"...Dalin?"
She clenched the long summer knife and looked around.
"What do you want to play?"
"Shouldn't I be the one asking you this?"
Dai Lin's cold voice came from among the branches.
"Pretending to be a god... I advise you not to waste your energy. I don't want your lives anyway. Just cooperate with me... maybe you will have a chance to become one of the first new gods. This result will be good for everyone."
It seems that it was not her doing.
Xia Yibing curled her lips.
The other party now has the absolute initiative. To put it bluntly, if Dai Lin didn't like Hitzfeld so much and she was indeed "more useful", the two of them would have been sucked into the follicle.
She didn't have to do these things.
So it's not her.
There is someone else.
Miss Hitzfeld... I'm here...
Treetops?
The gray-haired girl was stunned for a moment, then saw the end of the branch in front of her was glowing, and she quietly reached out and touched it.
The moment the two came into contact, her consciousness poured directly into the branches. In less than a breath, she almost moved through the entire stone tower, touching every branch of it. She also vaguely felt that there were countless follicles in its body.
Without exception, these follicles are embedded in spherical cages similar to hers, some are large and some are small, and the development levels of the organisms inside are also inconsistent.
Is the sound coming from inside?
Hitzfeld was a little hesitant to confirm.
According to the previous comments of several biological experts, being stored in the follicle basically means death.
You won't be alive - you might still be able to maintain a pulse biologically in a vegetative state, and then - you will be transformed little by little into a primitive embryo, and then develop little by little into another species.
But your consciousness.
Your past consciousness and memories as a human being should not be retained.
These metaphysical things also need a carrier. The nerve cells in the brain have changed, so how can there be anything that can speak...
With a skeptical attitude, the girl tried to reach out and hold the treetop tighter.
...Even though he knew that this might speed up the Elemental Arena's analysis of him, he didn't care.
She had to find out who the other person was.
[It’s me… Hitzfeld… I’m Descartes…]
A faint voice came from afar.
Descartes Knight?
Hitzfeld was a little surprised, but soon relieved.
Dai Lin... If she has the time to take care of the events on the seabed, then she must have already dealt with the people on the ground.
Desca is also gold, but he is too old. Even if he was younger, he might not win, so it is normal for him to be dragged down and put into the follicle.
[How did you do that…]
She asked the other party cautiously.
[Retain awareness...]
[And are you sure you won't alarm her?]
While communicating with Deka, Hitzfeld kept gesturing to Xia Yibing, asking her to do something to attract Dai Lin's attention.
She couldn't pin her hopes on the other party's slow reaction or that Desca had some secret method; she also had to work hard herself.
Xia Yibing raised her eyebrows and understood.
So she spoke: "Dalin?"
Dai Lin ignored her.
But Xia Yibing was clearly not someone who could be easily dismissed. She continued to argue:
"Daelin-Blue?"
"Brichel-Blue?"
"Dalin-Etrance?"
"Mr. Blue?"
"Miss Atlans?"
"Just—call me Dailin!"
Dai Lin finally couldn't stand it anymore.
The prison cell shook violently, and a distorted female face appeared in the gap: "...What happened again?"
"Nothing." Xia Yibing said, imagining what Mapus Darent would do if he put him here. "I just feel... a little hungry."
"Hungry?"
Dai Lin looked confused after hearing this.
"Spiritual bodies don't need to eat..."
"But we are very tired." The woman interrupted her, waving her knife back and forth, "We have been listening to you for a long time... Such a big secret is really shocking. In addition, when we came down, we had to fight against those deep-sea creatures. Our spirits may not be able to hold out for long... Even the effect of the soul-guiding incense can't survive."
“…” Dai Lin frowned.
It seemed to make sense, and she was at a loss to refute it for a moment.
But what she needed most now was time: it was just right for Hitzfeld to come to her door, so that she could analyze her mystery directly from the dream world.
Because of the soul-calling incense, they cannot be forced to wake up during this period, but if the spirit body can't hold on -
"I can get some spiritual seeds."
She said in a deep voice.
"But are you really willing to eat it...?"
When they heard her say "spiritual seed", both Xia Yibing and Hitzfeld felt a little tingling on their scalps.
When Hitzfeld first entered the ocean dream, those jellyfish that flashed faint green light were a manifestation of the spirit seeds.
Theoretically, they can devour each other. Some evil monsters even hide in dreams and eat people's spirit seeds, using this method to grow stronger.
This is indeed disgusting... because the nearby spirit species can only be taken from the spirit bodies of those deep-sea species, and those deep-sea species... they are most likely transformed from humans.
"Try to choose normal spirit species." Xia Yibing continued to talk nonsense with her.
“…Got it.” Dai Lin’s face detached from the analysis.
You can see that she is very impatient.
"And one more thing--"
But Xia Yibing would definitely not give her the chance to "escape from the battle", so she called her back regardless.
What topic will attract her this time?
The woman felt a little nervous.
Looking at Hitzfeld who was concentrating on communicating with the treetops, especially - seeing her beautiful profile in the light coming through the treetops, Xia Yibing suddenly realized what she should say.
"You'd better not go after her," she said.
Then he hugged the confused girl tightly as a protest and kissed her on the cheek.
"...?"
Hitzfeld was stunned, looking at her with confusion in his eyes.
"Because she's mine."
Then she heard a woman's "strange words" coming from above.
"No one can take her away from me!"
…The provocation worked.
Dai Lin was so angry at the woman that they began to argue across the cage whether this behavior was correct from the perspectives of philosophy, biology, sociology... and even ethics and morality.
"..." Hitzfeld shook his head, thinking it would be better to ignore them for the time being.
[…Are you listening to what I just said, Hitzfeld?]
Desca's voice could be heard faintly again.
[I didn’t hear clearly…]
Hitzfeld passed on a hint of apology.
[Can you please say it again?]
[I said——] Desca repeated, [Don’t let her get the mythical particles out again!]
[Because that does not bring new life!]
[On the contrary, it will bring Sarah true destruction——!!]
Chapter 69: Reinforcements
[…I want to know why you think so.]
Hitzfeld's heart sank.
In fact, she also had concerns in this regard: obviously, recreating mythical particles seemed to be beneficial to everyone, but she just had a vague feeling of uneasiness about it...but she couldn't explain why.
This is not limited to detectives, nor is it limited to anyone who is proficient in deduction. Hitzfeld feels that anyone who has been in society for a few years will not choose to act on impulse and make decisions based on "feelings".
She was inclined to allow the particle to be born from a rational and calculative perspective, but she was troubled by a vague premonition and didn't know what the consequences of this decision would be.
If only the premonition had been stronger.
If it was stronger, reaching the level of the previous warning signs, she would definitely not be so conflicted.
The main thing is...she also hopes to live a normal life.
After all, she has come to this point with the person she loves. Due to her physical condition, Xia Yibing sometimes doesn't dare to touch a hair on her when she has the urge, for fear of overdrawing her strength and hurting her.
She could ignore those empty assumptions, but she couldn't remain indifferent to the fact that the mythical particles might solve the plight of the Devourer.
[From ancient times to the present, the Order has never given up on exploring the mysterious origins...] Desca's consciousness came from afar, [those ancient relics, ancient legends, underground cities from the last era, the skeletons of ancestors dug out from the old soil, and strange weapons.]
[We have never given up on exploring these things, but it is too important and any findings cannot be made public.]
Hitzfeld nodded in understanding.
Anyone who makes this kind of thing public is mentally ill.
[But do you know how much we paid for this?] The voice on the other end gradually became low, [According to the "Grecius" file, eight golden men died in the line of duty.]
[The cause was that a large number of golden idols were excavated from a new ruin in northern Wayne. The Order had an organization there. Due to a mistake in intelligence transmission, my teacher Fromm led a team to sneak into the ruins to investigate. They thought that no matter how dangerous it was, they would be able to hold out until reinforcements arrived, but the fact was that they quickly lost contact and left no trace. When the second investigation team composed of the Order's knights and men in black found them, they had already become rotten corpses, and everyone was spraying liquefied gold from all the holes in their bodies.]
Hitzfeld was stunned.
[We paid a huge price to find out the truth.] Deka said, [The source of the evil is an altar deep in the ruins... on it is a statue of the goddess of Aquarius... her base will automatically rotate according to the light source, and anyone who is stared at by her will encounter an accident.]
[It took nearly half of them another half to destroy the horrible artifact, and the local institutions were devastated by the incident, and have not recovered to this day. The survivors of the incident called the thing "Grecius" - the folk god of the Midas Touch, but the fact is that we didn't learn anything except a ghost story.]
[Do you understand what I mean...? 68 people died, 11 of them were Golden Knights and 6 were senior agents. These people could have played a huge role in many places if they were scattered, but they all died there, and the experience we gained from "Grecius" cannot even be applied to the second ruins that may be contaminated by evil spirits.]
[So what you mean is...] Hitzfeld frowned and said, [Instead of spending a huge price to pursue the mystery, why not be curious and not imagine... those unknown powers?]
"My experience tells me that this is the best choice." Desca affirmed, "Those ruins do contain secrets, but if we are not sure that the secret is valuable to us, if we are not under urgent threat, then why should we rush to disturb it?"
[Anyway, they are buried there, they won't move or run away, you can choose to open them at any time.]
"..." Hitzfeld was silent in thought.
[I can tell you directly, Hitzfeld... the cult has discovered more than a thousand ancient underground cities so far.] Desca continued to persuade her, [We have excavated and explored less than one percent of the estimated number so far. This is a choice made after weighing the pros and cons.]
