Chapter 25 Random Growth
There was a major crisis in the Tree Tribe. Just like the previous tree had said, they couldn’t turn into trees anymore. The Tree Tribe had always used Theus cells. But not long ago, when the trees buried a companion as usual, something strange happened. The tree that swallowed Theus cells was buried by the companions, but after a long time of care, no sapling grew.
The trees thought it was a special case, maybe the temperature and location were wrong, similar incidents had occurred in the past, they just felt very saddened. But this kind of accident soon repeated itself on other trees. More and more trees, when buried in the ground, did not grow saplings, and the number of trees decreased.
Until one time, after burying a companion in the ground, a strange creature emerged from the soil after a while. It was a black drill rat that could burrow.
That’s when the trees realized that it wasn’t because of sapling development issues that they couldn’t grow trees. It was because Theus cells were no longer following their commands. Cells were changing randomly, they could turn into any kind of creature, and if they turned into a creature that couldn’t burrow, they would be suffocated to death.
After learning this, the panicking trees conducted experiments to confirm this. Not only that, but they also found that all the creatures in the entire area were changing randomly. Offspring of creatures would turn into other species, making the Tree Tribe relatively minor.
Chaos arose between various creatures, strange descendants were born in different populations, and this caused a biological riot. As a result, many creatures wanted to escape, making great efforts to attack the high walls and assail the outpost stations.
Li Luo again asked a tree how they controlled Theus cells to turn into a tree, the answer was “instinct.” The Tree Tribe emerged from a large tree hole out of nowhere, their sole purpose is to become a tree. As for how they controlled Theus cells, not even they knew, so they had no way to solve the random transformation problem.
After learning about the abnormality of Theus cells, Mo Ling also fell into deep thought. Why would normally functioning Theus cells undergo such changes? It’s as if their identification function has become abnormal. Wanting to disguise as a rat, they end up becoming an elephant.
Li Luo learned from a tree that the large tree hole seemed to have anomalies, strange noises were often heard from there, and the appearance of trees was decreasing.
If this continued, all trees would disappear, which is why the Tree Tribe was so anxious, and they had no intention of going to the outpost stations to exchange for fertilizer.
If the abnormality of Theus cells continued, not only trees, but all the creatures in this region would become extinct.
Mo Ling thought for a moment, isn’t this a good thing? If all creatures infected by Theus cells went extinct, there would be no more Theus cells in the world. But before that, exceptionally powerful creatures would surely emerge, and the outpost stations were already unable to withstand.
They needed to find out what caused the abnormality of Theus cells and find a way to control them. Such large-scale impact would surely reveal clues. Mo Ling thought for a moment, then remembered what the trees had said before. Strange noises? From the large tree hole? He quickly reminded Li Luo with a can, and after getting the electric screen, he directly wrote four big words on it: “To the large tree hole!”
Before the large tree hole, Mo Ling didn’t hear any strange noises. He didn’t know if it was because he was trapped within the block. Looking at Li Luo, she also didn’t seem to hear any sounds.
Inside the large tree hole, the circular roots led deep into the abyss, the trees said they all crawled out of the hole in a daze, no one knew what was inside.
Slowly descending along the circular roots, the large tree hole was filled with glowing mushrooms, the weak fluorescence made the entire hole look surreal.
However, around these glowing mushrooms, various small creatures emerged from the roots of the mushrooms. Not only that, but there were also some giant creature corpses embedded at the bottom of the mushrooms, making it seem like the mushrooms grew out of these creatures.
As expected, Theus cells transformed into fungi, impacting the reproduction of these glowing mushrooms. The influence inside the large tree hole was particularly strong. As they went further down, Mo Ling saw many bizarre creature remains. Horns embedded in the roots, arthropods inserted in moss, deep-sea creature corpses fallen on the ground, coral hanging on dead branches, bird skeletons submerged in a pool…
All evidence indicated that this was an area most affected by mutations. Li Luo took out recording instruments and documented all these strange things. But so far, the strange noises that the tree mentioned had not appeared. Instead, many crazed creatures attacked them from above.
These creatures were mostly gaunt and hungry, looking emaciated. Mo Ling even saw some extinct Earth species among these creatures. Although they could be quickly dealt with, these creatures that suddenly emerged from the corners made it difficult for Mo Ling to guard against them.
When they came to a huge tree root platform, the scene before Mo Ling was even more shocking. The skeleton of a massive sea monster was lying here, limbs of various colors disorganizedly attached to the skeleton.
The body of a snake-like creature was stuck in the ribs of the giant beast, but it was still alive and started attacking frantically upon seeing someone coming. Many such living creatures were embedded in the skeleton, unable to move, but still survived by attacking each other.
It was like a natural breeding ground, only the strongest, the most adapted to this environment could occupy a place.
No wonder the previous creatures seemed so aggressive. Not because of Theus cells, but because they were born in such an environment.
Born in different populations, they couldn’t avoid fighting with other creatures. Not only that, Mo Ling even saw scenes of two creatures melded together.
A creature resembling a turtle was barely buried in the tree roots. On top of its shell grew the upper body of a wolf-like creature. The wolf was ferociously biting the turtle, whose limbs were chewed bloodily, shrinking inside the shell.
Such weird creatures were a mixture of different beings. Just as Mo Ling was still amazed by the chaotic phenomenon of these creatures, Li Luo suddenly froze in place. After a while, Li Luo turned to the block and solemnly said, “I heard it.”
“It’s the voice of God!”
