Chapter 66.1 – Bringing to a Conclusion
Some things cannot be disguised no matter how hard you try.
The person in the video was undoubtedly real.
Listening to the voice of his subordinate on the phone, Hu Li raised his eyes to look at the person sitting across from him.
The person across still looked the same, with an expression that remained calm from start to finish. Without any intention of continuing to listen to their conversation, he stared at his own cup for a while, ultimately deciding to get up and pour another glass of milk.
This person was real too. With a heartbeat, breath, and a face and voice identical.
Listening to the voices of his subordinates on the phone, Hu Li frowned and finally looked up at the person still standing by the refrigerator pouring milk, saying, “Sorry to disturb, I have something to attend to. I’ll take my leave.”
Jiang Yujin waved at him with the milk in his hands.
The person who was originally sitting on the sofa quickly left. The sound of his phone conversation grew fainter and fainter, and after the door closed, there was complete silence.
The person standing by the refrigerator gently closed the door, took a sip of milk.
As the car parked on the side of the road drove away, the barber shop owner downstairs, who was still cutting someone’s hair, glanced at it. Afterward, he looked up at the building, lowered his head, and continued cutting hair.
Shortly after the vehicle left, a person passed by the front of the shop wearing a black hat.
It was Jiang Yujin. He first glanced inside the shop, saw that there were other people getting haircuts. He walked straight past without saying hello.
The barber shop owner withdrew his gaze.
*
The flashy red car raced down the road, and Hu Li quickly returned to the Special Investigations Unit.
A group of people still in the office gathered together, discussing the events near the Zhai Mountain Range.
The appearance of the strange species was sudden, and their resolution was swift. While local residents were still attempting to notify the local SIU branch, someone had already captured footage of the strange species being dealt with.
As the footage was transferred from the local branch to their side, the branch office on the other end was already on its way to handle the strange species’ corpse.
The overwhelming strength and immense pressure, coupled with the white hair, even without having seen 001, they could roughly identify who was in the footage.
However, to be cautious, when notifying Hu Li, his subordinates referred to the person as “suspected 001.”
Someone expressed confusion, “How did he end up here?”
The Zhai Mountain Range, a desolate area near the desert, was only tolerable for permanent residents accustomed to the harsh weather or adventurous tourists.
“The Zhai Mountain Range…”
Hu Li took out a plastic bag from his pocket and casually tossed it to the person beside him, saying, “Dispose of it.”
The person next to him took the sealed plastic bag, looked at the number on it, and the white hair inside, saying, “Isn’t this evidence brought back by Vice-captain from the snowy mountains?”
Hu Li succinctly stated, “It’s fake.”
This was just a ploy he used to deceive Jiang Yujin. In reality, the person who acted in the depths of the snowy mountains was rough but also meticulous, leaving no trace at the scene.
The person holding the fake evidence didn’t quite understand but was greatly shocked.
After handing the item over for someone else to deal with, Hu Li opened his computer and pulled up a map.
He had a rough idea why 001 would appear in this location.
The Zhai Mountain Range was the closest point to the Lacuo Desert.
If nothing else happened, Xu Tonggui should be there right now.
*
Having dealt with the strange species, Jiang Yujin picked up his hat that had been blown away, put it back on, and left the scene before others could react.
By the time the personnel from the SIU’s branch office arrived, they only heard the accounts of how perilous the situation was at that moment. When they inquired about the appearance of the person who resolved the strange species, everyone shook their heads.
When the strange species appeared, they were all busy running away, trying to get as far as possible. It wasn’t until they sensed something unusual from behind that they turned around.
In that glance, they saw the originally massive strange species lying on the ground, with a person standing in front of it.
Someone captured images from a distance, and after the SIU’s personnel arrived, they handed the footage to them. On that footage, someone saw the person’s face.
Jiang Yujin continued walking into the depths of the desert.
The weather today wasn’t particularly good. There was wind in the desert, blowing sand and obstructing the view for the most part. Only the scenes within a very short distance could be seen.
Conditions that would be considered challenging for ordinary people were acceptable for Jiang Yujin. As long as there were no others around, his movements wouldn’t be hindered.
Without climbing up and down the sand slopes step by step, he directly crossed over hills. The black figure appeared and disappeared in the flying sand.
The location in the photo given by the barber shop owner was deep in the desert. The Lacuo Desert was currently known as the largest desert, and even its outskirts were quite dangerous, often claiming the lives of tourists. Very few people ventured into its true depths, and even the nearby indigenous people who were accustomed to dealing with the desert avoided this place.
The photo given to him by the barber shop owner was obtained under various unexpected circumstances. A lost tourist was swept into the hinterland by a sandstorm, and through a series of coincidences and luck, managed to escape and was rescued by someone.
The desert was vast, and with Jiang Yujin’s pace, it took nearly half a day to vaguely see a hint of greenery from a great distance.
When he arrived near the hinterland, the sun in the sky was beginning to set in the west.
The sunset over the desert always appeared spectacular—fiery red, enormous, casting a red hue over the withered vegetation, slowly disappearing behind the sand ridges.
As the sun went down, faint fluorescence appeared from a distance.
Slowing his steps, Jiang Yujin approached the glowing area in the distance.
He arrived at the location shown in the photo.
The originally barren slope was now covered by yellow sand, and where the ground was once littered with strange species corpses, flowers were now blooming. Fed by the bodies of the strange species, the flora here grew vigorously, presenting an unconventional beauty in the vast desert.
However, flowers and plants nourished by strange species corpses could never be ordinary.
Using a dried branch he picked up earlier, Jiang Yujin silently cut off the tendrils of the plants that had quietly extended to the rear. He lifted his foot and continued forward.
As the severed plant tendrils oozed crimson liquid, drops of the fluid fell to the ground, and a small sprout rapidly sprouted.
The dungeon remained the same, but with the change of time, it had become a realm dominated by plant strange species.
A vast expanse of plants stretched beyond sight. Jiang Yujin continued walking forward, passing the large pit created by the strange species earlier, passing the ravines he had created himself.
He saw the glowing area.
It was the long ladder constructed by Shi Bu that led to the sky. The ladder had been crushed by the strange species, leaving only half of it extending into the air. Originally piled with a large number of strange species corpses, it now served as nourishment for the plants. Luminescent plants grew on it, and the flowers emitted a continuous white light. Under the clean desert sky and shining like stars, there was an illusionary and unreal feeling.
Moving forward, he came across the severed plants scattered on the ground. Someone had been here recently.
The nourishment for the plants here included not only the dead strange species but also animals and people who had mistakenly ventured into this area.
Jiang Yujin saw the bodies on the ground. Judging by their attire, they appeared to be lost tourists. Lying on the ground, purple-red shoots had sprouted from their upturned mouths. After walking through the desert for several days and finally seeing a large portion of greenery, they thought they had found hope, joyfully meeting their end in this land of supposed hope.
Adjusting his hat, Jiang Yujin walked directly towards the colossal pit where the abyss had appeared earlier.
The plants in this area were all thriving, showing no signs of human destruction, and there were no traces of animal or human corpses. Those who couldn’t reach this place had already been taken by the plants, bringing an end to their lives.
In the distance, there was a massive plant, waving in the night wind. Layers of leaves displayed beautiful luminescent patterns.
It should be the best-growing plant in this area. Jiang Yujin noticed it but didn’t pay much attention, reaching the edge of the giant pit.
Near the pit, the ground was scorched black, devoid of any plant growth, and covered in footprints. These footprints were from a long time ago, buried by yellow sand, only revealed when the wind blew away the sand.
After so many years, it seemed that the pit had grown larger and deeper, with no light penetrating. It was pitch black below.
Without hesitation, Jiang Yujin flipped over and jumped down.
The rapid descent brought a sense of falling. Having experienced his hat being blown away recently, he reached out to secure his hat, preventing any loss of equipment.
The abyss did not reappear. When the sensation of the ground returned to his feet, he was already standing at the bottom of the pit.
The bottom of the pit was non-luminous, completely dark. Jiang Yujin could see clearly, but there was no light to illuminate anything.
It was evident that this place had been explored long ago. Layers of footprints, the decaying bodies of strange species turned over by someone, and later piled up in a corner.
Inside and out, everything had been thoroughly searched, and this place seemed to have lost its value for investigation. However, Jiang Yujin didn’t leave; he continued to wander inside.
He was looking for something, something with an extremely low probability of existence, or perhaps it didn’t exist at all.
A glass block capable of recording images might be somewhere in the dungeon, or it might not be. The last time he slaughtered strange species here, he seemed to have seen such an object.
But it was already too distant in the past, and the terrain here had changed, with signs of human disturbance. The tiny glass block might have shattered or been lost amidst these alterations.
