bad seeds - Chapter 13
Times! "
He then added:
"I'm not exaggerating; this is a conservative estimate based on the current situation."
“‘The ghost trees run rampant, their branches stained with blood; the fertile soil is eroded, and the common people weep.’ Is history about to repeat itself?” Ye Tong was momentarily at a loss.
"'Enter my sacred chamber, take my sacred stone, place it south of Su, and cast it into the demon mountain. Where the stone remains, demons will not arise.' The sacred stone—we must obtain the sacred stone!" I picked up the last parchment scroll and emphasized, "Following the instructions on the parchment scroll, we must enter Baigong Mountain and place the sacred stone in the correct location to stop the growth of the 'mother'!"
“Then tell me, what is a ‘Holy Stone’? My men have searched the entire spaceship and found no trace of any ‘Holy Stone’!” Liang Yingwu said.
“Then let’s analyze this. Isn’t that exactly what you’re good at? The ‘mother’ is only afraid of two things—low temperature and radiation. The ‘holy stone’ is definitely not ice. Ice cannot create a sustained low temperature, and nothing that looks like a stone can create a sustained low temperature. That only means radiation…”
... (Excerpt omitted)
"It's truly dramatic that from the Neolithic Age until now, this very people, forgotten by civilization and deceived by science, have steadfastly shouldered the mission of protecting the human environment!" Liang Yingwu exclaimed. "What a cruel twist of fate!"
"So what should we do now?" Ye Tong asked, as if waking from a dream. "I think the only way to solve this problem is to enter Baigong Mountain," I said.
"Do you think I don't know? The problem is, how do we get in?" Liang Yingwu asked impatiently.
"Aren't you in charge here? Take us in," Ye Tong said.
Liang Yingwu gave a wry smile and said, "In fact, I am only one of the persons in charge. If it weren't for differing opinions from the mainstream, I wouldn't have left the Baigongshan base to come here and preside over the excavation and research of the spaceship."
"Mainstream opinion? What is mainstream opinion?" I asked.
"The mainstream opinion is..." Liang Yingwu hesitated for a moment, but still revealed to us, "that the Baigongshan phenomenon is worth studying and utilizing."
"But the situation is out of control now. Don't those top scientists understand this?"
"Actually, everyone understands the current situation, but the response measures are different. Research and utilization are orders from above, and we must ask our superiors for permission before we can take any action."
"So, do you want to ask your superiors for instructions now, or should we go to Baigong Mountain together to take a look?" I asked.
Liang Yingwu raised his hand in a "wait" gesture, then made a phone call, which led to his decision.
"They did not take my advice to increase the radiation dose, but they did replace all the iron fences with wooden fences, and everyone except the necessary observers and equipment is being moved here."
"Then we..."
Liang Yingwu picked up the last parchment scroll, which contained a maze-like map, and said:
"We'll take this opportunity to visit the center of the 'mother'."
Mount Baigong.
The evacuation caused some chaos. Liang Yingwu took a detour and only encountered two sentries. He revealed his identity and told a small lie, saying he was going to Baigong Mountain Cave to retrieve forgotten equipment. We easily passed the checkpoint.
The intense radiation exposure had stopped, but a considerable amount of radiation remained in the mountains. Liang Yingwu, Ye Tong, and I all put on bulky radiation protection suits. Heavy breathing echoed repeatedly in my helmet, making me both nervous and somewhat dizzy.
Because Liang Yingwu often wore radiation protection clothing while working, he was much more dexterous than us, so he was the one who carried the small drilling machine.
Looking up from the foot of Mount Baigong, you can clearly see the "iron pipes" growing out of the mountain. They are much more noticeable than when I saw them just over a week ago, when they were only vaguely rusty. The entrance to the cave leading into the mountain has been completely sanded and turned white, looking as if it could collapse at any moment.
Liang Yingwu went in without hesitation, and Ye Tong and I followed closely behind, turning on the overhead lights of our anti-radiation suits.
Inside the cave, where the light could reach, the traces of rust on the white rock walls seemed to leave scars. The number of branching paths in the cave far exceeded our imagination, like the marks left behind when a lush tree growing in the mountains was suddenly pulled out. We could also often see iron pipes that had broken off from the "mother tree" and were stuck in the rock strata, which made us imagine the wild growth of the "mother tree" here 2.5 million years ago.
Liang Yingwu walked very slowly, stopping from time to time to carefully compare the parchment scroll in his hand with the dim light of his helmet lamp to make sure that he was on the right track through every gap and around every corner.
The deeper we went into the cave, the narrower the passage became. After the 13th bend, the path was only wide enough for one person to pass at a time, and sometimes we had to turn sideways to walk. Liang Yingwu's small drilling machine constantly crashed against the rock wall, causing the sandy rock to crumble and the echoes to reverberate in the cramped space. Although the sound entering the radiation protection suit was not very loud, the dull sound was still very uncomfortable.
As Liang Yingwu struggled forward, he reminded us to be careful with our radiation protection suits and not to let them get torn by the rock face, as the radiation intensity here was already dozens of times higher than the lethal dose and was still increasing.
We are approaching the center of the "mother body".
Liang Yingwu suddenly stopped moving forward.
Because the passageway was quite narrow, neither Ye Tong nor I could see what he had encountered.
He suddenly let out a long sigh and turned around to say:
"arrive."
arrive?
Ye Tong and I looked around, but as far as the eye could see, there was nothing but gray-white rock walls. Even the iron pipe branches that we could see before had disappeared.
Liang Yingwu suddenly turned on the drilling machine, and the loud noise instantly engulfed the entire tunnel. Ye Tong and I could see each other's faces contorted in shock by the sudden noise through our masks. We suddenly realized that we couldn't cover our ears with our hands.
Liang Yingwu was like a skilled driller, cutting and crushing the rock face like a biscuit. When the gravel and rubble on the ground were almost up to my ankles, the drilling machine stopped with a sigh, and a space big enough to accommodate three people had been drilled out at the end of the tunnel.
Ye Tong and I were both enraged by Liang Yingwu's crude and simplistic approach. We struggled to pull our feet out of the pile of rocks, and were about to confront Liang Yingwu when he preemptively struck:
"Let's not waste any more time. The radiation here is quite strong, and we don't have much time left. Come and take a look."
The place where the three beams of light converged was a small hole about ten centimeters in diameter.
Liang Yingwu picked up the parchment scroll, flattened it against the wall, and pointed to the end of the maze on the map, saying:
"According to the instructions on the parchment, this is where Ye Tong's people have been releasing radioactive elements into the 'mother body' for thousands of years."
"You mean, this small hole leads to the core of the 'mother'?" Ye Tong seemed somewhat incredulous.
"If we're on the right track, how do we get in?" I asked.
Liang Yingwu smiled and picked up the small drilling machine, saying: