Nearly ten minutes later, Zhou Ziwei finally decided to give up. Rome wasn't built in a day, and there was no rush. They should think of another way later. Anyway, the three of them had already entered this strange world, and now they could see nothing but endless darkness and endless red vines. So even though they had found the exit to return, Zhou Ziwei was reluctant to go back immediately.
This place can be viewed again after mastering the force field space once more, but besides complete darkness, there are only those identical red vines below. Once you leave this place, finding the original location again won't be so easy, since there are no obvious landmarks here...
However, this problem did not stump Zhou Ziwei. After a moment's thought, he came up with a solution. He then squatted down, parted the thick layer of red plants under his feet, and grabbed a handful from the ground.
The sand was surprised that these red plants actually grew on the sand.
Zhou Ziwei immediately had a thought. Since this thing could thrive in such a dark environment and in the sand, its vitality was evident.
If we could collect some seeds and specimens of this plant, then perhaps we could cultivate this unusual plant on a large scale in the desert.
If this idea succeeds, it will be equivalent to completely solving the crisis of desertification. In that case, the trip will not have been in vain.
Volume Two: The Assassin's Nightmare, Chapter 379: A Mighty Inferno
With a thought, Zhou Ziwei first threw down the handful of sand he was holding, then released his soul power to scan the red vines at his feet. He was surprised to find that the vines were hollow and filled with a viscous red liquid. The plants seemed to have reached maturity, with two or three fruits, each only the size of a fingernail, but shaped very similarly to lotus pods, on each plant.
Each lotus pod contained about a dozen lotus seeds, and after Zhou Ziwei scanned them with his soul power, he found that most of the lotus seeds had fallen into the sand, with only a few still wrapped in the lotus pod.
These lotus seeds, no bigger than a grain of rice, must be the seeds of this plant! I should collect more of them.
Zhou Ziwei pondered for a moment and then immediately took action. The lotus seeds fell into the sand, and in terms of both color and size, they were almost indistinguishable from ordinary sand grains. If one only looked at them, it would be difficult to tell which were sand and which were lotus seeds.
However, with the help of his soul power, Zhou Ziwei was not fooled by the natural disguise of the plant seeds. With just a slight glance, he could easily distinguish them.
Using both hands, he quickly searched the sandy ground beneath his feet for hundreds of lotus seeds.
Seeing that one of the sampling compartments on his combat uniform was almost full of lotus seeds, Zhou Ziwei stopped. Then, just to be on the safe side, he carefully picked up two more whole red plants from the sand and put them into another sampling port on his body that had more space.
However, when he picked up the red plant, he accidentally broke one of its vines and immediately felt his hand covered in an oily, sticky sap. This sap had a faint, pleasant fragrance and felt slightly burning on his hand.
Zhou Ziwei didn't know if the substance was poisonous, so he didn't dare to be careless. He quickly put the hand with the sticky substance into the sand and rubbed it vigorously a few times until he had wiped most of the sticky substance off. Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief.
"Ziwei... are you still here?" While Zhou Ziwei was busy on this side, Wang Xuewei called out from the other side, already somewhat panicked.
“Oh…I’ll be right there…” Zhou Ziwei responded, then grabbed another handful of sand from the ground, picked out a larger grain, and slowly infused it with a wisp of soul power…
The sand grains were very small and had a simple structure, so Zhou Ziwei had successfully created a simple, independent soul entity within them in less than a second.
After creating the independent soul, Zhou Ziwei bent down again, dug a sand pit half a foot deep in the sand, and then buried the grain of sand in it.
Even if this grain of sand had an independent soul, it would be of little use. Zhou Ziwei was just doing this to make a mark here.
Although the independent soul within this grain of sand will quickly dissipate due to the lack of replenishment of soul power, it will still leave a soul imprint in the sand. When Zhou Ziwei comes to this area again in the future, he will be able to sense the location of this soul imprint and thus determine whether this is the place where he descended from the sky.
As Zhou Ziwei took a few steps forward, about to join Wang Xuewei and Chu Qiutang in leaving, he suddenly felt a restlessness in his arms.
Zhou Ziwei was slightly taken aback, then vigorously tapped his head and gave a wry smile. He hadn't expected that because he had been living on the snowy mountain for a while, he had to put all his Kun pets into a state of hibernation. In the long run, Zhou Ziwei had almost forgotten about the existence of these little creatures.
Zhou Ziwei shook his head, then pulled open his combat suit and squeezed open the two wax pills he had hidden close to his body. Before preparing to cross that black hole space, Zhou Ziwei had already made preparations, putting all of his dozen or so Kun pets into these two sealed wax pills and letting them sleep inside for a long time.
Fortunately, despite their pitifully small size, these Kun pets possessed a level of spiritual power far exceeding that of ordinary humans. Therefore, even after the terrifying suction force of the black hole space absorbed some of their spiritual power, it did not cause them much harm. Zhou Ziwei sensed them lightly and was relieved. Sure enough, none of the dozen or so Kun pets had died, although a few of them were slightly weakened in their independent spiritual forms.
Zhou Ziwei immediately replenished the soul power of all dozen or so Kun pets, then kept two small mosquitoes and one small ladybug, and put the rest back into the wax pellet.
After all, it's pitch black inside. Even mosquitoes, which can adapt to the darkness, have trouble distinguishing things in this almost absolute darkness. As for insects with poor eyesight, such as fruit flies and ladybugs, they are even less of a threat here.
Otherwise, Zhou Ziwei could use these Kun pets to fly up into the sky and see what was going on.
Although Zhou Ziwei could use Kun Chong as a vessel to release his soul power a second time for exploration, the method of releasing soul power remotely consumes a terrifying amount of soul power, and the range of exploration that can be explored is also very limited when the soul power is released from Kun Chong's body.
If Zhou Ziwei could pinpoint the exact location of the exit where he appeared in this world, things would be fine. However, he can only vaguely estimate that it was at least 300 meters in the air, which is a very large area. Therefore, using Kun Chong to explore this area is basically not feasible.
After calming the Kun creatures that had just woken up from their dormant state, Zhou Ziwei quickly walked towards Wang Xuewei and Chu Qiutang, while the three Kun creatures he had released obediently landed on him.
"Thank God, you're finally back."
Hearing Zhou Ziwei's footsteps approaching, Wang Xuewei asked a question in the darkness and finally breathed a sigh of relief.
However, when Zhou Ziwei suggested leaving, Chu Qiutang suddenly said that she wanted to collect samples of the plants and soil here.
Zhou Ziwei wanted to say that he had already collected all the plant seeds, but then he realized that he had only collected plant specimens and had not collected any sand specimens. If the sand here was not the same as the sand in the desert, then his original idea of transforming the desert might not be successful.
So Zhou Ziwei didn't say anything to stop him.
With a soft "snap," Chu Qiutang turned on the light on her helmet again. Then, using the light, she opened several pockets on her combat uniform and rummaged around for a moment. Suddenly, she exclaimed, "Oh no, my... my vacuum sampling pack is gone!"
Chu Qiutang is the medic of this expedition team, and also one of the people in charge of collecting soil and plant samples. Her main role in the expedition team is to do these non-combat tasks. Therefore, among the accessories of her combat uniform is a set of very professional sampling kits, including vacuum sampling kits and oxygen-enriched sampling kits, etc. Different samples can be collected into different sampling kits, so as to ensure that the samples are kept in their most original state and will not die or deteriorate after being left for ten days or so.
For example, if Zhou Ziwei casually dug up two red plants and stuffed them into his ordinary sampling bag, those plants would likely wither and die completely in no time.
Upon hearing that Chu Qiutang had lost something, Zhou Ziwei recalled how he had roughly ripped off her combat uniform when he rescued her earlier. He figured that's when her belongings might have fallen off. He quickly reassured her, "Oh, it's alright. You haven't left here. If you lost something, it should be around here. Let's search for it together."
"Oh, well... thank you..." Chu Qiutang responded softly, then adjusted the angle of the light on her hat and began to bend down to search among the dense red vines at her feet.
The lights on Zhou Ziwei and Wang Xuewei's hats had run out of power, but besides that, each of them had at least two high-performance lighters on them. They each took out a lighter, lit it, and then squatted down to help Chu Qiutang search.
In fact, Zhou Ziwei could have used his soul power to scan the sample package and should have been able to find it for Chu Qiutang very quickly. However... Zhou Ziwei didn't want to expose his secrets to them, so even if he were to use his soul power to scan, he had to pretend to do it.
As Zhou Ziwei scanned the surroundings with his soul power, pretending to hold up a lighter and shine it randomly on the ground, he suddenly heard Chu Qiutang exclaim softly, "How strange... these plants, how come... how come they wither immediately when exposed to light?"
"Really?" Wang Xuewei hadn't noticed this phenomenon. It was probably because the light emitted by the lighter was too dim and couldn't be focused.
However, Wang Xuewei was curious and deliberately moved the lighter closer to the plants. But because the flame of the lighter was always pointing upwards, when she lowered the lighter, her fair little hand naturally felt a bit scorched. She couldn't help but let out a soft cry and could only raise the lighter in her hand again.
She turned her head to look at Chu Qiutang next to her, and was surprised to see that under the illumination of Chu Qiutang's helmet light, the leaves on that small patch of red plant had indeed withered quickly.
Wang Xuewei was even more curious, so she couldn't help but reach out and grab a vine and pull hard, breaking the plant in half. Then she held the broken plant high above the flame of the light machine and shone it on it.
However, Wang Xuewei did not notice that immediately after she broke the vine, a string of viscous liquid began to flow from the break, dripping continuously onto the plant below.
As Wang Xuewei raised the severed vine high, the viscous liquid flowing from it swayed slightly, just barely brushing past the flame on the lighter, and then—
With a "whoosh," the dripping viscous liquid ignited instantly upon passing over the flame, turning into tiny, pale red sparks that scattered across the ground with a "plop."
As soon as the sparks landed on the plants below, they instantly scorched the dark red plants, causing them to wither rapidly at a visible speed. Then, in just two seconds, the highly adhesive sparks burned through the outer walls of the vines, and the viscous liquid inside flowed out and was immediately ignited.
"Ah—" The vine in Wang Xuewei's hand was also ignited by the sparks burning from below, instantly turning into a thin fire snake. Startled, Wang Xuewei screamed and threw the burning thing to the ground.
And this single burning vine quickly ignited even more red plants.
In the blink of an eye, Wang Xuewei was engulfed in a raging inferno and let out a piercing scream.
Zhou Ziwei was taken aback. He flew over like the wind, grabbed Wang Xuewei who was completely terrified by the flames, and carried her out of the sea of fire.
Fortunately, their super gear had fireproof and heat-insulating properties, so although Wang Xuewei was trapped in the fire and burned for a few seconds, apart from her eyes being choked by smoke and unable to open, she was not seriously injured.
However, Wang Xuewei's clothes were already stained with some sticky plant liquid. As Zhou Ziwei carried her out, the flickering sparks were also brought out of the flames, and the fire was quickly amplified by Wang Xuewei's movement.
Zhou Ziwei was sweating profusely. He knew that if he continued to carry Wang Xuewei and run, he would only cause the fire to spread.
After hesitating for a moment, he simply stopped and plucked all the red plants around their landing spot, then grabbed a handful of sand and rubbed it hard on the embers that were still slowly burning on their bodies, finally extinguishing the fire.
The fire on the two of them was extinguished, but they were now trapped in an even larger sea of fire. The red plants around them were all burning, and as the fire grew stronger, the sea of fire spread faster and faster. In just this short time, the area within a dozen meters was already a raging inferno.
"Ah—" Just as Zhou Ziwei extinguished the fire on Wang Xuewei's body, Chu Qiutang let out a scream. Then, Zhou Ziwei saw that Chu Qiutang, who was unable to dodge in time, seemed to have her feet entangled by the vines. In a panic, she stumbled and fell to the ground, and was instantly engulfed by the sea of fire.
"Damn it, stay here and don't move..." Zhou Ziwei complained helplessly, then gently patted Wang Xuewei, who was already in a daze, and whispered a few words of advice. Then he took a deep breath, pulled down his mask, activated his closed breathing system, and plunged headfirst into the flames that had already leaped two or three meters high in a short time.
In the midst of his busy schedule, Zhou Ziwei didn't forget to have the three Kun beasts he had just released crawl into his mask as well.
Entering the boundless flames, Zhou Ziwei quickly became a human torch engulfed in flames from head to toe. Although his clothes had excellent heat insulation properties, Zhou Ziwei discovered that once the oil in these vines was ignited, the flames produced were exceptionally intense. Even with his physique, being surrounded by these flames felt unbearably hot, let alone the two women.
Zhou Ziwei didn't care at all whether he would get covered in flames, so crossing seven or eight meters was just a matter of a breath. He had already rushed to Chu Qiutang, who had fallen to the ground.
It seemed that Chu Qiutang was so frightened by this sudden change that she lost her composure and didn't even think to put on her mask. As a result, under the scorching flames, in just a short while, her beautiful face was burned beyond recognition, and she had naturally already fainted.
Zhou Ziwei cursed under his breath as a "stupid woman," then quickly picked her up, fastened her mask, and helped her activate her breathing and circulation system before crossing the sea of fire again and returning to the small, fireless area where Wang Xuewei was.
When Wang Xuewei watched Zhou Ziwei dive back into the fire, she snapped out of her dazed state. Seeing the enormous disaster she had caused, she was filled with remorse, and tears streamed down her face uncontrollably.
When he saw Zhou Ziwei carrying Chu Qiutang back through the sea of fire, he didn't wait for Zhou Ziwei to call out to him. He immediately grabbed some sand from the ground and frantically smeared it on Chu Qiutang, who was covered in flames.
As for Zhou Ziwei, she didn't need to worry about him. He simply used his burrowing technique, burrowing into and out of the sand, and the fire on his body was immediately extinguished.
"I'm so sorry... It's all my fault... What should we do now... Will Miss Chu be alright?"
After Wang Xuewei finally managed to extinguish the sparks on Chu Qiutang's body, she saw that Chu Qiutang had already fainted. Moreover, through the transparent mask, she could see that Chu Qiutang's face was burned beyond recognition. At that moment, she was filled with remorse and didn't know what to say. If it weren't for the mask on her face, she would probably have slapped herself a lot right now.
Zhou Ziwei gave a wry smile and said, "Although this fire was started because of you, who could have known that the liquid inside this plant would be so flammable? This stuff... is even more terrifying than gasoline. We were holding a lighter and shining it around without knowing the details, and... we were bound to cause this kind of trouble sooner or later. It's just that you were the first to make a mistake, so you don't need to worry about it..."
Volume 2, The Assassin's Nightmare, Chapter 380: There Was Once a Sincere Love
Hearing Zhou Ziwei's words of comfort, Wang Xuewei didn't feel much better. She still bit her lip tightly and said with tears streaming down her face, "I don't care. When I decided to come here with you, I already thought that I might not be able to go back alive. But... now I've dragged you down, and I've even caused Chu Qiutang's face to burn like this. How can I not care?"
Zhou Ziwei gently shook his head and said, "We should be in the same boat now, so it's not a matter of who is dragging whom down. You don't need to take it too seriously. I'll be fine. As for Chu Qiutang... her face is a bit troublesome, but if there's time to treat it slowly, I'm confident I can help her heal and make sure there won't be any scars left on her face."
"Really? Her...her face is so badly injured, how can it be healed?" Wang Xuewei looked down at Chu Qiutang's face, which was covered in blisters under the mask, and couldn't help but doubt Zhou Ziwei's words.
"If I say it's possible, then it's possible!" Zhou Ziwei didn't offer much explanation for Chu Qiutang's doubts. Instead, he frowned, looked around, and pondered how to escape their current predicament.
The fire spread very quickly; in just a short while, it had already reached a distance of several hundred meters. As far as the eye could see, a sea of fire rose, seemingly without end.
As the flames around them grew stronger, the temperature in their small area, though not directly exposed to the fire, rose steadily. Despite wearing heat-insulating combat suits, the intense heat was still unbearable.
Moreover, Zhou Ziwei originally thought that the underground vines were just a thin layer, and even if the plant tubes were filled with a viscous liquid like gasoline, they would not last long under such a large fire and would be extinguished soon.
However, Zhou Ziwei discovered that he had underestimated this strange vine. The viscous oil contained in the plant burned endlessly. But that wasn't all. When Zhou Ziwei noticed that the sand on the ground was also starting to rise with wisps of pale blue flames under the scorching heat, he finally knew that he couldn't stay here any longer.
It is obvious that this plant has been growing in this sandy area for countless years, and the viscous liquid from its vines must have seeped into the ground year after year, perhaps even soaking every grain of sand in this area.
After being diluted by the sand and some of the liquid may have evaporated, it might not ignite immediately. So, although the vines growing on the sandy ground beneath their feet had already caught fire, the sand underneath did not follow suit after Zhou Ziwei quickly cleared them away.
But now, after being intensely roasted by the surrounding flames, the flammable components soaked in the sand have finally been evaporated, and as a result... this fire will probably not be extinguished in a short time!
Zhou Ziwei had originally considered using the method of burrowing underground to take Wang Xuewei and Chu Qiutang underground to hide for a while if all else failed, but now that even the sand was burning, this method was definitely not going to work.
If the sand underneath also rises up, those hiding underneath might end up as roasted shrimp!
We must leave as soon as possible! Otherwise, the longer we linger, the greater the danger will be.
The farther the fire will spread, the further it will reach!
However, poor Zhou Ziwei now has no force field space, so he is unable to fly away with his two female companions. If he were to use liquid soul power, he could only levitate his body at most half a meter to a little over a meter in the air, which is out of the question!
Fortunately, Zhou Ziwei's speed is quite considerable. Even if he were to traverse a sea of fire, Zhou Ziwei estimated that he could run out of this hundred-meter-long sea of fire in about two seconds. If he were carrying two people, it might be a little slower, but four seconds would still be enough.
No matter how fast the fire spreads, it can't outrun Zhou Ziwei's speed.
For Zhou Ziwei, being burned in the fire for a few seconds was no big deal.