Chapter 102: The Road of the Second Exile, Part 44

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Success!

Shi Xianyu could hardly contain her joy.

The sand creature must have had its breathing affected by the numbing dose, which is why it had come out on its own.

“Success! Look—look at that!” she called down cheerfully to her companions. “Those white areas are mycelium from the mushrooms growing out. Wherever the mycelium spreads, sensation disappears.”

Ye Liuyun and Lin Yuan watched carefully from inside the vehicle.

It was an uncanny sight. The creature had once moved freely in and out of the dunes, but now it looked exhausted and powerless. It would only push half its body out, never moving again, like a huge earthworm emerging along the road, its body covered in white moss-like patches—no, white fungal spots would be a better description.

On closer look, those white spots were clearly trailing outward from inside the creature’s mouth.

Ye Liuyun was startled by the speed of that growth and blurted out, “Could this spread across the whole continent?”

“It won’t,” Shi Xianyu replied with a laugh. “A strong light will kill it. And this place is too dry for it to thrive.”

She was happy and a little exhilarated, delighted that she could help her companions clear such a terrible obstacle; it filled her with a sense of achievement.

“I’ll throw another barrel of water. If it doesn’t react, then it has truly lost all movement, and we’ll be safe.”

Shi Xianyu opened space again, pulled out a full water barrel, and pushed it off the rock.

The barrel rolled down with a gurgling clatter, and the ground gave another faint tremor.

Shi Xianyu froze.

How could there still be a tremor? Hadn’t the monster already been unable to move? Could the part still buried beneath still be active?

At that moment, Lin Yuan suddenly shouted, “Careful!”

Bang!

A hundred meters from the now-limp creature, a vast tail burst from the sand, then whipped hard toward the rock.

After so many buckets, the creature had already read her position. Its thick, blunt tail slammed into the rock. Sand leapt into the air, stones scattered, and the top of the rock cracked apart.

Shi Xianyu was lifted off her feet by that terrible impact, then crashed down on the sand and lost consciousness at once.

Ye Liuyun and Lin Yuan saw it at the same instant, eyes wide in horror. The tail was crawling slowly across the sand toward Shi Xianyu on the ground. Its tip spread open, revealing a mouth lined with dense sawlike teeth.

No one had ever known that the tail of the Klos beast also had a mouth.

To be precise, no one had ever truly distinguished its head from its tail, because whenever they found one, only half its body ever rose above the sand.

Shi Xianyu was so unlucky: she had fallen from the rock just when she was about to succeed. Yet perhaps by unfortunate blessing, the fungus had truly numbed the creature so severely that it did not instantly swallow her alive.

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Bang!

A gunshot snapped everyone back to their senses.

Lin Yuan, face like frozen steel, fired repeatedly into the beast.

Seeing this, Ye Liuyun, the bearded man, and Radish all drew their guns and shot at the tail in hopes it would pull away from Shi Xianyu on the ground.

But the fungal growth had numbed the creature’s nerves and, naturally, its pain as well. The tail-mouth kept swelling larger and coming closer, and as it did, Lin Yuan’s eyes narrowed until they were slits. He emptied his gun, then spun and climbed into the car, ready to ram straight into it and die with it.

Just then the tail did something strange: it stopped, then slowly twisted and turned in one direction.

A stunned silence ran through everyone as their eyes followed it—until they saw Lu Li.

At some point she had slipped out of the car, limping on an injured leg, and was hobbling toward the opposite direction from Shi Xianyu.

Compared with Shi Xianyu, who lay immobilized, Lu Li was much easier for the creature to notice.

Ye Liuyun had gone pale. She understood what Lu Li was trying to do, but she could not just stand by and watch her be sacrificed.

“Xiao Li! Xiao Li—Xiao Li! Stop! Don’t move anymore!”

Lu Li turned and flashed a smile at them.

It was that same innocent smile she’d always had.

Her smile had once seemed sweet to Ye Liuyun, then strange, then frightening, and now...she felt only sorrow beyond words.

“Xiao Li!”

Tears welled up. Through Ye Liuyun’s blurred vision, the tail engulfed Lu Li, swallowing her whole.

…………
……
Shi Xianyu slowly came to, staring up at a sky full of stars.

It was still night, so she couldn’t have been out for very long.

She pressed a hand to her forehead and sat up. Not far away, the beast lay covered entirely in white strands, limp and motionless on the sand. She began to recall what had happened and realized she must have been knocked down when its tail had swept past the top of the rock.

The creature was still immense. Even when its body was overrun by white fungus, the tail still held some strength.

She got to her feet and walked toward Ye Liuyun and the others.

They were trying to tear and pull at something, attempting to peel open the creature’s hide, but it was too large and too thick-skinned. Even with several people straining together, they could not make a clean tear in a short time.

“What are you doing?” Shi Xianyu asked in puzzlement.

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Ye Liuyun turned with wet eyes. “Little Fish, Xiao Li is in there.”

Shi Xianyu blinked, unsure if she was hearing things. Her head, still ringing from the fall, made a dull hum, and she turned slowly toward the motorhome.

Lu Li usually sat by the window, waving at her.

But now the window was empty.

How—

Shi Xianyu steadied herself by putting a hand to her head, the world swaying. Nothing felt real anymore.

How could Xiao Li be inside the belly of that creature?

“How could she?” Lin Yuan cried out, gripping a hand and hauling it out with force.

Shi Xianyu looked on in a daze. She had feared she would see Lu Li’s body torn apart, but the creature had barely any awareness at that moment. They pulled her out together, and though a few fingers and half a leg were gone, her small body was still mostly intact, coated in blood and the beast’s foul, fishy mucus.

Lu Li was dead.

Dead.

No heartbeat, no pulse, no tomorrow, no future.

Shi Xianyu sank to her knees like her strength had gone, unable to believe it was true.

How could this be?
How could this be?

I promised you I’d help you find your real mother. You never even got to meet her, so how could you die?

Ye Liuyun began to cry softly, and the others’ faces were just as desolate.

“No,” Shi Xianyu muttered, dazed. “Xiao Li is parasitized by the flower-parasite; she won’t die this easily. We have to find a way to save her.”

Lin Yuan, with visible reluctance, told her, “She is dead.”

“Then we go to the Oasis!” Shi Xianyu refused to yield, and suddenly her eyes flared with light. “We go to the Oasis. The flower-parasite is a plantlike thing. Plants need water. If it gets life again, maybe Xiao Li can be brought back!”

She remembered from the rock, where she had caught sight of the Oasis, and she grabbed Lin Yuan’s arm, pointing that way. “We’re taking Xiao Li to the Oasis!”