Chapter 33

"I see..."

"What?" Yan Hong walked around to Chen Yunliang's side, and Chen Yunliang pointed out what he thought was a problem.

"These dead fish all have some spores attached to them, which are the ones we washed into the lake yesterday."

"Is there any problem with that?" Chen Yunliang shrugged and said, "We clean it in the water, so the fish living in the water will definitely get some of it on them."

"I understand!" Lu Shiyu immediately understood and began to analyze. "These fish died of poisoning after ingesting the spores we washed out yesterday. Also, since the mycelium can't grow in water, there's nothing wrong with them from the outside."

Chen Yunliang ignored Shao Xingyang's words and said to Lu Shiyu, "That's right, and I think I'll be able to verify my guess soon."

Chen Yunliang used a wooden stick to push a fish closer. When he got closer, he could see something like a silk thread on the pure white belly of the fish.

"Mycelium."

Lu Shiyu immediately recognized the newly grown mycelium. Chen Yunliang nodded and said, "Although they can't grow in water, when the fish floats belly-up, the spores that were eaten by the fish will have a chance to grow and then burst out of the fish's belly."

Yan Hong felt horrified after hearing this: "These mycelium are too buggy, it seems like they can grow anywhere."

"What a tenacious life." Lu Shiyu sighed as he looked at the mycelium.

"Don't sigh about the tenacity of life at a time like this!" Shaoxing Yang couldn't help but complain.

Tang Zeyu, who had left the team at some point, returned and said to the others, "The situation isn't good. The spores have been washed everywhere by the current, and they're close to the shore. If we allow them to take root and grow here, the surrounding area will likely be destroyed."

"Not necessarily," Chen Yunliang said, catching his eyes. "These spores probably can't grow when soaked in water, so they don't immediately produce hyphae. They only start growing after being eaten by the fish. You see, the hyphae on the fish's belly have already started growing, but the spores in the water are still spores. So there's no need to worry about the spores in the water. As long as they're soaked long enough, they'll lose the chance to grow."

Tang Zeyu pulled out a map and began recording, scribbling something on it while issuing instructions: "To be on the safe side, we should probably clean up the spores. After all, we brought them here. If they cause any negative consequences, they might damage the surrounding ecology. Most importantly, if the spores cause any trouble here and the base's satellites happen to record it, we'll face interrogation when we return."

"What a hassle..." Shao Xingyang kicked the dirt under his feet nonchalantly. "There's so much, how long will it take to clean it up? Then we can't even leave today."

Yan Hong tilted her head as she looked at the spores floating on the surface of the lake. "Even if we want to clean them up, we don't have any tools. We need a very dense network of nets to catch them..."

"No need to go to such trouble," Tang Zeyu said, "We just need to prevent these spores from taking root here."

Yan Hong and Shao Xingyang looked at each other, and only dared to complain after Tang Zeyu and Chen Yunliang returned to the camp.

"Why do you all like to be riddlers so much? If you have something to say, why not just say it directly?"

"that is."

After a while, Tang Zeyu and Chen Yunliang, who had changed his clothes, came out from behind the bushes with two buckets of unknown liquid. Lu Shiyu looked at the white opaque plastic buckets in the hands of the two men and asked Tang Zeyu what was in them.

"I brought the alcohol out originally to prevent anyone from getting hurt and to facilitate disinfection. I didn't expect it to be used in a place like this."

Tang Zeyu and Chen Yunliang each held a bucket and bent over to pour alcohol along the edge of the lake. After they finished circling the lake, the lakeside was full of alcohol floating on the water.

Tang Zeyu put down the empty bucket and opened his palm. A flame jumped in his hand and then he threw it down. The flame fell on the edge of the lake and instantly ignited the alcohol. The flame immediately surrounded the entire lake. From the air, it looked like a circle made of flames.

Those spores floating by the lake were naturally devoured and burned by the flames, making it impossible for them to reproduce in this area.

"Wow, that's awesome."

Chen Yunliang and Yan Hong applauded. Lu Shiyu hesitated for a moment, not understanding, but joined in.

Tang Zeyu and Chen Yunliang came back with empty buckets and looked at the lake surrounded by flames, thinking that everything should be safe now.

Only when the alcohol was completely burned and the flames dissipated did everyone feel relieved.

Just when everyone was about to go back to pack up, Lu Shiyu saw something seemed to crawl out from the lake.

"Hey? What is this?"

When Lu Shiyu turned around and went back to the lake, he saw a transparent unidentified object that was highly similar to assorted jelly crawling out of the lake and moving slowly towards the lakeside.

Lu Shiyu curiously poked the unknown object with the tip of his shoe. The thing seemed to have sensed something in front of it and shrank when Lu Shiyu touched it, but when Lu Shiyu retracted his foot, it raised its body higher and repeatedly tried to find the location of the object in front of it.

This thing looked really too weird. Lu Shiyu was so engrossed in observing it that she didn't know how much time had passed. She only came to her senses when Yan Hong came back and called her name several times.

"Ah, what's wrong?"

"What's wrong? I called you so many times, but there's no response." Yan Hong leaned over to look behind Lu Shiyu. "What are you looking at? You didn't even go back to the camp."

"This is it." Lu Shiyu pointed at the unidentified object and showed it to Yan Hong.

"Uh, what the hell is this?"

"Yanhong, why didn't you come back after so long after asking me to call someone?" Shaoxing Yang also came over. When he saw the mass, he immediately showed a disgusted expression on his face: "Damn, who vomited here?"

The body of the unidentified object was originally transparent, with some red and yellow internal organs growing inside. Later, it ingested some yellow spores. After it came ashore, its surface was covered with sand and moss. Now it looks horrible, like a collection of disgusting things.

"I don't know what this is. It's not written in the book." For the first time, Lu Shiyu felt that the number of deformed creatures recorded in the book was pitifully small.

Shaoxing Yang hid behind Yan Hong and poked the unknown object with a wooden stick he picked up from the ground. After the unknown object was poked, it turned around and wrapped around the wooden stick, and there was even a faint sign that it was climbing up along the stick.

"Fuck, that's disgusting."

Shaoxing Yang immediately let go of the stick and handed it to the unknown creature. After turning the stick around, the unknown creature realized that it was not edible, so it threw the stick aside and continued to crawl towards the shore.

Lu Shiyu put on his courage and reached out to poke the unknown object. It felt soft and wet, like the small stress-relieving toys that Lu Shiyu played with as a child.

Then, in the shocked gazes of the two people, Lu Shiyu actually picked up the unidentified object.

"Damn it! Lu Shiyu, what are you doing?!"

Lu Shiyu took the unidentified object in both hands and rubbed it. The unidentified object showed no intention of attacking, but only made a gurgling sound similar to that of a sticky liquid.

"It doesn't seem to be aggressive. If you don't believe me, just look." Lu Shiyu held the thing in front of the two people, and they were both scared and took a step back.

"How disgusting, keep it away." Yan Hong showed disgust on her face, as if she had seen something dirty.

"How can it be disgusting? Shao Xingyang, just put some water in and rinse it. It will be fine after washing."

Lu Shiyu turned the thing towards Shao Xingyang, who took a half step back in fear: "If you want water, that's easy! Just take it and stay away from me!"

A gentle stream of water fell from above, and the dirty and deformed creatures felt the nourishment of the clear water and became active. The mud attached to their surface was also washed away, revealing their true appearance.

"It seems even stranger..."

After washing, it turned back into a ball-like object similar to a water ball. In the middle of the water ball, there were several irregular yellow and red objects "floating" in the air. Those should be its internal organs. In addition to the large pieces of things that could be seen as internal organs, there were also some small dots of different colors in the water ball.

"Uh, could this yellow thing be its brain?"

"I feel like this red thing might be the heart, but does it have a brain and a heart?"

The three of them gathered together to ponder, when suddenly one of the balls started to spin, scaring all three of them.

"F*ck! This can't be its eyeball, it still feels so disgusting."

Although it is more acceptable overall after being washed, it does not prevent this thing from looking outrageous to begin with. It is like throwing all the organs of an organism into a water ball and letting them float up and down freely.

Yan Hong glanced at the bushes behind them and reminded the two that they had delayed too long and should go back.

"good."

The three of them had just taken a few steps when Yan Hong suddenly stopped, turned around, pointed at Lu Shiyu and said sharply, "You're not planning to take this thing with you, are you?"

Lu Shiyu held the squirming water ball and blinked innocently.

"Don't pretend you don't understand!" Yan Hong pointed at the water ball and said, "Right now! Throw this damn thing back into the water!"

"Ah~" Lu Shiyu begged, "But I've never seen this kind of deformed creature before, and it's not recorded in any books. How can I resist studying it carefully?"

"It's a good thing you still remember that this is a distorted creature..." Yan Hong gritted her teeth.

"What took you so long?"

Perhaps because they had waited too long, Chen Yunliang and Tang Zeyu, who had packed their belongings, came over with their backpacks.

"Captain, please take care of this!" Shao Xingyang immediately started complaining when he saw Tang Zeyu coming: "Lu Shiyu insisted on bringing this weird thing with her!"

"What strange thing?" Chen Yunliang walked forward and looked at the water ball in Lu Shiyu's hand.

Chen Yunliang stretched out his hand and picked up a bone with a little meat left on it. The water ball happily stepped forward and swallowed the bone in Chen Yunliang's hand. It even went further and swallowed his finger into its body. Fortunately, this thing had no teeth. Chen Yunliang pulled his finger out of the water ball with a light pull and flicked it. The water ball immediately shrank back.

"He looks okay. Not very intelligent and not very aggressive."

"If there's no problem, take it with you," Tang Zeyu said, "but how are you going to take it with you?"

"Just put it in the net bag you used to pick mushrooms before."

Yan Hong and Shao Xingyang began to complain in low voices again.

"No way, are you really going to let her take it with her on the road?"

"Why did the captain disapprove of my previous attempt to capture a wolf?"

"I think the captain is right to disagree..."

The two glanced at Chen Yunliang who was standing nearby, but when they thought that he was probably also interested in the water ball, they did not expect him to agree with their feelings.

Is there any normal person in this team who treats deformed creatures as deformed creatures!