant strands of roots sprouted from the ground, probing and swaying in midair aggressively. If Lin Sanjiu used her saber now, she could easily cut down countless of them.
"Uh, it is best not to cut them…" A faltering voice came from where the robot doll was. Lin Sanjiu knew that Qian Zhengguan’s face was pale even without turning to look at him. "Look at those roots…"
Lin Sanjiu lowered her head and scrutinized the ground scattered with those roots she had cut. They wiggled nimbly and burrowed back into the soil, disappearing.
"What the heck are those radishes!" Lin Sanjiu spat, "They’re everywhere and they’re really creepy…"
Digging downwards. That was her only chance of figuring that answer. While Lin Sanjiu spoke, she dug faster. Within a few minutes, the patch of radishes here were gradually exposed under the moonlight. Perhaps, the white radishes had been growing here for a longer period of time, so they had swallowed many more creatures. Lin Sanjiu spotted a faint dark shadow encased within their hardened epidermises almost every few steps. Some of the shadows were circular clumps, others were long and thin… hardly anything was discernible. However, there wasn’t a single shadow resembling a human silhouette.
Lin Sanjiu took a deep breath, she forced herself to swallow her disappointment. As before, she placed her hands on the radishes, planning to blast the entire layer of radishes which did not contain any humans. If she didn’t do so, the white radishes underneath would be completely buried under those above. If she couldn’t survey the situation properly, digging wasn’t the best option.
After she activated her [Mosaic Censorship], it was as if she had detonated a small explosive. The explosion sent shreds of epidermises, slime, roots, and chunks of those black shadows, which were long dead, flying into the air. Then, they fell down like rain upon the ground.
As the nearest person in the vicinity, Lin Sanjiu was obviously drenched. However, she was already used to this, she had already gotten used to being filthy. She closed her eyes tightly and waited for it to be over.
"What is that?"
While she wiped her face, Qian Zhengguan’s voice suddenly came from behind her, "Why are there steel pipes here? Look at that, are those steel pipes?"
[Can those white radishes change their food preferences?] Lin Sanjiu turned to look behind, feeling a little skeptical. She gave it a single glance and immediately froze. There was a metal railing on the ground, it shone with a metallic luster under the moonlight. She knew where she had seen that before—she had seen the same metal railing when Hui Chuyan was accidentally trapped behind it. At that time, it was as if she was trapped in another dimension. They spend a considerable amount of effort to catch Green Melon.
Lin Sanjiu felt her heart racing. She raced up to the metal railing and reached out to grab it. She was shocked when she realized that she could easily hold onto it, without any obstruction.
But, of course, the area behind the railing was empty.
The metal railing didn’t seem worthy of any attention, but Lin Sanjiu held on to it tightly. She crooked her head and examined it but she couldn’t hear anything from it.
In the pitch darkness of the night, the only other living person stopped moving… Qian Zhengguan quickly grew afraid. Since he was behind Lin Sanjiu, he couldn't see her expression. After contemplating for quite some time, he gathered his courage and asked, "Erm, what are you doing? Can you say something…"
It was fine when he didn’t speak. Ironically, once he spoke, the surrounding seemed to fall into a deeper silence.
The night wind bellowed. The woman in front of him remained frozen. She did not move a single inch. Qian Zhengguan stared at her blankly. If anything were to happen to Lin Sanjiu, he would be trapped on this robot doll for the next 14 months...
Nevertheless, he wasn’t that unlucky. Lin Sanjiu inhaled deeply and suddenly started moving again. She reached behind the metal railings, and in that split second, she literally pulled a person out from thin air. Qian Zhengguan nearly slid down the robot doll. When he finally regained his grip on the doll, he saw a short teenager covered in slime.
"Cough! Sister Lin, Sister Lin! Is that you?" The teenager was evidently in a better condition that Qian Zhengguan’s previous state. A few sparse strands of roots crawled out from his nose, mouth, and ears. He was fully conscious, but his natural drake-like voice sounded coarser than Qian Zhengguan’s damaged voice. "How-how terrifying… I thought I would never get out…"
It was Green Melon.
"Why is your ability so weird?" Lin Sanjiu complained but she noticed the roots from the white radishes reacting when Green Melon had just stepped out. Shocked, she threw the teen over to the robot doll hastily. With that, the kindergartener had one male sitting on each of her shoulders.
The reason Green Melon could survive up till now was all thanks to his ability.
[The Reasonable Prison Warden]
Oh my… Your request isn’t that simple. Recently, management has been strict… As you know, once a person is sentenced to jail, once he is behind bars… it isn’t that easy to get him out… We have to follow the regulations!
But, of course, this depends on how you want to settle matters… Look, you can visit the prisoner sometimes, and sometimes, he will be imprisoned in a deeper place… Oh, what are you doing? No, I can’t take this from you. Ah, I understand… He has been slightly wronged…
Cough, the law is not without mercy! I’m a compassionate person. How about this? I heard that this prisoner’s body condition isn’t quite well, so I’ll get him released for medical treatment!
Description: The space behind the metal railing is a dimensional "prison". Although it is summoned through the user’s ability, and the imprisonment and release of the targets are determined by the user, it is guarded by a reasonable prison warden. If his request is fulfilled, it is possible to meet, communicate and contact the prisoner. It is even possible to get the prisoner released.
PS: Any violent attempts to break into this prison would cause the prisoner to be forcefully thrown into a deeper dimension with a sencente of a hundred years.
"If it wasn’t for my quick-thinking, I would probably be dead if I didn’t lock myself in the dimensional prison…" Green Melon was still traumatized by his experience, "Did you also save this big brother, Sister Lin? Just moments ago, I don’t even know when I could be released, I... I’m really…"
While Lin Sanjiu continued digging, her face darkened.
"Your ability really does show the ‘national culture’ of your world…" She paused as she remembered her one-minute conversation with the prison warden. She couldn’t help asking, "What did he take from me anyway? I check all my items, I still have them."
"Ugh." Green Melon uttered and scratched his head in embarrassment.
"The prison warden took... took away some of your potential growth value…" He was so ashamed that his face was as red as a cooked lobster. "But he didn’t take that much. It is only 1%. I had only ever received two points of potential growth value… I will look at the amount later… Sister Lin, I will definitely repay you for saving me!"
Nüwa once made a passing remark that a person’s potential growth value was a sort of mental strength—who would know it was something that could be taken away. Compared to rescuing a person, Lin Sanjiu wasn’t too concerned about the loss of that bit of potential growth value. She patted Green Melon’s shoulders to get him to relax. With three of them together, they began studying the location of others.
Since Green Melon was in his prison dimension, he was conscious all this time and could see what was happening outside his dimension. Thus, he was of great help, "Despite the flowing fluid, the speed isn’t that fast. I think it moves about one kilometer per hour? I’m not certain as I don’t have a reference point… But, the problem lies with the complexity of this intricate network… I am not sure which roots the rest are transport to…"
"Roots?" Lin Sanjiu found Green Melon’s description of the white rhizomes a bit strange.
"Don’t you know?" Green Melon’s eyes widened. "These are all tree roots."