What secrets were these things hiding? In this ruined world, how many mysteries still lay buried that she didn't know? In her past life, Jing Shu had wasted her time drifting aimlessly through the gray ruins, with nothing to her name but regret. This time, she had the Rubik's Cube Space, a treasure beyond comprehension. That alone gave her the quiet confidence to face anything.
Besides, things that couldn't be explained by science weren't necessarily miracles; they just existed on a level beyond human understanding. She believed even the Rubik's Cube Space could be explained by science someday, and these dead trees must have an answer too. Once that thought took root, it couldn't be stopped. After a moment of silent thought, she finally made up her mind.
"Tonight, we rest here for eight hours. I will find out what is wrong with these tree roots and figure out a way out of these mountains. We can't just keep wandering aimlessly."
She had the Cube Space, so she wasn't afraid. But the three bags of food she had brought for the team were running out fast. The meat was almost gone, and the rest wouldn't last long. Worse, her teammates were fading before her eyes. If this went on, they would die before she found a way out. She didn't want to leave the mountains alone just to complete that ridiculous mission in America. Her real goal was to gather supplies, not chase someone else's orders.
After saying that, she took out the remaining food from their luggage and started eating to regain her strength. What she was about to do would take total focus, and she needed to stay sharp.
Xiao Hei lay flat on the cold ground, his lips pale and his eyes sunken into his skull, too weak to move his limbs. He panted heavily, cursing nonstop in a raspy voice. "Damn it, I haven't taken a shit in five days. Where the hell did all the food I ate go?"
Snake Spirit pointed at his Thai-patterned python coiled nearby. "Let my Taiban stay with you. It's still in decent shape. If there's danger, it might help you hold out a bit."
Jing Shu shook her head. "No need. You guys get some rest. We have been pushing too hard these past days. Maybe tomorrow you will feel better."
"It's no use," Snake Spirit sighed. "I can feel it; it's our life force draining away. Look at that cart made of dead wood. It's rotting faster. Even our weapons are covered in rust. I keep wondering if time flows differently here than outside, but it sounds insane."
"Whatever it's, we will know soon enough," Jing Shu said quietly.
Xiao Dou had also sensed the tension in the air. She clutched her nest and obediently lay at Jing Shu's feet, glaring at Yi Hou sprawled nearby, then pecked the ant up and threw it back into the colony.
After filling her stomach, Jing Shu went to the nearest dead tree and sat cross-legged before its thick, gnarled roots.
She released all the elite man-eating bugs she had cultivated, letting them gnaw rapidly through the wood of the roots. These insects had been carefully bred, fed daily with diluted Spirit Spring water. She had absolute control over them. There was no limit on distance or duration, and through them, she could see everything underground as if through her own eyes.
She tied processed silk threads around each bug. The silk was light yet strong, her longest and finest weave, originally meant to steal items from afar in America. But now, it was perfect for this deep exploration.
The silk gave her a physical tether, strengthening her control, and most importantly, it acted as a medium. The Rubik's Cube Space required direct contact to absorb objects. With the silk acting as that link, anything the threads touched could be drawn into the Cube Space.
There were hundreds of root branches beneath the ground. Jing Shu sent her bugs down every single one, leaving nothing unchecked. Information flooded into her mind all at once, so much that her head felt like it was about to explode from the sensory input.
The bugs she had bred were far faster than ordinary ones. They devoured wood several times quicker, and soon they had spread out along hundreds of branching paths, each leading to a different place. Maybe it was because they had been nourished by Spirit Spring water, but none of them dropped dead this time.
Jing Shu gradually adapted to the flood of information. As the bugs chewed their way deeper, a vast mental map began forming in her mind. Some of the bugs reached dead ends. Some twisted through the dirt and met other tree roots. Others dug even deeper underground.
Hours passed, but none of the bugs reached the end. The mental image in her mind expanded into something enormous: a colossal creature buried deep beneath the earth. Its main body sprawled below, sending out thousands of tendrils that grew upward into dead trees. Each tree then spread more roots, expanding its reach, swallowing more and more territory.
So that's how these things spread, devouring everything and multiplying endlessly.
When Jing Shu realized that all the dead trees aboveground were just extensions of one single underground monster, she was stunned. What kind of freakish plant could spawn this many branches? She had cut down hundreds, maybe thousands, and she hadn't even made a dent. What she had destroyed was barely a sliver of the whole thing.
At least there was one thing to be thankful for; the branches really were plants. They didn't fight back or resist, and they posed no direct threat.
But something else terrified her even more. Each tree contained a chamber that stored crimson liquid, like an industrial IV drip bottle. Countless tiny roots acted as the tubes, slowly pumping that red fluid back into the massive organism at the core underground.
That raised a horrifying question. Where did that crimson liquid come from, and what was it for? What if—just what if—that fluid was actually made from the life force of every living creature around it?
Could these trees be acting like towers that absorbed life energy?
No, that couldn't be it. She had already cut down every tree she could, drained the liquid, and even burned the remains. Yet her teammates' condition kept getting worse each day. That meant the trees only stored the red fluid; they didn't create it.
Now that she understood the branching structure, Jing Shu ordered the bugs to keep digging toward the core. The journey went smoothly, with no resistance at all, though the distance was terrifyingly long.
She had almost run through all ten rolls of silk thread she had brought. If this kept up, she would have to spin more inside the Cube Space. Even her control over the bugs was starting to weaken slightly.
Outside, the mountains were once again shrouded in that dim light. It should have been sunrise, but in this apocalypse, the sun barely glowed behind the thick clouds. Dust filled the sky, forming a thick gray layer that blocked most of the sunlight. All that reached the ground was a faint red haze.
Tank came and went several times, his heavy footsteps echoing. Ling Ling stood far off, silently watching Jing Shu. Snake Spirit's Taiban python slithered by a few times too, but no one dared disturb her. They could only wait and watch from a distance as she sat motionless by the gnarled tree.