"Where's the researcher?" Zhou Yu didn't seem to be shaken by the scene in front of him.

Wu Yun raised his wrist and glanced at it, changing the angle as if to correct the position.

"What's wrong?" Zhou Yu asked.

"According to distance and direction...... He seems to be in the interior of Elpis ......" Wu Yun's brows furrowed tightly.

Did Elpis swallow the researcher?

Are they the food that Elpis has calculated and been lured here?

"Wear a mask." Zhou Yu put on the breathing mask.

Wu Yun immediately understood what Zhou Yu meant, and he buckled Zhou Yu's wrist: "Even if the anesthetic bullet is useful for those blue light fireflies or sword bone butterflies, it may not be useful for Elpis!" ”

"Just give it a try. Wu Yun, don't forget your daughter. Anyway, it's impossible for us to go back the way we came, so let's give it a try. And I have a hunch that you're going to get the recorder from that researcher, and the unexpected gains, and go back safely. ”

“…… A hunch of this kind of thing...... Do you have a hunch of what will happen to me? Wu Yun asked with a helpless smile.

Is it to die here?

Still is...... Can you still see your daughter?

"Don't think about the future. The future can change, and the 'later' is bound to come. ”

After saying that, Zhou Yu threw out the only anesthetic grenade he was equipped with.

The grenade exploded in mid-air, and the anesthetic gas spread in all directions.

This is an enclosed underground space, which is extremely advantageous for the effect of the narcotic bomb.

Zhou Yu counted the time in his mind: one second, two seconds, three seconds...... Nine seconds, ten seconds!

The sword bone butterflies attached to the heart of the El Niño flower fell one after another, followed by those blue glow fireflies, like blue rain and mist, the scene was extremely spectacular.

Like the torrent of time, like a huge illusion.

The ground was quickly covered.

Moreover, this anesthetic is dissolved in water, if it is useful for blue light fireflies and sword bone butterflies, then it should also be effective for aquatic dragons in the pool water, but the effect will not be too long.

Zhou Yu made a "forward" gesture.

They have to race against the clock.

The closer they got to Elpis, the more they felt the magic of the tree.

As if every vein was an independent thinking creature, the moment Zhou Yu glanced up, a touch of piety inexplicably surged in his heart.

Elpis seemed to have seen all the elders in the world, lowered his eyes, and looked at them with compassion.

At that moment, Zhou Yu's heartbeat seemed to merge with the flow between Elpis veins.

Wu Yun looked at the locator on his arm and walked towards Elpis step by step. To his surprise, the researcher was lying under Elpis Tree, unharmed by the Sword Bone Butterfly or the Blue Firefly, or suffocated by the Devil's Vine.

Wu Yun reached out and pressed his neck and found that his pulse was steady.

It's almost impossible to happen.

Wu Yun could be sure of Zhou Yu's conjecture that Elpis had deliberately let them in here, and this researcher was the bait!

What exactly is its purpose?

At this moment, the sleeping researcher suddenly opened his eyes, startling Wu Yun to retreat.

And he slowly stood up, with a smile on his face that Wu Yun had never seen before.

Calm, calm, and noble.

"Welcome to my world."

The voice was ethereal, echoing in this vast subterranean world, like a star falling into a cup.

"Who are you! This is not Zhao Xiaoping's voice! ”

Although Wu Yun was not familiar with the researcher named Zhao Xiaoping, he had been on several missions with him. Zhao Xiaoping's voice and demeanor, Wu Yun remembered.

But now this person is definitely not Zhao Xiaoping!

Zhao Xiaoping's gaze passed through Wu Yun's shoulder and looked at Zhou Yu: "What about you?" Who do you think I am? ”

Zhou Yu's expression was much calmer than Wu Yun's.

"You're Elpis." Zhou Yu replied.

Wu Yun was dumbfounded, and then he understood the way Elpis controlled these creatures.

Although it is not capable of mimicking humans like S-class creatures, its mind can enter other creatures and control their behavior.

"Why did you invite us here?" Zhou Yu held his own matching gun in his hand, staring at Zhao Xiaoping coldly, but ready to shoot at Elpis at any time.

He doesn't care if he does this or not, he will go all out, as long as he can win a glimmer of life for Wu Yun.

"Don't be like that. Your gun isn't firing bullets strong enough to penetrate my body. Zhao Xiaoping turned his face sideways, his eyes were playful, and more transcendent above humans.

Wu Yun sensed the aura of danger, and Elpis could read their minds...... And it can also control itself and Zhou Yu at any time, causing them to kill each other.

"What do you want? If you treat me and Wu Yun as prey, you don't need to talk so much nonsense with us. ”

"You should know that as Elpis I will only have one fruit in thousands of years. But I gave that fruit to a creature of a higher rank than me. ”

Zhao Xiaoping's words surprised both Wu Yun and Zhou Yu.

A creature that is higher than Elpis is an S-class creature.

"So I lost the possibility of continuing the bloodline."

Wu Yun subconsciously took a step back.

If Elpis's goal is not to use them as food, it may also be to breed for offspring!

It wants to give birth to life again, so it needs to ......

"Let's play a game. In three minutes, the anesthetic in the air will be gone. My subjects will wake up. If you climb up fast enough, you'll be able to get out of here. ”

"Climb up?" Wu Yun was completely puzzled.

But Zhao Xiaoping smiled and pointed to the top of his head.

Zhou Yu and Wu Yun were on their backs together, the branches and leaves of Elpis moved, and it seemed that a trace of sunlight fell on Zhou Yu's face from between the gaps, it was the noon sun, very dazzling, Zhou Yu subconsciously didn't look over.

In other words, this huge underground space is not enclosed. It's just that the foliage of Elpis is too luxuriant, and the space on the roof of the cave is obscured!

"We are different from hypocritical and cunning human beings who always do not keep their promises. Once you make a promise, you will do it. Time is too boring, give me a little fun. The clock is ticking! Move fast, or my kids will wake up. ”

In the next second, Zhou Yu put one end of the rope into the transmitter and shot out violently.

"Let's go! Wu Yun! Zhou Yu let out a low roar, which made Wu Yun also wake up.

The two of them quickly climbed along the rope and went up. They desperately climbed up.

For Elpis, they were all too small, like ants in a tree.

It had taken almost a minute for them to crawl into the leaves of Elpis.

Sweat slipped from Zhou Yu's forehead, and he stepped on the flowers of Elpis with one foot, leaped upward, stepped on the devil's vine, and continued upward.

Wu Yun was also very neat, and at the moment they didn't have time to think about whether Elpis was playing tricks on them or if he was really too bored to have fun with them.

Two minutes later, they hadn't even reached the middle of Elpis yet.

But you can't give up.

Three minutes were up, and the sleeping creature was waking up.

And they had just climbed the middle of Elpis and could see the obvious daylight.

Zhou Yu saw countless sword bone butterflies and blue light fireflies, flying towards them through the gaps in the branches and leaves.

Time is running out!

Zhou Yu shook in front of Wu Yun: "Give me your rope!" ”

"What?"

"Hold on!" After Zhou Yu finished speaking, he tied his rope with Wu Yun's, tied one end tightly to Wu Yun's waist, and shot the other end to a branch in the high place.

But instead of being embedded in the branches, the metal claws fell from the other side.

Zhou Yu grabbed the metal claw, and Wu Yun suddenly understood what he was going to do.

"Zhou Yu! No! ”

"Take care of Zhou Qing for me! Elpis's goal is me! ”

After speaking, Zhou Yu jumped down.

"Zhou Yu!" Wu Yun stretched out his hand to grab him, but he was pulled upward by the rope, and watched Zhou Yu, who had jumped down, being dragged down by the devil vine that snaked up.

The greater the power of the Devil Vine, the faster Wu Yun will rise.

Zhou Yu's eyes widened, watching Wu Yun release the rope the moment he grabbed the branch.

"Don't waste my life!" Zhou Yu reminded Wu Yun loudly, and he was soon overwhelmed by the branches and leaves of Elpis.

Wu Yun's tears fell horizontally, and he gritted his teeth, powerless to fight back in the face of this creature that was even more powerful to himself.

He regretted that he had told Zhou Yu about his daughter, and if he hadn't said it, maybe Zhou Yu wouldn't have sacrificed himself to save him at all.

The sunlight shone on his body, and although he was still a long way from the top of the cave, the blue glow fireflies would not come under the sunlight. This creature only lives in darkness, and daylight exposure will cause its body to break. And the Sword Bone Butterfly locks on to the target with fear, the inhibitors in his body have not been metabolized, as long as Elpis doesn't really want his life, he won't be attacked.

Wu Yun's mind kept echoing Zhou Yu's sentence "Don't waste my life", no matter how much hatred he felt in his heart, no matter how much he wanted to jump down to find Zhou Yu, he had to work hard to climb up.

When he finally climbed to the top, he found himself on the edge of a mountain cliff.

He knelt down, his hands on the ground, tears streaming down.

He had lost many of his companions, but Zhou Yu ...... It was the last thing he wanted to lose.

He wiped away his tears, reoriented himself and walked towards the base.

His footsteps swayed, and his mind was full of all the pictures since he first saw Zhou Yu to this way.

He reached out and covered his eyes.

"You bastard! I should...... How to say this qiē to Zhou Qing? ”

At this moment, Zhou Yu was dragged by the devil vine, and Elpis under him opened his body layer by layer, and Zhou Yu fell into the center of it.

It was a golden liquid, and Zhou Yu didn't have the slightest preparation, and there was a gurgling sound in his ears, which was completely drowned.

His hair rose in the water, unable to breathe, and was surrounded by something that was tangled around him like a meridian-like thing, tightly intertwined like a glass full of champagne.

It was as if Elpis had opened his mouth and swallowed him, and the liquid was its digestive juices.

Zhou Yu swam upward, the oxygen he had was getting less and less, and he was finally about to reach the critical interface, as if he was pushed hard by a force, and he sank again.

Oxygen consumption was about to reach its limit, and he coughed and swallowed a lot of golden liquid.

The liquid had no taste, but once it entered his body, it was like penetration, into his bloodstream, into his cells, deep in his nerves.

Zhou Yu slapped hard, but he couldn't find the point of focus.

His body was getting heavier and heavier, and he could no longer struggle.

Until the end, his consciousness seemed to withdraw from his body, and his limbs stretched out, floating in the golden liquid.

"Zhou Yu...... Zhou Yu ......"

A soft voice rang out, and Zhou Yu slowly opened his eyes.

Am I dead?

Am I still breathing?

A hand reached into this liquid, and Zhou Yu subconsciously raised his hand and held it.

Then a powerful force dragged him to his feet, rushed out of the water, and entered a vast boundless space.

In front of him was a woman in a long white dress.

She is elegant and noble, which reminds Zhou Yu of the elf queen in the movie.

"Who are you...... Where is this? ”

Zhou Yu didn't know if this was a hallucination before he died, or if he was already dead and was heading to another country.

"I'm the Elpis who trapped you. I'm sorry to invite you to my world in this way. ”

Zhou Yu looked at the other party's eyes, she was peaceful, without any offensive power, and her eyes were even very loving.

"Invite me? Why? ”

Elpis smiled: "I have sued you, I have lost the fruit that I have conceived for thousands of years, it is my child, and I have lost the heir of my bloodline." ”

"Yes, you said that. So? Do you want me to be the nourishment of your next fruit? ”

Elpis shook his head.

"The so-called inheritance, in addition to the replication and continuation of genes in your human concept, there is another form, and that is thought. You know, we Elpis are one of the few plants that have brains and nerves to think. ”

"Yes, I've heard of it."

"I lived for tens of thousands of years, observing the world. My grandparents passed on what they observed to me, and I would have passed on these memories to my children. But I lost my own child and was nearing the end of my life. I had to find a living organism to receive my memories. This is our Elpis heritage. ”

"What? Why choose me? There are so many creatures in the Nibelungen! And I'm a human from another world! Zhou Yu couldn't understand it at all.

Elpis smiled, her smile was a detachment that saw through the past and the future.

"Because, he chose you. It is my greatest honor to be able to have you inherit my qiē. ”

"Who is 'he'?"

Elpis walked towards Zhou Yu step by step, her fingers touching the sides of Zhou Yu's head, and slowly closed her eyes.

"It may be a bit painful to accept this qiē, but it will be important for you to survive in the Nibelungen."

After speaking, there was no chance for Zhou Yu to refuse and question, and some kind of power poured into Zhou Yu's brain like a torrent.

They pounded, they surged, like whirlpools.

Zhou Yu's brain ached violently, cracking open.

"Ahh

Countless fragments flashed through his mind. The origins of all kinds of creatures, how they evolved and how they became extinct are just a matter of looking at them.

Zhou Yu couldn't breathe, he felt like he was going to die.

The body seemed to be shattered by this torrent.

"Zhou Yu...... You're going to live......"

Elpis's voice grew farther and farther away, and all the extreme pain dissipated.

Zhou Yu couldn't open his eyes, only knowing that he was constantly sinking.

Loss of consciousness.

Wu Yun took a helicopter and returned to the base.

He looked wolf-like, and as he walked towards Song Zhi's office, the other members of the group looked at him as they passed by.

When he walked into Song Zhi's office, the first question he asked was, "Did you get the fruit of Elpis?" ”

Cold, always walking on the established trajectory, without the slightest deviation.

For the first time, Wu Yun had the urge to beat this man.

"No, the Elpis said it had no fruit."

"No fruit? How is this possible? We've been observing it for three years now! Wait a minute...... What do you mean when you say it says it has no fruit? ”

"Elpis is a plant with a mind. They cannot mimic the appearance of other creatures, but their minds can enter other creatures. One of the researchers, Zhao Xiaoping, was controlled by its thinking and became its spokesperson. Zhao Xiaoping said that its fruit was taken by an S-class creature. ”

Wu Yun placed the recorder he had retrieved from the researcher on Song Zhi's desk.

"Good, I know you've done your best. The information you bring back, if true, will have a significant impact on the study of Elpis as a Class A creature. You can go back and rest. Although you did not bring back the fruit of Elpis, our group will still pay you in full according to the previous agreement. ”

Song Zhi's answer was like a machine.

"That's it? Don't you know that Zhou Yu is dead? Wu Yun's fists clenched.

He has never been an impulsive person, and he has long been down-to-earth about life and death. But at this moment, he really wanted to pull out the matching gun and collapse Song Zhi's head.

"He is dead, and all I can do for him is to give his pension to Professor Zhou and fully support Professor Zhou's research. Maybe before Professor Zhou's life comes to an end, he will be able to find a way to heal himself. And what you can do is to protect what Zhou Yu wants to protect. Besides, do you think it will be of any practical significance for me to cry and snot and not think about it? ”

Song Zhi looked at Wu Yun coldly, as if he was looking at a naïve and vexatious child.

What he said was completely reasonable, and Wu Yun couldn't refute it.

"Do you know why you have such a big affection for me at the moment?" Song Zhi asked again.

"Oh? Why? Can't you see that Mr. Song still has research on psychology? ”

"You're not blaming us for □□ you to carry out this mission. Because you know how dangerous it is before you get the mission, and what the chances of dying are. You're just guilty of yourself. The person who gave up his life to save the other party at that time, why wasn't it you. ”

Wu used his strength to close his eyes, and he knew very well in his heart that what Song Zhi said was not wrong.

"Wu Yun, don't you know what Zhou Yu is like? A person like Zhou Yu, he doesn't have a compassionate heart, and only those who are important to him will give up his life. And he trusts you to spare no effort to protect Zhou Qing, so he will save you with confidence. Don't live up to the trust he places in you. ”

Wu Yun's throat choked badly.

"You're ready to go out. I also have to explain to Professor Zhou why Zhou Yu didn't come back for you. ”

Wu Yun didn't speak and walked out the door. He leaned against the wall, and the qiē weighed him down.

How he wished Zhou Yu was still alive, and they drank beer together in the restaurant and talked about something inconsequential.

Song Zhi in the office connected the walkie-talkie: "Is Team Alpha still there?" I want you to go on a mission to identify the cave where Elpis grows. If you can, look for Zhou Yu's body. Life or death, I want a clear outcome. ”

"Yes, sir."

In the quiet office, Song Zhi folded his hands against his eyebrows.

"Why do I feel like you're not going to die like this? Show me one more miracle and surprise me a little more...... Zhou Yu ......"

And at this moment, Zhou Yu opened his eyes tiredly.

As the sun sets, the sun shines obliquely overhead on the pool at the bottom of the cave.

Zhou Yu breathed hard, feeling the blood flowing from his brain to his fingertips, his fingers trembled slightly, and his thoughts returned at that moment.

Where is this?

Zhou Yu moved, turned around and lay down, looking at the sky.

What about Elpis? Doesn't its foliage completely envelop the hole? How can you see the sky?

Zhou Yu lowered his head and found that he was submerged in a clear water from the knee down.

He shook his head, remembering that he had been dragged into the golden liquid in the center of Elpis by the devil's vine!

Looking around, Zhou Yu saw that the entire bottom of the cave was spread out and belonged to the branches and leaves belonging to Elpis, and those nerves that were originally flowing were lifeless as if they were dead.

All the white flowers withered.

The leaves also take on a pale color.

Zhou Yu stood up and stepped out of the center of the liquid.