401. The captain of the Binghua team is named Yi Linghe...
Lin Xiaofeng was racing against the darkness, and some of the fleeing animals were swallowed up by the darkness. The most terrifying thing was a 40-meter-tall mutant seal. It had the outline of a seal, but a row of lush white plants grew on its back, as if a giant flower bed had suddenly come alive.
It crawled forward in the darkness, its running speed no match for other creatures. A creature that was as big as a tall building disappeared in the blink of an eye.
Lin Xiaofeng had no idea what its fate would be. Death? Once trapped in darkness, not even a sound of struggle remained, as if its very existence had been erased by the darkness.
Before she could close her mouth, she realized that she couldn't find the third Bai Cheng. She was originally responsible for cleaning up the creatures nearby. Lin Xiaofeng looked around hurriedly, but couldn't see any shadow.
Bai Cheng was swallowed by the darkness?
"Bai Cheng! Bai Cheng!" Lin Xiaofeng shouted loudly. She knew she shouldn't have feelings for Bai Cheng, but she couldn't control herself at all.
After she made the sound, she discovered something even stranger. The sound seemed like... it had hit something. Although she was shouting loudly, it couldn't reach far away.
She was at a loss for words for a moment. The overwhelming darkness was like a black wall, and all approaching sounds disappeared.
Lin Xiaofeng was awakened by the sound and realized that something was wrong. Logically speaking, with so many large animals running, the ground would be shaking and the noise would be extremely loud, but the sound behind was slowly being absorbed.
The darkness behind her was approaching, but Lin Xiaofeng became calmer and calmer. She closed her eyes and felt carefully, then suddenly opened them. There was a clear difference in the sounds, and there was a boundary based on Lin Xiaofeng's position.
The sound could not reach the darkness; it was louder in front of the fleeing group and became quieter as it got closer to the darkness.
This thing would devour both sound and light? She suddenly discovered a pattern. The North had its own rules.
Lin Xiaofeng recalled Pei Shu's description of the Far North, as if all five senses had been taken away. Could this be a gradual process? First two, then all disappear?
Are Zhu Ning and the disappeared Bai Cheng now submerged in darkness?
Lin Xiaofeng thought of Zhu Ning stroking her head. Beidi was obviously fine just now. Could she really still see Zhu Ning?
Lin Xiaofeng drove away this thought. She got two pieces of information. If darkness really came, she had to be prepared for it, as she would lose her vision and hearing.
Lin Xiaofeng's promise to Zhu Ning is a two-way one. She has to live until Zhu Ning comes to find her, even if the polar night swallows her.
With a thud, the second Bai Cheng fell from the sky, holding two axes and landing on the elephant's back. Lin Xiaofeng was actually grateful that he could still hear the sound one day.
The elephant's back was shaking, and Bai Cheng fell down half-kneeling, like a loyal knight, and also like a ruthless killer, her eyes fixed on Lin Xiaofeng.
Lin Xiaofeng's heart skipped a beat. Bai Cheng said, "I've lost contact with eight people."
"What do you mean?" Lin Xiaofeng didn't even understand. She remembered that Bai Cheng and others could communicate with each other and share memories. In the fishing village of Tadpole Mole, they even used Bai Cheng himself as a detector.
Bai Cheng said quickly: "We can't contact them, they are free."
Her words were a little difficult to understand. Lin Xiaofeng tried her best to understand them. She then asked the most crucial question, "What impact will that have on Zhu Ning?"
Lin Xiaofeng knew that she was a little selfish, she only wanted to know the part about Zhu Ning.
Bai Cheng didn't mean to blame Lin Xiaofeng, and said with a hint of guilt in his mechanical voice, "Sorry, most of us are useless."
Bai Cheng must tell Lin Xiaofeng about the worst plan. It should be impossible for eight Bai Chengs to betray Zhu Ning and assassinate him, but once they lose contact, the relationship between the eight Bai Chengs will be broken, which is equivalent to becoming eight different people with eight kinds of free will.
Lin Xiaofeng discovered the rules of the polar night, and Bai Cheng also just discovered that the black moon is gradually depriving people of their five senses.
Bai Cheng has no memory of entering the polar night. If he did, he would definitely make a new plan with Zhu Ning.
Logically speaking, she must have experienced polar night, which means that the connection would be disconnected every time she entered the main brain.
So Bai Cheng and the others were not dead, but useless. The plan failed, and Bai Cheng couldn't even serve as a scout for Zhu Ning.
The polar night is an eternal loneliness, and everyone must face their own problems.
Bai Cheng has her own problems to solve, and behind her is overwhelming darkness.
Lin Xiaofeng's heart skipped a beat, and the crazy whispers in his ears became louder and louder. He finally sorted out a piece of information: Zhu Ning was going to walk alone in the far north?
…
Zhu Ning ran while holding Bai Cheng's hand. She still had her sense of touch and could clearly feel that Bai Cheng was in her hand.
Bai Cheng, who was a little dazed, didn't need to exert any effort, which gave Zhu Ning great comfort, proving that she was not the only one moving forward.
Using his remaining sense of touch, Zhu Ning would be able to deal with any monsters invading from the darkness, and Bai Cheng only needed to follow behind him.
They tried to communicate simply by writing in each other's hands, but the effect was poor because everyone was confused and had questions, but there was no effective solution.
And Zhu Ning couldn't tie all the other Bai Chengs to one rope, because if he did, the entire Bai Cheng group would be easily wiped out when danger came.
But even though there was no communication between them, Zhu Ning noticed that the number of Bai Cheng was slowly decreasing.
Apart from the one she was holding in her hand, she was not sure how many Bai Chengs there were. They might have been separated long ago, or they might be just close to each other, but they couldn't find each other.
Zhu Ning thought of a saying: everyone is an island, and this saying unexpectedly had a completely new interpretation: the polar night made everyone truly independent.
Zhu Ning's face was covered in blood. She didn't know where she had been, nor how many pollutants she had killed along the way. She had no concept of light and time. She just rested when she was tired, took a breath, and moved forward again.
The remaining Bai Cheng was particularly well-behaved, as if she had gained self-awareness and continued to think. Her independence brought her a lot of unnecessary troubles, but something unexpected happened suddenly. Zhu Ning stopped and her right hand became very light.
Bai Cheng seemed to disappear in her hands.
Zhu Ning tried to squeeze her hands, wanting to feel Bai Cheng's presence, but it didn't work at all, she could not feel the touch.
The connection between Zhu Ning and Bai Cheng was ruthlessly erased, and Zhu Ning could not find any way to prove Bai Cheng's existence.
She thought of Pei Shu, and she thought that next it might be her turn to disappear.
It is difficult for ordinary people to imagine such a world. Even when Pei Shu talked to her about it, she couldn't imagine it until she experienced it herself, and she hasn't even set foot in the Far North yet.
Is Zhu Ning breathing? Is she walking? Is she holding something?
She opened and closed her eyes, trying to move her fingers but didn't know whether she had completed the action or not. Perhaps everything was in her imagination.
Every human organ has its own unique function, but now everything is gone. Even if Zhu Ning was thrown from a high altitude, she would not feel anything unusual.
No sense of gravity, no pain.
Zhu Ning bit the tip of his tongue, and sure enough, he didn't feel any pain at all. Blood spread in his mouth, with a taste of rust, and when he rolled up his tongue, he felt a salty smell.
It was as if an invisible hand was hovering over Zhu Ning's head, severing her connection with the world one by one. First it was vision, then hearing and touch, and now there were only two left.
Her sense of smell and taste were of little help in killing the enemy. She couldn't bite the enemy's neck and taste their flesh and blood to kill them. That would be too much like a beast.
Now it only has the simplest function left, which is to let Zhu Ning confirm his existence.
She still exists.
Zhu Ning didn't dare to change her movements drastically. Maybe she still had Bai Cheng in her hands, or maybe she had lost him. She didn't think about this problem.
She guessed that Bai Cheng was also looking for her. All the plans she had made before setting out were useless. This was indeed a very lonely road.
If you think optimistically, maybe all Bai Cheng exist, following behind you like kittens.
Zhu Ning took careful steps, but she wasn't sure what she was doing because she couldn't feel her legs.
What was strange was that in this situation, she could identify the direction of the black moon. That moon in the darkness was extremely black, emitting a sticky and disgusting smell, and the closer it got to humans, the crazier it became.
Humans can easily die if they lose their sense of touch. They won’t even know when they are injured, and they won’t even feel cold when they are frozen to death.
So Zhu Ning lit the fire again, and the flames spread from her spine, covering her entire body, preventing her from dying in the low temperature environment.
Also to defend against unknown dangers, she released black slime, allowing the giant's shadow to continue following her.
Had there been a massacre? Had she been attacked? Had she reached the Far North? She knew nothing of it.
But if those strange pollutants could see her, she would be a walking, burning fireman in the snow, with a huge shadow behind her, making her look like an alien.
Zhu Ning didn't know how long she had been walking when she suddenly realized that she had lost her sense of taste. She couldn't taste the blood even if she bit her tongue.
She stopped again, stunned and hesitant, which was a bad feeling.
She opened her helmet and faced the cold of the north, but felt nothing.
She sniffed hard and this time she smelled the scent of snow. It turned out that snow had its own unique smell. Zhu Ning had never noticed it before. It was a little hard to describe.
Smelling more carefully, she could smell the scent of stone, animal fur, frozen meat, and some indescribable smells. The flora and fauna in the north were so rich, and there were many things she had never seen before. Of course, she didn't know what these smells belonged to.
She reconnected with the world through her sense of smell, and for the first time discovered how powerful her sense of smell was, and how many flavors had layers of depth.
She smelled the scent of flowers.
Are there flowers in the north? Zhu Ning wasn't sure. She had seen the yellow flower people in the deserted village, and the flowers there could walk.
What do the flowers of the North look like? Judging by the creatures here, they're probably pure white, look like crystal, and are probably quite large.
Why are all the creatures in the North so big? She hadn't seen anything small since she came in, but she wasn't a scholar outside the wall, so she couldn't think of the answer.
Zhu Ning walked along the scent of flowers. The road did not go straight north, but was a little off the direction of the black moon. The road was winding, but she didn't know it.
She seemed to be bewitched by the fragrance of the flowers, which made her feel better, because it seemed as if the fragrance of the flowers meant beauty, and she was not moving towards loneliness and death, but towards the fragrance of the flowers.
The fragrance of the flowers penetrated into her mind, like a sedative, dispelling the crazy mumbling in Zhu Ning's mind and making her feel less lonely.
She actually felt a kind of happiness that she hadn't felt in a long time. She imagined that flowers were blooming all around her and even wanted to dance among them.
She couldn't wait and quickened her pace. The fragrance of the flowers became stronger and stronger, so strong that it was disgusting, like a doubly concentrated perfume that destroyed one's sense of smell.
A brilliant light flashed an inch before her footsteps. Zhu Ning's guess was correct. Flowers were indeed blooming in front of her. Each flower was extremely huge and pure white. The stamens inside were sharp ice thorns. The flower core contracted in the wind, shaking the petals. The ice thorns pierced the body of an investigator, and blood flowed along the petals and was quickly frozen.
So it’s not wrong to say that they are white flowers, but they are stained with blood red, giving them a gorgeous beauty.
The flowers are densely packed, petals are crowded against petals, and corpses are piled on top of corpses.
Zhu Ning was only one step closer and she would reach the destination, but she was completely unaware of it, so she looked at the creatures here in bewilderment, like a traveler who had strayed into the Peach Blossom Spring.
The ice spikes contracted and invited him, looking curiously at the human in front of him. Zhu Ning, like everyone who entered the North, had a smile on his face.
This is the mercy of the North, which allows people to die without pain. It is more effective than all the euthanasia invented by humans. Some people even enter the North just to find such an existence.
Compared to the suffering in the Far North, this is the last paradise.
Zhu Ning closed the visor of her helmet, physically isolating herself from the invitation from the ice flower. This was not difficult. Sure enough, after closing the helmet to isolate herself, she woke up and was able to sense the terrifying whispers emitted by the Black Moon not far away.
I didn’t expect that such a crazy existence would become an old friend of the polar night state. The pain makes people feel familiar and reassuring.
She guessed that every investigator who came here was not walking into death passively. They were led here by happiness, but it was easy to stay awake. They just needed to turn off the helmet and not be fully exposed to the extreme floral fragrance. Most of them had lost their senses and would rather walk into death than take the next path.
They embraced the kindness of the North and were grateful for the bitter cold land that left them with such a paradise.
Zhu Ning also wanted to enter the paradise, but this patch of ice flowers had no idea what kind of guest came this time, nor did they know Zhu Ning's experiences or what kind of suffering he had endured.
Zhu Ning quickly realized that she was not worthy of dying so easily.
That was too easy for her.
Too many people died along the way, she couldn't accept that she was so weak. One day hatred could save people, just like now.
So Zhu Ning turned and left. The dense ice flowers trembled, watching her leave alone. They had a certain consciousness. Pollutants have their own thoughts, and ice flowers have their own logic to understand the world.
Zhu Ning's back slowly faded away, with no one around him, just like most investigators who entered the Northland, no matter how careful their plans were before coming in, no matter how well they understood their teammates, no matter what they did to prevent themselves from getting separated.
Those actions are meaningless. In the end, all humans will be separated and feel so lonely when they get here.
Human civilization has written many parts about heaven, and different cultures have different ways of expressing it, but this flowerbed should be very consistent with human imagination.
No matter what sins a person has committed or how much blessings he has received, he will eventually come here alone to face the torture of his soul.
No one can help you, no one can accompany you.
The Ice Flower Cong has seen too many lonely travelers. Over the years, there is only one team that is an exception: the Beidiao Sand Crane Team.
Beidiao has cultivated the best investigation team for many years, with perfect internal ability combination. Only the most rigorous selection can join, and only the strongest team can come to the north to open the way. For the investigators at that time, joining the Shahe team was a supreme honor.
The captain's name is Yi Linghe. She led the team into the north and encountered a crisis of losing all five senses. Initially, the team members were separated, but Yi Linghe was able to find some of the lost teammates.
As the breeze blew, the ice flowers seemed to break the boundaries of time and space. At the place where Zhu Ning had stood, the tall figure of Yi Linghe had also stood there.
One of Yi Linghe's special abilities is clairvoyance. According to rumors, she can "see" people's "souls."
Several teammates chose to die. Binghua was not so despicable as to induce humans to commit suicide, but the teammates chose to die voluntarily.
Yi Linghe came to see them off, neither mocking nor looking down on them, but respecting their choice. The training in the north transfer was already harsh enough, and they lived like trained working dogs, spending their whole lives just to bring back information.
These investigators have never enjoyed any happiness in their lives, let alone eternal peace.
The investigators entered the Northland in order to obtain more information for humanity, in order to explore what lies beyond the North. They either couldn't sleep, or if they did sleep, they were restless in their dreams, distressed and anxious because they couldn't bring back any information.
Now the North has given the best way to end it.
Her teammates knew that death lay ahead, but they still moved forward. This is also a kind of courage, and then death came as expected.
Yi Linghe saw his teammates' souls being pierced by ice thorns and forever trapped inside the ice flowers. The investigator finally closed his eyes, and a lifetime of suffering ended.
But Yi Linghe has to continue going forward, because she is selfish. She knows that the end of this road is not to investigate information, but to cross the Far North. Every member of the team is carefully selected to deal with the crisis in the North, including their respected captain.
She carried this heavy news alone, like a cross of guilt.
Maybe this is a form of punishment. When no one else can see, only she can "see".
When a person is deprived of his five senses, it is equivalent to the soul losing contact with the body, floating like a lonely soul on the snow. However, there are only souls in Yi Linghe's world.
Clairvoyance gave Yi Linghe a "sixth sense". She did not rely on other senses and trusted her own more, so she took care of the rest of the team members.
Pei Shu was hiding under the ice and snow at that time. His face looked younger and confused. The flames on his body flickered, and his fists were clenched tightly, refusing to let go. He was very uneasy.
Yi Linghe gently touched his head and led him forward.
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