Chapter 7
“See, I’m not afraid!”
The little flower demon walked up to Shi Changyuan and even hopped twice, looking exceptionally proud, wanting to attract all of Shi Changyuan’s attention and receive praise.
Really not afraid? Shi Changyuan looked at the row of small white flowers on the ground, then at the little flower demon whose eyelashes were trembling uncontrollably, and suddenly reached out, covering those sparkling eyes.
Those eyes were too bright for the dull, gray apocalyptic world, bright enough to attract the gaze of everyone, every creature.
No one could walk alone in the darkness, no one could resist the light, not even the Abyss that devoured light.
“Why are you covering my eyes?” Lin Ling asked, not understanding.
He shook his head, trying to peek out from the gaps between Shi Changyuan’s fingers, wanting to secretly see what was happening.
Oh, was he so moved that he was secretly shedding tears?
Thinking of this possibility, the little flower demon reached out, wanting to pry Shi Changyuan’s fingers apart a little, his whole body exuding curiosity.
But as soon as his fingertips touched Shi Changyuan’s hand, the other party, for some reason, let go, following the force of his touch.
His eyes, which had been covered, saw the light again. The little flower demon immediately stared at Shi Changyuan’s eyes, but unfortunately, he didn’t find any signs of tears on his new friend.
Mischievous little flower.
Seeing the obvious disappointment in Lin Ling’s eyes, Shi Changyuan was amused by this overly “open and righteous” behavior. He lowered his hand, looked at Lin Ling’s beautiful eyes, and chuckled softly, his voice a little hoarse.
“Just now…”
When you touched the Abyss, which was said to devour life force, what were you thinking?
Shi Changyuan wanted to ask Lin Ling about his thoughts when he touched the Abyss, but he didn’t know what to ask, nor did he know what kind of answer he wanted. After hesitating for a while, he didn’t ask anything.
“I know you won’t hurt me,” Lin Ling blinked, as if he had suddenly realized something, and said.
The reason was simple, he and the Abyss were friends! Although they had only been friends for a few days, if the Abyss wasn’t playing with him, then the Abyss definitely wouldn’t hurt him!
An Abyss that wanted to grow a seed, even if its ability was to devour, couldn’t be a bad Abyss.
Shi Changyuan looked at the self-righteous little flower demon in front of him, somewhat helpless, feeling that the little flower was still too naive, but the feeling of being trusted was truly wonderful.
He looked at the small white flower swaying in the wind in the black soil of the Abyss, and the black Abyss under his feet began to stir.
The pitch-black area, like a shadow, first tentatively spread forward a small amount, and seeing that Lin Ling, standing on the boulder, didn’t react, it quickly circled around, crookedly enclosing all the white flowers.
Like a dragon circling its treasure with its tail.
Those little flowers fell into the Abyss’s range, but they didn’t wither and die like the other flowers and plants before them, their life force devoured.
Lin Ling’s eyes widened in curiosity. Just as he was about to ask Shi Changyuan what was going on, he saw Shi Changyuan already standing in the pitch-black Abyss, extending a hand towards him.
“Come?”
Standing on the dark land, alone, he looked a little lonely.
The little flower demon stood up, looked down at the man from the boulder, and opened his arms, saying to Shi Changyuan below, “I’m coming, be sure to catch me!”
After saying that, he jumped, straight towards Shi Changyuan.
Shi Changyuan steadily caught his little flower demon.
“So exciting!”
Lin Ling recovered from the weightlessness and came down from Shi Changyuan’s embrace.
He stood inside the Abyss, first curiously stepping on the dark land with his toes, but whether it was the softness or hardness, or anything else, it was no different from normal land.
“If this is your main body, are we dancing on your head?” Lin Ling bounced on the spot, a sudden thought occurring to him.
But before the little flower demon could bounce a few times, he felt something hook his foot. He looked down and saw the pitch-black shadow climbing up from the ground, clinging to his ankle.
It tickled a bit.
Lin Ling, wearing short overalls, squatted down to check, and even reached out to touch it.
The part where the black shadow existed was flat and smooth, without any bumps or dips, but as it crawled over Lin Ling’s skin, he could feel a cold, slimy sensation.
“What is it doing?”
Lin Ling watched as the black shadow wrapped around his calf, like a birthmark that had grown out of nowhere, and it was still spreading upwards. He reached out to stop it, and the black shadow crawled up his wrist along his fingers.
Looking at the somewhat at a loss Lin Ling, Shi Changyuan walked over, reached out, and pulled off all the black shadow clinging to the little flower demon’s leg.
“It’s okay,” Shi Changyuan said calmly, changing the subject.
Although this Abyss was his main body, it was too vast, and it was difficult for him to control every corner. These black shadows would act according to his subconscious, just as humans couldn’t control every part of their bodies.
Shi Changyuan also wanted to be close to his seed, but his reason told him not to scare the other party.
“What about here?”
The easily distracted little flower demon quickly shifted his attention and handed his hand to Shi Changyuan again.
“Shouldn’t this little black shadow be pulled off?”
The section of black shadow on Lin Ling’s wrist had crawled up from the webbing between his thumb and forefinger, diagonally across the back of his hand, and finally twirled around his wrist twice before stopping.
“No.”
Shi Changyuan looked down at the black shadow, just reached out and gently touched it, then looked at Lin Ling with a serious expression.
“It can protect Ling Ling.”
A little flower demon tainted with the Abyss’s aura could make almost all mutated creatures avoid him. The Abyss could devour everything, and nothing could hurt the Abyss, so naturally, nothing could hurt Lin Ling.
Most importantly, with the mark, he would never lose his seed again.
Shi Changyuan had already thought about how to persuade Lin Ling if he refused, but Lin Ling didn’t seem to care at all.
“Is this a gift for me?”
Lin Ling’s eyes curved into a smile. He raised his wrist and shook it in front of Shi Changyuan, happily saying in a loud voice, “I like it so much!”
No matter what, after taking the first step, the second and third steps would be much easier. Just yesterday, when Lin Ling came to find his new neighbor, he had been sneaking around, standing behind the boulder, not daring to move forward.
And today, when Lin Ling came to find Shi Changyuan, he even dared to sit on the edge of the giant abyssal pit, dangling his legs in the wind, then craning his neck to try and peek at the internal structure of the Abyss, or shouting into the bottom of the Abyss to see if there would be an echo.
This could no longer be described as bold, it was practically presumptuous.
“There won’t be an echo,” Shi Changyuan said helplessly. The Abyss could even devour light, let alone sound?
Hearing this explanation, Lin Ling was a little disappointed, “Is the sound insulation that good? Then if I call you from the entrance of the cave, wouldn’t you be able to hear me?”
“Or, if I whisper something to the big hole, you wouldn’t be able to hear it either?”
Shi Changyuan paused, patted Lin Ling’s head, and said with a smile, “If Ling Ling calls me, I will hear it.”
The Abyss’s attitude was too indulgent, making Lin Ling bolder day by day, even to the point of disliking the Abyss’s entirely pitch-black appearance, finding it too monotonous, not lively enough, not vibrant enough, and wanting to plant a field of colorful flowers at the entrance.
But the Abyss didn’t agree to this request.
The dignified Abyss, such a majestic and awe-inspiring Abyss, with colorful flowers on its head, what would that look like?
…
The alarm in the monitoring station stopped abruptly after the man outside the city wall disappeared, which further solidified the humans’ speculation.
Upon learning this news, the Sixth Base was immediately divided into two factions.
One faction believed that the Abyss’s human body might be its weakness, that the Abyss was no longer indestructible. The other faction believed that since the Abyss had a human form, it was highly likely that it could communicate, and as long as their interests aligned, they could coexist peacefully.
But the two factions held their own opinions, each believing that the other’s view would bring devastating consequences to humanity.
“Stop arguing.”
A researcher in a white coat stopped the two sides’ argument. “Judging from the intercepted data, I’m inclined towards the second option, because there are other creatures coexisting with the Abyss.”
The researcher placed the fluctuation data in front of everyone. “But this creature’s biological fluctuation is very, very small, and it’s always been by the Abyss’s side, even when the Abyss came to the gate of the Sixth Base, it brought the other party along.”
The researcher pushed up her glasses and slowed down her speech, “Unfortunately, the previous drone was only equipped with instruments to monitor biological fluctuations, not cameras, so we can’t know for now what kind of creature it is.”
Finally, the humans reached a conclusion. They decided to follow the researcher’s advice and first send a vanguard team back to the Seventh Base to observe and monitor the Abyss up close, and then formulate a corresponding plan.
When they rushed back to the Seventh Base day and night and looked towards the Abyss from the monitoring tower, they suddenly discovered that the black abyssal pit, representing death, was now covered with a layer of white at its entrance.
It was a sea of white flowers, with white petals and golden stamens, rooted in the land that was said to deprive all living things of their life force, thriving and flourishing.
The image transmitted back to the Sixth Base stunned the researcher. She enlarged the picture to its maximum, comparing it for a long time, not daring to confirm.
“Are those… little flowers?”
