"You okay? Feeling sick anywhere?" Jun Bao looked at Jing Shu, worry creasing his brow.
"I'm fine, my stomach just started hurting all of a sudden." She wiped the sweat off her forehead and forced a smile, but her heart was still pounding. It took a while before she finally calmed down.
She was sure of it now. This black liquid had the same essence as the crimson liquid she'd found in America last year. Her Cube Space reacted strongly to it, even though she still didn't know what the black liquid actually did. If the crimson liquid came from a higher-dimensional space, then what was this black one?
She couldn't shake the feeling that this might be the key for her Cube Space's next upgrade. The space was yearning for it, calling out to it, just like Xiao Dou, who'd been clucking excitedly ever since they'd found it. Clearly, the chicken loved this kind of energy too.
If she could find enough of the black liquid, would her Cube Space absorb it and evolve again? After training for over half a year, she'd hit a wall she couldn't break through no matter what she tried. Now, she finally saw a hint of hope.
The problem was, the energy in the mud was far too scarce. Even when Jun Bao concentrated it into buckets, she couldn't feel much. Only the refined liquid made her Cube Space stir.
Her face changed rapidly, shifting from pale to thrilled, then frowning again as her thoughts raced.
"Do you need to see a doctor?" Jun Bao asked. Then he realized how pointless that sounded out here and quickly added, "I've got some medicine for stomach issues. I always keep plenty because of my health."
"No, no, I'm fine." Color returned to her face, and her eyes lit up with curiosity. "So how much of this liquid can you refine from a single bucket? If it's really connected to the crimson liquid, then yeah, it's worth studying."
Jun Bao smiled faintly, as if he'd just confirmed something. He didn't comment on it and simply went along, saying, "From one bucket? Probably not even a drop. And this is everything we've managed to collect after spending several days in the Tianshan Mountains."
Jing Shu's heart sank. Ten days of work, and only a few drops? That was ridiculously inefficient. When her Cube Space upgraded last time, it had absorbed an entire crimson crystal—about a cubic meter's worth of crimson liquid.
What could a few drops possibly do? At this rate, her Cube Space wouldn't upgrade even in a hundred years. Did she need to find the 'core' of this black liquid, just like before?
Wait, did that mean the black liquid had been in the swamp water ever since they entered the Tianshan range? If so, the entire mountain range might be saturated with it. That was a nightmare. At least last time, the crimson liquid had a source, buried under the roots of a dead tree. But this time? It was mixed in the mud. The world was full of mud. How was she supposed to find it?
She frowned deeply, lost in thought. The energy was too scattered. Was it leaking out somehow?
"Want to help me collect more?" Jun Bao asked with a smile, handing her a metal spoon. "I've got an extra."
She took it and joined him, scooping up mud like two kids playing while the adults worried about making ends meet.
"Let's just gather what we can. Even mosquito legs are still meat," she muttered, stirring the mud. Some spots reacted, some didn't. The ones that did, she poured into the bucket.
Before long, she noticed a pattern—the closer she got to the center of the swamp, the stronger the reactions became. She couldn't help thinking, if this was true for the swamp, maybe it was the same for the whole mountain range. Had they not even reached the Tianshan core yet?
Xiao Dou was already running around in the swamp's center, clucking excitedly. It seemed the chicken knew too.
Just as things were settling into a rhythm, Yang Yang's shout broke the air.
Something had happened.
When everyone turned toward the noise, they saw Yang Yang returning—but he wasn't alone. Three strangers came with him, riding what looked like a makeshift vehicle.
They could actually travel through the swamp?
The "vehicle" was some kind of inflatable raft coated with tree resin to keep it airtight. It slid smoothly across the mud without leaking and soon stopped right in front of them. The men on board shined bright flashlights straight at the group.
The beams swept across everyone, lingering the longest on the minibus. The strangers exchanged greedy glances, then nodded subtly to each other.
Yang Yang sat awkwardly on the raft, still looking tall and sharp despite the situation. One of the men gave him a light kick.
"Give them two boxes of compressed biscuits," Yang Yang said.
"What? Why?" Hong Bin's eyes widened. Compressed biscuits were for the rescue fleet, and even though they had plenty, they weren't supposed to hand any out before meeting the target group. Besides, they weren't allowed to give away supplies for no reason.
"Because I got kidnapped," Yang Yang said helplessly. "Can't you see I can't move?" He raised his bound hands with an exaggerated shrug.
Everyone: "…"
Yang Yang got kidnapped?
Jing Shu couldn't help but laugh. This was the same guy who'd gone to America with her and survived countless near-death situations—and now he was tied up by three ordinary men? Seriously? What kind of useless ability did he have if he couldn't even fight back?
"Don't joke around. They put some kind of bug inside me. If they don't remove it, the consequences'll be bad," he said, sounding completely defeated. He hadn't slipped up; he'd been ambushed. Those guys were just that shameless.
Even so, he had a strange grin on his face, one that made everyone uneasy. God help those kidnappers if he made it out alive.
Judging from his expression, he wasn't lying. The three men behind him sneered. "And here I thought you'd have an army with you. Turns out it's just a bunch of weaklings. What a waste of a precious egg. Forget it, once it hatches, your friend here'll make good fertilizer."
Everyone immediately tensed.
Jing Shu quietly sent out her bugs, but they struggled in the swampy air. She frowned. Whoever these people were, they definitely weren't locals.
They'd mentioned an egg. Did that mean they had abilities too?
Lǚ Liu looked to Jun Bao. He gave a silent nod, and she quickly went to the minibus to fetch one and a half boxes of compressed biscuits. "We were supposed to have two, but we already ate a bit," she said apologetically. "This is all we've got left."