Volume 1 Glacial Relics Chapter 35: Strange Silence
The tentacles of the Seed of Erosion had captured the bodies of two men in black. The two bodies suddenly shrank at a speed visible to the naked eye. At the same time, several new tentacles grew out.
Regardless of whether the flesh worm is the so-called "flesh-eating worm", we have no choice but to give it a try at this point!
Ke Lan stepped back quickly, then turned around and went into the inner room.
The priestess's dried corpse was still on the ground, maintaining the posture before death. The flesh worm was curled up into a ball, and it seemed to be dead.
Ke Lan immediately bent down and picked up the more than half-meter-long insect body from the ground.
It felt greasy and slippery in the hand, just like grabbing a rubber tire covered with snot. The strong fishy smell kept drilling into Ke Lan's nostrils - fortunately, he hadn't eaten for several hours, otherwise he would have vomited it all out.
Trying hard to suppress his nausea, Ke Lan returned to the front hall.
Almost at the moment he pushed open the door, the Seed of Erosion stopped all unnecessary actions. It no longer attacked the hound and others, but pounced towards Ke Lan like crazy!
"The cells of the Flesh-Eating Worm are an irresistible attraction to the Seed of Corrosion..."
Judging from the performance of the Seed of Erosion, the flesh worm that Ke Lan is holding should be the "flesh-eating worm" for sure.
In this case, the "forgiveness" that the priestess longed for should be the hope that the seeds of corrosion brought by the "messenger" and the flesh-eating worms in her body would perish together. Unfortunately, the "messenger of the prophet" arrived a step too late, giving these imposters an opportunity to take advantage of it.
Faced with the aggressive seeds of erosion, Ke Lan threw the fleshworm in his arms out without thinking.
More than a dozen tentacles stretched out at the same time and quickly caught the falling insect body - it looked like a drug addict who was unable to hold back his desire.
In less than three seconds, the originally plump and plump insect body was sucked away, leaving only an empty shell, and a strange black-green color appeared on the tentacles of the Seed of Erosion.
“Hiss… Woo… Hiss…”
The hundreds of tentacles on the Seed of Erosion's body suddenly stretched straight, turning it into a large ball of thorns like a sea urchin. The next second, these tentacles drooped down limply, and there was no movement anymore.
Those originally flesh-colored tentacles had now turned into a translucent texture a bit like jelly - although Ke Lan had never eaten jelly, he had seen this snack in an old-fashioned action movie.
It’s just that the male and female protagonists in the movie didn’t treat it as food, but as some kind of prop.
Through the tentacles, you can see that there is a core the size of an American football inside the Seed of Erosion, and the tentacles are growing from this core.
But at this time the core had already shattered, and dark red sticky blood was continuously flowing out of it.
"You killed this thing?" The hound was surprised. " Is this what you just threw out? It looks like... a big meat worm?"
"Hmm..." Ke Lan nodded.
"Wait a minute... Was this big fleshy worm dragged out from inside? Could this thing be the 'Priest' mentioned by those charlatans?"
"You have a really strong imagination... But unfortunately, you guessed wrong. Their high priest is a young woman, and quite a pretty one." Ke Lan shrugged.
"Pretty?" The hound suddenly perked up.
Ke Lan: “Dead.”
Ivan: "Did you kill him?"
Layton: "How did he die?"
Hound: "What position?"
"Fuck...you bunch of idiots...can you think of something normal in your heads?" Ke Lan was helpless. These three guys were totally unlike the ones who almost lost their lives just now. When they heard about beautiful women, they all became like they were injected with hormones.
Especially this guy Ivan. Jiang Lian is a beauty after all, but he showed no mercy when he shot her.
"What else? A man and a woman alone in the same room, any normal person would think that way... but you were just too quick, you came out in less than five minutes. If it were me, it would take at least half an hour."
"You can't say that," Leighton suddenly became serious for some reason, "Did you all hear the screams from inside? That sound didn't sound like something a human could make... Ke Lan may be fast, but he's very fierce!"
As he spoke, the big guy gave Ke Lan a thumbs up.
"...The reason why that scream didn't sound like one that a human could make is because it wasn't made by a human in the first place." Ke Lan pointed at the insect shell on the ground with a frown on his face, "It was made by this thing."
"Damn? You don't even let go of bugs?" The hound opened his mouth in surprise.
"…I didn't touch that woman at all, okay!"
"So you're only interested in bugs?"
“…”
"Okay, enough joking, let's get serious and talk about what's going on." The Hound put away his playful expression and glanced at the corpse of the Seed of Erosion.
There was naturally no need for Ke Lan to hide the matter of the priestess and the flesh-eating worms from them. As for why he thought of using flesh-eating worms to deal with the seeds of erosion, there was a way to explain it - this "mission" was obviously ordered to help the priestess eliminate the hidden dangers in her body, so the seeds of erosion and the flesh-eating worms he carried might naturally have a counteracting relationship. With the attitude of giving it a try, there was no harm in giving it a try.
"You are really good, kid. I was just thinking about how to run away, but you were able to figure out this relationship..." When the word "run away" was mentioned, the Hound's face suddenly changed, "Something is wrong!"
"What's wrong?" Leighton was a little confused.
"Didn't you notice... it's too quiet outside? This is a settlement for exiles. We made such a big noise, the sound of the gunshots alone could be heard several kilometers away, but there's no reaction at all outside?"
"It's true!" Leighton approached the door cautiously and tiptoed to lift a corner of the curtain.
"...Strange, there's no one outside..."
"Who knows where he might be hiding? Don't rush out." The hound waved his hand, "Help the doctor treat the wound first."
His arm was , and he reattached it with a simple grit of teeth, but Ivan's injury was serious - his entire forearm was shattered. This kind of injury could only be properly treated by returning to the Ark.
Ivan had just given himself an emergency pain-relieving injection, but this thing could only relieve pain and had no therapeutic effect at all. The overflowing blood dyed half of his clothes red.
"Stop the bleeding first. Find a rope and tie it tightly five centimeters below my shoulder." Ivan said. His face was a little pale, and he had obviously lost a lot of blood.
This method of stopping bleeding can easily lead to necrosis of the entire arm due to poor blood circulation, but the situation is urgent and a life is ultimately much more important than an arm.
"Swish--" Ke Lan tore off a strip of cloth from the black-clothed man's robe and quickly rolled it into a rope. But when he looked at Ivan's injured arm, he suddenly froze.
"What's going on?" Ivan lowered his head, and the expression on his face suddenly froze.
The wound on the arm was so deep that the bone was visible...but that was not the point. Several flesh-colored tentacles as thick as bean sprouts grew out of the wound and were slowly wriggling.
"'Seeds of Corrosion' will invade any biological cells it comes into contact with and modify the genetic sequence of the invaded organisms..."
Ke Lan immediately recalled the information that flashed through his mind. He subconsciously took out the dagger, turned his head, and met Ivan 's eyes.
"It has to be cut off." Ke Lan only said two short words, but Ivan could fully understand what he meant.
He nodded with some difficulty. As a doctor, he knew better what the consequences would be if the mutated part was not removed in time.
With a flick of the knife, a large piece of bloody flesh was separated from Ivan's arm. Despite the painkiller injection, the severe pain almost made Ivan faint.
"Has anyone else of you been touched by the tentacles of that thing?" Ke Lan asked.
"No..." The Hound recalled and shook his head, "It touched the gun in my hand, not me directly."
"Neither do I, but those men in black on the ground..."
Ke Lan walked to the two corpses that had been drained by the Seed of Erosion, but unexpectedly, there were no similar abnormalities on the two corpses.
Should only living organisms be invaded?
It would be great if that “search engine” could be used at will… However, after the Seed of Erosion died, Ke Lan had already tried it, but there was no way to “start” it.
It seemed that that knowledge would only be instilled into his mind when he saw the real thing with his own eyes...
