“Rustle.”
The sound wave seemed to make a ripple in the air. Suddenly, An Zhe realize that it wasn’t relying on the eyes but on sound to mark their position. Countless limbs squirmed and it moved to this side.
Bang!
The sound of gunfire filled the night sky. The wind blew around An Zhe as Lu Feng ascended a rock at an unimaginable speed and fired the first shot. The rustling stopped. The eyes on the body slowly turned and a dull, intermittent hissing could out. The trachea must be full of pustules. The second shot hit it in the upper right eye.
The hissing amplified and An Zhe’s eyes suddenly widened.
Blood. Black-red blood gushed out of the eye wound. No, it wasn’t gushing. It was spewing out. Lu Feng fired a few shots and the gap gradually festered and grew larger. Blood and water shot out like a fountain and the monster’s howl was amplified by several times.
An Zhe looked up at Lu Feng and saw that this man’s eyes were cool, as if everything was expected.
He looked back at the monster. Its wings trembled but its body was too heavy to fly completely. It fluttered madly as it crashed directly into the rock where Lu Feng was standing. There was a loud noise and the rock trembled, dust and stone fragments falling down together. Lu Feng stood on top but he didn’t move at all. He stood high, looking down at the huge mass of meat.
The act of hitting the stone made it bleed faster. It was like a water pouch that had been opened. An Zhe watched this unthinkable scene and suspected that the monster’s body was composed of countless liquids.
After the 10th impact, the sound weakened and its huge body slowly fell to the ground.
It wasn’t just blood. Tissue blocks and weirdly shaped organs flowed out from the breach. The heart and lungs were integrated into one. They were semi-solid and flowed out. Then an indescribable smell spread throughout the area. Even the monsters in the Abyss didn’t have such indescribable organ structures inside their bodies.
An Zhe, “…?”
His mind seemed blank as he stared up at Lu Feng. Lu Feng raised his eyebrows and jumped down to his side. “What’s the matter?”
“…That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
An Zhe spoke with disbelief, “It died so easily.”
“En.” Lu Feng retracted his gun, the butt gently turning around in his cold, white five fingers before he placed it in the gun holster at his waist. An Zhe was in great confusion and even began to wonder what it would be like to be shot. He felt a bit scared.
Lu Feng watched him with a slight smile in his eyes before turning and walking away.
The monster’s ugliness was beyond An Zhe’s imagination and the speed at which it died was beyond his imagination. There were many huge and ugly monsters in the Abyss but the pile of minced meat in front of him clearly didn’t meet the criteria in the Abyss where the ugly monsters were stronger.
The monster’s body fell like this on the sand dunes and black-red pus flowed from its body, staining the ground a dark colour. The same pus also stained the bushes now to it, like drops of dew slowly hanging day. After a minute, the leaves of the bushes absorbed it.
Lu Feng glanced at his watch. 30 minutes after the death of the monster was confirmed, he approached it. An Zhe followed although he was still a bit stunned.
The weird body reflected a strange metallic lustre under the aurora. Although every part of the body was from different creatures, they were firmly connected and grew from inside the body. Thinking of its previous action of swallowing the black bee, An Zhe realized that it swallowed the genes of an organism and would immediately grow this part of the organ.
After observing the monster for a long time, Lu Feng told An Zhe, “Let’s go.”
“Where are we going?”
“There may be many such things here. We will find a safe place,” Lu Feng explained.
An Zhe looked around. There was nothing in his field of view, only the desert. He inquired, “Where are we going?”
Lu Feng answered, “There are ruins ahead.”
An Zhe wondered how he hadn’t seen the ruins when he was flying in the sky. Then he thought again about how he rode on a bee while the colonel’s transportation was an airplane. It was natural for the colonel’s field of view to be wider. He heard Lu Feng ask him, “Can you go?”
“Yes.”
He wasn’t a mushroom scared of pain.
—Although it really did hurt a bit.
The colonel glanced at him before ordering, “Come here.”
In the end, An Zhe returned to Lu Feng’s back. He hugged Lu Feng’s neck and buried his head in Lu Feng’s shoulder. He could feel Lu Feng’s breathing and movement when walking. The undulating hilly are was actually only suitable for four-footed reptiles to move around. Once they stepped on it, the sand would slightly sink and this wasn’t suitable for the strength of the bones and muscles. It seemed that only feetless creatures could take to this environment like swimming in water. There were many places in the world that weren’t suitable for human activities. Walking here consumed extra physical strength and it took more effort to carry a person. However, Lu Feng didn’t seem to regret it. In An Zhe’s limited memory, the colonel never regretted anything except that he didn’t like to talk.
In the silence, An Zhe looked back and saw the endless dark sky. There was a line of deep footprints in the white sand that was like a profound symbol.
Suddenly, he remembered that day in the Garden of Eden. It was the day he passed by an empty corridor and several officers in white were gathered in an unoccupied room, chanting a beautiful rhyme and holding a silver cross. At that time, the geomagnetic field had disappeared and the power supply was interrupted. Everyone had been in a state of fear but these people had quiet expressions, as if they had obtained a force that could support them to move forward.
“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil.” He retold this poem to Lu Feng. “For you are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”
Lu Feng’s voice seemed to bring a hint of gentleness to the cold wind. “Is there anything else?”
An Zhe continued, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.”
“I shall dwell in the house of the Lord, forever.”
“They believe in God.”
An Ze wondered, “God?”
He remembered the word ‘God’ or ‘gods’ appearing in the article An Ze had written for the base. Lu Feng made a light hum in response.
An Zhe asked him, “What about you?”
Lu Feng didn’t respond.
He didn’t speak. The only thing disturbing the silence was the night wind. Then An Zhe started reading the poems from the children’s textbook to Lu Feng, simple or complex. It wasn’t until ‘Do not go gentle into that good night’ finished that he was done. Then he repeated it from the beginning. He had nothing to say to Lu Feng so he wanted to say something to make the night a bit more lively. This was all he could do.
The wind was strong and sound was soon blown away, but they were so close that An Zhe knew Lu Feng could hear it.
By the time all the verses were repeated twice, they had gone a long way.
An Zhe didn’t know what type of training that the colonel had received in the military but he knew this road and this night was too long. It seemed to be a lifetime, to the edge of the world or the end of their lives. This whole process of physical consumption also exceeded the limits of a normal human.
An Zhe quietly turned a part of his body into lighter mycelium. he was afraid that this change was too minimal so after a while, he quietly changed another section. Finally, he heard Lu Feng say, “Do you know why it was so easy to kill that monster?”
An Zhe didn’t know why Lu Feng suddenly asked this and stopped reciting poetry. “I don’t know.”
“Low-level variations are genetic mutations. The high-level variation monsters can be divided into two types. A mixed type and a polymorphic type.” Lu Feng started explaining.
“After mixing the edible genes, you will have part of the original organism as well as the genes and characteristics of many organisms coexisting in it. However, there is a buffer stage.” Lu Feng moved forward and continued. “The original genes and the newly acquired genes have a period of conflict, during which the gene chain will change dramatically and conflict with the function of the original organs. The body will be in chaos. Therefore, intelligent mixed-type monsters will have a long interval between eating genes. It needs to build stable genes. That monster just now was too greedy.”
An Zhe wondered, “What about the polymorphic type?”
“Polymorphic types are the highest-level variations currently observed. The number isn’t large and they are mainly concentrated in the Abyss. This method of variation isn’t the coexistence of genes but a free conversion. For example, from a bee to a plant… sometimes it can be partially changed.”
“The genetic sequence of polymorphic variants are more stable than mixed ones.” Lu Feng spoke lightly. “Even so, don’t eat too much at once or it can have an impact on the mind. The Trial Court once collected a case where an animal and plant polymorphic monster had an incomplete conversion. It would through complete organ fibrosis and died on the spot.”
An Zhe was a bit afraid and silently hugged Lu Feng’s neck. He always felt there was something in the colonel’s words.
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