Chapter 87
Jiangzhi looked at the damselfly with its broken wings in his hand, somewhat surprised.
"Image Doll?"
Jiangzhi knows about damselflies.
When she was a child in her hometown, she often grabbed it and played with it.
Damselflies look a lot like miniature dragonflies, but are much more delicate.
Even after mutation, it remains the same.
Its body is thin and segmented.
The damselfly in Professor Ning's hand was 10*20 cm in size, covered with a layer of emerald green, which reflected a faint shimmering luster under the light. Its wings were thin and translucent, and even the patterns on them were a crisp green.
Professor Yang explained to the two with a smile: "This damselfly didn't evolve any other abilities, but it did evolve an imaging function."
He pinched the tail of the damselfly in his hand and said to the brother and sister, "Come on, wave to this damselfly."
Jiang Shu waved his hand blankly and said, "Hi?"
Professor Yang pinched the damselfly's tail again to end the recording, and then gently pinched the damselfly's eyes.
A 3D image, roughly the same size as them, was casually displayed before their eyes.
The ginger tree in the picture, just like the ginger tree in the picture, is waving its hands and saying hi in a silly way.
This was the first time the brother and sister had ever seen such high technology.
Jiang Zhi remembered seeing a golden special item called an owl's eye in the night market before, but she never expected that the damselfly's eye could be used in this way.
"Professor Yang, what's the difference between a damselfly's eyes and an owl's eyes?"
Professor Shen, who knew more about this, replied directly: "An owl's eye is a special item that can be repeatedly stored, and it can preserve the information for a longer period of time, with richer content and clearer images. Damselflies, on the other hand, can only be used as disposable items, and each time they cannot be used for more than twenty minutes. If the image is too cluttered, it will be difficult for them to capture it fully."
Jiang Zhi realized, this is just a substitute for owl eyes.
Jiang Shu scratched his head: "Professors, what do you want me to do?"
Professor Yang: "It's very simple. We'll put this damselfly and another mutant cockroach down there. Tell us when you see the mutant cockroach disappear, and we'll bring the damselfly back."
This method is indeed simple.
Jiang Shu readily agreed, "Okay."
Soon, the professors' assistants tied the damselflies and the mutated cockroaches to separate ropes.
The damselfly and the mutated cockroach were three meters apart.
After the assistant put the two mutated creatures down, the mutated cockroach seemed to be attracted by something and quickly crawled down the pit wall to the bottom.
When the mutated cockroach descended to a depth of about 1100 meters underground, it disappeared from Jiang Shu's sight once again.
Jiang Shu quickly reminded his assistant, "Quickly, pull the rope up!"
When the damselfly was brought up, everyone saw that the section of rope binding the mutated cockroach had disappeared, as if it had been eaten away by something.
Professor Yang was utterly astonished.
"Quick! Show us the footage and see what's going on!"
As soon as the footage recorded by the damsel was released, many soldiers couldn't help but curiously gather around to watch.
From the damselfly's perspective, they peered down into the pit.
The deeper you go, the dimmer the light becomes. When you sink to a distance of 500 meters, the surroundings are so dark that it's as if they've been splashed with thick ink, and even the air feels heavy with darkness.
Fortunately, damselflies are better at capturing colors than humans, and even in the deep darkness, they can still catch some blurry traces.
The pit walls were uneven and completely empty, so even the faint rustling sound of cockroaches crawling in the distance was as clear as if it were right next to your ear.
Apart from the damselflies and cockroaches they had placed in the sinkhole beforehand, there were no other living creatures to be seen.
Just as everyone was racking their brains trying to figure it out, the mutated cockroach suddenly vanished as if it had been pulled by something. It didn't even have a chance to struggle; the shadow that had just been hovering in front of the damselfly disappeared in the blink of an eye, as if nothing had happened.
The mutated cockroach incident happened so suddenly, the whole process took less than a second, and before anyone could react, they saw the damselfly's field of vision rise.
This must have been the assistant pulling the rope upwards after being reminded by Jiang Shu.
Zou Minghua stroked his chin. "This is a bit strange. It's like they suddenly disappeared. Could it be that our people will also disappear from this world if they go down there?"
Luo Yonghui was exasperated: "You jinx! Can't you say something positive?"
Gu Kaizhi: "Although this sinkhole is strange, as long as you don't fall in, there shouldn't be any major problems."
Professor Shen suddenly spoke up: "Xiao Shi, take another look at how those cockroaches disappeared."
The assistant quickly played it again.
This time, Jiang Zhi looked at it very carefully, just like before.
When she saw the mutated cockroach disappear, she seemed to see a very strange light.
It's not the usual white.
Jiang Zhi couldn't even describe its color; it looked a bit like blue, but it wasn't blue.
The beam of light was incredibly fast, moving as quickly as the cockroach disappeared.
If she hadn't been staring at the screen, she probably wouldn't have noticed.
After the video ended completely, Jiang Zhi whispered to Jiang Shu, "Brother, did you see that ray of light just now?"
Jiang Shu: "What kind of light?"
Jiang Zhi: "It's just..."
She shared her discovery, and Jiang Shu shook his head: "I didn't see it. Maybe I just didn't notice?"
Jiang Zhi had no choice but to describe the faint light she had glimpsed to the professors.
Surprisingly, no one else present seemed to notice her.
Even Lin Yuan was the same.
Professor Shen seemed quite excited. He had someone play it again, but after everyone stared at it for a long time, the ray of light still seemed to have never appeared, and no one could catch it.
"Comrade Xiao Jiang, did you really see that light?"
Jiang Zhi hesitated for a moment—could it be that only she could see this light?
"...Maybe I saw it wrong."
There's no other way; when no one else can see it, I can't just insist that I saw it, can I?
The professors persisted, replaying the video several times, but still couldn't figure it out, and finally had to give up.
Huang Xianming wasn't interested in any of this. He had been under martial law the whole time. Seeing that the others weren't continuing, he asked about the next plan: "Captain Lin, where are we going to rest tonight?"
They arrived at the agreed location ahead of time, but so far, the people from the Southern Base have not yet arrived, so they can only wait.
Gu Kaizhi suddenly spoke up: "I used to be from Shashi. There's a City Comfort Hotel nearby. We can go and see if the building has collapsed."
Lin Yuan glanced at him but didn't object. "Lead the way."
Once everyone was back in the car, Luo Yonghui seemed very happy, saying, "We were lucky this time, we were able to reach our destination a day ahead of schedule."
Jiang Shu smoothed Er Shun's still somewhat restless fur. "Even if we arrive a day early, we can't go back early. The people from the Southern Base haven't arrived yet, so we still have to wait."
Luo Yonghui chuckled: "What do you know? It's better to arrive early than late. That way, we'll have plenty of time to search for resources nearby."
"Don't think that only we know about the treasure being lost; the people at the Southern Base know about it too."
Jiang Shu then remembered that there were treasures in Shashi.
He glanced at his younger sister discreetly; when it came to treasure hunting, if his sister said she was second, no one would dare to say they were first.
"Uncle Luo, Shashi is so big, we can't just search blindly like this, can we?"
Luo Yonghui shrugged. "It depends on luck. Generally speaking, if something doesn't make sense, it might be what we're looking for."
Just like the giant oak tree they saw, the object that could make that giant cloud nest tree grow wildly in a short time must be something extraordinary.
Similarly, if such a thing really existed in Shashi, there would have been some indication of it.
Jiang Shu curled his lip: "So, isn't this the most strange thing about this sinkhole?"
What was said without malice may have been taken to heart by the listener.
These words stunned everyone.
—This sinkhole is definitely the most unusual thing in Shashi.
Could the treasure be hidden at the bottom of the sinkhole?
For a moment, Luo Yonghui and the others didn't know what to say.
They had all witnessed the strangeness of the sinkhole. If the treasure was really at the bottom of this sinkhole... then probably none of the people present would have a chance.
No one spoke for a moment in the carriage.
Before long, the convoy arrived at the City Comfort Hotel that Gu Kaizhi had mentioned.
Coincidentally, this hotel was located near the agreed rendezvous point with the Southern Base.
The whole street looked deserted.
Their convoy stood out starkly on the desolate street, even the low-frequency engine sounds echoing with a sense of loneliness.
This time, it was the mutant squad's turn to be responsible for cleaning up the environment.
Luo Yonghui, carrying weapons, led the team inside.
The revolving door was stuck and wouldn't move, the glass cracked like a spider web.
One of Zou Minghua's teammates went up and kicked the door, causing dust to fall in a flurry before the door could barely be moved.
However, every movement produced a grating "creaking" sound, which was particularly clear in the empty lobby.
The lobby floor tiles were covered with a thick layer of dust, making the footprints of the group particularly noticeable.
The front desk was covered in dust, the computer screen was broken, and documents were scattered all over the floor, with many papers showing signs of being gnawed by rats.
Half of the chandelier above had fallen off.
Everything is a mess.
Jiang Shu followed Luo Yonghui and scanned the entire building, but to his surprise, he didn't see a single mutated creature.
Even so, Chen Shaoting and her companions did not let their guard down, and went upstairs to check each room one by one with their weapons in hand.
Surprisingly, this hotel is remarkably well-preserved.
Despite the thick layer of dust, the room was fully furnished with tables, chairs, beds, appliances, and other utensils, and their positions remained largely unchanged.
The group inspected the place inside and out, and were all amazed by the fact that it had hardly been damaged.
"There's something strange about Shashi here," Zou Minghua rubbed his chin. "We've been here for so long, and it seems like we haven't encountered a single mutated creature?"
Luo Yonghui frowned.
That's really strange.
If no mutated creatures have appeared in Shashi, it should be a very suitable place for human habitation.
However, in this vast city, there wasn't a single human being.
Zou Minghua, who was standing to the side, couldn't understand it and stopped thinking about it.
He shrugged. "Never mind, it's better this way. I can sleep more peacefully at night."
As he spoke, he turned to his teammate and said, "Knife, let's go collect some wood later. In this awful weather, I don't want to eat anything cold again."
After returning to the first floor and greeting Huang Xianming and the soldiers, the team leaders found Lin Yuan in perfect unison.
Zou Minghua spoke up before everyone else, "Team Leader Lin, our team requests permission to go out to search for resources tonight."
Luo Yonghui: ...
Damn, they beat us to it.
He cleared his throat. "Team Leader Lin, our team is also applying."
Gu Kaizhi hadn't spoken before, but now he glanced at the other two captains without saying a word, though his meaning was clear.
Lin Yuan understood what the squad leaders were thinking, so he didn't say anything but nodded and said, "Okay, but for the safety of the team, you can only go out in turns."
This is an unspoken rule.
Luo Yonghui nodded and said to the other two, "Shall we stick to the usual rules?"
Zou Minghua clicked his tongue. "The old rules are fine then."
He turned to his team members behind him and asked them to bring out some branches, saying, "Those who draw the shortest branches get priority."
As Luo Yonghui hesitated over which cigarette to smoke, Gu Kaizhi glanced at Jiang Shu, and Zou Minghua immediately understood. "Hey Luo, you guys can't cheat, can you? Let your young comrade turn his back first?"
Luo Yonghui laughed in exasperation.
This old Zou.
They were shameless when they wanted to steal people, but now they're showing some real discernment.
He turned to Jiang Shu and said, "You carry him over first."
Jiang Shu originally had no intention of cheating, but after being told that, he felt uneasy if he didn't investigate.
So, taking advantage of the favorable angle, he winked at Luo Yonghui before turning away.
Jiang Shu: "Alright, I'll go back to the car. I won't stand here and get in your way."
Back in the car, Jiang Shu couldn't help but complain to Jiang Zhi, "What exactly does Gu Kaizhi mean? We've been out for so long, and I haven't seen him do anything out of line. He's just quite good at being sarcastic."
Jiang Zhi frowned.
In fact, she didn't understand what Gu Kaizhi was trying to do either.
Along the way, while it's true that they harbored hostility towards the Jiang family members and caused them quite a bit of unpleasantness, it's hard to tell how much hatred they felt.
Jiang Zhi sighed, "Since we're here, let's make the best of it and see what happens."
At this moment, only the brother and sister and Ershun were in the car, so Jiang Shu no longer needed to hide his thoughts.
"Hey Zhi, have you noticed anything unusual in Shashi?"
Jiang Zhi shook her head: "No."
The entire city of Shashi is like a ghost town.
Even the dashboard looked empty.
She was certain there was something wrong beneath the sinkhole.
But before figuring out exactly what the problem was, Jiang Zhi didn't dare to take any rash actions.
Moreover, the temperature drop is also suspicious.
An ominous premonition weighed on her heart.
This made Jiang Zhi unusually anxious.
"Brother, do you think winter might come early?"
Jiang Shu was taken aback. "That shouldn't be the case. Although the temperature has dropped, the sun's temperature is still quite high. Could it be a problem in Shashi?"
Jiang Zhi didn't speak.
After a moment, he said, "We'll know when the people from the Southern Base arrive tomorrow."
If winter has indeed arrived early, then the mutants from the southern base coming from the south will certainly feel the temperature change.
The two chatted for a short while, and then Luo Yonghui, with a happy expression, led the group back to the car.
Jiang Shu leaned closer and asked, "So, Uncle Luo, did you choose it?"
Luo Yonghui laughed heartily, "With your hint, how could I not choose? It's a pity you didn't see Lao Zou's sour face just now."
Jiang Zhi: "Uncle Luo, where are you planning to go?"
Luo Yonghui: "Why are you asking me? Let your brother take a look."
There's no way around it, Jiang Shu's superpowers are just too useful.
It's an absolute must-have for treasure hunting.
Jiang Shu curled his lip, thinking to himself that Luo Yonghui didn't know what he was talking about; the most skilled treasure hunter was right in front of him and he didn't even realize it.
“Uncle Luo, I’ve already looked around this area, and I haven’t found anything special.”
Luo Yonghui frowned.
At this point, Chen Shaoting suggested, "If it doesn't work out, let's take a walk around this sinkhole. We have three hours, so we have plenty of time."
Upon hearing this, everyone thought it was feasible and had no objections.
Wu Bing smoothly shifted gears and started the jeep, muttering happily, "Great! I've never been to Shashi before, so this is a good opportunity to take a look around and fulfill a long-held wish!"
Upon hearing this, Jiang Zhi couldn't help but twitch her lips.
To "fulfill a dream" in this desolate, empty city?
That's a truly outrageous joke.
The car quickly began to move along the edge of the sinkhole.
As darkness fell, the enormous crater looked even more sinister.
Jiang Shu used his supernatural abilities to observe the surrounding area along the way, but still found nothing.
Left with no other choice, Luo Yonghui had to let him see what was going on at the bottom of the pit.
Jiang Zhi said, "Uncle Luo, how about we go down there? We don't need to get too close, just about a kilometer away."
Luo Yonghui: ...
For some reason, this girl's ideas always give people the creeps.
Wu Bing, in the driver's seat, cleared his throat.
"Hey, Jiang girl, do you know what a thousand meters underground means?"
Yan Liang crossed his arms and said seriously, "If we calculate based on three meters per floor, one thousand meters is equivalent to more than 300 ordinary residential buildings. Even if you take an elevator, it will take more than ten minutes to get there."
Jiang Zhi looked completely innocent.
"You've climbed giant trees that are thousands of meters tall, so a pit a thousand meters below the surface shouldn't be a big deal, right?"
The men were rendered speechless by her words.
But it also makes a strange sense.
Chen Shaoting, who was standing to the side, chuckled and said, "I think it's feasible."
If you want to find good stuff, you have to take some risks.
Luo Yonghui sighed, "Alright, kid Jiang, keep an eye out and see if there's anywhere down there that's convenient for a temporary stop."
Jiang Shu chuckled: "Leave it to me."
Wu Bing sighed, "It seems we're getting old; we don't have much of an adventurous spirit left."
Hu Yang said weakly, "It's not that... I'm too young, and I don't have much of an adventurous spirit..."
Luo Yonghui laughed and said, "Yangzi, you're too young, it's normal for you to be scared."
The more they encounter death, the more afraid they become of it.
The group chatted idly as the convoy slowly drove around the sinkhole. After about twenty minutes, Jiang Shu finally found a suitable place to stand at the bottom of the sinkhole wall, about 1,000 meters below the surface, in a park.
The platform protruding from the pit wall is nearly a thousand meters deep above the ground. It's not very big, only about a meter or so protruding out of the rock wall, and just over a meter and a half wide. It looks like it can only accommodate two people standing side by side at most, and it's hard to tell how sturdy it is.
Luo Yonghui originally planned to go down alone.
Jiang Zhi said, "Uncle Luo, let me go down with you. My spiritual power seems to be able to sense something down there."
Luo Yonghui agreed upon hearing this.
Having learned from her experience with the giant cloud tree, Jiang Zhi quickly caught up with Luo Yonghui's pace this time.
After putting on their headlamps and securing themselves with safety chains, the two began to fall down the rope.
When you poke the headlamp beam down, it's pitch black underneath.
Perhaps it was because the sky was getting darker.
Jiang Zhi always felt that the blackness in the sinkhole was like ink had been splashed on it, making it even darker.
Jiang Zhi gripped the rope tightly, her palms burning from the friction. Her headlamp illuminated the dark pit walls beneath her feet, where pebbles fell from time to time, and the wind howled and whistled as it rose from the bottom of the pit.
"Slow down!" Luo Yonghui shouted from below, "Something's not right with the pit walls!"
As soon as Jiang Zhi's foot touched the soft mud at the bottom of the pit, it sank in half with a "plop," and a smell of earth and dampness hit her face.
Jiang Zhi was somewhat surprised and uncertain—the pit walls were actually so soft?!
A thought suddenly popped into her mind—could it be that the pit is expanding because the walls are too soft?
Before she could think it through, Luo Yonghui went down another ten meters or so.
Jiang Zhi quickly gathered her scattered thoughts and followed the falling.
The beam of the headlamp swept across the surroundings, revealing only uneven rock walls. The sound of dripping wind echoed through the pit, making one's ears ache.
The further down you go, the longer the rope stretches, and the easier it is to sway.
If you don't hold onto the protrusions on the pit wall, it's easy for it to be blown around by the wind.
As we drove on, there were no warnings displayed on the dashboard.
There aren't even any green indicator dots representing ordinary living beings.
This deep pit, like Shashi, is desolate to the point of being terrifying.
Strangely, the deeper you go, the more you can smell a faint scent of grass.
It felt like being on a vast grassland.
It took the two of them thirty minutes to find the place Jiang Shu had mentioned.
Luo Yonghui hung in mid-air, tentatively reaching down with his feet. After confirming he wouldn't fall, he gripped a protruding rock face with his fingers, slowly lowered himself, and then gently placed his feet on the ground.
Once on the platform, Luo Yonghui took out a flashlight and carefully inspected the area.
Finding a huge rock embedded in the pit wall beneath their feet, which seemed quite safe, they called out to Jiangzhi above:
"You can stand underneath!"
He was about to lean back when his lower back hit a sharp rock, and he hissed in pain.
He looked up and told Jiangzhi, "It's uneven here, be careful when you come down."
Jiangzhi gave him an "OK" sign.
Five minutes had passed by the time she landed on the rocks.
The beam of the headlamp pierced straight into the huge black pit.
The beam of light swept across the rubble and damp soil on the pit walls, casting long shadows at the edges, while the deeper parts remained completely dark, the beam of light seemingly swallowed up and disappearing without end.
Jiang Zhi felt that the scent of grass from the prairie was even stronger.
She couldn't help but ask, "Uncle Luo, can you smell anything?"
At this depth, Jiang Zhi's voice sounded muffled, as if enveloped by something, carrying an indescribable strangeness.
Luo Yonghui sniffed, but could only detect the earthy smell of the pit walls. "What do you smell?"
Jiang Zhi's heart stirred.
Could it be that this smell... is only detectable by myself?
Jiang Zhi briefly explained what she had felt, and Luo Yonghui frowned upon hearing this.
"The smell of grass? Could it be that the bottom of this pit is overgrown with mutated wild grass?"
The logic was sound, but Jiang Zhi felt it wasn't that simple. She could clearly smell the warm, comforting scent of the sun in the grassy aroma.
Jiang Zhi remained silent.
She was also very curious about what was at the bottom of the pit.
At this moment, Luo Yonghui picked up a piece of soft mud and threw it down.
This time, Jiang Zhi saw it very clearly—the instant the soft mud disappeared, a blue light flashed.
Jiang Zhi's heart skipped a beat, and she quickly said, "Uncle Luo! Did you see that?"
Luo Yonghui grunted in response, his tone flat: "Disappeared again."
Jiang Zhi was stunned—could it be that only she could see this light?
She couldn't resist trying it a few more times.
Luo Yonghui frowned more and more as he looked at the objects, muttering, "Strange, these things vanished into thin air, where did they go?"
Throughout the entire process, he never mentioned the blue light that flashed before disappearing.
Now Jiang Zhi was completely certain—it was indeed only she who could perceive the anomaly at the bottom of the pit.
Could it be related to the dashboard?
Thinking this, Jiangzhi threw another pebble down.
This time, the moment the blue light appeared, Jiang Zhi quickly scanned it with her mental energy.
Immediately afterwards, a huge yellow light filled her mental pool.
"Beep—Found #&#$, recommended to bookmark."
In just one second, the yellow light vanished without a trace.
Jiang Zhi felt completely frozen in place for that one second.
Beneath this blue light, there exists something beyond her capabilities—no, it should be said that it transcends the capabilities of the dashboard.
The dashboard can't even clearly indicate what something is.
At this moment, Jiang Zhi's heart was beating a little fast.
—The treasure that Luo Yonghui mentioned was indeed hidden at the bottom of this deep pit.
While Jiang Zhi was pondering, Luo Yonghui thought she wanted to take another risk, so he immediately said, "Jiang girl, that's enough for today. Don't do anything reckless before you figure out what's going on down there."
It's not easy for the base to acquire such a talented person.
He doesn't want to die here.
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