Chapter 453: The Opened Eyes under the Light
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Fei Si, with her body lowered, was carefully rotating that piece of flesh she tore down from the unknown creature. Something had occurred at the fresh cut she made just now. There was supposed to be a dent at where she made the slash but at her second glance, the dent had been filled with a new layer of muscle, of a darker color than the other remaining tissues in the body, had been generated.
Wait, does this mean that the creature possess the ability of regeneration? Wait... never mind.
Fei Si gave it a thought at first, but she turned her own hypothesis down very soon after. It was not rare to see a biological entity having the ability of quick regeneration, but entities with such ability would never "regenerate" themselves in such a strange manner.
Then what is it?
Fei Si's heart was inflated by an immense curiosity, that hunger had been long forgotten.
She inched towards the filled lump and extracted a bit of it for analysis. The analyzing facility in her laboratory could help! It was the top-notch model after all, with a top-notch price of course, and a top-notch customer service which would require the buyer to order it 2 years in advanced. She seriously wondered how Mu/Shang just took it out for her like magic, as it was not common even in most well-established research institutes.
And this piece of fine technology was one of the reasons why Fei Si had lost herself in research. She was not assigned in a grand laboratory, but the facilities were the luxury, the finest which every piece of them had appeared in her dreams at least once or twice.
Apparatuses were the bed of rose in heart of all researchers. They would seek the ultimate as maniacally as how pilots would seek the best mech in the world.
"Analysis: Complete." The result had been generated. The notification was sending her a bit of sentiments, as she remembered those days she would have to camp at the laboratory three days just to wait for a hologram of report.
The report was a projection of a three-dimensional curve diagram, which looked like a box of yarn balls as strands of different color intertwined each other, the machine simply had a lot to tell judging from the curves alone.
It was not hard to get a report, anyone who knew how to input data could generate a report just fine. The hard part was, to make sense of these messy-looking influx of information, it all depended on the experience as well as the capability of a researcher.
Fei Si was very experienced of this. She just took a sit as her eyes searched through the running curves through the y-axis. Her major was microbiology and she got a very good teacher to provide her the necessary foundation. She also had an intensive tuition with the chips Ye Chong obtained from the underground base. So she was pretty much the best one could find in the galaxy.
A few microchips which looked like a lengthy textbook might be identified as trash for most people, but not for a microbiologist like Fei Si. To her, the chips were God's gift. They contained all important information revolving about the working of the entire Gray Valley, illustrated with solid research data that touched the very core of microbiology, which were precious and probably required countless lives to compile.
These chips contained the blood and sweat of people, literally. The information was built in the darkness of humanity. These experiments had always been carried unaware by the mankind, as simply they had gone against the norms of society, be it by law or morally. If it was not Ye Chong, Fei Si might never be able to learn from the dark. Judging from the folders, Fei Si believed the researchers were carrying out experiments on biological modification using virus. And because of these data, Fei Si's understanding towards biology was no longer limited to microorganism alone.
The diagram was a real complication but Fei Si would take on that challenge passionately, as she knew deep in her heart, that only advanced lifeforms would draw such colorful beauty with seemingly endless properties. She could already conclude that these organisms had undergone several evolution at one glance.
She quickly prompted the three-dimensional line diagram she created based on the piece of flesh before for comparison. She believed she would be seeing an interesting difference somewhere between both charts... Once she had located the difference, she would be able to identify the concept of how such phenomena happened.
She looked across from one curve to another attentively.
And that was when her glance landed upon one crimson curve. Her heart raced! Fei Si somehow felt difficulty in her respiration because of her excitement. "Is it the one...," she whispered as she turned her head to the other diagram for verification.
Yes, it is!
"Ah!" She could not help but to make a scream.
...(Meanwhile)...
Ye Chong was traveling along the bloodstreams. The gentle glow in the black linings was guiding his way towards the one destination he fought hard for.
Han Jia was taking caution as it glided according to the flow of the fluid, while its pilot was peering at the way ahead illuminated by the two giant lamps.
The lights of sodium lamp were surely pretty limited in terms of visible range. And thanks to this forest of mollusks, detection system was deemed trash, not even photon mode could help visualizing the surrounding. Ye Chong could imagine himself toasted if he ever encountered raids from any entity in such environment .
But he did not have many options in hand. He could go ahead, that was the only thing he could do, simply because he no longer remember the way out.
It was another travel of a distance about 10 kilometers, which felt forever as Han Jia was traveling at speed of a tortoise for all the caution it could muster. Ye Chong could see the bloodstreams, like river, were collecting into larger linings as he moved. The rhythm started to become more visible too.
Eventually, at one point, Ye Chong was seeing a thick lining that looked like a black rubber tube, which probably had a diameter of about 5 meter.
He was right at his guts' feeling. He began getting a little panicked.
He gave his limbs a few stretches, with emphasis on his hands which would act as his sword and shield in this colosseum of scarlet woods. He got into the battle position as he somehow sensed a high intensity of danger!
The same thicker linings had further collected themselves ahead.
As Ye Chong travelled, he stopped by one pooling point where a large irregularly shaped lump could be found. The lump was more than 30 kilometers in diameter, literally looking like an aster. The lumps were covered fully in vine-like structures, on which a tumor could be found. The tumor was not particularly outstanding in terms of size but somehow Ye Chong could feel his heart thumping vigorously.
The once-countless linings had collected themselves into the last 7 giant tubes, leading to this particular tumor. The fluid was pumped into the tumor from time to time, yet the content of the tumor did not seem to be moving at all.
Obviously... Ye Chong could be very confident that the thing inside the tumor would bring a disaster.
The bright beams of Han Jia landed upon the tumor. There was indeed an unknown creature resting inside. But the heart stopper for Ye Chong was, the tail of the creature was dim crimson. As Ye Chong shifted his glance above, one thing caught him.
6... the unknown creature had 6 toes on its foot!
Ye Chong felt his throat itching as his breath intensified, cold sweats were dripping off his chin, his back was also completely wet.
It was a galactic story, it was not strange to see a super evolved organism having an odd number of toes, but, the catch was, the feet somehow reminded Ye Chong of that giant hand which reached him from the dark disc back at the underground cave. The giant hand had 8 fingers and no way he would remember such a horrifying detail wrong.
Furthermore, the minions out there were having only 5 toes each foot. Ye Chong knew it sounded very far-fetched as clearly both the hand underground and the red-tailed creatures were two entirely different species but... this little similarity and what he was seeing at the moment were...
Assuming there was a connection between the number of jointed parts on the limbs...
"Ye, stop thinking!" Mu's voice was no longer monotonous.
One horrible assumption had appeared in Ye Chong's mind.
Ye Chong quickly got himself out of his mental schemata. The chilly back was reminding him the rumbling emotion in him just now.
Mu was right. He might not be informed of the current biological condition of these creatures, but they should be harmless as long as they were inside the strange womb, judging from what he experienced on his way there of course.
The beam of sodium lamps were converged upon the tumor. Ye Chong had no more hesitation as he directed Han Jia to propel towards the tumor.
Ye Chong could see every bit of the creature slumbering within the biological confinement. Its eyes were sealed tight, not affected by the light stimulation, like a baby it rested, and probably like a baby it would die!
As Ye Chong flew towards the tumor, Ye Chong could see the details better, as his hands were ready above the control panel. The tentacles of Han Jia had been disengaged, and had raised themselves, prepared for launching.
Now!
Ye Chong's hands disappeared above the control panel, as the afterimages rolled upon the interface. The 12 tentacles zapped towards the tumor.
*blob*...
*blob*...
*Thup!*
That was when the closed eyes were opened, revealing the dead red pupils rolling in peculiarity under the white light.