73 Chapter 73

Chapter 73

After hearing what the team member said, Captain Dai motioned him to come out first and prepared to go in and take a look himself.

They had already found many caves on this mountain that looked like they could lead to the inside, but the previous ones only looked like passages from the outside. When they really walked inside, they found that they were just looking at them.

That’s why Captain Dai wants to see it with his own eyes now.

"Yes, we can indeed see a deeper passage inside, but if we are carrying anything, it will be difficult to pass through. The gap we can enter is too narrow."

Captain Dai looked around inside and confirmed the situation before coming out and telling them the range he had observed.

"It's okay, just put the things in my space first and take them out later."

When Zhuang Dun heard the captain's words, he raised his hand to indicate that he could load the things.

"Yeah, I know that."

Hearing this, the captain turned and nodded towards Zhuang Dun, confirming his idea.

"We are not sure what to do if we go in without anything and run into danger."

As he spoke, he turned his gaze to the crowd.

"Although this is the largest crack we've found in the mountain that allows us to pass through, we can't be sure there are even larger caves on the mountain. The mutant animals that enter through those cracks are definitely even larger and their strength should not be underestimated."

Captain Dai expressed his concerns, looked at his team members, and motioned them to think about it.

"From what I've learned, we have the ability to withstand the attack even without any protective gear. We don't have time to continue searching outside, so I want to go directly through this gap and search for the three missing frontline personnel as quickly as possible."

The captain looked at his teammates and finished what he was going to say.

"Sure, Captain. We'll all listen to you."

Even if the captain didn't explain, the team members wouldn't have any doubts because of his silence. Now, after listening to Captain Dai explain the whole cause and effect clearly, they will have even less objections.

Besides, going in directly now is indeed their best option at the moment.

"Okay, then let the deputy captain and Tang Ji walk in front, and Dunzi walk behind them. After we go in, put on the protective gear first."

Seeing that the team members had no objection, the captain didn't waste any time and started making arrangements directly.

Following the order stated by the captain, the team began to move towards the interior of the passage.

Because he was not sure about the situation inside the passage, the captain began to find a way to mark the entrance the moment he entered the gap and stepped onto the ground of the passage.

"We don't know if it's because we're lucky or because this mountain is so huge, but no mutant animals have discovered us yet."

Seeing his captain making a mark over there, Mo Shan, holding a pot of morning glory that Zhuang Dun had just taken out of the space and put in his hand, sounded relieved.

“Well, maybe they’re busy too.”

Tang Ji was standing beside him on guard, and when he heard what he said, he replied in a low voice.

What he said made sense. Judging from the state of the mutant fox they had seen coming out of the gap before, the other party must have found some great treasure inside this passage, which is why it was so eager to go out of the passage and return to its nest the moment it found it.

Everyone took their own equipment, and after seeing that the team members had put on their equipment and put it away, the captain started to lead the group to explore the inside of the passage.

They had all been professionally trained on how to observe traces, and the captain noticed something was wrong almost as soon as they came across the first area with a large number of pebbles.

"Although this passage appears to be naturally formed, these pebbles don't seem to be. They must have been deliberately dug out by those mutant animals."

Because the mutant animals use claws and have no tools to use, and they don't want to destroy the treasure inside that they originally wanted to get, so they can only carefully scratch with their claws.

And these small stones are the gravel hooked out by those claws.

Hearing this, the deputy captain behind him also stepped forward to check, and then confirmed the captain's idea.

He was directly transferred from another team by his leader to serve as the deputy captain of Captain Dai's team, and his ability is not inferior to Captain Dai's.

So now with his affirmation, the team members behind him began to become curious.

"I heard that mutant fox say there are treasures here before. Could those treasures be inside these stones and need to be dug out?"

As the team member spoke, he came forward and prepared to scratch the ground with the slightly smaller blade of his engineering shovel.

"This is the direction of the entrance. Even if there is any, it has been dug up by the mutant animals passing by. Don't waste time here."

Seeing this, Captain Dai immediately took action to stop it.

It is indeed possible for the team members to stop, and it will not be a big effort.

"Split into two teams, search in different directions, and leave marks. If you run into trouble, follow the marks and reunite with the people on the other side."

Seeing that the team members were obedient and not going to continue with unnecessary actions, the captain was relieved.

The inside of the tunnel was very strange. Even though they had just entered the tunnel and could still see the outside environment through the gap from where they were standing, the communicators and mobile phones they were carrying had no signal and they could not contact the outside world.

"It seems that the three frontline personnel are unable to contact the outside world because of the poor signal inside. Mo Shan, use your ability every few minutes to see if you can contact one of the three."

The captain looked down at the communicator on his wrist, and the first thing he did after reading it was turn around and instruct Mo Shan.

Since electronic products are no longer effective at this time, we need capabilities to serve as a bridge of communication.

Mo Shan had never met those three front-line workers before, so he didn't know if he could get in touch with them.

"Okay, don't worry, Captain."

Mo Shan walked behind the captain who had been assigned tasks and was walking in front, and answered.

At this time, Uncle Xiao had no idea that an official rescue team had arrived at Sang Mountain. Moreover, because they spent more time searching, they knew much more information than he, who was unlucky enough to fall directly into the passage from the cave above.

Just like the piece of stone that he had painstakingly dug out from the crack in the ground, which could still reflect a bright white luster in the dim light.

This stone should not glow by itself, but because Uncle Xiao needed to check the surrounding environment, he turned on a small light. Through the refraction of the small light, the stone that had just been dug out and was obviously not at the top in appearance now looked particularly beautiful.

It was much more beautiful than the top luxury jewelry he had seen outside before!

It was obvious that this stone was left for him by the mutant fox.

He has only just discovered and found it.

When the fox was digging out another big stone, it hesitated whether to use its claws to dig out the small piece that Uncle Xiao was holding in his hand, which was just a matter of using its claws to dig a little more.

But after seeing that the stupid human hadn't been able to find one yet, and the aura on his body was too weak, he thought that he would take such a small stone back to play with anyway, so he left it as a gift for the poor fool.

At this moment, Uncle Xiao had no idea that the stone in his hand was a gift left to him by a mutant animal out of pity for him. He was staring at the stone in his hand in a daze.

Although it is not clear what this stone is, considering that those mutant animals are looking for what they need, it must be very important.

Thinking of this, he put his flashlight close to the stone and took out his mobile phone, which had no signal long ago, to take pictures of the stone in his hand.

After taking the photos, he took out a sealed bag from his body, put the stone in it and sealed it. Finally, after placing it properly, he lowered his head and prepared to continue looking for the same stone while looking for an exit.

But later, after he walked through the entire passage and turned over everything, he still couldn't find the next stone. He felt a little frustrated. Seeing that his mobile phone and flashlight were almost out of battery, he turned around and walked back, preparing to return to the place where he fell at the beginning and where two people were lying there, and use a mobile power bank to charge his mobile phone and flashlight.

I have to say that he was really lucky at that time. He fell from such a high place, but he was protected by the locust leaves and was fine. For some reason, his package and the mobile power bank inside the package were also fine even though they fell to the ground with a bang.

Apart from the scratches on the surface, it does not affect the use.

Uncle Xiao, who had already returned, had no idea that as he was walking back, a small group of people were heading towards him. As long as he stayed a little longer, he would be able to capture and contact them within Mo Shan's ability.

Unfortunately, he was unlucky and missed it.

"Captain, there are shoe prints here. The person should be fine and can still walk around, but there is only one person. I don't know if it's because the other two are not in this passage area or if they are unable to walk because of an accident."

While exploring, a team member discovered footprints that were not obvious because there were too many gravels on the ground.

"Well, follow the footprints."

Upon hearing this, the group was shocked. They obviously didn't expect that they couldn't find the entrance in the mountains before. They thought it would be even more difficult to search after entering the passage, but after they really came in, they found the clue so easily.

Feeling somewhat happy, the group began to walk in the direction of the footprints with anticipation.

They soon discovered that things were not that simple.

Looking at the increasingly dense footprints appearing under my feet, and the traces of footprints in every passage around, it was obvious that the person who was forced to be trapped in this passage must be trying to understand the environment, and the other party was also trying to find a way out of the current environment.

You can tell just by looking at the dense footprints on the ground.

But now they don’t want to see how hard the front-line staff is working. They only know that the scene before them has made them lose the direction they might be looking for.

"Don't worry about it. Just follow the steps and search slowly. You should be thankful that you've left so many footprints. At least there's nothing wrong with your body, and your mind is active. There won't be any problems in the short term."

The captain looked down at the marks on the ground and felt a little happy.

As long as the person is alive, it's fine. If there are any problems, we can look for him slowly.

"Captain, we have a clue here. Do you want me to call the deputy captain and the others over to help us look for it?"

Mo Shan looked down at the traces on the ground and the forks in the roads that kept appearing around him, and asked.

"Well, call them over first. If we haven't found all the people here, we can go over there and look for them."

Captain Dai nodded immediately after hearing the suggestion.

What we need now is to find the person as quickly as possible, no matter who it is, we have to find one.

"OK."

After receiving a positive response, Mo Shan turned around and used his ability to call the deputy captain.

It has to be said that Mo Shan's ability is absolutely the best ability in such an environment.

Communications personnel who are completely unaffected by the environmental magnetic field are urgently needed by every team.

After all, in today's world that has mutated after the resurgence of spiritual energy, even if the country has tried its best to repair and improve network signals.

It can only be used normally in ordinary areas and is completely sufficient for people to contact for help within their normal living range.

But in the current channel environment, the network that was specially upgraded is of no use at all, and we can only rely on Mo Shan for communication.

As soon as the deputy captain received the news, he followed the marks left in advance and headed towards the captain.

They even took a wrong turn in the passage because a mutant animal was digging a hole above the mark looking for treasures in a place they didn't notice, blurring the mark and causing the deputy captain and others to take the wrong path.

Fortunately, it was discovered in time and no such mistake happened again.

"The mutant animals here are very strange. They don't want to pay attention to us."

This was the first sentence the deputy captain said as soon as he met up with the captain and others.

On their way to the rendezvous, they saw those mutant animals squatting on the ground, hesitating and doing nothing.

The moment the mutant animal discovered them, it raised its eyes and looked in their direction. After finding that they posed no threat, it ignored them and turned its head back to continue digging with its claws.

Seeing this scene, he, who was originally on guard, began to brainstorm how to defend and counterattack in order to subdue the opponent with the least injury, or escape from the opponent's attack range.

They didn't expect that the other party would treat them like this.

Since the other party didn't seem to be attacking actively, they couldn't go up and cause trouble on their own. Besides, the deputy captain and others had to come and find Captain Dai and his group, so they carefully bypassed the mutant animal and then continued on their way.

At this time, the mutant animal that was remembered had already made its last move. Seeing the treasure that could be taken appear under its claws, the mutant animal happily lowered its head, picked it up, turned around and walked towards the outside of the passage.

As I walked, I was still wondering why there were so many bipeds here, and they were all fools?

This mutant animal has a relatively mild temper and is an extremely stable species. Even if its food is snatched away by its companions, it will turn around and look for it again.

There had been other mutant animals in the passage that had snatched its treasures before, but the humans here were different. They didn't even have the intention of stealing the treasures.

Humans are so (silly) good! Let it meet humans again in the future, don't let it bully its companions.

Thinking of this, it raised its head, held its baby in its mouth and trotted along, bypassing the passage with the smell of other mutant animals, and quickly ran out of the dark passage. After wandering between the mountains and forests for a while, it found its own nest.

"Did you encounter any mutant animals?"

The captain heard what the deputy captain and others said and asked.

"Yeah, we ran into it. The mutant animal must have been good-tempered. It ignored us and let us pass by it."

The deputy captain nodded, then turned his gaze to Luo Sui and motioned him to speak.

"Yes, and there were also energy fields of other mutant animals in the passages we passed through. But even at such a close distance, we didn't see any mutant animals rushing towards us to attack. This is very strange."

One mutated animal has a good temper, but not all animals have good tempers. Even before these animals mutated, their tempers were not good. They would hurt people when they should, and avoid humans when they should.

But now, those mutated animals seemed to completely ignore them.

"Okay, I understand. Let's not worry about this now. Let's find someone first."

After listening to Luo Sui's words, the captain nodded, put the matter to heart, and turned everyone's attention back.

"We can only find it bit by bit here."

The deputy team leader followed Captain Dai's gaze and was not surprised when he saw the traces on the ground. In his opinion, when in danger, actively exploring the outside world to seek survival is what normal survivors would do.

After all, those who are missing are all front-line workers. The nature of their work determines that they have a strong spirit of exploration and knowledge reserves to explore the outside world. On the premise of ensuring their own safety, they gain a preliminary understanding of the environment and seek vitality. This is their normal behavior.

"Well, let's go and split up into teams."

The captain nodded.

So the team was split up again and searched in the passages around where traces appeared. To ensure safety, they still needed to make marks as they walked.

Although the team is small, fortunately they can just follow the routes explored by Uncle Xiao.

Sitting on the ground waiting for the flashlight to charge, with the sunlight coming through the small hole above his head, Uncle Xiao lowered his head and carefully examined the stone he had placed in the sealed bag, and began to wonder what its use was and how to use this idea.

Without his knowledge, the locust tree leaf he had hung in front of his chest floated in the wind towards the sealed stone. It looked very natural. Uncle Xiao reached out and pressed on it, but he didn't notice that the floating was abnormal.

"This seems to be an incomplete spiritual stone?"

Ying Huai vaguely felt some fluctuations of spirit stones through the vague perception of the locust leaves.

But the fluctuation was very small, obviously different from the fluctuation of the spirit stone he saw in the Tianyuan Secret Realm.

The fluctuation is very small, maybe it’s because it’s not fully formed yet?

"It should be a growing spirit stone vein."

Ying Huai came to this conclusion after using locust leaves to sense things many times.

He had never seen the formation process of spirit stone veins. When he was in the Tianyuan Secret Realm, he had seen veins that had already taken shape and were of very high grade, with top-grade spirit stones appearing in the center. This was the first time he had sensed a spirit stone vein that had just taken shape and had not yet grown.

Thinking of this, Ying Huai used the locust tree leaves out of curiosity to sense the stone that contained spiritual energy but could not be considered a spiritual stone for the time being. He did not stop until Uncle Xiao had seen enough and put it away.

However, Ying Huai did not let the stone go just because it had not yet fully become a spiritual stone. What Ying Huai lacked most now was the spiritual energy for cultivation. When the upper echelons of the Flower-Growing Country did not know about the spiritual stone mine, Ying Huai had already started to set his sights on it.

Since he had made up his mind, Ying Huai would not hesitate and began to use his roots to sense Ali's movements. Recently, Ali had been staying in the village. Except when he needed to fill his stomach, he spent the rest of the time wandering around the village to control his extra body size, fatness and strength.

The other mutant animals brought back by Ali to the village got along quite well with the villagers.

In addition, after the town heard that the mutant animals had arrived in Daxi Village and refused to leave, they specially brought people up the mountain to take a look. After making an assessment, they applied to the higher authorities. The mutant animals in the village receive subsidies every month. There are monetary subsidies to compensate for the village property accidentally damaged by the mutant animals, and there are also food subsidies.

Because of Hu Hu, Ahri also benefited a lot and ate a lot of delicious meat that he had never eaten before. Ahri gained a lot of weight and his cheeks became plumper.

Hearing Ying Huai's call, Ali, who was sharing the same leg of lamb with Hu Hu, stood up and ran towards the village entrance.

It was very fast and came out of the village almost within a minute after Ying Huai called it. It squatted in front of Ying Huai with dust on its face, looking up at Ying Huai with questioning eyes.

"Huaihuai, what do you want from Ali?"

Ali's voice was still very tender, as if she was acting coquettishly, but to the ears of the others under the tree it sounded like a slightly rougher meow.

"Hey, what's that, Ali? Why are you rushing out of the village? You just rushed over here and scared me."

An aunt under the tree patted her chest, feeling somewhat frightened.

After all, it was such a huge cat rushing straight towards them. Even though they knew that Ahri had no ill intentions, with such a huge body, if it pounced on them while they were not standing firmly, they would be in trouble.

"Don't worry, Ahri. I just want you to do me a favor."

Ying Huai was a little amused to see Ali rushing out of the village so quickly that he didn't even have time to eat the lamb leg.

Ali is a bit anxious.

Just as Ying Huai was speaking, he saw Hu Hu running out from afar, holding the leg of lamb that he had just shared with Ali, at a speed slightly slower than Ali, towards Ying Huai.

When it arrived, it placed the lamb leg in a relatively clean place with its mouth watering, raised its head and looked seriously in the direction of Ying Huai, its eyes steady but with a hint of accusation.

It seemed as if he was blaming Ying Huai for calling Ali while they were eating, causing Ali to not eat properly.

Ying Huai looked a little amused.

"Ahli and Huhu, can you help me get some things from somewhere?"