BFET Chapter 6

Discovery

Xie Yi and You Xue turned at the sound and saw Shen Shu standing beside a giant tree submerged in weeds, watching them with great interest.

“What are you looking at?” You Xue walked over first. “What did you discover?”

“Here, at the roots,” Shen Shu took a step to the side, looking at Xie Yi, who was following You Xue.

“Roots?” You Xue stared at the spot Shen Shu indicated for a while, only seeing a small piece of intertwined buttress roots and some rotten, withered leaves and weeds.

She used a twig she picked up to poke around. “There’s nothing here!”

“Don’t move,” Xie Yi suddenly reached out and pressed her shoulder. “The place you’re standing now, to the left.”

“Where?” You Xue looked over, puzzled, moving the twig in her hand.

“Eh?” She suddenly stopped speaking, poking the twig, and discovered that she had actually poked a hole in the middle of this buttress root!

She continued to try moving along this hole and quickly outlined an unusual bulge on the buttress root.

At first glance, this bulge blended almost seamlessly with the surrounding buttress roots. Now that it was circled out, it could be clearly seen slowly wriggling.

“What… is this?” You Xue looked up at the giant tree in front of her and then at the anomaly. “Could it be something that grew out of this tree?”

No one answered her.

Xie Yi didn’t know when he had walked to the giant tree, and Shen Shu was still standing quietly in place, but his gaze followed Xie Yi’s movements.

Dense weeds clung to the base of the giant tree, climbing and spreading wildly along the trunk, covering the entire tree.

Xie Yi, standing in front of the tree, took out a knife at some point. The knife was jet-black, and the tip of the blade was split like a snake’s tongue.

When he held the knife close to the tree, a red line suddenly appeared in the middle of the blade. The moment it broke through the weeds, the red line suddenly split into countless flowing red filaments on both sides.

You Xue was stunned for a moment by Xie Yi’s actions but quickly reacted and went up to help, not forgetting to call Shen Shu, who was still standing still, to come and help.

But Shen Shu didn’t seem to hear, standing in place without reacting.

His gaze was no longer on Xie Yi but had turned in the direction of the depths.

Xie Yi and You Xue moved quickly, and most of the weeds clinging to the trunk and roots of the giant tree were quickly cleared away.

No more anomalies like the one just now were found in the cleared area, but near the roots on the left side of the giant tree, Xie Yi found several hiddenScratches, like something had been dragged away.

Xie Yi touched theScratches and then looked in the direction it was facing, toward the Source of Pollution/Ground Zero.

“Xie Yi, what are you looking at?” You Xue looked at Xie Yi, who had been standing still for a long time, puzzled. “No similar anomalies were found in the cleared area. Should we continue?”

“No need,” Xie Yi retracted his gaze. “I roughly know what it is.”

“?” You Xue was shocked. They were clearly acting together, clearing weeds together, so why didn’t she know anything?

Xie Yi paused at You Xue’s expression, pointed to a few places, and explained, “Look closely at these places. There are drag marks. Based on the texture and spacing of the marks, it can be determined that they were left by the pointed scales of a Cleft-Horn Lizard, early-stage subspecies. That thing just now should also be from a Cleft-Horn Lizard.”

The Cleft-Horn Lizard, early-stage subspecies, is one of the Mutated Entity/Heterogeneous Organism active near the Source of Pollution/Ground Zero of the Fengjiang Enclosed Zone/Restricted Zone. It mutated from theHorned lizardbefore the Great Disaster, has four mouths and four eyes, and the giant horns on its head will twist and split when attacking.

“It’s a linear mark, this direction…” You Xue tilted her head, glanced at it, and then looked at Xie Yi. “It’s the Source of Pollution/Ground Zero.”

Xie Yi hummed in agreement. “Judging from the shape of the marks, the Cleft-Horn Lizard didn’t struggle. It should have been dead at the time.”

“Mutated Entity/Heterogeneous Organism like to eat each other. It’s normal for there to be fights and deaths.” You Xue stood up with Xie Yi. “But why drag it to the Source of Pollution/Ground Zero?”

Xie Yi turned around, about to answer, when he saw Shen Shu not far away, squatting in front of the buttress root where they had previously discovered the anomaly, holding a dagger.

He was poking something with the knife.

“Shen Shu, what did you discover again?” You Xue immediately ran over. She was very satisfied with this new teammate. Not only was he good-natured, but he also didn’t have the immaturity of a newbie on his first time in the Central Zone. He even discovered clues before them, truly worthy of being a newcomer king!

She thought this, but when she reached Shen Shu and saw what he was poking, she was stunned.

Because next to the thing Shen Shu was poking was the unusual bulge they had just discovered.

Now, there was a dent there. A thin root extended from the dent, connected to the thing Shen Shu was poking with the knife on the adjacent buttress root.

You Xue gasped and looked at Shen Shu with wide eyes. “Why did you suddenly turn it over?!”

Hearing this, Shen Shu looked up at her, his tone innocent. “What’s wrong? Can’t I turn it over?”

You Xue: “…”

The suspected newcomer number one is testing her. What should she do? Waiting online, it’s quite urgent.

“The first lesson of the Ecological Zone Information Basics course at the Reserve Army Training Base: For unknown plant mutation points that cannot be determined, the plant body itself must be investigated first, and the mutation point cannot be directly investigated.”

Xie Yi, who had come over a step late, looked at Shen Shu and slowly said, “The Kui City Security Defense Team Newcomer Manual, Article 8, also has the same regulations.”

Shen Shu quietly looked at Xie Yi, and after a long while, he gave a short laugh. “I didn’t expect Captain to remember these so clearly after being in the team for so long. You’re really amazing!”

“Not as good as you,” Xie Yi said in a bland tone. “You forgot everything as soon as you joined the team.”

Shen Shu hummed. “That’s true.”

You Xue: “…”

The atmosphere was getting more and more strange. You Xue felt like she was starting to sweat.

She carefully glanced at Xie Yi and interjected with a laugh, “Fortunately, nothing went wrong. No parasitic spores were sprayed, and no juice exploded. Let’s just treat this as accumulated experience, haha. By the way, Shen Shu, did you discover anything this time?”

Shen Shu was still staring at Xie Yi, not responding immediately. After a while, realizing that Xie Yi didn’t intend to continue the conversation, he lowered his eyes with some disinterest. The dagger in his hand once again touched the unidentified object. “There is a bit, indeed.”

You Xue immediately interjected, asking, “What is it?”

“Can’t you tell?” Shen Shu poked the thing again with the back of the knife. “This thing is a little smaller than when you first saw it.”

As he spoke, Shen Shu put the thing back into the dent.

Hearing this, You Xue looked carefully for a long time. “No, where is it smaller?”

“It’s not obvious, but it is smaller.” Xie Yi, who didn’t know when he had squatted down, took the knife from Shen Shu and turned the thing out again.

As if confirming something, he looked at it all over and then used the tip of the knife to press against the position where the root was connected, forcefully slashing.

A thick liquid then overflowed from the cut, accompanied by a strong, pungent odor.