Flint Mountain
StarCraft 4029, December.
December is not a special month, but for the interstellar people, it is truly a "shock month". First, Blue Beast Lyle was kidnapped by Moss, and then it was revealed that Blue Beast Caesar was a manufacturing genius, Master Miller's last disciple, and the fighting competition champion and mecha competition potential player was Blue Beast Bell. Just when everyone thought that December would pass in the afterglow of these news, on December 29th, a video was posted on the interstellar network.
"I am the 'Father of Bloodstone' appointed by Her Majesty the Queen herself. This Bloodstone Base was also built for me by Her Majesty the Queen herself."
"Anyone who eats the blood stone must stay at the Red Blood Base and cannot take a single step outside without my permission."
"What? You don't want to live anymore? You want to experience the feeling of your brains splattering?"
The strange red blood tree, suspicious conversations, and bloody headless corpses in the video made many people's scalps tingle and challenged their bottom line of values.
The middle-aged man in the picture kept calling "Her Majesty", which undoubtedly pushed the ruler of the Qiu En Emperor Star to the peak of criticism.
"It's disgusting! In today's human rights society, there are still such dirty things!"
"Oh my god, it was horrible. I cried halfway through it and didn't dare to watch the rest! Does anyone have any spoilers?"
"Queen Qiu En, why don't you come out and explain yourself? You wantonly imprisoned civilians for experiments, and used such despicable means to build your own army of death warriors. I can only say, you're doomed."
"Isn't anyone else focusing on the 'bloodstone' like me? What the heck is that thing that can actually boost mental strength? Is that true?"
“…”
Under pressure from the masses, and as this matter clearly violated interstellar law, the United Interstellar could no longer turn a deaf ear and directly held a press conference on the Interstellar Network, claiming that it would thoroughly investigate the matter.
"Will this video bring down Queen Qiu En?" Guila browsed the explosive news on the Star Network, her fingers stirring nervously. "It's all my fault. If I had turned on the camera at the end and filmed those bugs, I would have evidence to prove that the Queen betrayed Star."
"It's not your fault," Caesar said. "In that situation, protecting yourself was already difficult. The destruction of the evidence was an accident, and no one could have predicted it."
Keira tilted her head, looking at the slender, blond young man beside her. Though he was a Blue Star like Yu Sheng, his eyes and hair color were different, and his personality was vastly different. Caesar had arrived here a day earlier and, upon hearing the news that Yu Sheng had been swept into the Hundred Turns Tunnel and left for dead, hadn't reacted at all.
No, maybe it was just a lack of reaction on the surface. At least in Guila's opinion, in just one day, the blond young man had turned pale. There might not be much change in his appearance, but he looked much more haggard.
Thinking of this, Guila smiled self-deprecatingly. As expected, no one is strong enough to face the death of relatives and friends calmly.
"Furthermore, even if you captured footage of the Zerg, it doesn't prove Queen Qiu En's treason." A faint voice pulled Guila back from her grief. "Just like the video we just released, there will always be a scapegoat in the end."
Sure enough, a few days later, Queen Quen and United Interstellar held simultaneous press conferences. The former apologized profusely, stating that their administration had been lax, and that the remoteness of the Atlan Mountains had allowed these illegal experimenters to exploit loopholes. As for the bloodstone, it was nonsense, a gimmick used by the illegal experimenters to trick more people into staying at the base as experimental subjects. The latter issued a similar statement, albeit in a more official and formulaic manner, announcing the execution of Haig, the mastermind of the illegal experiment base, and his team.
Although some netizens pointed out the loopholes in Queen Qiu En's words, such remarks disappeared silently. The rest of the people just felt that the death penalty was a great relief, and most of the comments were positive. United Star and Queen Qiu En had survived this crisis.
—Qiu En Emperor Star—
"The claim that the bloodstone is just a gimmick is just a ploy to fool the civilians!" Mr. Rayleigh, one of the presidents of the United Interstellar Council, stood before Queen Qiu En, seething with anger. "Don't think I don't know that you're conducting experiments on the flesh and blood of the blue beast!"
The Queen gritted her teeth, glanced at Weiner lying at her feet, gently lifted Weiner onto her lap, and forced a smile, "How is this possible? Weiner is my baby, how could I bear to use his flesh and blood for experiments?"
As she spoke, she gently stroked Weiner's back, "Weiner is so good. I will always love him."
Weiner shuddered uncontrollably, his entire body shaking.
In the early stages of his research into "cell-propagated plants," he had his flesh and blood cut off, then received treatment and grew back, only to be cut off again and grow back again.
This endless cycle of hell once made him think of ending it all with death.
But when he grabbed the broken glass and pointed it at his neck, his hands were shaking and he was unable to complete the suicide attempt. Eventually, the glass fell from his hands to the ground, and he knelt on the ground with his face covered, crying bitterly.
I am a coward.
Weiner thought desperately and humbly that he didn't even dare to commit suicide.
"No matter what, you are now the focus of the entire galaxy. You must not allow any trouble to happen." Rayleigh glanced at the blue beast under her command, which was as weak as an ant. "Take good care of him for a while. I have a deal, and I think... you will definitely not refuse."
—Snow Star—
A biting cold wind blew, blowing up the snow on the ground and covering Yu Sheng's face. Yu Sheng let out a hiss and quickly brushed the snow off his face, shuddering all over.
It's too cold. Even wearing a fur coat can't keep out the biting cold.
"Are you okay?" Seeing Yu Sheng's face flushed by the wind, Shuger hurried forward and handed Yu Sheng a hot towel that he had just warmed with the nuclear stone. He then stood in front of Yu Sheng and used his mountain-like body to block the wind for Yu Sheng. "Walk behind me and I'll block the wind for you."
"Thank you, Sugar." Yu Sheng was touched and was about to say that there was no need to go through so much trouble when he heard a heavy girl's voice coming from the side.
"snort!"
Yu Sheng: “…”
He glanced at the girl in a white fur coat and with a nice figure. The girl had been snorting at him all the way. At first, Yu Sheng was confused, but later he gradually saw the clues.
As long as Sugar takes care of him, this girl will definitely go crazy.
Yu Sheng couldn't help but find it amusing, but he didn't find it annoying. The people of this land were exceptionally kind and straightforward, their thoughts written all over their faces, devoid of scheming.
"Mia, are you feeling unwell?" Even though Mia's feelings were written all over her face, the big, stupid Sugar couldn't see it at all. He said worriedly, "I told you, you're weak, so you shouldn't come with us to Flint Mountain."
Mia's face flushed with anger, "Hmph! I'm going! I won't be like this pretty boy who needs all-round care just to walk on a snowy road!" After saying that, Mia strode forward, her smooth speed seemed to be deliberately showing off to Yu Sheng.
"..." To be fair, Yu Sheng is not really white, at most he has an ordinary skin color, but it may be because it is cold here all year round, the people here are naturally darker in skin, so that they can absorb more heat from the sun.
There were about ten people on the Flint Team. One young man, who was on good terms with Mia, leaned over and whispered, "Are you stupid? On previous visits to Flint Mountain, Sugar offered you a hot towel to block the wind. Why did you refuse so harshly?"
Mia was stumped by the question and stamped her foot in frustration. "Isn't it because I didn't want to bother Sugar? Who knew a pretty boy would suddenly show up today? Humph! Sugar still refuses to accept my love! Could it be that he actually likes men?"
"You declared your love to Sugar?" the young man asked in surprise. "How did you declare your love?"
"I told him I'd treat him to some game I'd hunted myself!" Mia said, pinching her hips. "Isn't this the most common way of courting in Xiaoxi Village?"
"..." Big sister! This kind of courtship is always the man hunting for the woman himself! You suddenly turned around, who would have known you had that intention?!
We hiked for a long time, climbed over two snow-capped mountains, and finally reached Flint Mountain.
Flint Mountain is very conspicuous because all the other mountaintops are covered with snow, but this mountain is pitch black without a single snowflake.
"Because of the buried flint, the temperature on this mountain is so high that no snow can accumulate here," Yadi, the leader of the Flint Team, enthusiastically explained to Yu Sheng. "Many wild animals will survive the cold season here, but there is almost no plant life on Flint Mountain, so the animals still have to go out to forage for food."
Yu Sheng nodded repeatedly as he listened. The Flint Team entered Flint Mountain from a cave entrance as if they were familiar with the place. Yu Sheng released his mental power and probed into the surrounding stone walls. He found that the deeper he went, the higher the density of the nuclear ore became. It was just some distance away from this tunnel.
Finally, they arrived at a small open area. They could see traces of excavation on the surrounding stone walls. Artie said, "Everyone, get your tools out and start mining! I hope everyone can harvest twenty pieces today!"
Everyone cheered and encouraged each other. Although some people grumbled, "How can it be twenty yuan? Ten yuan is already good", everyone was still very motivated.
"Here, Ah Sheng." Sugar said sullenly, "Here's the hammer for you."
"Oh! Okay!" Yu Sheng nodded, took a few tools, and started chiseling on the wall like others.
"You, you, you! Stop chiseling! You're wasting your energy!" Suddenly, Mia ran over to Yu Sheng, pointed at him, and shouted, "Listen to me! Chisel however I tell you to!"
Yu Sheng looked at the arrogant girl in confusion. Shuger, who was standing beside him, was afraid that Yu Sheng would be angry, so he quickly said, "Mia really does have some magical ability. She can slightly sense the direction of the flint. With her, we went from getting five pieces or even nothing at all to now being able to get at least seven or eight pieces!"
Sugar, who was usually sullen, rarely spoke at such length. He was still praising Mia, which made her feel a little happier and her face brightened. She raised her chin, "That's right! Listen to me, or with your tiny body, you won't be able to dig out a single piece today!"
"Okay, I'll leave it to you then." Yu Sheng smiled, but he didn't directly say that he could clearly see all the nuclear stones embedded in the stone walls. He wanted to see how the residents here found the nuclear stones. Did they really rely on their intuition? Or did they also use their mental power to "see" things that the naked eye could not see?
Mia placed her hand against the stone wall. From her palm, a single thread of spiritual energy emerged. It was extremely thin, and only had a small fork at the tip. This small fork wobbled as it drilled deeper into the stone wall. Yu Sheng watched helplessly as she missed many core stones before finally hitting a relatively deep one. Then, with the fork retracted, Mia, a thin layer of sweat on her forehead, said proudly, "Dig in from here! Dig seven or eight meters and you'll be there!"
Yu Sheng: "..." Such a hard stone wall? Seven or eight meters? How long will it take me to carve it?
"Mia, you've worked hard. Drink some water and help me check the location!"
"Mia Mia, show me first!" For a moment, the voices of people were heard from all over the cave. Mia wiped the sweat off her face and ran to everyone without drinking any water to explore the nuclear stone in the wall for everyone.
She seems to be a kind-hearted girl who is not afraid of hardship, Yu Sheng thought with a smile.
He also placed his hand on the stone wall, and in an instant, tremendous mental power poured out, filling the wall hundreds and thousands of meters outward like a waterfall. In just a few seconds, Yu Sheng knew the location distribution of all the nuclear stones within a thousand meters in this direction.
"Hey, stop staring!" Yadi teased innocently when she saw Yu Sheng imitating Mia, pressing his hands against the stone wall. "Why are you so silly? You can't detect it. It seems that Mia is the only one in the village who has this ability!"
"Uh." Yu Sheng didn't dare to reveal his ability easily before he thoroughly understood this land. However, he wanted to help the people here, so he said, "Actually, I tried it, and I seem to be able to faintly sense the flint."
"Really?" Immediately, all the members of the Firestone team gathered around, all with a look of surprise on their faces. "Go ahead and try it!"
"Right here," Yu Sheng pointed at a spot, "Here, less than 0.3 meters away, there's flint."
"Impossible!" Mia stared in disbelief. "How could I not feel it when it was so close? Are you kidding me?"
Seeing that the others also had a look of doubt on their faces, Yu Sheng had no choice but to pick up the chisel himself and chisel at that place.
After a few chiseling strokes, a large, round nucleus revealed its original appearance. Everyone exclaimed, "Wow! Ah Sheng, you are so amazing!"
"Could it be a guess?" Mia muttered to herself, but she also felt that the possibility of knowing it was a guess was extremely small, and she couldn't help but lower her head in frustration.
"Mia is also very good." At this time, Shuger's silly voice sounded beside him, "If it weren't for Mia, our family wouldn't be able to use flint to heat the kang frequently, and this winter wouldn't be so warm."
"W-Wait, it's not that powerful..." In the darkness, the eloquent Mia became embarrassed and her cheeks turned red.
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