Ark Journey

Then W saw Xue Zhi walk to a stone wall not far away. An electric drill flashing blue light appeared in his hand. After a few hits, he dug a hole in the stone wall, and then a bright light came out from inside.

The whole process took no more than 2 minutes. Xue Zhi walked out of the cave without a speck of dust on her body and waved to W.

"please."

W walked in doubtfully and found that in such a short time the stone wall had been expanded to form two simple rooms separated by wooden doors. The rooms were very empty, but there were beds and quilts inside.

After blocking the entrance, Xue Zhi said to W: "I'll sleep outside. I'll call you if anything happens. There are vents in here too, so you don't have to worry about suffocating."

W looked at this luxurious scene in the wild and couldn't help but twitch his lips: "You are really a noble, right?"

"I said no. Also, do you want to wash up? I see your face is covered in dust."

"..."

At midnight, low thunder sounded and heavy, dense leaden clouds hung high in the sky. The morning, which should have been bright, seemed as dark as midnight.

06:00 (am), Xue Zhi sat up from the bed on time, stretched, and got out of bed with a crackling sound like frying beans.

He wasn't sure if this bed would work for anyone other than him, so he stood by the door and knocked "W, are you awake? Time to go."

And there was an immediate reply from inside.

"I'm awake. What a weird bed you have. It's like I was drugged. I fall asleep as soon as I touch it, and I wake up at a certain time by saying 'Sarkaz swear words'. But I slept really well."

"Don't ask. This is a special Originium technique developed specifically for people with insomnia."

Without paying any more attention to that side, Xue Zhi dug open the block blocking the door and noticed that it was drizzling outside.

"It's a good day for stealth and infiltration."

Rain can erase many traces and interfere with various means of observation. Although there is no need to worry about pursuers, it is really annoying to see them following around you like flies and buzzing from time to time.

Just as he was waiting at the door watching the rain, there was suddenly a sound of something heavy falling to the ground in the inner room.

Hearing the sound, Xue Zhi hurried over and when she entered the room, she saw W, who was only wearing simple clothes, leaning weakly on the bed.

Her face was as if covered with powder, without a trace of blood. Her lips, which should have been rosy, were extremely pale. Beads of sweat the size of beans covered her forehead, and the two tentacles on top of her head were listlessly stuck to her hair.

Seeing Xue Zhi coming in, W gave him a forced smile and raised his hand to point at a pile of things placed aside.

"Xue Zhi, do me a favor and give me the medicine in the bag, the gray one."

Xue Zhi found the bag that W mentioned from a pile of equipment. He avoided the explosives in the bag that looked dangerous at first glance, took out a package with an asterisk on it and handed it to her.

Seeing her gasping in pain, Xue Zhi didn't dare to touch her and let her sit on the ground.

"Ore sickness? So serious?"

W took the package and opened it tremblingly while speaking. Suddenly, an indescribable unpleasant smell emanated from the several black solid blocks in the package that reflected a strange luster.

"It's nothing. I used too many Originium skills when I broke through in the past few days. It's normal for me to react so strongly now."

Chapter 11: Treatment

Xue Zhi, whose perception was several times more sensitive than before, was hit by the strange smell and almost burst into tears. He couldn't help but curse: "'Dongda Foul Words', what the hell is this, it stinks so much, is it an oripathy inhibitor?"

"We do have that good stuff, but we've used it up. All we have left now is the simplest folk painkiller."

W forced a smile and was about to stuff the black stuff into her mouth, but her shaky hands caused the "medicine" to fall to the ground. When she tried to pick them up, Xue Zhi grabbed her wrist and stopped her.

"No, if it's just a simple painkiller, I have some here. Don't take this kind of thing. The side effects may be greater than the main effect. And you've dropped it on the ground."

As he spoke, he waved his hand and took out a bottle of 0.2 grams of ibuprofen, the most commonly used low-addictive painkiller he knew.

Glancing at W's current condition, which showed him pale, breathing rapidly, and even having an abnormal flush slowly emerging, Xue Zhi poured out four pills.

The Terrans have stronger physical fitness, especially the Sarkaz, so it is not a big problem for them to eat two more.

Without letting W do it herself, Xue Zhi held the pure white pill in one hand, supported her back with the other hand, and half-knelt beside her.

When he approached W, a strange smell rushed into his nostrils. It was normal. W herself said that they had been chasing the spy in the enemy-occupied area for several days. It was normal that they could not take a shower. Out of respect for women and patients, he chose not to mention it.

"Open your mouth."

The warm and solid male body approached, and W's heart was moved. He suddenly remembered the scene of Hedley and Inès being affectionate in the tent that he had accidentally seen before.

"I never thought that there would be such a day..."

Seeing that she was still so slow in her condition, Xue Zhi frowned and stuffed the medicine directly into her mouth: "Don't talk, take the medicine first."

"Well!"

The warm palm touched the slightly cracked lips, and when rolling away the pills, W's wet tongue tip unconsciously licked Xue Zhi's palm.

Xue Zhi trembled all over at the sudden soft touch, and this obvious movement was easily captured by W.

Even though the pill in her mouth was extremely bitter, she still showed a smile that looked like she deserved a beating. Her heart-shaped tail came around and gently poked the back of Xue Zhi's hand: "Xue Zhi, you are not still..."

Before she could finish, Xue Zhi pushed her tail away and stopped her from speaking with a red face. A bottle of water appeared in her empty right hand again: "Shut up and drink some water."

"Oh, don't be shy. When we get to Scar Mall, I'll help you find two..."

The words that were not spoken were blocked in the throat by the clear water.

After taking ibuprofen, W finally calmed down. After a few minutes, she recovered a little and tried to stand up by holding the wall.

"We have to leave. Although this place is hidden, it's easy to be found if we stay in one place for too long."

Xue Zhi waved her hand, signaling her to stay calm, and threw the bottle of ibuprofen to her.

"Take this and come back to me after you finish eating. Don't take those folk medicines anymore. Also, don't be stubborn. In your current state, it's best for you to sit still. Don't worry about the transfer. Spells are very convenient."

After collecting the medicine bottle thrown by Xue Zhi, W looked at him in confusion, only to see thick layers of mud emerging under her, and in an instant forming a chair with a backrest. Then, the mud chair, along with W on it, floated up, and finally hung at the same height as Xue Zhi.

Xue Zhi looked at her masterpiece with satisfaction, put away the things in the house and said to W who was curiously picking up the dirt under him, "It's done, let's go."

The drizzle had turned into a heavier rain. Xue Zhi controlled the water element to form a thin layer of water film around the two of them, isolating the rain. W was sitting on a chair and floating behind him to the right.

She looked around and found no obstacles at all, so she said, "Xue Zhi, I feel like a target now."

The earth element appeared out of thin air again and spread out the two sides of the chair at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"How does this feel?"

"That's fine, but I won't be able to see you."

Xue Zhi, who was walking forward, suddenly stopped when he heard W's words, and then he silently removed a piece of the earth wall near him.

After walking in the rain for a while, Xue Zhi turned around and asked W with two pancakes wrapped in oil paper: "How is your recovery? Can I eat?"

"can."

"Then eat."

W licked her lips as the pain gradually subsided. She took the oil paper bag handed to her by Xue Zhi and started eating it in big mouthfuls.

The crispy crust and the steaming, tender and juicy meat filling made W, who was eating this kind of food for the first time, love it.

After eating the sesame cakes, W returned the oil paper bags to Xue Zhi and watched him burn the bags to ashes.

W asked for a piece of paper to wipe his hands, lifted his clothes to observe the area of his lower abdomen where the Originium was most concentrated on the surface of his skin, and frowned.

"Xue Zhi, do you have disinfectant and bandages?"

Hearing her request, Xue Zhi stopped and turned around. A gentle light shone on her raised right hand as she spoke: "Are you injured? My Originium skills are also useful for external injuries. I can treat them directly for you without the need for those things."

W nodded. She lifted her clothes and held them with her chin. With her free hand, she pulled her pants down slightly, revealing her belly covered with Originium crystals. "Alright, here it is."

Xue Zhi walked over and saw that her flat belly was densely covered with many Originium crystals of varying sizes that protruded from her skin. These crystals destroyed her beautiful belly with slightly muscular lines, making it look completely unattractive.

Around the crystal, normal tissue was squeezed by the Originium, turning slightly red and already inflamed. What's worse, a crack appeared between the Originium and normal skin, and light green tissue fluid and a small amount of light red blood were slowly oozing out.

Seeing this, Xue Zhi immediately put her hand on it. Wherever the light passed, the red tissue immediately returned to normal, and the cracked openings were also moved to heal themselves again.

However, this is only a temporary solution and the actual problem is not solved.

"Oh, that feels good."

W sighed in an unladylike manner, and a warm feeling spread across her lower abdomen, alleviating a lot of the discomfort brought on by the Originium.

In her memory, the pain brought by the oripathy has been following her since she can remember and has never left. She has become accustomed to the originally unbearable pain. This is the inevitable fate of patients with oripathy.

Seeing that all the diseased parts were repaired, the light on Xue Zhi's hand disappeared, and she took out a piece of gauze and disinfectant to clean up the things that had flowed out.

He glanced at W and asked:

"Do you do it yourself?"

She shook her head. "I have to hold up my pants with one hand, which is inconvenient. Just watch me do it."

Chapter 12: A brief period of peace

Xue Zhi sprinkled disinfectant around the liquids and wiped them gently as if they were exquisite gems, but the irritation of the disinfectant on the skin still made W gasp.

In order to divert W's attention, he asked, "How do you infected people feel about your daily life with these things?"

"What else can I do? It hurts all the time, but I'm used to it. Wait, you're not infected!?"

W was halfway through her words when she suddenly became keenly aware of the hidden message in Xue Zhi's words. She stared at Xue Zhi who was meticulously cleaning her wound with wide eyes.

Xue Zhi didn't even raise her head, her tone was extremely calm, and she didn't forget the identity she had set for herself: "I never said that I was infected, and how could a researcher at a Yan country research institute be infected."

After receiving such an answer, W was silent for a while, and then sighed: "Then you are really a good person. Even a madman like me thinks you are a good person. Your coming to Kazdel is really a malice of God."

After wiping off the last puddle of liquid on her skin, Xue Zhi summoned a water ball and reached into it to wash her hands: "This shows that this trip is a test from God for me. But is it really as exaggerated as you say? I'm just treating your wounds."

Slowly pulling up his pants to prevent the wound that had just healed from splitting again, W looked into Xue Zhi's eyes and said with a smile, "You really haven't been out much. Occasionally, we meet some normal people in Scar Mall. This is still Kazdel, but they look at us as if we are an Originium bomb that is about to explode at any time, and they wish we would get out of here. But you are different. There is no such expression in your eyes."

Xue Zhi could only shake her head at this sad and difficult thing to comment on.

It is the instinct of living things to seek benefits and avoid harm. Even though studies have shown that general contact with infected people will not transmit mineralogy, there is always a thorn in the hearts of normal people, not to mention that some infected people who are driven insane by mineralogy make the opposition and division between the two even more serious.

After helping W clean her wound, the two set off again. But before leaving, Xue Zhi took out a green backpack - the one in the Minecraft backpack mod - and threw it to her.

"There are all kinds of explosives in it. They are spherical in shape. The ones with ITNT written on them need to be ignited. The red sticks have two buttons on them. Press the red one to explode when thrown out, and press the blue one for remote control. I see that there are not many explosives in your bag. For a mercenary, it is not good to be without a handy weapon. This bag has my Originium Skill. There is a lot of space. You can put your hand in it and take out whatever you want in your mind. Also, a reminder, the explosives in it are quite powerful. Try to throw them as far away as possible when using them."

After taking the bag and curiously figuring out how to use it, W was in a very good mood because of the abundant explosives inside. His tail kept wagging behind him, "Xue Zhi, I find that I really like you more and more, even though you have the same weird personality as me. When we get to the Tower of Babel, do you want to join our mercenary group? We are a well-known team in the land of Kazdel. Besides, I can also..."

She didn't continue speaking, but leaned forward and pulled her collar down slightly. From Xue Zhi's perspective, she could clearly see the deep cleavage on her chest and her fair northern hemisphere.

Xue Zhi turned his eyes away very gentlemanly, swallowed his saliva, and used words to hide the strangeness on his face.

"Let's talk about it later. If there's nothing else, it wouldn't be bad to stay in your mercenary group for a while. Oh, one more thing. I'll get you some water tonight. You need to take a bath. You smelled when you came over just now."

W's smile froze on his face immediately: "'Sarkaz foul language', you are indeed a bad person."

During the rest of the journey, there was no conversation. W floated behind Xue Zhi, quietly observing the man whom he had known for less than a day.

The rain gradually intensified and turned into a downpour. The forest, which had no roads to begin with, was extremely muddy. A large amount of rain gathered into small streams and flowed freely. The raindrops formed a rain curtain, blocking the view forward. In this harsh environment, Xue Zhi seemed to be unaffected and strode forward.

"Can you see the road ahead?"

"By extending the Originium technique, I can see clearly wherever there is water, even more clearly than I can with my eyes alone."

The entire land in front of him was now appearing in Xue Zhi's mind in the form of a 3D model, and was overlapping with his optic nerve in a way that he himself did not understand, thus creating an exceptionally clear vision.

The rain was getting heavier and heavier, the water film around them was becoming blurrier and blurrier, the end of their sight was further compressed, and it seemed as if there were only the two of them left between heaven and earth.

A squeaking sound was heard. It turned out that Xue Zhi used the Originium technique to freeze the water under her feet into ice in order to walk in the forest that had turned into a swamp.

As night fell, the abundant moisture from a day of rainfall enveloped the entire forest in a thick fog, making the already hard-to-find traces even more hidden.

Countless pursuers who had penetrated deep into the dense forest were soaking wet and spitting at the damn weather and the two fleeing men, but they did not dare to curse too harshly, for they were afraid that the heavens would send down terrible natural disasters because of their disrespect as mortals, and Xue Zhi would chop off their heads with a knife.

Inside the mountain where no pursuers can find them is where Xue Zhi and W are.

"It feels so quiet, and there are no people from the Military Committee in the forest. It's really different from before."

A strong sense of déjà vu emerged, and Xue Zhi, whose mind was already automatically playing "Flower of Hope", was silent for a moment, but still continued W's words.

"......I don't want to answer this, but it's true. They probably moved all the forces chasing us to the front line."

"But that's not important anymore."

"You're in such a good mood."

"Of course. After running in the woods for so many days, taking a good bath now is something I never dared to think about before."

Now, the cave was filled with the same sound of dripping water as outside, and warm steam seeped out through the cracks in the wooden door connecting to the room.

Xue Zhi and W were chatting idly across a wall.

By mixing the elements of water and fire and adjusting the ratio of the two, hot water suitable for bathing is created.