As Xia Chuhe walked, he made way for Danggui to help check if there were any fluctuations in the surrounding pollution levels.
Unfortunately, even after walking to the end in one direction, Lu Dangui found nothing unusual.
The direction they walked seemed to indicate they had only explored half of the vast botanical garden. To investigate the entire area, they would likely be searching until midnight.
Xia Chuhe didn't know what the night would be like in the instance, and he wasn't planning to take any risks on the first night.
At first, A Bao patiently followed behind Xia Chuhe and the others. After a while, she took the cat and ran off to play elsewhere.
On the way back, Xia Chuhe felt his palms were warm the whole time. It had been like this ever since he picked the sunflowers; the fever was dissipating very slowly.
As they approached the basement, Xia Chuhe couldn't resist putting his hands on the watermelon to cool them down.
When you place your palm on a watermelon, the watermelon gradually becomes blurred and disappears.
Xia Chuhe: "..."
What? You won't even let me touch you?
However, the watermelon did seem to have a cooling effect; my palms no longer felt warm.
Xia Chuhe and the others entered the basement one after another.
Du Zhen asked, "Where is A-Bao?"
"I didn't notice." Before leaving, Xia Chuhe had reminded A Bao that they weren't officially a team. After A Bao ran away, Xia Chuhe didn't call her back.
Du Zhen sighed, looking just like a loving mother worrying about her child.
Zhao Maomao relayed a message to Xia Chuhe: "Boss, we just found some clues."
Du Zhen and the others weren't idle in the basement either; Zhao Maomao also participated in the entire process of finding clues.
Old Qin chimed in, "Although we're all...corpses now, my ability can still detect everyone's health bars, and they're all healthy. I checked the corpse in the corner and found she also had a health bar, albeit a very thin one. I tried to treat the corpse, but it didn't work. I'm worried that if we get injured in this instance, we might not be able to get treatment."
"Because of Lao Qin's guess, we didn't cut ourselves to verify it," Du Zhen reminded Xia Chuhe and the others. "So be careful to protect yourselves and try not to get hurt."
“I also examined other parts of the body,” Lao Qin continued. “Compared to the face, her body was more severely decomposed; it was more like shriveled up than decomposed. It looked as if she had been sucked dry and gnawed away.”
Next to the body was a bamboo pole used to support the plant vines. It seemed that Old Qin had no tools and was worried about touching something he shouldn't, so he used the bamboo pole to move the body around.
Xia Chuhe also went over to take a look. Although he had seen snow apes eating limbs, corpses littering the Bird of Prey Academy, and giant rats hanging from gallows, none of those scenes were as impactful as the withered, rotting corpse before him. It was pitted, broken, and dilapidated, yet it was still clearly a human torso.
Xia Chuhe couldn't help but speculate that the dungeon turned the evolved beings into corpses that didn't need to breathe, perhaps to protect their sense of smell.
Xia Chuhe didn't understand corpses. If Lao Qin hadn't explained it beforehand, she wouldn't have been able to tell the difference between normal decay and shriveled decay, since she hadn't specifically studied them.
Now, Lao Qin's conclusion further confirms the existence of "bugs" in the copy.
Old Qin pointed to a small, red, transparent object next to the bamboo pole and said to Xia Chuhe, "This fell off the corpse's clothes. I don't know what it is, but I picked it out and put it aside."
Xia Chuhe examined it closely. The shape was somewhat like an uninflated balloon, but the opening was not rough; instead, the whole thing was smooth.
"I'm not sure what it is either." Since there was no way to touch and identify it, Xia Chuhe didn't give a definitive answer.
Moreover, even if it were a balloon, Xia Chuhe couldn't think of any use for it.
Seeing that Xia Chuhe had finished examining the clues, Du Zhen carefully spoke up: "I suspect that the group of men took some of the clues beforehand."
The unsuitable soil and water, along with the men's avoidance of the plant, aroused Du Zhen's suspicions.
Xia Chuhe also had this guess: "What are you going to do?"
"Let's see what information your little detective can bring back. If there's no useful information..." Du Zhen gave a kind smile and reached out to rub his neck.
There was no enticement, only coercion.
Xia Chuhe shared the same idea.
Speak of the devil, and he appears. A pile of dirt fell from the ceiling and landed in the room, transforming into the young detective Li Qiusheng.
Li Qiusheng stood under the hole in the ceiling, glanced at Du Zhen, and then looked at Xia Chuhe.
Xia Chuhe nodded, and Du Zhen's smile turned into a half-smile.
Only after receiving Xia Chuhe's approval did Li Qiusheng recount what he had seen and heard that afternoon.
"I don't know what those people were thinking, they were just doing useless work. They knew perfectly well that flowerpots were bottomless pits, but they kept throwing plants into them, watermelons, cucumbers, carrots, it was so boring to watch." Li Qiusheng said, half reporting and half complaining.
Xia Chuhe recalled the plants that had been damaged by the flowerpots but had recovered: "Did the plants they picked recover?"
"No, it disappeared as soon as I put it in the flowerpot."
Do you remember what plants they picked?
“(⊙o⊙)…” Li Qiusheng recalled, “Watermelon, carrots, peanuts, potatoes, and long, dusty sticks…”
Li Qiusheng didn't know many plants, but he mentioned a few. It seemed that apart from watermelons, they were all crops whose fruits grew in the soil.
Just as Li Qiusheng continued to reminisce, a faint dark shadow loomed over her.
"Watch out!" Xia Chuhe quickly pulled her back.
With a loud crash, a heavy flowerpot fell from the sky and landed squarely on the spot where Li Qiusheng had just been standing.
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