298: Dead

Splash, splash, splash... As soon as Chen Du reached the bottom, he heard the sound of rippling water. It sounded quite loud, but experience told Chen Du that it was likely a very small stream.

It was a thousand meters underground, extremely quiet, and any sound would be infinitely amplified.

At this moment, Chen Du moved silently like a ghost. With his current Mental Energy and Martial Skill level, in this environment, he could completely achieve the Realm of 'moistening things without sound, and a boat passing without leaving a ripple'.

Unless a master used Mental Energy to sense him, it would be very difficult to discover Chen Du by mere perception.

Furthermore, Chen Du was wearing the stealth necklace given to him by Ryan, which could block the mental perception of Advanced Aerial Warriors of Level 27 and below.

Light?

Chen Du saw light overflowing from what looked like an exit or endpoint ahead. He wondered, 'What's going on?'

One must know that the current geographical location was completely dark without any light. Chen Du relied entirely on the map in his mind and Mental Energy to explore the path forward.

Although a Martial Artist's eyesight is incredibly sharp and they can accurately distinguish targets at night, the 'night' referred to here is a moonlit night, not this kind of pitch-black darkness where you can't see your hand in front of your face.

No wonder Pi Zhu had to draw a map after returning, because there was more than one path here.

The other party probably stumbled upon the correct path by accident.

The sound of water also came from the illuminated area. Chen Du slowed his pace.

He secretly guessed, 'Could there be an alien race living here?'

'How did that Pi Zhu get the devouring grass?'

'Was it luck?'

'Was no one there when he arrived?'

Chen Du was 99% certain that there was devouring grass here, but now, because of this beam of light, he had other conjectures.

But no matter what, retreating was not an option.

After all, as the saying goes, 'Since you're already here!'

The closer he got, the clearer the sound of water became, and at the same time, Chen Du's speed slowed even more.

He was constantly preparing himself for the possibility of countless demons and monsters attacking him in the next second. He gripped his ying long sword tightly, his eyes alert.

Chen Du slowly approached step by step. Besides the sound of water, he also heard...

Tap... tap... footsteps.

These footsteps were incredibly faint. Chen Du's first reaction was: devouring grass!

devouring grass is a mobile herb, also known as 'walking grass'. The process of walking consumes the medicinal properties within them and is also the process of their Promotion in quality.

Chen Du held his breath and slowly approached the source of light.

He poked his head out and peered ahead with one eye.

Ahead was a large open space, and at the very front of the open space was a thin curtain of water.

Chen Du could vaguely see a cave entrance behind the water curtain. This scene immediately reminded him of a very famous book from the Old Era.

It contained a classic scene called the Water Curtain Cave.

However, Chen Du knew this was a coincidence. Firstly, the story in the book was fake; this was not Flower Fruit Mountain, nor were there any so-called monkeys or Great Sages.

Furthermore, there were green, blue, and red quality devouring grass walking around there.

Chen Du didn't count the numbers, but he could tell at a glance that green was the most abundant, blue was second, and there was only one red one, with no purple ones at all.

Not to mention the golden devouring grass mentioned by the Giant Civilization.

After confirming it was safe, Chen Du walked in. He wasn't afraid of disturbing these devouring grass, as they were unconscious plants, driven only by instinct.

"What's going on?"

"Did that golden devouring grass escape?"

Chen Du murmured to himself. He wasn't sure if the golden quality devouring grass also acted purely on instinct, or if it had evolved some kind of intelligence.

Although there was still a Water Curtain Cave ahead, Chen Du could sense that the distance inside was very short, a dead end, and there were no living creatures.

Chen Du didn't pay attention to the devouring grass on the Surface, nor did he immediately enter the Water Curtain Cave.

After entering, he habitually looked around, wanting to confirm the light source, as the rocks here were different from those in Sifang Cave and did not glow.

Finally, he looked up and saw a mural resembling a carved wing on the ceiling, and the light source also came from the rocks above.

The rock, of unknown material, was like those in Sifang Cave, it also glowed, and the illumination was even stronger.

Chen Du remembered Bao Xingguang saying, 'According to its habits.'

Could this light have some special attraction for the devouring grass?

Chen Du only guessed at this, as he wasn't someone who specialized in studying this particular item.

As for the mural, Chen Du had seen it before, but only in books.

It wasn't actually a wing, but a pair of large ears belonging to the Big Ear Civilization.

This painting, in their system, was equivalent to a national flag.

From the information above, it was easy to deduce that this place was once a den of the Big Ear Civilization.

But it certainly wasn't inhabited now, otherwise, the devouring grass wouldn't appear here.

Although devouring grass isn't afraid of people, it has an 'avoid people' attribute and won't actively approach places with a human presence.

The structure here was very simple. Chen Du, having found nothing unusual, approached the Water Curtain Cave.

Passing through the thin curtain of water, Chen Du stepped into the cave. The cave was very shallow, less than ten meters deep. It seemed this place was once a sleeping area.

Using the light from above, Chen Du clearly saw the scene inside.

There was indeed a golden devouring grass, but unfortunately...

It was dead.

This golden devouring grass had started to turn black all over, a sign of death. Chen Du had seen this condition on other qualities of devouring grass when studying relevant knowledge.

A hint of regret flashed in Chen Du's eyes. He had considered not finding it, but he hadn't imagined this golden devouring grass would die.

However, on second thought, it seemed quite normal. golden devouring grass isn't immortal, and relying on it to 'lay eggs indefinitely' was indeed a bit fanciful.

He then bent down and picked up the devouring grass from the Surface, preparing to put it into his Storage Ring. He would take it to the Technology Martial Hall to see if it still had any research value.

After all, the highest quality recorded by the High Martial Civilization before was only purple, so a golden quality corpse could also be considered a contribution.

Time is static in the Storage Ring, so Chen Du wasn't afraid of it rotting.

There are only two ways to put devouring grass into a Storage Ring: one is to cut off their 'feet'. This state is equivalent to death for the devouring grass.

Without feet, they cannot walk, and without walking, they cannot evolve to higher qualities. This is an inherent mechanism of theirs.

The other is a normal death from old age. In both of these situations, the devouring grass can be placed in a Storage Ring.

Just as Chen Du picked up the devouring grass corpse from the Surface, a Golden Core-like object suddenly fell from its mouth, which was used to devour other herbs.

Chen Du thought for a few seconds upon seeing this, and quickly came to a guess:

"So that's how it is. This is a seed."

"Golden quality devouring grass can give birth to the lowest quality green devouring grass, and then green quality devouring grass devours other herbs to evolve upwards."

"If this evolutionary logic were true, the Giant Civilization wouldn't need to send so many people to capture this golden devouring grass that ran out."

"After all, there must be a large number of devouring grass in the Giant Civilization's cultivation area."

"Now it seems that golden quality devouring grass probably doesn't come from evolution, but from continuous Legacy!"

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