Chapter 1081: External Assistance
In the midst of silence, Bohemia blinked her eyes at the Descartes Spirit. The blurry mosaic-like figure seemed to be gazing back at her with an encouraging look. After a few seconds, she couldn't hold back any longer and said, "Are you not speaking because you're constipated?" contemporary romance
"You are utterly lacking in comprehension," the Descartes Spirit sighed, "Weren't we examining the corpse together? Haven't you forgotten that there was a torn bedsheet beneath the body?"
Bohemia's long eyelashes fluttered again.
"Oh," she realized, "I've thought about this already. I thought you were talking about something else."
Perhaps Lin Sanjiu's condition was too poor, and she had overlooked this detail: if the entire straw bed attacked the person together, it wouldn't have crushed the person's back, and the torn bedsheet would still be intact.
"If it's not straw, why did you say it was straw?"
Although Lin Sanjiu couldn't turn around, when she heard Bohemia's question, her ears perked up, "What? Does the Pocket Dimension know the answer now? What's going on?"
The Descartes Spirit welcomed another listener and extended its voice to include her, "The correct answer is indeed 'straw,' but it's not the straw used for making beds... Instead of calling it straw, it's more like twigs."
"Twigs?"
As the explanation continued, Descartes' Spirit's form slowly expanded, as if it was swelling with pride. "Remember when you dug up the soil, and you found nothing unusual in the soil, right? Just after you left, a few farmers also dug up their withered fields. When I took a look, aside from the crop roots, the soil was just as ordinary."
Isn't that even more confusing? Bohemia wanted to ask but stopped herself. The Descartes Spirit was already quite pleased with itself, and she didn't need to add more fuel to the fire.
The mosaic-like figure waited for a few seconds, seeing no one was asking questions, it continued on its own, "This is quite strange. The withered fields, the soil under the straw beds, all indicate that the problem is indeed underground... After all, if it were something like bedbugs, they wouldn't create spreading withered lines in the fields. But after digging up the soil, there was nothing unusual—note, I said there was 'nothing unusual,' not that the soil was completely empty."
"And so?" Bohemia asked.
"There was nothing unusual, but there were plenty of things in the soil. Stones, grass roots, insects, seeds... it's full of impurities. We just ignored them because they appeared too commonplace. As I say this, haven't you thought of some natural organisms? Ones that can disguise themselves to look identical to their surroundings—"
"Ah," Bohemia suddenly realized, "those insects that look like twigs when they stop moving completely—"
"Yes, many organisms possess this ability, so that alone is not remarkable," Descartes' Spirit explained slowly, "but this creature's ability is superior. It is deeply rooted in the earth, with only its 'roots' or 'twigs' continually growing upward. Wherever its twigs extend, it appears to be identical to its surroundings. Even if it looks like a broken piece of grass root in the soil, the part that extends above the ground can look like straw."
"So, the twigs of these creatures got mixed into the straw beds?" Bohemia exclaimed in surprise, "How did you guess that?"
"Wherever it extends, the grass and plants wither and die; it relies on sucking bodily fluids to survive. Is there a more tempting target than humans, who are composed of seventy percent water? Since it can extend its roots into the fields, it can also reach under the farmhouses. While there are numerous twigs, they aren't as numerous as straw—this also explains why the torn bedsheet wasn't completely torn apart."
"What now?" Lin Sanjiu suddenly interjected.
"Because it needs to absorb human blood, it has to grind the skin and muscles into small pieces... but the bedsheet itself doesn't contain fluids, so the twig-like branches can simply pass through cracks and holes," the Descartes Spirit expanded in a self-satisfied manner, "I think we can open the bump on her neck now!"
"Wait," Bohemia hastily asked, "how do we use this creature? We can't let it grind the back of her head—"
The Pocket Dimension host was merciless in managing time. Before she had a chance to think about what to do, the semi-transparent bump on Lin Sanjiu's neck suddenly cracked with a slight tremor, producing a soft 'pop.' A black shadow, resembling a small tree, unfurled itself as if it had been soaked in amniotic fluid for a long time. Upon contact with the outside air, it suddenly curled and extended, unfolding its tangled branches and roots.
Bohemia's gaze had barely fallen on the black shadow when its numerous and complex 'twigs' gradually disappeared into the air. The topmost part quickly turned colorless and transparent, near the hair it became a dark mass of fine strands, and when close to the skin, it transformed into fleshy skin with tiny pores.
"You guessed it right," she frowned, "You seem to be spot on when guessing disgusting things."
But what should they do now? Lin Sanjiu had just answered two consecutive questions incorrectly, and besides the birth of the creature on her neck, she was due for another punishment. If she failed to answer 'Prison Storm,' this disgusting, root-laden creature would administer two more punishments, which could potentially crush her back.
"Player Lin Sanjiu, please pay attention and respond to the 'Prison Storm' question as quickly as possible. You have thirty seconds remaining."
This wasn't looking good. Bohemia didn't need to ask; just by looking at Lin Sanjiu's expression, she knew that Lin Sanjiu was completely lost on the Prison Turbulence question.
"Thirty seconds... should be enough," Lin Sanjiu took a deep breath softly. "I didn't want to use my hard-earned Higher Consciousness for something like this."
After the bump on her neck burst, her breathing was restored to a normal rhythm. Although her voice was low, it was clear when she spoke. She had just uttered an "Huh?" when Lin Sanjiu's expression suddenly changed. She remembered experiencing this before in the Candy Crush Pocket Dimension.
It was like a serene and clear moon in the night sky, distant and detached from the human world. Watching over the earthly realm from such a remote distance...
Bohemia silently wondered where the owner of this expression was now.
